A contorted snarl of limbs crashed through the crumbling sheet of rock. The creature’s droning stuttered and wildly fluctuated in volume as it rode the landslide down into the ravine.

I sprinted for my life as grey powder engulfed the air. Narrowly escaping the onslaught of rock and soil I stumbled forward across the polluted path and failed to avoid the boulders hidden in the murkiness.

I smashed my shin into a sharp edge and tumbled into the dirt. Though metal shielded my shins from laceration, the force still bruised the flesh beneath it.

I stifled a scream into the dirt. Ash and soil continued to stream down the slope. I was lost in a cloud of dust and no longer knew which way was forward anymore. All I could do was listen.

The creature was silent again. Ash permeated the air and clung to the inside of my mouth. I clasped my hand over my face in an attempt to filter out the suffocating particles and struggled to suppress coughs. The only sound that could be heard was the shifting soil tricking across the earth.

A blue arc of electricity sparked down my arm for a moment, and I clasped it tightly to my chest to stop it from detonating in the dust cloud. It discharged into my collarbone, burning the skin instead. I bit down on my tongue and endured it.

Almost all light had been snuffed out, and for a moment I was transported back into the aether again. Suspended in nothing, unimaginably alone.

One, two, three, four. One, two, three. Four. It arrived. I was far from alone.

I raised my head and gaped in silent horror. Floating above me was a disjointed mass of branching charcoal appendages. Much like the dead carbon trees that populated the wastelands, this twisted extremity was a network of harsh, rigid limbs that lanced out in all directions from a central trunk as thick as my leg. The entire maze of ashen limbs projected outward from the base by about twelve feet.

Frozen in place, I lay like a statue on my back. The surface of the limbs was pockmarked, and long grooves ran along their length. They appeared incredibly dense and tough but, a viscous fluid coating every surface granted them a living, biological aspect. Fine ash and soil clung to the fluid, speckling its skin with grey flakes.

I stopped breathing. It didn’t seem to have seen me. There were no eyes to be found on the creature. It appeared to have tracked me using sound, not sight nor scent. It made sense, given the rank scent of the purple ooze that had collected on me. I certainly had no way to mask that.

I furiously blinked away the grit settling into my eyes as the dust cloud slowly descended. The creature remained motionless above me. I had no idea if this was the front or tail end of it. Either way, I remained locked onto its freaky tree-like appendage.

The dark colour of the limbs contrasted against the grey dust saturating the air. I followed the base, the central trunk of the limbs, back into the haze but it faded into obscurity.

I looked towards the very tips of the limbs. They tapered off into sharp points. Hanging directly over me from the end of one particular point was a large bead of slime. I braced as it trembled and swelled on the edge of bursting.

And it burst. Droplets of fluid fell down and splashed off my cheek. My skin burned where they made contact. But I made not a sound. Instead, the colour drained from my face as I remained fixed on the creature. Every one of its branches had split in two.

The limbs parted into halves, revealing bloody red flesh within. Interlaced through the red matter were thousands of fine grey bones thinner than needles. I stared, entranced by the sweeping patterns of thread-like bone.

The split appendages suddenly blurred together at great speed. The creature’s droning roared back into existence as the bones grated together and I screamed out aloud. A shockwave radiated from the creature and I wildly slashed my dagger towards it.

The blade bounced off tough skin. The creature reeled back momentarily in surprise and I scrambled to my feet. I ran blindly a few paces through the haze and smacked directly into the remaining, intact rockwall. Behind me, the dust cloud vaporised before the creature's blaring roar, revealing it in its entirety.

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Ten feet tall, it stood on four bent, bony legs, each with three joints. Skin pulled tightly over them revealing dense corded muscles. The branching limbs, now obviously some sort of head, stretched out from between tall sharp shoulders. Though calling them shoulders felt wrong, considering the creature’s leg bones continued a foot up past its crooked spine.

Its body was long, hunched and angular. Sharp ribs hooked down from the knobbly spine and clenched together, overlapping at its chest. The very ends of the ribs poked out from the skin itself, exposing pale grey bone. A long bony tail whipped wildly at its back. A serrated prong protruded from the end.

The creature stood still, screeching into the night for a few seconds. Its moist grey skin pulsed under the amber moonlight.

I stared at it, motionless against the wall and desperately hoped that it did not know where I had run to.

It did. The creature's left foot unearthed itself, revealing a scarred, pointed bone that it suddenly launched towards me. I scrambled forward and the bone punched a deep hole into the rock wall right where my head had been.

The collective weight of my hunger, fear, drowsiness and agony disappeared as I sprinted down the ravine. My arms swung wildly by my sides and I swore after I accidentally slashed my thigh with my dagger. I sheathed the damn thing before I could cut myself again.

The creature followed. Its legs speared into the ground behind me. Each stab cracked the earth around it and shot speeding stones into the back of my legs.

Ahead, the road narrowed to its slimmest section, before broadening outwards as the walls receded into the ground and the land opened up before the stronghold. I ran onwards and the walls began to taper inwards. I glanced behind me hoping to find the beast slowed somewhat.

It was galloping along the wall. Its left two feet speared into the rock wall, the right two maintained traction on the ground. A few of its head-limbs ground into the opposite wall as it ran, spitting out rock and debris, but the creature ignored it. It had tired of playing games.

Directly in front of me was the most narrow section of the ravine. The two walls converged at that point, forming a solid rock bridge at the top. I glanced over my shoulder and appraised the creature, desperate for some kind of solution. This thing was going to clear the gap. It had even stopped its damn droning.

As dread took hold of my body, my right hand began to twitch and spark with power. Arcs of electricity bounced between my splayed fingers.

Alright then. I will try using my shitty lighting power.

I ran alongside the left rock wall, and grazed my arm against it, scooping up the ashy residue coating it. The moment I passed underneath the rocky bridge, I threw my pile of ash up into the air and spun around to face the creature.

It dashed forwards, eager to close the short gap between us.

I stared down the creature’s fleshy head and let out a scream of my own. With my electrified metal arm I swung at the wall beside me and tore straight into it. A boulder-sized chunk of fractured rock spewed from the wall, spraying the creature with shards. My hand continued clean through the wall and arced up into the ashy air. The electric energy dancing across my fingers discharged, and the air detonated.

The ashen plume ignited with a deafening bang. The impact hit me front on and propelled me backwards. I crashed into the dirt, clearing the incoming mountain of rocky debris. The creature was not so lucky.

It had continued to barrel towards me in the seconds before the detonation. It met the explosion face-first. The inferno engulfed its head and blazed upwards into the sky. Half of the creature’s appendages melted away and it dropped to the ground in less than a second. Stunned and burnt, the limp monster was unable to escape the incoming boulders that dropped from above. A thunderous boom resounded as the ruined rock bridge crashed into the creature’s crooked back. It didn’t get up.

I was alive! My face was already blistering and I smelt like burnt hair, but I had done it. Slowly, I ambled to my feet, doing my best to ignore the searing pain in my lower back and the furious heat on my arms and face.

The road and creature were totally buried by rock. The wall I’d swung at must have been incredibly unstable because it had caved the moment I took out a chunk. With it, the bridge above split apart and toppled into the crevice, burying the beast.

A few branches of its head poked through the freshly fallen earth. They were no longer split apart, but joined together again. I frowned at the appendages as slime dripped down from one onto the soil. The dirt hissed as it bubbled and evaporated.

I turned from the creature, and stared up at the looming stronghold walls. There were a few more lights shining than before. I spotted several tiny figures rushing about on the parapet. There would be no hiding from them anymore, that was certain.

Now what? Do I stand here by my work? Or walk up there and greet them at their gate?

I suppose it would be more polite to meet them at the gate and own up to my carnage there. I heaved a sigh, brushed the ash off my face and readied myself. It was time to meet some new people.