With most of the surviving bar patrons stored away in my Shadow, I closed the entrance and prepared to fend off any monsters that Luke didn't manage to draw away. His gunfire had stopped, and I could only hope that was to avoid attracting extra monsters and not because he'd been caught and taken out.
It was a brave and stupid thing he was doing. The monsters weren't exactly team players, but they could work together with relentless focus to catch their prey. He'd be pursued, and even if one flagged, others could quickly be drawn into the chase. Still, I had to hope he'd been successful in drawing away most of the monsters.
I could hopefully fight off one or two; any more than that, and I'd be in the same position of trying to escape a hunting party that could easily grow to impossible sizes. Luke's best bet would be to get inside someplace with long halls to bottleneck his pursuers and hopefully give him a chance to escape.
With Satoshi's spear in hand, I crouched behind the delivery van and peered around the corner to look for any monsters that Luke hadn't managed to distract.
Spotting an incoming monster, I pulled my head back. Not a dozen feet away, a fat snake slithered toward me. The snake was maybe fifteen feet long, but it was as wide as a shark or crocodile, not noodle-ly like a snake. It didn't look like it should be able to slither at all. Still, its stout body curled and uncurled in crescent shapes that steadily propelled it across the cement sidewalks.
I was pretty sure it didn't see me peeking out, but it was still coming this way. If I was going to try to slip away without being seen, I'd need to do so immediately.
I didn't want to.
I might not look at the monsters as demons that needed to be destroyed and hated utterly, mostly because I'd seen a spectrum of beings that people called demons, and some of them were better company than a lot of people I'd met. I also knew what it felt like to be treated as a monster while being fully a person. I'd hate to be guilty of that same mindset. At the same time, this creature was literally chasing me and my allies to kill and eat—Well, sort of anyway. From what I could tell, the only thing the creatures were actually after were the crystals that formed in brains.
I hadn't actually seen any human memory crystals, but I'd seen the results of them being harvested. Alice had been in the middle of performing brain surgery when the vortex landed and had told me about seeing such a crystal suddenly appear in her patient's brain.
I didn't know what draw the crystals had for the monsters, but I was probably instinctual rather than intentional. I'd learned some uses for memory crystals, and claiming another one would be valuable. Even before learning about those uses, I'd experienced the primal draw they could inspire just through proximity; likely, that was what the monsters pursued: a naturally alluring aura.
I could hear the sound of the monster's scales grinding dirt and grit across the cement and pulled my spear back, ready to thrust forward the moment I spotted an eye.
A pale greenish-white scaled snout slid past the edge of the van, a forked tongue the size of a human forearm flicking out, tasting the air.
Right, I realized at the last moment. It can probably taste me.
The snake paused, angled its head in my direction, and sent its tongue out to taste the air right in front of me. Making my decision, I jumped out, gauging where I'd find an eye, and stabbed out as soon as it came into view. Snakes are fast but not necessarily equipped for ambushes, or maybe that was just a problem for this obese boy.
The pale glow-in-the-dark-looking reptile started to pull its head back for a dodge or a strike. Still, my blow was quicker, and the point of my makeshift spear slipped cleanly into its eye before coming to an abrupt halt several inches in.
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The snake hissed and writhed, but I kept a hold of my spear, and the motion only did more damage. I pulled the spear back out, and the serpent snapped at my weapon. I danced back out of the way, my heart pounding in my chest. I'd never faced this particular monster, but I'd had enough close calls that I knew not to let up, that it was just as dangerous with one eye as two, perhaps more so.
As I hopped away from its snapping mouth, I jumped to the side, spear cocked briefly, and lunged forward, taking it in the other eye. I felt the spear hit bone, and then the weight I put behind the strike carried the point deeper, and the monster's thrashing came to an end.
My breaths came heavy as I leaned on the spear, waiting to see if it was playing dead or not. Most of the monsters like this I'd seen were as dumb or dumber than the natural creatures they resembled, but that wasn't universally true, and I wasn't about to get tricked by a snake playing dead.
After several long seconds in which nothing moved, I sighed in relief, convinced the danger was passed. Which was precisely the moment the giant jumping spider must have been waiting for.
I didn't see where it came from; one moment, my vision was clear and my surroundings safe. The next moment, a semi-fuzzy bowling ball hit me in the head.
The hit happened so fast that, for a moment, I thought my feet had been kicked out from under me. Instead, my body was knocked almost horizontal by the hit, the pressure on my head and neck significant and quickly developing into pain intense pain.
I smashed into the blacktop and rolled from the momentum imparted by the attacking monster. I panicked, not knowing what had struck me or what was clinging to my head.
Frantically, I groped at the fur and carapace wrapping around my head and pulled. I felt the tearing of flesh on one side of my snout as fangs bit deeply and resisted my pull. The pain took a back seat to the fear, however, and I chucked the creature away from me and down the street. Finally, I managed to get a look at my attacker. The spider was roughly the size of a basketball, and it had tennisball sized eyes.
It rolled once or twice from my throw, but in a display of impressive athleticism, it used a few of its feet to spring off the ground and orient itself so it landed facing me.
"FUCK!" I swore with Nia's voice. My cheek was torn badly, and I could feel the cold air on my canines even with a closed mouth. My chest and stomach cramped in rebellion against the pain but achieved precisely nothing.
This was too familiar. One of the first monsters I'd seen had resembled a grasshopper and had a similar fondness for leaping at me when I wasn't paying attention. Even with help, it had taken me practice learning the timing I'd needed to defeat the thing. I could only hope at least some of that practice would apply here.
The jumping spider stared at me and positioned and repositioned its body as though looking for a good angle of attack. I was standing with the delivery van at my back, and the moment of remembering inspired an idea in me. Slender Hopper had actually been the second monster I'd seen. The first was a similarly sized tick-like monster I'd named Tickles. It had found itself trapped in a car.
Reaching back without taking my eyes off the creature, I tested the handle of the abandoned delivery van. It wasn't locked, and I pulled it open without looking. Hopefully, there wasn't another monster in there, or a hiding innocent for that matter. Based on how the spider had attacked before, it was waiting for an opening it could take advantage of.
Intentionally, I took my eyes off the creature and shot a look into the van to be sure it was clear. At the same time, I took a step sideways while simultaneously spinning, bringing a furred arm out, and prayed to the cosmos that I'd timed things right. I saw a flash of pale green fly past my face, but I utterly failed to land a hit on it as it did. Still, I heard a crashing sound as the giant, mangey, jumping spider hit the back of the van and sent the whole thing rocking.
Grabbing the door, I slammed it closed before the spider could escape. Then I crouched and looked around for any sign of other monsters. It didn't help that their pale green skin and carapaces blended in so well with the haze that blanketed Forest Lake, if only to my eyes.
Seeing no incoming danger, and not able contain myself any longer, I pressed the hanging flap of skin on my muzzle in place and screamed into my furry hands. It didn't help. This wasn't a wound I could press or even bandage closed, and it was far too painful to ignore. It would need to be tended to, and I only knew of one doctor who wouldn't run away from me at first glance.
Luke would need to take care of himself; I needed to go back to the hospital.