Pink Gold - Ch.59 - Tunnel Vision (Patreon)

** content warning: violence, injury, death **

"Blake!" Onyx screamed from the far side of the basement, as everything seemed to go into slow motion.

I had my left hand pressed over the searing pain in my side as I sank to my knees. Tina was still standing in front of me, clutching that dagger tightly in her right hand. It was almost level with my face, and I could see my own blood still dripping from the fifteen centimetre long blade.

The basement momentarily lit up with green and purple flashes, as both Peri and Violet summoned their weapons. Our archer didn't have a chance to aim her bow, instead she had to swing it like a club to beat back the first Outsider. It looked like a cross between a human and a daddy longlegs spider, with four very long skinny limbs protruding from its humanoid torso. There was no neck, but a hairless human-shaped head was attached directly to its shoulders. Its four limbs had way too many joints, like extra elbows and knees, and rather than hands and feet they all ended in sharp-looking claws.

Meanwhile Violet was swinging her axe at the second Outsider, which was almost crab-like in appearance. Its body was shaped like a wide flattened sphere more than a meter and a half across, and protected by a rugged-looking grey exoskeleton. It had six segmented legs, each over a meter long, that ended in sharp spikes. There were also two longer thicker limbs topped with large sharp pincers. It didn't seem to have a head, or even a face. For that matter I couldn't even see a mouth on the thing, unless it was hidden on the underside of its body.

I wanted to help my teammates, I wanted to call up my halberd and rush to their aid. The pain in my gut was too much though, and I still had the whole tunnel vision thing going on. So I kept my left hand pressed over the hole in my side, but blood continued to seep out around my fingers. It felt cold and clammy, and I was afraid if I moved my left hand to do the sky-punch thing the bleeding would just get worse again.

Then suddenly Onyx and Ruby were there, a couple paces away in front of Tina and I. My girlfriend had her staff raised, while my boyfriend held her sceptre at the ready. They both stopped in their tracks though, because of the dagger that was suddenly pressed against my neck.

"One more step and I slit her throat," Tina growled. "So back off!"

Onyx kept her staff raised as she glared, "Drop the knife and let her go. Or else."

The white-robed coed scoffed, "Or else what? Just what do you think -"

Before Tina even finished her sentence the black magical girl spun her staff and vanished in a wave of shadows, while a second flash of darkness appeared simultaneously behind me. A split second after that Onyx's ebony staff swung over my head and slammed into the coed's back, right between her shoulder blades. My girlfriend wasn't pulling her punches either, she actually hit the grad student hard enough to knock her off her feet and halfway across the basement.

Tina landed in a heap just inside the circle of runes, and came to rest directly in front of the rip in reality. She was still clutching that ceremonial dagger in her right hand, but for now the best she could do was groan softly in pain as she lay sprawled on the cement floor.

"Blake!" Ruby gasped as she dropped into a crouch by my left side. "I'm here, I've got you! You're going to be ok!"

My boyfriend put her hand on my shoulder to try and keep me steady while she positioned her sceptre over the stab wound. The large gemstone on top started to glow with soft red light, and the burning pain in my gut began to fade.

At the same time I heard the other magical girls calling back and forth at each other, while their battle against the Outsiders continued.

"Shit!" Violet shouted. "Peri! Can you give me a hand over here?"

The green magical girl responded, "Kind of busy right now Vi! Honestly I could use a little help here myself!"

"Fuck," Onyx cursed as she darted past Ruby and I to go and join the others.

I wanted to help as well, but even though the pain was fading I still felt weak. And my vision hadn't cleared, everything was still dark around the edges. So there was nothing I could do but watch as our girlfriend ran to help Peri.

The archer hadn't had a chance to use her bow at all, other than as a club or for defence. The large arachnoid Outsider had forced her back all the way into the far corner of the basement, and it kept on pushing forwards at her. Fortunately it seemed to be limited to just the two eyes on its humanoid head, so it didn't notice Onyx as she came charging up behind it.

The black magical girl swung her staff as she ran, adding her own momentum to that of her weapon. She brought the sturdy ebony shaft around and smashed it into one of the spider-like abomination's knees. The leg bent at an even more unnatural angle and the thing struggled to keep its balance.

Onyx wasn't finished though, she followed up the strike by driving her shiny black boot deep between the Outsider's legs. It wasn't as effective as if the thing had been human, or male, but she managed to get a loud angry screech out of the monstrosity. And more importantly her attack got its attention off Peri long enough for our archer to finally put her bow to good use.

There was a flash of green light as she launched an arrow into the Outsider's head at point blank range. The horrible screaming ended abruptly as its three remaining spindly limbs gave out, and the thing collapsed to the floor.

Peri put a second shot into its torso for good measure, then as its body finally started to crumble both she and Onyx turned to help Violet.

Instead of chasing the purple magical girl around the basement the giant crab-shaped Outsider had only moved just a little ways past the edge of the magic circle. It took me a moment to realize the thing was actually squatting over what remained of the ritual guy. Some scraps of his brown robes, a few bits of flesh and bone, and that short sword he'd been holding, were all that was left of him.

It seemed like a pattern for these people, and I honestly couldn't understand why they kept trying to summon Outsiders when all it did was get them killed.

As I watched, Violet took another swing at the abomination with her big two-headed axe. The blade just bounced off the thing's tough armoured shell though, then the magical girl had to jump back out of the way as the Outsider thrust one of its big pincers at her. In fact between having to avoid those pincers and not being able to cut through its rugged exoskeleton, our Welsh teammate hadn't been able to damage the thing at all yet.

"We really need Azura's hammer to crack this fucker open!" Violet shouted as Peri and Onyx joined her.

At the same time my boyfriend gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze and asked, "How are you feeling Blake? It should be better, the wound's all healed up now."

"Thanks Ruby," I grimaced. "Is it safe to magic up again? I need to help Violet and Peri."

"As long as you feel up to it," she replied as she helped me get to my feet.

Despite her assurance that I was healed my gut actually still hurt. I ignored it though and gave my ring a twist, then punched my left fist skyward. A wave of pink light washed over me, but at the same time I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my abdomen. I grit my teeth and punched at the ceiling a second time to summon my weapon, and that time I had to stifle a little yelp as the pain hit a second time. I had my halberd though, and with that in hand I lurched forward to help the others as the basement lit up with another of Peri's magic arrows.

The archer's shot left a shallow divot in the crab-thing's rugged shell, but other than that it didn't seem like she was able to hurt it any more than Violet had. Meanwhile Onyx already figured out her staff was even more ineffective than the axe or arrows, so she pulled back while I moved in to take her place.

There wasn't enough room for me to swing my halberd like a long-handled axe, but based on Violet's lack of success I doubted that would work anyways. Instead I took advantage of the extra reach it gave me and used it more like a spear. I aimed for what I hoped was a soft spot and thrust the pointed end of my weapon in where the back left leg connected to the armoured body. It worked and my long narrow blade sank deep into the Outsider's body.

The monster reacted by violently twisting to get its pincers on me, and the force of its sudden turn nearly wrenched my halberd from my hands. Violet moved in and swung her axe at its pincers before they could get near me, and I managed to hold my weapon firm against its pull. For a split second I was straining as I pit my strength against that of the Outsider. The effort sent another lance of pain through my gut, then my halberd was suddenly freed as the thing's leg broke away from its body.

"Aim for the joints!" I shouted through gritted teeth. "It's weakest where the legs attach to the body!"

"Got it!" Peri responded as she fired another arrow.

The basement lit up green again, and the crab monster lost a second leg, this time the front-most one on the right. It still had four more to go though, plus the two longer limbs with the pincers. And by that point it was really angry. It spun again and charged at Peri, and she was forced fall back. Both Violet and I chased after the thing, and the purple magical girl brought her axe down into the Outsider's remaining hind-most leg.

She wasn't near enough to strike where the leg connected to its body, but she did hit the last joint on the leg. That was enough to take the final segment off, slowing the thing down even more. At the same time I stabbed my halberd into the body where its middle leg connected on the left side. I gave my weapon a twist and turn, and managed to pry off another leg.

At that point it stopped chasing Peri and tried to turn on Violet and I instead. The green magical girl immediately aimed her bow and let another arrow go. This one struck the base of its left pincer, knocking it off the end of the limb. And from there it was simply a matter of time. The Outsider was still dangerous, but it couldn't move around anymore and it definitely couldn't chase anyone. We just needed to lop off the remaining limbs, then Violet could probably hack the thing open with her axe.

"Behind you!" Ruby suddenly shouted.

"Oh shit!" Peri added as she looked past the purple magical girl and I.

We both spun around in time to see two large tentacles emerge from the middle of the circle. They were a dark greenish-brown colour, each was almost three meters long, and they were about twenty centimetres thick at the point where they emerged through the rip in space.

Violet cursed, "How the fuck did they manage to open a rift in here?! I thought that supposed to be impossible!"

"I don't think it's a rift!" Onyx called back. "It's more like a portal, like teleportation? I think it's pulling in Outsiders that are already here on Earth!"

She and Ruby were both standing together near the doorway to the stairs where we'd originally come down. Glen was over there too, but he was unconscious, sitting on the floor slumped against the cinder block wall.

"Portal or rift, how the hell do we close it?!" Peri shouted.

"I might be able to seal it," my girlfriend said as she raised her staff and took a few steps towards the circle.

Up until that point the two huge tentacles hadn't really done anything. They were just sort of slowly waving around, as if feeling the area. Then one of them brushed against Tina's leg, and both of them immediately reacted. The grad student was still laying dazed in the middle of the circle, where she landed after the blow from Onyx's staff. She was instantly wide awake though as one of the big tentacles wrapped around her waist.

Tina let out a scream then began to struggle. She was still holding Judith's dagger in her right hand, so she started stabbing it into the tentacle over and over as she shouted, "No! Damn you, get the magical girls! Not me!"

Onyx started moving forward again with her staff raised as she focused on the portal, obviously intent on trying to seal it.

"Don't enter the circle!" Violet ordered. "Nobody cross that line!"

My girlfriend swore but she stopped outside the circle. Instead she pointed her staff at the portal and a look of concentration settled on her face. At the same time Peri turned back to the crab-like Outsider and started shooting arrows into it to finally finish it off. As for Violet and Ruby and I, we just stared in a mix of shock and horror as those tentacles tightened their grip on the struggling coed.

Tina continued to shout and swear as she stabbed the thick rubbery appendages over and over, and even though she left countless oozing holes in the tentacles they didn't seem the least bit bothered. With a loud wet slurping noise she was pulled backwards through the portal, then everything went quiet.

A second after the coed was gone the rip in space closed up, so we didn't have to worry about anything else coming out. Then the black magical girl let out a sigh and sank to her knees.

"Onyx!" my boyfriend gasped as she rushed forward to check on our girlfriend.

Violet turned to help Peri finish off the crab monster, and I wanted to join them but I was feeling almost completely drained by then. My gut was hurting pretty bad again too, but I tried to ignore the pain as I shuffled over to where Ruby was crouched next to Onyx.

"Is she ok?" I asked weakly.

"I'm fine," our girlfriend grumbled. "Just exhausted."

The red magical girl nodded, "She seems ok."

"Oh shit!" she added as she looked up at me. "Rosa you're bleeding again!"

I looked down, and sure enough the stab wound had reopened. There was fresh blood smeared over the left side of my abdomen and the upper part of my skirt.

A moment later the pain began to fade once more, as my boyfriend held her sceptre nearby and poured more healing energy into my body.