Reed glanced back at the road to see a shattered mess of what had been an automobile, the creature already out of sight. He heard a string of curses ring out from the other side of the road and sprinted up the incline onto and over the street. The man he had planned on buying a car from was laying in the grass just in front of the forest, cradling one of his legs. Reed continued to haul ass down the other side of the incline towards him.
“How the hell are you still standing?” He hollered upon spotting Reed’s beeline down the hill.
“Doesn’t matter. Let’s go.” Reed yanked the man to his feet and assisted him with limping into the cover of the forest.
Reed tried to take as much of the burden off the man as possible, escaping deeper into the forest while offering himself up as a crutch, but they moved at an excruciatingly slow pace. As they were hobbling through the woods, another startling loud sound echoed from the direction of the man’s house. They redoubled their efforts at gaining distance from whatever the thing was that had attacked them. But, such an effort didn’t last long as the injured leg of Reed’s companion soon gave out, causing him to stumble and crash to the ground.
Reed contemplated throwing the older man over his back and continuing on, it most likely wouldn’t impede him much. He put the idea aside for the moment though. Reed began to slowly spin around, peering between the trees of the forest for any sign of their pursuer. Thankfully, all was clear for the moment.
“Got any ideas old-timer?” Reed looked down at the scraggly gray-haired mechanic who was again clutching his leg with a pain-filled grimace.
“It’s Desmond. And no, not exactly.” He said through gritted teeth.
“Well Desmond, I think we should get a bit further away from here and then make our way back to the main road. Try and flag somebody down.”
“There’s no way in hell I could make it there.” Desmond nodded towards his leg.
“I’ll carry you… on my back.”
A wry chuckle slipped out of Desmond’s mouth as he eyed Reed’s wiry frame. Desmond had to outweigh him by fifty pounds at least.
“Sure you will.”
Reed walked over to kneel in front of the man. After a moment’s hesitation, Desmond reached his arms around Reed’s neck, to which he stood and grabbed ahold of the man’s dangling legs. The added weight brought on no real strain.
Reed was about to set off jogging deeper into the woods yet again when he heard the soft cracking of branches off to his side. The hideous maw surrounded my pincers wove nimbly through the trees towards them. It floated through the forest like a snake through water, its streaming body of tentacle weaving in and out of the trees.
Reed took off like lightning, no longer concerned with making it back to the road and focused purely on moving in the opposite direction of the thing. He sprinted the trees with such a speed that it became difficult to react to the obstacles that blocked his path. The tree trunks and branches turned to a blur and it consumed all of his focus to avoid them in his mad dash.
Reed spared a glance behind him and saw the creature crash sideways into a tree as it tried to avoid an even larger one. It appeared the thing had to sacrifice some of its agility for speed. Unfortunately, ramming into tree trunks didn’t prove much of a deterrent for the thing as crashing sounds increased in both frequency and proximity. It was gaining on them.
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Blades of bone began to emerge from both of Reed’s palms as the trees around them began to thin out. Up ahead he caught a glance of a familiar house and barn, the sounds of the pursuing creature close behind them. The forest came to an end when they reached the edge of Desmond’s property, opening up into a grassy clearing. Reed threw Desmond off of his back, sending him tumbling away as Reed spun to face their inevitable pursuer.
The blades extending from his arms had only reached a length of around two feet, but it would have to do. When he turned, the gaping maw was directly in front of him, barely giving him enough time to get out of its way with a massive leap. Or so he thought, as one of the pincers surrounding the thing’s mouth snapped out with a mind of its own, spearing through his abdomen and taking him along for the ride.
The flesh in Reed’s side rapidly began to split itself open so that he might detach himself from the flying horror. While he desperately controlled his magic to do so, he watched helplessly as the creature, with him attached, hurtled towards where Desmond lay on the ground. Reed looked away at the last second as the thing slammed into the ground, but couldn’t avoid seeing the explosion of blood as he passed by the still airborne gore. Some of which he made contact with.
The pincer he was attached to began to drag Reed towards the maw as the creature ascended into the air again. By this point, however, he had made a large enough opening in his side. He tore the last bit of the flesh keeping him trapped apart and suddenly found himself detached, the tentacled body of the creature soaring through the air past him.
With the instincts he had gained from his time fighting within the nightmare, both of Reed’s arms shot towards the thing’s body. The blades extending from his palms were now at a length of over four feet. They dug into the mass of tentacles and tore through the passing creature’s body until at last finding purchase. He was once again attached to the flying creature, only this time it was of his own will.
Reed had no idea how he was going to get out of this situation. The ground was rapidly receding from his vision, and it was uncertain whether he’d survive such a fall even with enhanced strength. Not to mention that the creature would likely then continue in its pursuit of him. For the moment he decided to cling to the thing’s body of tentacles while continuing to extend his blades further inside of it. He didn’t want to risk sliding off of the flying monstrosity.
The creature continued to climb insanely high into the sky, but Desmond's house and garage remained in Reed’s view. It was hard to make out, the property had to have been miles beneath him by this point, but even from that distance, he was sure of what he saw. The creature was staying in the same relative area, as if it were searching for something.
Reed’s blades had grown to nearly a dozen feet by now, burying deep into the flying monstrosity’s body. Struck by an idea, he changed the focus of his magic. Rather than extend in length, the blades began sprouting bone along the edges, reminiscent of a plant’s roots. The new structures of bone slowly grew in the direction of the creature’s maw. Reed paid no attention to controlling what form his construct took, willing it only to grow further, faster, and in as many directions as possible.
As the roots of bone approached closer and closer to the front of the flying creature, strange noises began to emanate from it. Or more accurately, vibrations. They permeated Reed’s body, causing him to feel as if his insides were shuddering. The bone continued to grow, and the resonance did the same. Reed’s head started to become muddled, threatening to interfere with his magic, but it suddenly came to a stop as the creature shot towards the ground.
His construct of bone was so close to reaching the thing’s “head”, but it was rocketing towards the ground so quickly he had no such time. Instead, the mass of bone roots began to grow sharp edges all across, facing in Reed’s direction. He began to tug on the construct to no avail. The edges continued to sharpen while he got to his feet, bracing against the thing’s body and pulling with all his might. Every second the ground grew closer until they were mere moments away from crashing into the forest below. Then the roots of bone finally moved.
A grotesque tearing sound was followed by a shower of black liquid and dark green pieces of tentacle flesh. As the massive winding construct of bone yanked free the creature’s body was shredded to ribbons. Reed lost his purchase and hurtled through the air, following the creature that no longer displayed a controlled descent and was now falling wildly to the ground, same as Reed.
The massive flying monstrosity made contact first, crashing through the trees into a tentacled heap on the ground. Reed followed shortly after, having disconnected the construct of bone in his descent, and landed on top of the shredded mass of tentacles, feet first. His legs crumpled immediately before his torso made contact and ricocheted hard off of the creature's body.
Reed lay in a mangled mess on the forest floor, using every ounce of will to stay conscious. His body was utterly destroyed, his lower half unrecognizable and unresponsive while his upper half was racked with unbelievable pain. He made use of the full force of his healing powers, struggling to repair himself while fighting to stay alive.