Hallek

Hallek felt like an ant on a dance floor as he dodged the stomping footsteps of both Dalluth and Verris's brachiosaurs. He dodged between tree trunk legs that could crush him with a twitch and found shelter in an alley, panting hard. As he peered out, Dalluth was laying about himself with the brachiosaur corpse, smashing buildings to powder and crushing the other dinosaurs. Hallek saw Verris fall to the street and lay still, chest heaving up and down. Dalluth cackled madly.

“DIE!” Dalluth roared, shoving aside fallen brachiosaurs to get to Verris and finish him off.

You'd think a god would have more original dialogue, Hallek thought as he bolted across the street. It was the same weird old story with him and Verris. Yeah, he hadn't cared if Hallek died under the stampede, but...he had tried to save the city. That was worth saving. He grabbed Verris's body and rolled just ahead of Dallutth's claws into another alley, this one now too short to stand up in because of a fallen pallet of stone. Dalluth's claws raked gouges in the dirt just behind them.

“Okay,” Hallek said, examining the wreckage. “This actually looks pretty sturdy, you stay here.”

Verris, still unconscious from his fall, just rolled his head to the side.

“Exactly!” Hallek said. “You know, I think I like you better this way!”

There was another cacaphonic shriek from the street as Ballum had let loose a fresh strike from his rampage blade, cutting another gouge in Dalluth's side. But the first had already healed, and an enraged Dalluth tore the building Ballum stood on open with his claws like he was ripping open a melon, forcing the Kuraga warrior to retreat.

He's never gonna do real damage that way, Hallek thought desperately. Verris had the right idea, the only way to fight that thing is on its own terms. But it’s so powerful we'd need a Fang to really counter it. If only I was big again, I could...No, wait, stop it Hallek. Stop it. You were never big. The gianotosaurus was big. Those are its memories.

Except...except I am the gianaotosaurus. Our souls are merged, right? We're one and the same. I do remember being big. I'm half dinosaur in a human body and...

Hallek stared at the sword in his hand.

Could I be big again?

He gripped the sword in both hands and closed his eyes.

Remember what it was like, Hallek thought. Remember being the dinosaur. Remember...remember his mate. My mate. Our mate. The smaller gianotosaur, with the pretty white patterns on her snout. Remember stomping through the plains. Remember hunting brachiosaurs. Remember...

Orange lightning crackled across his entire body. He was lifted up out of the alley, up into the on a formless cloud of orange glow that crackled and shifted like clay being molded by giant hands. As the unseen sculptor finished their work anyone who had seen the original animal would recognize that every scale was perfect, every line and contour exactly replicated as Hallek became the nucleus of a titan made of orange light. He no longer felt his human body. He felt his clawed feet touching the paving below, He saw through the eyes above his snout, he smelled everything for miles in exquisite detail. Especially the thing in front of him, the awful thing, the challenger, the rival.

And taking a step towards Dalluth he put his head down level with his hips, tail straight, ready to charge, and Hallek the giganotosaur roared.

Shylldra

Maia protects.

She did other things to. She punished, and she cared, and she watched over, but when people called Maia's name they always said it. Maia protects. And with the world going mad, with an army of monsters flooding the streets and an enormous one rampaging in the center of the city, people rushed to Her temple in the hope she could protect them from the chaos all around.

Shylldra pushed her way through the crowd around the temple with the ax raised above her head. They parted, bowing and kneeling, some of them kissing the hem of her filthy, tattered dress and asking her to bless them. She wanted to stop, wanted to give each of them Maia's blessing herself, but there wasn't time, and all she could do was nod and smile and promise it would be alright and hope she wasn't lying. The prayer halls were full as well, packed with people kneeling in front of the altar praying to the maiasaur or the protoceretops. No one prayed to the acrocanthosaur during a crisis. That was for after, when the hate seeped in and the anger came.

“You three stay out here,” Shylldra told Illeth and Dyryl. “Protect these people if anything happens.”

“We will,” Dyryl promised. “But what are you going to do?”

“I'm going to see if Maia's got one more miracle for me,” Shylldra said, leaving them behind and pushing into the temple proper. She passed the prayer halls and made her way to the Grand Altar. Two of Maia's Claws blocked her way, their swords out, the aura of the acrocanthosaur washing off them in waves.

“I'm sorry sister,” one of them said. “You cannot pass this way.”

“What are you doing here?” Shylldra said, giving them her best imperial glare. “Why aren't you out helping with the evacuation? Protecting Maia's children from the chaos outside?”

The guards glanced at each other. The normally mysterious eyes peering out from the hoods and masks of Maia's swords in the mortal world were filled with worry, uncertainty, and guilt.

“Many of our sisters are out doing just that,” one said. “But some of us were told to stay, and protect the inner sanctums. From...especially from you, Lady Shylldra. Acolyte. Empress. I'm sorry, we're not sure what to call you. But Mother Yesh said...”

I have had it with that miserable old bitch. Shylldra almost even said that out loud, but instead she just raised Milkaamek's ax and used it to shove their weapons aside. She felt Dakkareg shift inside the ax, green aura flowing around the blade. The scimitars almost jumped out of the way, and Shylldray pushed past the guards. Before she entered the grand array, she turned back to them.

“I'm not sure if I'm an acolyte of Maia anymore or not,” she told them. “But as someone who's worshipped her all my life I can promise you she would rather you were out doing her work than standing guard over a treasure vault. Even her own. And as your empress, I'd rather that's what you were doing too.”

She turned back to the treasure hall as the claws left their posts and headed out into the city. She didn't even have to look back.

Her problems were in front of her.

She found the High Mothers arguing in hushed whispers as the statues and relics loomed over them. They were too engrossed in their bickering to notice she'd arrived until she banged her staff on the floor of the altar. It echoed loudly through the room. The round room with its glass cases had always been known for loud echoes, by Shylldra thought the sound was a little louder than she would have expected. Maia helping her along again? That was dangerous, being too sure of the goddess’s approval, but she couldn't shake the feeling...

“Shylldra!” Mother Gaath said, rushing over to her. “Are you alright?”

“I'm fine, Mother Gaath,” Shylldra smiled softly. “The city isn't.”

“What are you doing here?” Mother Yesh snapped. “This is a holy place! Where are the guards?”

“Out guarding people,” Shylldra said. “There's a monster attacking the city. And what are you three doing in here?”

“What the priesthood of Maia does is none of your business, empress,” Mother Yesh hissed. “This is a religious matter. You have no right to intervene.”

“We sent all the priestesses out,” Mother Haalg said, before worry creased her plump round face. “Well, all the ones Mother Yesh said we could spare.”

“So we're doing our part,” Mother Yesh hissed. “So why not go order the soldiers around and leave us to Maia's work?”

“Mother Yesh...” Mother Gaath started to say.

“No!” Mother Yesh said. “I will not be lectured by some high blooded little bint who thought she could use the priesthood of Maia as a stepping stone! If she wants to be empress, fine. But the house of Maia is closed to you. Do you understand? Now leave!”

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the sounds of rubble crashing outside.

“Can you feel that?” Shylldra said. “The way the ground is shaking? That's because the city is being attacked. By the most horrible thing since Milkaamek fought Dakkareg. More terrible, because Dakkareg was just a big mean powerful animal. This is something horrible and twisted. And it's made an army of monsters for itself, and they're running through the city people down. Maia's children. And do you know what? You remind me of my mother.”

Mother Yesh had opened her mouth to speak, but the apparent non sequitor confused her enough for Shylldra to continue.

“But you know what else Mother Yesh?” Shylldra said. “I didn't ask to be the emperor's daughter. I didn't ask to be the one Maia gave visions to. And quite frankly if you're jealous you can throw yourself to the twisted gods for all I care. Because with the whole city in crisis, here you are. In the room they say holds Maia's presence more than any other in the world. In here hoping the goddess will protect you above all others. Hiding, while Maia's children suffer. Do I have that about right?”

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“You little-” Mother Yesh started, but Mother Gaath put a hand on the old crone's shoulder.

“Better not,” Mother Gaath said. “She's got you, Yesh. Right between the eyes.”

“But what do you want?” Mother Haalg said. “Why come here?”

“Because according to legend,” Shylldra said, “this is where Third Emperor Tekk prayed to Maia that his people would be protected, and that's why the empire never fell. I'm hoping I can do it again.”

She pushed the high mothers out of the way and knelt in the center of the grand altar, her staff and the ax lying across her lap. It sounded like they'd gone back to bickering again, but she didn't have time to listen. She closed her eyes. She felt the souls within her staffed, reached out for Maia's power in a thought that was half prayer.

And then the world went white.

She was filled with a warm, loving, comforting power. Even Dakkareg seemed to gasp in aw within the ax. And then power flowed out into the city, out across the world, caryying her with it. For a moment, Shylldra could feel everything that lived for miles, a glorious web of sparkling light that filled every tree and bug and dinosaur, and smaller things, thing so small the eye couldn't see them, she didn't understand what they were but they were everywhere, tiny wriggling creatures that shared the bodies of others or floated on the air, so tiny that no one could see, bringing life even into the dark corners and empty spaces of the world.

And in the center of the city a tear in the web. A mash of twisting strands, tearing apart everything around it, like a heavy rock slowly ripping entire thing to scattered ruined threads. But near it other, life, a sparkling light that flickered and changed even as it fought against the thing that ripped and tore...

Hallek!

But she didn't have time to worry about Hallek in particular. She didn't have time to worry about any one person. That's not why she was here. Not why she'd been given the power.

She finally understood the acrocanthosaur.

It was hatred, yes. And grief. But the horrible fury of the acrocanthosaur was more than that. It was the inevitable darkness, the necessary darkness, that came from Maia's other two aspects. To love enough to care like Maia's maiasaurs meant loss of the thing you cared about tore your soul to pieces. To protect like Maia's proteceretops meant going to any lengths to destroy the threat. Neither could truly exist without the fury, the shadow their light cast. Shylldra looked at Dalluth, tearing apart the web of life, and then she looked out at the rest of it, all the sparkling lights spreading out across the world.

Protect them. She didn't know if it was a prayer to Maia or a command to the power surrounding her. Or if there was even a difference anymore.Protect them all. And Maia's power moved.

She felt Maia's aspect of the maiasaur, and her soul had called out to respond. Her people would be watched over.

She felt Maia's aspect of the protoceretops, and her soul had called out to respond. Her people would be protected.

She felt Maia's aspect of the Acrocanthosaur and from the web Hallek's soul called out to respond. The gianotosaur remembered its lost mate and child. And because it and Hallek were now one, it knew the last of those who had killed and desecrated its family was the very monster it fought. And as Maia's power blanketed the city, it grew stronger. It roar reverberated down the web of life.

And Dakkareg the Great Calamity roared in response. In fellowship, not challenge. And for the first time in fifteen hundred years, he left his ax.

Norak

He didn't know what the monsters were, he just knew they were everywhere. They died well enough to a swing of his sword at least. He'd started by heading to the palace but something pulled him away, until he found himself running up the steps to the temple of Maia. Dyryl and Illeth stood there with half a dozen of Maia's strange masked warrior priestesses. There was already a pile of dead monsters at their feet.

“Norak!” Dyryl shouted.

“Sister!” Norak said, rushing up to embrace her. “Where are Hallek and Shylldra? And I assume your thief is hiding somewhere.”

“No he got hurt,” Dyryl said softly. “Saving me. He's unconscious somewhere with the refugees.”

“I'm sorry,” Norak said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I only meant to tease.”

“Shylldra's inside performing some ritual for Maia's blessing,” Dyryl said. “And Hallek is fighting Dalluth.”

“Dalluth?” Norak said.

“Oh right you missed that part!” Dyryl said. “It's all been happening so fast. That thing is Master Infuser Dalluth. He says he's become a god now.”

“I told you so,” Illeth said. “They are coming again.”

Another band of monsters was running up the street towards the temple.Norak still didn't understand exactly what was going on but he knew the enemy when it came at him with unnecessary extra mouths and randomly placed eyeballs. He poured himself into the battle.

And then he felt Maia's power, and Shylldra's, wash over the city.

Hallek

Hallek sank his fangs into Dalluth's side. Again.

Blood like oil filled his mouth, seeping out around his fangs. Dalluth's flesh tasted like rotting meat coated with gravel but he held on, ripping and tearing until he pulled a chunk of the rancid flesh off of Dalluth's body leaving a deep, oozing crater in his side. There were other oozing craters on Dalluth's body but they were already healing, closing up even as Hallek bit in again. Dalluth raked Hallek with his claws but he had no flesh to rend, only glowing energy. The claws tore at the light that made him up, leaving gashes, but they closed as surely as Dalluth's wounds did. It seemed like their battle could go on forever.

Except Hallek knew it couldn't. Because he could feel fatigue spreading through his human limbs buried somewhere deep within the light behind his eyes. The light making up the giganotosaur came from him, his essence, and soon it would run out and he would be just another human again incapable of even really harming the thing Dalluth had become. And then the monster would win.

It was strange, to feel aches in muscles he couldn't move. To feel heavy limbs floating somewhere in the back of his skull. To feel blood trickling from eyes and ears he couldn't see or hear through. And deep inside, the little boy curled around the first food he'd found in days, as the compies swarmed all over him, and the dinosaur mourned the loss of a mate with pretty white scales around her nose.

And then he felt Shylldra. Her power washed over him like cool water and the ache in his limbs fated. The fatigue behind his eyes was gone. With a furious bellow he charged at Dalluth, slamming the monstrosity into the side of a building. He bit and clawed at the monster's side. Maybe, just maybe, there was a limit to how many times Dalluth could regrow. And if there was Hallek would find it. He would tear the monster to pieces until he stopped growing back.

Dalluth roared and slammed Hallek away with his tail. Hallek stumbled across the street, crashing into the buildings on the opposite side of the imperial road. He braced for Dalluth's next attack, for the monster to press its advantage, but it didn't come. Instead Dalluth was jerking his head around wildly, darting birdlike back and forth as something small and bright swooped around its head. Giganotosaur eyes were designed to see large prey from afar, not pick out details, but Hallek managed on the flitting little thing. It helped it was so brightly colored.

T'challi was biting and scratching Dalluth's human torso. Hallek had forgotten it was there, a useless set of appendages sticking from his forehead no less perverse than the rest of the creature. Dalluth batted his human arms to send the tiny dinosaur away, and finally the microraptor abandoned her attack and glided away across the rooftops.

He's just like me, Hallek realized. A human body inside a dinosaur. I've been attacking the wrong target.

Dallek roared and bit for Dalluth's head, his claws closing around the monster's snout. Their position lined Dalluth human body right up with Hallek's eye, and he could see Dalluth was staring at the jaw speared through the flesh inches in front of him wide eyed. For the first time since this battle started Hallek saw a trace of fear.

I've got you you bastard! I figured you out!

The thought came from the giganotosaur's jaws as a rumbling snarl around his mouthful of Dalluth. Dalluth snarled back, slashing at Hallek's chest until he had to back away. Dalluth shook the blood from his snout, and the two titans roared at each other.

There was a burst of green lighning in the air between them. It pulsed and flashed, slithering out like snakes until it wrapped itself into a shape. The road cracked under the sudden weight as a tyrannosaurus of green glowing light appeared on the street. It had been fifteen hundred years, but Dakkareg the Great Calamity's roar echoed one more time across the plains he'd once held as absolute ruler. The tyrannosaurus charged straight for Dalluth.

Thank you, Hallek thought. And to his surprise, he felt an answer. Not in words he could really understand, but the dinosaur part of him felt a sense of...indifference, was the best description. Fight now, care later. Apparently, that was as close as tyrannosaurs came to having allies. But if they could comunicate, maybe they could plan. Can you hold him still?

Dakkareg bellowed and turned his tackle into a biting lung for Dalluth's neck. Saber like teeth bit into the monster's throat but Dalluth tore his own throat out against Dakkareg's fangs to escape. It left his neck a mass of tattered flesh, but even as he backed away from his opponents the skin was healing. Hallek's own tackle went wide, sending him stumbling into the crushed hulk of a building. Dalluth moved to press his advantage but his lunged turned into a jerking waddl, a dance to stay standing.

On the ground the fallen allosaurus had woken up. Without standing it had lashed out, clamping its jaws around Dalluth's ankle, throwing him off balance. Now! Hallek's dinosaur body roared. Dakkareg answered, and Dalluth bellowed back in challenge. And then another voice joined the chorus, a long low tone, the deep throated bellow of a creature that never hunted driven into a wild rage.

The ground trembled as Verris's brachiosaur climbed to its feet. Verris clung to the side of its head by a dagger stabbed deep into its scales. He and his mount were both covered in blood, their eyes boiling with hate as the brachiosaur charged. It reared up itsfront legs and brought them crashing down on Dalluth's hips, crushing him to the ground with a series of tears and pops that could only be his pelvis shattering. Dalluth screamed, thrashing his head back and forth in agony. Dakkareg caught it, clamping his jaws around Dalluth's dinosaur skull and holding the monster's head still.

Hallek burst into a bellowing charge but before he reached Dalluth he let go of the dinosaur. The orange light around him fade like dye pluming and washing away in a river. Hallek flew from the dissolving mouth of the giganotosaur, landing on Dalluth’s snout at a run with sword in hand.

Dalluth's human body shrieked obscenities. The flesh around Hallek's legs erupted in clawing human hands that tried to trip and snatch him but he bulled through them, fingers tearing away under the force of his charge. As he reached Dalluth, he saw panic twist the monster's face.

Hallek thrust the fang sword straight into Dalluth's heart and the world went quiet. The sick, gut churning feeling he'd brought with him lifted, and the relief was all the greater because Hallek had forgotten it was there, gotten used to the sick churning in his soul. Even the sky seemed brighter, although that might have just been the early light of dawn...

“But...no...” Dalluth said, blackened ichor dripping down his chin. “You can't kill me. I'm...a god...” and then he slumped over the blade. Hallek almost had a moment to breath, but then the monster came apart.

Without Dalluth's soul to power it the twisted flesh melted away into ghastly oils that slid off crumbling bones. The skull Dalluth stood on fell beneath him and he plummeted towards the street. Dakkareg made as if to catch him, but the tyrannosaur was already fading, going back to his ax now that the battle was over. Hallek fluttered helpless through the air, too tired to do anything except hope his fang warrior body could withstanding the impact. But then the sky was filled with wings.

The microraptors gleamed like jewels. Like a rainbow on parade. The massive flock of them fluttered across the city, an enormous cloud of vibrant, dizzying color. They glided out of the forest, swooping between the buildings, and a small stream of them broke off from the rest and caught Hallek in the air, beating their wings to slow his fall until he finally came to a rest on the ruined street below. Then they flew off, hurrying away to join the others gliding their way through the city, except for one. The Microraptor sat on Hallek's shoulder, nuzzling his cheek.

Hallek laughed and stroked T'challi's cooing head.