The Isle of Terror: Part 4

Our enemies were flying in a chaotic pattern, so our shots didn’t amount to much. Iocasta was the only one who could land any hits. Several times, she shot the airborne critters in the center of mass, and it could be clearly seen that the bullets penetrated their flesh, but they weren’t impeded in the slightest. They were circling us, occasionally swooping as if to attack, but never committed.

Annabel finished an incantation and released a wind spell, scattering our foes around the room, some of them hitting the walls. This gave us some breathing room, so Iocasta aimed carefully and shot three times in quick succession. The first two bullets missed, but the last hit one of the creatures in the base of a wing, tearing the limb off. As the flying ball of flesh crashed into the ground, I thought I could see a sliver of black fog fly away from it, and it stopped moving. I recalled seeing a similar phenomenon after getting tossed out of a window and shouted, “They’re animated by demonic magic! Don’t aim for the body, try to disable their limbs!”

With this new plan, we stopped wasting bullets and drew our swords. This didn’t change things much. They were still swooping occasionally, provoking us into counters they could dodge without much effort. Time was on their side. We would get tired eventually; they wouldn’t.

Suddenly, I noticed the attacks on me became less frequent, and I looked around to try to see why. I was hoping someone managed to take another of the creatures down, but to my horror, I realized they focused their flight patterns on isolating one of the soldiers from the rest of our group, while still keeping us busy enough that we didn’t figure out what was going on. Shouting words of warning, I rushed towards him. It was too late, however, and three of the monsters swooped at him simultaneously from three sides, impaling him with their stingers. The only thing I could achieve was partially avenging him, bisecting one of the monsters as it attempted to fly away.

In the meantime, Annabel launched several quick wind projectiles at the last remaining creature, forcing it to fly down to avoid getting hit. Rhombus was ready for it, grabbing it by the tail to limit its movement and carving it up. There were two opponents left.

The remaining enemies couldn’t put as much pressure on us, and we could finally catch our breath. They didn’t even bother to attack anymore, content to keep us in check.

“This is our chance!” shouted Iocasta, sounding uncharacteristically agitated, “Let’s follow them!” Without bothering to check whether we were following, she darted after Gorchin and his group. It was obvious who she was so worried about, and she wasn’t thinking clearly, but her decision seemed sound to me. With the way the creatures were behaving, they must have been waiting for reinforcements, and getting out of the open before they arrived would be a good idea. Besides, splintering our party any further now that the cavern dwellers have decided to attack would be the worst course of action in any case.

I started moving towards the corridor she disappeared into, throwing an occasional glance at the monsters, who didn’t seem to have a particular reaction to our actions. The rest of the group did the same.

The first to reach the exit was, by chance, one of the sappers. Before he could enter the corridor, a massive creature dropped from the ceiling. This one looked like a giant lizard, with its head resembling a pelican’s bill. Like the smaller creatures, it seemed to have no eyes, and its skin was humanlike. Leaving us no time to react, it opened its beak, launching a prehensile tongue at the unfortunate sapper and dragging him into its mouth. We rushed at the monster, but instead of attacking us, it began to retreat into the tunnel, a bulge appearing in its throat.

The creature’s poor victim, mad with fear, resolved the situation in the only manner he could think of. Somehow, he lit the explosives he was carrying. An explosion thundered through the corridor, knocking us all to the ground and blowing the monster and the sapper to pieces. His actions had another unfortunate effect – the tunnel Gorchin’s group and, afterwards, Iocasta, went into, caved in, a pile of rocks blocking our way. Our party was now well and truly split.

“No choice but to retreat now, huh?” muttered one of the soldiers, a sliver of hope in his terrified voice.

“Suit yourself”, replied Rhombus, “If any of you wish to retreat now, I will not hold it against you. But I will not leave until I either find our comrades or confirm they are dead. For me, the only question remains: left or right?”

“Whichever we choose, we’ll have to fight our way through”, I commented. I was the first one to notice the footsteps coming from the two opposite tunnels, but everyone else gradually became aware of them. Not much later, the sources of the sound emerged from the darkness.

These were more humanoid than the other demon-controlled flesh puppets we encountered so far. They were significantly taller than I, with plates of metal crudely grafted onto their skin in several places. Each of them had four arms, and each of the arms held a sword. Most notably, they lacked anything resembling a head or neck. Like with other creatures we encountered, they lacked anything resembling sensory organs anywhere on their bodies.

We formed a circle in the center of the room, waiting for the onslaught. The men were on the verge of actual panic, and Rhombus tried to alleviate the atmosphere.

“Cousins of yours?” he asked me.

“Please”, I answered, “These insults are getting old. We both know that, deep down, you love me”.

“You can tell? And yet you reject me every time I ask you for a duel. Such a cold-hearted man you are”.

“I didn’t know I hurt you that much. Tell you what, if we make it back alive, you can have your damned fight”.

“A duel, not a simple fight, you brute! I’ll hold you to that when we get back”.

As if they were waiting for our conversation to end, the hulking monstrosities chose that moment to attack.