The creature finally lay dead. Its body was adorned with a latticework of stab wounds, yet that wasn't what killed it. It had continued "fighting" until the area between its second and third sets of legs had been stabbed through so completely that the back of its body was severed. After that it had steadily grown weaker, eventually laying still. Thrashing the thing had actually been enjoyable. It was nice to know she wasn't at the bottom of the ladder in terms of combat ability.

Kola was panting heavily, thoroughly tuckered out from her recent exertions. Placing her back against the still wobbling… thing (it was vaguely spherical, bright orange, and made from some kind of firm, jelly-like substance; Kola mentally named it the Orange Wobbler)... and while keeping her eyes looking out for any more approaching monsters, she decided to take stock of her situation.

The young woman had hundreds of tiny cuts on the exposed parts of her body from the dust, a fair few larger ones from her earlier rolling down the slope, a blade embedded in her right calf, shards of gravel stuck in the soles of her feet (as well as a few other random places), and (as she coughed up a small splattering of blood) some amount of minor internal bleeding. Kola determined it was minor based on the fact that she could still stand. Actually, although she felt the pain of her wounds, although she was bleeding, although some of her cuts were probably infected (being smeared with the creature's blood) she wasn't having any problem functioning. Her wounds didn't seem to really inhibit her.

'I am pretty sure that is not how adrenaline works.'

Kola wore thick fleece pyjamas that had held up well against the dust, but not so much against anything else. They used to cover most of her body, leaving only her head, hands, and feet exposed. Now they were in tatters, having been ripped apart when she rolled down the slope.

She tore a few strips from her clothing and tried to bind some of the larger cuts, soon succeeding in stopping the worst of the bleeding. After a moment of consideration she wound rudimentary footwraps around her feet, leaving gaps for the gravel embedded there. While painful, it gave her another way to fight the monsters, many of them being the perfect height for stomping. She knew it was strange of her and emphatically went against every iota of common sense that could almost be physically felt slipping away. But it just felt right. Anyway, the shards were stuck against her bone, unable to press any further into her. It's not like she was doing any more damage to herself. She repeated that last thought a few times.

That done Kola tried to decide on a next course of action. She couldn't run away. Not only would simply walking around tear up her feet, but it would take her out of her hiding place. Not that it was a good hiding place mind you, but it seemed sufficient to keep out of the monsters sight. As far as she could tell they simply attacked the nearest creature they could see, then one ate the other. As long as more continued to charge into their sight, they wouldn't notice Kola, her being the least conspicuous creature in the area.

The one that attacked her earlier was the exception to this imperceptiveness, but she decided to make preparations for another. This consisted of carefully snapping off her victim's two other blades and hunkering down against the Orange Wobbler.

The worst of her wounds were somewhat tended to, and that would have to be enough for them until she could find a better solution. Her blood loss situation looked worse than it was. While quite a bit of it splattered the ground around her, she had yet to reach the point where she felt the effects of its lack. After a few seconds of hesitation she decided to leave the embedded blade and other gravel shards in her. They actually staunched her blood loss near perfectly, and even the blade didn't seem to inhibit her leg at all. Ever since the scrubbing, all other pain felt lesser.

But what about food and water? The woman's eyes flicked to the corpse. Its sulfuric scent wasn't the worst thing she'd ever smelled, however it was hardly appetising. If it was cooked… she imagined it tasting something like slightly decomposed eel smothered in a dressing of rotten egg. While there were no other visible sources of food, she designated her vanquished foe as "last resort".

With a nod Kola moved into a crouch. For most of the time she had been here the Orange Wobbler had been wobbling (hence its name) and she really wanted to know what was causing it. Who knows, maybe this course of action would somehow lead to sustenance. She was due for some good luck after all.

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Very carefully, Kola began to proceed down the slope, intending to circle the Wobbler. With a surfeit of caution she was able to do so without further injuring her feet.

The soon revealed view of the lower slope (what wasn't obscured by the dust) allowed Kola two notable sights. The first was the swarm of slimy hexapods that rushed up the slope. They crashed into a melee of larger hexapods with rocky armour that resembled the slope's gravel. Most of the former died within seconds. Mixed into the group were several orange, hovering, balloon-like creatures that stabbed at the armoured hexapods, and each other, with spearhead-tipped tentacles. So far the only monsters that showed any unity were the slimy hexapods. In this case unity meant running in the same direction and mostly not fighting each other. As a whole, the creatures were smaller and less varied than what fought on the upper slope.

The second notable sight was the cause of the Wobbler's wobbling. That is, a pack of three armoured hexapods violently and ravenously eating it, sending vibrations throughout the whole mass. The same sulfuric blood that had spilled from the defeated hexapod dripped from the Wobbler, adding to what had already coated the area.

Having moved into a position that let Kola see this also allowed them to see her. One broke off from its meal with a snarl and charged, hind legs kicking up gravel into another. The gravel failed to injure the second hexapod, yet in its mind the appropriate reaction to this and the appearance of more food was to turn to its still eating companion and attack it.

- - - - - - -

Upon the heights of the Paleblade Slopes an epic duel was taking place. An injured human, bearing the yet to heal trophies from earlier victories against a sostroki spawn and the air itself, stood tall before another sostroki. This one was armoured in the gravel of its home, which had been picked up by its slime and adhered to its skin.

Along with slime, the spawn oozed menace as it charged up at its prey. This one had four blades to unintentionally use against its enemies. One on its back, two angled forwards on its belly, and one on its head. That last one made it much more dangerous than the rest of its kind, and if its kin were capable of such they would bow down before it and proclaim it their sovereign.

The mighty sostroki sovereign was avoided with ease. Kola crouched after sidestepping it, and rammed her two blades into the top and side of its neck. She pulled down as hard as she could, slamming the sovereign's jowls into the gravel. The upwards angle of the slope halted it, or else the two would have skidded along the cutting ground.

With an experience born of her previous fight, Kola flipped the sovereign. Briefly stymied by its armour, she held it down while it wiggled, undismayed by its disadvantageous position.

After a minute of prodding, the bloodstained woman realised that its armour could simply be scraped off. She cleared a ring around its midsection, then began to hack and saw through its flesh.

By the time it lay still, having been bisected, the other two sostroki had made almost no progress in their own fight. The only success either had found was in removing a few small patches of each other's armour. With how long it took to kill them, and their own terrible fighting skills, they would probably still be fighting in an hour. It was slightly pathetic.

Killing them so far had been much more fun than Kola expected so, after a glance at her surroundings to make sure no others were approaching, she snuck towards the two.

That the giant spider had walked above the other, much larger sostroki brawl was of far less interest than the chance to kill two of the creatures at once.

She stalked towards them, moving as fast as she could without cutting herself, confident they would fail to notice her.

Her confidence was rewarded. The two were completely absorbed in their feeble swatting. Even as Kola stood above them she remained unseen. Holding both knives in one hand, she reached out-

A thump stole the attention of all three. The spider had dropped its body on top of those fighting beneath it. It rose up, revealing a circular maw that chewed upon the monsters it flattened. The orange balloons fled, turning their attention upon the more isolated fights. They were joined by a few sostroki from the edges of the main melee.

Kola started as a sostroki got its teeth around her toes, scraping flesh away as she tore them from its mouth.

'That one.' She decided, grabbing its left foreleg. She pulled, intending to slam it about like the first one she fought. Unfortunately, not only was it slightly larger than her aforementioned first kill, the armour that covered it added to its weight significantly.

The wannabe warrior staggered backwards, almost falling and pulling it on top of her. Almost, because the other sostroki bit at the only target available to it; the first one's right hindleg.

Its own strength empowered by the desire to keep its meal, the creature pulled, inadvertently holding Kola up. From there the fight devolved into a game of tug of war.