The rhino didn’t stop to watch the show. It had already moved to launch its next attack. But instead of targeting the members of Nick’s team, it vented its fury onto Kenji’s enormous shield. Apparently, the durability of the defensive device had offended the creature deeply and it was time to settle the score.
The mutant opened its wicked jaws and picked up the thick slab of red wood and titanium, the muscles along its jaw bulging like a pair of basketballs. It’s not seriously going to… was as far as Nick got before the shield exploded, emitting a fountain of jagged splinters and twisted metal strips.
The beast chewed a couple of times and then swallowed the rest of the mess in a single gulp, metal and all. With a satisfied grunt, it locked its gaze onto the nearest person, Devin, who was just returning from being flung away a few seconds prior. He immediately turned to run, anticipating that the beast would charge again, desperate to open enough distance to give him room to dodge.
His prediction was borne out only a moment later. The rhino paused for a heartbeat to gather its strength, then started stampeding straight for Devin, entering a full gallop this time with the intent of running the man down. Devin was limping, having hurt his leg during the last exchange, and Nick was worried that he wouldn’t be able to get out of the way in time.
But three steps into the mutant’s charge, the knee below the massive gash that Bret had carved gave way. The leg had lost too much of the surrounding muscle to bear the beast’s weight, combined with the force of its explosive acceleration, causing the joint to collapse. The corrupted creature lurched to one side and came crashing to the ground, its bulky body rolling along the arena floor.
Its journey was accompanied by the sharp crackle of shattering tines, segments of its ivory horns snapping as they were trapped beneath the beast’s immense girth. It rolled a few more times before coming to a stop, getting its feet back under it with disheartening speed before letting out an ear-shattering wail. But it wasn’t all bad news.
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In that instant, the waning fires of hope were kindled once more within the guarded hearth of Nick’s heart. Because that was the moment when two critical details snapped into place. The first was that the rhino had not one but two bad legs. The hindlimb that Veronica had shot with her final acidic bolt had begun to falter as well.
As Kenji had predicted, there wasn’t enough muscle around its knee for the beast to quarantine the afflicted tissue, like it had with the bolt that struck its neck. A necessity if the creature was to retain mobility in the joint, despite its monstrous transformation. By now, Veronica’s acid had eaten away at the rhinoceros’s knee, reducing flesh to weeping pink goo before Nick’s eyes and revealing the bone below, which had begun to take on a rubbery appearance.
The second detail was that the magic powering Bret’s attack had enabled more than just an enhanced chop. Over the last few seconds, the shadows that had wreathed his blade had come boiling back out of the cavernous wound, like a living creature pouncing upon weakened prey.
A wave of concentrated shadow began sweeping across the mutant’s neck, spreading like a plague of ink, reaching for its head, then crossing its face. Its eyes. This is the blinding ability Bret mentioned. Understanding dawned as the creeping patch of midnight wrapped around one side of the beast’s skull, like a scar of shadow, completely covering the eye closest to the gaping wound the blade had riven into its flesh.
Once the first eye was buried in darkness, the shadow began to spread, reaching for the other to blind the beast completely. But just before Bret’s magic reached the rhino’s remaining good eye, it came to a halt. The edges stretched thin like someone reaching up on their toes, then came back down, leaving that organ untouched.
Apparently, the ability wasn’t strong enough to fully affect such a powerful opponent. Even so, it had greatly reduced the fiend’s field of view, further diminishing its combat capabilities.
In that moment, the myriad variables woven throughout the battlefield snapped into focus, instilling a crystalline clarity within Nick’s mind. This was the moment to go all out. Their best and only chance of winning the fight before the beast could adapt to its impairment and change tactics.
The party was running on fumes, and while the rhino’s wounds were serious, Nick was dead certain that they wouldn’t be enough to bring the monster down. Team Earth had to come together to finish the mutant off, and they had to do it now.