“Stay quiet and keep an eye out.” Louise instructed as they set off down the trail of rubble.

The group began to move down the street heading north at a quicker pace than before, albeit quieter.

In a way, finding the rubble and the signs of a Swarm was a relief to Heinz. Even if those signs pointed to the creature being larger than any of them. Walking through the still street of the untouched village had been unnerving. Nowhere had been spared the effects of the Swarm so it was a question of what had happened here rather than if. Having a target was better than knowing something unknown waited.

House by house passed by and the trail of rubble tapered off. They were starting to leave the village.

“Why would it leave all the houses? All the food inside them?” Tara whispered.

Heinz grimaced but he had no answers. Something was off about this village.

“It found a better source.” Shane said darkly as he pointed down the road. A white cross poked out above the treeline.

The remains of a waist high wall around the church confirmed Shane’s suspicion. The church itself was left untouched but the gate to the graveyard had been thrown aside.

“We follow Phil’s plan.” Louise said as they gathered together outside the church grounds. “Remember to watch your footing, the gravestones will make movement difficult.” She paused. “Don’t worry about standing on the graves. The people in them would rather that then have the swarm there.”

They all nodded and dropped their bags off to the side. Phil and Shane led the way. They stopped before the entrance of the graveyard and slowly crept forward. Heinz got his first look at the creature.

A crunch echoed out as the Swarm shifted and its great tail swung and cracked a gravestone in half. While its grey rugged plates blended into the stone that made up the graveyard and its walls, the creature’s sheer size stood out. The bulk of its torso, supported by long hind legs, was larger than a shed. In comparison its smaller forelegs that were scraping at the earth, held its head close to the ground.

“Avoid the tail.” Phil whispered.

“Come on.” Shane grunted. Heinz winced at the volume but it was drowned out by the cracking of another headstone.

The group split as they entered the graveyard. Heinz and Shane followed the path of destruction while Louise, Phil and Tara took a wider path in between the graves. The creature had not noticed them yet.

Shane and Heinz dropped behind a raised grave when they were close enough. They needed to wait until the others were in position. Shane tapped his arm and held up his hand. He stuck a finger up and jabbed it at his right eye. Heinz nodded back. Go for the eyes then. He poked his head up and the others were in position. He held up three fingers to Shane.

3.

2.

1.

Heinz pushed up and ran forward. He left Shane behind as he sprinted.

The creature heard them now and its head rose from where it had been buried in the ground. Thick brown stains clung to its narrow snout. Humans didn’t have the luxury of melting away. It turned to track him as he crossed in front of it, running to its left right.

Heinz skidded to a stop and brought his halberd in front of him. ‘Go for the eyes’. He focused on the creature’s head and snout. It had no eyes.

The creature's forelegs shuddered and its bulk rose from the ground. With a scraping noise one lifted up and tilted forward.

With a roar Shane jumped and swung his sledgehammer down on the Swarm’s head. Shards were sent flying as a grey plate cracked under the blow. A thick line ran through the plate but it remained. Shane pulled his sledgehammer back for another blow.

“Heinz.” Heinz shouted as he darted forward. He jabbed his spearpoint at the only gap he could find on the creature’s head, its mouth. The point bit into the plateless flesh but sparks flew as the metal scratched off something tougher inside its mouth.

Cries of “Phil”, “Louise” and “Tara” rang out from behind the Swarm as the others announced their attacks. The creature remained silent. Its other foreleg rose and it rocked forward, its weight driving it at Heinz.

Heinz jumped back, avoiding the forelegs that struck forward but failing to dodge the snout that smashed into him with the force of a ram, sending him flying back. Pain flashed up from his lower back as the top of an old gravestone stopped his flight with a crack before he fell back over it with the top half.

“Fall back!” Shane shouted and ran over to grab Heinz by the arm and drag him away.

When Shane bought them a bit of space from the creature, Heinz shook his arm off and pushed himself up. Heinz still held the swarm's focus and it raised another foreleg up, its tail swinging and its back legs tensing as they held the creature's weight.

Together they retreated to the entrance of the graveyard where they were met by the others. The Swarm lumbered after them.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You alright Heinz?” Phil asked as he took in Heinz’s posture.

Heinz nodded as he felt his lower back. Based on the pain the whole area would be a mess of bruises tomorrow. Hopefully without the imprints on the stone.

“I was thrown by its lunge but we weren’t doing anything to it. Its armour is too thick. Did you have better luck?”

Louise shook her head. “The armour covers everything, even its belly. And with the hammer at the end of its tail...“ She trailed off.

“We will need to move soon.” Shane barked from where he watched the creature slowly moving towards them.

“Stick to its sides then?” Heinz offered. “Shane cracked one of its armour plates. With enough time we could get through them.”

“Two blows cracked it but the plate didn’t move.” Shane corrected

“No.” Phil said sharply. “If it’s like a Pangolin it could fall onto us.”

“When it lunged,” Tara began. “I think a gap opened on its back legs. They stretched.”

Heinz looked at her then at Louise and Phil. They shrugged.

“Heinz, how are you?” Louise asked. “Could you get it to lunge again?”

Heinz shifted and twisted his waist. Pain but only a slight hitch to his movement. He knew the distance the creature could lunge now. He nodded at Louise.

“Alright. Heinz and Phil get it to lunge. Shane, Tara and I will focus on the gaps.”

They split up again as they moved back to the creature.

Heinz and Phil moved to its head, the others around to its back. Heinz shouted and Phil banged his spear against his shield as they approached. The creature’s head fixed on them but turned as the other three ran behind it.

He needed to distract it.

“Heinz!” He shouted.

Heinz turned his halberd around, lifted the counterweight high and swung. Somehow the creature sensed the blow and turned back, letting the blow land on a different plate to Shane’s earlier blows. The plate cratered under the counterweight. Unlike with Shane’s blows, the impact was spread out, leaving an imprint into the Swarm’s tough exterior instead of cracking it. However Heinz was stronger than Shane and with the longer handle of this halberd the blow sent fissures through the plate.

The Swarm kept its head to them as with a scraping noise a foreleg lifted up and forward.

“Phil back now!” Heinz called as Phi stabbed forward ineffectively at the plate Shane cracked.

Heinz waited until he saw movement from the other foreleg before jumping back himself. Phil didn’t have experience with the timing yet.

The creature’s other foreleg pushed off the ground and it shot forward at him. This time Heinz was far back enough that avoiding the forelegs was easy and he was prepared for the snout shooting at him.

Names were yelled from behind the creature as the others attacked. They were soon followed by a deep rumbling hack from the creature in between them. It had felt that.

“Again!” Heinz roared.

His halberd counterweight rose and slammed down onto the same plate again. The fissures spread. Phil struck at the creature’s mouth but his halberd scratched against an inner layer as Heinz’s blow had.

The creature whipped its head to the side but Phil pulled back. It pulled a foreleg up.

“Back!” Heinz shouted to Phil. When he saw the other foreleg shudder, he backed up himself but it was unneeded.

Instead of pushing up, the creature rolled to its left side, falling to the earth with a thunder as it trampled over the graves. Seconds later a pained yell rang out from Shane.

Heinz shot a worried look at Phil before raining another counterweight blow on the Swarm. He was ready for the call to fall back but the others might need them to buy time. Phil joined him a few seconds later. Phil's strikes did not do much but they helped to distract the creature.

“Continue!” Louise shouted over the creature’s back.

The Swarm began to push itself up. Heinz raised his halberd.

Two lunges later and the creature was flagging. Shane limped over to swap with Phil after the first. He refused to answer any of Heinz’s questions but with how he was making sledgehammer blows one handed, he was hurt.

The creature refused to lunge again, making small steps towards them instead. This suited Heinz and Shane fine and together they demolished the plates on its head. When Heinz stabbed forward with the spearpoint it bit in. A shout later and the others joined them to take turns lobotomising the creature.

Tara struck the final blow with her axe and the creature sank to the ground.

User I38-3NA5 - Fighter-R

Sprout Bounty

Credits

6

Heinz sank down on top of a gravestone and took in the area. Graves still stood towards the corners of the graveyard but the centre was closer to a muddy pit. As the Swarm rolled, it had demolished any structures and driven many of the headstones into the earth. Nevermind the holes it had dug before they arrived.

"Not quite according to plan." Heinz said with a wince as his back pulled.

“What do we call this one?” Tara asked, letting her axe fall.

“Elemental.” Phil said with a groan as he stretched.

“What! With that tail it was clearly a dinosaur.” Tara rebutted.

“Tara will you bring Shane to the church and check him over? Phil could you go with them to open it and look for wheelbarrows?” Louise asked.

Shane began to complain but stopped with a wince when Louise patted his shoulder. As the three left Louise turned to him.

“Sorry to ask but are you willing to help me?” Louise gestured to the holes in the ground. “We need to cover them back up.”

Heinz looked at the dark brown stains on the melting Swarm’s snout and at the flecks that had transferred to his halberd. He swallowed and nodded.

A message popped up as they packed the last few items into the trailer. The Clogagh garage had been full of useful equipment, including the car trailer which they were borrowing. It reduced the number of wheelbarrows they needed to transport everything they could find from the village houses. Heinz had volunteered to pull it home.

Control in zone I38-FB has reached manageable threshold.

Dropping zone barrier.

“Well shit.” Heinz said and reached for the zone control.

Zone Control - I38-FB

Swarm Growth

45%

Local

65%

It seemed the others in the zone had been a lot more productive.