Belly of the Beast, Part 1

As Cain walked out of the MOLE’s maw with Gunnar and Valerie, he was reminded of the ravaged and decaying state of the world. Dilapidated ruins and pools of grotesque slime dotted the landscape for miles in every direction. Glowing, verdant meteorites rained down across the green-tinted horizon, delivering new Bottomless to Ranael to consume everything in their sight. All under the everpresent gaze of the corrupted mass that was Epoleme, glaring down at its next meal.

Cain checked and double checked all of his equipment as they approached the walls of Elapp. His armor was on correctly, his belt was stocked with extra rune supplies, and he’d remembered to button his pants. His gauntlets were loaded with three runes each: two casts of the red mana spell he’d used to defeat Gunnar, called Heat Burst, two casts of another red mana spell that sent things flying with a forceful push, called Pushing Pulse, and two casts of a green and white mana healing spell, called Rejuvenate. Even with all of his gear checked and re-check, Cain couldn’t help but fidget with anxiety as he followed the other two.

As the team entered Elapp from the front gate, the first thoughts that crossed Cain’s mind upon seeing the state of the city ruins were that there couldn’t have been many survivors of whatever happened here. Aside from the walls of the city, not much was left standing apart from the occasional crumbling building. Remnants of plant matter slithered across the cobbled streets, having had the life choked out of them by some unknown force as they tried to reclaim the city for nature. Amidst the rubble and dust, serving as the centerpiece for it all, was a single pond of slime in what remained of the city square, sat presumably where a grand fountain once stood.

The three searched the rubble filled streets for hours. Despite leaving no stone unturned, the most they could ever find were claw marks and misshapen footprints. Besides those, there was nothing that alluded to the fact that a Starved lived here besides the glowing sludge in the middle of the city. As the morning turned to afternoon, Valerie made the decision to call off the search for the day and return the next morning. As they passed the pool of slime on their way out, they scarcely had time to react when it suddenly erupted.

“Look out!” Gunnar yelled as sludge blanketed the city square.

Cain instinctively phased through the wave of anomalous ooze, while Valerie and Gunnar both jumped back, away from the center of the square. The air sizzled as droplets of slime rained down from the blast, obscuring their view of the glowing pool. A few tense moments passed as each of them stood still, watching towards the sludge pit for even the slightest movement as they waited for the green mist that covered the square to fade. As the rain finally subsided, the three tensed up as they saw a bipedal beast standing in the center of the slime.

Cain’s closest description of the creature was something like the concept of a werewolf from back on Earth, though even that description failed to accurately convey the terror of what he was looking at. A hunched creature stood before him, molded from the same sickly ooze that filled the pits across the land, not unlike the Bottomless he had seen. Haphazard bony plating covered its body like ivory armor and claws like razors extended from each of its malformed digits. A wolfish skull-like protrusion made up the majority of its head, with shining black orbs glistening in its eye sockets. A red light pulsed deep within its torso like a beating heart. The beast seemed to revel in its own majesty as it slowly walked out of the sludge pool, taking each step with an almost dramatic flair.

As its gnarled feet touched solid ground, it stopped and looked at each member of the mission team. It observed them with a terrifying amount of intelligence, like it was sizing them up. As its gleaming gaze met Cain’s, its face contorted into something akin to a grin, and its jaw fell open with a wet crack. To the team’s horror, deep, raspy words began to slither out of the creature’s open maw, its jaw hanging slack as it spoke.

“The stage is set and the actors are all present. The hungering masses shall have their dinner and a show. With every waking star, the world edges closer to ruin. Oh, how the children will beg for their encore. Vega, Deneb, Castor, Saiph, Naos, Tiaki, Uridim. When each lies slain, the king shall have his answer. At last, the Catalyst returns to the stage.”

Its jaw snapped shut, and before Cain could react, it lunged at him. The beast sailed past him, slamming against a wall with a dull crunch before turning around in the blink of an eye and dashing towards Gunnar. The Starved contorted and twisted in impossible ways as it attacked, blackened bones and sinew poking through its slimy exterior, only to repair themselves and retreat back into its body before the next strike. Gunnar struggled to find an opening until Valerie stabbed the beast through the side with her flagpole-spear.

The Starved let out a hissing shriek, giving Gunnar enough time to throw it against the ground with another crunch. As he went to stomp on its head, it quickly recovered, rolling backwards like a gymnast to avoid the blow. Its eyes met Cain’s once more and it jumped at him, causing him to panic and use one of his casts of Heat Burst to blow it away. But it wasn’t enough. The creature caught itself on a piece of rubble and lunged at Cain once more, its talons snapping off as it left a gash across his chest that pierced through his armor. Burning pain surged across Cain’s chest, accompanied by the same fatiguing warmth he felt from the first Bottomless he fought. Just as the Starved reared back to deliver another strike, Valerie’s spear pinned it to a wall from somewhere outside of Cain’s vision.

“Heal yourself! We’ll keep it distracted!” she shouted as she ran past Cain to continue her assault on the beast.

Cain ignored the sounds of battle from Valerie and Gunnar fighting the Starved just a few yards away as he swiftly activated a cast of Rejuvenation. Despite the pain and the blood spurting from the open wound, he took a deep breath to try and calm himself when he saw a few flickers of static across his skin. He had to stay calm, or else his flickering could disrupt the flow of mana and interrupt the spell. Before long, the spell began stitching flesh back together as Cain held his gauntlet over the gash. It stung, but it was a whole lot better than having a gaping wound across his chest.

As the Rejuvenation spell finished healing Cain, he looked over at the fight to see Gunnar slamming the beast into the ground once more, causing the earth to shake slightly. Before it could recover, Gunnar brought his boot down on its head with a thundering crack. He stepped back as the beast fell limp, breathing hard. Cain almost believed they had won, until the Starved’s hand twitched and grabbed Gunnar’s ankle, black tendrils throbbing in its arm as it appeared to siphon energy from him. Gunnar shook off the beast and jumped back, but it was clear that the surprise attack had taken a toll on him. He dropped to one knee, breathing heavily, while the Starved stood back up, its head regenerating with a sickening squelch.

Cain leapt into action, activating both of his casts of Pushing Pulse as he dashed towards them. Before the beast had time to register what was happening, Cain slammed both of his gauntlets into its chest, an action that felt like punching an oversized gummy bear. The combined force of his punches and the spells he had prepared sent it flying backwards about a hundred yards, where it crashed into a pile of rubble.

Having bought them some time, Cain and Gunnar regrouped with Valerie, who had been knocked across the square while keeping the Starved distracted for Cain.

“We can’t keep this up, Valerie.” Gunnar said, still huffing, “Sooner or later, this thing’s gonna wear us down. We can’t win a war of attrition here, we’ve gotta rethink our approach.”

Valerie stood silent for a few moments, pondering their options. She closed her eyes in thought as Gunnar and Cain stood guard. As much as he hated to admit at this moment, Cain did think it was pretty cool to be a sentinel protecting the strategist as she came up with a plan. Meanwhile, the Starved broke its way through the rubble it was trapped under and regenerated an arm it had torn off to escape.

“Any time now!” Cain urged.

Finally, Valerie let out a sigh. “Fine. I’m calling off the capture objective for this mission. This beast is too dangerous for us to have the luxury of trying to take its core, especially when it can regenerate anything we throw at it. We need to focus on killing this thing. The plan is this: you two go in and keep it pinned down, while I stand back and prepare a cast of my Shadebolt Strike spell. I’m going to annihilate that thing’s core, that should kill it.”

Cain wasn’t sure what that spell did, but judging by the look Gunnar gave Valerie, it must have been something truly fearsome.

“Be sure you aim that right.” he warned, “I’d prefer Cain and I didn’t get annihilated alongside that creature.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve been practicing lately.” Valerie said, flashing Gunnar a small smile, “Now move out!”

Cain and Gunnar broke away, splitting off towards both sides of the Starved. Valerie stayed back and began sketching a complex spell composed of yellow and black mana that crackled on her fingertips. Cain ducked and darted through the ruins as he approached the Starved, while Gunnar simply charged through any rubble in his way. Before long, they each were on opposite sides of the beast. Before it had a chance to move out of the way, the two dashed in, each aiming a strike on their side of its head, trying to destroy it again and buy Valerie time to fire off her spell. Cain activated his remaining cast of Heat Burst and lunged at the starved. Gunnar charged towards it and did the same. Cain’s fist connected with the Starved’s head as he felt the crunch of its skull and the squish of the underlying slime. As his side of the Starved’s head exploded with a gout of fire, Cain realized the one thing he hadn’t felt was the pressure from Gunnar’s fist hitting the other side of its head.

Cain glanced over at Gunnar as he was knocked back from the blast. Gunnar’s strike had missed. Gunnar’s right hand clutched his left side and he doubled over in pain just enough that his fist missed its mark. It was the same place Cain had hit him the other day during training.

The Starved didn’t waste the opportunity given by the folly of its opponents. It let out a triumphant roar as it contorted its body, grabbing both Cain and Gunnar in an iron grip. All Cain could do was cry out as the creature threw him and Gunnar at a nearby wall with all of its strength. Cain hit the wall with a dull thud, pain blossoming through his torso as he felt the crunch of several ribs cracking. He fell to the ground on his stomach, and debris rained down on him, pinning him to the ground. As his consciousness faded, the last thing Cain saw before passing out was Gunnar, blood spreading across his side as a jagged piece of metal jutted through it.