Word: hew

 

hew

\ hyoo \  , verb;

1. To uphold, follow closely, or conform (usually followed by to): to hew to the tenets of one's political party.

2. To strike with cutting blows; cut: He hewed more vigorously each time.

3. To strike forcibly with an ax, sword, or other cutting instrument; chop; hack.

4. To make, shape, smooth, etc., with cutting blows: to hew a passage through the crowd; to hew a statue from marble.

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    “Damn it!”  Carus shouted, having missed his target.  He had intended to deliver a quick, light thrust to the top of the head, stunning it just long enough to deliver a killing blow to the skull.  The only problem was that he wasn’t using the large warhammer he was accustomed to using.  He had instead gone into battle with a large battle axe instead.  Although the use of the two was supposedly similar (at least according to the arms merchant who had sold it to him), but there were quite a few of his normal maneuvers that he couldn’t use.
    The reason for the change in weapons was the creatures he and his companions had been hired to eliminate rendered his hammer ineffective.  The creatures appeared to be a large ape with the skin of an octopus.  Their bones and organs also took qualities of the latter animal.  Although solid, they could be made soft and malleable at a moments notice.  It made them able move in ways that would also be impossible with a fully rigid skeleton.  This quality also gave them an annoying immunity to blunt force trauma.  By the same token though, they were somewhat more vulnerable to cutting weapons, which is why Carus chose to bring an axe instead of his hammer.  
    He heard a slight chuckle to his left, no doubt in response to his frustration at not being able to effectively dispatch the enemies.  
    “Oh shut up.”  He said, swinging the axe in a broad, horizontal arc, which also missed its target as the beast contorted its body away from the strike.
    “Sorry, can’t help it.”  Lars said, laughter coming through the words.  Lars for once, was quite satisfied with the current job.  Not only did it not require trudging through any number of unpleasant environments, taking place in a wide open field, but he got to watch the normally calm and precise Carus floundering around like a novice.  His weapons of choice, a pair of thin swords, were also very well suited to the task, designed to deliver several quick cuts that the creatures couldn’t evade effectively.   
    “It’s just the irony of the situation,”  He continued “Not only have I taken out more of these guys then you, but you’re the one complaining more than I am.”  He laughed again as he delivered an alternating series of horizontal and vertical strikes, felling another of the creatures.  “It’s just so...poetic if you think about it.”  
    “I thought I told you to shut up about it.”  Carus said, making another clumsy swing at a creature that had chosen to get in between the two of them.  The attack nicked the creature, but didn’t inflict any serious wounds.  Carus grumbled and muttered to himself as he readied another swing.  The creature didn’t let him set up the attack, leaping at the large man before he could ready his weapon.  Before the creature hit him, a wave of purple arcane energy hit it, followed immediately by it hitting the ground in two neatly cut pieces.
    “You know,”  said Grena, swinging her string of beads around her finger with the large looping clasp at the end, “I think both of you should just keep your mouths shut and focus on killing these things.”  
    “She swung the beads around again, releasing another arcane blade from the end of the necklace like a hunter flinging a stone from a sling.  Another of the creatures fell apart from the magic attack.  

“Speaking of killing them, why not use something else?  You know, maybe a big ball of fire or something.”  Lars said, using one of his blades to carve a spiral pattern into one of the creatures by running around it.

Grena sighed as she released another spell.

“You know any spells like that would take too long to cast.  And it’s not fire, it’s...”

“A collection of magical energy focused to give it properties similar to real fire, I know.”  Lars interrupted, “I’m just saying maybe trying something other than cutting them might speed things up a bit.    “  even as he was talking, he continued his assault of them, running two of the creatures through, using one of his swords on each of them.

“And I thought you were having fun here.”  She said, continuing her arcane barrage as well.

“Well, yeah I am.  But it’s getting late, and we gotta eat sometime you know.”  He said, smirking a bit.

“It always amazes me how you can think about food so soon after mercilessly slaughtering living creatures.”  She said, frowning a bit.

“You know he’s a crazed killer.”  Said Carus, after finally landing a lethal hit on one of the creatures.  “I’m surprised he hasn’t been arrested for murder yet.”

“So I like to kill things.”  Lars said, “Like you two are any different.”  As if to emphasize his point, he clipped off one of the creatures heads by scissoring it between two swords at the same time Grena used a particularly large wave of energy to cut through a short line of them, and Carus cleaved through one of them with a lucky vertical strike.  They couldn’t really say anything to refute Lars’s statement, given they knew it was true on some level.  The most they could hope for was to use their desire for lethal violence to more constructive ends.  It was the reason why they had all become adventurers, and why they had teamed up.

“Maybe,”  said Carus, “but you seem to revel in it.”  

“I’ve just embraced my inner killer, unlike you two.”  

“No, you’re just a sociopath that doesn’t want to deal with killing people.”

Lars couldn’t argue the point effectively, so he opted to deliver a comically over dramatic crazed grin as he dispatched another of the creatures. The other two didn’t seem to recognize the humor in the look, so he abandoned it.

The banter having been broken by his failed attempt  at humor, the trio continued their fight it relative silence, with the  exception of Carus’s frustrated exclamations, and Lars’s satisfied chuckles immediately following them.  It took them a good ten minutes, but they finally managed to dispatch the last of the creatures.  

As soon as the last one fell, Carus flopped back into a sitting position, dropping the axe unceremoniously behind him, not wanting to bother with the weapon any more than he had to now that its task was finished.  Grena took a deep breath and smiled as she fastened her beads around her neck, kneeling down to rest and recover her energy.  Lars smiled and breathed deeply as he cleaned his swords.

“You know,” he said, wiping one of the blades off, “We should do jobs like this more often.” The other two just turned and glared at him as he laughed, putting his swords away. 

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I like these three, can you tell?  Anyway, I've been thinking a bit, and figured I might give something a try.  I've started two stories that can become the start of longer, more detailed stories.   So, instead of hoping for the right words to continue those stories, I might try just writing them up in their entirety and then putting them on a different site that can support such things (*coughdeviantartcough*)  It might take awhile before I get around to such things, and I haven't even decided if I'm going to do this, but when (and if) I do so, I'll put up links to them here.  They might even take the place of a weekly story or two.