Snippet #1635012

The beast brayed and roared as it charged towards Bellatrix, who fluidly rolled out of the way out of the rampaging monster. It stood a good ten feet taller than she did, resembling a gigantic wolf, with long bristles of sandy red covering its entire bulk. Its huge paws displayed elongated claws, and within its snout were set many rows of fangs, the front canines themselves a good eight inches long; its red eyes glared at what it believed to be its prey, though it was clearly the other way around. For all its vast size, killing power, and ferocity, a beast of this kind barely made an appetiser to the appetite for killing that the Red Knights bore their notoriety for--not least of all, Bellatrix herself. Destroying this monster would be almost painfully simple--it lacked mind, willpower, and strength to present much enjoyment in the battle. But if left alive it would simply continue to pester the Knights in its sheer inability to recognise its inferiority.

The sand wolf rampaged forward, bounding on its powerful legs and leaping towards Bellatrix, who likewise, despite the apparent size disadvantage, charged right for the wolf. The two collided, and the beast was thrown back by the force of Bellatrix's charge, landing on its side on the ground with a crunch that signified the collision had broken a few bones in its body. Nevertheless, it struggled back to its feet, but by this time the Red Knight had already made her way to the beast. As it raised its head, still gathering its wits and recovering from the pain of the attack, Bellatrix looped her gauntlet-clad hands around its neck, turning the beast around so that she had it in a chokehold against which it fruitlessly struggled. Then, as if it were nothing more than a minor pest--as indeed it was--she snapped upwards with one of her arms. The sound of the wolf's neck breaking echoed around the wasteland, before it returned to the deathly silence that had reigned previously.

Bellatrix allowed the corpse to fall from her arms, and turned back to the Knights--who had watched in silence for the few seconds it had taken for the Red Knight to kill her quarry. Most of the other Knights were currently elsewhere in their own Hunts; the seven gathered here were the only ones typically allowed to accompany Bellatrix herself when she went Hunting. This Hunt, however, had been particularly uneventful. Most of the beasts they had encountered had been disposed of by any one of the Knights just as quickly as Bellatrix had disposed of this one wolf. It almost made her wish she had never left the Castle to embark on such a boring Hunt.

Hmmmm... A thought struck her as she and the rest of the Knights returned to their mounts. Perhaps I will go to see about these 'new Alices'. They may prove, if anything, some slight entertainment.

She turned back as one of the Knights rode up to her beast--the one known as Antares, a Knight who acted in a way as Bellatrix's second-in-command, taking lead whenever she felt no desire to do so. His armour was adorned with more trophies than any of the other Knights--he wore a skull on each of his shoulders, and one on the faceplate of his helmet; each was recognised by the Knights to have belonged to one of the deadliest creatures that wandered the Badlands, one of the few the Red Knights actually considered a challenge. Bearing the skulls of three marked Antares as far more formidable than his comrades.

"Go back to the Castle," she murmured to him, five words spoken in an almost surprisingly soft, quiet voice--five words that was a good deal more than most could claim to have heard from her. Antares nodded, knowing better than to question anything the Red Knight said, and turned to the other Knights. "Ride for the Castle! Now!" he barked at them in a harsh voice. The Knights obeyed the command similarly without question--it was not Antares' business nor any of the Knights if Bellatrix ordered them to return to the Castle without her. If she chose not to tell them where she intended to go alone, they simply did not need to know.

As the knights began to gallop back towards the fortress at the heart of the Badlands, the Red Knight herself spurred her beast of burden onwards towards the border of the Borderlands, headed in the direction of the one person she knew would most likely know something of the new visitors.