Chapter 102: A Monochrome Horse

“What the…” Ann hit the dirt hard.

Kat had shoved her and dove out of the way as the Guardian’s new form zipped by them faster than she was ready for.

“Fast, get feckin’ ready,” Kat shouted.

Their footing was bad. Ann felt her paws sliding and slipping on the discarded bodies of the Guardian’s egg as she tried to stand.

The Warped had none of those problems, its hands-for-feet easily gripping torsos and limbs as it cantered in a semicircle. It really did move like a centaur. A centaur with no hair, all human parts, and an emaciated head that might as well just be a skull. The weird dual colour patterning, black on one half, white on the other with marbling in the centre, was almost hypnotic.

Not that Ann had time to gawk. She kicked off the corpses under her, making her way toward the monster. She needed to get to solid ground, get off this slippery slope.

Kat wasn’t doing much better and was struggling with her heavier equipment bogging her down.

The Guardian, mantaur thing held its femur-sword out at them in a challenge. Neither was in a state to accept. Oddly, it cocked its head, watching them struggle.

Ann was able to get to solid footing first and noticed the thing had waited. Warped weren’t supposed to wait. They were supposed to kill and tear them apart. She and Kat should have been dead seconds ago.

Yet there it stood, shifting between its four legs as it watched them with those glowing eyes.

“Um, Kat, what is it doing?”

“Feck if I know? Never seen a Warped act like that,” Kat grunted, righting herself.

“Ever hear of it?”

“Nae. Just get ready tae fight. If it’s smart enough tae hold off like this, it’s gonna be a feckin’ problem,” Kat said, readying her turtle shell shield.

Oddly, the Guardian stood and repeated the gesture. Its long, machete-shaped femur blade shone in the twilight.

“Fine, ye feckin’ want a fight?” Kat asked, straightening. “Have at ye,” she growled, leveling her own sword at the creature.

The Guardian nodded, then pulled the sword back to its side, out and ready to swing. Ann watched as its body tensed, corded muscles in its arms and legs rippling.

Asphalt flew as the creature blitzed them. Ann tumbled to the side, and Kat caught the sword on her shield.

The Warped slowed to a canter and turned, readying to strike again.

“It’s like we’re jousting,” Ann grunted, standing up again.

“Even deadlier,” Kat agreed, shaking her shield arm. “Thing hits heavy. I can take it, but ye better not get touched.”

“That’s the plan,” Ann said, eyes still locked on the Guardian. “Gotta do something to hit it, though.”

The creature charged again. Ann was on the sword side this time and did everything she could to avoid the blade, twisting her body to nearly fold in half around the femur’s length.

Kat, for her part, managed to tag the thing’s hide as it passed, leaving a streak of bloody black on its flank.

As the Guardian slowed to turn, it looked back and wiped away some of the blood. The wound had already closed.

“Heals feckin’ fast too,” Kat groaned. “Get some smites intae that fucker. How many ye got?”

“Been holding them back. I’ve got six,” Ann said, checking her Mind.

“Make ‘em hurt,” Kat grit her teeth as she watched the Guardian prepare again.

The creature once more blurred towards them with a pattering of hands, nails scraping asphalt, bleeding with the effort.

Ann crouched, then took two steps to the right. The Warped always charged between them for some reason. She set her feet and threw a punch at the empty air as hard as she could. Her fist hit the Guardian’s flank as it flew by. The smite made contact, charring corrupted flesh, but the force of the Guardian’s charge sent her spinning.

Ann toppled to the ground, sitting painfully on her tail, then rolled over to stand.

“Hit it,” she said, then looked over at Kat.

The woman was bleeding from a cut on her arm, but it quickly sealed up, Bren doing his best to keep them in the fight from afar. The worried look in her eyes told Ann that the wound had shaken her.

“That was a nick,” she said, eyes wide. “It barely hit me, an’ it felt like it almost took me arm off.”

“We’ve gotta slow it down. Can you use Stand Your Ground?”

“Sword’s on yer side. I’m gonna try.”.

The Warped was inspecting its side, poking at the charred flesh with a contorted foreleg. It flicked a piece of skin off, then returned its sunken glare to its enemies.

It pulled its elbow back, aiming the tip of its blade at Ann, making its intention clear. That sword was going to run her through.

Ann tensed, crouching, centring her body like Remmi had taught her. She honed in on the subtle movements of the Warped. As monstrous as it was, this thing was still beholden to physics. It took effort to move.

The front shoulders flexed, and it was off, barrelling down on her.

One breath, two. Ann twisted away at the last moment.

Pain ran up her side as she tumbled. She hit the ground, gasping in pain and clutching her side. Warm healing washed over her and she craned her neck to see a massive cut in her side knit back up.

Kat cried out.

Ann twisted, pain lancing through her, to find the woman locked in a standstill with the Guardian. Her arm looked fucked, with the shield being held on to her limb by force of will.

“Got ye, ye feckin’ gallopin’ git!” She shouted in triumph through clenched teeth.

The warped looked down at her, and even with its skeletal features, it looked confused. Like it couldn’t understand that Kat had stopped it.

Ann groaned and forced herself to stand, approaching the deadlock.

The Warped pushed with its chest, trying to move Kat, but it still couldn’t. It didn’t have the momentum.

Ann felt her side close up, muscles and skin knitting. She got within ten paces of the creature before it registered her.

An arm shot out, holding the sharpened femur towards her. A warning? “Don’t interfere,” it seemed to say.

“Oh fuck you,” Ann yelled, batting the tip of the sword to the side. She was inside its reach in an instant, holding a fist that pulsed with purple light.

The Guardian’s eyes widened, and it tried to disengage from Kat.

With a bloody grin, the princess plunged her sword into its side, locking it there. “Nah ye feckin’ don’t.”

Ann slammed a Fistful of Love into the side of the creature’s chest. The torso cratered and burned, acrid smoke rising as the creature tore free of Kat’s blade.

Kat stumbled, thrown off balance by how hard the Guardian was sent flying.

The Guardian tumbled, rolling on the asphalt, skin sloughing off on the rough surface.

“Keep at it!” Kat yelled.

Ann was already running. She used Burst of Speed and zipped over to the creature, using its bulk to stop her as she hit it with a flying fist. Purple light burned into the creature’s side.

It leaned back, skin where its mouth should be stretching taught as its jaw worked. Pulled to its limit, the thing’s face tore with a wet ripping sound. Black blood dripped down its chin, as ragged flesh was pulled apart revealing sharpened teeth within. No sound came from its lips as it screamed to the heavens in agony.

Ann moved supernaturally quickly out of the way of a wild swipe and was back on it the next moment, hitting the side of its head with another smite, then an unaugmented strike to its chest.

“Fucking. Go. Down!” she shouted as she struck.

The thing’s eyes flashed bright white, and Ann retreated by instinct.

Cold frost crackled on her leather, her sweat freezing to her fur and hair.

The guardian righted itself, arms for legs, pushing it back to its full height.

“Guess we know what the white part means,” Ann panted, Burst of Speed running out.

“Don’t wanna know what the black means,” Kat grumbled, coming up to her side.

“We’re totally gonna find out.”

“Why do ye ‘ave tae do that?” asked with an exasperated sigh.

“Cause it’s fun?” Ann shrugged.

“I’ll show ye fun later,” Kat grumbled.

“Promise?”

“Ye’re impossible. ‘Ere it comes,” Kat said, readying herself.

The Guardian held out its blade horizontally before it, the hilt in the black hand. Slowly, it drew its white hand along the bone, and frost coated its length.

“Oh, that’s fucked,” Ann groaned.

It ran at them, swinging wildly. None of the poise it had before, but it scattered the pair easily. The Guardian didn’t stop, and kept running back to the pile of corpses it rose from.

“The fe… oh no,” Kat gasped, eyes wide, before she started running.

The Guardian had put its white blade down. It was clawing at its black forelimb, blood streaming from the wounds.

Ann was running in the next moment, the pavement scraping painfully at her pads as she pushed herself.

With a sickening pop, the thing tore its own femur free. Gore coated the thing as it lifted the bone by the hip joint, breathing heavily. It turned its eyes, full of pain and hatred, towards Ann.

Kat got there the next second and met its new weapon with her own.

It parried her away, spattering the princess with dark ichor and scraps of its own flesh, just to find Ann in its face.

She focused on getting inside its range. Two hits into its unblemished stomach, one at its hip, then a smite to its side. Three left.

The front legs of the Guardian rose up, grabbing her shoulders, and shoving her back.

It bent low and picked up its second blade. Fully armed, it trotted backward.

Neither Kat nor Ann was going to let it get distance. Both charged, continuing their frenzied rush.

A black bone hissed over Ann’s head, while ice coated Kat’s shield as the white sword made contact.

Ann hit the elbow of the front leg, hearing a satisfying crack under her gauntlet, then rolled away as it tried to grab at her.

Kat used the hit on her shield to shove the sword to the side and stab the creature in the stomach. Black blood flowed, guts spilling as she wrenched the sword down through soft skin and organs.

Hissing from the ground, the blood was smoking, and the creature’s veins pulsed visibly.

A second pulse that seemed to have a physical force washed over them as the pale parts of the creature darkened. It burst with a black smoke, driving the fighters back.

Ann hissed, her arms and exposed legs burning as she guarded her face. The magic burned like fire, but was nothing of the sort.

She cleared her vision in time to watch the smoke seethe, then concentrate into the ugly black femur bone. As the Guardian infused the weapon, the bone shifted, honing itself into a mirror of the white blade.

“Now it’s feckin’ ready,” Kat grumbled. “Try tae hit its head if ye can.”

“Got it,” Ann nodded, patting Kat’s shoulder. “Pin it for me.”

They sprinted forward as the Guardian charged. It hit Kat again, leading with the swords, this time in a wicked cross slash.

Kat caught the blades once more on her shield, standing her ground. The force of the impact actually overwhelmed the skill and pushed her back a few feet.

With both arms occupied, Ann tried to flank the Warped and hit it on the side of its quadrupedal body.

A pale leg shot up, hand catching her arm, then twisted, sending her tumbling.

The next moment, she was rolling on the ground as the same hand tried to stomp on her. A crater opened up, ice making a pothole to her left.

Ann pushed off the ground, leaping to her feet, then ran back in. She rushed the rear of the Guardian, letting Kat keep the more dangerous front occupied.

More dangerous was relevant. A black bolt of fire hit her in the shoulder as the creature anticipated her approach. The thing had turned its split-colored head to the side, allowing it to track both of them.

Pain swelled, battling with Bren’s healing. The fire wasn’t going out and checking her health, she found that it was steadily decreasing.

Faster, she told herself. Find the weak points. Joints, soft bits. Exploit and eviscerate. Make it bleed.

Ann ran in, dodging another blast of black, followed instantly by white. As the white grazed her cheek, she got to the back of the monster and jabbed out with her left fist. Bone. Not right.

She circled left, preferring to be on the pale side. The thing’s side was the easy choice. If it had normal human anatomy, it’d just be guts and flesh down there.

Extending her claws again, she slammed her left shoulder into the creature, then sank her right hand into the flesh. She felt ribs scrape against her fingers, but they passed through. Grabbing hold of the rib, she pulled as hard as she could.

A gout of black blood poured from the Guardian’s side, covering her chest and legs as she staggered back, rib in hand.

The wound started to close, but not as quickly as before. They were getting there. Either that or her new skill was making it bleed more.

She didn’t have more time to care.

Kat took a nasty hit to her side, ice spreading from the wound as she let out an agonising cry.

They were both in terrible shape. This needed to end fast.

A gunshot rang out from above, Lucia finally had found an angle to shoot the Guardian without endangering either of them. This bullet was pure red and hit the thing square in the back with a small explosion.

The Guardian staggered, right front leg buckling.

As the left back leg overextended, Ann slammed a fist into its elbow, hearing bone crunch under her knuckles.

Kat grunted, ramming her sword into the hand of the front right leg.

Ann leapt up, using her Dexterity to get on the thing’s back as it was immobilised.

Glowing white eyes turned to face her. The right shoulder pivoted, black blade sweeping towards her.

She took a gamble, trusting Pile’s work. Raising her left hand, she caught the sword. Pain erupted in her hand from the impact, and fire began to burn her flesh, but the gauntlet held firm.

Kat dodged a strike from the left, then grappled the elbow, locking it in place. “NOW!”

Ann’s fist was already glowing purple. It pulsed once, twice, thrice as it charged.

“My city, fucker,” she growled as she slammed her second Fistful of Love into the Guardian’s face.

The skull crumpled, white side blackened as divine power washed over it. Her fist kept going, punching further in, then tapping against the back of the skull.

The Guardian fell limp, pulling Ann with it.

With a yelp she lost her balance and hit the pavement hard, hand still stuck in the thing’s brains.

She felt the squirming flesh give up trying to heal the fatal wound, its regeneration overwhelmed and finally overcome.

Ann lay there, panting, face down in the spreading pool of blood. She struggled, trying to pull her hand out, but didn’t have the strength remaining.

Strong hands gripped her wrist and wrenched it free, then rolled her over. Kat was there, a grim expression on her face as she looked down at Ann.

“Doing ok, babe?” Ann gasped.

“Dinnae, feckin’ hurt. How’re ye?” Kat asked, wincing as she sat down.

“Not good. That black shit really hurt.”

“Aye. Think the only thing that saved me shield is the Gods blessin’,” Kat said, pulling the thing up next to her. It was scarred now, with black grooves in the turtle shell. Not deep, but visible damage.

Ann lifted her left hand, inspecting her gauntlet. It bore the same black charring, but hadn’t dented under the force of the swing it had saved her from.

“Gotta thank Pile again for these,” Ann said, letting the arm fall limply to her side.

“Need tae get me shite like it,” Kat chuckled weakly. “If it can stand up tae that?”

“Kat! Don’t you move!” Bren shouted from behind them.

Ann craned her neck, feeling her tail start to wag beneath her as she saw Bren sprinting at them, Rosalyn right behind him. “We did it!”

“Yes, you’ve really done it this time!” Bren barked as he knelt between them. He was contracting his words. He really was scared.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t help more! I was out of everything and no more Mind potions otherwise I could have tangled it up or done some damage, maybe distracted it a little like Lucia did and oh my Gods Ann your shoulder is messed up how are you not crying?” Rosalyn said, words becoming a waterfall as she got to them.

“Probably in shock,” Ann chuckled. “Can’t actually feel it.”

“Yes, that would be shock,” Bren grumbled. “Lucia, help me move them out of the blood. We don’t need them getting infections if this thing had diseases.”

Lucia’s eyes flashed, and she moved with an urgency that the easygoing Thrundol normally eschewed.

Ann felt the large hands wrap around her waist, then tug her up over Lucia’s shoulder.

Bren and Rosalyn moved Kat between them, just enough to get them out of the black blood of the Warped.

“I’m getting low on Mind myself,” Bren warned. “But with the Guardian dead, we should be able to rest. I’ll stabilise you two, then finish healing after a break.”

“Thanks, Bren,” Kat sighed, relaxing on the asphalt. “Be dead a hundred times o’er without ye.”

“Truer words have never been spoken,” Bren sighed, rolling his eyes. “Now hold still.”

As he worked, the sun finally fell. Lights flickered on in the windows surrounding them, street lights shining with a magic light that imitated the old electrical glow.

Ann felt herself begin to shake, the adrenaline of the shock wearing off. Slowly, she curled up, hugging her knees as her body and mind caught up with what she’d just been through.

Rosalyn gently stroked her hair as she felt her consciousness fade.