Tex gagged for air, writhing and kicking as her assailant's hand crushed its way into her neck. "Say my name," the wiry man commanded to the shadows. Tex clawed at the man's fingers, drawing blood as a dull pain shot from her neck to her head, and her chest ached as though it would implode. The man didn't seem to notice or care, though, with his attention trained on bobbing his head about to scan the shadows in the room. "HELLOOOO!" the man shouted, his thunderous voice rattling the dust off the metal floor. "Don't you care about your comrade?! Her life is on your tongue- merely say my name and you will deliver her to safety!" The man fell silent again, scanning the room for a reaction- one that Tex knew wasn't coming.
The man turned his head back to Tex and glared at her furiously. "Little viper, I recognize your smell, the sound of your heart and your lungs- you have surely come to kill me. Certainly you couldn't be so demented as to try alone," the man said, seeming to make an appeal to Tex with his infinitely black, dead eyes dully shining from behind his golden-plated helmet. "Deliver the other to me, and I will allow you to live," he offered, speaking as if whispering sweet nothings into a lover's ear. Then, his grapple on Tex's throat loosened until she was hanging by her jaw from his hand.
Coughing and sputtering violently, even gagging between fits of coughs, Tex's head pounded, seemingly enraged the spontaneous return of oxygen-rich blood. The man bobbed his head and tilted his face away from her, as if intrigued by her reaction. "I have brought an army!" she managed to choke out. Her answer was met with quiet, menacing laughter.
"So you are alone. Very well," the man said, releasing Tex and allowing her to crash to the floor. "Say my name, and I will release you," he said, stepping back and spreading his arms to show himself in his full glory. The man was awkwardly tall and bony, with long strands of neon blonde hair that stood straight up off of his skull. His cheeks were flushed red, and the rest of his body was as white as snow. He wore black and yellow knee-high belt-and-lace boots with platform heels. Visible above that were skin-tight, leather pants that were so thoroughly polished, she could see her face on either of his thighs. The man's waist and groin were covered by a thin, fabric belt with a huge, circular mirror for the buckle. His skeletal frame was then completely buried under a giant, flowing, purple-dyed tiger-skin coat, with dyed neon yellow eagle feathers protruding from the collar and the sleeves of the coat. The next things visible were the small bells that hung off the chains of his earrings. At last, adorning his face was a golden helm, which covered only his forehead, his ears, and the bridge of his nose, leaving room for his forearm-length spike of sunlight-yellow hair to protrude skyward.
Tex scowled. "I know who you are."
The man bobbed his head. "Say it!"
"The evil overlord of the world, leader of the blockelites, and scourge of the good and the kind-" Tex began.
"No need for formalities m'dear. Just... say it," the man commanded, bent forward under the weight of anticipation.
"The evil king, Reno." Tex said.
"RENO!" Reno echoed, throwing his arms out to either side, using some foreign magic to summon letters in front of him that read:
'Evil Overlord
RENO'
"Play it!" Reno commanded to the empty room, which suddenly came alive with contorted shadows, each belonging to some horribly malformed instrument. The silence that had once gripped the room now fled, chased out by the mutant cacophony of the cursed orchestra. "That's more like it!" Reno shouted, still clearly audible over his orchestra. "I haven't got to do that in so long- feels good. Ah... Well, a deal's a deal. I'll just break your arms and legs and we'll both be on our wa-" Reno abruptly stopped, his face frozen in a pinched, devious smile. All at once, the shadows seemed to right themselves, and the music wilted with a gut-wrenching screech. Reno blinked once, let out a grunt, and looked down at his abdomen, from which protruded the bloodied point of a blade. Behind him, Tex's partner and elder of her village, Koshka, raised another knife in her free hand.
Reno craned his head completely around and smashed his face into Koshka's three times before she could recoil out of range. "What are you doing?!" Reno asked, flashing a wide, shark-toothed grin as he turned the rest of his body to face his opponent. Unshaken neither by the surprise attack, nor the blood that now ran into her eyes, Koshka bore her teeth, drew her arm back to throw the knife. She was promptly brought to her knees as Reno unleashed a mighty screech that ruptured her eardrums and shattered the blade in her hand. Reno paused in mid-step, shrugged, and melted the impaled knife out of his body, leaving behind only a hole in his clothing. "That's an interesting knife you had there, to so ably pierce the flesh of the divine. I knew I killed off your clan for a reason," Reno snarled, looking over his shoulder at Tex. "Orchestra!" Reno barked, causing the shadows to contort once more, holding their instruments at the ready. "We've got killing to do."
