by Rosie Scott
I thought of the conversation between Druhv and Theron at the camp just days before. They had both seemed convinced the beasts sought water. I watched the crumbling sands marking the pathway of the beast underground, hoping more than anything that the water theory was correct.
Then came the explosion. The ground at the front of the beast's path exploded outward, clumps of thick, wet granules spraying over soldiers and environment alike. Mantus surged out of the ground like an arrow loosed from the strongest bow, flying upward into the sky, a screech echoing out of the creature which sounded as if it grated against metal plates on its way into the skies.
“What in the fuck is that?” I screamed, even as my mind attempted to categorize it. All around Mantus, I heard the soldiers screaming in surprise. Cerin stayed silent, his eyes rising in the air as the beast continued to surge forth from the desert.
Mantus's head was barely noticeable amongst its entire segmented body, because for now, its face was hidden behind the fog of the clouds as it reared upward even as the rest of its body still emerged from underground. It was not a worm, for worms did not have legs. Mantus did. Like the scorpions, its legs were covered in the thick, blackish-red plates of an insect. There were hundreds of legs, each one jolting out horizontally from its wide, flat body, before another segment of it stretched down from the joint to the sands, enabling the beast to cover ground with faster speed than even the hyenas.
Mantus was strong enough to keep the first half of its body in the sky, hundreds of legs clicking in the air along each of its sides, the bottom half of its body surging forward. Finally, it began lowering itself to the ground, one thick plate of its wide, flat body at a time, until its head came into view from under the clouds.
It was some type of insect all right. Only this one was much too big to squish. Its head was flat and wide, like the rest of it, though two long, wiggling antennae waved along each side, just on the exterior of two large claws that curved out from its jaws before sharpening inward, like two of Cerin's scythes. As its head finally met the earth, its body finished pulling itself out from the embrace of the underground. All in all, the beast was long enough to circle the entire city of Jaalam with many thick sections of its body left over. Each soldier was but a speck compared to the creature. As I watched, the lancers charged toward the beast, keeping their fear as hidden as possible as they went to pierce its thick plates with their weapons.
Cerin was rushing off of the roof, and I was on his heels, running behind him through the streets of the lost city. I had asked Hasani to bring us the hyenas, and he had, though he no longer waited for us. Two hyenas were tied by their reins to a sign post that stuck out from the wall of a building, its writing lost to the sands and winds of history. The animals chuckled nervously, unable to see past the building they waited beside. The rains I had called dampened their thick fur, darkening it and causing the brown leather of the saddles to look black.
Cerin quickly untied the reins from the post, handing me control over one hyena, as he flipped the reins over the other animal's head, and jumped on its back without delay. He held his scythe out to the side of the mount, its blade shining and wet in the rains.
I quickly mounted the other hyena, before kicking it into gear. The hyenas whooped and hollered in excitement as they rushed through the hills of buildings, before passing the last of them and emerging into the flat desert beyond. The winds blew hard against my face, combining with the rains of my spell to make me almost cool. Mantus slithered along the sands, its hundreds of legs working in unison to push the giant creature toward some of the mounted soldiers. It was faster now that it no longer had to fight through the resistance of thick, wet sands, and it was outrunning the hyenas, which snarled as they nipped at its legs.
I could not scream at the soldiers to outrun it, because they could not, though they tried. Mantus swept across the sands, catching up to a lancer who meant to run from the beast, and its two claws extended outward to the sides, before chomping together, cutting the mounted soldier in half. The hyena's bottom half fell in a mess of gore, along with the lancer's legs, which had been cut through by the ankles at his mount's sides. Both man and mount screamed as they were subsequently crushed by the beast, which continued to pursue the others.
Cerin and I kept galloping toward Mantus, our hyenas snorting labored exhales through flared nostrils. The back end of Mantus's body swept past the mess of gore of its prior victim, but our mounts paid no mind. Ahead, I heard Hasani's screaming through the rains, shouting directions to our soldiers.
“Turn! Turn, damn you!” His booming voice vibrated over to his lancers, who began to jerk the reins of their mounts to the side, forcing the hyenas to circle back toward Mantus sharply, despite the protests of the animals. The beast screeched once more, surging past where the lancers had turned. No longer in danger of the head, the soldiers charged toward the beast's passing side, skewering their lances between plates.
Hasani saw Cerin and I rushing past on our own mounts. Now that Mantus was past the lancers, it started curving in the sands ahead, though it was turning in a much wider path than the lancers had, which slowed it down. The last segment of its body loomed closer as we slowly caught up to it.
“Its body follows its head!” Hasani screamed to us, as we passed by him in a blur. “Do not try to outrun it! It takes time to turn!”
I appreciated that advice, even though I'd already noticed the latter half of it. As Cerin and I approached the beast's back end, I realized Hasani was right about its long body slithering along wherever its head had been, for where its head was finishing its circle, the body followed the path meticulously.
Cerin held his reins in a hand, even as he stood in his stirrups, his right hand clenching his scythe.
“What are you doing?” I yelled at him, even as we approached the turn of Mantus's body, which now rushed up toward us since it cut horizontally across our path.
“Trust me!” He yelled back. His hyena whooped with excitement as we approached the beast, though it veered off to the left, unwilling to crash into the side of the giant insect. Now that Cerin rode his hyena alongside the beast, he raised up in his saddle, holding onto its horn carefully with his left hand, his boots uneasy on its seat.
The necromancer was crazy. My own hyena veered to run alongside Mantus as well, and I thrust my arm out past my mount's head, giving Cerin a shield I felt he desperately needed. He dropped his reins, his knees wobbling in tune to the galloping of his hyena as he stood in its saddle, and he grabbed the handle of his scythe with a second hand.
Then, Cerin jumped off of his mount, slicing his scythe downward as he fell toward the beast. A segment of its body passed beneath him before he landed, the sharp point of his weapon piercing through its plates. Mantus screeched in pain from somewhere off in the distance behind me. It was a reminder of how large this thing actually was, and it was a bit of a relief, given the beast was so large we could damage it without being near its deadly claws. For now, Cerin was essentially riding the beast, grabbing ahold of one of its plates with his left hand, and stabbing like a madman with his right.
Cerin's hyena continued the chase, free to pursue Mantus without the direction of a rider. It rushed alongside the beast, biting and nipping at its many legs, crushing their segmented plates. For each leg that was injured, however, Mantus had hundreds more.
My hyena kept running at the beast's side, though now Mantus had completed its turn, we were losing ground. I was unable to wield magic in both hands, because my left held the reins, keeping the hyena from rushing in toward the body of the beast. In my right hand, however, I wielded ice. I remembered how it had been effective against the scorpions, which had been as well armored as Mantus. I thrust an ice shard toward the joint in one of its legs, and the ice broke through, breaking off the lower segment of the leg in a spray of bluish blood.
Mantus's back end flew past me a few ice shards later, for my hyena could no longer keep up with it. I slowed my mount to
a walk, letting it have time to breathe. The hyena's stomach rose and fell between my legs with the labor of a good chase. Even still, the animal was wild with excitement, and chuckled through the rain as its eyes watched the giant insect slither away. I leaned forward, patting the hyena's neck.
“Breathe a little,” I murmured to it. “We will pursue it when it comes back around.”
The hyena bobbed its head, tugging for control over its reins, but I did not relent. In the distance, Mantus was zigzagging over the wet sands, chasing after the infantry units that were still mounted. Hasani had clearly given orders for the infantry to serve as bait, for the lancers were the only ones with weapons long enough to reach the beast from on top of mounts. I saw a spray of red blood in the distance, and knew Mantus had taken another victim.
I tried not to be discouraged by the overwhelming odds of this battle. Dozens of Mantus's legs littered the sands, oozing a deep blue blood, and even still, the creature had hundreds which continued to carry its massive body to crush our soldiers. In the distance, I saw Cerin's undead army clashing into the side of Mantus as it turned once more, preparing to come back in my direction. I knew the dead were much too slow to do any damage to the beast if it weren't disabled or turning, so our use of them would be limited.
I wondered where Nyx, Anto, and Jakan were, even as my hyena shook with excitement beneath me, aware Mantus was slithering back toward us. I could only hope they were safe and figuring out their own ways to battle. I saw a smidgen of black near Mantus's lower body in the distance, and knew Cerin was still stabbing the creature with his scythe. Bluish blood stained the sands ahead, before the heavy rains diluted the color by spreading it farther in all directions.
Mantus surged right for me, as I was the only one who had been in its sights after it completed its turn. The hyena below me shuddered with the need to give chase, but I held it firm, both of my hands tight on the reins.
“Wait,” I murmured, waiting for the beast to get closer. It was safer, I reasoned, to wait and then dodge it, since it was unable to turn well. I bunched the reins up in my right hand, and prepared another ice shard in my left. Perhaps, if I could shoot the shard far enough into its head to puncture the brain, I could kill it.
The ground rumbled intensely beneath us, and the hyena reared up its head and upper body, acting out of nervous energy. As Mantus loomed toward us, I released the shard, which stabbed through the thick outer shell of the ugly beast's head, its odd bluish blood leaking from the crack in its armor. It was a good hit, but if it punctured the brain, Mantus barely seemed to notice.
I jerked the reins to the right, and kicked my hyena into a gallop. It burst forward, happy to expend its energy, and I heard Mantus roar past where we'd just been standing in a clicking clatter of insect legs. Now that we had dodged the beast, I pulled the reins toward me, circling my hyena back toward Mantus's passing body, and shooting into its legs and plates with more shards, the ice cracking through its thick plates.
A blur of black and brown rushed by me, chasing after the body of the beast as it slowed to turn once again.
“Can't let Cerin have all the fun!” Nyx.
I pulled my hyena around in a tight circle, pummeling Mantus's legs with more ice, keeping my eyes on Nyx as she rushed the beast while it was turning, her hyena hollering beneath her, nearly matching the enthusiasm of its rider. Nyx stood in the saddle much like Cerin had earlier, and launched herself to the beast's back, both of her daggers sinking through its plates. My friend wasn't content with simply stabbing the beast, however, for as it turned, she climbed up toward its head slowly against the passing winds, using her daggers to stab into its body and hold on.
I came to the conclusion, then, that everyone I loved was crazy. The back half of Mantus swept by, with Cerin still in the midst of stabbing, as if to further prove me right with that deduction. As the beast completed another turn, I kept my hyena in its path, building up earth energy in my left palm, and waiting once again for it to come at me.
The giant insect barreled toward me a moment later, proving it did not have the intelligence to match its size, for it clearly did not remember how many times its foes had dodged its charge. As it neared me, I threw the earth spell to the ground before it, and a thick stone rose in the air just before its head, the rock lodged far beneath the sands to keep it grounded. Mantus ran head first into the stone, coming to a screeching halt.
“Charge!” Hasani's voice thundered out from behind me, and a rumbling stampede of hyenas galloped past, in groups that were separated between lancers and infantry. The lancers lowered their weapons, charging toward the beast's side to puncture its plates. The infantry, however, hurried to its sides before dismounting, clashing melee weapons into the beast's thick armor. Among them were Anto and Jakan, who both went to work hacking and stabbing through legs and plates.
I heard crackling, and glanced over to see Cerin had taken the time during the stop to leech with one hand, even as he continued to hack at the same segment, his scythe slick with blue blood. I decided he had the right idea, and quickly approached the beast, letting my hyena tear at its body with glee as I left the reins sit on its neck, leeching with my left hand and shooting ice shards through its plates with my right. To my left, Nyx was making a mad dash toward the creature's head, her boots skidding along the thick plates of its back. I knew she usually liked to kill by gouging throats out, but Mantus didn't really have one. I figured she would try to decapitate it.
Bolts and arrows whizzed by to my right, the ranged fighters up on the cliffs unleashing their ammo into the back of the beast now that it was stopped, and the melee fighters were out of their way. Some of the ammunition failed to puncture, but many did, piercing through even the smallest of weak spots.
Now that Mantus was still, I realized just how bad the creature stunk. It smelled like wet dirt and mold, which I supposed was fitting, for it had lived its whole life beneath the sands, probably low enough to where it could search out the moisture of the underground. It screeched and clicked its claws together next to the stone, frustrated and in pain from the army which hacked away at its life.
After a few minutes of fighting it, Cerin's undead army finally caught up to us, and went to work near its back end, since it was closest to them. Some of the archers from the canyons accidentally shot a few of the undead with friendly fire, and the corpses fell to the sands in messes of pus and acid.
I wondered why Mantus was simply lying still, letting us hack away at it, but then I remembered Hasani's advice. If its body followed its head, and its head was crushed against stone, I supposed it couldn't go anywhere.
I heard Cerin scream, and looked up in alarm just to see him start hacking with a furor I'd never seen him have. I realized he had leeched enough for it to affect his mind, for his silver eyes were wild and bloodthirsty as he brought the scythe down, again and again. The necromancer lifted the bloody weapon over his head with both hands, before yanking it from the skies, letting his strength and gravity clash the blade between the two segments he'd been working on with a sickly crunch. Mantus screeched in immense pain, the roar vibrating out over the skies, floating away on sound waves that would reach far in every direction. Then, with the scythe still in the monster's flesh, Cerin ripped his weapon to the side, the blade ripping through tendon and guts in a geyser of blue blood. I heard something heavy fall to the sands, and knew he'd broken through Mantus's body, for the insect's entrails were spilling.
“Fuck!” Nyx's scream alerted me to look back toward the beast's head, which was in the midst of rearing toward the sky in reaction to its injury. The assassin dug both of her blades into the thick armor of its head, even as she was carried along with it, soon lost from behind the heavy fog of the clouds. I heard her screaming from the skies, and tugged at my hyena's reins, urging the animal toward the beast's head with kicks at its sides. The animal fought me, its jaws in the midst of crushing more of Mantus's plates, blue blood dripping from its mouth.
&nb
sp; I dismounted the stubborn animal, rushing toward the giant's front half on foot, eager to help my friend in any way I knew how, and for right now, I had very few options at my disposal. I was shrouded in shadow halfway there, for Mantus had reared so high its body blocked out much of the light of the sun. Then, as I watched in horror, Nyx tumbled through the clouds and out of the skies, having lost her grip on the beast's head.
There was nothing in my spell repertoire that could save her. Not completely. Bright white life magic swirled above both of my palms as I prepared a physical shield in both hands so I could double its effect. Even then, though, I would have to be insanely accurate to shield her during such a fall, as gravity took its course.
I was full of fear. I'd nearly lost Nyx already two nights before, but at least then I'd had options. Could I truly do nothing? Was I destined to watch her body explode from the fall, right before me, like had happened during the battle with the Twelve half a year ago? I remembered that man's death as being particularly brutal and gory, and I was terrified I would have to watch it happen to the best friend I'd ever had.
“Move!” I heard people scrambling behind me, and turned to see Hasani rushing forward, a javelin in his right hand. His eyes were on Nyx, watching as she fell, screaming as the ground rushed toward her.
The prince hesitated, the javelin pulled back behind him, his muscles twitching with strength and determination. The pointed tip of the javelin glinted silver as it waited, poised and ready to pierce flesh. I wasn't certain as to Hasani's intentions, though I knew he meant Nyx no harm.
