Chapter 9 Part 2 of 5 (Patreon)

Three giants, a good ten foot tall walked out onto the street, they looked human except for the fact, one had red skin, the other green and the third was blue and tails swept over the ground behind them. Each had magnificent horns that extended from their skulls as they wore pants made from lizard skin, Cloaks made from Piercers and hosted spears tipped with their penetrators.

One held a shield made from the shambling pod creature.

Their eyes shone in the darkness as they looked around.

On their backs and hips pod hooks carried their kills, Ka’tell and various beasts.

They openly walked through the street two hundred meters away. Either their idiots or confident enough to deal with the threats of the undercity.

They passed on, crossing the street. Erik was about to speak when more of the same creatures of different colors, shorter than the trio at the front moved into view. There were about ten giants that created the caravan. About twenty or thirty beasts in similar appearance, colored green, blue, red, black or yellow moved inside the giants perimeter, they cawed and hissed at one another, headbutting each other with their small horns.

They were as large as two horses with a tail that extended behind them, making them look like horned Komodo dragons as they shifted their entire body when walking

One tried to nip one of the demi-humans food- hanging from his back.

The yellow demi-human, grunted, stone covering their arm as they batted away the beast casually, sending it sprawling on its side.

The other beasts nipped at their fallen fellow’s belly, it hissed and attacked them back, smacking them with his tail like a whip crack that broke the silence.

They started to pull together as a screeching howl carried through the under-city from above.

A black giant let out a whooping hiss lightning wrapping his spear as he launched it into the sky.

It struck a falling piercer as red giants called fire along their spears.

Their colors connected to the element that they controlled as their weapons cut down the falling piercers. They howled, gathering power in their antlers and mouths, that reached out into the sky above.

The beasts inside the perimeter, reared up, using their tails to stabilize as they released elemental attacks from their mouths.

The piercers stopped falling as the convoy yelled up into the ceiling. There was no reply as they collected their kills, pushing and shoving others away to claim what was there.

Several beasts fought over the piercer bodies, tearing them apart in the struggle. Spears were recovered and monster cores were pulled out and consumed rapidly.

One of the leading trio, red in color raised his bloody sphere and growled at them all.

The group of thirty or so pulled together into their group, carrying their spoils or fighting over them as they continued to move, disappearing into the broken city.

No one spoke for some time after they left.

“Well, lets try to not piss them off.” Rugrat said.

“The sooner we find somewhere to hold up the better,” Roska moved for the stairs. “Ten minutes and we’re moving out.”

“Yes boss,” Rugrat said.

She headed downstairs to tell the others as Erik and Rugrat kept watching the road.

A bat-like creature landed on the ground, its bones and skin shifted, transforming into a mix between a white hairless chipmunk with green lines, a constant smile, bulbous doggy-eyes and butterfly-wing ears.

“Cute looking bugger.”

It opened its too-big mouth and scooped up some forgotten scrap of meat.

Overly large centipedes of white and green colorations appeared, bunching together as they appeared out of the sewer system and transformed into the same creatures. In a few seconds the empty street was filled with the transforming creatures, feeding on the scraps left by the convoy.

Either not getting a share or finding nothing left, they kept their form running along the ground, or turned centipede and dove into the sewers, or took flight as their ears grew into wings along their bodies that thinned.

They scattered in every direction, searching for food and following the convoy.

Erik saw one land on nearby rubble and turn into a centipede as it wrapped around the pillar, turning to its regular form as it ran forward, pausing every so often as if catching up with its speed as it studied the area.

Erik grew quiet as others spread out with it, heading for the building.

A creature leapt up and turned into a bat, letting out a screech, that cut through the city.

Others took up the call like alarms as they hid in the rubble, calling out as moved closer to the house.

“We’re moving!” Roska yelled.

Erik and Rugrat jumped up and dropped through the hole in the floor, the special team Edmond’s team were in motion.

They hustled out of the ruin and down the street.

They spread out as the little bastards cried out and chased them, with the same screeching howl they’d used when the piercers dropped from the sky.

“I am picking up the group of demi-humans and their descendants, they’re turning towards us.” Egbert said as they ran across the street, he pulled out an arrow with a manastone head. He paused drawing back the bow and fired, launching it down the street.

The Screeching howls, turned as the small beasts ran, flew and slithered in the direction of the mana stone. The city started to shift as creatures sensed the mana stone, declaring their rights to it.

They kept running, diving through buildings and down streets. Checking the ground and the sky.

Erik panted inside his helmet, expecting a penetrator to stab into him at any second or the skin to explode around him and try to eat him.

An armored mole with a mouth large enough to eat a pig whole crunched through the ground like a rising ship on stormy waves.

They fired on the creature that shrugged off their attacks.

It smashed its foot on the ground, cracks appeared in the road, turning into water spouts.

Nymiria flashed forward, opening the beasts mouth with her feet and arms.

Osmo threw in a grenade that the creature swallowed by reflex.

Nymira jumped away as the creature exploded from within.

The creature slumped and died, there was no tombstone as it collapsed.

How the hell is it still alive? Erik thought there was no way that it could survive as they kept moving.

They must’ve run for nearly an hour before they found a wasteland in the middle of the city.

Signs of old fighting, score marks on the ground ran through the streets, there were burn marks from fire, the ground had been pulled up in different areas in spears.

The blood and bodies were gone but a battle had shaped this land. There was only one building that had been largely left unaffected. A tower that reached up into the roots above.

Erik saw a ring and amulet on the ground near the epicenter of the destruction. He grabbed them and ran for the building with the others. Harrod was watching backwards as others moved through the tower. He heard fighting on the upper floors as creatures within the building fled and ran away in the path of new inhabitants.

The tower was laid out in a square, there were six rooms on the first floor. A foyer as one walked in, four empty rooms at each corner and a set of stairs at the rear of the building that led higher.

The building was scarred and showed its age, but it was also made of three inch thick compressed stone.

Erik glanced out of the door as the last team members piled in and started to barricade it.

He continued for the stairs but Tully grabbed his shoulder before he went up the stairs.

“What?” He growled, throwing her hand off.

“Doing my job sir.” She planted her feet, staring at him. He saw Rugrat off to her side with three guards.

Harrod passed, frowning.

Erik turned his burning glare to the ground and walked past her to where Rugrat stood, noticing Davos and Jo behind him.

Fuck. He kicked a piece of rubble, it moved a few feet as he grunted in pain, swallowing his scream as he broke his toes.

“Sir?” Davos said.

“I’m fine, I’m fucking fine,” Erik said in a low voice, holding out his hand, to keep them back.

He moved to a wall.

Body is taxed to hell with the dungeon cores, take me months to heal, and big fucking whoop I can’t use healing spells if I wanted to. Fucking waste of a healing potion, Erik you idiot.

He grit his teeth, wanting to smack himself as he pulled out a healing potion and drank it.

The first potion didn’t work, his body using the potion to try and heal itself again. He took out an Expert healing potion downing it in shame.

It was strong enough that the effects got to his foot.

He breathed through the pain, gripping the barrel of his gun and grabbing his leg as he looked at the ceiling.

You fucking idiot, wasting a healing potion like that, could save someone’s life moron.

The pain faded as Erik moved his toes, feeling them all in the right places.

Tully had left at some point and returned.

“Building is secure, the Sha group are heading up top to see where the hell we are.”

***