Penitent
Chapter 91: The Monster and The Goddess

Marcus was the first to react, he raised his rifle and fired at the creature. The bullet hit one of its arms, breaking off a piece of glassy chitin, and it shrieked like a roach expelling all of the air from its body.

Ollie followed up Marcus’s shot with a blast of lightning from each of his hands. One went wide, but the other struck the creature in its center causing it to shriek again as it surged toward them, its bladed arms unfolding as it closed the distance, the viscera of its last kill sloughing off it as it skittered forward.

The rest of them moved to meet the beast’s surge. Lance reached it first, meeting the beast head on. It sent both of its bladed arms toward him, and he managed to block one with his shield and the other his sword, but only barely. That attack was quickly followed up by it’s claws that raked across his armor and tried to tear at his gorget

Jakub attacked the beast from its side, but it's skittering back half lifted and swung toward him with its dagger-like legs all aimed in his direction. He rolled under the attack quickly and struck out with his sword, but it bounced off the creature's exoskeleton.

Crick stabbed at a more lightly armored area on the beast’s stomach, but it batted the spear away at the last moment with one of its hands.

With it distracted, Lance managed to push the blades off himself and cut at its gut with his silver hilted sword. He managed to cut a shallow wound in its stomach and a thin line of yellow ichor appeared.

The beast threw him back, and spun rapidly, forcing the three of them to dodge backwards to avoid it's tail.

Michael felt a sense of wrongness in his gut that had staggered him for a moment when he first saw the creature, but he, Davi and Peter stepped in as the others were thrown back. Pyotr elegantly spun around the beast’s attack and cut at its face, but it adjusted its head and his blade bounced harmlessly off of its hide.

Davi and Michael dodged decidedly less elegantly than Pyotr and attacked at the same time, both of them aiming at its chest where Lance had managed his small wound.

Two of its arms reached out to grab each of their swords directly, while the blade arms quickly slashed out, slicing through their chest plates and leaving deep wounds across their stomachs. With those fatal blows dealt, it threw them away as a fireball smashed into its side and another bullet blew a small piece of its exoskeleton from it.

It moved to charge at Ollie and Marcus, but Lance, Jakub, and Crick blocked its path. This time, it took the initiative and attacked with all four of its arms and its many legs at the same time. Lance and Jakub both took deep wounds to their arms and legs, but Crick managed to narrowly dodge under the attack, and even sink his speartip into the wound Lance had made before he took a rough blow to his chest and was thrown aside.

Michael raised a golden hand and healed himself and Davi, pushing himself up and running to close the gap between them and the others to heal them as well.

The monster reared up and tilted its head at a ninety degree angle as it watched the flesh of those in front of him mend. It whipped around to the source of light behind him and saw Michael. It turned its entire body around and rushed him.

Michael was surprised by the speed of the beast as it rushed toward him, only barely managing to raise his shield before a bladed limb could hit him. The force of the blow threw him far to the side and he skipped like a stone across the cavern floor. He barely managed to stand when another blade slashed at his head. He dodged the majority of the blow, but the very tip of its blade cut through the top of his helmet and he could feel blood quickly pooling in his scalp. He kept healing himself and the others to receive the boost from his Fort Healer and Warrior Mender deeds. He slashed at the creature, managing a shallow wound on its inner arm before one of its claws slashed across his back, his armor barely holding up to the strike.

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A third bullet struck the creature suddenly and Michael could swear he saw it wince in pain this time as the others reached it and started their own attacks.

He rallied and ran for a moment to regain some breathing room. If he went down then the others wouldn’t have his healing to stand them back up, a fact that the monster itself had clearly realized.

He watched as everyone’s blades continued to bounce off its hide and they narrowly avoided lethal strikes from it as it handily attacked and counterattacked. It was taking damage, but it had the advantage. He raised a hand to seal a deep wound on Crick’s shoulder and a nearly severed calf on Davi. He heard a whisper from the direction of the statue.

~Safety~protection~shielding~

“The statue! Everyone run to it!”

He followed his own advice even as he was healing Jakub’s newly broken arm. The others started following him.

The monster whipped around and started chasing Michael, focusing on him as he ran as fast as he could toward the statue.

He had never been the fastest of them, that would go to Pyotr or Lance, but he ran constantly and could maintain a full sprint longer than any of them, even in full armor. In spite of that, the monster behind them quickly caught up to him when he was just over halfway to the statue. He could sense the monster was about to strike and focused all of his magicka on forming a shield on his back. When the strike was launched he lifted his legs off the ground and when the monsters blade-like arm shot out to skewer him it instead launched him forward toward the statue.

He could feel the magical shield shatter and his spine sever at the base, but when the obsidian monster moved closer to finish him off it suddenly stopped, a large shield of white light appearing to block it from coming any closer. It reared up and shrieked in frustration as it slammed into it several more times, before looking to see that everyone else had reached the statue as well. It went eerily silent as it folded its blade arms again and slid backward slowly out of the illumination and into the shadows.

Michael lifted his hand and mended his spine, feeling the sensation in his legs return, and slowly brought himself to his feet as he approached the others.

“What the fuck was that?” asked Ollie, echoing everyone else’s thinking.

They were all panting. Michael could see that all, but Marcus and Ollie had tears in their armor and clothing where the creature had struck them.

“I don’t know,” said Lance looking at Jakub.

Jakub shook his head. “I’ve never heard of anything like that. Maybe it’s unique to Tusinia? Or to mountains. There aren’t really any mountains in Stent.”

Michael shook his head. “No. It felt… wrong. Did any of the rest of you sense that?”

They looked at him blankly.

“I don’t think that creature is from here. I think it came from a rift.”

“How?” asked Jakub. “The only rifts we ever have in Stent are along the coast, and Tusinia is even further from Old Hume.”

“Perhaps it walked,” suggested Pyotr as he unstrapped his helmet and sat down. “It certainly has plenty of legs.”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” said a weak, feminine voice.

They all raised their swords and pointed them in the direction of the noise.

A woman with dark skin, brown eyes, and a number of simple tattoos on her face stepped out from the shadow of the statue. She was a little unsteady on her feet and the skin on her lips seemed chapped. She wore a simple tan shirt and black trousers along with sturdy and well worn boots, and Michael could see what looked like a toolbelt on the ground behind her.

She pointed at Jakub’s hip were a waterflask was belted on.

“Give me some of that,” she said.

Jakub unbuckled it and handed it to her.

She took it and opened it quickly taking slow deliberate gulps and then swishing a small amount around in her mouth.

“Have any food? I haven’t eaten in two days.”

Michael carefully worked his way through his armor to find his pocket where he found a small pouch of dried meat which he handed her.

She took it from him and popped a morsel into her mouth, forcing herself to chew it slowly.

“Francesca?” asked Lance.

“Of course,” she said swallowing a bit. “I’m guessing Benson managed to reach the outpost to get you all sent in to help?” she looked at them. “I would’ve expected more men to be honest.” She stopped chewing as she looked more closely at Lance, her eyes lingering on his armor. “Fuck. You’re not Tusinians.”