The half-moon marks eased the pain just enough so she could concentrate. Gold Coins were flying at her face!? Circe instinctively new that these weren’t objects she wanted collect. Her body relaxed as she readied to shift her stance in midair. There was no way she could dodge, but she could still control her limbs.

One! Circe tilted her head just in time to save her left eye. The coin flew past, barely scratching her ear. Serrated edges?

Two! Sharp edged gold smashed into her hip at high velocity with a crunch. It pushed her upward while causing her to tilt sideways. The resulting wound formed a streak of eviscerated flesh. Her right hand raised to defend her head. She tilted her head and smacked at the coins to divert them.

Three! Eyes widened as she watched skin peel from her upper arm just below the wrist. The outer edge of the radius shone with a sanded polish.

Four! The radius cracked apart with splinters of bone. Clumps of flesh and muscle flew like rags.

Five! More muscle tore as a coin grabbed a clump of flesh and exposed the ulna. A large chunk thick as a coin had been removed from her arm.

Six! The ulna shattered apart. Before the wriggling hand could fall hanging the next coin passed through.

Seven! The last strand of flesh and muscle holding the limb together severed. Instead of blood, tendrils flowed from both sides of the open wound. Circe grabbed her severed right hand with her left before it could fall without realizing that the tendrils from both sides hide already joined.

Eight, Nine, Ten! Circe spat blood as her lungs exploded. The coins smashed through her rib cage. Rib shards intertwined with her lungs. Chunks of flesh led the coins as they burst out through her back. Circe’s mouth hung open. The half-moon marks continued to glow as they held the body together. Tendrils jumped out from the mark over her heart. They coiled into the gaping wounds in the woman’s chest.

Circe didn’t feel as much pain as the half-moons shifted from feeding to preserving their host. She could see Lizbet’s look of anticipation as- Eleven! Roaches spewed from the now useless splint as it absorbed the blow of an errant coin and came loose with a swarm of multi-colored roaches that raised their wings to slow their descent.

Twelve! Her right shoulder took a coin which lodged into the bones and sent the stub of her right arm out in protest. After the hit, her arm hung limply as the coin disappeared inside of her.

I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!

Thirteen! The coin went though the ragged scar on her throat to smack against her spinal cord. The spray of blood and flesh rained excessively before her body hit the pool. It rolled into the muck limply before sinking after a pathetic skid.

A small bubble rose from the sludge. Some tendrils grasped out of the thick water. The glowing receded under so much filth.

Lizbet jumped into the air, “We did it! We did it! She’s dead, dead, dead! Want to practice on her? Want to cast revive?”

Janele held out an arm, but she couldn’t sense a recently dead body, “She’s not reviving, maybe you killed her too good?”

Chien shook. The foul musty air encouraged a cough he couldn’t suppress. A creaking sound mixed with a barely audible series of skittering clicks came from behind Janele. Chien turned his head slightly to the left.

“What the truck!?”

Rotted rubber dripped. Rusted suspensions creaked as the weight of the wheels pulled them down. A swirling multi-colored pedestal became a black blur. Janele glanced back in time to see the left rear wheel axis crumble. The entire assembly splashed into the muck.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The swirling tornado divided into two parts that separated to form thick legs. Roaches skittered over one another from the window until the golem grew arms. A flat gloss of roaches resembling an oil slick crawled over the ceiling.

The forming monstrosity bulked, legs became taller and arms became thicker. Though it barely moved as the rainbow roaches worked to stabilize its form, it reached a height halfway to the cave’s ceiling.

The goblin joined Lizbet and took a defensive stance as the golem clicked and creaked to life. A rainbow fist arched back and aimed at Janele. She jumped backwards, easily avoiding it and gaining distance from the still slow and cumbersome creature. Each step from the golem reverberated with impact even in the muffled cave. Lizbet watched, then took a slow step back. That’s when she felt something caressing her ankle. She tried to move more forcefully and felt two hands clasp under the muck.

The hairless, bloody, broken, roach covered creature dripping in the cave muck with glaring eyes all over its body lapped tendrils that exposed Lizbet to a portion of pain. A high pitch scream pushed through the soggy cave as Lizbet kicked her leg to try and force the creature off. It bit her calf.

“I cast Chains of Debt!”

Nothing happened.

“I cast Lucky…”

Lizbet realized that because the creature wasn’t dead her skill was on cool down, so she kicked harder. The creature scurried up her back like an insect. It grappled the back of her neck with its left hand. The right floated in front of Lizbet’s face. Bloody fingers flexed. A coiled chain of shadowy tendrils kept the severed limb roped to the arm.

“Idiot! Get her off me!”

The goblin jumped on Lizbet’s shoulders to kick her off, but Circe jumped back.

“Forty seconds,” Circe whispered as she skidded into the muck. Her severed hand flailed about as she turned to face Janele’s attack.

“Ngghhhhhaaaaaaaaa!”

Janele had closed the distance with the roach golem plodding behind her. A kick swirled for Circe’s face. Circe ran backward with little difficulty, using both her legs. Janele’s blade swung for her neck. She arced back and let the blade swing by. A punch followed from the left. Circe weaved, tilted her head, and swerved to the side.

When fighting for survival the pain wasn’t as bad.

“The pain is less!” she croaked gleefully

“I can’t use Lucky Coin! It’s on cool down!” Lizbet shouted.

Janele pushed against Circe, “I’m gonna kill this little gremlin if it’s the last thing I do!”

The blade turned in her outstretched hand and swiped for her neck from the other direction. It swung like a pendulum as Janele flipped the knife at the far end of her swing and went for Circe’s neck from the opposite direction. A twisted grin raised as Janele’s swings got ever closer to soft, jaggedly scarred, neck meat. But the golem closed in from behind.

Another feint with her left fist followed a swipe. Circe dodged the fist and turned to expose her side. She stretched out her body, which raised her neck and exposed more flesh. Janele twirled but Circe went underneath the attack, grabbed her severed hand to pull it apart from the tendrils, and used the sharp end of the broken ulna as a dagger.

Two lines of burning slicing pain ran diagonally across Janele’s waist as the severed bone shiv cut deeply. Circe rolled behind her opponent and came back up above the swirling liquids still holding her severed hand as a weapon. She wheezed, gasped, as the wounds in her lungs reopened and took in infectious liquids.

Lizbet refreshed her mage light, then chided the goblin, “What are you waiting for!? Go kill her!”

Janele took a few steps back as she glanced at the blood dripping from her ripped shirt. Her fingers clenched upon her knife as the Circe stumbled and turned to face her.

“I’ll kill them all, all, kill all, them all. Kill them all?” she croaked in a scratchy whispering voice that barely registered even to Janele’s keen ear.

Janele narrowed her eyes. That scar. Hadn’t a coin hit there? Maybe she couldn’t speak. This gremlin had to be nearly dead, just a little more. The beeping of a truck interrupted Janele’s thoughts.

Fully formed, the roach golem moved faster. Instead of lumber forward, it rushed for Janele. Flesh from her belly wound pulled apart as Janele jumped backwards to dodge a punch. A hand went against the wound and felt the small spurts of blood from the laceration. The goblin rushed at Circe, only to get smacked backwards into Lizbet so hard they both tumbled into the pool.

Chien aimed his gun at Circe and fired. A bullet struck into her stomach, another missed, the third lodged into her chest before the golem scooped her up and the body flowed into the conglomeration of roaches. With the body under the cover of the swarm, tendrils began to appear amidst the colors that could only be seen when it the golem approached the mage light. A pained screech flowed from the confluence of roaches as the golem began to move fast and erratically.

Lizbet picked up her red goblin and ran with it in her arm. As Janele felt the stretching and bleeding of her wound, she decided to run as well. They ran past Chien as he stood aiming his gun at the golem. He decided to run as well while the Golem stormed off in the opposite direction.