The beast slammed snout-first into the ground.
Beck and Kenna dodged to either side as it slid across the trail, carving a furrow into the ground. The "frigigator" was easily the size of one of the Kode's lobsters, even discounting its tail. Despite its energetic and destructive approach, the thing seemed content to lay there for the moment, even as a low growl issued from its maw.
He wouldn't get a better chance. The rifle came up, and as soon as the muzzle was level with the gator's head, Beck pulled the trigger. Crystallized mana burst from the gun and almost immediately drilled into the lizard's milky hide. Tendrils of frost spread for a moment, only to be absorbed into the beast as it turned to him. A good deal less effective than he'd hoped.
Kenna was on it quickly, though, running up its back and toward its head. The sudden weight caused the beast to curl inwards, hissing as it tried to bite at her, but it wasn't flexible enough to get very close. Once she was close enough, she drove her pick into the skin of its neck, drawing a bellow of protest and a spray of blood.
It wasn't content to sit and take it, though. As Kenna withdrew her weapon and Beck lined up his next shot, a simple Mana Bolt this time, the gator rolled to the side, dislodging the woman on its back and fouling the young man's aim.
Kenna hit the ground just in time for the projectile to fly over her and punch into a distant tree. Thankfully, she rolled as she hit the ground and was able to pop up again quickly, because the beast was already closing in on her. It's open maw was big enough that it could have easily swallowed Beck whole, but more concerning was the fact that frost was starting to form from within its throat.
The woman met the galloping gator halfway and drove her pick through the roof of its mouth, forcing it closed. Immediately after, a wave of ice burst from the thing, covering the ground around them in frost. Beck's teeth set to chattering, the heat having been robbed from his bones almost instantly.
In response, Kenna poured mana into her pick, the head taking on a familiar orange glow. The beast thrashed from the pain, but the woman simply pushed down harder, bringing all her weight to bear to keep it pinned. Beck took the opportunity to put a couple Mana Bolts into it as he moved to be in line with it. Its wild flailing made it all the more difficult to land solid shots, but he was close enough that they still found their mark well enough.
Even still, their efforts only seemed to enrage the massive lizard. It gave up on trying to dislodge the spike in its snout and retreated, pulling Kenna's weapon from her hands. With her weight no longer pressing down on it, the beast once more opened its jaws and rushed at her. Another Mana Bolt dug into the flesh of its mouth, punching deeper than the others.
It was just enough to make it flinch, even if it barely paused in its charge. Still, it provided an opening. Kenna leapt over the beast's open maw and seized her pick, her momentum pulling it's head up and back even as she landed on top of the beast. Providing a perfect line on where Beck assumed its brain would be. Another pair of Mana Bolts sailed into the soft flesh and buried themselves deep.
It's struggles stopped, and Kenna withdrew her weapon from where it had been buried into its skull. Not long after, a system message confirmed their triumph.
You have slain a Frigigator!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, that was the easy part.
Carrying it back to town took them hours, and they still had to skin and dress the carcass before it could start to rot. Thankfully, some of the villagers were old hands when it came to the beasts, and were able to show them what to do. By the time they finished, the sun had set and some folks had brought lanterns so they could see.
Those that aided them took home sizeable chunks of meat, and the local smith paid them a few large coins for the bones. The pair were left with the beast's full hide as well as a sizeable amount of meat.
Beck wasn't really focused on any of it, though. Ever since the adrenaline faded, his thoughts had continually wandered to the Delouk. The skeleton that rode openly into town, that the church apparently tolerated. It didn't make any sense. Magir and his church fought a war against the undead and those who made them that spanned the entirety of the continent, with the Grim Riders being the last holdouts all these centuries after. Why would he allow any of them to survive, let alone serve?
They had taken so much from so many people. They had taken everything from him. And Mason. So why-
Kenna poked his cheek. "What's got you so down, Mister Deputy?"
That got a chuckle out of him. "Just thinkin'. Tryin' to make sense a' things... You know anythin' 'bout this forest we're 'sposed to go to?"
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A smile tugged at her lips. "A little. We only go when we need to meet a tribe that stays in that general area. Haven't been since I was little, though."
"You? Little?"
She pushed lightly on his shoulder. "Shush. You know what I mean. Anyway, it's called the Deadwood. Not much there that can't eat the stone. Or eat the things that eat the stone. I hear Sediment cut down the stone trees for a living there. Not many other kinds of people, except when the Tunkadi are there."
"And they're the tribe you were up there to meet, I assume."
"Yep. They're Earth-aligned, so they're our go-to for when we need more ore for the lobsters. Great armorers, too, but their stuff is too heavy for us."
That was saying something, considering the things he had seen her do.
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They slept in the station that night, using the frigigator's hide as both a pillow and sleeping mat.
Of course, Beck didn't get much sleep. Some of his time awake was spent replenishing the bullet he had used on the gator, but mostly, he just tossed and turned until unconsciousness took him.
If Kenna didn't drag him up in the morning, they would have missed the train. Even then, he spent a good portion of the ride asleep. When he woke, he found that the long yellow grass he was familiar with had been replaced by giant stone pillars, each so big that Kenna wouldn't be able to get her arms halfway around them.
It didn't take him long after he was fully awake to realize that the pillars were actually trees, seeing as they had bark and branches adorning their trunks. Occasionally, he could see shadows moving between the branches, but he was too far to be able to make out much more. Soon enough, the train reached the station.
They sorted themselves quickly, storing unnecessary bulk at the station before setting off. A team of men were loading logs onto a car near the back of the train, but the place seemed otherwise deserted.
They made their way into the petrified trees, eyes trained on the branches above. Very rarely, they could see gray moths flitting between branches before disappearing into the similarly colored surroundings. Even with the danger he knew lurked around every corner, he still found his thoughts drifting back to that living corpse.
Beck felt his nose crumple even before he registered the smell. His hand shot to smother his nose. "Augh- What is that?"
Kenna sniffed the air, but her reaction was much more muted. "The trees are marked. We're in something's territory."
At that, he unslung his rifle and checked the chamber. It was unnecessary, but it eased his mind the smallest bit. The pair of them set to work, looking for any evidence of a big cat and where it might be. It didn't take long; the surrounding trees were all covered in claw marks left by the beast. The only issue was that, since the trees were made of stone, it was impossible to differentiate between the new and the old.
As the search drug on, Beck couldn't stop his mind from wandering. The only time he'd even seen the undead were when they were attacking someone, whether it was his family or a town in general. Now there was one of them just waltzing into town, and he was supposed to trust that it was completely safe? Absolutely not.
Not after everything they did.
Kenna grabbed him by the back of his collar just in time to keep him from being crushed by a half-rotted razorback carcass. As soon as he recovered from that shock, he scoured the canopy above with his eyes, yet couldn't find anything different from the rest of the forest. He nodded his thanks and made to keep looking, but the woman's grip was firm. "Where is your head? You'd be dead right now if I wasn't here."
He couldn't help but sigh. "I just... I keep thinkin' about it. Why is one a' them even allowed to exist? The Church is supposed to kill rotters, not put em on the payroll! What if he's just pretendin' to be good, just so him and his kind can take us out from the inside?"
She relaxed her grip as he spoke, finally letting go when he finished. Her hand rested on his shoulder, instead. "I don't know. I never dealt with the Archangels or anything like that. But I'm there if you need me."
He rested his hand atop hers and they both smiled softly. That lasted until something heavy landed on his shoulders and sent him tumbling to the ground. Claws raked at his back, thankfully unable to get fully through the armor. Just as quickly, though, the weight was lifted and feline yowl echoed through the forest.
He scrambled to his feet, only to realize that he had lost his rifle in the fall. Kenna had taken up a position between him and the metallic cougar that had just been on his back. His rifle lay only a few feet away.
The cat stalked in an arc around the pair of them. Beck retreated toward his weapon in response, Kenna following along with the beast's trajectory.
His heel came into contact with the barrel. Slowly, he stooped to grab it. The cougar burst into a sprint, headed straight for Kenna.
Beck was able to bring his weapon to bear just in time; the now-familiar crack of a bullet tore through the air, and impacted the beast in the chest. Frost raced outwards from the room, slowing the beast enough for Kenna's next swing to connect just as it leapt at her.
The impact threw the cougar off course, but it simply landed as if it hadn't just been struck with two consecutive attacks. He didn't bother to load another bullet; he just sent another Mana Bolt at it.
A hole replaced one of the cat's eyes. Another moment, and it slumped forward. It didn't move again.
You have slain a Cougore!
[Longarms] has leveled up! +1 to Dexterity! It is now Lvl. 3!
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Back at the station town, the pair strung up, dressed, and cleaned the carcass. With that done, all that was left to do was wait. The next train wasn't scheduled until the next day.
After only a few hours, though, the ground started to shake. It didn't take long for the source to become apparent: what looked like giant wheels rolling towards the station. As they grew closer, it became apparent that they were pulling large sleds behind them.
Kenna joined him in watching their approach. "Huh. Didn't expect to see them here."