"Get away from the grass! Back towards the ship!"

Cyrus was yelling. Celeste had watched that horrific four-armed creature heave its oversized blade into the hilltop leader's head, and now, the man who was waving at them moments ago was lost somewhere in the reeds. People were screaming, panic setting in quickly. The group listened to Cyrus, scrambling away from the line where the grass began; the ship flattened a circle around where it landed and everyone fled towards it.

Everyone except Celeste. Ice raced through her veins. A vicious chill started at her fingertips and spread like a creeping frost through her blood. She couldn't move, couldn't run. She was only a few feet away from where the four-armed creature disappeared into the brush. The grass rustled with movement and Celeste heard claws scratching at the dirt. Then, that metallic screeching.

The remnants of the hilltop group started running towards her, shouting, but they wouldn't make it in time. There were more. Another four-armed creature hefting a kind of crude stone hammer in all of its hands sprang up, clobbering one of the hilltop across the head, snapping his neck to the side. Another beast attacked at the same time, launching itself up from behind one of the two people left, stabbing through her thin protective gear with a set of four bloodied short swords. There were only two left, a boy with disbelief struck across his face, his knuckles white as they clutched the ceramic-white staff in his hands, and a girl holding some sort of curved short blade.

This is it, Celeste thought. The screeching rang in her ears and a monster hurtled out of the reeds at her, gigantic cleaver hefted over its head.

She saw scarlet droplets thrown from the blade's edge as it crashed down towards her head, time drifting into a crawl. The twin suns above glared down. Celeste felt their cruel heat coalesce on her skin.

"Grahhhhhhh!"

Someone was screaming. Lottie. She charged in front of Celeste, holding one of the metal panels that flaked off the ship like a battering ram. Shoving the sheet of metal out, she slammed it straight into the monster flying at Celeste, knocking it out of the air. It landed on its back and let out a pained yelp, kicking up dust as it scrambled back to its feet. It didn't waste a second, screaming as it lashed out at Lottie. She managed to stop the strike, sparks bursting out where the creature's blade bounced off her metal panel, but the blow was so heavy it left a crater in the panel.

Lottie was breathing hard already. Celeste saw her arms shaking.

The rest of the beasts were already closing in, stepping out of the tall grass one by one, closing off any escape. The ship was behind them, the monsters in front. The two survivors of the hilltop group stood frozen behind the creatures, cold-blooded fear keeping them paralyzed. They were safe for now. The creatures were focused on Lottie.

In full view, they were grotesque, patchwork chimeras of flesh and metal, with bone poking out of their arms at odd angles, their legs half-covered or maybe half-made-up of rusting plates. Their weapons were primitive, even their blades were old and rusted enough to be more oddly-shaped sledgehammers than anything sharp. But they were angry, froth and foam bubbling up between their jagged teeth, and they were fighting to kill. Celeste couldn't even fight. Why? Why can't I move? I have to. I have to! She strained to move any part of her body, anything, but Celeste couldn't even manage a twitch of her finger.

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"Lottie! With me!"

Cyrus. Brandishing a cylinder of steel he probably ripped out from somewhere in the ship's guts, he ran up to the frontline, swinging the pipe at the thing Lottie had knocked back. The monster jumped away, leaving Cyrus swinging at air, but it couldn't dodge forever - and Lottie didn't plan on letting it try.

"Haaaaaaaa!"

Loosing a guttural cry, Lottie charged up, covering her body with the dented metal like a shield. There was no time. The creature couldn't get out of her way. It dragged its heavy blade on the ground as it tried to run. But Lottie caught up and trampled it, crushing it under the metal plate as she charged through. Its cleaver-like weapon dropped from its grip as it clawed at the air; it wasn't dead, but it wasn't standing up any time soon. Lottie claimed her victory with a war cry, shouting up into the suns.

The rest of Celeste's group was stunned. Murmurs broke out, wrought with disbelief.

"Come on!" Cyrus barked, lifting his pipe above his head like a valiant banner.

"We have to fight!"

"Y-Yeah!"

"I don't want to die!"

"Fight! Fight!"

People started breaking off from the cowering huddle that had formed, salvaging anything they could use to smash or slash from the wreckage of the ship. Lottie and Cyrus rallied them from the depths of their terror. The creature wielding four blades broke off from its allies, racing towards them. The other two monsters took stances in front of Cyrus and Lottie, snarling. Lottie and Cyrus couldn't move to help without opening their backs up for an easy kill. It would catch up to the ship group in a second. Celeste opened her mouth to shout a warning--

"Void call! Downshift!"

One of the hilltop survivors, the boy, thrust out his staff towards one of the monsters and yelled. His remaining ally watched with wide eyes. A flash of pitch-black light flared out from the tip of his staff and then shot towards the monster running for the other group. Taken unaware, it slammed into its back, and a violent force took hold and pressed it against the ground. It couldn't move from its place no matter how much it struggled.

"Get it!" Someone yelled, and the helpless monster fell prey to vicious strikes from metal rods, flaked-off plates, anything that could be found. It swung its arms, its weapon, desperately trying to block, but it was overwhelmed. The mob was relentless, screaming and beating their prey with whatever they had found.

On the frontline, Lottie and Cyrus were locked in a flurry of swings, stabs, and parries with the remaining two creatures. Lottie took point, knocking away strikes where she could, but the sheet metal she held in her hands was dented all over, and blood leaked from her fingers where she clung to the plate. Cyrus wasn't doing any better. It was all he could do to stay out of the way, diving to the ground to dodge one strike, then struggling to clamber away from more as the monster tried to hit him on the ground. They weren't going to last.

Ring.

The chime of a bell. Clear as stars in the night sky. Celeste felt it resonate through every synapse in her body, setting them ablaze one-by-one. Every floe of ice in her veins melted away until all that was left was lightning. She felt every nerve and every muscle ignite, feeding off adrenaline like a wildfire devours the very air. The terror rooting her to the ground evaporated like dew in the daylight. Her doubt scattered to the wind.

Celeste surged forward, snatching up the cleaver the first monster had dropped. Screaming, she charged into the fray.