Ratcatcher whistled happily upon seeing the crossing through the canyons. The guides didn’t exaggerate; it definitely looked unique. Pillars of melted stone were rising from the ground, pushed upward by some cataclysmic eruption that had happened years and years ago. Tall as towers, their tops reached above the ground from both sides of the crevice. Ratcatcher noticed cuts and slashes across the rough sides of the pillars, showing where locals used hooks and ropes to traverse this place.
Thankfully, the group had no need for any mountain climbing equipment. Raaji boasted that he and a few other youths once came across here just by jumping from one pillar to another, and judging by the distance between the pillars, Ratcatcher was inclined to agree. The pillars’ edges almost touched each other; they looked like a forest that grew from a bottomless black abyss.
“It’s kind of surprising that the Dominion hasn’t destroyed them,” Smar gulped, looking down. She quickly jumped back from the edge, hiding behind Augustus’ back.
“All the better for us.” Kayleen looked up at the woman, basking in the pale moonlight. Her nostrils moved, sniffing the air, and finally the Wolfkin relaxed a bit, looking at Augustus. “Your orders?”
“Elisa, you take Elirob and Smar. Kayleen, you carry Raaji and Mardiyya. I am on the lookout.” Augustus jumped forward, easily landing on a pillar of stone. Grabbing the edge with two fingers, he hung down, looking down, before moving to the next pillar.
“You heard the man.” Ratcatcher secured her weapon behind her back, allowing Elirob and Smar to grab her by the neck, wrapping their legs around her torso. The medic shook slightly from the worry, and Elirob wrapped one arm around her.
Not waiting to see how Kayleen was doing, the explorator bent her knees and jumped, smiling from the rush of adrenaline. She heard Smar’s worried gasp upon seeing the pit below. With calm grace, Ratcatcher landed on the side of the pillar, grabbing it with one hand. Feeling the medic’s body slide slightly, she wrapped her tail around the woman’s waist.
“How are you holding up?” the explorator asked cheerfully.
“Still in one place,” through clanking teeth, replied Smar.
Kayleen jumped above them, moving with the guides on her back, using her claws to grip the stone surface and propel herself forward like a cannon ball, utterly uncaring about the frightened people on her back. The Wolfkin spared just a second, looking contemptuously at Ratcatcher, before snorting and leaping ahead.
“She is going to reach the other side ahead of us,” Smar said, suddenly calming down.
“Not on my watch.” Ratcatcher leaped off the pillar.
“Come now, this is utterly childish behavior,” Elirob tried to chide her. “This is not a competition…”
“I am not letting a Reclaimer win easily!” The explorator laughed, grabbing the nearby pillar and climbing on top of it.
She saw Kayleen, who stopped on the pillar ahead to give her ‘baggage’ a chance to catch their breath, and jumped, assured of Smar’s safety now. Ratcatcher buried her forefoot into the stone to gain a stable foothold and jumped again, grabbing the side of the next pillar with her fingers. Thanks to the power armor, she felt no grip on her neck, and her enhanced strength made the task of grabbing the secure side of the pillars as easy as a morning walk in a park.
She swung on one arm like a monkey, sending herself into the air. Making an elegant somersault, Ratcatcher, saw how Kayleen fell down on all four, becoming a still statue for a moment. And then she lunged forward, leaving an exploded stone in her wake and accompanied by the frightened breaths of Raaji and Mardiyya. Landing on her two feet, the explorator stopped fooling around and rushed to match Kayleen’s speed. They kept racing, jumping from pillar to pillar, grabbing the stones, and swinging themselves into the free jump with just the might of their arms.
Augustus moved below them, weaving around the tightness of the pillars. With a saber in hand, he cut down a few insectoid warriors lying in wait to try to ambush the group. Granted, it was doubtful for these creatures to risk attacking such a large group, but their leader took no chances, leaving just headless bodies falling down and scaring away the rest.
Reaching the middle of the crevice, Ratcatcher heard something. A tremble, one a bit too strong, beneath her feet. Kayleen jumped forward, not noticing anything strange, and the explorator lunged forward, crashing into the Wolfkin, throwing her off the mark and onto the pillar to her right.
“Do you have a dead wish?” Kaylen grabbed the pillar, baring her fangs at the explorator.
Ratcatcher hadn’t had time to answer. The pillar on which Kayleen planned to land shook, its top sliding to the side, and a gigantic Changed rose behind it, sending the falling top at them with a flick of a three-fingered hand. The two reacted in unison, meeting the incoming stone with a straight punch. Despite her armor, Ratcatcher felt pain from the impact in her fist, as the stone before them shattered, revealing the leaping form of their foe. A gigantic finger slipped beneath Kayleen’s paw, sending the Wolfkin’s arm upward and opening her for a claw to the side. Ratcatcher beat the hand aside with her elbow, and in this moment, the Changed landed on the pillar, throwing them both off it.
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Grabbing the nearby pillar, Ratcatcher finally got a better look at their enemy. He was huge, with hands and legs like mighty oaks, and his facial features looked as if they were cut from stone. He wore a gigantic stuffed jacket that left his elongated hands and legs open. A patch of green skin ran diagonally across his face, and the same pattern repeated across his body. When the being shifted, Ratcatcher saw the weirdness of his fingers. Each finger was made from several smaller fingers that melted into each other, leaving a blob of flesh between them. A tip of a claw showed from this blob of flesh.
“Chosen one too, I take it,” the Changed said in a confident male voice, holding the top of the pillar with two legs and looking down. “Rejoice, for your luck has not abandoned you. You should survive the fall.” His strange-looking crimson eyes found the locals. “Well, most of you, anyway. On my name as Fromir, I will see you brought lo…”
The Changed fell to the side, his gigantic body moving like a feather, evading a thrust when Augustus jumped behind him, aiming for the neck. With unnatural agility, Fromir’s left arm bent backward, aiming to close the clawed fingers around the smaller body. Augustus evaded the incoming claws, leaving a shallow cut on the hand as Fromir let himself fall deeper, before stopping his fall by grabbing the pillar with his left hand and making a swing with the right, smashing the top of the pillar, and sending Augustus aside. The explorator grasped the nearby column with two fingers, holding himself steady in anticipation of the next attack.
“Kayleen!” Ratcatcher shouted while climbing on the pillar. “Get the people to safety, I’ll help…”
“On it.” The Wolfkin landed behind her, taking Smar and Elirob without a hint of rebelling.
Freed, Ratcatcher fired two darts at the Fromir, who moved away with ease, using his own legs to support his massive body. The crimson eyes narrowed, locking at Kayleen, and the Changed jumped up, collapsing the pillars behind himself. Augustus and Ratcatcher both jumped to meet him head-on. Ratcatcher, just like in training, brought her mancatcher to block the incoming swipe of the claws, and Augustus prepared to land a slash using the opening and take away the hand.
The claws passed through the shaft of her weapon. Her eyes widened in shock when the claws passed through her own armor without breaking it. A pain shot her across the chest, and Ratcatcher pushed herself away from the hand, using it like a springboard. Augustus did the same, landing on a nearby pillar with a groan.
Ratcatcher summoned the report from her armor onto the HUD. According to it, her left breast disappeared, and a long slash marred her body beneath the armor, leaving her clothes soaked with blood. Already, her body tried to stop hemorrhage; the armor injected her body with stimulants to help prevent disease, and part of the nanomachines came through the clothes, forming a protective layer over the wound. Augustus also pressed a hand to his chest, no doubt feeling the same pain.
This Changed had power. This… this was the first time Iterna’s information failed her so much. According to the research that they had conducted on the cadavers of Changed, it was concluded that Changed could not gain power. Something that made them simply burned away this chance by changing the lobes of the brain to accommodate the horrible mutation. Even exposure to glow shouldn’t give Changed any new powers.
“Elisa,” Augustus said calmly. “Don’t try to block his claws.”
Heeding his warning, she jumped, seeing Fromir swinging at her pillar. His claws came through the solid stone, not halting even for a moment, leaving not a scratch on the pillar. Taking aim at the big guy, Ratcatcher landed a dart in his neck, forcing Fromir to charge forward, breaking the pillar with just his shoulder. His fingers picked up a piece of stone, sending it at Augustus, who aimed the pistol at the abnormal.
Ratcatcher lost track of Augustus amidst the hail of stones coming at her. Fromir was fast. Confined by the pillars all around him, he easily charged after her, grabbing the pillars to move his body after her. Ratcatcher tried to get on top of one of the pillars to have space to evade the claws, but a swipe of his hand forced her to drop.
Fromir roared, turning around to meet Augustus, who had left a deep cut on his leg. Augustus held on with just one finger, his legs pressed against the stone pillar. Fromir turned around in rage, cleaving the entire pillar on which Augustus hung in two, no longer bothering to use his power to bypass through stone. Augustus jumped off the pillar, landing above Fromir, and the Changed roared, grasping the pillar with two hands and swinging himself around, smashing the nearby pillars.
Fromir has dropped down, evading a slash aimed at his fingers. With one hand, he grasped the remaining pillar, turning his body like a monkey and preparing to make a lunge for Augustus before the explorator could reach the top. Augustus held just one hand, and with no pillars nearby, he could not get away from the danger easily. And still, he sent her a command to get to safety.
No way. Ratcatcher decided. Yes, on normal ground, she and Kayleen could make quick work of this bastard. In theory, this was even logical; Augustus could survive the fall and, potentially, be healthy enough to meet Fromir at the bottom of this canyon and win. Potentially. Ratcatcher refused to take any chance that might endanger the lives of her allies. Augustus saved her once. It’s time to return the favor.
She used this moment to climb on top of her pillar and jump off it, bringing the mancatcher’s blade down. Straight at Fromir’s hand, cracking bones in his hand. Fromir’s eyes widened in surprise when he felt himself falling. He has tried to grab the remaining pillar with his leg, only to jerk away his hand at the last possible moment because of Augustus’ cut. Ratcatcher felt herself falling; the pillar was too far away from her. A sudden pain in her back stopped her fall. Briefly glancing back, she saw how Augustus had buried his sword into the stone and hung on it, grabbing her by the tail. She let out a relieved chuckle and looked down, just in time to see how the bastard topped down, trying to grab anything in the emptiness that he himself had created.
Fromir’s body fell on a stone column, which pierced it like a spear before breaking beneath him and causing Fromir to fall to the very bottom, surrounded by an avalanche of stone and broken shards.
“Shall we make sure that he is dead?” Ratcatcher inquired, startled by her own bloodlust. The blood still pumped in her veins, causing her fingers to twitch nervously.
“No.” Augustus helped her reach the pillar, and together they climbed up. “It’ll delay us for too long. Doubtlessly, the echoes of our rumble could be heard through the canyon. If he had any troops with him, they are sprinting here. Come, Elisa, we need to find some safe place to hide and wait out the storm.”
Working together, they helped each other reach the rest of the team.