Chapter 17: 16: Uncanny Encounter

                The whistle of carbon forged steel sliced through the air as Folke’s blades clashed harshly against the deadly claws of his demon opponent. Having stopped his attack, Lulu’s hands clenched up against Folke’s swords. Her claws scraped viciously across his blades while her glowing azure eyes flared, staring soullessly into Folke’s own.

                “Wake up girl! Can’t you see we aren’t the enemy here?” Folke cursed, twisting the hilt of his swords to pull them free of the blue haired demon’s grip. Removing his swords from Lulu’s grasp, Folke kicked up, delivering a strike to the girl’s gut. The beastkin’s blow sent Lulu up and away but a blur of light blue hair saw her form enter into a backwards somersault. She came down again, landing on both hands and her feet with a splash as she, and the ends of her hair, landed in a pool of the nearby Charmolgrath’s blood. Lulu renewed her attack, sporadically darting side-to-side. She closed the distance between herself and Folke with a demonic finesse that only a humanoid body could provide. The wolfish beastkin took a half step back, bracing himself against the attack and cursing his luck for having decided not to bring a shield with him. He’d anticipated having to a fight against a gargantuan monster from the depths of Neth’Lareese and thought the shield unnecessary, now he would whole heartedly regret that decision. Lulu appeared in front of him, poised to attack. Sword raised, Folke anticipated her move and guarded against her punch.

                Lulu struck, but rather than a punch, her body instead twisted violently and she spun nearly full circle before delivering a kick with the opposing leg. Folke’s guard broke when Lulu’s bare foot connected shattering the blade of his defending sword. The force of Lulu’s attack carried clean through the shattered pieces of Folke’s sword to land square against his chest, sending him careening through the air and into the rubble of a destroyed building.

                “Boss!” Folke’s men shouted concern for their leader and two of them immediately mobilized themselves against their commander’s aggressor.

                “Stand down! Don’t come over here!” Folke roared from the rubble. Battered and bruised from the forceful experience, the beastkin pushed himself up out of the destroyed concrete. Pushing off a large slab of cracked stone that’d collapsed onto his body, muzzle snorting and flaring in irritation and building anger.

                Much to Folke’s dismay, Lulu turned her attention to the men who’d shouted. She was too fast and he too far away to make a difference when she chose to advance on them. His men were physically strong but they lacked Folke’s physical strength. They stood no chance against the unleashed might of a true demon like Lulu.

                Together the two wolfish beastkin took up their swords and prepared to face their fate as Lulu closed in. They parted ways, stepping away from one another in an attempt to break up Lulu’s attention and confuse her focus. She adjusted, and favoring the beastkin on the right, Lulu struck.

                Sinew and gore parted from bone and splattered into the air above. The sword the beastkin thought he’d be fighting with clattered to the ground, dropped from a hand that could no longer be commanded or controlled. He looked down in time to see the flash of Lulu’s bright azure eyes and the blur of her clawed hand as it pierced clean through his sternum.

                “No!” The beastkin’s partner in action cried out, launching himself at Lulu in a blind rage. She responded by throwing the body of the now deceased at his face and like a fool Folke’s subordinate caught his now dead squad partner. Lulu closed in from the man’s blind spot, a deadly predator seeking to end the life of her prey. Her claws pierced him as well, tearing through the softer muscle and tissues of his throat.

                “Lulu!” Folke roared, lifting a slab of concrete over his head that measured easily twice his size and weighed many times heavier. Though his muscles bulged and creaked from the exertion, he did not care. He couldn’t abide his men being ruthlessly slaughtered by someone who was supposed to be regarded as an ally. Folke heaved the chunk of concrete he carried, catapulting it directly at Lulu.

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                Azure hues followed the twisting, tumbling hunk of rubble, anticipating the course it took. She stepped aside, allowing the mass of concrete to pass by and smash into a building to her back. Dust and debris flooded the area, and for a brief moment Lulu could see nothing but an opaque cloud in her surroundings. The calm after the crash of splintering concrete shortly broke when an enraged Folke cleared the dusty mist, latching both of his wolfish hands around the blue haired girl’s throat.

                “Damn you! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” Spittle formed and sprayed from Folke’s jaws as he forced Lulu to the ground, spitting curses in her face. Azure hues grew white as the girl struggled for breath against Folke’s bestial grip on her neck. Teeth gnashed, arms flailed, and feet kicked wildly in Lulu’s attempts to free herself. Folke’s rage began to subside in the wake of the girl’s desperate struggle but he refused to let up. He had known Lulu for a long time and never had he seen her behave violently and with so much disregard for the lives of those around her before. If this was a side effect of her engagement with the Charmolgrath then he needed to end this conflict before she could inflict harm on any more innocent lives. He willed her to stop struggling, to sleep. He just needed keep her lungs cut off from the supply of air for a little bit longer…

                The glowing seal on Lulu’s forehead flashed, glowing brighter. Lulu opened her mouth and tried to scream but her breath was cut off.  A visible distortion in the seal’s design appeared, followed by a surge of blue energy Folke hadn’t previously anticipated.

                “What the-!” The wolfkin uttered surprise. A different force now acted against him, coupling itself with Lulu’s own. The girl’s desperate struggling became calmed as the ends of her excessively long hair wrapped itself around both of Folke’s arms. Locks of hair squeezed themselves around and between the wolfkin’s fingers, prying them away from Lulu’s neck. Try as he might, Folke couldn’t physically overcome the girl’s possessed hair. He found their roles reversed with her standing and him on his back. He was now the one being suffocated.

                The remaining squad members cried out. Each able bodied enforcer moved to encircle Lulu. Notched crossbows aimed and fired. Three steel bolts simultaneously whisked through the air, each traveling no further than twenty feet before impacting their target. An arm, a leg, and her back were pierced by the steel spikes. A demonic scream rose up into the dark air as Lulu threw back her head and cried out in pain. As she did, locks of blood stained hair shot out, assailing each of the aggressing Enforcers with a piercing retaliatory force.

                Folke watched on as his men were slaughtered and he remained trapped, powerless to stop it. Streaks of blood stained blue hair skewered his brethren with the cutting force of expertly sharpened spears. His heart ached for those he’d lost tonight, including Lulu. She was possessed by something she couldn’t control and even though he’d made a charged attempt at bringing her back to her senses, he’d been unable to reach the girl. Now Lulu stood on the brink of losing herself to whatever madness it was that sought to consume her mind.

                “Lul-u… Stop this…” Folke managed to choke out. The hair coiled around his neck loosened for a brief moment only to redouble its efforts, pressing harder than before in order to cut off Folke’s supply of air.

                “Lulu!” A voice cut through the fading darkness surrounding Folke’s vision. A female voice echoed off in the distance somewhere. Where it came from he couldn’t tell, but he did notice the pressure against his throat softened its aggression. The strands of hair retreated, flowing back to Lulu’s side. Folke fell to the ground coughing and spluttering, seeking painful breath after painful breath. “Lulu!” The voice rang out again. Someone was searching for the girl. No. Folke tried to warn the voice, to urge whoever it was to stay away, but nothing came. Between the coughing fit and gasps for breath, he couldn’t speak, couldn’t warn the unwary approach about the danger they were unknowingly seeking out.

                Lulu took a step toward the voice. Folke attempted to grab the retreating foot but it moved before he could reach. “Don’t…” He managed to utter in whispered tones but whether Lulu heard and chose to ignore him, or simply couldn’t hear him speak at all, he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that he’d failed to put a stop to Lulu’s possessed state and that Lulu had acquired a new target to pursue…

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