//------------------------------// // Bloodlust Prises Him Back // Story: Launching the Last Star // by The Real Darkness //------------------------------// He arrived, where he would put pressure on this kingdom to retreat from Equestria and even change the Princesses back. He knew Twilight would find some way, her own way to right things. He left Tempest with the promise that everything she knew would crumble away. Arctus returned to the base form or slaughter that he birthed himself, not the Eight Heroes. The kingdom, perched in mountains much like Canterlot with a black cloud casting a dark shadow, would fall. It didn't matter how imposing it was or how many peoples were in it. He had raced using Yetrema's gifts, speeding over the water itself to stop on the peak of a mountain near the high ebony stone walls, clasped with silver accents and streaks of cyan. Arctus used the wards in his boots to climb the battlements quietly, slaying two archers, two storm creatures with a well placed knife and hatchet in their throats. The battlements were always the place to start, enclose like a circle, a tactic every experienced scout used and knew. Patrols were typically sent out from the military operations center or armory, which were kept close in every fortress he went to. With higher archers gone, he could easily roam wherever. Hours were ticking by. Garrisons around a city would be slaughtered off all on their own and he'd wait a while, cutting the neck, stabbing the lung, taking the head of whatever and whoever came through the doors of the bloodied building. More hours were ticking by as he killed off portions of the military force. Citizens wouldn't question where they were going, they knew forces left en masse and could do it again, that's the reality of war. He came to the head of state, the monarch's beloved palace in this dark and dreary kingdom. Arctus found this too easy even though he had been here for twelve hours now...maybe more. It didn't matter to him, it was all the same goal. Rend their flesh until it is done. Arctus breathed in deep as he stepped into the palace, arrows nocked with lightning buzzing about them. A throne room immediately greeted him with four guards talking amongst themselves. Eyes fell on him before he loosed six arrows, loud lightning cracking through the room. Fitting of their Storm King, it would raise no cause for concern. Bodkin heads flew into the skulls of each of the guards, two of them got double the treatment. He waltzed in pride, stowing the bow and taking his spear again as he searched around briefly before ehaidng up stairs. Despite the building being located atop the highest peak in this city, it was small, sparse rooms, mostly menat for luxury and left empty of targets. He met the Storm King's room and went past it easily enough. The next, he entered, from the symbol engraved on the door Arctus knew. This housed a proud Aeternians' things. Now was his chance to slaughter Hazth. If the other Master Scout was home, which of course he wasn't. Arctus was turning the room upside down as quickly as he could, trusting the stone walls to mask his rummaging. No weapons, no tools. Hazth was out doing something, maybe even approaching Equestria. The thought didn't chill Arctus, that just menat he had a foe waiting at home to face him, he knew Hazth had the same level of ego he did and all he desired was to win at everything. In Hazth's eyes, Arctus was the final challenge, the everything to kill and everything to beat. The woodsmaster shared the sentiment. Arctus came upon his journal soon enough, not bothering to open it, but stowed it behind his leather overcoat. Literature for a later time, the story of Hazth would be one he'd love to read himself. The present Master Scout left the room quick enough, killing the last remaining guards before returning to the city where he started to take his time, entering home after home and killing creature after creature. It didn't matter if they were one of the Storm King's or not. The twisted monarch dared to strike at Equestria the same way Chrysalis did, but with the gall to do it in front of him. Everything deserved death not for their actions, but as a statement to those who resort to the same kinds of violence he commits. To do so would fill everything in your home with the howls of people who lost everything. Then replace it with silence after you gurgled on metal. That's what this was, vegenace, a statement, and a conviction. This is how Arctus will stand for his wife and his marriage, against any who would threaten his balanced life. He slipped his spear head out of the throat of the fox woman in front of him, the sixteenth house he has infiltrated and slaughtered, "condolences. The Storm King wrought this, make sure you throw him to the Fourteen Hells." Arctus left as he heard the first sharp screech of horror. Terror would spread throughout this city and he had already enclosed them, every portcullis out of the city was slammed shut and broken by his own hands. He placed sigils at the battlements, on every ladder and every staircase. The pointed warrior never had the idea he would kill the entire city silently, but two thirds of the population were dead, including the remaining military force. It was well into the night were the astral bodies able to move. His blood boiled again and he let loose the sigils he placed and explosions sounded off around the kingdom, blasting off any other possible exit in fiery violence. "Master Scout Arctus has arrived on behalf of Equestria!" He shouted with a laugh, "and all of you are damned!" He finished up quickly enough, the terror around the city forced them to hide in palce and his ears were sharp enough that he could detect when they tried to slip out of hiding to run from him in a game of cat and mouse. His entire attire was splattered in blood, it was done. Complete and finished, but his vengeance was not over. There was still the Storm King, that magenta unicorn with no horn, and the man who made their attack possible. He stood atop the battlements, watching as the sun and moon rapidly moved. His mouth went to his covered right hand, the leather gloves adjust to fit better over his wedding ring, "Celly, you awake? What's going on?" No response. So he borrowed from Yetrema again and made it all the way back to Canterlot.