Over the next four minutes, Nick put everything that he had into avoiding the creature’s fierce barrage of blows. It was all he could do to keep his blood inside his body, leaving him unable to land another hit during the exchange. He blocked and dodged and ducked in a frenzy, his world reduced to a frantic blur of color and motion.
By now, he was starting to adapt to the swarmling’s shocking power and speed. But he wasn’t doing any damage, and exhaustion was knocking at his door with an iron fist. Before long, he would run out of energy, and the hellgrub would catch him. I have to find a way to end this before that happens, it’s time to roll the dice and press the attack.
He managed to get in a few good slashes during the next exchange. Although they sliced into its carapace, they didn’t even slow the monster down. While he was lucky to still be alive, the creature’s counterattacks had been far too close for comfort.
Now that Nick was able to judge the grub’s defense as well as its offence, he was certain continuing to brawl up close was a losing proposition. A single bite would cripple or kill him, and the hellgrub seemed immune to his attacks.
Making a bad situation so much worse, he couldn’t use his magic. On top of that, Nick’s elixir was out of juice, and the small reservoir of stamina he’d regained since leaping through the window was rapidly running dry. He fought to maintain his focus, trying to come up with a plan while holding the swarmling at bay.
The grub came at him in a chittering rush, gliding over stone and debris with disheartening speed. It occasionally collided with decaying furniture and upturned stones, leading Nick to believe that its vision wasn’t very good.
He threw his body from side-to-side, staying one step ahead of the deadly creature, terrified all the while that the ones outside would hear the clamor of their conflict and come to investigate. He needed to end the fight within the next minute or two tops, but he was barely drawing even as it was.
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His heart pounded like a taiko drum. His breath came fast and shallow. Black specs danced within his vision, and his sword became heavier with every swing, until his arms felt like they’d been wrapped in lead.
He prayed for salvation to whomever might be listening, but there was none to be found beneath the blood moon’s light.
As bad at the swarmling’s skittering rush was, its leaps were even worse.
Every time that it stopped to compress its body, it shot forth with blinding speed. The fraction of a second it took for the hellgrub to leap was barely enough time for Nick to dart out of the way. He took several light wounds in the process, only a fraction of an inch away from being critical injuries, as his blood fell to the stones below in drips and dribbles and gobs.
Nick had to change the dynamics of their dance, and he needed to do it now. Keeping the otherworldly creature from his throat was a herculean task, an ordeal that was becoming more trying with every passing second.
By now, he was certain that his only hope was to rely on his wits. To outsmart the swarmling and find a way to even the odds. There must be something in here I can use. Some weakness that I can exploit. Figure something out and do it fast, Nick, or you won’t last another five minutes.
The swarmling must have decided that a change in tactics was in order too. It came to an abrupt halt and tensed its body, compressing its shell with the motion. As he fought to come up with a plan, a stream of black goo began pouring through the holes in the hellgrub’s carapace, the same thing that had happened when the mantis devoured the porcupine.
Nick didn’t need size up to tell him that he was in trouble. If even a drop of the foul stuff touched him, he would be dead before he even knew what hit him.
He used the moment of respite to crunch more variables, leaning on his strategic background for everything he was worth. But Nick was only granted a handful of heartbeats to think.
The moment that the swarmling emerged from its shell, it braced itself against its exoskeleton and launched itself at him. Its body spread as it flew, like a fisherman casting a net, still connected to its shell by a thin thread of blackness.
He threw his body back, ducking out from under its embrace at the last possible moment, the tail of his jacket dissolving where the hellgrub’s true form touched it. The sight sent a fresh infusion of adrenaline surging into his veins. If it could do that to the toughness imbued armor, it would eat away his flesh with even less resistance.