by Atlas Kane
The woman had made Last World’s first hollow points.
Arrows fell like pins, and Dan sent a crackle of lightning out that danced across their enemy’s face.
The roar that emanated from the turtle shook Cade’s very bones. It sounded like someone had plucked a nose hair from a mountain god, and even stout Bellows nearly balked away from his charge.
Ketzal calmed him with a few words, and the boar continued forward.
Another crack split the air, and again, blood was spilled.
The turtle swatted away the remaining corpse and roared once more. A green energy suffused its neck, and Cade watched in horror as it began to heal itself from the grievous wounds. “Why do so many of these fuckers have healing skills? This isn’t fair!”
After a few seconds, and another received cannon shot, the monster began to move forward. It clawed further from the water, and closed the distance that remained between its destructive mouth and the fighters that stood atop the plateau. The high ground would offer some protection, but Cade knew that the amalgam elder could and would climb over the lip of the rock.
They couldn’t let it do so.
“We don’t have time for both. Call off the other,” Cade said.
The noise of the beast’s thundering hooves was too loud to bridge the distance between the two. Not for the first time, Cade missed the convenience of being able to speak mind to mind with Ketzal. Her power had continued to dwindle, however. Where once she could shout in the other boar handler’s mind, she was now impotent.
Yet, they’d prepared for this eventuality.
Ketzal turned back and gestured for the following boar to veer aside. The handful of gestures the handlers had learned once again proved invaluable.
Then Cade waited for the perfect moment. Bellows charged ahead, aiming for the diminishing gap between the elder amalgam and the plateau.
At first, he’d thought to thread the needles, to have the boars plunge through the gap, but the beast was moving too quickly. Ketzal noted it too, and looked to him with concern etched deeply on her features. “Just get close, then wheel around. As close as possible, okay? But watch that thing’s head!”
Nodding, Ketzal urged Bellows on while Cade prepared the attack.
They might not get another attack such as this one. The cannon shots were enough to disrupt the beast, and given a great deal of time and more rounds than they had at their disposal, maybe even kill it. But time was short, and already, the monster was only a dozen paces from the base of the plateau. It craned up its head and roared again.
Satemi answered it by dropping a round down its throat. This attack alone seemed to cause the monster a great deal of damage, and it stopped in its tracks.
Then two things happened at once. More of the green energy poured out of the turtle, healing its newest wound. The process was slow but inevitable. And another skill seemed to be activated as dozens of its quills began to vibrate, glowing with an inky blackness that looked unnatural.
It lifted its body a few feet from the ground, its massive paws straining to do so, and then it let itself crash back to the ground.
A ripple of power shot outwards in all directions, and behind it, dozens of quills followed. A few clanged off of Bellows’ plate armor, but one pierced his neck.
The boar squealed and bucked.
Ketzal shouted, “Fiery Regrowth,” and their mount calmed as healing fire raced across his body and concentrated on his wound.
More of the quills peppered the ranks that held the plateau. Cade saw a few careen off of shields or stab through thighs. One sunk into the chest of a man who’d been preparing to throw a spear, however, and he tumbled down the incline toward the beast.
With no other window to do so, Cade squeezed Ketzal’s arm. It was time.
Bellows turned hard, their speed and momentum taking them within twenty feet of the turtle’s shell. Exposing their flank for a few seconds, Cade only hoped the beast wouldn’t launch any more quills. If so, they’d be broadsided.
Summoning two of the Boompacks, Cade threw them, one at a time, as hard as he could. The first fell before the turtle’s right front leg. The second he aimed at its rear leg that had just climbed free of the water.
Both landed hard, but thankfully, didn’t explode. Turning away at last, Bellows sprinted to safety, and Cade bounced along behind him. He turned and held up his blast staff.
Vrin remained in his seat, guarding Bellows’ rear, but flattened himself down to accommodate Cade’s shot.
Then, selecting Explosive Shot, Cade fired at the Boompack near the turtle’s rear leg.
Two explosions issued forth. The first was small, the second enormous.
A wall of flesh and bone burst out toward them, and Cade cowered. When he looked up, he saw what had saved them from a morbid shower, if not death. Vrin was spinning his spear, the weapon moving so fast it had formed a vibrant shield of energy. The carnage splashed against it, but failed to pierce the barrier.
After another ten seconds or so, Cade asked Ketzal to turn back so they could see the damage.
Now just a couple hundred feet away, the cavernous wound was obvious. The amalgam’s rear leg had been stripped to the bone, and a portion of its shell was fractured. It was a terrible blow to the beast’s condition, yet it wasn’t fatal.
As he’d hoped, Satemi had ordered the other Boompack targeted.
Even as he watched, another blast rocked the beast, fire and blood ripping outwards from its front right shoulder. The fighters over the ridge, commanded to take cover it seemed, looked largely unharmed if not bathed in gore.
Cade pulled closer to Ketzal’s ear so she could hear him clearly. “Time to take a gamble. Let’s see what a Relentless Gore and Cinder Breath can do at once. Take us back and ram the beast’s rear wound. I’m gonna jump off when we get closer and rejoin those on the ridge.”
Ketzal gave hand signals to the three remaining boar handlers. She told them precisely to hold the line, then turned and shouted for Bellows to charge once more.
The wind picked up and buffeted Cade’s ears, their momentum increasing until they were moving at the boar’s full speed. It felt like they were flying toward the turtle, but their true speed must have been something like thirty miles an hour. Observing the turtle before them, Cade saw its healing ability was fully taxed. The wounds were too intense to be fixed so easily. And yet, it looked far from being finished with the fight.
It clawed forward, lifting its head up toward the ridge. Opening its mouth, the monster activated another skill. A thick beam of power shot out from its jagged maw. Thankfully, the troops had scattered to either side at the first sign of the sickly green energy. Still, it splattered across a few who were too slow to get clear, Ronden among them.
The substance acted like a sticky acid, and the Casmeeri fighters screamed in pain.
Cade observed this distantly as they drew toward their target. A hundred feet out, he shouted to Ketzal. “You need to jump too. Or you’ll be skewered on the quills!”
She nodded to him, and they shouted to Vrin to follow their lead.
Then all three leapt from Bellows’ back, rolling away in the soft soil of the lakeside.
Ketzal cried out, and Cade saw she was gripping her arm to her chest. His own head spinning from the violent dismount, he looked up just in time to see the boar, its massive tusks extended with his rampaging skill, crush into the turtle’s wounded side.
Just in front of the still-bleeding rear leg, the boar’s tusks, all eight ether-infused feet of them, rammed into the snapping turtlepine. Bellows hit so hard that his face pressed in even further, buckling a section of the elder amalgam’s ribs. Immediately after, as obedient as ever, the great boar opened its maw and released the full blast of Cinder Breath. Fire erupted from the boar’s mouth and pressed into the already-gaping wound.
The turtle boss felt it.
Roaring louder than before, the huge monster shook all over, the quills on its back rattling
like a thousand spears.
Bellows pulled back, tugging his twisted tusks free. Buckets of blood poured out and painted his face crimson. Ketzal whistled loudly, and he turned at once to speed back to them.
Faster than Cade could account for, the turtle twisted on its ruined legs and swatted its tail toward Bellows. The boar was fast, but the tail, covered in sharp quills, clipped him on his rear leg. The boar tumbled to the ground, shrieking in pain. A half dozen of the quills shook from his twitching muscles.
The injury was serious. Not only was his hind leg stuck through, but a few of the quills had punctured his abdomen as well.
Ketzal shouted in dismay and began to sprint out towards the fallen boar. Cade tried to hold her back, but she was too determined. Instead, he sprinted ahead of her and used his Locust Leap to bound up to the top of the plateau. He used Wyrm’s Wrath to increase his speed, and raced along the ridge line, hoping to outpace Ketzal.
Cade waved his hand, flagging down Satemi. “Fire again! Kill the fucking thing!” he screamed impotently.
The warrior woman was of course doing just that, and even as he watched another cannon round slammed into the beast’s ragged chest. Rather than die, however, the turtle went berserk.
Roaring incessantly, the monster charged the plateau, bashing the bedrock with its head. The jutting stone the Casmeeri fighters stood upon shuddered, and Cade saw a crack forming a few feet to his right. If it does that a few more times, the entire shelf is going to crash down.
Sensing the same danger, Satemi ordered the troops to retreat.
Again, the turtle bashed the rock, and a few more fell, one even tumbling over the edge.
Glancing down below, Cade was relieved to see that in its frenzy, the turtle had left Bellows and Ketzal alone. All Cade had to do was find a way to kill the damn thing, and they might be able to salvage this shitshow.
He had two more Boompacks. He considered tossing one down immediately, hoping the heavy impact might detonate it alone. But the villager who’d fallen, though limping heavily, was still alive. He would have to wait.
Cade finally made it to the retreating forces. “Satemi! Let’s pull back a ways and form a second line. This thing looks intent on climbing up here, or at least knocking this shelf down. How many rounds do we have left for the cannon?”
The woman grimaced and shook her head. “That was the last one! Sorry, Cade. Boompacks?”
He nodded back, and watched as the Camp Casmeer villagers ran. Glancing back to the turtle, he saw that it was indeed lifting itself up above the incline. The slope would surely slow it down, but considering the state of its mood, it wouldn’t be a permanent obstacle.
It snapped its mouth, and Cade considered a morbid option to end the fight, one that would undoubtedly work. Will they be able to forgive me if I jump in head first? With a couple Boompacks on my back, I’m sure it would finish the thing off.
Not exactly relishing the idea, he contemplated throwing the pack in. It would be a hell of a toss, and if he missed, the explosion might kill him anyway.
“Incoming!” Satemi bellowed behind him, and he looked to see another pack of monsters charging in from the mist-filled north. The timing couldn’t be worse.
Making a snap decision, Cade aimed his rifle and waited for an opportune moment. He would help fend off this new pack of amalgams, and then do what he had to with the Boompack. Aiming at the first, he saw the distinct form of an ape clambering over the grass. Others followed.
Something seemed different this time. And then he realized it was because this new threat didn’t move as one organism. The apes ran as individuals, a unit with one purpose, but each with their own timing, gait, and pace. They were also heading toward the turtle and not the Casmeeri. As the biggest of them emerged from the mist, Cade saw it was their old friends the Kotani.
A cheer rose from the villagers, and Cade turned his rifle back toward the turtle. Despite knowing it would amount to little, Cade fired an Explosive Shot that burst inside the turtle’s mouth. He checked his rifle after and saw several of the automatic bullets had recharged. It would be a lot longer until his entire Burst Clip was ready again though. So he summoned a Boompack and went to assault the turtle with the aid of the Kotani tribe.
As he neared the beast, it at last succeeded in pulling itself up onto the shelf of the plateau. The rock shelf cracked away, and the turtle hoisted its shell forward a dozen feet. A few more thrusts like that, and the thing would be up on high ground with them.
Again, he considered throwing the Boompack, but the Kotani were closing in. The apes each held long spears. Entire tree trunks, Cade saw, tucked under their arms and sharpened at the tip.
Like some jungle-themed medieval army, the apes crashed into the turtle’s side, their spears striking any available exposed skin. From its neck to the folds around its legs, the turtle was filled with the long spears. A few sunk in deep too. One such was a small palm tree that was bore by two alphas. It sunk in a dozen feet at least.
The turtle roared.
Quivering quills announced another barrage. It charged its skill, and Cade fell on his chest, preparing to hide beneath his arms when the cloud came.
But before he did so, the Kotani Ma leapt up on the turtle’s neck. Instead of a tree, it bore a large fragment of black stone. It shone in the sunlight, looking like an arrowhead forged for a giant’s bow. In a fit of rage, the Kotani Ma used a skill of its own. Shuddering with gouts of ethereal power, the great ape hoisted the stone and plunged it into the back of the turtle’s head.
The quills stopped moving, and the turtle spasmed, its body going stiff. At the same time, its head shot up by reflex and crushed the Kotani Ma against the sharp edge of its shell. The ape’s chest struck the stone in the action, and it sunk even deeper into the elder amalgam’s brain.
After a few tense moments, the turtle went limp.
Its head slammed to the ground, a gale of air escaping its huge lungs.
The Kotani Ma tumbled to the ground after, looking small and fragile compared to the elder turtle.
He was bleeding heavily, and though his chest continued to rise and fall, Cade saw the wound would be fatal.
A chorus of cheering voices split the air as their foe grew still. The Casmeeri villagers ran toward the thing, passing Cade on the way. He could understand their jubilation, the rush of victory thrumming in his own veins too. But the cost had been dear.
“Quiet!” he screamed. When confused silence fell he gestured ahead of them. “Can’t you see, a great general has fallen. He gave his life for ours. He deserves respect!”
Satemi looked relieved. Her own face was scrunched up in a deep scowl. She’d been about to do the same.
Rather than explain himself further, Cade jogged forward. He doubted the healers could heal the ape, and already, his breathing grew ragged. Before he could get to the Kotani Ma’s side, another ape bounded up. It was huge, larger than all the others besides their fallen warrior. When he came to stand at its leader’s side, Cade recognized the beast.
It was Chandi, the Kotani Ma’s own son.
Cade watched as the two shared a few moments of silence together, communicating with their eyes alone. Then the Kotani Ma stopped breathing.
Tilting his head up to the sky, Chandi cried out his rage and heartache.
It was as terrible to hear as it was inevitable.
It sounded like the cry of a son losing his father, like the end of an era.
19
Big Shoes, New Roommates
Recovery was a bitch.
The healers were in over their heads. Every root, herb, and poultice was called upon to help where they were too limited. Not only were the fighters injured who’d stood off wave after wave of amalgams, but there was the poor bastard who’d nearly tumbled onto the turtle itself.
Surprisingly, the man lived. A quiet foxkin who had a thin saber for a soul weapon, Cade only knew he was one of the villagers who often helped Minda with herbs.
> He’d broken an arm and several ribs in the fall. Thinking quickly, he’d eaten a heap of healing herbs, some potent enough to hold him together as he crawled away from imminent death. Despite surviving, the man was still in rough shape and had been entirely too close to a nightmare to not be affected mentally.
Furthermore, the two boars and their riders who’d held off the final wave of lizard amalgams were worse for wear. The beasts had been different than those the Casmeeri had faced earlier in the day. When they neared, instead of rushing in blindly, they swarmed around the boars until they found a weak spot. In this way, they’d nearly overwhelmed the Casmeeri.
A few of the Kotani Apes were wounded as well, most having been so by the time they arrived. Speaking with Chandi for a long while, Ketzal discovered that the tribe had been on the hunt for some time. Continued attacks at their village had made them desperate enough to seek out the heart of the trouble, just like Cade and the villagers had. Having heard the blasts from the Boompacks and cannon, the apes had come as fast as they could.
Amazingly, the villagers who were hit with the acid and quill attacks had all survived. By the quick reactions of their comrades, all were stabilized. Ronden and the others injured would all sport some terrific scars, but they would live to fight another day.
Then there was poor Bellows.
By the time the battlefield was won, the boar was getting close to a critical stage. Ketzal was lying on the flat side of his snout, whispering to him softly. Her only hope, she’d told Cade, had been to keep the beast calm. If he’d have tried to stand up and walk, the quills would have shredded his insides.
Fenian had used a powerful skill that put the boar to sleep. They had to cut the quills out, a trying task even for the healers. Bellows was still wearing his armor, and one of the quills had literally pierced a plate. The others had found gaps between the armor. Both situations made the removal of the heavy armor impossible. Instead, they had to cut through the base of the quills first, then strip the boar down, and at last, begin the excision.