We braced at the tiny hole in the wall we had occupied. What was left of the monsters spread out, not running toward the city, but running away from the hole in the world — and each other. Combat filled the valley as the Celestials started battling each other.

The largest stopped running toward the city altogether, instead eating the corpses of their fallen comrades.

Nalaar had said that someone had escaped the prison through the Celestial scar. I didn’t see how. There must have been hundreds of monsters simply waiting on the other side to wade through — and as I understood it, they would have had to wait for the gate to open before they could cross.

The Celestials that continued racing toward the city came within firing range. Techniques and arrows from distant parts of the low and high city’s ranged down. The projectiles from the high city caused explosions and rocked the earth.

What eventually reached the wall of our city was reduced down to dozens of Celestials. I readied my sword as one — just one — neared our section of the wall. It was a full head taller than me, standing on six legs that ended in wicked points. Its body was mostly black chitin plates, reflecting purple in the light from the sealed off sky above.

Six insectoid wings stretched off its back, buzzing constantly, but there was no way the thing could get off the ground.

The bull-bug raced toward a section of the wall left of us, letting out a moo that seemed overlayed with the distorted sound of a waterfall.

Our entire group watched in tense silence as the only monster near us ignored us, large horns ramming into the wall. The monster mooed again as the horns seemed to bend.

“Uh…?” Nalaar said, dumbfounded.

“It’s normal.” Valar said. “Most Celestials aren’t worth a damn. Most just drop dead out the gate.”

“Stupid as they look.” One of the two guards said, standing to my right. He still stared out at the open field. “Let’s go get it.”

He started to take a step forward.

“Hey, ugly!” I yelled at the bugbull. With a mental tug, I started trying to circulate energy in my legs. I felt Interface feel the touch and complete the cultivation technique, Scale the Mountain ready to active as soon as I needed it.

The bulls head flicked back and forth, then it turned to me. It let out a roar with the noise of a waterfall, the imitation of a moo completely gone.

Then it charged us, slipping as its sharp feet scraped away earth. It tore a gouge as it rushed towards us. I extended my sword, using [Scale the Mountain] in my legs and Hellfire in my arms.

“Don’t take it head on!” One of the guards shouted behind me.

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I stepped to the side then accelerated forward. My sword scraped against the first chitin plate it hit, unable to cut it. Then it pierced into the gap between the two plates of exoskeleton and met flesh. Gore exploded out, burning hot sticky blood coating my arms, boiling with steam as I tore open the monster’s side.

[Hellfire: 63%. Exhaust: 12%]

The sound of a waterfall filled the area as I spun back around, ready to face it a second time.

The monster slammed into the gap on the wall and collapsed on its side, writhing, it sharpened legs kicking out. Its buzzing wings were partially pinned under its body — the monster ripped them to pieces as it writhed.

The other guards stood back, spears at the ready as they circled the bugbull. It was unable to right itself.

Nalaar bleated as he charged, stabbing his spear into the creatures side ineffectually. He wasn’t unable to cut through it’s plate.

“Use [Scale the Mountain.]” I said, walking up beside Nalaar.

Nalaar paused, stopping as he stabbed the monster. It was still kicking its legs, throwing up dirt, and making a mix of horrifying noises.

“In my… in my arms?”

“Nah.” I said, sheathing my sword. “In your legs. Charge and lean all the force into your spear.”

Nalaar nodded, then took several steps back before blowing forward, legs glowing green then blue in Interface’s highlighted vision. Nalaar’s spear stabbed through the chitin shell of the bug bull with ease. Its guts poured out in a faucet of steaming liquid, and the monster slowly stilled.

Nalaar breathed heavily, chest rising over his orange robe. He nearly jumped when Valar slapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Way to go!” She said.

There was an odd sense of comraderie. The other two guards congratulated Nalaar as well, one of them leaning down with a dagger to cut off the end of the monster’s horn while Valar watched the field to see if any other monsters approached them.

All along the wall, other monsters died, people jumping down from the wall to carve them for trophies, while others were dragged away for meat.

I looked down at the monster below me and tried to match up its image with the delicious food I had been eating. I felt like I should have been disgusted, but I just couldn’t muster it after eating the Hells food for so long.

Instead, I suddenly felt sick at being a unit of goat men fighters. I looked up, scanning their faces, wondering how long until they would die, and how long it would take me to forget their names. I didn’t even ask the other two guards.

Old habits died hard.

I shouldn’t be getting this involved with a clan I planned to leave. And yet, I knew I had to. If I wanted to escape this prison — which I had to if I wanted to return to the hells — I needed to break through the Celestial Scar. Even now, the Scar was beginning to close again, sealing off space. I would have to press through all of the monsters that poured out to enter it and escape.

I needed them.

“Aha!” one of the guards exclaimed, pulling out a clump of raw meat from the monster. It was studded with red shapes that glowed even through the liquid. There must have been two dozen Stone held loosely together by flesh.

The guard was absolutely stained in monster guts. He flung the meaty orb at Nalaar, who stumbled to catch it. It stained his shirt. He stared down at it.

“So how are we splitting it, Nalaar?” The second guard asked.

“Lethal gets first rights to Stone.” Valar said, looking at me as she filled me in.

“Even.” Nalaar said, holding the chunk back out.

The guard took it eagerly, hacking it to pieces with a knife until he had a few dozen little red stones. We split them up, and I shoved six monster gut covered stones in the pockets of the clan provided robes I was still wearing.

“That’s it?” I asked, looking out over the prison. The formation locking the space in was still active high above.

“No.” Valar said, her voice eager. “We’re just getting started. Now we head toward the field and carve apart the rest of the bodies. The really dangerous Celestial’s will be near the portal. We can just carve up the corpses.”

“I’m sure nothing will go wrong.” I replied.