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[Thugren]

you find the corpse and the blade is not far away. COreus turns his head and grunts as you pick it up, leaning over and taking kombuse into his mouth fully before putting him on his back covered in slobber as he allows nash up.

"Come..... Ill take us to a safe dome where you all can rest."

[Armoured Priest]

Kombuse only laughed as he got picked up and placed on coreus' back like a pup, while the ghoul got a mild panic attack when the jaws of the wolf closed in around their torso. Either way they got the bone saber and on their way to somewhere safe for one. "Dome? What kind of dome?" Kombuse asked after hearing what Coreus said while looking over the weapon for Ozer-ga.

 

"Hey, a place to sleep is a place too sleep, so thanks wolfy." She said more quietly to not disturb Lucy while patting his fur, the idea of rest sounding real good to her right now.  Hearing the sound of a blade whistling in the air, she turned around to see Kombuse swinging the sword around in short motions. 'Probably testing the thing for ozzie.' she thought with a smirk. The boy stopped and just looked at the thing quietly, listening to the ghoul, before nodding and looking up to Nash and holding it out for her. 

 

"Ozer-ga says it's more suited for you, too light and slashy for his tastes, no chop. But but he really doesn't want to say that It's a gift!" He proclaimed with a grin, getting a groan from the ghoul as the boy blabbers about everything. Picking it up with curiousity and a chuckle. 

 

"Thanks, never seen a ghoul bone weapon before. Huh, seems pretty light like he said. Yea, I like it." she nodded with a genuine smile, something nice an light but with reach for close combat. "Thanks guys."

[Thugren]

it takes coreus a long time, but soon enough he leads the group to a large dome .

carefully everyone gets out and heads into the cabins of the small camp site, leaving coreous outside the small gate as he lays down to relax

[Armoured Priest]

"Thank you coreus!" Kombuse said as he hugged him around his big fluffly neck. Ozer-ga just grumbled half assedly this time around, too tired and now too used to the wolf's presence to really complain. It still feared it, it just didn't have much of an excuse to verbally say anything after riding it for hours. Nash walked over and patted him on the back through the cloth skin of his faux uniform.

 

"Come on bud, he'll be ok out here." She assured the boy. Giving him the wolf one last hug, he left with Nash to the Cabins. Neither of them have been in such a structure before, all they knew that these dotted across the u.s. at least, little safe haven outposts. A place to sleep sounded good to Kombuse, while having a chance to go over the scrap she collected earlier was appealing to her. "We'll get our own Cabin, let Talos and Lucy have their own. I'm sure they'll need it." She laughed, but the idea behind it completely lost on kombuse who just looked at her quizzically. Realizing it went over his head, she just sighed with a smile and guided him toward a cabin to clear out and make sure it was habitable for them.

[Thugren]

the cabins are habitable, but as they enter one they see an odd sight. An odd armour in the shape of what appears to be some type of beast sits in the corner. In front of it lays the skeleton of waht appears to be some type of predator.

 

it sits there unmoving ad outside a fire can be seen as Talos sits down, his hands to the flame.

[Armoured Priest]

"Huh, wonder what happened here....." Nash said  uneasily, voicing what they three were thinking as they looked at the scene. They fought a predator ghoul before, and it isn't an easy thing to fight. But here's one dead, for what looks like a long time, in front of what looks like an abandoned set of armor. She knelt down near the remains, doubting she could figure out how it was killed. "This doesn't seem right, there doesn't look like there's any sign of a struggle in here." She thought out loud. Kombuse was more interested in the armor, and so was Ozer-ga. He never had to wear anything more heavy than the flak armor he was given when he was first drafted into the sanctuary militia years ago, and Ozer-ga felt a twinge of envy as he saw how beastial the armor looked compared to their own face. They got closer to it to look at it in detail and see what it was made off.

 

"This doesn't look like any armor I seen before Nash, do you know what it's made off?" he asked her as he went to pick up the arm just to play with it. Maybe he could even put it on! Thoughts of all the old fantasy stories he read in the orphanage ran through his head, especially the ones about knights and such. He got giddy and a smile crept up on his gasmask face as Ozer-ga just wanted to sigh at the thoughts he was witnessing.

[Thugren]

the arm comes off and it gives no aura, until your fingers touch the inside and it roils. at once, the amrors eyes glow bright red and it lunges fgorward, forcing itself into place over the ghouls psuedo skin and jabbing into hsi flesh with needlike rods of metal

[Armoured Priest]

Of course Kombuse didn't have the chance to say 'What?' when the metal reacted to his touch inside itself, only giving off a yelp of confusion and then pain as the armor seemed to latched onto him with barbs coming out of the metal. "What the hell is this thing?! Why did we fucking touch it?!" The ghoul asked no one in particular, being able to think a little more clearly than Kombuse but no better as it too was shocked at what it did, thinking it was no more than an inanimate object no less than a second ago.

 

"Kombuse!" Nash shouted when she heard the boy and the movement of the armor, thinking someone was still inside it till it began placing itself over Kombuse's body. "Talos! Help!" she cried out the doorway before going to the now armored form that was Kombuse, trying to help him get the living thing off of him now.

[Thugren]

talos runs in and his eyes flash, the armour is buffered with powerful waves of radiation, making the metal recede and go into a form of slumber.

"That is...... An Ekalion armor."
 

he says, sitting kombuse down as his legs begin to wobble.

 

"Its a weapon for ghoul paladins that was lost a long time ago..... Guess whoever wore it last died in here."

[Armoured Priest]

Kombuse sat on the floor, scared and traumatized by the the fact something seemed to try to eat him and the pain of hundreds of needles going into his body. "T-t-thank you Talos...." He stammered, still shaken. He wasn't thinking about knights anymore. The fact the armor was still on him didn't really help but he was too afraid of waking it up now. Kombuse willingly receded and let Ozer-ga come to the fore in his stead. "Ekalion armor? Ghoul Paladins? The hell are you going on about?" It asked pointedly, never having heard such things before, and it honestly sounded like an oxymoron with ghoul and paladin used in the same title.

 

With it over and not sure she could take the damn thing off of him without making it worse, Nash sighed and sat on the nearby bed, watching Kombuse intently and the armor now, worried. "What's it going to do to Kombuse? We can get it off him right? I don't want to think the predator here was the last occupant of this fucked up suit of armor here." she asked as she nudged the skull. From one problem to another it felt like today.

[Thugren]

early in the days of mutagen users.... SOme cultuers where able to tame certain ghouls that where sentient. They gave them these armors and it helped them become a form of shock troops.. Problem is without a steady supply of food the armour would take too much from the user and it would essentially suck them dry."

 

he holds his hand over the helmet and a wave of green heat buffers the helm until it slides free.

 

"Its probably that the armor was starved and attacked to find a host.. I can lul it into slumber but removing it will take time, and the last thing we want is kombuse here to become a tumor."

 

he turns and heads to the door.

'It should be ok now that its at least fed a bit.... We will go talk to a specialist sbout what can be done other wise."

[Armoured Priest]

"Why am I not surprised that you know someone like that?" Nash asked in sarcastic but thankful manner, thinking of what else Talos knows and that they don't. He's much more knowledgable than he let on when they first met that's for sure. Being told that the armor is alive and will eat Kombuse for fuel, and the only way they could get it off right now is basically give him cancer through radiation wasn't the greatest thing to hear. Getting up from the bed, she sat next down to Kombuse on the floor. "You ok Kombuse?"

 

Kombuse nodded his bare head, returning to his normal self after the pain faded away. "I...I didn't think it would do that." He said, still regretting even touching it now. What if it went after someone else and not him? "I'm sorry." he apologized to both her and Talos, since he was the one that messed with it. Nash put an arm on Kombuse's shoulder despite the armor.

 

"It's ok, we'll just take it as a learning experience to not mess with weird shit." She smiled, trying to make the boy feel better and not kicking himself over it. "We'll talk to the guy Talos mentioned and see if we can't get that thing off you ok?" she assured him, getting a more eager nod out of him. While the two spoke, Ozer-ga was sitting in the boy's mind, thinking about the armor and what Talos had said. He mainly wondered how this suit made ghouls into shocktroops in the first place. It looked like it had adequate protection, but that can't be the main thing about it if the drawback was that it started eating it's occupant if there wasn't enough food around. When the subject of taking off this relic came up, it couldn't but help interject.

 

"What if we can use it though?" It asked through Kombuse's mouth, getting a questioning look from Nash. 

 

"Ozzie, the fuck are you thinking?" She asked bluntly.

 

"Think of it, how strong do you think this could make the boy. Bet he could have fought that ghoul king..." It said, bringing up an example. He wasnt' sure if it was that strong, but it something that recently happened to them.

 

"You realize this thing will by extension eat you right?" She reminded him, starting to get a little annoyed now.

 

"Only if there's not enough food, which I bet we can solve. This could be another weapon we could use for the sanctuary, something we were originally out here for if I remember a certain someone telling us." It said with a sly hiss. "You heard what he said earlier, they were used on ghouls who protected humans. Isn't that what you want Kombuse? To help people? You know, like a knight?" It said, using his thoughts from earlier on him.

 

".....It could help more." Kombuse admitted, thinking as best he could on it. Nash just shook his head.

 

"Ozzie, shut it. Kombuse, we're seeing this specialist guy and getting this thing off you, alright? It's not worth it." She said, putting her foot down on any further talks on this.

 

"And if can't? What then?"

 

"Then we'll figure something out! Just...just go to sleep ozzie." She told off the ghoul, getting a grumble out of it before it receded and letting Kombuse have full control. "You too buddy, you had quiet the day." As she helped Kombuse back up from the floor and onto the bed. 

 

"What about you?" he asked.

 

"I'll get some rest too, just got some things to take care of ok?" to which kombuse just nodded and rested his head on the dusty pillow, falling asleep quickly. With that, she left out the cabin and went to find Talos. She wanted to know more, but didn't want Kombuse to be burdened by the thought of whatever else the armor does.

[Thugren]

A hundred of those armors couldn't stand up to a ghoul king."

Talos says as he watches everyone settle down.

"even in that armor, it won't block his influnece , let's not forget that it took Coreus to destroy his proxy."

The door clicks closed behind him and he goes out to the fire, his hood up against the cold .

[Armoured Priest]

She somehow doubted that would dissuade the ghoul on using the armor anyways, and if anything it made her worry about Kombuse being controlled through it since it was alive and didnt' block the rotbreath's influence on him. With Kombuse sleeping in the Cabin for now, she too went through the door and closed it behind her before catching up with Talos at the campfire. "So....going to ask the obvious question here, how do you know so much about the armor?" She asked him, sitting near the fire herself.

[Thugren]

I know a little about everything ."

He tells her dismissively , holding a tin cup in his hand and somehow making it boil.

" one of Kriegs shadow commanders uses that armor... hence why I knew how to react,"


Two boullions are dropped into the water along with some dried garlic.

" I don't like it at all.... but as of right now we can't stop anything."

[Armoured Priest]

"At this point I want to know more about it, since we're going to be dealing with it anyways for now." She explained, not shaking off from the subject. "Can you tell me exactly what it is? Cause I doubt it's just fucking metal, i didn't see anything electronic on it, and knowing just it's name isn't helping." She questioned this time as she watched him cook for now.

[Thugren]

and waht will knowing more about it benefit you more than assuage feelings that you cant help right now nash."

 

talos says calmly.

"If i tell you that hes going to go berserk right now would you have me kill him? would you beg me to risk him being engulfed by tumors to save him? No. Me trying to explain this now would just worry you.."
 

talos stops speaking and sighs.

"The armor is made form a beast called a stalk...A monster made by the purifiers to protect temples and weapon cahes... The beast was broken down and made unmmalleable and forged into an armor. It can drive its occupants to amazing feats of strength, bnut if hes too weak, the stalk will consume him."

 

the soup is placed in the fire and he looks at nash carefully.

" The skeleton inside was a host that was unsuitable."

[Armoured Priest]

"... So that's what it's going to do to him. Make him go insane and eat him, great...." Nash summed it up in her own fashion, her tone more sullen instead of stand offish. "And no, I don't want you to blast Kombuse like he was hiroshima or something, I want to help him not kill him. I knew whatever you told me would probably be fucked up, but you don't solve a problem by not understanding it now do you? I rather know instead of sitting there imagining the worse for him. You're not the only one here that cares about him remember?" She said in a weaker voice, as she realized she was out of her depth with the thing attached to Kombuse now. "Hope the guy you know can help." She said quietly, looking at the fire. Shrugging off her back pack, she unzipped and and rummaged through it's contents or scrap electornics and gadgets. "How's lucy anyways?" She asked to get the conversation somewhere lighter for now, as what happened to kombuse is done and they can't do anything about that for now. It was just chance they were at the wrong place at the wrong time thing to have that happen to the kid she guessed. It was still cosmically fucked up chance though.

[Thugren]

still groggy and incredibly tired...Shes going to get sick in the next few days are her body acclimates."

 

he halves thew soup hes making into another cup and holds it out to nash.

"As long as we keep the armor fed hell be fine...... And my friend should be able to make it bond safely...Because i know if ozzy has anything to say about it hes gonna want to keep it on."

 

talos puts the cups down and runs his hands through his hair.

"Nash.... SHit is going to get real bad... When it starts going south, if it looks like i cant do what krieg needs me to do, take kombuse and lucy and run south... As far as your legs can take you until you see water."

[Armoured Priest]

"What the hell does this guy want you to do Talos?" Nash asked him with a concerned look as she took up the offered bowl of soup. She had an idea what he meant by that given his mutagen, but she had also had a hard time believing he would do that just after we got his wife out from being a popsicle. "You're not going to do what I think you're gonna do, right? Thought this all about protecting our sanctuary, guess that's not exactly true is it?"