Rogan's Monsters 3: Temple, page 12
Of the three of them, it was the tall, cadaverous-looking creature that spoke first. “You murdered our brother,” the creature said. “For this, I cannot fault you. Yet his death cannot go unanswered.”
As he spoke, a wave of darkness began to form around him, and I knew that the day’s troubles had only just begun.
“Your strength will become hers,” the larger of the creatures said, its voice a dull rumble. The third of their number stayed silent but drew waves of darkness around himself in much the same way.
As casually as I could, almost ignoring the trio’s presence, I made my way to where my oversized sword stuck out of the ground. I plucked it from its resting place, and silently swore to myself as I looked over the damage I’d done.
I was already at a low ebb, and knew I would need to recharge my chi as soon as the opportunity presented itself. But I had more than enough in reserve to seek unity with one of the others again, at least for a short time.
Hopefully, that would be enough.
This time, I shot a glance at Camille, and she understood. She was stronger than Ecco and Zera, and we’d had more practice. Hopefully, between the two of us, we could deal with the threat.
For the second time in a matter of moments, I felt my chi swell to a point far beyond what I could hope to achieve all by myself. With my chi and Camille’s acting in unison, I turned to toward the Wraiths, intending to send a surge of power toward them, guided by my soul blade.
Instead, the twisted one of the three made a gesture, and a tendril of inky blackness looped lazily toward us.
I knew what that tendril of dark chi would do even before it struck. It was the same technique Vesh had used to drain my chi and Camille’s, and Ecco’s as well when we had battled against him.
The twisted creature before us was another chi vampire.
I didn’t have time to duck out of the way or try to defend myself from this insidious attack. All I could do was withdraw my chi self as much as I could and hope for the best.
It wasn’t quite enough. The tendril caught my spiritual self, and just like what had happened before with Vesh D’Agon, and the unity I had formed with Camille dissolved, leaving me panting and aching all over.
The other two Wraiths took this as a signal and surged forward in unison.
There was only one thing left to do.
I turned to the others and gave the order. “Run!” I bellowed. Zera took to the sky, and the rest of us took to our heels, scrabbling and climbing as best as we could back to the edge of the crater, and over, not even taking the time to look for the best way down to the bottom.
The inside wall of the crater edge rim was steep, but far from vertical. At the place where we made our desperate dash to escape the Wraiths, it was a very steep slope made of scree that threatened to take our feet from beneath us. Or at least, most of us. Camille was, as usual, almost unnaturally balanced, using her tail like a bird on a branch, gliding down the slope as if a million small stones weren’t drifting down with her, as if she were out for an afternoon stroll.
Zera had no trouble. She simply launched herself into the air and fluttered around us like a leaf falling from a tree, from time to time reaching out to help Gamma remain upright.
Ecco stumbled about for a short time, then turned toward me and handed me her seed. “Throw it,” she said. “Throw it to the base of this slope. I will rejoin you there.”
With that, the beautiful, furry cat girl faded away.
With my face throbbing to the beat of my heart, and most of my muscles aching, I did as Ecco asked, leaning back and hurling the seed away from me with all my strength.
I added a whisper of chi into my effort, and had the satisfaction of watching the seed come down almost at the very end of the slope.
I wondered briefly what it would be like for Ecco within the seed. Was she rattling around inside it like a genie in a bottle? But then, the stone wasn’t hollow. It wasn’t a bottle in which Ecco lived. In a very real way, she was the seed.
I doubted very much that she would suffer any difficulties at all either because of my throw or the landing.
Of all of us, Lady Gamma had the most trouble dealing with the scree. The pampered princess had probably never faced such a treacherous walking surface before in her life, and stumbled regularly even with Ash helping on one side, and Zera on the other. Finally, Ash simply picked the princess up, ignoring her squeal of uncertainty, and slung her over her shoulder. With one gigantic hand holding the princess in place, Ash used her club to good effect, managing the scree without the grace of Camille, but well enough.
I struggled at first just like the others, unable to catch the ebb and flow of the scree anywhere near as well as Camille was doing. But then I cursed myself for being a fool, lightened my feet as I had done many times in the past, and used the Divine Steps to dance and weave my way down.
At every other step, I turned to look back the way we had come, expecting to see the Wraiths appear at the crater rim. I had already slung my oversized blade back over my shoulders, to free up my hands to aid stability, knowing full well I could bring the weapon to bear again in an instant.
But even though I could still sense the Wraiths behind us, still knew they were there, the crater rim remained blissfully untarnished by their dark, loathsome figures. And for this, I was grateful. A scree slope was no place for a battle, not when a single misstep might send any one of us sliding all the way to the base of the crater far below. But I couldn’t help but wonder at their intentions.
I was injured. I just felt as if I had been hit by a truck. And these Wraiths, these servants of the Queen, seemed to share the same chi ability Vesh had displayed. At least one of their number could drain my chi and could therefore defeat my most powerful chi weapon.
In all the battles I’d fought, I had never felt as outmatched as I did against the Queen herself, but against these three powerful Wraiths, I knew there was little I could do.
It was a thought more painful than the cracked bones in my head, and all the strained tissues in my body.
For part of this quest, I had been bound to Gamma, to protect her from any and all dangers. That binding no longer held, yet I still felt it was my duty to serve as their protector.
This was a harsh, desolate land, and life was fragile. If I didn’t try to protect Gamma and the others, who would?
The easy answer to that, of course, was Ash. But she couldn’t do it alone.
Finally, the scree slope flattened to the point where the stones no longer wanted to shift around under our feet. True to her intentions, Ecco was there waiting for us, although this Ecco had taken a form much different from those she usually wore. This time, she was largely human, as beautiful as always, except that she had a tail.
But this time, it wasn’t the tail of a fox, a cat, or even a rabbit. This time, it was the tail of a scorpion, the segmented length of it reaching up over her head, tipped with an oversized stinger. I couldn’t tell by the looks of it, but wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that her sting would be full of poison.
As she approached, I studied her for a moment, wondering if this was indeed Ecco or if it was her sister given a new form. But there was no time to question her. Not yet. Not with the threat of the Wraith so close behind us.
“Keep going,” I said. Camille and Ash kept pace ahead, Ash still carrying Gamma as if she weighed next to nothing, Zera flitting about overhead. For her part, the scorpion girl kept pace with me, her expression determined and her stride much more stable and stronger than it had been at the start of the scree slope.
We kept going, not running precisely, but hurrying as much as we could, and when I look back again, I saw that we had left the crater edge a long way behind.
We had also descended a long way in a very short time. Perhaps as much as a thousand feet in a matter of minutes, and still we hadn’t quite reached the absolute bottom.
The mesas we had seen from above now loomed large before us. It looked like the type of land formation that might occur if layers of mud became suddenly dry, cracking into a pattern of interconnected shapes, leaving gaps between them.
Having just spent more days than I wanted to remember being trapped in a cavern, this natural maze was the last thing I wanted to face. But it didn’t seem like we had much of a choice. And besides, if we weren’t going to fight the Wraiths, then perhaps the next best choice was to hide.
Nor did we really have much of a choice. The Temple was in front of us. In the middle of the crater. And from what we had been able to see, this natural maze surrounded it on all sides.
We charged into the shadows between tall, stacked chunks of earth, and kept going until the scree slope was no more than a memory.
Camille took the lead, scampering through narrow gaps that Ash struggled with, the giant having to lower Gamma to the ground to squeeze her way through. Zera flitted about where she could, but touched down where it was too narrow for flight. I saw her raise her eyes to the tops of the mesas, as if calculating if she should make her way up there, and fly alone in the wide open spaces. But caution won out, and she stuck with us down below.
Ecco was next, and the scorpion woman was able to handle this new terrain with ease. I followed closely behind.
Finally, Camille found an open space where one narrow mesa had toppled, letting in some light and providing some natural seating. By unspoken agreement, we all came to a halt, each of us breathing deep from the efforts of our mad dash down into the crater.
Gamma’s expression of distaste said it all. Like me, it seemed that she was royally sick of anything that reminded her of the caverns. But Ash’s take was more favorable.
“At least we are out of that horrible wind,” she said.
“Sit down,” Gamma said. She was looking at me with a serious expression and spoke in a tone that brooked no argument. But I gave it a try anyway.
“I need to keep watch—” I began, but Lady Gamma cut me off.
“Ash can do that just as well as you, if not better. Now, it is clear that you are injured. What good will you be if the Queen attacks once again? If her servants find us? Please, sit down.”
I didn’t want to obey her. I had been free of the compulsion that bound me to her for long enough that I had forgotten what it felt like. Almost. If she had told me to sit as an order, my hackles would have gone up. But she was asking me to sit, not telling me, and I found myself starting to grin despite the ache in my face.
I picked a spot with my back against a wall, and sat.
Gamma gave a small nod, and dug through her robes until she found the potion she was hunting for. The healing potion. Diluted, as she had said when she had used it on Ash.
“Are you sure that will work?” I asked. I meant nothing by it. It was just a random question.
“Of course I’m sure,” she immediately replied. But then she looked suddenly unsure, and as vulnerable as I had ever seen her. She shook her head and uttered a sigh. “Or maybe I’m not. I don’t know,” she admitted. “I have infused it with my chi, but the core ingredients … it is a far weaker potion than I would like.”
Then, to my surprise, she ventured a smile. “But I do know it’s got a better chance of working than doing nothing at all. So how about you stay as you are, and let me try to help you. Your face is already starting to swell, and while I know you will simply deny it, you are moving as if you are in pain.”
It was my turn to smile. “Why would I deny it? That bitch packed a wallop. I doubt even Ash would have been able to hit me that hard.”
Gamma didn’t respond to that directly, instead asking me where it hurt. I told her, and Gamma considered.
“Everywhere?” she said.
“Pretty much. Mostly the side of my face. But it’s like I stretched every tendon I have as a response. And I have to say, I would kill for an aspirin about now as well.”
“Aspirin?” Lady Gamma asked.
I nodded. “I have a fairly substantial headache,” I replied.
“In that case, it’s probably best if you drink this instead of me trying to sprinkle it over your wounds.”
She handed me the vial, and I accepted it, studying the liquid within. “How much?” I asked.
Gamma hesitated a beat. “All of it,” she said.
I studied her closely. “There will be none left for anyone else.”
“That’s how it works, yes. But if you do not, you will not be at your best the next time we need you.” Gamma looked away, shrugging her shoulders as if her words were inconsequential. “You just have to make sure that you don’t let anyone else in our group get hurt, won’t you?”
I understood her reasoning, but had to argue anyway. “I will be fine,” I said. “Save it for someone who needs it more.”
“Rogan Ward, you are the most difficult man. You are the one who needs it, and you need it now. If I thought a single sip would be enough, then that’s what I would recommend. But I’m not even sure the full dose will do the job. And we need you at your best. So drink it. Drink it all, and stop arguing.”
I could see that the princess was nearing the end of her tether. We had come so very far together, and our goal was in sight. I knew that she was desperate to reach the Temple and was doing all she could to hold it together until then.
And me arguing with her wouldn’t help either of us. So I nodded, took the stopper out of the vial, and poured the liquid into my mouth. It tasted bitter and tangy at the same time, and I swallowed it quickly, doing my best not to taste it. As soon as I did, Gamma reached out toward me and laid the palm of her hand on my forehead. I sensed her summoning her chi, and knew that she was doing her best to ensure the potion worked, and then my whole world erupted into pain.
I took that to mean that the potion was working, and clenched my jaw against it. Then I lay back against the boulder, my oversized sword a long way from a cushion, and waited for the pain to fade.
As the minutes passed, both Ecco and Zera moved closer, as if to offer me strength with their presence. Camille stayed as she was, on high alert, keeping an eye on everything. But Ash, who would have normally stood watch, took the time to speak with Gamma.
The pain of my body working with Gamma’s potion to heal my various ills took most of my attention. But I still understood the gist of what the giant woman wanted.
We were nearing the end of our quest. The Hidden Temple was wasn’t far away. But the route we had to take to get there would require us to crawl through narrow passages between mesas, just as we had crawled through the caverns before.
Ash’s enormous size was useful in open spaces, her strength more than formidable. But in tight enclosed spaces, it became a liability.
It seemed she was asking Lady Gamma to shrink her back down to size.
Gamma agreed, and plucked another vial from within her robes. She had put considerable chi effort into granting Ash her full size, but taking it away again seemed easier. A sprinkling of the potion, a whisper of Gamma’s chi, and Ash shrank down to the size she had been in the caves.
I found my gaze lingering on her, not for the first time, and wondered if now she might consider joining in when the other girls and I next found a moment to share my chi.
I was still thinking along those lines, my body still shrieking with the pain of healing much more swiftly than normal, when I felt the earth tremor around me.
“There’s something…” Ecco began, but that was as far as she got before part of the mesa next to her collapsed.
18
The bones in my face still ached as Gamma’s potion worked its magic. My whole body was sore and abused, and my head ached as if the god of all blacksmiths was pounding on my skull, just behind my eyes, with a giant hammer.
Even so, I didn’t hesitate, heaving myself up from my position against the boulder, my sword in my hands even as the rubble cleared and the threat we faced came into view.
My first thought was that we were facing a graboid, a sand worm of some sort, a multi-headed hydra creature made of a weaving mass of thick snakes that had emerged from the earth beneath us. It looked at first like a colony of monsters, but as the hideous thing writhed its way from the ruin it had caused, it became clear that all the thick snake-things were connected.
I had a moment to lament that Ash had shrunk down to her smaller size, thinking that her giantish strength would have been welcome. Then the monster started keening, filling the air with a plaintive shriek, as if the light hurt its overly sensitive eyes. But if that was the case, if this subterranean monster didn’t enjoy the light at all, it wasn’t enough to keep it at bay.
The multi-headed creature quested blindly toward us as if it knew we were there, and it had been programmed come for us.
“Get behind me!” I shouted, and Gamma and Ecco didn’t need to be told twice. But Zera had other plans, launching into the air out of the monster’s immediate reach. Camille and Ash took a defensive pose, ready to fight, and as Ash swung her heavy club, connecting solidly with one of the questing heads, I wondered if it might not be a better move to run, leaving this monster behind us.
The sinuous head that Ash had struck flinched backward, adding its own voice to the collective shriek, but it otherwise appeared undamaged. Out of habit and a morbid curiosity about how such a creature existed, I toggled my AC lens, and it showed me the monster’s stats.
Class: Nematode hybrid
Dominant DNA: Earthworm (35%)
Additional DNA: Hydra, Snake, Flatworm, Slug, Whelk, Starfish, Octopus, Whale, Hippopotamus + assorted others (55%)
Height: Variable
Weight: >600 pounds
Level: V
Capability: Regeneration.
Fuck, I thought. Regeneration. Just what we needed.
“There are more of them,” Ecco called from behind me, and I knew then that running wasn’t an option.
“Can you block them?” I demanded. “Use your skill. Prevent them from reaching the surface?”
