The dust cloud shot up from the ground where her bullets hit, an explosion of dirt and stone alike. They travelled lighting fast yet the beast was faster.
As soon as the first blast was sent off it was already sprinting to the right. Low to the ground and quick, it stayed just in front of Clair's path of destruction, which followed it away from the portal.
Bullets of compressed force blew chunks out of the dirt behind it, and as soon as she ran out of steam, it turned instantly and started to head right for them.
It was just directing that away from its pack
Skye thought to himself as blasts of energy were fired from the Flower Boys at a rapid rate, feeding off the energy stored in his armour. It jumped from side to side to avoid the impact of the blasts, small craters in the dirt left where its powerful claws dug in for grip and the balls of energy collided with the ground.
Elli blinked to the side and started to fire her bow. Every arrow would leave her and the space would instantly be folded in, appearing right before its head.
It moved with unbelievable dexterity, but still unable to dodge completely. It blocked with the harder parts of its skull and the arrows ricocaded off, flying into the distance. Lines of cut flesh that trickled blood painted their paths. She sighed and turned her bow towards the pack of injured monsters trying to flee and pulled back the string.
As soon as she did the leader planted its claws into the dirt and turned on a dime, no longer charging at Claire and Skye but now going towards her. It was all so quick Skye couldn't track what was going on, before it was heading right at him and now there was a plume of dirt and it was going in a new direction.
He gripped his spear tightly and tried to keep track of his surroundings through the vibrations in the ground rather than his own eyes. It all left him feeling more helpless than he wanted to admit. His Flower Boys were easily disregarded and dodged, his Chestnut Warriors too slow to do anything, and here he stood with spear in hand told to attack from behind.
It didn't wait until it got all the way to Elli, launching itself upwards and turning its body midair. It landed with its powerful backlegs facing her, digging its claws into the ground and kicking hard.
Projectiles made out of clumps of dirt and rocks were launched right at her. They flew through the air like speeding bullets whistling through the air and pelted the treeline behind her. The wood splintered and cracked in their collision.
She was already gone, blinking next to Skye and Claire again.
"Seems like it didn't like that. Okay. New plan."
Skye had no idea how they were able to fight this thing at the fort and walk away. Its speed and strength was unlike anything they've seen yet.
"Claire, you get in close. Skye, you attack from behind and at a distance. I'll keep its attention divided."
Claire gave a nod and grabbed onto her sword with both hands. She didn't have any force left her body so she was going to have to make some.
She raised it high and slammed it into the ground, but it never connected with the dirt, stopped by her Minion and the force went straight to her body.
She was able to do this twice before the leader of the pack figured out where Elli went and started its charge again.
She began running straight at the monster with her sword held like a baseball bat, ready to swing. They cleared the space between them at a rapid rate, mainly due to the monster's speed.
Before they could collide, Claire leaped into the air and a large force of energy was blasted from her back, sending her flying with incredible speed right at the monster.
She stole this move from Elli and her arrows, seeing how off guard things became when something hit you sooner than your brain calculated.
She didn't want to give it any time to figure out how to defend.
With the rest of the force she boosted the swing of her sword. She was moving fast, it was moving fast, together they were going to hit it very hard even without a lot of weight behind it.
The sword cut through the air with pinpoint accuracy, aiming for the neck and to put a quick finish to this fight.
With a quick jerk of the monsters body it reared itself upright exposed its soft underbelly. Skye couldn't understand what he was seeing, sacrificing its body to save the head? Was it as tired of fighting as he was?
It wasn't until he saw that the blade failed to make contact did he understand.
The powerful hind claws and blade met with a tremendous force that rang out from the spot of impact. Like drops of water in a lake the dirt around them rippled.
The leader was the first to react, the force of the strike rattling both their brains. It continued its upward motion and launched its body up and then kangaroo kicked Claire with its powerful backlegs.
She didn't have time to move her sword to block, but her Minions were already in place.
The force was too strong and the three of them together couldn't absorb it all, bursting and allowing the rest of the power of the kick to connect with her body.
With her feet still off the ground from her strike she was sent flying through the air.
Right before her body hit a large tree, Elli blinked into her and blinked again, causing them both to tumble through the dirt.
The Wardens started to yell out and charge forward out of the tree line like bandits.
"How dare you, you damn mut!"
"I'll roast you alive!"
"Your body will feed my muscles forever you bastered!"
Claire raised her hand to stop them as she got up, planting her sword into the ground for support. It took the wind out of her, but no bones were broken. If it wasn't for her Minion and armour she wasn't sure that would be the case.
Elli moaned with pain as she got up, the landing was only as soft for Claire because her body was used as padding. She didn't realise how dense that little woman was until she was tumbling on top of her.
"Thank you Elli. That would have hurt."
"What do you mean would have you beast, I'm nothing but hurting."
She cursed under her breath and stood on shaking legs. She had blinked too many times and done so too quickly.
Sure she could do it a lot more now, but she was nearing her limit and the flight had just started. She started to weigh the benefit of just having all the Branded jump the thing together. Sure a few would die…
Elli physically stopped the train of thought by spitting out the blood in her mouth. She wasn't about to be a worse leader than some monster.
It was risking its life to protect those it was in charge of and she will do the same.
"Alright."
She said with a groan.
"Let's try this again."
She raised her bow and shot an arrow towards the escaping monsters, the leader jumped in the path and snapped its jaws around the shaft, snapping it completely. It looked back at Elli and let out a snarl as the splinters fell from its teeth.
Claire started to run at it again, but at a much slower pace, picking up weight and density with each step. It sprung towards her and she raised her sword to block it.
[CLASH]
The sound of the two of them meeting rattled through the clearing. Her sword turned into a flash of light and was met with claws and teeth.
She made it heavy when it needed to be before the blow and lighter to move freely. Her mastery of her power was improving at an astonishing rate ever since Tombstone.
Elli appeared to the side of it and started to fire arrows. When the leader did let them hit they were aimed at non important parts of the body, when she tried to go for something vital it moved at the last second.
When it started to look like it was about to overtake Claire she would fire an arrow at the pack of injured monsters and it would instantly get its attention, leaping towards the arrow or Elli before she could shoot it.
She would blink to a distance and Claire would move to meet it head on again. They were able to maintain a fragile balance for now. The second all the monsters were away, nothing Elli could do would draw its attention again. She wasn't a threat to it.
Skye tried to move around it but couldn't get to where he needed to be. If he did get behind it, a powerful leg would kick dirt and rocks at him before he even got close. When he tried to attack from the side the long hindclaw would swipe at him as it swung at Claire.
Come on, come on, there has to be a way.
He tried again, only to have Thorn knocked away before it could make contact. He had no idea how Claire was standing toe to toe with this thing when he couldn't even get a single hit in.
Alright. If i cant go from the side or behind…
He had to pause and think it through before he finished that line of thought. Just like when he was trapped in the castle, before meeting Elli and Kai. If you can't go forward or backwards..
Then I guess I got to go over.
He called over the Chestnut Warriors with a mental command and they instantly knew what he wanted. Their connection didn't need any fancy words, they were a part of his soul after all.
They got slightly behind Claire and linked their hands together, forming a large platform with their shields.
The roots of his arm guard connected to the roots around Thorn and Skye took off running and leaped, landing on their shields with bent legs.
As they used all their strength to throw him, he also used all his strength to jump. Before anyone knew it, he was flying.
The Branded just traced his movements through the air with the jaws hanging low, mouths agape. They watched and calculated his trajectory.
"He's going to over shoot it by…"
"He's not going to make it"
"Those legs are definitely going to break on impact."
Gav clicked his tongue and let himself join on, how could he not, this might have been the stupidest thing he had ever seen.
"He just rolled a critical failure on an acrobatics check."
Another Warden gave him a side eye, most didn't understand what he meant at all. Roll what? His ankle?
A young Warden spoke up.
"I won't tell everyone what a nerd you are Gav if you give me a day off when we get back."
Gav cleared his throat.
"…deal."
This is why he never joined in.
As they added their two cents Skye waited and watched as he flew over Claire, who had yet to notice him, nor would she. Her job required far too much of her attention.
Elli looked as if she was going to blink and grab him, but he held out his hand to stop her while sailing through the air.
As soon as he was just over the monster he took Thorn and threw it with all the force he could muster.
It flew through the air like a dart out of a blow gun, a thick rope of roots trailing behind it. His arm guard unraveled quickly, threatening to leave rope burns on his arm.
The tip of Thorn struck true and hard between the shoulder blades of the creature, causing it to lift its head and roar with pain. The ice from the tip formed quickly as it was deep in the beast, freezing Thorn in place.
Claire didn't miss this chance and swung her blade hard, connecting with its arm and a deep cut was formed. Skye yanked the rope hard and his free fall turned into a feet first direct dive right towards the monster's back.
He landed with an unbalanced thud as he hit, narrowly missing the two sharp hindclaws that were on both sides. Using the embedded Thorn for balance he avoided falling off completely, the frozen skin where it stabbed into the monster holding it tight.
He never really realised just how big the leader of the pack was, but as he stood on its back he was shocked. It was wide and long, where 5 of Skye could ride it comfortably if it was ever possible.
The leader reared up and tried to shake Skye off, but wasn't able to give him its full attention. It was fighting Elli and Claire at the same time, every move it made had to be made with them in mind.
Skye started to spread his roots around its body, wrapping around themselves and hugging tight.
The roots wrapped over his feet and he was able to balance himself as he stood up full, using his legs and core to stay sure footed. It was like trying to stand on top of a raging bull but his body was strong enough to do so, for a few moments at least.
He pulled out Thorn with all his might, fragments of frozen meat and skin shattering as he did. The leader of the pack launched itself up to try and shake him off, but had to defend against a strike from Claire at the same time.
Skye grabbed the roots with one hand and held Thorn with the other to balance until he could stand straight up again.
And once he did, he didn't waste a second. He grabbed Thorn with both hands, and with the axe head, swung as hard as he could at its neck.
The long shaft of Thorn gave him more power in his swing, traveling in a longer arc and generating more linear velocity, the strong wood bending from the sudden force. And then it impacted.
A sickly splat could be heard as it chopped into its neck like a lumberjack trying to fell a tree. It embedded deep to the point where he could hardly see the axe head at all, but the neck was too thick to be cut off in one swing.
The blow was too deadly to ignore and now Skye had its full attention.
It let out a blood soaked roar as it jumped straight into the air and rolled its body, ignoring the swing from Claire and Elli's arrow. Both of which hit and left deep wounds, Skye could feel it shake through the monsters body.
Once again Skye found himself upside down and about to hit the ground. This time, with at least 500kg of monster on top of him. His body was strong, but he was only strong in comparison to his past self. He wasn't a super human.
He tried to untuck his feet from underneath his roots but they were just too tight, they had to be to hold him stable as he struck. Now they were going to continue to do their job and hold him there, the few seconds they would need to unravel was a lifetime too late to help.
Skye struggled with a panic as the monster's body bloated out the sun and he felt the ground approaching from behind him. First his legs would break and shatter as the weight continued to fall on top of him, then the rest of his body would be flattened.
At least we're both falling to our deaths this time
He thought to himself. When it lands, and before it can get back up, Claire and Elli will make their move. They'll finish the job he was unable to.
And damn I got a good hit on you.
Skye felt his fear leave his body as he struggled to free himself. Time felt like it was moving in slow motion. Was he really such a petty guy that getting a good hit in was enough to erase his fear of death?
Well, it was a damn good hit. He unsummoned Thorn and closed his eyes, once again feeling the weightlessness of falling.