The screaming Dread: Scouting
“Woah, that, that can’t be normal right?” E4 asked.
Before them were many steep cliffs. Tall sandstone reached towards the sky, with scraggy grass growing here and there. Yet it was not the stone nor the grass that caught E4’s eyes. Thick spires of metal jutted from the ground, just waiting to be harvested. E4 felt her eye tear up and felt a chill down her spine. She quickly wiped her hand on her dress, and deposited the small isopod that had slipped out.
“Didn’t take you for a prospector, I thought you were a doctor.” Ophelia commented.
“I’ve just got something in my eye.” E4 replied, wiping another isopod out. She noticed this one was green, filled with chloroplasts. Both began resonating with her. “But still, this kind of seam,” She wandered closer to examine the metal, and casually planted the isopods. The green one immediately went to work using its digging claws to burrow into the soil. Not quite bug, not quite plant, it quickly put up some leaves. It wouldn’t get far without resonance, but once it got started it could feed itself off sunlight, and its resonance would fuel the other one.
“Don’t get distracted E4, your patron isn’t here to protect you.” Patterson called, the scorn evident in his voice. It had been three days since he declared she had a patron, and ever since that tone had not left his voice. The last three days had been filled with walking, and the nights studying from three field guides Patterson had personally made. Of course she hadn’t been allowed to touch them, but Ophelia had persuaded him to at least let her listen.
“Coming.” E4 replied, slipping back into position in the rear. The marching order was Patterson in the front, with P1-4 in a diamond pattern behind them and P5 behind them. She and Ophelia were in the back, Ophelia ensuring their tracks were not followed with some manner of branch that seemed to grip the Myst around it. E4 had tried to figure out how it worked, and failed.
“Ok, first order of business, we need a scout. Ophelia, would you mind?” Ophelia nodded and gestured. Immediately her form began to spark as Myst was attracted to her. For a few moments E4 lost her in the cloud, and then to her surprise Ophelia was replaced by a large winged creature. It was scaled like a lizard, with brown and tan speckled camouflage on its back, and long brown and tan feathers on its wings. It wasn’t a pterodactyl, but it also wasn’t quite a bird. It resembled an eagle more than anything, save for the snout full of needle teeth within a long stork like beak. It strutted on two long legs before letting out a squawk and taking flight.
“Is that normal?”
“For Ophelia it is.” Patterson replied, before remembering he was unhappy with E4. “You should get some practice too. Go scout, see if there are any signs of creatures of The Myst around. When we finally find The Screaming Dread we don’t want a pride of lions to attack us. P1, take the others and prepare a blind.” He drew a grappling hook from his bag and threw it to the top of a cliff. “P2 you’re with me. Let’s go regulators, we’re burning daylight.”
Despite being dismissed so easily, E4 quickly found a way to keep busy. Several of the plants she encountered nearby matched up with those from the books Marissa had her read, and she easily filled her bag with useful samples, and planted more isopods. Finally, she felt her eye begin to dry, a sign she didn’t have any more to leave. A quick count indicated she had three solar collectors, two metal miners, and four which had latched onto useful herbs. The ones connected to the herbs were the easiest, because they could still gather sunlight as well as feed off the plant.
A low yipping sound alerted E4 to an issue. Crouching low she began to chitter quietly. Peering over a few bushes she saw a dozen large painted dogs circling around a creature she did not recognize. Each dog was the usual color of African painted dogs yet were nearly twice the size. Long fangs extended from their jaws, already wet with blood. The Myst seemed to settle around them, seeming to grant its approval of the slaughter. The Hyena like creature they were encircling had several cuts and bite marks and looked on its last legs. One of the dogs lunged for an opening, only for its advance to be rebuked with a quiet snapping of jaws. The other creature writhed like a snake, its long and muscular jaws crushing the painted dog’s neck with a flash of Aether. Yet even as it did two others went for its back legs. Its hopeless eyes turned to the horizon in search of salvation, and found E4.
“Woah, that’s,” E4 felt Mara’s grip on her spine. She drew her die, then looked back to the creature. She saw the pleading in its eyes, and emotion she felt far too human, a look she had turned away from in shame too many times. “The bones abide,” She dropped the die and opened fire.
Her first bolt was a mad hornet of force, buzzing as it found its way into the first dog’s rump. The hound yelped, before the poison hit. The dog turned along with three of its fellows, not even noticing the scintillating vapor that was still leaking from its leg. The first two lunged, the third just kind of loped along. The monsters lashed out with fang and claw, their stomachs growling for E4’s flesh in their gut.
“Sorry pups.” E4 spoke, transparent claws slashing through all three in an instant. Two went down hard, one managed to barely limp to its feet, shimmering fog leaking from a cut that bisected several of its ribs. “But in a battle of claws, never bet against a ravager.” She pointed her knife at the injured one. “Bio-lightning.”
E4 felt her arm open up, hidden biocapacitors flush with ATP charged, and in an instant a bolt of blinding lightning shot forth into the wounded beast, leaving only the rear half of the beast behind. Everything else dissolved into Aether. Her knife was looking a little worse for wear, but it still crackle with electricity. E4 took a deep breath, and felt the dense Myst that now permeated the air. “Alright, who’s next?
The painted dogs split, half on the creature half on her. E4 advanced, spearing one with her dagger before cutting its throat with her claws. Two managed to get her legs with their fangs, yet even to E4’s expectations they did minimal damage and a slice to each resolved their threat. One bit into the crossbow that was now hanging from its harness, only for a single claw to pierce its skull with unnatural ease.
For its part the other creature was holding its own. With fewer dogs surrounding it the creature bobbed and weaved like a crazed snake, its long legs dancing a rhythic dance that invited no reprisal. When two dogs went for its legs they each missed by a centimeter and each received a stomp on the head in reply. Like a striking snake the creature lashed out, clipping one on the back of the neck before stomping on the back of the other in a wild leap that carried it behind the dog, allowing the dog that thought it was sneaking up behind the creature to instead take a bite from nothing but air. As the one that had been leapt over tried to turn it realized its back right leg was now missing a key joint, courtesy of the creature’s jaws.
E4 locked eyes with the dogs who had now turned to her, only for the creature to nip one in the neck and divert their attention back to it. This was a costly mistake, as a crossbow bolt flew into the eye of one, just before a telekinetic lunge threw E4 within claw range of the other, to deadly results. Each time the dogs targeted her the strange creature would bolt from the periphery to snatch a neck or a leg, catching the dogs attention long enough for E4 to launch a bolt, or make a slash that either killed or badly wounded a dog. Twice she misjudged a blow, catching a bite in return, which she repaid in kind both times. Within 3 minutes E4 was out of breath, but the dogs drew no more breaths.
E4 relaxed her claws, and turned to the strange creature, only to find it within arm’s reach. She braced, ready for those jaws to try and snatch her arm. Instead the creature rubbed its ear against her in a way that reminded her of a housecat. Its pointed ears folded as it did, before unfolding again as it looked up at her. E4 reached out and stroked its long neck. It began to let out a low purring sound, deep and rumbling like an engine as it looked up at her and slowly blinked. E4 returned the blink but more in surprise, as the creature had two forwards facing eyes the color of purified silver and two crimson side eyes with goat like pupils. E4 felt herself relax, though she couldn’t exactly forget the short snapping sounds the creature made during the fight. “You’re not going to try eating me like that are you?”
The creature either sneezed of chuffed indignantly. It trotted over towards one of the bodies and let out a breath that seemed to reduce a good chunk of it to nothing but bones. It breathed in the dense Myst, before picking up one of the bones and gnawing on it. “Well, enjoy your meal.” E4 replied, calling a few bones to her hand. Immediately she felt her fangs begin to push through her gums and her stomach let out a loud growl. “Really Mara? Red, can you tell me if these are safe to eat?” She considered, before slicing a piece off with her thumbs and popping it in her mouth. Her fangs twitched, and her mouth became a tiny storm of telekinetic blades. She swallowed, and the already broken down bone quickly turned to dense Myst within her stomach.
[[Dense Myst absorbed. Bones are both safe and nutritious. Convert into ATP to restore energy or apply to muscle growth?]] E4 chittered for a moment and felt her limbs begin to go numb as the muscles were rapidly torn apart and regrown. She felt some of the Myst turn into Aether, which in turn was used to create large amounts of ATP. The majority was broken down and reused to grow new muscle, the ATP being used to overclock the growth. It was small, but her meal had been small, and there were still 11 unclaimed bodies. “Maybe just a light snack.
In the end, E4 ate two of the creatures before they faded too much to be of use, with the other creature eating another one. To E4’s surprise as she butchered her food The Hymn directed her on how to carve it properly to preserve the hide. True her backpack was already full, but her flesh fabrication allowed her to rapidly grow several long red hairs that with a bit of telekinesis she turned into thread and wove into a bag. A bit of bone grew from her arm to form the clasp and a few other components.
[[Sorting bag: A bag that can anticipate needs and adjust the location of objects to be easier to grab. Possesses no space manipulation properties yet. ATP: 7/7. Signal 1. Resonance 1. Max signal 2. Upkeep 1 ATP/week.]] E4 smiled as she connected to it, and promptly got to work preserving the rest of the hides. As she worked her fingers sweated the required oils and chemicals needed, and by the time she was done her bag was full. With a gesture she degloved the damaged skin, which came off in strips that rapidly evaporated into Aether, and was left with healthy pink skin beneath. “You know, I could get used to this.” At about that time an isopod arrived, its shell now gleaming from all the copper it now contained. E4 reached down and extracted the tiny creature from its shell, before swallowing it. With a gesture she lifted the copper laden shell and plopped it into the last bit of space in her new bag. “Well that’s going to be hard to explain.” She paused. “Wait, I planted a bunch of those,” E4 noticed another one already approaching. “Yep, that’s going to be hard to explain. Alright you lot, form a line.”
As E4 continued scouting she ran into a few more wild dogs as well as a starving lion. The wild dogs must have smelled the skins in her bag, as they took off without a second thought. The lion she saw creeping up on her, and she welcomed it with a poisoned crossbow bolt. As it staggered, the bolt unloading its payload directly into its bloodstream and bombarding its brain with the euphoria caused by ravage toxin, she threw herself with telekinesis and took off its head.
“Shame about the pelt.” E4 chittered as she ran a current through the lion. She considered eating it, but the very thought of food made her stomach feel bloated and full while at the same time her muscles burned with the exertion of regrowth. She breathed in the dense Myst, and received a pop up. [[Dense Myst absorbed. Host body cannot hold any more Dense Myst at this time. ATP storage full. I never knew we could be full, it is comforting.]] “Well that’s disappointing, but I’m glad you’re happy Red Queen.” With a gesture she sent a burst of electricity through the remains, and was rewarded with a section of lion hide as the Aetheric mist vanished to wherever it went. Immediately her spine went cold.
[[Skill acquired: Danger sense. Sense hazards such as ambushes or traps. Subversion: Prey sense. Gain insight on nearby predators or dangerous entities. Exact details still forthcoming]]. As E4 eyed the skill she felt like there was more to it than just that, but such thoughts were quickly washed away as she became aware of two presences observing her. One was both immense and beneath her notice, innumerable while singular, incomprehensible while mundane. It was foreign, alien, yet closer than her own skin. She immediately identified it as Mara. The other, she could not quite put her finger on. It was ancient beyond measure, far older than she or Mara. It was singular, but it was everywhere. She couldn’t estimate how powerful it was, but it gave her a bad feeling. E4 whipped around, expecting some nameless horror to be behind her, yet the only thing she could see was The Myst.
E4 didn’t like it, but she continued her scouting. Most of the area was barren, with nothing but scrub grass and cliffs. She saw some odd antelope creatures, but she didn’t bother them and they didn’t bother her. No more of the dogs bothered her, and she didn’t see any more lions. Eventually she had to block out her prey sense, and as she did the sensation dropped away. E4 felt a shiver run down her spine, but the feeling was gone.
“Hey Red, what do you think? Is it better to be constantly aware something is watching you, or unaware but know you’re a twitch away from finding out?”
[[Reminder: I am a subverted section of your mind’s processing power designed to help you adapt and alert you to information the 5 senses are not designed to. Even the name, Red Queen, is something made by the group once known as the Bleeding Hearts and later adopted by the Fangs of Mara. I record information and assist in adaptation. I do not do life advice. Prayer, communion protocols with Mara, or counseling protocols with humans have brought some relief in the past- Red Queen.]]
Finding the camp was surprisingly easy, The Hymn led her right back. Climbing up a narrow path built into a cliff She found Ophelia’s tent set up, while Patterson and his men each had their own tent set up opposite a small fire in the center. P3 was currently working on a stew in a large pot, but she didn’t see anyone else. There was a blind on the edge of the cliff, though she couldn’t see if anyone was in it.
P3 looked up from the stew he was working on and his jaw dropped. “I thought you were scouting, what’s all that?” He gestured to the large bag bulging with skins.
“A group of painted dogs decided I’d make a good appetizer. They got food poisoning.” E4 replied with a smile. “That Fast fabrication skill came in clutch.” She placed the pack by her feet. “Found a lion too, but couldn’t take it with me. Where’s Patterson and Ophelia?”
“The druid? She isn’t back yet. The boss is in his tent, apparently, he and P4 are down with something. P2 is out patrolling as well, I think. Haven’t seen him in a bit. I think P5 is looking at some rock formations Patterson spotted.”
“Patterson is ill?” E4 quickly stowed her new bag and retrieved her healer’s kit before P1 stopped her. “Why are you stopping me?”
“Patterson doesn’t like you, he doesn’t want you in his tent.”
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“If he’s sick it’s my job as a healer to help him.” E4 replied. “At least let me offer my services. If he says no, and I hear him say no, then I won’t bother you about it again.”
P1 eyed E4, before shrugging. “Ok, but I’ll be watching you.”
E4 approached the tent. “Patterson, hello?” She placed a hand on the flap that covered the entrance. “P3 said,”
BANG! The gunshot made E4 almost jump out of her skin. She checked to ensure she wasn’t hit, only to find he had winged her in the arm. The E4 quickly bandaged the wound, and let her own regeneration do the rest. The pain ceased within a few moments, and she guessed it would be healed without scars within 5 minutes. Fortunately, it only hit flesh and not bone, which would take longer.
“Be gone witch, I know not what potion or concoction you slipped into my food, but you won’t have me.”
“First of all, I’m not poisoning you.” E4 replied. “If it was me, I’d use a numbing poison. You would feel either numb or euphoric. M… My patron does not like to cause pain. Second, I wanted to let you know there was a pack of wild dogs and a lion out there, both taken care of now. There’s also some kind of strange long legged hyena out there. It doesn’t seem aggressive, but it chewed through a bunch of those wild dogs. There’s also some deer, but they don’t appear to be aggressive. No sign of the creature we’re looking for.”
“So you admit to having a patron.” Patterson stepped out of his tent, and E4 was immediately drawn to his eyes. They were bloodshot and wild, yet E4 couldn’t help but see they didn’t focus on any one thing. “Do Marissa and Marcus know? Of course not.” He stared for a moment, his mouth opened as he made to speak another word.
“Patterson?” She quickly pushed in, and froze at the sight.
“It was you, you and the druid.” He spoke, then paused. “No, no, it wouldn’t be her, that’s not… that’s not…” Patterson sat down in the doorway of his tent. “No, what, what the devil is happening?
“Hey, he told you to,” E4 saw the moment when P1 froze. E4 followed his eyes to where Patterson’s shirt was ripped. He bore a large cut in his arm, the flesh loose, but no blood flowed.
E4 quickly took his pulse, then checked for his breath. Patterson let her take his pulse, but when she moved for his mouth he swatted her away. “He’s alive, but this is bad.” She shook him. “Patterson, Patterson wake up.”
“What are you on about?” Patterson immediately stood. “P3, did not I tell you to keep her under control? P1, why in the Queen’s name did you let her into my tent?” He made a gesture and his rifle flew from his tent and smacked into his hand like a baseball into a catcher’s mitt. “We will have a long discussion about this later, for now, THE HUNT!” He turned and marched off.
E4 and P3 watched him go, P1 grabbing his weapons to follow. “You can’t think that’s normal, right?” E4 finally spoke.
“No, that is not normal, but he’s the boss.” P3 replied, quickly retrieving his axe as the other Myst Folk congregated. P2 seemed to wander in as if on cue, his face pale and his eyes hollow. P4 seemed little better as he left his tent, his movements stiff and his face gaunt. “If I were you, I’d make sure you weren’t here when we get back.”
With that they followed their leader.
E4 remained for a while, uncertain on what to do. She listened to The Hymn for a bit, but it sang discordant notes. One moment it told her to find Patterson, the next it told her to find Ophelia, and the next it told her to sweep up the camp site. E4 sighed, before she heard the low chattering of her isopods. “Oh, should probably grab those.”
The next hour was devoted to gathering up the isopods, who had begun crawling their way back to her. Twice she found one being harassed by wild dogs, and needless to say those wild dogs ended up in a stew.
As she was cooking E4 heard a flapping of wings and a moment later Ophelia returned to human, or kobold, form. “Where did the guys go?”
“Patterson decided it was time to go on the hunt, and took them all to go after The Screaming Dread. He pretty much kicked me out of the group, and The Hymn has been pestering me to find you, find him, clean up camp, do the dishes, and run screaming into the Myst. I’ve tried praying to God and seeking wisdom from my patron” She rolled her die, which dropped to the ground, hovered a moment, and landed on a 2. “It’s been giving me that for the past hour. I think it’s telling me not to trust P2.
“Your patron speaks through a die?”
“Not exactly. The die is more connected to me than to her, but she can influence it. You know how it is, the lot is cast into the lap but the result belongs to The Lord.” She dished up a bowl of soup. “Want some? No human meat, I promise.”
“Probably best to eat before we go after Patterson. I caught sight of the Screaming Dread, and I don’t like our odds.” Ophelia replied, taking a bite. “Is there Mountain marrow in this?”
“I found a bunch of things while scouting. I kind of guessed what might improve the taste. Is that bad?”
E4 waited for Ophelia to finish the soup, which she drained in 15 seconds flat. “No, Mountain Marrow is one of the reagents I’ve been looking for. You didn’t mention you had a harvesting skill.” E4 immediately received a pop up, but she ignored it. “Having it this early means you won’t have to rush around trying to find it later if you go for a tenacity build. It’s one of the last ones on my list. More immediately relevant, it buffs your tenacity and can help get a tenacity skill if you get into a fight under its influence.” She paused. “Which we’ll both be needing. The Screaming Dread is undead.”
E4 eyed her before taking another bite of soup. She received a pop up indicating her tenacity was increased, but without a baseline she didn’t know what hers had been nor what it was now. “If it is alright with you, I will be asking about builds later. For now, what do you mean undead? Are they living creatures controlled by a parasite or fungus? Has their bodies stopped creating new cells but certain nerve and muscle pathways continue to function through anaerobic respiration?”
“For a moment I’m not sure if you’re new to The Distant Shores, or if you’ve been here a lifetime already.” Ophelia replied. “Undead are the most dangerous things in The Distant Shores. Even a tier 0 undead can be a threat to a tier 1 regulator, and most punch one or two tiers above their weight class. Myst folk have no defense against them. The weaker ones can be cut or bashed apart, but if they are left alone they will eventually put themselves back together unless you burn them. Aetheric weapons have some effect, but only because they directly turn the Myst into Aether. Weapons that break apart congealed Myst are practically ineffective because the Myst within an undead is packed so tightly it creates a pseudo gravitational field.”
“That has to be cheating.” E4 replied, finishing her soup.
“Worse, they like to steal the Myst right off your bones. Regular creatures, including us, have to kill their prey to absorb their Dense Myst. Undead don’t, every blow steals a little bit, leaving wounds that don’t fully heal for weeks to months. It’s worse for Myst folk, damage inflicted can never be healed. Their only choice is to live with it, or return to The Myst.
E4 paused, thinking. “Then why did we bring 5 of them?” She rose up. “We have to go stop them. They’re going to get themselves killed!”
“All Myst folk are on borrowed time E4. Those who join us take their lives in their hands to try to better them. If we didn’t use them we’d die and then their homes would be slaughtered anyhow” Ophelia replied. “Besides, Patterson isn’t actually going to try to take the thing down, he wouldn’t live this long if he was that dumb. He’ll get half way there, following that prey compass The Myst gave him, realize what he’s up against, and come right back to regroup. In the mean time, we prepare.” From her bag she pulled several large stones, each one about three kilograms. “How good are those claws of yours at carving?”
E4 made a gesture, and translucent claws seemed to form. “They cut through bone just fine, stone shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Perfect.” Ophelia replied, removing some paint and a brush from her bag. “I’m going to paint some runes on, then you carve where I paint. It’ll take more Aether to get the effects we want, but they’ll be less likely to smear.”
“Do I match the thickness or just any old cut?” Ophelia gestured for her to elaborate and E4 easily cut a small channel into a stone the width of a razor, then next applied a spin so the telekinetic force worked more like a drill, allowing for a slower but wider cut. She heard a small ding [[skill: makeshift hammer obtained]]. “I think I just got a skill.”
“Good, that will make this easier.” She immediately got to work with a side project, taking an odd looking device and channeling Aether into it. To E4’s eyes it resembled an alarm clock, but rather than a pair of bells it had a bowl above it. As the dial began to move Ophelia piled some dirt into the bowl, then added some ore.
E4 watched for a little while before asking, “So what’s that?”
“A microforge. I’m sure your companions have one on their train, but this little one is cute and perfect for my purposes.” She motioned her hand over the ore, and E4 noticed it was starting to soften. “I’ve got enough copper ore to use metal on these stones rather than just paint, which will make them stronger. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to get much, and I don’t have any tin to make bronze. That would work better.”
“What about iron?”
“Don’t ask me why, but iron doesn’t play nice with my Aether Shaping. I've had some wizards tell me iron and druid magic don't play well together, but I think they were just making it up. This isn't Dungeons and Demigods, or whatever they call their game.”
E4 quickly got up from where she was working, and when she returned she was carrying two copper shells and one tin shell. “Would this help?”
“Where did you, did your patron give you those?” E4 gave a non-commital shrug. “Huh, almost looks like a shell. Who did you say your patron was, one of the Lords who Crawl?”
“I have no idea who or what those are.” E4 replied, breaking a part of the shell off at a point where it was grown intentionally thin. As she did some of the metal seemed to crumble. “Hmmm, looks like they need some work.” E4 examined the broken off piece, to find it was a slightly bent bar, weighing exactly 1 kg. “Or maybe not.”
The next hour was spent forging and working on the strange stones. E4 watched Ophelia pour power into them, but whenever she tried it seemed not to work. Once she tried applying blood, which raised an eyebrow ridge from Ophelia until she suddenly grabbed it with telekinesis and threw it as hard as she could. The resulting blast was not overly impressive, but it could have cost E4 her hands if she had been holding it.
“Ok, so there’s definitely something to that. Did you get a skill for it?” E4 shook her head. “Guess you just don’t have the touch. It’s about time we move anyhow.” She stood and stretched. “I thought Patterson would be back by now.”
Ophelia took to the air and E4 quickly placed the stones into Ophelia’s bag. She watched the druid circle a few times before flying off. Fifteen minutes later she returned, dropping like a stone and turning back into kobold form as she did.
“Quickly, my bag!” E4 handed it to her as Ophelia threw it on. “They’ve already engaged the creature, this is bad, really bad. Hop on.”
Immediately Ophelia was engulfed in a cloud of myst which faded to reveal an even larger winged creature. This one resembled an eagle, save that its maw was filled with long needle teeth and its neck was far larger. E4 eyed the creature, gingerly getting onto a section where the neck connected to her body. Given her skirt E4 sat sidesaddle, but with her telekinesis she didn’t have to worry about falling off, even as Ophelia took off like a shot.
“So what are we going to do, drop the stones like bombs?” Ophelia let loose a kacaw that E4 interpreted as no. As she soared E4 realized just how little of the land she had seen. The world sprawled before her, yet so much was obscured. She saw a pair of rivers twenty meters wide, cutting into quarters a quartet of plateau at least 200 meters across each. In the distance she thought she could see other plateau, and beyond that tall trees loomed even taller. Yet as she stared the trees changed to mountains, and the mountains to dunes. “Red?” She chittered, yet no answers came. She felt her eyes attempt to zoom in, to unfocus and refocus, yet as she did what she thought were mountains became glaciers, or maybe that was just light reflecting on the myst. Every color abruptly reversed as I tried to change spectrum, but that did nothing. For just a moment, before her eyes returned to their usual spectrum, she thought she saw something. A small town cloaked in swirling myst with a large mansion on one side and a boxy structure clockwise to it.
Yet E4 saw they were not headed towards that place, rather one of the plateau. She saw the ruins of a temple, or some manner of stone monument. She saw P1 and 3 standing with long spears pointed at some manner of creature while P4 harried it with a crossbow she hadn’t seen him using before. P2 and Patterson were nowhere to be seen.
Immediately Ophelia returned to human shape, 10 meters up. E4 barely had time to orient herself to land, which was not helped as her skirt seemed to want to fly up and blind her. With a gesture she gripped the air, throwing herself into a roll to soften the impact. It worked, right until she fell headfirst into a rock.
“Patterson, I have the stones!” Ophelia yelled. As E4 rose up she saw the short kobold looking for Patterson. She didn’t see him, but something certainly saw them.
The feeling hit first, an itch that rapidly became a scratch, which became a thousand vegetable peelers on her skin, her bones, her eyes. E4’s left eye immediately went dead, her ears went next as the screams of the damned tore through them. She should have gone deaf, but rather than the ringing of tenitis her ears continued to receive the crazed howling of men and women who by any stretch of mercy should have died long ago. Her dead eye could almost see them, a mass of tortured souls trapped within a cage of bone, forever screaming to be released, forever wishing for death.
Yet her right eye saw the world as it was. The isopod that had so long ago, as in a bit over a week ago, settled in its place was far hardier than mere flesh or bone. What saw in place of her eye was a specialized shell with several vision receptors. To the human brain it would provide only the colors it was used to, then it would display information, then it would eventually show colors the human eye could not see. Furthermore, unlike the human eye, it was exceedingly durable.
Through this unbreakable lens E4 saw the Screaming Dread as it was. Tough gray skin hung loosely from the mostly skeletal creature. Long ivory tusks jutted from its skull. E4 was not sure if its trunk was supposed to be split in the way it was, but staring down the creature’s trunk she could not be certain either way. Hollow eye sockets gazed blankly, yet E4 could not help but feel it still stared at her. Its ribs were exposed, its spine covered in tatters. Yet it was within the ribs that she saw dozens, if not hundreds of lights. Where lights were visible with her right ravager eye, haunted faces were visible with her left.
“P1, the maid’s dead, where is Patterson?” P3 called out. “Where is P2 with that bomb?”
“I don’t know!” P1 yelled, stabbing into the Screaming dread, his spear sparking with Aether. Even as it did a spark jumped back and landed on his shirt, burning away a good chunk of the fabric and, if E4 was right, his skin. “I don’t know alright, he always comes in and saves the day,”
E4 reached out, gripping the air with telekinesis. With a gesture she poured ATP into her limbs, her cells replicating at inhuman speeds. To her partial surprise the Myst around her seemed to rush to her aid, supplying the raw mass she would otherwise have to repurposed from other sources. In moments her flesh went from skinned to raw, but it was enough. She threw herself into the air and at the creature, claws out. The Screaming dread, already turned towards where P4 was firing crossbow bolts at it, didn’t realize she was a threat until her claws dug in.
As E4 hit all 14 claws, each one 10 centimeters long, dug in. She twitched her thumbs, angling the claws to cut a chunk of bone with her left hand before throwing it to the side. As she reached for a second section a pop up caught her eye.
[[Ultra dense Myst detected.]] E4 saw that the bone section she had thrown did not evaporate into a cloud or static, but instead spewed an oily black murk that immediately sank to the ground as if it were trying to evaporate but was denser than the surrounding air. This murk did not vanish nor did it form a cloud, but spread as if it were an oily slick. To her surprise it seemed to flow towards the Screaming dread, as if cold fog was rolling down a mountain. [[Ultra dense Myst renamed as Murk]]
“Maid, focus!” E4 jumped back and interposed her claws just before a rotted ivory tusk could take her head off. Even still she was thrown back. Catching herself E4 took a moment to take in her surroundings. P1 was reloading, and now that she was close she could see the crossbow he was firing didn’t fire regular crossbows, but was somehow firing javelin sized bolts. As she watched he pulled a lever and a dozen metal cylinders lining the length of the weapon lit up with a blinding white glare, the wires connecting the crossbow to the bolts sparking. Had the Screaming Dread not already have been skeletal she was sure the device was pumping enough volts to illuminate the creature’s bones. As it was black murk flowed from the creature like a faucet while P3 and P4 had stepped back to avoid the mess. Ophelia was still planting the stones, though as the Screaming dread fell she took a moment to throw a vial of something at the creature. Immediately the bottle exploded into flames, yet rather than splashing across everything it coalesced into a cheerful sphere of flame, which immediately began burning the Screaming Dread.
“I’ve almost got the circle.” Ophelia called. “Keep up the pressure!” She placed another stone, which was immediately engulfed in thick woody vines.
That’s when things went wrong. E4 heard the scream come from P3 and P4 at the same time. For a moment E4 thought they had gotten tangled up in a strip of the creature’s flesh, until she saw the striped pattern. Red and yellow kill a fellow, the old rhyme shot through her mind as both men fell to the ground, long striped snakes still locked onto their arms and legs. Ophelia jumped back, slamming a snake with her staff, while P1 dropped the crossbow to nail two snakes with a revolver. Even as the flame burned the Screaming Dread she saw it begin to get up.
“E4, we can’t let the scolophant get out of the ring of stones! The only way to kill it is to cut it off from the surrounding Myst!” Ophelia called out. E4 watched as the bone she had cut off finished dissolving into murk, a long tendril reaching from it to the elephant. The bone she had cut was already reforming, a bit worse for wear but not by much. Her dead eye saw the souls weep at the sight of their prison reforming. With a lashing of its trunk the Screaming dread crushed P4, and he was gone. His body seemed to just implode into murk, and was draw into the Screaming Dread. Like curtains falling on a play gray skin seemed to fall over its bones, repealing any damage done.