Of Predators and Prey

A/N: Well, there's really not much to say here. A lot happened in life (like 3 weeks of jury duty) but none of that's a problem for any of you all to worry about. The best apology I can offer for my absence is a nice, big chapter.

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The flesh creature’s howl shook the sky, its tattered throat straining to hold itself together as it shrieked at the blackening storm above.

Hail was beginning to fall again, bringing with it a fresh cold wave. Frost in the air dueled with spewing dust and debris from the collapsing building, leaving the whole area blanketed in a pale blue-grey haze. As the boss’ cry echoed all around, the winds began to swirl more intensely, forming a bone-chilling maelstrom.

In the eye, John Newman stood, shaking from the oncoming wave of cold.

He was looking all around, mind racing as he processed the sudden flurry of events. The boss’ surprise attack had been so quiet he hadn’t heard anything until Ela had dove to the ground, narrowly avoiding having her head taken off by the Flesh that Hunts. At some point in the chaos, Moira had also gotten separated, off somewhere he couldn’t see in the growing dust cloud.

Now, John and Ela were stuck out in the open, caught running across the atrium towards the broken exterior with no walls or pillars to hide behind. The blonde was still recovering from her own dive, lying prone amongst the rubble a few feet in front of him. Her gaze was focused now on the monster’s physique, watching as its muscle squirmed beneath its skin, seemingly unaware of the deadly spell slowly forming just above.

The Gamer looked up, glaring at the five mana-charged claw marks shimmering in the air.

Though he’d only seen traces of it through his [Unawakened Eye] before, John knew immediately what that was - the ice spear spell he’d been hit by in the elevator. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t recovered from that encounter. The final shot he’d taken had shattered his [Mana Shield] completely, fully draining his casting resource as well as a sizeable chunk of his HP.

The couple minutes time that had passed hadn’t even given him the mana to cast a [Lesser Air Burst] to clear the dust cloud, let alone enough to fuel his [Mirrorjade Barrier].

’I probably won’t survive one more good hit,’ he thought, a shudder running down his spine, ’but…’

Frowning, John looked over at Ela. She was getting up, slowly, from where she’d fallen, but the blonde knight was clearly leaning to one side. Faint sparks of magic raced down her suit towards one ankle. Her arms were raised defensively as if she expected a physical attack again.

His eyes widened with realization. ’...I’m the only one that saw the spell in the elevator. The howl and whatever its muscles are doing are a distraction!’

The Gamer’s legs were already moving, dashing up towards his girlfriend.

“Moira! Ela!” he called out, hoping they could hear him over the sounds of the storm and collapse. “Shields up! It's charging a spell!”

The Bookworm Knight reacted immediately, crouching down to pull at the straps on her shoulders, but her shield was still cinched tight to her back from the climb. To her dismay, the straps had gotten tangled in the plates of her suit at some point during the fall or the fight, leaving her fumbling to get it off even as John finally reached her.

He slid down next to her, grabbing a shoulder to get her attention. She glanced over at him, but whatever words she wanted to say were cut off by a brilliant flicker of green in her eyes as her innate ability activated again.

That was all the answer John needed.

Gritting his teeth, The Gamer pressed himself close to her and held a hand out, scrolling his inventory to find the biggest thing he could to throw up between them and the spell. With a sudden popping sound, the cold scars in the air snapped, glistening with frost, then began sharpening into ice. Between his fingers, John watched the first spear finish coalescing, then tilt towards them.

He said a silent prayer to Gaia that his powers worked the way he wanted.

Wisps of silver frost danced around the translucent icicle for a split second before it shot towards them, whistling a single-tone song of **** as it flew. John’s heart drummed in his ears, and, for a moment, he felt small and afraid, again. Then, a wall of gleaming metal manifested in front of him.

The ice spear crashed into the block of steel, sending a shrill echo out into the storm as it shattered into tiny shards of frost.

The Gamer had pulled the Order weapon case from his inventory, willing it into the world standing straight up. With its wide, flat face pointed towards the boss, it was the biggest single item he had - big enough to nearly cover himself and Ela, crouched together as they were.

Still, the **** of the impact was tremendous, sending painful shocks up John’s arm as he tried to absorb the blow and keep the case standing to protect them.

Just as he was about to lose control of his improvised shield, Ela’s hand shot out, grabbing his wrist to hold him steady. Her other hand took hold of the far side of the weapon case, clenching tightly to the edge as she fought to keep it stable. With a grunt of effort, her suit rippled with mana, green light glowing gently between the woven sinews of muscle as the knight manhandled the case, yanking it sideways just in time to parry a second ice spear that would have narrowly slipped by otherwise.

“Thanks,” John said, forcing a dry smile as he turned to her.

She turned to look back, grinning as verdant energy faded from her eyes. “We make an excellent team.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but was silenced as a third shot went whistling by them off to the right. The Gamer reacted too slowly to follow it, but a flash of golden light and the sound of snapping ice told him that Moira had managed to block a shot sent her way. Looking over his shoulder to where the sound had come from, he found the Warden emerging from the dust cloud, shield raised as she advanced cautiously towards them.

Relief washed over John; he wasn’t sure she’d have heard his warning.

A shriek to his left caught his attention, and he turned in time to watch a fourth icicle go racing by, above them. It shot past so quickly that he couldn’t possibly follow it with his naked eye, but they all saw where it landed. It crashed into the top of the main support pillar on the upper level, ice shearing into the well-worn stone.

Even the storm was deafened as a chunk was blown out of the side of the column, which instantly began to crumble.

John’s eyes widened, but he had only a scarce moment to look at the buckling roof as a fifth shot flew overhead, impaling itself into another support. This one held up only a little better than its sibling, crackling and crumbling, but refusing to fully collapse. Given the weight it had to be bearing alone now, he knew that wasn’t going to last long.

A wave of adrenaline pumped into The Gamer’s veins, muting the chaos around him for a split second.

“We need to go!” he shouted, turning back to his companions.

Moira had already beaten him to that conclusion. John had looked back just in time to almost be blinded by radiant waves of golden light, peeling off of the Warden’s shield in waves as she charged. The metal of her armor clanked and echoed off the stone as she sprinted, picking up speed and momentum as she pushed forward, her shield held up in front of her.

“Behind me!” the redhead barked out as she passed.

“John,” Ela said, head snapping to him. “I need my weapon.”

“On it!”

With a thought, the steel case disappeared back into his inventory to be replaced almost instantly by the blonde’s bone-bladed axe. Ela grabbed her weapon as soon as it appeared, and, together, she and John sprang forward, running in Moira’s amber-gold wake.

With their impromptu barricade gone, the couple could see the boss again.

If it was possible, it seemed to be even paler, with its skin flaking off its decaying body. Even the sinews of its muscles were beginning to lose their vigor and color. For an undead flesh monstrosity, it looks visibly exhausted. A quick use of [Observe] confirmed John’s suspicion that it was both heavily damaged and low on mana after the prolonged fighting they’d been through.

Still, it continued undeterred, punching a clawed hand into its chest once again and drawing forth a fresh spray of glowing blood. He didn’t know how that was possible without mana left, but he couldn’t rule out the monster having something like his [Blood Transmutation].

“It’s trying to cast again!” The Gamer shouted, quickly checking to see if he had the ability to throw any spells yet. ’Almost… Do I need to use my own blood magic?’

He grit his teeth as his brain began to make the calculations on that, but Ela was already enacting her own plan. Her suit rippled with mana as she poured out as much power as she could muster. Slackening her grip, Ela let her axe slide down until she was holding only the very bottom of its handle.

“I HAVE IT!” she screamed, before leaping into the air with all the **** she could muster.

Once she was high enough to see clearly over Moira, she pulled her right arm back, redirecting all the power she had into it. The fibers of her suit tensed, almost overflowing with mana. Howling mightily from the exertion, the Bookworm Knight chucked her blade towards the monster. It carved a deadly arc through the air, nearly as fast as the spears had been.

Even the boss was caught off guard by the speed of the throw, only narrowly being able to avoid having its head split open. Still, the axe cleaved into its shoulder, shattering the creature’s bones from **** alone. The Flesh that Hunts was thrown off-balance by the impact, causing it to scatter the mana-charged fluids uselessly onto the ground. Sickly black blood ran from the wound, joining the pale blue in staining the snow around its feet, though John noticed that strands of meat were already wrapping around the axe to keep hold of it.

Ela landed on her feet, but stumbled, holding her shoulder. Groaning, she slowed down, pushing her shoulder back with a nasty pop. John turned back to her, frowning as he noticed that she’d taken damage from the strain of that attack.

“Ela..?” he asked, slowing next to her.

“I… will be fine,” she hissed. “We must keep going.”

Behind them, the last column finally gave up its fight, buckling under the weight of the ceiling above. With a deafening crack, it folded, bringing down the roof with it. Bits and pieces of stone began to rain down, interrupted by the occasional boom of a large slab crashing down. The Gamer’s eyes widened, as he saw the collapse begin.

Ela grabbed his arm, painfully, and started pulling. That snapped him out of the shock and got him moving again. They were close enough to the outside to outrun it, he thought, but he didn’t dare slow down enough to look back and check. Every sound made his heart skip forward. The adrenaline he was feeling was beginning to get dizzying, but that only made him run even faster.

Meanwhile, Moira had continued her charge unabated, shield raised high, closing the gap between herself and the boss before it could attack again. The Bookworm Knight’s interruption had bought her most of the time she needed, but the pressure of the now rapidly crumbling roof changed the dynamic. There was no time for a prolonged battle against the creature while they were still in the ruins.

An undead would have no problem allowing itself to be crushed in trade for their lives.

“LADY, GRANT ME SWIFTNESS!” she cried out, the golden glow of her mana growing even more brilliant.

With all the power she could muster, she dashed towards the boss with a fresh burst of speed, weaving past a clawed swipe to get within its guard. Instead of bringing her hammer to bear, however, she kept pushing, slamming the face of her divine shield into the boss with the full weight of her armored body behind it. Undead flesh sizzled as holy light purified it. Weathered ribs cracked beneath the **** of the impact, caving in as the Warden continued to push.

She didn’t stop there, pressing forward, **** to keep her momentum. “THE LADY’S LIGHT FLOWS THROUGH ME!”

Even more energy swirled around her as she lifted the creature just barely off the ground atop her shield. The ground trembled as Moira shoved the fleshy abomination back, forcing it towards the open hole in the wall and out into the snow. Then, with all the strength she could muster, she threw it out the side of the building. Unfortunately, the Warden was moving too fast, was too entangled with the boss, and couldn’t stop herself before she went tumbling out after it.

’No! NO!’ John screamed internally, watching his friend disappear into the blizzard alongside the Flesh that Hunts. ’Can we catch one good break?!’

“Ela, spare weapon!” he called out, flicking through his inventory again.

The Sword of the Final Knight appeared in his hand, and he tossed it over to his girlfriend as they reached the precipice. Ela took the blade and leapt without hesitation, diving out into the snow after the Warden. The Gamer swallowed hard, and slowed for only a moment before following her over the edge, reminding himself that this fall would be shorter than the last one.

’And there should be something softer at the bottom, too…’ he hoped.

John was blinded by the snowfall for a minute as he jumped. Blinking it away, he tried to figure out where Moira and the boss had landed. There were two distinct impact marks in the snow drift below - apparently they’d separated at some point in their fall. Now, they were whirling around each other, trading blows. The redhead was trying to **** the monster further away from the building, but to no avail.

“THE LADY’S JUDGEMENT UPON YOU!!” she shouted, breathing heavily as the glow of her weapon shifted to a hot amber-orange.

Parrying a claw swipe from one side, she cracked her hammer against the creature's ribs, hard, but fast, trying to be quick enough to avoid having her weapon trapped like last time. Moira's magic ensured she did plenty of damage still, searing away the boss's pale skin with every strike.

Ela, for her part, had leapt with a low arc intentionally, so she hit the ground quickly, rolling to get to her feet and running to join the melee. John had simply leapt as hard as he could, leaving him to drift by overhead and crash into a pile of snow a few feet away. By the time he'd dug himself out, the battle had begun in earnest.

Moira batted one of the monster’s clawed hands aside, leaving it wide open for Ela to carve a nasty gash across its chest with the blade in her hand. As the creature recoiled, the two knights moved in unison to press their advantage, backing the monster away from the collapsing ruin behind them.

It swung wide and hard at the Warden, its muscles morphing to give it as much oomph as possible, but Moira's divine barricade was unshakeable, leaving the Flesh that Hunts with more holy burns on its rapidly decaying claws as she blocked its strike. Meanwhile, Ela had circled around, carving wide but shallow slashes across the creature’s back as she imitated Moira's fast, aggressive style.

The undead abomination moved to turn on Ela, but was halted by a devastating blow from the Warden's hammer crushing into its jaw, shattering bone and teeth alike.

**** to escape the pin, the writhing muscle beneath the monster's skin surged with the energy it had left, raging against a return to ****’s embrace. One of its hands and forearms split, held together by strands of meat as it tried to form an extra limb. All down its body, spikes of bone began to protrude as its fleshy sinews retreated, weaving together to try and reinforce themselves.

It spun, spraying blood and shards of bone around to try and drive its assailants back, if only for a moment. Scraping one leg through the snow as it did so, it kicked up a cloud of white powder, momentarily blinding both the knights it was facing.

Its plan worked.

In the precious seconds it had bought itself, the sinews in its shoulder relinquished their hold on Ela's bone-bladed axe, allowing the weapon to drop into its un-mangled palm. In an unsettling pantomime of her own attack, the creature drew its arm back, piling what moving muscle it still had into its bicep, then chucked the axe towards its owner. The frost-laden air screamed as the armament cut through it.

The Bookworm Knight's eyes flared with green as she barely raised her sword in time to block that certainly deadly blow. Even still, the **** sent her tumbling backwards, both weapons flying off into the snow.

The abomination was not far behind that attack, rushing towards the blonde in the hope that it could pick her off before Moira recovered.

Bone spines quivering, it began to shed skin on its shattered arm, sharpening its splintered forearms to a pair of deadly points. It continued shifting its musculature around, allowing it to run faster using its one whole arm as a third leg. Plowing through the snow quickly, the monster prepared to pounce on Ela, who was still scrambling back to her feet, when, suddenly, the ground beneath it began to quiver.

Erupting from the earth came a jagged spine of rock, tearing into one of the creature’s legs, crushing a kneecap as it destroyed undead flesh and bone alike.

John had used his mana as soon as he had enough for an offensive spell, hoping to give his compatriots time to regroup. His spell had been far more effective than he’d anticipated.

’Its body must be getting more fragile the more it shifts,’ he surmised, watching the monster fall to the ground, partially crippled.

The Gamer drew his knife, prepared to run in to try and finish the boss off, when he was almost shaken from his feet by what felt like a minor earthquake. Turning back where they’d come from, he saw the hospital’s entire roof suddenly snap, torn asunder by the damage they’d done to it. The outer walls, too, were spider-webbed with cracks, buckling beneath the weight.

His eyes widened. ’It’s falling our way!’

John started running, to get to his friends and away from the collapse as much as to finish the fight. To one side, he was relieved to see Moira nearby, having taken the opportunity his spell bought to get in close again. The redhead nodded at him, and they fell in together, sprinting towards the undead abomination, which was slowly piecing itself back together.

Ela was caught on the far side of the boss from them, but had also managed to get back to her feet and collect both her axe and the sword, now wielding one in each hand.

“Together, now!” the Warden called out, the practiced confidence of command in her voice. “Finish it, then up the street!”

The Gamer and Bookworm Knight nodded in unison, and, as a trio, they charged at the boss one last time.

Howling with such fury that its throat finally tore itself apart, the Flesh that Hunts **** itself upright, the human spines hanging from its head standing on end. Sickly brown-red blood wept from its empty eyes as it glared defiantly at them. Its piercing gaze sent a shiver down John’s spine - enough to make him slow for just a moment.

In that brief moment of hesitation, it sprang forward with all the power it had left, throwing all its weight behind its fractured spear-forearm, trying to take him down with it, if nothing else. It was a swift and terrifying reminder of just how physically inferior he was, even now, to these creatures. He was a mage, not a warrior. Even mostly dead, John could only barely try to react to the boss’ surprise thrust.

Moira had no such problem.

She was in front of him in an instant, her divine barricade glowing as she held it up in front of them. The undead abomination had neither the mana nor muscle strength left to survive that exchange; its bones chipped and shattered, splintering before the unmoving bastion of the Lady. The recoil from such a deflection sent the monster stumbling back, its arm now as ruined as its leg.

Before it could recover, the Warden was already on top of it again, slamming the face of her shield into its still-fractured ribs, scorching the flesh that remained and shoving it further back, right to where Ela was waiting. The blonde already had her weapons raised, charging forward to ram her sword right through its chest, impaling the monster upon her blade. With her other arm, she brought her axe down on its remaining good leg, splitting its thigh open and forcing it to its knees.

The Flesh that Hunts struggled, trying to free itself to no avail.

As the upper floors of the ruined hospital fully caved in behind them, John and Moira descended upon the boss once more, the sounds of combat deafened by the rumble of broken stone.

The Warden’s hammer shone like the sun as she brought it down on the boss’ shoulder, crushing it with her full might. She didn’t hold back her follow through this time, either, nearly knocking both the boss and Ela off their feet with the impact as she caved in the creature’s collarbone with steel and holy light.

The Gamer drove his knife up under the monster’s ribs, trying to guess at hitting something vital, but he could tell before he’d done so that whatever meagre damage he was going to contribute was meaningless at this point. It was over.

The boss stopped fighting back. Its limbs fell limp, the squirming sinews beneath its skin at last growing silent.

Then, the temperature dropped sharply. Frost began to glaze over the corpse’s limbs, even as they were pulling their weapons from it. As they let it fall to the ground, ice began to form, quickly encompassing the monster’s torso as it lay in the snow. Moira raised her hammer, prepared to shatter it once more, but there was no need.

As quickly as it had come, the ice began to crack, crumbling away into a pile of frost as the rest of the body rapidly decayed.

The Gamer’s UI flickered, and the xp bar appeared at the bottom of his vision, rapidly filling.

A brilliant lightshow of greens, blues, and purples exploded from where the creature was melting away, lighting up the storm like a dance floor. John sighed, allowing himself to relax just a bit for the first time since they’d entered the dungeon. The Warden, meanwhile, had immediately taken a defensive stance, batting away glowing bits of monster loot with her shield.

“Moira!” The Gamer said, allowing himself to smile earnestly. “It’s fine. Remember how I told you the monsters can give us items? This is it! We won!”

“I-” The redhead flushed deeply, her cheeks turning the same color as her hair.

Fortunately for her, Ela came to her rescue. “We need to go!”

John glanced back at the ruins just in time to watch the third floor give out, cracks splintering the supports below - they’d been lucky it hadn’t given out already. A part of him died inside at the thought of all the previous drops that were about to get buried, but the rest of him didn’t want to join them. Together, the trio turned to run away, when The Gamer spotted something out of the ordinary.

Beneath the pile of snow and rotten dust the boss had left behind, right in front of him, was a dim orange glow. Ten thousand hours of playtime in RPGs came rushing back to him in that moment, and he stopped, kneeling down to dig it out. If he could only save one item, he had to check this one! As he brushed remains and frost aside, the glow became ever clearer, but whatever it was was stuck in the ice layer at the bottom.

Ela grabbed his arm, panic and urgency in her voice. “John!”

“One second, I just- there!” he exclaimed, freeing what looked like some kind of metal box from the ground - no, John realized it was a book, covered in scrap metal. The radiant, amber-orange glow was unmistakable as he held it in his free hand. ’A legendary!’

“Now! Come! ON!” the Bookworm Knight shouted, physically manhandling him back to his feet.

Together they sprinted away from the building as it gave out, tonnes on tonnes of concrete and steel folding downward with a world-shaking BOOM!

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