12 Miles Below

I spun, pointing right at the waterfall wall and yelled out a warning over comms to Drakonis. Must have screamed so loud even the sound leaked out of the helmet, since the wolf instantly jumped backwards, already skittish and too close for comfort.

Good on the wolf, because it’s about to get way worse than two humans running around in the forest.

Drakonis on his part didn’t question anything. He let the power cell bag go, outright dove forward onto the stepping stone while spinning backwards, his rifle aimed straight at where I’d been pointing. He landed hard on his back, but otherwise remained safe.

The move bought him a second life, since an instant later where he’d stood now featured a set of four massive claw like spikes, glowing with occult edges, embedded deep into the rock ground. They lifted back up, edges powering down as all four limbs folded back into what looked like the mouth of a giant lobster-like silver and violet creature. Metal plating, glowing violet light under the plating, all signs pointed to a machine.

That wasn’t even the entire beast. Half of the bulk was on the side of the wall, ending in a large tail of fans, spread out and vibrating. The thing was so big it was having a hard time fitting in the small sanctuary here. A set of giant antenna were flickering through the air as if whiskers, moving independently with the bulk.

And it had eyes. A lot of them. All on short and long stalks, wildly turning different directions, before almost all at once focusing right back down on us.

And I mean down on us. The thing was the size of an oversized drake, with a mess of comically tiny legs supporting the entire body. Worse, it had fins and flat flipper-like attachments that were sprayed out, almost like a mane.

Drakonis opened fire, the rifle barking out bullet after bullet. Two things happened. For one, all the eyes on the monster instantly retreated back into the shell, now looking like a few dozen glowing violet holes on the carapace. And second, I could see small yellow sparks of bullet fire all across that armor, with the occasional bits of light blue shielding flaring to life on top of the eye holes.

In comparison to other machines which might have paused dramatically here to wait for Drakonis to run dry on the bullets as a power move, this bloodthirsty specimen didn’t want to wait.

It skittered forward as if it were swimming underwater, the trunk smoothly raising up as the tail end finished flying across the back wall and zipping over the mite ground in full. In a flash it was right above Drakonis, reared up with all four of those giant claws chittering away, like the world’s most demented praying mantis.

Normally I reserve big guns as a backup, a card to play sparingly. Today seemed like a good day to start at one hundred. I reached behind my back, yanked out my recovered knightbreaker, and flicked off the safety middraw.

Ahead, the four massive armed scythes reared up and slammed down on the firing Deathless. Drakonis abandoned the rifle, hand reaching forward as a shockwave of occult blasted forward, right at the impending arm scythe.

A shockwave powerful enough to lift Journey and I off our feet and get thrown backwards more or less tickled the giant machine. The full blast slapped hard against the exposed torso, making it skitter back just slightly. What it did better was throw the four arms zipping right down at him off target, and the machine readjusted by drawing them back and attacking again, the whole torso moving with the attack as well.

Drakonis took the window of escape for exactly what it was. An occult lash was thrown backwards and he yanked hard on that power, sliding him off the stepping stone and flying upwards straight at a tree he’d snagged much further past my position.

The massive shellfish-like machine reacted. It nearly swam through the open air, using only a few scrawny feet that in no way could possibly support that weight. Its torso’s fins, flaps, antenna and eyestalks all went flat against the carapace while the tail gave one massive slap through the air.

This thing went from a giant looming machine that semi-hovered in the air to something sleek and incredibly quick, with no air friction holding it down. It moved far faster than Drakonis was moving, already zipping past the Deathless. Then it twisted on itself, coming to a near complete stop the moment it flared the fins and flaps.

The torso rose up high into the air, eye stalks popping out across the carapace again, most of them focused right on the Deathless flying right under, and a few were pointed back at me, watching as I took aim.

The scythe arm began to glow, detaching at the same time from their folded up position. It was absolutely clear this thing was going to cut through the Deathless midway in his flight. Those four arms lifted, and then lifted further past the optimal stabbing angle. They extended out, almost like a crab crushing tool I’d used in Capra’Nor.

It wasn’t going to stab Drakonis, I realized. It was going to yank him out of the air, and squeeze him between the torso and the occult scythe arms. Like a praying mantis would pin prey.

The monster’s plan would have worked, up until a knightbreaker round flew right for its exposed side.

The knightbreaker round exploded out from my launcher, zipping for a second through the air before the rocket explosive inside engaged and sent it flying even faster at the target.

The machine saw the weapon approaching it. And I could also tell it didn’t consider the weapon a threat either, since almost all the eyes were still focused on grabbing the flying Deathless out of the air.

Just as it was about to, the knightbreaker round hit the creature’s side carapace. Shields flared to life, and it did an admirable job at protecting the main bulk. Unfortunately, the capsule section of the knightbreaker wasn’t the actual destructive part of the payload.

All four chain arms extended out, began to glow bright occult blue. I could tell the utter surprise on those eye stalks as they all instantly turned away from the Deathless and onto the attack.

The chains slammed down on the carapace side.

The critter screamed out, shields winking out of life near instantly. Then the chains continued forward, slicing through the metal plates and scrambling the insides.

It screamed again in clear pain, shaking the round loose, one of the occult arms snapping out as if to flick the round away. Instead, a stray occult chain wrapped around the scythe's arm, initially crackling occult edge against occult edge before the chain wrapped around the backside where no occult edge existed.

The arm was promptly cut off, and the creature screeched again, waving the stump left behind as if it were on fire, the whole beast skittering backwards at the same time. The knightbreaker spun in the air, detached from the sliced up arm, then plopped harmlessly into the water, chains and all dragged behind as the glow turned off all at once.

The creature wasn’t dead, instead it seemed to hunker down protectively, the eyes popping up and down randomly before it was certain danger had passed. Then they all lifted up on their stalks, turned right at me, and narrowed down with unmistakable hate.

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The final tally of the knightbreaker was a complete circular mess on the creature’s right side. Like some giant animal had taken one bite on the carapace, sank teeth and shook the whole monster violently for a few seconds before letting go. I don’t know how much damage that actually did to the creature, it was clearly still moving around. But it was down one mandible arm and only had three of those left.

“Journey, what the fuck is that?” I asked.

“I’d recommend displaying it on a large silver dish or thirty, with some melted butter.” Is what Cathida answered. “But otherwise, absolutely no clue. Cathida never fought against something like this in her past, and neither has Journey. This is Deathless territory.”

Behind me, the wolf had long ago grabbed its occult blade and raced back to the safety of the trees and out past. Drakonis was landing against the tree he’d lashed himself to with a heavy thump, already getting back on his feet. His helmet turned to me in a silent nod of thanks. “Think we could recover your round for another attack?” He asked over the comms. “I’m not sure I’m fast enough to distract it, but you might be. I can fish out the round with a lash.”

All business, that guy. Already plotting on how to kill the giant evil lobster-bug.

“No, it knows what kind of damage that does to it, so it’s going to be extra cautious.” I said. “And have you seen the frankly unreasonable amount of eyes it has? On stalks too, so it doesn’t have any blind spots. It’ll see you trying to fish the round out of the water even if you’re doing that directly behind its back.”

He could tell where that ended. The thing was fast. Way faster than a drake. And it moved across the air and ground with the kind of grace only a fish would have. I could see it moving fast enough to skewer Drakonis or flick him into the air, then fold back on itself like a ball, before rushing to keep me engaged. All in the span of a sword swing or two. Clearly cheating inertia and gravity somehow.

While we’d been talking tactics, it reared its torso back up, fins and flaps once more extended out.

The thing even took a second to let one fin pass by where its mouth would have been. Instead of pseudo-teeth, there were a few dozen smaller arms that quickly picked at and washed away dirt and grime before it brought the fin back up to its right place and unfolded the whole thing.

Almost looked comical, like it wanted to look bigger than it already was. At full height it was almost taller than the walls behind it. If it had somehow been able to stand the full length of its tail as well, this thing would absolutely tower over the trees and sanctuary.

Not willing to let anyone be dramatic without a proper answer, I tossed the knightbreaker launcher on the ground, then patted imaginary dust off my shoulder pad as I took a few steady steps forward. If it could groom itself in the middle of a fight, I can do the same. My hand reached down and yanked out my blade again, spinning it with a flourish and taking a final step in stance.

The thing’s eyes frowned in annoyance, clearly not expecting this answer back. Then another large claw from the abdomen tail region unfolded out with the speed of a Feather, neatly slicing through the mite fountain next to the beast. The top part of the fountain’s lights instantly winked out.

“Oh you slimy fuck.” I hissed.

The fountain creaked, groaned out metal on metal, and then half slid and toppled down following the cut. The oversized lobster-shrimp with too many legs hadn’t even looked at the mite fountain it cut through, all the eyes were aimed right at me.

This was the most petty display of spite I’d ever seen. And I spent time around Wrath.

Spidershrimp’s folded up arms rapidly rose up and down like fingers, and I swear I heard it give some kind of evil chuckle deep from where the mouth should have been.

Drakonis didn’t wait for the rest of the confrontation, “Winterscar, your knightbreaker ate its shields right?”

“If it’s only got one shield like an airspeeder, then yes.” I called back. “Unless it actively turned the shield off when it realized it wasn’t going to win against a knightbreaker.”

“You’ve got occult bullets.” He said. “If its shields are down, those are going to hurt it the most. I’ll find out for sure if the fuck’s vulnerable or not.”

I didn’t have time ato ask him how he’d do that, but I got the plan near instantly. He yanked out a grenade from his belt, wrapped an occult leash around it, and threw the thing sky-high, before yanking the leash down, forcing the grenade back down in an arc. A discount artillery strike, right at the thing’s top torso - where the mass amount of eyes were.

If Mr. Bugeyes had a shield, it would use it to protect those from shrapnel and damage. If it didn’t, we’d be seeing some kind of damage.

A few of its eyes turned to track the grenade, while the rest seemed to narrow down on us.

It didn’t have eyebrows, but I swear - the body posture, low chitter and intense focus was enough to know it was absolutely glaring at us with contempt.

Next few events all happened in near one or two seconds of pure reflex and chaotic movements.

The creature angrily clicked its arms, then zipped to the right, flying over water and getting out of the grenade’s general direction as it barreled to go finish off his earlier meal. I leaped in between the Deathless and the monster’s path, armshield lifted and blade ready to intercept. Whatever Spidershrimp was going, it would have to go through me before it got to Drakonis.

The Deathless didn’t miss his budget artillery strike either, he still had the grenade leashed with a spell, and even if the monster had moved out of the way, it was simple enough to redirect the direction.

Four violet eyes turned to watch the grenade flying right back at it. It skittered to the left, I took a step equally to the left, forcing it to back away. Seven eyes now locked on the grenade flying down at it, widening as it realized it wasn’t going to escape.

Spidershrimp rushed right into me, going for broke at that point. Three arms lashed out with blinding speed, looking to yank me off my feet and squeeze me up against its pseudo-mouth. Probably use those small arms to hold me down while the occult edges held contact.

Back when I fought Wrath in her spider form, I’d have been too slow. Gods, the thing was fast enough even Father would have had his intuition and reflex put to the test when he’d been alive.

But I was a knight sorcerer, and I had the Winterblossom Technique. I dove forward, occult glowing across the armor, mirror images stepping out and slashing the air, forcing the thing’s attacks to twist and change.

Instantly it stopped its charge, rearing up as the three arms battled against my counter-charge in what looked like a high speed slap fight. One arm got past my images and swiped right at my body. The armguard expertly took the hit, occult crackling as edge hit edge, while I tried to chop down with my blade at the exposed arm section.

The problem: Those arms were way stronger than I suspected. And the collision sent me flying backwards, like I’d been a bug flicked away.

That.. uhh, did not look quite as heroic as the earlier counter-charge and furious fight. Officially updating its name from Spidershrimp to Murdershrimp.

Fortunately, by that point, the grenade landed square on top of the thing’s torso, and all of its eyes predictably retreated back into the carapace, with only the two main compound eyes folded forward, sulking into the shadow of the carapse instead.

No shields were triggered. The grenade exploded hard over its backside in a lightshow of fire and smoke.

“See any damage!?” Drakonis called out, drawing out his sidearm and aiming right at the beast.

I’d just gotten my feet back down on solid ground after one tumble, gravel and small rocks flying away as my boots slowly skidded to a stop. Murdershrimp unfolded its arms and quickly groomed the back of its torso, as if trying to scrape away the destruction. It hissed deeply, done with the impromptu checkup before skittering forward real carefully, letting the eye stalks expand out of the carapace.

Violet eyes of every size and shape glared down at us… but a few eye stalks hadn’t come back up. The holes they had hid inside of weren’t glowing violet either.

Without a second of hesitation, I drew out my sidearm, aimed it right at Murdershrimp, and let Journey calculate the best places to hit.

Occult bullets streaked out, landing pinpoint hits directly into the creature’s exposed torso. Other holes I punched through with each shot started leaking either oil or power cell fluid, though not all the holes had hit something critical. One arm base got hit perfectly dead on, and the entire thing began to wobble as if only wires were keeping it attached. Only reason the other mandible arms got spared from my wrath was its reflexes being on point.

It screeched and instantly pulled back, fins and flaps hugging its side as it flipped under itself into a ball, and swam up the waterfall walls and over.

I held my fire, waiting to see if the beast was going to run or try something cute again. One single eye stalk slowly peeked over the backside, glaring down at me. Twitchy too, clearly expecting me to shoot the eye.

Joke’s on Murdershrimp: Occult bullets can fire through walls, and I could see where its center mass was in the occult sight.

My sidearm fired three more rounds right through the waterfall wall, and into my target.

I heard its shrieking twist from mildly pissed off to extremely pissed off by the third round. In the occult sight, I saw the concept of a machine turn and run. Nothing on Journey’s HUD showed any enemy anywhere, but the soul sight could see it race away and out of range.

“It’s gone.” I said, holstering the sidearm back. Occult bullets couldn’t be recreated until Wrath or Father was with me. I wasn't going to take more shots if I wasn't certain they'd hit.

“We didn’t kill it.” Drakonis said, taking a few steps to stand at my side. “It’ll be back. And the mite fountain’s destroyed.”

“It’ll be back.” I agreed. “But it’ll be limping.”

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