My concussion remains persistent in holding me back to focus and I want to slap myself to get rid of it. But, I know it would only make it worse. My thoughts clash with what I'm actually seeing before my eyes. Is it just my brain playing tricks or is it the complete reality? Soon enough, it sinks in. It is real. It is a Hellion. And it looks far different from what we've encountered so far, nor ever have I seen from illustrations. After weeks of silence, one finally shows itself on the surface. Its alien roars bring unpleasant horrors to my ears as it mauls onto something below itself, but neither did it ever obscure the agonizing scream of who I already know is a comrade of mine. Sarah. There are also barks that no other than Wolf-Breeds can do. Above is the winged figure of a Ravenbird, who I assume is Philbert. He's screaming as he keeps firing arrows down the hideous beast, yet none of it seems to budge its skin. I see the other Ravenbird, Echidna, nowhere. I merely dare my mind not to even think of what might have happened to her.
My limbs tremble with the adrenaline combined, along with the immeasurable anxiety pounding through my veins as I struggle to get back on my feet. My now clear vision only finds the many wreckages of what was once the Sand Slider we were riding scattered everywhere. There are guns that I can pick up, but none of them are loaded. It'll only waste time if I bother picking up the scattered ammunition.
When I turn my head, a man's figure emerges in my line of sight. He lay on the sand, undetermined if unconscious or is done for but I waste no time rushing towards his body, nonetheless. Please be alive… Please be alive... As I get closer, little by little I obtain more recognition of his red hair and horns, and it was no other than that of the fawn soldier, Daniel. Once standing next to him, I place two fingers underneath his neck to sense if there's a beating pulse. I feel normal beats and it reassured me he's alright but is just unconscious. I shake his shoulders to rouse him up and his eyes flutter open in a matter of seconds, then dart towards me.
"We don't have much time." I rasp, a little breathless. "We gotta find the others."
The initial thought I have the moment he looked at me is him having contempt, but no. He is rather confused for seconds as if half of his mind is still drowsy from the unconscious state but soon embarks back to his feet without a word. Now wouldn't be the right time if he acted differently considering our situation.
I stand back up and scan my surroundings finding no one else other than wreckages and the hill of sands dividing the two of us and the beast who is now in pursuit of Philbert, and he is luring it away. I stumble climbing the hill with the fawn just behind me. And with the next step, I feel something solid beneath my boot, something silvery-white that is reflecting sunlight. A sword. It must've been dropped from the beyond-repair Sand Slider. I quickly retrieve the object and put it behind my back, a small amount of relief escapes along my sigh, even though it's not going to be that much of a big help with the current circumstances. But at least, I have something in the worst-case scenario. There could be more weapons around but for now, I have to find the rest of our allies. The impact must've sent us further away from one another.
We continue climbing on the hill of sands hoping to find them on the other side, and three more people come into view. I take the lead rushing down where I first decided to reach the fawn twins. Yet, seeing them sends me much more anxiety with one of them holding the other, having the huge chunk of metal object impaled through his chest. I rush close only to know that it is too late. His eyes are open but hold emptiness as blood drips from his lips and from his chest, pooling the sands beneath him and his twin holding him. My breathing labors and my trembling that hasn't subsided intensify. I don't know what to do and my mind seems to have been punched by reality.
"James, please!" Jaden cries trembling as he holds his lifeless brother. "Not like this. Not like this!"
A soldier. Dead. In front of me. My brain tells me I should do something even though it's beyond help. I only have tears running down my cheek and I can hardly breathe. I may have witnessed a number of them return to the walls carrying almost nothing left but burden and trauma. But now, having to witness this with my own eyes, I can only tell myself, so this is what it's like…
"Ja—… Jaden." I mutter to him, placing my hand on his shoulder. "W—... We have to move. Please…"
"No! I'm not leaving him!" He shouts. "Not here."
As much as I hated having to say things as such with what he's going through, we have no other choice in the current instance. We move or we die.
"Licht!" I hear Daniel's voice call. I shift my tearful gaze ahead and I see him carrying Alice. Alice! I try holding myself back together before bringing myself towards her. Upon close interaction, the first thing I notice is a chunk of her metallic tasset stuck right through her right thigh, and her other whole leg twisted and deformed as if all of her bones were hammered to be done for. She might have gotten a chance to cast a spell upon herself only made her have a bad fall.
A quick sigh of relief escapes her lips once she lays her eyes on me but only lasts as soon as it appears with the agony persisting in her eyes under the pain she's going through. I quickly scan upon my surroundings yet I find no one else.
"Jame—… Jameson," She rasps at me tearfully.
"I know. I know," I say looking back at her, my voice still trembling. "But we don't have much time."
She wails in between sobs.
"We have to move," I say before turning back at Jaden who hasn't moved from his position with his lifeless brother. "Jaden, please!" I call and run back to him. When I attempt to move him up, he only resists and still doesn't want to let go. The alien roar comes once more and to my far side, I see nothing but the Hellion's hill-like back swimming through the sands like a shark faster than ever toward our direction. It must've sensed blood. I see Philbert shouting to warn us, who surely must've already run out of arrows to buy us more time. Two smaller figures on fours appear just behind the beast, who can barely keep up with its speedful movement, so desperate to consume. Or worse, corrupt with their lethal blight.
With not much time to spare, I begin to use force on Jaden by removing his grasp over his brother — wanting to even punch myself having to do it. Yet, I have no choice. I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… He struggles to fight me off, but all the emotional turmoil he's having makes it much easier to drag him as far away as I can. But having to leave a comrade's body? Not at all. Let alone a sibling.
In a heartbeat, Jaden's twin is gone with the beast snatching his corpse under the sands, never to be seen anymore. I hold Jaden close to me as he completely loses himself seeing it happen. His limbs would hurt hitting me, but that and nothing else can compare to what he is feeling. Eventually, I let him go to be on his knees when all he can do is scream and mourn.
I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… "I'm sorry…" I mutter it out but it's silenced by the grainy wind and the beast's rumbling presence beneath us.
"Get on, now!" I hear Philbert command us, just as he arrives on the ground, in a full rush to climb onto the two creatures that turn out to be the Wolf-Breeds, obviously, Mikael and my godfather. One is bigger and has a combination of brown and white coats. While the other has only a plain brown one with darker fur ends. "It's a new kind and we can't fight it."
I agree. And surely, Alek does, as well.
Daniel, who still has the weakened Alice in his arms, doesn't waste a second obeying. Alek lowers himself to have the fawn carrying his partner mount behind his back, and then Philbert returns to the skies. "Where's Echidna!?" He asks loudly.
"I had her fly back to get back up!" Replied Philbert, hurriedly.
She's alive, thank goodness. Though, her return might take a long while as we've gone far, far from the Wall Sector. But we don't have any other choice but to survive long enough, or if our luck comes, outrun it. It'd certainly be an overwhelmingly big mistake to turn our guts and fight, especially when we have nothing but the sword in my possession. We don't know what this new Hellion can do. If only we had the guns.
"Jaden, we have to go," I say to him with my hands trying to bring him up to his feet. Gladly, he sobers up and obliges. I'm first to get on behind the smaller canine, Mikael, and pull him up sitting behind me. We've only bolted yards away and we stop again as I'm having a glimpse of the shadow of the giant figure passing above us. It's too late. It crashes like a catapult over the other three of my comrades who are meters ahead of us, and they're sent back to the sands.
I forget to breathe at the moment as the beast is again right before our eyes. I hear Jaden's agonizing scream in a muffled noise behind me as we're looking at Philbert's body, crushed in between the jaws of a hundred teeth. His left arm remains exposed, covered in his own blood and brown feathers, fingers twitching, sending me nightmares down to the bones. Then he's gone, swallowed down to the Hellion's guts to be digested in a matter of seconds.
The afternoon sunlight reveals the devilish yellow light surging through the monster's spiral-patterned, dark, carapace skin consisting of its whole body — all the way down to its long and thick tendril limbs of six, having protruding nails on its joints, and long scorpion-like tails of three. Its height towers as tall as a three-story building, and its upper body of barely exposed ribcage. No eyes to see. No nose to smell. Just that and its neck-to-neck smile stained with my comrades' blood. It then reminds me of the devastation its kind brought throughout the lands in the past, the mystery of whatever unknown manifestation it came from with only the sole purpose of nothing else but to kill, consume, and become stronger by it.
Coming back to my senses I quickly unmount myself, initially having my eyes on Alice's figure as she helplessly crawls away, leaving trails of her own blood still dripping from her leg. I rush to her whilst the beast becomes preoccupied with the bigger Wolf-Breed, their snarls, and growls clashing into one accord.
She's weakened badly, and getting weaker with each second passing by. I then notice how the tassets around her hips are making it worse. Quickly, I have my hands seeking the pins conjoining the leather, but I can't. Now, I'll have to cut it off. I reach my hand over my shoulder to snatch the only weapon I possess in my back, only to be left confused and panicked as it is worn no more in its scabbard. I zigzag my head looking for where I must've dropped it. Instead, I find it in Jaden's grasp. From here I can see the anger surging within his grip and I know what madness he's about to commit.
I attempt to rush to him, but then, Daniel comes in lunging himself over Jaden, then shooting his gaze at me. "Go!" He shouts. "Take Alice! Go!"
Remember your training… Wounded allies come first…
"I'm gonna have to carry you, okay?" I say, voice trembling, then aggressively yanking the tassets around her waist, and I only regret it when I'm looking at the bleeding cut on my right palm. I ignore it instead and have her carried in my arms. I give one more look to the two and I scream when the beast's tails are about to come upon them. "Look out!"
A sigh of relief escapes my lips when they're able to get away soon, only for me to have it drawn back when the Hellion's attention is now in my direction. It snarls tauntingly and whips its tails at the two Wolf-Breeds where it hits them. I run up the not-so-steep sandhill from whence we came. When I'm already at the summit, my still-labored legs give up falling limp, and Alice is no longer in my arms but on the sands where she remains awake in her weak state. Yards from behind me is the beast that is about to lead me to my death but stops at the very foot of the hill when Daniel launches at it, stabbing its chitin skin through the neck with a small dagger multiple times. He keeps stabbing over and over until he's violently hit far back to the ground with the beast's tendril legs as it whines and becomes reckless with the wounds it now has.
I crawl back to Alice seeing more blood dripping from her thigh. My legs complain and that already tells me that I can no longer able to carry her. All I can do is rip off a piece of fabric from the tail of the upper garment of my Front Soldier suit with my teeth. The chunk of metal is still impaled through her limb, and removing it would be the wrong move. I gently but quickly slide the fabric beneath her thigh and she hisses before I even make contact with the sides of her open flesh. She has her hand clutched upon my bare arm and I merely ignore the pain of her nails digging into my skin. She is feeling worse than I currently am and the stinging cut on my palm. It should be able to help reduce the bleeding for now.
My first few steps are immediately interrupted when I hear her weak muffled call of "Jaden…" I tilt my head down at her, baffled, then to where her shutting eyes are directed where I almost lose myself with the sight. Jaden's body midair with the sword I once carried, impaled with the vicious Hellion's scorpion-like tails. One through his leg, one through his back, and the last… through his face…
His body is shaking not only from the torment but also from his struggle to fight it. The same devilish yellow light crawls once more on its spiral-patterned skin and I can see the scratches and bites it sustained start to stitch back together on its own. It gives a louder ear-shattering alien roar. Not just a roar, but a roar of satisfaction that makes the two Wolf-Breed comrades of mine whimper as both of them remain stuck under those big tendril legs.
The next thing I know is Jaden's corpse falling back to the sand with the sword leaving his grasp and sinking halfway through the sandy soil. His body is not the same — rotten black, swollen flesh and bones with the venomous blight that the beast injected him with.
At the moment, I forget how to move as if I have lost the ability to even do so. But suddenly, I'm back on my feet, heart pounding hard in my chest, blood surging through my veins, all at the same time that I seem to no longer feel my complaining muscles anymore, or even my wounded hand. There's so much rage that I never had before. I'm running fast while the horrid beast is on with the other fawn soldier, dragging along the bigger Wolf-Breed. Alek… I see its thick tendrils sink in his golden-furred skin where it draws a pained whine, combined with the other who was rather fighting off wildly. I need to kill it. I want to kill it. I have to kill it. I'm going to kill it.
I bolt with no thoughts of refraining for a second until the impaled weapon on the sand that before was in my comrade's hands is now returned to mine, then leap high into the air roaring, blade hovered like a knife to stab with my left hand, where the silver arvanite alloy that forged the blade is ignored by the hard skin once I feel my own impact crash upon the Hellion's body, not even scratching the shell-like skin when it should.
I stab once more, this time higher up on the beast where I am on its tailbone, and still, it doesn't sink through. I keep my head low avoiding its tails whiplashing here and there, and locking my legs to the dents on its skin as it rampages the sands like a wild bull until I'm no more mounted and uncontrollably rolling on the ground, thrown afar. I grunt to the discomfort of my muscles but still manage to recover back on my feet.
My eyes first meet the shiny weapon, yards from me. And far ahead is the hideous Hellion already rushing in my direction. My rage persists along with the thought of not letting myself get killed. I refuse to die. Not by a creature that doesn't even belong here. I return to my feet, unbothered by my muscles that are about to give up at any moment and stumble fast to reach the white sword. It is only me and the beast. The time it will take for me to retrieve the weapon versus the time I'll be mauled to pieces gives no doubt that I'll be the one prevailing.
I'm so close, yet so far from grasping the only thing that could save me as death is already upon me in the form of a mouth full of teeth. But that's when I already feel the handle in contact with my fingers wrapping around it. Moments later, I eventually realize I have the weapon hovering upward. In surprise, my eyes dart open, both hands feeling the unusual resistance while the creature's face registers nothing more than a brief moment of disbelief as I see the blade already impaled halfway under the ceiling of its open mouth. Then the delayed shrieking comes only in the form of sound and air. The scent of a Hellion capable of having is indeed worse than the sewages around the camp. It's beyond how I can even describe it.
I then feel my feet no longer in contact with the sand but are stomped upon the lower jaw of the Hellion that is slowly and heavily retreating its head back in preparation to shut its mouth — to devour me whole. It only gets heavier when I see the figure of the brown and white-furred Wolf-Breed pounce on the beast's neck. Alek… He has a deep stab wound on his side, yet he acts like he doesn't even have it. His teeth surprisingly sink into the skin where the shell must've softened due to the pain it's experiencing from my sword. The weight is working, but it's still not enough until another roar blows to my face upon seeing the fawn soldier's figure on the flank of the Hellion's skull, armed with a dagger that he is holding onto whilst impaled through the skin. With his size combining ours and the Wolf-Breed, our weight begins winning. I pull the blade to end it once and for all, yet it rather becomes a mistake when we're all thrown into the air once more.
I flutter my eyes open only to meet the open mouthful of teeth that are about to devour me for real this time. Seconds pass so quickly that the only thing I soon realize is I'm back on my feet. A small shift of movement changes the direction where my body is facing to avoid my death, and I slash vertically. It takes a while to register the shrieking sound of the creature as I'm now looking at my exposed arm, sickly purple light that has burned my entire sleeve radiating from within my nerves to the very tip of the white sword. It rivaled the warm afternoon sunlight and even that of the devilish yellow one from the Hellion's spiral-patterned skin. I gaze upon the sands where I see the thin shroud of smoke coming from the sizzling chitins of tendrils that used to be the Hellion's limbs.
I turn my head to find the beast with its open mouth still on display. It keeps its distance with more of its taunting growl as if it has become aware of what I have done. The purple light radiating to my weapon brightens along with my tightened grip. The beast snarls as loud as before and once more, I'm bolting, faster than ever, that I almost prevailed of the Hellion's current speed.
At one point the beast is in the air, tails pointed ready to kill with its remaining tendril limbs curled and throat exposed. All of it planning to drag me under.
Fine. But I'll make sure you won't resurface again. Ever!