My eyes snapped open as I felt myself being shaken awake by someon- by Liz. She said only a few words, but I knew the amount of trouble they conveyed. It meant that I wouldn't get to rest properly for yet another night, it meant that all of us were in danger, and it meant the first battle I'll ever participate in was about to begin. Luckily the sun was still out and about, so at least we don't have to fight in the dark.
"They're coming." Her voice was hushed. When she saw me hastily get up and start preparing my weapons she moved up to the others, waking them in much the same manner. Soon, all four of us were up and ready and a sort of grim determination filled the atmosphere. Each one of us knew that it would be so easy for things to go wrong, and yet nobody wanted to move and leave Jay to die - even I despite only knowing them for only a few hours. 'They're people. Just like me.'
A few moments later, I heard what clued Liz into waking all of us up.
A droning noise, sort of as if someone was just rasping a steady tone accompanied by.. clicking? of what I wasn't sure. What I did know was the direction it was coming from. 'Not surrounded.' I noted in my mind with relief before moving to the the group's right flank as we all moved away from Jay. After all, it wouldn't do if the unconscious man got caught up in the battle.
----------------------------------------
Soon we spotted the creatures - a total of three and Thomas let out an audible sigh of relief. "Right, you know the plan." He commented as we all prepared to fill our role. The creature's noises grew louder as they got closer and I took the unwise opportunity to inspect them. A half rotting corpse of a brown rodent the size of a horse, it's wounds pustulent and fetid. I didn't even want to imagine the smell, but I knew I'll be faced with it soon. It's beady eyes were black and unmoving, as if it didn't even see us. And yet, towards us it moved. At least it was silent. Soon a crossbow bolt lodged itself in it's forehead and I heard Marcel reload his weapon near me. Nobody rushed ahead, instead we let him do his job.
The other two creatures were connected by some sort of cord. The first was lanky and gaunt, similar to my visitor but that's where the similarities ended. For one it had a face, it just happened to be all wrong - the mouth was sideways, open, leaking that droning noise from before alongside some black mucus. It's eyes were compound much like an insect's, with each part having it's separate pupil dancing around and scanning its surroundings. 'Mother.' My mind echoed as I realized what it was. That's what David called this torment because it always came paired with another.
'Father' I noted as I shifted my attention to the other creature. A behemoth in comparison to its companion - larger in every possible dimension - waddled behind, led by the the cord connecting the belies of the two creatures like a dog on a leash. According to Dave, the details about these creatures were variable, but there were a few rules they obeyed.
'First, pick your target depending on what you can handle. Slaying the mother first will lead to the father going berserk. You do not want a creature weighing a ton running at you. Slaying the father will lead the mother to unleash a devastating mental assault. Weight what your group can handle better, and accept that there are no good choices.' I repeated David's lesson in my mind. Now that I was in the position to make this choice... it truly felt hopeless. Either we'll have to content with a behemoth, or four tired people with frayed nerves will have to deal with whatever the mother will unleash.
A second and soon after third crossbow bolt was unleashed. The zombie rodent stumbled, but marched on nonetheless. The paired torment however? The mother halted its droning noise and screeched. I felt dizzied by the sheer volume of the sound when I saw it pull on the cord connected it and its kin, and start swinging the much larger man-esque creature above its head like a bloated fleshy flail.
"What the fuck." I muttered under my breath at the sight before realizing that everything sounded much quieter than before. Though I didn't have much time to ponder that as the creature charged forth and slammed its flail at Thomas's position. He barely managed to dodge out of the way.
'No time to think!' I realized and ran to help the mercs and join the battle.
----------------------------------------
As the mother lifted it's meatbag of a flail off the ground again I briefly noticed the blood pooling in the crater, alongside smaller, white broken shards of something. 'Teeth? Is it trying to kill its companion?' I noted as it spun, sweeping the umbilical flail around itself to make sure neither I or Thomas could easily approach.
There was something else David said about this particular type of torment, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what. The creature had its eyes locked on Thomas and took another brutal swing at him. The father-torment impacted the ground with a sickening crunch as a veritable geyser of blood sprayed from it. "Naaaasssty ChiiLd!" The mother somehow spoke. I didn't watch it's mouth, I didn't want to know how it made those noises, but I did see drops of the black liquid drop from its head and hit the earth below with a sizzle. "Ran, RraaAAAN! From home! hoME!" I felt its words drill into my mind, somehow evoking images of being locked away in a dark room, alone, without any source of light or anything other than the walls seemingly slowly closing in to pay attention to.
I dashed behind it and saw a crossbow bolt pass by the creature. 'The rat is still alive? Fuck.'
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
It was distracted, I saw a chance and took it. An open wound across the flat of its back. I swear my sword impacted a bone, but it didn't manage to break through.
The slash of my longsword caused the gaunt creature to screech in pain, and I felt my vision black out momentarily. 'So loud!' Only then did I realize that I had let go of my sword.
I dodged backwards on a guess, not wanting to stand still and heard the whoosh of something large and heavy sweep in front of me.
My vision returned, albeit blurry and unfocused, but it was enough for me to see. "pUNiSH! PuNiiSHMENT!" It screeched, standing above me, hands rapidly dropping in a guillotine like fashion to bring the meat-flail on top of me and crush me instantly. Reality briefly distorted, overlaying whatever the Torment wanted me to see. Myself, as a small and frightened child, paralyzed with fear. And it, as the creature of power, standing above me with a belt about to issue a beating.
I felt my mind freeze, but my body's survival instinct kicked in instead. I felt myself leap forward to avoid my almost-certain death as the sound of bones cracking echoed outwards from where I was a mere moment ago.
The gaunt torment did not hesitate - its leg moved and I felt the air leave my lungs from the impact and did my best to spite the creature right back. I brought my mom's dagger straight into it's palm and further, pinning it to its torso. A moment later I saw a spear tip pierce it's throat. Rancid smell filled the air as black goop seeped from the torment's wounds and it used its other free hand to claw at its neck. It rend its own throat asunder - gurgling the entire time - clearly trying to find some way to breathe yet again.
Another bolt whizzed by me reminding me of the impending third creature. I struggled to get up and move away from the insane monstrosity next to me as the realization that I would have died if anything had gone even slightly more wrong in that situation started to dawn on me. 'How do hunters even fight these things with two people? Much less one?!'
I was down to a single dagger as both my longsword and dagger were stuck in the dying mother-torment. It was unsettling not feeling their familiar weight whilst in battle. It took all of five seconds before something went wrong again. I heard Thomas let out an enraged howl as his maul's steel collided with flesh. With a disgusting squelch the mother-torment's head landed in front of me. All of the pupils in its compound eyes staring directly at me as it laughed. It laughed!
I buried the dagger inside its skull, finally silencing it. That's when the father started screaming.
I was exhausted both mentally and physically, and at first I didn't even realize that Thomas was next to me, speaking. I pulled out my dagger out of the mother-torment's skull. "MALINKA! FOCUS! It's not over yet!" His words registered in my mind a whole second later. I didn't know what to say, this entire thing was fucked. Why did I ever think that fighting these things would be alright just because Dave taught me a few things? I didn't know. I just nodded at Thomas instead and dragged my attention to second torment.
A crossbow bolt whizzed by me. I didn't even care anymore.
The father-torment was hunched over its fallen comrade.
Eating.
I felt sick just looking at it.
Thomas, Liz and I all approached with our respective weapons - a maul, spear and dagger.
It kept devouring its fallen companion.
We each readied a blow and struck shortly after.
It didn't care. Its hunger was more important to it.
It was like hitting a sickening pinata. With each attack, more blood would flow. With each bite, the sound of slurping and bones breaking could be heard. And with each swallow, its wounds closed.
"It's not working!" I felt the panic in my voice but didn't know what else to do but attack again and again.
The creature's body started swelling.
Liz suddenly screamed "RUN! IT'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE!"
I didn't question it and turned to run.
The torment burst.
I saw guts and blood fly past me as intense pain overcame my senses due to several sharp somethings embedding themselves in my back. All three of us were launched away from the shockwave. I felt darkness start seeping into my vision, everything become more and more unfocused.
I took in my surroundings and realized that it's all deathly quiet. Or maybe my ears were broken, I didn't know. Next to me were Thomas and Liz, on the ground. Large chunks of bone embedded in their backs and bleeding all over. They weren't moving as far as I could tell. I held onto mom's dagger, straining to achieve even that much with how broken my body felt at the moment.
Marcel ran past me and dropped his crossbow. 'Out of ammo?' I wondered, but couldn't find the strength to even open my mount to voice the question. He leaned down and picked up Liz's spear instead. I turned around and followed him with my eyes. Each movement was a hellfire of pain and I felt something moving in my throat. Air. I was screaming from the pain, yet I didn't hear it.
The Father torment was nowhere to be seen. At least that's one less thing to worry about. The rat was still coming closer, its head looking more like a pin cushion than an actual creature at this point. Marcel impaled it with the spear. It didn't even try to dodge, it was.. focused. On something. Someone.
Me.
I started shuffling away, as fast as my broken body let me. I knew I was in immense amount of pain, but I didn't feel it, like my brain just gave up understanding the sheer stress I put it through. Marcel did his best, and cut off the creature's left leg.
It hobbled closer.
Two legs gone.
It crawled. It was so close now.
Back legs removed.
It used its mouth to pull itself closer to me. Somehow still faster than my weak shambling attempts to get away.
Finally he pinned it to the ground by pushing the spear down through its jaw.
It still wiggled its body, entirely focused on me, but couldn't find a way to move closer anymore.
A stray though went through my mind.
"What if there's more than that?" I asked Thomas earlier.
"Then we're already dead." Thomas replied. I thought him insane. Maybe I was the insane one.
And darkness took me.