Calling the creature a mutt wasn’t entirely accurate, it’s resemblance to any kind of canine began and ended with it’s long body and haunched rear legs. A dead-skinned hairless thing, standing around a metre tall at its raised shoulders. The rotting-grey skin was broken up by sharp-angled patterns of black lines - the distinct sign of a demonic being. Its front legs spread out from a broad chest, swollen with uneven bulbs of muscle and ended in long talons that clicked against the shale. Flat feet at the end of rear legs braced against the ground, ready to jump forward at a moment's notice.

Its head was disturbingly close to human, so close and yet so far. Its neck jutted forward like most quadrupeds, but the head was snapped upwards, made to brokenly look forward. Round, black eyes were pulled tight into a hungry, weighing leer, while a lipless mouth that spread far too wide parted to reveal a jaw of black, jagged needles. It was earless, noseless, expressionless. All the distinct features of a face missing and leaving only a horrifying shadow of familiarity.

The blade steadied, Soune planted her feet with more confidence.

“Jaws and claws, that’s all.” She reassured herself, if she could just avoid those it didn’t matter how tough it was to put down. She didn’t have to fight close with fist or knife like the other two, she had the advantage of reach and leverage. At least that’s how it worked in theory.

The beast launched off its haunches, kicking up sharp pebbles in its sprint towards her. Fast, much faster than Soune assumed from its size. She couldn’t stab or swing the blade in time, instead meeting its lunging jaws with a twist of the rifle. The stock slammed into where its nose should’ve been. The force of Sounes' blow mixed with the reckless momentum of the beast easily cracked whatever bone plate was under the tough skin. It dropped and staggered, stunned by the pain. Before it could recover and turn to face her again, Soune reversed the motion of the stock blow to slash along its side. Her blade pierced through the grey skin with ease, cutting a deep, large gash into the beast's stomach, but the far tougher, overwordly material that formed the black lines caught the blade.

The awful thing scrambled away - more black, oily gore leaking from its already recovering wound.

“Damned thing!” Soune barked, chasing it with stabs of the bayonet, it hopped in shallow angles to avoid the blows. Her boot slipped on a loose piece of rock, throwing her off balance, she spat a curse as she steadied herself but the moment's pause was enough for the creature to turn itself around and strike again. It changed its tactics and swung towards her legs with wicked claws. Soune side-stepped the blows, shifting the rifle downwards to parry the knife-like claws with her own blade. Several traded blows, the both of them watching and learning the timing of the other. The beast grew frustrated first and swung its arm wide to strike wide and strong, dumbly and predictably. Soune was quicker to react and counterswing, her lithe muscle quicker to move than the brute's bulbous mass. The bayonet cleaved deep into it’s outstretched shoulder, only halting when hitting the dense bone. The monster screamed out in agony and tried to pull back, but Soune was ready. She stepped in, drawing the bayonet out and upwards from the thing’s shoulder, dark gore geysered out from the wound. A tearing, heavy slash cut across the top of the monster’s back. It reeled upwards, exposing its chest. Soune finished the combination of blows with a deep, savage stab into the bubbly chest, twisting and gouging the wound.

The mongrel screamed louder, shriller, enough auditory misery to make Soune flinch and give the beast a chance to unstick itself painfully from the blade. Its wounds were regenerating slower and slower with each injury. Black blood bubbled from its arm and back but flowed freely from its chest wound. It looked upwards at its opponent. Soune met its furious gaze with a confident, mocking smirk. She hefted the rifle upwards to a ready, spearlike stance. The thing growled and hunched downwards, readying itself for another jump at her. Soune slowly approached, waiting to use the momentum of its lunge to drive the bayonet into something vital.

The mongrel leaped , but it didn't aim its lunge at her, instead biting down on the weapons barrel, behind where the bayonet was locked into place. A savage set of talons slashed out at the closer hand holding it, narrowly missing as it was torn backwards, instead the talons dug deep into the weapon, gouging wood and metal alike.

Soune was taken aback for another moment, not expecting this level of intelligence from the creature. Not missing the opportunity with a newly freed hand however she leaned into the fight, pulling back her arm to slam a fist into the side of the beast's head. It loosened its grip with a shallow bark, pulling its own arm back before biting down again on the barrel. It was locked around the middle of the gun now, Soune grimaced when she saw the teeth marks clearly in the barrel.

“That wasn’t mine, bastard…” She hissed, and received a cackling sound in response. Her eyes went wide as it renewed its assault, jumping off with its back legs again to shove her backwards. This time she did lose her footing, falling backwards onto the shale. Were it not for her reinforced coat the sharp edges of the rocks might’ve spelled the end of the fight, as it was they still caused spikes of pain to shoot through her back. The black flash of the creature's talons stood out amongst white stars of shock. Reflexily, she grabbed the rifle again and pushed up. The leverage given to her by the weapon in the beast’s jaws let her move it back just enough for the claws to only brush against the skin of her clavicle. She couldn’t stop the cry of pain, the unnatural claws causing an amplified, burning pain in what should’ve been a stinging wound at worst. It cackled again, a victorious, arrogant sound choked out around the rifle.

It snapped its head down, backwards, to the side, any way to try and wrestle the rifle from her, to get rid of the last defence the woman had. It still was loosing that awful, wet cackle from the back of its throat. Soune grit her teeth hard enough to ache, the beast was playing with her, taking its time to wear her out. It was enjoying this, enjoying the anguish and panic. Anger replaced those emotions quickly when Soune realised the sick game it was playing.

“You want it so bad? Fine then.” She grunted out, and jerked the rifle to the side before releasing her. The bayonet blade dug into the ground beside her, scraping against the rocks with an awful sound. In the moment of shocked pause from the monster she grabbed its handle and twisted it out of the locking rail. It realised what she was doing too late, by the time it released the rifle and took a step back, the long blade was in its neck. It screeched, the ear-ringing sound shaking Soune’s senses and giving her the cold flash of a bad memory. She twisted the blade down, hoping to sever something vital in the thing's neck. It managed to twist off the blade and step away before she did.

It turned to look at her, no longer sickly cackling but releasing a low, furious growl. The wound was already closing, the demonic body stitching itself back together, but the pain persisted.

“What’s wrong mongrel?” Soune looked savagely at the creature, raising herself back up. Black blood stained the front of her already dark shirt, splatters of it along the brown coat and across her tanned face. “Not so funny anymore?” Damaged rifle in one hand, bloody bayonet in another, the visage of predator and prey had swapped between the pair.

The thing looked past her, to where its brethren were still fighting. It looked up and screamed a different cry, a desperate screech that was cut short. The snapping explosion drowned out its noise, a splash of mixed, corrupted fluids shot out from the roof of its mouth onto the flaky stones.

Two shots left.

Soune lowered the smoking gun, catching her breath and clearing the blood and sweat congealing on her face. She turned to where the others were, about thirty meters away, one creature was sprawled out dead near cargo-fives cab, the steaming wounds a sign of Kirches work. She was pulling two of them away from the vehicles, one of which was limping and broken, trying desperately to support the healthier one after her. Meanwhile, the other one had Tonio pinned down beside cargo-five, chewing into his upper arm while talons gouged into the damaged metal armour over his chest. Raz had left wherever they were hiding and uselessly drummed their fists against the creature, screaming as they did so.

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“Damnit…” Soune breathed, falling to a kneeling aim more quickly than she’d have liked and racking the lever. She steadied her sights over the one mauling Tonio, Raz’ flailing wasn’t making it easy. It was hard to wait, to see the red leak from his chest and arm, to focus through Raz’ screaming. She waited with bated breath, watching for a moment where the creature's vitals were exposed. The rifle kicked into her shoulder, and the creature flinched as the bullet slammed into its neck. With a roar, Tonio used the moment to flip the grapple and began furiously beating the underside of the creature's head with armoured knuckles.

One shot left.

One cheap, tarnished shot she wasn’t even sure would fire. With a silent plea, she primed the lever firmly. She felt it, and heard it, chamber the round.

“Thank you.” Soune murmured, her cheek firmly against the rifle's stock, moving her aim over to Kirche. The two creatures were both injured now, hesitantly circling the confident figure who simply stood there waiting.

Soune stiffened.

Two of them.

One dead beside her, another dead by the cab, another with Tonio and Raz.

There were six before.

As if in response to her realisation, a low growl started behind her. She slowly turned to see another of the creatures standing over the corpse of its brother. It was slightly smaller than the dead one, but had even more of a savage look to its eyes. This one clearly didn’t have the interest in toying with her like the other did. It snapped at her, barking but not moving.

Tentatively, slowly, Soune stood back up using the parted door of her Lightfoot beside her for support, exhaustion was catching up fast. Twisting the bayonet back onto the rifle in preparation, she stared down the creature. It wasn’t moving yet, still just snarling and waiting over the body of the other. It wasn’t until Soune started to bring the gun to her shoulder that it leaped into action.

It was faster than the other, but she had a bit more distance now and knew how they moved. How they fought. She knew it’d leap at her, and true enough the moment it did, she grabbed the door of her vehicle and swung it in front of her. The beast slammed into the door, punching another deep dent into it but well and truly throwing it off balance. As it staggered back, nearly falling over, Soune levelled the rifle to its head. Not opting to spear it with the bayonet first.

“Dumbass.” She chided the creature, and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Click, click.

She could hear the impact of the firing hammer on the round, and nothing else.

“...Dumbass.” She said quieter, more regretfully. She didn’t have time to dwell on her mistake or the failure of the round. The rifle lunged forward, bayonet only scraping into the monster's flesh as it recovered and slipped to the side of the blade. It launched upwards at Soune, wrapping its jaw around her left arm. Soune croaked breathlessly and shocked as creature locked around her arm, though the maze of mixed, armoured fibres in her coat tangled the fangs the bite force carried through. Vice-like didn’t begin to describe it, it felt like hammers continuously striking at the deepest parts of her bone. She almost blanked out from the pain, only staying steady by biting down on her lip to try and focus on a different pain. Her left arm had released the rifle instantly, she choked up on the barrel with her right and tried to take aimless stabs at the creature. Soune felt some of the stabs connect, even pierce the skin, but the monster didn’t release her arm, only biting down harder with each blow. It jerked and pulled at her, until the pain and exhaustion overtook Soune’s resilience and dragged her down. She lost her remaining grip on the rifle as she fell.

Were she not entirely focused on her arm, she’d have noticed the edges of shale cutting her face and stabbing into her shirt, instead she stayed glaring at the creature. Her mind rushed to try and find some solution, and was blanked with each tearing bite. New thoughts began to creep in.

“This is it then, mauled to death by some nameless mutt.

I didn’t make it there, didn’t make it anywhere. Lived and died in this shitty dustbowl doing others dirty work.

Sorry, Ariel.”

The pain was starting to fade, as was her vision, white specks crowded more and more of her sight as she was dragged along, away from her team, away from any hope of rescue.

She turned her head to look away from where they were, to look for any chance to escape. The lights in her vision grey, one more pronounced than the others. It shone and glimmered at her, not swam like the others.

“No, not like this.”

It wasn’t a spark of fading consciousness. It was the glare of the sun reflecting perfectly off the peak of gem-like buildings, so far in the distance that their grand, mountain-height peaks only just breached the horizon's surface. Their glass constructed perfectly aligning with one of two suns to hit her eyes.

“Not here.”

Focusing on that burning light in her vision, the specks seemed to fade, the pain in her arm turning to a dead-numb. Her other hand wrapped around a piece of hard-edged shale, it sliced into the joints of her fingers.

“Not yet.”

Black eyes flicked down to her. Mustering the last of her defiant strength, Soune pulled the creature off balance and towards her. She slashed the piece of shale across its eyes. It released her arm with a scream of pain. Soune wasted no time rising to her feet on a lacerated right hand, turning away from the creature and towards the dropped weapon. But the creature followed, slashing at the sounds of shifting shale in a blind fury. Twice their talons made contact, one strike was blocked by the long tails of her coat, the other sliced across the back of her calf.

Soune dove into a roll towards the rifle, letting the impact dissipate across the right side of her jacket. The beast was still slashing at her trail, a few precious seconds is all she had. Taking it into her good arm, the injured one hanging limp and useless, she kneeled and grabbed the rifle around the foregrip.

“Not. To. You.” She growled, loud and clear. Sure enough, the monster leaped at her, aiming for a desperate killing blow to the head or chest. It flew over her, and Soune stabbed the bayonet up and into the underside of its roaring, expanded jaw. She released the rifle, letting it fall with the creature. The stock hit the ground first, spearing the blade further into the creature.

It gurgled and bubbled through blood as it blindly dug at the bayonet lodged in its jaw. Soune stood there watching it for a few moments, a few sordid moments of seeing the pain it had inflicted on her paid back. The long bayonet was firmly lodged in the upper part of its mouth and into the skull, the hilt buried to its grey, leathery skin. Soune spat at the creature before rolling it over and stepping down on its neck to still it. She braced the rifle under her arm, slamming the lever open to clear the dead, useless round.

“Bastard thing.” She growled without a distinct target. Her hand reached into her upper pocket, pulling out the damaged round and loading it into the chamber. It’s warped casing and loose bullet scraped nastily against the internal actions.

The lever moved back, closing the receiver with another awful noise.

“Sorry…” She quietly whispered to the gun, wincing at the baleful sounds.

One shot.

She pulled the trigger, and with a weak snap and the weapon bucking far more than it should’ve, it fired into the monster, killing it with a messy hole through the head.

Soune fell backwards into the shale, breathing shallowly. She managed to raise the rifle's barrel in front of her. Smoke was pouring out of a tear in the metal where the other creature's teeth had nearly punched through.

“Sorry…” She breathed again, vision fading as she heard the familiar shifting of rocks approaching her. Soune closed her eyes, not even bothering to hope it was her teammates, and let the pain of her wounds, the exhaustion of battle, fade away to blissful unconsciousness.

It was ruined with the jab of a needle, a new dose of adrenaline and other stimulating chemicals coursing into her body and making her chest drum painfully hard.

“Oww” Soune gritted out, the pain across her body coming back in full force.

“She’s alive.” Raz’ breathy voice came from beside her, already investigating her wounds.

Kirche’s bloodstained face was kneeled over hers, lightly smiling.

“Better be, Tiny got hit a lot harder and he’s still moving.”

“Tonio, and barely.” Raz corrected.

“So Silver, second place again.” Kirche teased, Soune only groaned and let her head fall back against the shale.