Chapter 30: First Contact

The party slowly spread out, waiting for whatever was headed toward them.

Without warning, a jet of black ichor blasted to Kat’s right, slamming into Annita, causing her to stumble.

“Feck, it’s got range. Get behind me Bren!” Kat yelled as she moved forward. Bren was already moving to position, a Heal hitting Ann at the same time.

Dazed from the surprise strike, Ann struggled to her feet in time to see a hulking figure push a tree aside.

“The FUCK is that?” Ann cried.

An arm far longer than anything she’d seen shot out from her left. She and Bren threw themselves to the ground, but it caught Kat in her side, sending the Guardian flying into another trunk. A loud crack echoed on impact as wood splintered against her.

“Not good!” Bren yelled. “Kat! Answer me, Kat!”

“I’m feckin here,” Kat shouted back as she pulled herself from the tree with an audible creak.

The creature wasn’t staying still for any of this. Ann tried to keep track of it, but with the fallen branches kicking up the surrounding snow, that quickly became difficult. “I lost it. Where the hell is it?”

“Dunnae! get close tae me.” Kat ordered. “That took out a fifth of my health. This is going to be fucking tough. Either o’ ye see what it was?”

“I saw something massive and round, with another portion of it moving towards the front,” Bren offered, scanning the slowly settling snow.

“Long arm. Like, multiple meters long arm,” Ann offered. “That’s what hit you.”

“An’ it’s feckin’ sneaky when it wants tae be. Gods damnit,” Kat spat, eyes wide as she searched their surroundings. “All the trees fallin’ ‘re makin’ it a bitch tae hear it too.”

Another blast of ichor sprayed from their right. Ready for it, Kat caught it on her shield. The force pushed her back, but with Ann bracing her, she didn’t go far. “Hit an’ run. An ambush predator. Definitely Warped. Feck. Bettin’ this is what we were sent after.”

“Agreed. We need to figure out something to either draw it out or clear the snow cover.” Bren grunted, putting up a magical shield to intercept another blast of liquid.

“Feck. All right. When I say, we run back the way we came. I bring up the rear.” Kat commanded. After the other two agreed, she counted. “Three, two, one, go!”

They turned in unison, running directly back to where they came from. A wailing rose above the treetops as the Warped saw its prey escaping. Trees began to creak and snap as the thing gave chase.

They quickly reached the point where the trees thinned. The problem being that it also let the Warped gain on them quicker. “Stick an’ fight ‘ere. See if we can pin its arms down.”

The hulking creature seemed to hang back, kicking up a cloud of snow as it moved, covering its presence. One arm shot out again from their left, intercepted immediately by Kat, who knocked the balled fist aside.

A frustrated scream was accompanied by more of the black goop trying to hit Kat. Blocking it with her shield, she stood her ground, enduring the torrent.

Taking the opportunity, Ann moved to the side, snapping off a couple of shots of her own. A discordant chittering hiss meant she’d hit something. “Ranged shit works!” she informed the party as the torrent of ichor stopped, freeing Kat.

“Well, feckin’ good fer ye. I’ve only got this shit,” Kat cursed back as she swung her sword at another arm attempting to knock her away.

“Apologies, but I am limited to defence at the moment. Some day I might be able to help,” Bren called, a small barrier appearing next to Ann and catching a smaller ball of the black liquid.

“Cool, just me. Twenty bullets left, too. I don’t think that’ll be enough to get this thing to stop,” Ann called, firing a Smite enhanced shot towards where the pale arm disappeared into the snow cloud. A flash of purple light confirmed the hit and gave them a glimpse of the thing’s outline. No hiss of pain this time, though. Ann knew she didn’t miss, so something must have protected the creature.

“Kat, this is not working!” Bren shouted.

“Aye, need a better place tae fight it. Ye seen anywhere on the way ‘ere?” Kat yelled as she sliced a clean cut into the thing’s forearm.

“A ways further back. We will have to run again.” Bren confirmed.

“Feck it, let’s go!” Kat yelled as she turned her back and bolted.

The other two kept up with her, darting through the trees, avoiding the spray of whatever the fuck the creature was shooting at them.

“Left ‘ere!” Bren yelled over the cacophony. “A clearing I saw on the way.”

The Warped, meanwhile, had seemed to change tactics from blasts of pressurized ooze to lobbing wads of the stuff at them. As they ran, gobs of the sticky gunk forced them to slow down and dodge.

After a couple minutes, they scrambled into an oblong clearing. It was mostly flat, with a stone to the northern edge jutting a few feet up.

“Not the best, but it’s what we’ve got,” Kat grunted, blocking another shot of ichor.

“Now it just needs to get over here,” Ann complained, sidestepping her own share of the barrage. “How much of this crap does it have?”

“It will run out, eventually. I hope.” Bren tried to reassure her. “At least with the trajectory of its shots, we know exactly where it is.”

“True, but we can’t last all day. Let’s take cover behind the rock,” Ann suggested.

Nodding, Kat and Bren followed the suggestion, crouching down behind the tall stone.

“It’ll probably come fer us now that it can’t see us. Or it’ll flank. Feck. This thing knows how tae fight in the woods,” Kat grumbled.

“Yes. Undoubtedly a Warped suited for this environment,” Bren agreed.

“Shhh, I think it’s coming,” Ann raised her hand, silencing the other two as her ears twitched.

The spray of liquid stopped, and a shuffling, almost dragging sound met the Lupine’s ears. Another wail creeped over the clearing as the thing left the treeline.

Chancing a look, Ann poked her head around the side of the rock, only to be more confused at what she was looking at.

The round object she’d seen before turned out to be a shell of some kind. Nothing she’d ever seen, but the closest she could describe was a snail. It was flat on the bottom, but spires of calcium decorated the tops and sides. Some were sharp, but others had clearly been snapped off, and worn down as the creature moved through its dense environment.

The front was where the strange began. Instead of the normal snail creature was something vaguely humanoid. It was completely white, devoid of any pigmentation. Its long torso extended down further and further, widening before it entered the darkness of the shell it dragged behind it. The Warped had four arms. Two short and stumpy appendages seemed to be used to move it, while the much longer two arms were what had struck Kat. They ended in elongated hands with fingers disproportionate to the rest of it. From its shoulders up, instead of a head was a stump of flesh, wrinkled and shifting from side to side as it seemed to try to smell for them. No eyes were present, and as it let out another unearthly screech, Ann saw the side of its stump open to several rows of sharp teeth arrayed in concentric circles.

“Oh, that is a fucked up snail,” Ann gasped as she ducked back into cover.

“Never ‘eard o’ one o’ those before. How big?” Kat asked.

“Twelve foot tall shell, at a guess?” Ann explained. “Looks like it’s kinda human, or was, for the fleshy bits. Four arms. Two for moving, two for hitting you,” she nodded at Kat. “It doesn’t have eyes, and I couldn’t see ears or a nose, but it clearly can sense us. Betting they’re somewhere else. Mouth on the stump full of sharp teeth.”

“Understood. The ranged shots likely came from the mouth, or possibly the shell,” Bren pondered. “If it is the former, then we can avoid those fairly easily. If it is the latter, that will be more complicated. How do you feel about this, Kat?”

“Not prepared, ‘at’s fer sure,” Kat replied. “It’s got the range advantage on us. We’ll need tae close that distance real quick. If we can’t, an’ I’m stuck out, we’ll need tae really run an’ come back with support.”

The other two nodded, grips tightening on their weapons. Kat looked around the rock, holding up her shield hand, and waited. They could hear the monstrous mollusc getting closer, the snow shuffling aside as it dragged its bulk. A hand slowly stretched over the top of the rock, and Kat darted out to the left.

Ann took the right, trying to get as close to it as she could before the thing noticed what was happening.

It didn’t work. Whatever the thing was using to sense them, it tracked them perfectly. The arm that was on the rock slid down the side and swept outward, catching Annita by surprise and toppling her. Scrambling in the dirt, she felt the ground shake as the arm slammed down where she was just laying, sending small rocks and snow flying. Ann caught a glimpse of a frustrated Kat using her shield to bat away strikes from the other arm, curses flowing freely from her lips.

Ann crouched, digging the claws on her feet in, before attempting another dash forward. She got a bit closer, almost getting to the thing’s elbow, before it caught her with a fist to her stomach. The wind was knocked out of her as she tumbled backwards again. Instinctively, she checked her health. 150/230. And that was with her new armour. Once her lungs let her take in a ragged, coughing breath, she struggled to her feet. Eighty points in one hit, and it could keep both of their fighters occupied. This was going to be tough.

One of the arms came back around, and she leapt over it, slicing pale flesh on the disturbingly thin appendage to little effect. Ducking a blast of goo, she stepped forward, but the hand loomed close again. The fingers tensed against each other before a flick smacked into her leg. She spun head over heels before landing on her back with a thud. A cry of pain escaped her as she sat back up. Something in her back felt like it had pulled. Soothing warmth washed over her as Bren got to work restoring her health, and she rose to her feet once more, tumbling to the side as a fist slammed down where she just was. This thing really liked to topple its victims.

Getting her feet under her she aimed and fired another shot off into the trunk that composed its body. The snail flinched, its body writhing as it clutched the wound.

Kat took the opening, charging in to her preferred range. A cut from her sword opened a bleeding black wound on its soft side, almost the same liquid that was being fired out across the area.

Ann was right there with her, taking advantage of Rogues Do It From Behind and sticking to the side, making cut after cut into the rubbery flesh.

“This is working!” Ann shouted, excited as she dealt more damage to the monstrosity before her.

It was then that the snail stopped moving. Instinctively, both fighters immediately backed away. The thing’s mouth opened wide. Wider than it had before. The scream that came out of it this time was like a physical blow. Ann was sent flying back, while Kat seemed to spend some Tenacity to stay where she was.

The world was silent except for a ringing in Ann’s ears. Shaking herself, feeling a trickle of blood running down the side of her head, she checked her ears. Both were bleeding, thin streams coloring her fingers red as she touched them. Eardrums blown out, most likely. Or at least damaged. She could hear muffled noises, and it was getting better as another heal hit her, but it shook her for a moment that sound could physically hurt her so much.

Kat was trapped close to the wriggling body as it bent to better attack her. Hands tried to grasp her from behind while the thicker ones it used to move were trying to bludgeon her from the front.

Ann darted in, taking a cut at one of the hands while keeping an eye on the stump of a head. Scoring a hit, she pumped another smite into the blow, the purple flash of divine energy burning a smoking gash into the flesh under the falchion’s blade. She sidestepped one of the thicker hands trying to stomp on her, returning another hit. Her sword bit deep into the flesh, but this one was thicker for a reason. The creature didn’t recoil with pain, but wrenched her sword from her hand as it lodged itself in the blubbery stump.

Cursing, Ann took a step back, trying to find a way back in, but the snail had diverted one of its longer arms to deal with her. It was all she could do to dodge each swing as the intensity of the creature’s attacks increased. It was angry, she thought, or at least hurt and worried. They had this.

The thing raised its arm to try to flatten her once again, giving Ann an opening. She aimed, and sent her third smite on a bullet directly into the thing’s chest. It rocked back as she raced forward, grabbing and wrenching her blade from the limb, feeling the muscles in the wound resist her efforts.

As she did, she lost track of the head as it opened its gaping maw again. The world rang again as she was deafened once more. As she righted herself in a snowbank, she saw Kat had been knocked back as well. She tried to clear her hearing, shaking her head repeatedly. She checked her health. Even with the healing she’d received, she had 72 points left. And it wasn’t going back up this time.

Looking around, she saw why. Bren was pinned behind the rock, unable to move out and provide support as a rain of viscous liquid splashed around him. The spines on the back of the Warped’s shell had shifted, pointing towards where Bren was trying to provide support. It had successfully bombarded him to the point where he had to take cover behind the rock, and it was keeping the Scholar from aiding his team.

“Kat!” Ann shouted, desperately dodging another sweep of the thing’s creepily long arms. “Kat! This isn’t working! Bren can’t move!”

A stream of curses was her reply as Kat parried another hand, keeping her out of range. Her ears were also bleeding, their shared sensitive hearing clearly putting them at a disadvantage here. “Yer feckin’ right. Gods damnit. Bren! Get ready tae run. We’re gonna head straight north. Full speed. Get the feck outta here! We’ll meet up in a bit! Got it?” She followed all her words with gestures Ann greatly appreciated, directing her to where they planned on escaping.

“Got it!” Bren and Ann replied at once.

“On my mark!” Kat shouted, taking another slice at pale flesh. “Now!”

All three turned and ran as fast as they could into the treeline. The monster screamed again, sending another salvo of ichor after them.

Ann’s heart raced in her ears as she ran. Small explosions of snow popped up around her as she dodged left and right, trying her best to keep away from the Warped’s relentless barrage. “You’d think it’d run out of juice,” she complained to no one as she vaulted a fallen tree.

Left, another right, a gob of goop splattered on the tree in front of her, splashing across her front, joining the mess from the first blast. Wiping her eyes, Annita kept running. Her breath was growing ragged, and she was getting tired. It had to be chasing her specifically. Dread crept into her chest as the realization she might not be able to outrun the thing dawned on her. “How… the fuck… is it so fast?” Ann panted.

A crack echoed as she stepped on a thicker branch buried beneath the powdery snow. Ann felt her paw slip and twist, sending her tumbling against a large tree.

Ann laid there, trying desperately to focus her spinning head. She could hear the snail getting closer, the crashing as it shoved its way through the dead trees, but she couldn’t focus.

Not again. She thought desperately. Almost dying a-fucking-gain. Come on Ann. Get up. Get up get up get up get up!

“Shhhhh,” a quiet voice whispered from right next to her. “Quiet. Stay still. It’ll pass.”

Ann did as she was told, not like she had much of a choice since her world was still spinning.

The rough dragging of the Snail’s shell got louder. Louder still, and Ann laid there obediently even as panic rose in her chest. Her eyes focused just in time to see the hulking mass creep into view, its awful pale body stretching this way and that as it searched for her. The skin split open as it screamed again. Ann had to force herself not to move, eyes locked on the creature.

The Warped’s “head” lowered to the ground as it seemed to sniff, then a pitch black tongue extended to lick the snow. Huffing, it lifted back up, used its longer arms to turn itself around with the trees in reach, and drug itself away.

After a minute or two, Annita dared to look away. Righting herself, she looked around, trying to spot her saviour.

“Nice to meet you,” the voice seemed to come out of the snowbank next to her. “Welcome to my woods.”