T/W: Blood, Gore, Foul Language
The ground trembled beneath Penn's feet as he stepped back from the temporarily downed boss monster. He swallowed against the thick tension in the air. The hissing and clicking from the dominus behind him weren't enough to distract his focus on the smallest den towards the outside of the crater.
The guide steadied his breath, attempting to relax his tense muscles that had already burned from fighting the non-human entity with its immense power for such a long period of time.
The den Penn focused on started to shake slightly as stray pebbles rolled down its side. At first, a light murmur barely reached his ears, but soon, a collective growling and screaming became evident.
"Stay sharp, they're coming!" Nathan called from on top of the beast, yanking his sword free as a wild smile stretched across his flushed face. "Stay on the dominus, and only react to any strays that pass me."
Penn nodded, gripping his hunting knife as he glanced back at the boss. He shuffled himself slightly out of view of where the first wave would emerge so as not to pull any aggro. If anything, he could use the giant unniebit as a meat shield if the smaller ones charged at him.
"Try not to interfere," Nathan roared with glee from his newly stationed post on top of the dominus' head. Penn looked up at him in concern. His heart pounded against his chest. He had fought with battle junkies before. They were dangerous to work with.
Nathan was not a wild card Penn liked having on his team. The rapid scurrying of feet grew so loud from the sheer numbers that it sounded like thunder was approaching. Penn closed his eyes momentarily to ready himself.
Then they emerged, a horde so compact they looked like a river of blades bobbing up and down, flooding out of the small den. They moved in unison, curving in their direction as their fur glinted and reflected the false sunlight. Dirty debris flew everywhere, creating a dusty cloud that made it hard to count their actual numbers.
Penn groaned nervously. It was different when he had his platoon numbers and a commander's strategy behind him, but instead, all he had was a crazed monster-slayer who told him to stand back and play a game of whack-a-mole with the legs of a grotesque monster-rabbit the size of a house. He grunted as he moved into a defensive stance, patting his crossbow at his hip to confirm it was ready to go when needed. He watched from over the twitching back paw as the mob grew closer.
The guide turned his focus back to the boss and worked on detaching the tendons to impede the dominus as much as possible. He had never been on a mechanical bull before, but if he had, he was sure this was what it would feel like as he sat on its ankles and used his whole thigh muscles to their maximum capacity to hang on for dear life.
Penn grunted as his knife dug in deep, slicing the thick skin of the monster slowly due to the metal-like fur. He peeked over the beast's round behind with every cut, watching as the mob grew closer, their beady eyes focused on Nathan. When they were finally within a few feet, Nathan pounced from atop the dominus's head into the center of the horde. A thud was heard; moments later, the unniebits were flung in all directions.
The guide paused in surprise, watching Nathan slash indiscriminately through the mob of unniebits as if they were butter. The monsters closest to him were soon dyed a dark red from the splattering of their comrades. Shortly after, Penn was able to see a few raised above the crowd—only because they were climbing on top of the stockpiled bodies Nathan was slaughtering.
Penn shuddered at the horrific sight of his S-ranked partner tearing through the creatures with ease, lost in the pleasure of mass slaughter. His glowing sword would randomly fire short bursts of energy at those that lunged out of his reach, exploding them in mid-air. He cursed as he climbed higher on the dominus, making his way to the incision that Nathan left behind, and dug his knife deeper into the lower spine.
The sudden roar shook the crater as the boss monster attempted to shake Penn off. He cursed under his breath, stabbing the knife deep into the flesh to have a foothold to hang onto. As the boss monster stood up, he heard clicking below his swinging feet. He glanced down and spotted a few of the unniebits that had escaped Nathan's notice and now waited for him to fall to them.
Penn needed to act fast since Nathan's attention was elsewhere. He let go of the hilt of his knife with one hand, picking up the crossbow at his hip and firing it into the eye sockets of the creatures that waited below—his subskills aiding in the final blows.
"Beautiful!" Nathan's voice rang out from over the horde, whose carcasses continued to rise. Nathan was happily jumping from one pile to another, his mirth clearly visible as he remained in his location, swinging his sword to take a head clean off the closest monster. Penn cursed in response, reattaching his crossbow to his hip, grabbing the hilt, and pushing with his legs off the dominus. He landed on the ground with a neat roll.
Watching from above and seeing the action up close from the ground was so drastically different that Penn was confused about where to move next. The unniebit boss thrashed behind him, bumping and sending him flying towards Nathan, the mob of creature bodies. He groaned as he pushed himself up, just in time to see a carcass fly towards him. He ducked as it exploded above him.
"Oh, this crazy bastard," Penn hissed, scurrying out of the way and breaking into a run as he dodged falling bodies. This was worse than he expected it to be. He ran, swerving left and right, trying to avoid the carcasses that were raining down due to Nathan's problematic killing spree that spared no concern for others present. "Nathan, damn it. At least aim where you toss them!"
Gleeful laughs were the only sounds Penn got in response, sending a chill through Penn's body. He had always been a passive person, even when it came to combat. Not once, until this moment, had he ever experienced the sensation of his blood running cold. He heard a screeching sound and looked up just in time as an unniebit flew at him—smashing into his chest, sending him crashing into the graveled ground.
With a grunt, Penn stabbed the creature in its neck and pushed it off him. He wiped his sweaty hand and blade on his pants and attempted to stay low to the ground as he returned to the boss. Nathan was relentless, his clothes covered in gore, but he paid no heed.
"Battle junkie," Penn spat out under his breath, eyes wide and filled with disapproval. Nathan's head spun to face him as if he had heard that whisper and flashed a charmingly evil smile. "What the hell..."
Daniel's dislike for Nathan came to mind at that moment; the comment about how he treated people made sense. Penn's hands started to tremble as the adrenaline kicked into full gear. His body was sore from the impact moments ago, but he didn't have time to ponder as the first monster wave was still underway.
The unniebit dominus roared as it slammed its hind paw down next to Penn, knocking him back off his feet. He muttered some swear words as he rolled again, pushing himself back up and running towards the boss monster with his hunter knife drawn.
The beast was enraged, focusing on Penn, but its movements were slow due to the damage already inflicted. Penn leaped onto a smaller pile of dead unniebits and jumped onto the boss, using his knife to anchor himself and climb up to its shoulder.
"That's my Guide!" Nathan hollered from his one-man battlefield, his voice more easily heard as the sheer number of monsters had drastically decreased.
Penn's jaw clenched tightly in frustration, attempting to mentally block out Nathan and focus on the dominus like originally planned. He heard thumping below them and glanced down nervously, only to see Nathan was tossing a few cleanly killed unniebits below him. Confused, Penn paused his climb and looked over at him.
"Your safety net!" Nathan smiled up at him from a few dozen yards away.
"Focus on your own thing, please," Penn begged him with a strained voice and clenched teeth. Nathan's laugh echoed. Crazy bastard. That apprehensive feeling crept back up inside him.
"No need to worry. I've been doing this since I was young. You're in good hands!" Nathan called out, spinning around to kick a lunging monster into the closest boulder.
"Young age?" Penn paused as he had finally pulled himself up onto the dominus' shoulders. Nathan leaped from pile to pile, then used his Force to step in the air until he landed on the shoulder opposite Penn.
"That's what happens when you awaken as a child. It's called coping. The only way to not get scared and hide away is to tell yourself it's all a game that you need to get the high score in."
Penn froze, snapping his head to look at Nathan, almost dropping his knife as he stared in horror. Awakened as a child?