All the red dots in the jungle around her were fleeing away from the commotion ahead. There was a lot of roaring and crashing and cracking. There seemed to be a lot of the stuttering type of roar but there was also another type that was less frequent. It was a solid, long bellow. Maybe, there were words being yelled?
Mahina could see part of the action now and she crept up to a tree. As she looked around, there was a huge boulder flying toward exactly where she was at.
“Kyaaa!” She cried in surprise and leapt to the side just a moment before what she thought was a boulder crashed into the tree. She looked back to see a black creature. It was the size of a bear. She couldn’t quite make out what she was looking at as half of it was brutally smashed. It had clawed paws that were easily twice the width of her head. She momentarily reconsidered what she was doing here.
“No. No. This may hurt but it will not kill me.” Mahina steeled herself with a deep breath and looked out at the scene. “Oh my...”
There were 5 creatures battling in an open area that had a cliff blocking the entire far side of the area. Backed up to the wall was a huge bipedal creature. It had a brown coloring as far as she could tell in the low light. It resembled a gorilla except it was 4 meters tall. The body morphology was not quite the same. It had feet more like a human and while it looked like it could walk using all four limbs it clearly stood fine and walked on 2 legs without issue. It had a club in its right hand that was probably about 6 meters in length and appeared to be a stalagmite or stalactite that had been broken off to be used in its present form. It also had spikes of some sort protruding out and forward from the outside of each of its forearms.
Currently, there were bites and cuts all over its body and arms. Its head had a peculiar, pinched look to it. It was as if someone grabbed a clay form of a normal head and pinched it at the forehead. It had a vertical ridge on its forehead the ridge split to cover over each of its 2 eyes. These eyes were located over and to the side of triangular shaped mouth. It was panting and gasping for breath.
Mahina couldn’t help but be momentarily shocked at the absurdity and alienness of the creature. She shook her head and looked at the other creatures fighting the Yamabiko as she was referring to it in her mind.
The first thing she thought of when she examined the other creatures were fu lions. Sometimes referred to as lion dogs or Chinese lion guardians. The snout was pretty short, but the jaws looked very strong. The mane looked to be made of spiky dark green scales. They appeared to make a multilayered spiked green collar. The was a trail of green scales that moved down the spine on an otherwise black body that ended in a scale covered tail. The tail had a flare of spiky scales on the end as well. The fu lions seemed to have most of their strength and offensive capacity front loaded onto their body. The rear half of the creatures were notably smaller than the front half. And their front paws and claws, as previously noted, were massive. She wondered if this made them a little slower should they try and pursue prey.
Currently, the fu lions were repositioning. Perhaps the loss of their comrade was making them reevaluate. Nevertheless, it looked like the Yamabiko was losing this fight. There were 2 on the Yamabiko’s right. They were likely ready to pounce if the Yamabiko used its club arm again. One in front, that was looking to move in, perhaps? And the last was climbing up an outcropping to the left of the Yamabiko. The position would probably put the fu lion in position to leap at the top of the Yamabiko.
Just as the leftward fu lion reached the peak of the outcropping, the one in front of the Yamabiko dashed forward and expelled a gas cloud from its mouth. The Yamabiko yelled and waved its club and other arm in front of its face. It was choking and gagging.
The left fu lion leaped.
Mahina realized she had to make a move now. She pulled out her rifle and with a mental command told it to expand. By the time she brought it up to her shoulder, it was primed and ready. She decided to aid the Yamabiko and perhaps it would help her in return. She aimed at the nearest fu lion which was the one in front of the Yamabiko and fired a subsonic burst.
Three rapid clicks and a whining hum was followed by another stuttering roar as the rear leg of the fu lion was shrouded in red mist. Mahina kept firing. She was doing damage, but not enough. They would find her in a moment anyway. She switched to supersonic burst fire.
The left Fu lion landed on the Yamabiko. It dropped its club as it tried to grab the attacker. It was able to grab the head and it started to pound its left shoulder into the rock cliff face behind it. The farthest fu lion from Mahina rushed in and grabbed the Yamabiko’s right leg and started pulling. The Yamabiko started to alternate punches between the shoulder fu lion and the leg fu lion. Mahina expected that fu lions’ plan was to have the other fu lion on the right side to grab the arm. But it was now distracted by a new threat.
“Kill you!” screamed the Yamabiko. “Crush you!”
Mahina had disabled the first fu lion and the other circled around and sprinted at Mahina. She lined up a shot and fired a grenade.
Thump. BOOM!
The grenade burst in front of its face, and it dropped to the ground sliding. It was still moving a bit though. The already hurt fu lion look at her and roared impotently. It tried to start crawling away. Its back legs were either shattered or perhaps the spine was.
She stowed the rifle and switched back to her pistols. She set them for supersonic burst as she moved forward. She pumped several bursts into the downed fu lion.
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Congratulations!
You defeated a Gorgonclaw Stalker. (Level 33)
Irragen points awarded!
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She turned her pistols on the other injured fu lion and finished it off with several bursts.
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Congratulations!
You defeated a Gorgonclaw Stalker. (Level 35)
Irragen points awarded!
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The other 2 Stalkers moved closer to her. The Yamabiko was kneeling on the ground panting and seemingly out of the fight. Mahina fired several bursts in their direction once she was sure the Yamabiko was not in the crossfire. As she thought, their front half had all the armor and strength. The pistol rounds hit and staggered them but didn’t really stop them. Fortunately, she had pinpoint accuracy and supersonic rounds. She aimed for an eye and followed up with a shot at its foot.
The stalker roared in pain and fell over. The rounds that hit claws sparked off them. But the eye and the flesh parts of the foot were shredded. It staggered back to its feet and started to limp away. Mahina was going to fire at its back to finish it off when she saw the last stalker leap toward her. She lifted her weapons to fire and the stalker suddenly and immediately smashed into the ground as a stone club smashed down upon it.
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The Yamabiko lifted its head and roared. It half leapt and half limped over to the other stalker that was trying to make its escape and clobbered it into paste as well. The Yamabiko stood there for a second panting. It grunted and wheeled around as it remembered the other threat nearby, Mahina.
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Congratulations!
You defeated a Gorgonclaw Stalker. (Level 33)
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by the party, experience points will be divided among the party.
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The Yamabiko’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Mahina in a deep and gravely voice. “What you?”
Mahina was again surprised to hear the language and that she could understand it. The words did not match the lips of the creature. It must be some sort of built-in translation. That was common enough on Earth.
Mahina holstered her pistols and made a slight bow. “I am Mahina. What is your name?”
Yamabiko’s clearly hostile demeanor did not change. “Why you no have face?”
“Ah, this is a protective helmet.” She pointed at her head. “It covers my head and face.”
“Hel? Met?” This was spoken in English. Sort of. Perhaps there was no direct translation.
Mahina decided it might be worth the risk to show him. She unfastened her helmet and broke the seal and immediately regretted it. The reek of hot garbage and offal flooded her nose. It took all her willpower not to immediately vomit.
Breathing through her mouth she removed her helmet. And looked up at the towering behemoth.
“Huh. You small. What you? Elf? Gnome?” Yamabiko scratched his head. “No. Too big for gnome. They only one bite. Never seen elf. What are you?”
Mahina didn’t miss the comment about gnomes only being bite sized. “I am human.” That was not entirely true, but still as true as anything. She also noticed that the Yamabiko’s injuries were healing before her eyes. He has some sort of regeneration.
“Human, huh?” Yamabiko rubbed his healing arm with the club still in hand. “Human like elf. But never seen elf before. Never seen human. You give me thunder and lightning sticks and you go. This my cave.” He pointed behind Mahina.
Mahina looked back and saw there was indeed a cave back there. She looked back to her temporary party member who now seemed to be turning mugger. “My weapons won’t work for you.”
“Why not?”
She tried to think about how to explain. “You know magic?”
“Know magic, but not do magic. Me strong.” He beat his chest to emphasize.
“Well, thunder and lightning sticks are magic. Only work for humans.” Mahina stated as she tried to put her helmet back on as casually as she could. She’d seen enough negotiations to know when one was coming to an end.
“Hmm” Yamabiko considered this. “Me strong. Make them work for me.”
She reengaged the seal and secured her helmet. She gratefully gulped in a breath of fresh filtered air. “I’m sorry. It’s human magic only. Maybe someday we can make them work for you.”
Yamabiko thought for a second and decided that was not satisfactory. He moved forward aggressively brandishing his club. “No! You give now!”
Mahina back pedaled and pulled her pistols. She didn’t know if she could do enough damage to kill him. She wished she had incendiary ammo right now. Perhaps targeted shots to eyes and other weak points might buy her enough time to escape. “I don’t want to fight you.”
“Give sticks and no fight.”
“I need them. Why are you going to attack me? I just helped you with the stalkers.”
“Ha! They weak. Me strong. They no beat me.” He leapt forward.
Mahina fired supersonic bursts at both eyes and then at his knees. She dove to her right to avoid the descending club. The ground shook as the club impacted. Yamabiko fell to the ground and yelled at his injuries. His right eye was saved when the club deflected the bullets. Both knees took shots, but he seemed to be recovering.
Mahina fired again and again. Slugs were ripping through him, but he was healing faster than before. Maybe there was something about the gorgonclaw stalkers that were slowing his regeneration. Mahina holstered her pistols and pulled out the rifle. She turned and ran to put some distance between her and the Yamabiko.
When she turned, he was back on his feet. She pointed the rifle at thigh and launched a grenade.
Thump! BOOM!
Yamabiko screamed and crumpled to the ground. When the smoke cleared, she could see him on his knees. All the flesh on the front of his left thigh was gone. Mahina could see bone and blood pouring out around the wound.
She fired supersonic bursts into his face. Maybe the healing needed to fix his leg would draw resources away from his head. At first, he put up his arms to try and protect his face. That did little to stop the projectiles. They tore through his arms and his body and his head.
“Stop!” He yelled and faster than she would have thought possible, he threw his club straight at her. She tried to dodge to the left, turning her body. It was sloppy and the club caught her left arm. She went flying backwards. She crashed into the wall and her HUD lit up with alerts and warnings.
She laid there for a second. It was mostly human nature. She mentally tried to examine the damage that had been done. That was doing nothing useful. She checked her alerts.
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Diagnostic Report:
System Alert: Major Structural Damage Detected
Location: Left Arm
Severity: Inoperable
Location: Left Shoulder
Severity: Inoperable
System Alert: Minor Structural Damage Detected
Location: Back
Location: Right Arm
Location: Right Shoulder
Location: External Supplementary Array
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Internal Diagnostics Initiated
Diagnostic Findings:
Organic Support Systems:
Operational: 76%
Recommendation: Immediate Repairs Required
Overall Operation:
Stable: 76%
Left Arm and Left Shoulder: Inoperable
Additional Diagnostics Required:
Possible Damage to External Sensory Array
Recommended Action: Run Level 2 Diagnostics for Operability Assessment
All Other Systems:
Functional within Acceptable Parameters
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Mahina sat up. She looked at the Yamabiko. He was still on the ground. His thigh was still regenerating. He looked a little pale though. Mahina knew she needed to get up and try to get away now.
Mahina looked for her rifle. It was a little under and behind her. It looked like the stock was caught between her and the cliff and was slightly warped. She hoped it didn’t affect the operation. She looked at her left arm and shoulder. The arm was nearly torn off. She could see some sparks and smoke coming from the holes in the cracked dermal covers.
The Yamabiko roared in anger “I kill you!” It tried to stand.
Mahina raised the rifle with her right hand. Her targeting reticle was bouncing all over the place. She fired several supersonic bursts. She kind of got a feel for how the shots would land. She fired a grenade, and it detonated behind him. Only 2 grenades left.
“Note to self. Bring more grenades.”
Mahina staggered to her feet. It would be better to be able to move. That proved prescient when the Yamabiko surged forward to grab his club. Mahina skittered away even as the Yamabiko fell back to the ground. This forced her to move closer to the cave entrance.
She looked at the cave. It’s almost certainly a dead end. She moved toward the jungle. Maybe she could outrun it. She got several steps before something hit her from behind and everything went black.