It's dead

"There’s someone else, further ahead." I said, gesturing at Amparo to follow, "If there’s someone else here, we should see if we can help."

She wordlessly nodded and followed after me. I made sure to set our pace to a quick jog, to give us time to react to anything which we might run into, and to ensure that we’re not completely winded by the time we arrived. As ruthless as it sounded, we needed to put ourselves ahead of anyone we found. It would be pointless if we all died trying to save someone else.

Following the noise was a challenge, as occasionally the sounds of fighting were interrupted by another tremendous boom that disoriented me. It appeared that my sensitive ears were working against me, instead of for me in these situations, but Amparo kept us on track when that happened. Our desperate chase passed through three intersections, and led us to run into several gremlins, all of which were fleeing from the horrific noise and not bothering to engage us unless we actively tried to stop them. Their fear made me wonder if it was worth looking for trouble like this.

Sprinting into a dimly lit room, we found a scene of carnage. On the ground there lay several bodies, a couple human, the rest gremlins and other monsters I’d not seen before. To one side was the source of light, a floating orb of light which stubbornly followed a boy caught in desperate battle with the most horrendous thing I’d seen yet. I recognized it as the creature that Amparo described.

It looked like someone had taken a corpse and stretched out its body. However, no proportion was retained, and it ended up with legs twice the length of its torso, and arms so long that they nearly touched the ground. It must have stood at least seven or eight feet tall, its arms and feet covered in long talons. Like the gremlins, it too had thin, almost transparent skin from under which red muscle and blue veins could be seen. All across its body, but concentrated on its chest, were bleeding cuts and welts, as well as blackened spots that appeared burnt.

The creature looked like something too spindly and gaunt to move under its own strength, but it leapt and pounced with speed and grace, its agility disgustingly similar to the fluidity of a writhing worm. Its head looked too small for its entire body, its face decidedly inhuman, with its most prominent features a great snarling maw from which teeth far too large for its mouth emerged, and a pair of great bulbous black eyes. It had several holes on the side of its head where its ears ought to be, and it had neither nose nor eyebrows. It was, altogether, a hideous thing that hurt to merely behold.

Opposing it was a mere boy, probably the same age as Amparo, who desperately worked to dodge and weave away from its attacks. He had dark hair and silver eyes, tanned skin and wore the brown habit of a monk, with large beads hanging from his neck. In one hand he bore a simple wooden buckler, and in the other he held a star shaped bronze sigil, appearing to be utterly defenseless at first glance. I was quickly proven wrong when he yelled out some incomprehensible nonsense, and from the sigil a lance of lightning extended. Swiftly jabbing at the monster with the lightning bolt like a spear, the attack narrowly missed striking its torso and instead hit its forearm. A thundercrack echoed through the room, reverberating like a gunshot in a closed space, leaving me nearly deaf and reeling.

Sadly, the boy’s attack failed to fend off the monster, and it pounced upon him, spearing him through the side and pinning him to the wall. It raised its other arm to strike him down, only for a rock to hit it in the temple. It floundered back, reeling, as it lost all balance and control. The boy fell to the ground, silently bleeding and crying in anguish. I turned to look at Amparo, and found her soundlessly yelling at me while she loaded her sling with another rock. All I heard instead was ringing.

Ah, I was deafened. A liability, but not a problem.

I rushed into the melee, maneuvering to the monster’s flank while it was still panicked and confused. At the very last moment it saw me approach, and feebly raised an arm to swat me away while I closed in. Its reach was substantial, and in other circumstances it would’ve had no problem keeping me at bay. Right now, it was down on one knee, disoriented, and unable to maintain distance.

It was such an emaciated creature that I could easily see its individual ribs. Assuming that it had a heart and lungs like a human, that made it easy to cut into its chest, the blade slicing right between its ribs, from back to front. My cut was clean and precise, avoiding ribs, spine and sternum, going only through muscle, vein and lung. Granted, my blade was not long enough to go that far in, but a two foot cut through anything’s chest cavity was bound to be lethal.

The pain made it react violently and immediately, lashing out in a reckless, desperate attack to get me away. Space that I wasn’t willing to grant. As the taloned hand came flying at me, I narrowly avoided it with a sidestep, and using the monster’s own momentum, I left my blade in just the right place so as to cut through its wrist. It ended up being a shallow cut, as it recoiled in pain immediately after. Blood was now gushing out from the wound I’d given it, flowing freely from its mouth. Horrifying as it was, it was certainly killable.

Realizing that it had no chance, the monster again attacked in a berserk fury, screeching wildly and spraying me with bloody spittle. Another rock came and hit in a bulging eye, causing it to reflexively clutch its eye in pain, its soundless battle cry reduced to a cry of anguish. As much as I wanted to kill it then and there, I knew that I lacked the capacity. My blade was too short to stab deep into its chest and strike its heart, and as it clutched at its ruined eye, its arms were too much in the way for me to reach out for its throat. Still, it was taller than me, and that provided me with plenty of opportunities.

Distracted by its pain, it had left its lower half wide open. Even though it was easily two, almost three times my height, it was partially hunched over, legs a little bent, most likely habits from a lifetime of crawling through ruins and tunnels. I lunged forward and slashed at its groin. Though it lacked any visible genitalia, or even an asshole, I presumed that there were still major arteries and veins in that area. Sadly, it wasn’t as distracted as I’d thought, as it narrowly dodged, my blade lightly cutting across its inner thigh instead, and I was sent sprawling back by a kick, its taloned feet leaving three shallow cuts across my left shoulder.

It snarled and tried to once again swipe at me with its still good claw, only for Amparo to loose another rock. The sharp piece of stone struck it on the side of the head, where its ‘ear’ was. That must’ve been a truly vulnerable spot, as it collapsed immediately, without resistance. It didn’t sprawl back, or reel, or write, or do anything. It just fell down, like a puppet with all its strings cut, as if the brain and body’s connection were completely severed. I didn’t know what that was about, and I didn’t care. I saw a chance, and I took it.

Sprinting over its fallen body, I went for its throat and cut away. Its neck was thicker than my broken sword, and so my cuts turned into bloody hacks as I tried to crudely sever any and every vein and artery I could find. I thought I heard someone calling out to me, but I had to put that aside. I needed to keep cutting, in case it ever got up. I needed to make sure it never got up again, whatever this was.

It was only after I felt someone grab my shoulder, and I turned around to see Amparo say, "That’s enough Loiel, it’s dead!" that I realized I could hear again.

*ding! Level up!*

*ding! Level up!*