Above the Spray Lakes

Bear’s instincts surged into El's consciousness as he charged to meet the mutation. Wrongness, in our territory, threat. Destroy wrongness. Never before had the push of the instincts been so strong. The mutated spider landed on the ground, raising its front pair of legs before it. At the end of the limbs, the exoskeleton formed a savage pair of pincers. It scuttled forward on its other six legs.

El lowered his massive shoulders just before he slammed into the monstrous spider. The superior weight of El’s bear form rocked the spider backwards, its six legs digging grooves in the dark soil. El lifted his head, raising the spider as he did so, and bit down on one of the foul creature’s legs. The tough exoskeleton tasted rank on his tongue, and the stiff barbs cut into his lips.

The mutation screamed, a sound disturbingly human, and swung one of its forelegs at El’s wide back. The serrated pincer cut into dense brown fur, seeking the flesh underneath. El released the leg and swung his right paw up into the bottom of the mutation’s armoured thorax. His claws dug deep grooves in the thick plates covering the spider. It pushed off the heavier bear, skittering quickly to the side.

Laura frantically looked through the remains of the camp, seeking a weapon beside the branch she had been holding. There must be something in these backpacks. Who camps without a hatchet, or even a knife?

The pair of front legs swung down at El. He avoided one, but the second lanced through the fur covering his heavy shoulder. The wicked pincer tore open the thick skin and muscle above his right foreleg. Dark red blood ran freely down his leg, a large flap of meat hanging.

Laura whipped her head around at El’s pained roar. He took a pair of steps back from the mutt, shaking his massive head. The compactly muscled girl ran forward to help her friend. Just as she reached the rear of the mutation it whirled, lasing out one of its legs at her. Laura ducked under the blow and threw herself at its rear legs. She wrapped her arms around one, pulled herself close and began kicking at the body of the spider. The barbs on the leg dug into her hands and arms.

The spider continued to spin around, dragging Laura over the rocky ground next to it. It began jackhammering blows at her with its closest foreleg. The first pair of strikes missed, digging divots in the ground, the third pierced her stomach. The searing pain shot up her entire torso, causing her to scream before her healing powers began mending torn nerves.

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The maniacal face of the mutation leered at her, chomping its jaws together. “Eeeeaaaaattttt.” The voice was masculine, but the tone was wrong, almost hissing.

The spider slammed down upon the ground, grinding Laura under its body. It was then that she saw that El had leaped onto the mutation’s back. He clamped his mighty jaws onto its thorax and began raining blows upon its back, slashing at the heavy armour plates with his long-clawed paws. The mutt howled in anger, thrashing madly in an attempt to dislodge the grizzly.

Laura was cast aside by the much larger combatants. A pincer lashed across her thigh as she rolled away. She felt the chitinous bladed pincer grind against her femur for the briefest moment. She settled seven feet away and looked on as El battled the spiders mutated metahuman. This thing is really trying to kill us. It was the most idiotic observation, she knew as soon as it passed through her conscious thoughts. She had recently been in a number of bloody fights, but never before had something or someone made a serious attempt to kill her. Am I ready for a life like this?

Near the cliff El slashed at the spider, digging long trenches in its chiton. The spider had landed several more blows with its wicked pincers, leaving long cuts down his heaving sides. He lunged forward and caught one of its middle legs in his jaws, clamping down, and thrashing his head. The force of its massive jaws broke through the chiton, the leg snapping off and coming away from the frenzied spider. The spider shrieked in pain. It shot one of its pincers straight at El, punching into the flesh of his left side. El stumbled backward, blood rushing from the ragged wound.

Laura again attempted to get close to the spider, but it skittered to the side and lashed out with a pincer. Her duck was mistimed and the pincer latched hold of her hair. It pulled the struggling girl close to it, clacking its jaws ravenously. Laura struck out at the hideous face with her foot, delivering a solid kick to the cheek. Her second kick ended with the spider clamping onto the end of her shoe and biting down. She could feel the intense pressure through the canvas and rubber of her running shoe.

Again El rose up and charged. He lashed out at the pincer holding Laura off the ground. The weight of the blow knocked her loose. Laura scooted back from the spider, as it and the grizzly resumed slamming blows into each other.

El could feel himself getting weaker. Bear was his most powerful form, but it had suffered grievous wounds and was suffering from blood loss. He quickly took in the campsite on the edge of the mountain and decided on a desperate plan.

Laura stood, snatching a large stick from the ground. El slammed into the spider, wrapping his powerful forelimbs around the squirming mutation and raising them up. He took several steps forward, then lurched the spider to the side. It reminded her of a sumo wrestler. The spider flailed its many legs, frantic to find traction. The superior mass of the grizzly bear pushed it slowly forward. With horror, Laura realized forward was toward the cliff's edge, with a drop of hundreds of feet.

“El no!”

El turned his head to look at her once, his animal eyes seeming to turn human for an instant. He then turned back to the spider, bellowed massively and lunged both of them over the edge of the cliff.