With most of the surrounding flock incapacitated and the rest cut off from the battle by the spatial anomaly, Alpha found the rest of the fight quite relaxing. He reprinted the Tri-Horn while retaining a smaller harpy tower near the back of the TAWP to peg any recovered penguins and harass the giant one. It was less effective than the full-sized versions, but it was enough to know it worked.
With Alpha no longer hindered and weighted down by the smaller penguins and the giant penguin stunned by the [USW-Harpy], the fight had turned from a slogging stalemate to a one-sided beat-down. The giant penguin’s smooth, metallic coat became a ragged, bloody mass under a constant barrage of unguarded pile bunker blows. It attempted to gain distance or defend several times, but Alpha would hit it with a directed blast of ultrasonic sound whenever the weapon’s effects began to wear off.
It seemed the creatures in this area were highly susceptible to such tactics. Alpha doubted it would be this easy to win everywhere, but he would definitely cheese it while it lasted. Another blow from the smaller pile bunkers threw the giant penguin’s guard wide, and Alpha saw the opening he’d been waiting for. The TAWP slid into place directly in front of the target with one smooth motion.
The Tri-Horn roared to life. Then, with a sonic boom, the large main shaft of the weapon shot forward. The primary pile bunker struck the giant penguin square in the chest. The sound of thunder the blow produced was loud enough to rival the ultrasonic weapon, and the creature folded against the massive metal spike. It hung there for what felt like a split second. Its eyes bulged, and a spray of blood escaped its beak, painting the top of the Tri-Horn red.
Then it was gone, the force of the blow sending it shooting across the battlefield, tumbling several times a second. With each tumble, it drew ever closer to the shifting bubble surrounding them. However, to Alpha’s disappointment, several large stone pillars erupted from the ground along the creature’s path. How it was even alive after a blow like that — let alone mindful enough to arrest its momentum — Alpha didn’t know.
It broke through a dozen of the stone pillars — as thick as the giant penguin itself — and stopped only a few feet away from the edge of the anomaly. Alpha tsked in annoyance.
Though that turned into a mental grin soon after. The giant penguin’s last roll had stopped it just short of crossing through the anomaly fully, but its right flipper fell across the threshold. The giant penguin screamed as it pulled away, clutching its right flipper. Almost three-fourths of the flipper was covered in the same pearlescent sheen as the threshold. The flipper twisted and warped in the same way the other penguins had. As if the surrounding space was more liquid than ‘space.’
The creature even attempted to remove the sheen by wiping it off on the remains of a stone pillar, to no effect. It clung to the flipper-like stubborn grease in a frying pan.
Alpha noted how the strange sheen didn’t seem transferable that way, almost like it was ‘fixated’ solely on whoever had originally touched it. That was good to know: Alpha couldn’t imagine what would happen if whatever this stuff was could spread like a plague.
Alpha figured now was as good of a time as any to end things, so he approached the downed penguin, a few precise turret shots into its open wounds sabotaging its attempt to crawl away. It flipped on its back and stared up at Alpha, the look in its eyes needing no translation. Anger and hatred were universal. It covered the gaping, bleeding wound in the middle of its chest with its remaining good flipper. A thin plate of rough, red-brown iron materialized from thin air and covered the wound, preventing the creature from bleeding out.
Now that was interesting.
Alpha still hadn’t gotten used to the magic bullcrap this place seemed to run on. How had it done that? Where had the metal even come from? Was the soil in this area particularly iron-rich? Or had it pulled the iron directly from its own blood?. Sure, it was just a thin ‘bandage,’ but would there have even been enough to pull something like that off? No matter. Alpha would have all the time he needed to learn more once it was dead.
As Alpha drew near, the creature spoke. Of course, Alpha didn’t understand a word of it. He still needed to finish the lexicon he’d started with the chicken, and this seemed to be a distinct language compared to it. That confirmed the giant penguin was a sapient, at least. Given the obvious intelligence it had shown, Alpha had suspected it might be.
That didn’t much matter, though; an enemy was an enemy, and sapient or not, they were just another target.
Alpha ignored the creature’s words and positioned the Tri-Horn to deliver the last blow.
Before he could pull the trigger, though, the creature grinned as it snapped its gaze to the side and yelled out. Alpha followed its gaze just in time to see the smaller penguin that Snowball had been fighting erupt from the ground near the human at the center of the anomaly.
—————————————————————
Ganbaatar wasn’t sure if he was in shock from blood loss and exhaustion or if the day’s events had overwhelmed him. First had come the ambush, then the run for their lives. After that, they realized they couldn’t lead the Beast Lord back to the village, and he resigned that if he was going to die, he’d die fighting, not like a coward with his back turned to the enemy.
It had been a good choice, one he could hold his head high at in the afterlife.
Not to say he didn’t have any regrets.
He regretted never told Zolzaya how he felt or mastered the Slatewalker footwork like he’d always bragged that he would one day. He regretted he hadn’t told his parents or his annoying little sister how much he really loved them before his group left for the graduation exam.
More than anything, though, he regretted his weakness and inability to do anything against such overwhelming forces as the Beast Lord.
Watching the battle between the strange beetle-like creature that had appeared from nowhere and the Beast Lord only drove that point home. Ganaa knew that were he to be caught between even one of the blows that the two titans were exchanging, he would have been reduced to paste instantly.
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The young man felt tiny in comparison, like an ant watching sword masters duel. Even the smaller battle in front of him made Ganaa flush. To the untrained eye, the battle between Junior and the small Akh’lut would have seemed like the frantic tussle of two wild animals, but Ganaa’s time training with the Guardians let him see more.
Both combatants were survivors, hardened by countless battles and the struggle to survive in a merciless world. Each bite, each strike, was calculated and purposeful. Each blow taken was done with the assurance that they could return two more. Ganaa just watched from the sideline, knowing he wasn’t qualified to join either battle, and he felt shame.
At that moment, Ganaa promised himself that if they made it out of this, if he survived, that next time, he wouldn’t have to stand on the sidelines and watch others fight his battle for him.
Yet, even crippled as he was, Ganaa knew he couldn’t quite give up yet. Most of the flock’s attention was on the battling titans, but that didn’t mean the two humans had been forgotten. Even after Yutu’s array — one of a type Ganaa had never even heard of, let alone expected Yutu to be capable of using — cut them off from most of the flock, there were still some penguins that had been trapped inside with them.
The array hadn’t gone unnoticed by the Beast Lord and, with a word, Kusanagi ordered the trapped penguins to attack the meddling human who had created it.
Ganaa’s broken spear could barely keep the pests off Yutu as the young man channeled his array.
As the Beast Lord turned his attention to them, Ganaa feared for a moment that all their efforts had failed. As the pressure increased, he felt the time slow down, and the world around him suddenly became crystal clear. He’d always heard the Guardians talk about similar events, but Ganaa had always assumed they were speaking metaphorically.
Here, now, at this moment, he understood what they really meant. His brain frantically searched through his memories, trying to think of a solution, any solution, and a thousand desperate plans were formulated, then discarded in what felt like seconds.
He needed to —
In the next moment, any plan he might have formed — or any other rational thought, for that matter — was erased from his mind by the beetle creature’s sonic attack.
Ganaa fell to his knees, clutching his skull as his entire world turned into a ringing, white void.
It had long been known in the Radiant Sea that sound was an effective deterrent for many of the wildlife found therein. Some larger cities even used a similar technique to repel beast hordes or corral them for culling.
The beetle’s attack had been just as effective as the defenses of those large cities. The surrounding flock collapsed, most falling over where they stood, some knocked out, and others died on their feet. Many rushed the array barrier to… horrific effect. The battle between the Akh’lut pup and Junior halted, both writhing in pain before escaping underground.
Ganaa righted himself, and by the time he could think again, the beetle stood tall over the bloody and battered Beast Lord. Ganaa almost felt like cheering at the sight. They’d done it! But Kusanagi wasn’t one to go down without the last word. He used his proper voice as he spoke — a harsh and grating thing that reminded Ganaa of a broken bird song — not the smooth sound of his [Spirit Voice].
“You think you’ve won?! You think I’ll be beaten by some Akh’lut dog?! No. I refuse. I deny you, do you hear me?! The Grasscutters will NOT slip quietly into the night! BOY! DO IT!”
It took Ganaa a moment to realize who the Beast Lord was speaking to, and by then, it was too late. Junior catapulted from the earth, rocketing toward Yutu, its flippers gleaming like a vicious blade in the array’s pearlescent light. Ganaa’s heart sank in his chest as time once more slowed to a crawl. He desperately tried to push himself, but knew he wouldn’t make it in time. He was missing a leg, out of Spirit Energy, and too far away to do anything more.
If the look in Yutu’s eyes, as he watched Junior fly toward him, said anything, he knew that, too. Yutu’s open mouth slowly formed into a sad smile as he turned toward Gan. Ganaa reached out in desperation, and a cry escaped his lips.
“No!“
Someone, anyone, anything, please! Help!
Then, to his surprise, something answered.
Something Ganaa couldn’t describe ‘pulsed‘ in his chest. It wasn’t Spirit Energy; he knew that much. He was as dry as a bone. Yet he could still feel a strange warmth, nonetheless. It swept from him, carrying his plea for help, and flowed into the surrounding prairie grass. As if it had suddenly gained a mind of its own, the grass reached up and wrapped itself around the flying Junior. Then, with a tug, the beast’s trajectory changed, and what should have been a killing blow became a mortal one instead. A deep slash from shoulder to hip, instead of the decapitating strike the beast had intended.
Good, but not good enough.
Time sped back up, and Ganaa rushed to Yutu’s side, cradling the dying man in his arms as he tried to stem blood flow from the wound. Ganaa reached into his pouch and pulled out a small guard flask, then poured a small amount of the medical powder inside onto the wound. It wasn’t enough.
As he looked at his dying friend, something dark and raging filled Ganaa’s mind. Slowly, his gaze turned to Junior’s struggling form, still wrapped in grass. Ganaa’s face turned to stone as he reached again for that strange power he felt in his chest. It rebelled at first, but Ganaa pressed on and forced it. Once more, it swept out of him, filled with all his anger, fear, and frustration.
The grass soaked it up just as before and again moved. The grass wrapping around Junior started tightening and twisting slowly, and the penguin’s struggles grew desperate. It was no use, however; soon, it was a wiggling grass cocoon. The grass continued to tighten and tighten until, finally, something gave. Then, with one swift motion, the grass cocoon violently twisted several times as it further compressed alongside the sound of breaking bones.
A few seconds later, dark red blood began seeping through the minute gaps, staining the blades of grass red.
An unintelligible roar shook the air, and Ganaa watched — only half aware, his brain clouded in a way he couldn’t describe — as the Beast Lord’s broken form reached for him.
But the beetle creature was faster.
Before the Beast Lord could even stand, a massive, armored beetle leg slammed him into the ground from above, pinning him on his stomach. As the strange being who had saved them maneuvered its massive horn into position behind Kusanagi’s head, the Beast Lord’s eyes burned into the human Trapper before him. He had treated them as nothing more than playthings, yet the tables had turned in only a few brief moments.
With a deep thump, the beetle creature’s metal horn pulled backward in its shell, and Ganaa let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding. That was until Ganaa met the Beast Lord’s gaze. The young man’s blood froze in his veins as Kusanagi’s glare transformed into a cold sneer.
Like a stone slipping under the surface of a lake, Kusanagi vanished into the ground beneath him. The beetle creature’s horn shot forward in the same instant and slammed into the empty ground where the Beast Lord had just been.
The resulting impact was powerful enough to throw Ganbaatar — still clutching Yutu — back several meters with the force of the shockwave alone. When the dust settled, the beetle creature stood in a shallow crater as wide as itself.
An empty crater absent of the Beast Lord, but for a small patch of bloodstained rubble.
The beetle stared at the ground for a moment, before stomping its feet, as if complaining that its prey had escaped.
Ganaa only pushed himself to his knees, still cradling Yutu, and stared, his mind blank.
The gentle laps of the Akh’lut pup’s tongue against his cheek were what finally broke through the fog clouding Ganaa’s mind some unknown time later.
When he turned to look, he saw both the Akh’lut and her gargantuan protector staring down at him.