Kalesi watched as Mevi ran off further into the dilapidated hamlet, venturing to brave this strange and hostile place alone. Their task was to evacuate survivors, and Kalesi found some confidence that Mevi could do this even without her help. As her young pupil disappeared from sight through a turning alley, Kalesi returned to her own task. A duty to perform that would require all her remaining strength and agility to survive.
Few of the settlement’s survivors stayed behind. Kalesi spoke to their one-armed leader, a gruff and blunt man who speaks as if death looms over him at all times. He probably only agreed to Kalesi’s strategy because it was the only plan anyone had even attempted to give him. The remaining survivors had focused all their energy into building and maintaining a large wall, an attempt to postpone the inevitable but not to stop it. The people’s agreement to an outsider’s request was received surprisingly well, and accepted without any complaint. Those few that remained were only the ones who were injured, maimed, or too battered to properly escape without great strain on the whole of the group. The survivor’s scarred leader stayed behind as well, saying his deformed body would likely not reach much farther than the first climb. He might have been right, but his trained and powerful muscles told a different story. His almost vacant eyes and grim determination explained his real reasoning, and no words needed to be said about his true goal.
Kalesi had finished her explosive preparations, and enabled one of the bombs to connect to her neural interface for remote activation. When it activates, the chain reaction would hopefully be enough to destroy what is left of the metallic strut the village called a bridge. Yet even once the bridge is destroyed, the horde of Rusted will inevitably spill over the gap and large portions of their mass will make it over and into the village remnants. Kalesi told a small lie to Mevi, she can’t leave immediately to return to her pupil. She, and those remaining to maintain the wall, will need to hold back and fight against the Rusted advance. Even now, the horde beckons them on the other side of the barrier. With so few people, even now the Rusted continue to break through and destroy the barricade faster than those remaining can repair it.
Just as Kalesi returns her focus to the barricade, the last of the able bodied adults retreat from their posts to escape their ravaged village. The great wall the survivors had built is several meters high, and an unknowable thickness. The Rusted destroy all they touch, their affliction can melt through the very metal they walk upon. When one section of the barricade opened, by the angry claws of the Rust, the survivors replaced the section that would erode into dust. This process forever expanded the barricade’s width and size, and used the very walls and foundations of their village as the supply for the construction.
Grim and determined faces prowled the remnants of the wall. Few still attempted to maintain the falling architecture that protected them. All were waiting for the signal, the sign to unleash hell and to die for someone that wasn’t themselves. When all of the survivors who could escape mount the first checkpoint, a tall wall leading upwards onto a bridge to spirit them away from the village, hell would break loose. Kalesi stood vigilant with bated breath, thinking back to her words of promise to return. She will return, and she will survive this. The idea of leaving Mevi to whatever designs the Magi have for her, it simply was not an option.
Just then a sound was heard echoing over the settlement. A shrill howl careened over their heads. It came from a whistling device, one that was thrown from the group who led the escape. It was their signal that all who were fleeing had made it over the perimeter and were beginning their flight away from the village. As the sound flew and died away into the abyss, all eyes turned to Kalesi. Those who were attempting to repair the barricade put down their tools and watched the outsider. It was their moment of truth, if the bridge didn’t fall into ruin the Rusted would quickly overrun those that fled. Kalesi prepared herself, pushing away the memories of flesh and pain she recalled as Rust. She activated the device, and began to back away from the wall. Activating her energy shields and making herself ready for whatever marched through the gates.
A loud explosion crashed into being not far away, and soon the chain reaction Kalesi had hoped for followed. One explosion after another, the last triggering the next. The ground shook and ears rang from the force of impact. Loud lights of fire mingled with the dust, lighting it aflame and producing a brilliance of ash and singed dust. Before Kalesi could maintain her bearing, a foul odor pushed past the billowing heat. Charred flesh and burnt hair wafted from the scene to penetrate past Kalesi’s defenses. Just as the smell reached her, the sound of cries followed.
Screeching beyond the smoking gap, hundreds of voices rang out in anger and excitement. Shrill cries and insane exclamations pushed forward now without a barrier to prevent their entry. But just as soon as they charged the sound of falling calls, disappearing into the deep below, echoed from below in the abyss. The remnant defenders readied themselves, it would not be long before some managed to breach the gap and begin charging into their line. Men and women, all maimed or scarred beyond the reach of medical miracles, readied themselves with crude weapons and makeshift shields. Kalesi stood at the front of their feigned militant line, a glowing aspect of determination and power. As the echoing voices fell below, the tension grew exponentially. Those few who remained were suddenly becoming aware of what was asked of them, to die holding themselves against an unstoppable force. To become one with the horde in an attempt to delay the assault on those that fled. Men and women alike wavered, and Kalesi could not blame them. She regretted knowing she would soon flee with the unconscious boy, and would likely be the only survivor of this cluster of afraid defenders.
Just as the line of defenders started to visibly waver, a scratching was heard past the billowing smoke. A hard scrape like stone against metal, a jagged blade carving into a metal surface. The Rusted were leaping now, and clawing against the remains of the platform the colony stood upon. A loud thump echoed into the settlement. Then silence, even the horde hushed to a distant groaning. Then the excitement built, their cries heightened, the yells echoed, and evil began to charge through the smoke.
The first Rusted rushed out of the smoky cover, off center to Kalesi’s left, sprinting at an inhuman speed. Their body was decayed as rigor mortis set in, but the flesh didn’t melt or rot away as might be normal. Instead it decayed into a hard chitin, then began falling away as flakes shaved from metal. Their body opened up, exposing vital organs which were being transformed into bone and chitin, leaving a gruesome display of twisting fibers that reached out as if to escape their own body. The thing’s head and torso were strewn aside, almost entirely converted into the hard material with only the eyes remaining. Those eyes stared with a hatred that burned hotter than fire, its almost imobile body being propelled forward by some fell possession. The creature leaped and fell upon a surprised defender. Their body collapsing to the ground with the weight and momentum of the monster, yelling for help the defender writhed against the monster’s assault. But others couldn’t come to their aid, more Rusted rushed through. A dozen mangled figures, all having been ripped open at different parts of their body, quickly charged randomly at any present peoples.
The attack was now in full swing. Rusted burst through the smoke, the few that held some idea of a defensive line did their best to hold against the onslaught. It was more of a formality than an actual attempt. The creatures assaulted every angle and had a cruel method of spreading their disease. As the Rust infection needed to be ingested, the Rusted who attacked would swarm an individual to disembowel themselves onto the living, or to try to consume the dying or dead into themselves and the gaping chasm opened to the air on their body. Bile was thrown and the bodies of defeated infected piled and then were used as weapons by the furious storm of monsters.
Stolen novel; please report.
Kalesi fought against the afflicted, and many others who remained repelled the first few attacks. Blunt instruments worked best against the Rusted, crushing what remained of their brittle bodies or immobilizing them. Yet any who fought needed to ensure they didn’t touch any substance that spread out of the mangled corpses. Even a small drop of blood that was infected could reach your skin and be absorbed. The Rust invaded quickly, where skin met vital fluid a black welt formed and began to ossificate into hard bone and chitin. Kalesi’s energy shields provided a unique protection against the assaulting horde. Her shields burned hot with power, and could singe and char any that touched it. Cauterizing wounds she made and preventing the spread of ichor and spilt bile.
Kalesi engaged the brunt of the horde, being at the front of their formation, and her trained prowess prevented any of the crude attacks from landing. Yet as she fought and slew one Rusted, one of her fellow defenders fell, and as she killed two more another survivor was infected. Their plan to stall the bulk of the horde was failing rapidly, and Kalesi entertained the idea to retreat before their line was fully broken. Just then a rumbling clatter sounded from behind her. Had the Rusted gotten past and around their defenses? Kalesi spared only one look to her rear to ascertain the new front, but was surprised beyond imagining.
Clattering out of the village verge and into the town center was a constructor frame, a large exoskeleton-type suit that could double a normal humanoid’s size and quadruple their potential strength. It had been modified to wear welded plates of metal sheet and barbed wire. Some crazed lunatic was charging forward with utmost speed from within the village, and crashed hard into the wave of Rusted.
The individual in the constructor frame looked crazed, and covered in scars. His body might once have been the peak of male physique, but now instead bore countless scars and half burnt flesh. From Kalesi’s right she heard the voice of the maimed village leader, “Makenar! Bastard, you came late!”
The bellowing voice from within the constructor frame yelled in a crazed response, “My captain, I had upgrades to make. Now lets die together you old slug!”
Kalesi was initially surprised by the interference, and wondered why she wasn’t made aware of such a great advantage to their defense, but was regardless happy for the added support. With the mechanical suit, that was in remarkably good condition, the Rusted refocused their efforts to assaulting the large mecha. Those that still lived and could move made their way to close the gap and shorten the defensive line. With the mechanical monstrosity at their side their defense might bear fruit. Yet while the attempts to stall the Rusted were redoubled, Kalesi could not shake her impatience at her own retreat. Regardless she still fought, keeping a close eye on the unconscious boy behind her who was leaning quietly against the cliff wall.
While things seemed to be initially going well, with their added support, the Rusted were too many. As more and more flooded over the bridged gap, more added themselves to a writhing pile of bodies that intermingled into making a grotesque pathway over the large gap. The horde’s numbers were too great and ferocious for even the constructor frame to push through and dismantle their amalgam pass of flesh and bone. As they fought longer, more bodies could cross the ever growing connection between the village and the rusted pathway to hell. Soon the Rusted would span the entire pathway and their crossing would be as if the explosives never went off.
Their group was quickly being pushed back, and as every injury transformed into infection the fighting power of their force weakened. With every redoubled push from the Rusted one or more defenders were wounded, and with each new wound their progression to becoming Rusted themselves developed. Kalesi had fought long enough, she decided. Their progress would soon be halted, and only the constructor frame would be left to become overwhelmed and ripped apart. Their efforts had spared the fleeing mass of survivors several minutes longer than Kalesi had initially hoped. It would have to be enough, and if it wasn’t Kalesi needed to find Mevi again and remove her from this threat as quickly as possible.
The one-armed leader seemed to notice Kalesi’s internal plight. He had made his way to fight by her side at some point, and they made a deadly duo that could rip apart Rusted with little effort. The man grabbed Kalesi, who almost dismembered him in response, and threw her back and away from the fight. Taking over her spot and his own, the man threw himself against the Rusted. As Kalesi began to interject she noticed his reasoning. He was covered in marks, wounds, and infections. They all were. Only Kalesi had protection enough to prevent an infection from taking hold of her. Some of the remaining defenders didn’t even bother to fight, preferring to wrestle against the writhing horde and simply hold them back with what physical power they had left. Kalesi’s heart reached out to the selfless act, sacrificing themselves to buy time for the rest of their community. Not wanting to squander the effort, Kalesi did not hesitate to return to the unconscious boy. Gathering him into her arms, and deactivating her shields, she gave one last look to the struggling warden protectors. While she didn’t know them, she would have liked to fight by their side in another life.
With the comatose child in her arms, Kalesi darted to the direction of the survivor’s retreat. She needed to enact the final stage of her plan. This required her to find the village’s escape route, and to destroy it.
Kalesi rushed through the small hamlet, its winding and twisting alleyways making for a confusing amalgamation of structures. Yet with her speed she found the cliff by which the survivors escaped. Placed carefully in one of her satchels kept under her robes, Kalesi retrieved the last two explosives Mevi had helped create. Placing them at the base of the cliff, and beginning to connect what small signal they produced to her interface, Kalesi worked to stall the Rusted further. After each of the explosive materials were synced with her interface, she began to scale the face of the cliff that led to a higher platform. The only potential escape route the large group of refugees could use en masse.
The climb was not difficult for her, even with one arm dedicated to the carrying of an unconscious adolescent. Yet as she reached the top, a clatter and yells rang out from the center of the village. What remained of the defense had fallen, and soon the Rusted would search every structure for any uninfected bodies. Their single minded purpose would have them scale and search for any sign of life, and once one of the monsters found a trace of potential life the rest would begin to follow.
The Rusted were smart, for a horde of seemingly single minded monsters. Their sole purpose drove them to incredible heights of improvisation and cleverness. Their heightened physical prowess seemed to spread to hearing and smell, to some degree at least. It would not take long for the shambling bodies to detect the traces of survivors retreating from the village. So without further choice, Kalesi activated the explosives at the base of the cliff. Ripping asunder any hint of foothold or climbable surface.
The vibrations from the explosions were greatly lessened by the thick wall that led up to the final escape route out of the village. Yet its devastation would be enough to stall the grasping hands and claws of the Rusted for a time. As the shaking ground settled, Kalesi turned and ran up the slightly sloped strut that promised to lead to salvation.
Kalesi now needed to focus all her remaining strength on finding and protecting Mevi. Her pupil could not have gotten far with the large collection of survivors, and hopefully the survivors knew well enough how to navigate the Pipes that they would be making a quick escape. If they were not at least a few kilometers away by now, despite what little time they were given, any hope of their escape would be lost. If they had not made enough progress, Kalesi steeled herself to take her pupil away from the group and escape without them. She could not risk herself or Mevi for the lives of these people, regardless of how merciless and cruel that promise to herself was.
Kalesi ascended the pathway and escaped from the village’s sight. Leaving behind the mangled bodies of those she fought with, the few within the Pipes that showed true honor and sacrifice. If they had chosen a life under a Magi they would have been powerful warriors and wielded great influence. Yet the curse of being born into the Pipes hung over even the most honorable souls. Kalesi couldn’t help herself from cursing their ancestors for choosing to willingly abandon the Magi, thus abandoning their descendants to death and squalor.
With her last thoughts of her temporary comrades purged from her focus, Kalesi became redoubled in her duty to Mevi. Kalesi activated her suit and flew over the surface of metal and rust, her only true goal now ahead of her and awaiting her return. Whatever happens, Kalesi promised to herself to keep Mevi away from the Pipes from now on.