Chapter 257: Battle of the Boulders

Ann waved her thanks to Lucia. The Huntress had taken out a Twinwolf that had snuck up on her while she dealt with a group of those awful rabbits. She knew rabbits fucked like… rabbits, but this many was absurd! They were the second most common threat to their position, with Snowcrabs being the first and Twinwolves the third.

She fell back, letting Noa take their spot again. She and Eyes had started filling in for fighters to give them a chance to just not have to fight for a couple of minutes. Everyone was feeling the crush of this much death and exertion. Lucia seemed to be the only one of the entire group that hadn’t taken a hit, and that was mostly because she could see everything coming. Ann had a cut on her shoulder that Bren was leaving to spare his resources for more serious injuries as the fight continued, and several others were in similar states. Minor wounds were what was going to wear them down at this point.

Something had to change, and change for the better, in order to get them out of this situation they’d put themselves in. Alruna and Tarnu had both expressed their surprise at how many Warped had been called. It was like they were filling the forests to the brim in a way that’d be impossible for their patrols to miss. Especially this close to their home.

Ann’s mind immediately went to the Swarm and the Great Change prophecy Krisnaal had read to them. Clain had been given that prophecy by an unknown deity. What were the odds that she was trying to figure out and track down a similarly unknown deity? If this was a consequence of her existence, then shit was about to get really bad. Still, this wasn’t the Swarm. It was just a fuckton of warped jammed into one area.

She paced, her paws restless underneath her as she thought. If this dark Goddess was pushing for her big ol’ prophecy to start happening, maybe it meant something was starting to threaten her? Or was she trying to get rid of Ann as quickly as possible so she couldn’t play a part in the events to come?

A scream derailed her train of thought. She looked around, trying to see who’d let out the shriek, but she couldn’t. It came from… the right? The damn rocks, even if they weren’t towering monoliths, messed with the direction of her hearing. Things bounced and made it a frustrating mess.

She took off to her left, running the perimeter, but didn’t find anyone in too much trouble. As she ran, she took potshots with her revolver where she could to do even the bare minimum to help out. When she didn’t find anything, she pivoted and went back to get to the other side, cursing her ears and the confusing shit she was dealing with.

It was a fighter she didn’t know. They were covered in Snow Crabs with Twinwolves tearing pieces off their back in their furious hunger.

Ann hit the pile like a bullet. She didn’t use Burst of Speed, but she didn’t slow down as she tackled as many of the monsters as she could. Her armour protected her enough from the impact, but claws and jaws were quick to bite in. As she landed, they disentangled in a rolling tumble. She came out on her paws and beat the hell out of the Snow Crab that had decided her tail looked pinchable.

Her midnight blue gauntlets were already caked with Warped blood and guts from previous fights, and this only added to the mess. It was getting hard to move her fingers at times, so she used a Twinwolf’s back to pound some of the gunk free with a few karate chops. It didn’t do fantastic damage, but it was something.

Something landed on her back. Two clangs told her that it was trying to get at her helmet. The third stab into her side told her it was a Murder Bunny. Her arm twisted backwards and snagged the screeching thing. It smelled like rotting flesh for the brief moment before she chucked it against a rock.

The nameless warrior stepped in now, helping her take out the last couple of enemies that assaulted them. Once finished, they shared an exhausted nod and split up.

“Ann!” Rosalyn yelled, running up to her. The woman was covered in sweat and breathing hard. “I… I saw…”

“What? Breathe, Lambchop,” Ann said, panting herself.

“In the forest. I saw it! The thing! From the run to Godrin’s Cliff! It’s here!”

Ice sank into Ann’s chest. “What is it doing?”

“Nothing that I could see. Just watching. It seems like it’s trying to stay out of sight, actually. Was only a lucky spot of sun that let me see the skulls.”

Again with the weirdly passive behaviour. “Nothing else?”

“No. I only saw it for a moment. I haven’t seen it since.” Rosalyn said, regaining her breath.

“Not our problem right now. We only make it our problem if it attacks. We have too mu…”

Ann’s words were cut off by a bellow from Kat. Even from here, they could hear the woman, and everyone else echoed her. “FALL BACK! SECOND RING POSITIONS!”

“Shit. Not good.”

“I’ll go check on them. Help these guys,” Rosalyn said, then darted off again. Ann had wanted to hug her for comfort. Guess that’d come later.

Ann settled in to helping with the retreat. It was a tricky thing with how persistent Warped were. Gaps would mean someone getting surrounded. Tarnu was in charge of orders for their section and counted them down. When he shouted, “MOVE!” Ann stepped up to fill a gap in the retreating line. Tarnu had done the same, and they all backpedalled to their secondary positions. Technically, they were more exposed, but with less area to cover, they could start giving people a little time to rest. Not much, but it was something.

She was first up on the line, relieving Bones. She’d be here for two rotations until whoever Bones relieved came to replace her.

Defensive fighting was difficult for Ann. Staying in a line with just her fists and revolver meant her pawwork was largely negated. The need to move and outmanoeuvre her enemies just didn’t work like this. Remmi had given her some boxing lessons, but they’d mostly focused on her particular skills as someone who exploited weaknesses.

When she went up against a beefy thing that was several parts of a bear melded together with a Bluejay’s head and four rabbit legs, she could deal. When five to ten of the smaller things attacked, that was where her flaws began to show.

She’d turn, see three Crabs and a Bunny on their backs flying at her. She’d start stomping and stabbing with her claws, and then a Twinwolf would hit her in the side or back. Maybe it was just a rib thrown by one of the Murder Bunnies, but one time it was a good-sized rock!

Checking her sheet, she saw her health was getting low. Only 102 left out of the 390 pool. Bruises and cuts were stacking up. She needed to get healed.

“Swap out,” a rattly voice said behind her. A person with their lower jaw completely gone and replaced with hanging metal bars took her spot. She didn’t have the energy to wonder how the hell they were talking.

There was no blessedly cold snow left. It was all depressing, sucking mud. It caked between her pads, getting stuck to the fur. Hopefully that didn’t get matted. She found a rock and sat down, her chest heaving as her body desperately tried to recover some energy.

Bren had his book out, and the stamina-restoring aura helped. He’d passed it up to Lucia to get a better position for the spell. Lucia was one of the people alongside the other caster who hadn’t taken a break yet. Her crazy-high Stamina was letting her just keep going.

“An arduous experience, no?” Alruna sighed. Her sigh actually sounded a bit musical as it vibrated past the worms in her throat.

“Hoping that we’re close to done. I’ve got a real bad feeling we’re not.”

“I disagree. These numbers are highly unusual. I think you drew most of what was here, and on the other side, their numbers are beginning to dwindle.”

“Thank Orenous for that,” Ann sighed. “I’m getting real low here.”

“As are we all.” Something in Alruna’s tone sounded wrong.

“What happened?”

“Noa… well, they lost an arm. Dismembered by a long-bladed variant of the rabbits.”

“Shit, I didn’t even hear the scream.”

“In this din? You are blameless for it. Still, their fighting days are over unless they were gifted the ability to regrow the arm. Bren and I have killed their pain and stopped the bleeding.”

“Fuck. Still, we’re doing pretty good for how much we’ve been fighting.”

Just then, something pushed a tree over to their right.

“Why do I even open my mouth?” Ann groaned. They stood and went to see what fresh horror the woods had spat out at them this time.

Rounding a stone, they saw the creature. Massive, quadrupedal, and completely alien. Its head was split into nine petals. Eyes bulged from four of the flaps, letting it see high and low. The thing’s flesh was a dark grey and baggy, almost like that of an elephant. The only difference was that this thing had a shiny coating of… slime? Ann couldn’t tell, but it looked wet. Each long limb was capped off with a bear paw instead of a foot, like an elephant. Ann doubted it could even wiggle its claws. Fetid pustules lined its back as well. Hopefully, those weren’t an offensive tool. So, overall, big and tanky. It didn’t seem too ba…

Ann cursed herself again. She’d just made that mistake. The thing’s mouth started glowing with obvious magic.

“Cover!” Kat shouted as she dove behind a rock.

Not everyone was as ready to dive as she was. Bones hesitated. A blast of arcane death crashed into the stone formation. Ann saw him only halfway to safety before she lost sight of him behind her own boulder.

“WHAT THE FUCK?” she shouted. Her ears were ringing in her helmet from the blast, and the wet trickle down the sides of her head was not sweat.

“Kill it! Now!” Alruna shouted, hauling Complacency with her as she took off.

Ann chased her instantly. She forced herself to ignore the charred and smoking half of Bones that still remained, his numerous ribs and spurs shattered on the rocks.

Later.

Kat was already moving as well. She rallied the rest, shouting for them to form up and defend a tight spot. With the remaining Warped starting to ebb, they could concentrate their efforts better.

Lightning roared over Ann’s head as she ran. Rosalyn was no longer holding back. Three bolts hit the thing before she was even halfway there. She wasn’t the only one, either. The village’s other mage was hurling fire at the massive creature. She apparently had the classic fireball. The tiny beads shot out, then detonated into devastating infernos. Lucia wasn’t being left behind either. She’d held back her Big Ones for larger flying targets, but one hit the creature’s head now.

As it pushed through the smoke of the explosions, they saw that the creature had taken those hits but was almost completely healed. Only raw skin that was rapidly toughening showed that it had taken damage.

“It’s tough! No holding back!” Alruna yelled.

“Wasn’t planning on it!”

Alruna stopped near the front. Ann’s ears picked up the loud smack of Complacency against flesh, but she didn’t have time to see anything. She got behind the behemoth and tried to cut at anything that seemed important for walking. Tendons snapped, but reknit almost as fast. She was low on Mind and wanted to save that for a critical strike. The thing kicking Alruna back over Kat’s head, being caught by Eyes, made her reconsider that.

Disorient. Disable. Destroy.

Remmi’s three D’s. They’d laughed at that awful name, but it was a useful way to remember it.

Purple carved through the air in streaks as she burned flesh away. Holy light surged forth, scarring and cauterising the creature’s ankles. No more healing.

Ann tried to dig into the thing’s flesh with her claws and climb, but the slick gunk it was covered with left her paws unable to get a hold!

“Kick off!”

Ann looked around and found one of Bren’s shields next to her. A couple more above her made something like she’d seen on TV, obstacle courses. She jumped and kicked off the first barrier. Her foot passed right through, and she tumbled back into the dirt.

“Intend to do damage! Try to break it!” Bren yelled again.

Ah, intent was the problem. Ann picked herself up and tried again. When she tried to break the barrier, it actually held firm. Three more of these, and she was near the top of the creature.

It had a tail. A whip-like thing made entirely of bone, connected by black ink. Ann discovered this as it lashed at her with deadly speed. She was midair, with no way to dodge! Out of options, she decided to gamble.

Her Libido shot up 40 points as she let out a throaty moan. “Let me have that tail, big boy!” It echoed weirdly in her helmet. She hated this skill. She was almost certain Orenous was laughing at how absurd it was. Any other time, she’d be laughing with her. Right now, she was focused on the gap between two bones. A divine chime rang from her fist as it pulsed with purple light. A Fistful of Love hit the inky connective magic, severing it instantly. She still took a hit from the severed limb and stump, but nowhere near as severe as it would have been.

Ann wrapped a hand around the stump’s bone and held tight. Another blast of searing magic light blinded her as the fight continued elsewhere.

Once she could see again, Ann climbed. Yeah, the thing tried to shake her off, but her claws were dug in to each bone she could reach. It only slowed her down. When she felt flesh again, she used Burst of Speed. Before the monster could buck or do anything else, she was on its back and hacking at anything she could reach. She was on the thing’s flank. Ten percent extra damage had to count for something!

She felt her claws scrape bone. The divine chime sounded again, and she pulled back to sever vital nerves.

The pustules popped in putrescent pus. Ann heard a sizzling as the yellow gunk landed on her skin and armour. The smell made her gag violently, and it was everything she could do not to puke on the spot. Everything smelled like rotting flesh and sickness.

A violent flashback to her grandmother hit Ann. She’d found her lying on the floor on a regular visit. The doctors had said she’d just had a heart attack, killing her instantly. Ann had stumbled on her body, already starting to rot. Flies were everywhere. It’d only been five days. She’d been great the last time she’d seen her. Now, Ann couldn’t get the bloated face out of her head, even after all of this time, nor the smell.

Desperately holding her breath, Ann pushed forward. Her health was already low, and dropping further as the acid started to eat at her. Her paws burned, and her tail was aching. Everything was pain as she clawed her way forward across the creature’s back.

Her eyes blurred with tears, and she didn’t dare wipe at them through her helmet. She felt the creature’s back rise a bit, and the flesh was moving back and forth up here. Hopefully, that was the neck.

The world exploded in flames, followed by a deafening crack. A crater of smoking flesh had opened up in front of her. Something gooey was inside.

One more hit. She channelled the last of her Desire into her fist. She couldn’t even hear the chime, but she knew it was there. She buried her arm up to her shoulder into the thing’s flesh, and prayed that was enough.

Her body was done. Her health was scraping empty as she felt herself sliding to her right. She was falling. Always falling. Arms caught her. She didn’t know whose. Wait, they were squirming. Alruna.

“Chosen, rest. I shall bear you to safety.”

Ann didn’t pass out. She was in a bit too much pain. Alruna did her best to make her run smooth, but it still jostled Ann. Had she done it? Had she killed the thing?

Something crashed behind them. Another explosion sent a shockwave through her aching bones. More thunder.

Heh. If she hadn’t finished it, Lucia and Rosalyn sure had. No way it got back up with their combined efforts.

Her skin hurt to even touch the stone she was set upon. Alruna gently removed her helmet and mask.

“Drink, Annita,” the woman instructed.

A bitter potion suddenly was in her mouth, and she fought to gulp it down. Probably something for the pain. Maybe healing?

Bren was healing her. She could feel his familiar magic repairing her skin and muscles. It hurt, what didn’t, but it’d help.

Eventually, Ann’s vision cleared, and she sat up with Alruna’s assistance. “Did we win?”

“Kat is leading the rest in the rout. The Warped… they retreated. I have seen nothing like it,” Bren muttered, checking over Ann’s skin. She saw the blisters and tried not to think about it.

“Yeah, that’s weird. Probably the skull freak in the woods.”

Bren’s hands paused for a moment before resuming his work. “It’s here?”

“Rosalyn spotted it.”

“I just told Lucia to go warn Kat. Rest for now. Your skin is in rough shape.”

“Maybe I’ll have a scar to match Kat’s,” Ann chuckled.

Bren sighed. “That is not a goal to be sought. I swear, you women are insane.”

Ann’s voice dropped to a loud whisper. “Thanks.”

“What would you do without me?” Bren laughed in reply.

They both knew she’d probably be dead in the woods. Ah, but who was keeping track?

Ann relaxed into Alruna’s grasp and watched the rest of the fighters chasing off the last of the Warped. This had been a very hard day. In the top right of her vision, she saw the silvery dot that meant she had a level earned, and next to it a black one. Time to see how much she’d gotten this time.