by M B Reid
The abomination reacted by spreading out. Its face came lower to the ground, almost within striking distance. Then the widened body wrapped out and around us. The guards at the outer edge were suddenly enveloped in the creatures flesh. Those of us lucky enough to be in the middle of our attacking line scrambled backwards. The voice of fear was deafening in my skull.
Three of us made it far enough backwards to evade the attack - Rudy, myself, and a guard that I didn’t recognise. The others were pushed together by the two sides of the abominations flesh. They screamed as the creature enveloped them, crushing them in toward its core. They struggled with futility for a few long moments before the weight of its body squeezed the air from their lungs.
The abomination washed towards us once more. Instead of leaving the corpses of the guards in its wake the monster was assimilating them. Using their flesh to grow even larger. This unspeakable creature was consuming our fallen friends and getting stronger for it.
There was no way we could defeat it.
The guard between me and Rudy must have come to the same conclusion. He turned and ran, leaving the sharp stench of urine behind. Rudy and I backed up, knowing the circle of ratkin was close behind us. If the abomination could consume our warriors to grow larger it could no doubt do the same with the ratkin that were frozen in place. We couldn’t let it come any closer, but we couldn’t risk getting in close to it.
We were quickly running out of options.
“Go right” I instructed, then started sprinting to the left of the creature before seeing whether Rudy would obey. He was meant to be the one in charge after all. Our only option was to split up and flank it from opposite sides. Hopefully it could only watch one of us at a time. With any luck we could lure it back toward the centre of the room. I didn’t really have a plan to kill it, but at least we might be able to lead it away from snacking on the circle of ratkin.
As we circled it I couldn’t help but think that if it was going to focus on one of us I really hoped it’d be Rudy.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
As I got behind the abomination the impossible happened. The things head and shoulders rotated a full 180 degrees, shifting atop the blob-like body to face me. There was no way to get behind this thing, it could twist faster than I could move. How the hell was I meant to win this fight?
A chunk of flesh extruded itself from the body, reaching up into the air like a giant club-tipped tentacle. The faces of the dead guards dotted the underside like suckers, their dead eyes judging me. The tentacle smashed down, hitting the ground just a few feet behind me. It reared up again as I stopped. With any luck Rudy would be directly opposite me, and he’d hopefully start damaging the thing while it fought me.
The tentacle thumped against my shield, driving me to my knees. It pummelled me over and over again. Each blow knocking a small chunk of my health away and jarring my shoulders. I couldn’t hold up under this assault for much longer.
Up close the creature was radiating heat. Like the warmth of flushed skin after an exhausting run. It was almost as if the jittering and jerking motions of the abomination were causing it to overheat. It pounded at me again, the club-like tentacle growing longer and wider. It was reshaping its entire body to build the bigger weapon, shifting flesh from its bulbous body to where it was needed.
As the tentacle crashed down again I sidestepped. The shockwave of its impact on the ground rippled up from my feet to jar my teeth. It seemed impossible that I’d been holding off attacks with just my shield. I hacked at the limb, throwing as many furious swings at it as possible before it lifted out of my range.
The abomination didn’t seem to feel pain.
Its tentacle thundered down, and again I dodged. I started hacking at it, swinging my scimitar like a madman. The flesh had shifted, the skin I struck now wasn’t bloody. The abomination hadn’t yet replaced the mass that I had hacked off though. If I could just get a few more hits in I might be able to sever it.
I jumped onto the tentacle, using my entire bodyweight to hold it down as it tried to lift for another attack. I kept swinging with my scimitar, straddling the writhing limb.
I cut through, severing the limb. What little remained attached to the body flailed wildly, spraying me with fetid black blood.
The monsters head spun to peer at me. Had it been looking at Rudy while it pummelled me? It shrieked something in that horrid unknowable language and the pressure in the room changed. It was like we’d ascended a thousand feet. My ears popped and the air was suddenly thin and hard to breath. I panicked. As an undead I didn’t need to breath, I’d even demonstrated it to myself. But I still breathed unconsciously, and I still panicked when I could no longer fill my lungs.
The abomination reached for me with several thin tentacles, ignoring the chunk of flesh I’d just cut from it. Growing the limbs caused its body to shrink a little more, carrying its head closer to the ground. Maybe if I could somehow keep slicing chunks off it I might eventually get it down to a manageable size.
The tentacles lashed at me. Unlike the club-limb, which was designed to pummel me into the ground, these were tipped with fangs and claws. Designed to rip me to shreds. I blocked about half of the initial onslaught, my health dropping by forty percent as the others tore through armour and flesh alike. The little notification indicating I’d resisted bleeding damage flashed up again.
Jesus, if Rudy was facing something similar on the other side he could well be dead by now. The abominations head was focused entirely on me. Maybe it had finished him off. Panic raced through my mind. If I was fighting this thing alone, without any way of distracting it, how was I meant to win?
I retreated, fending off slashing attacks. I needed a plan, and a chance to down my last potion. I was below half health, and that thing could really deal damage. I couldn’t risk having my health so low, not if it could wipe me out in a single attack.
I popped the cork off the vial, watching as the limbs receded into the blob of flesh, preparing to surge forward in another rush. Then I stopped. The priestesses words ran through my mind. This was a potent poison, strong enough to restore all of my health in an instant. But she’d also said it would rapidly kill any living thing. This abomination was big, built from several corpses. The limb I’d cut off was maybe two bodies worth. Would my small vial of poison be enough to kill something with so much mass?
I poured the green liquid over my scimitar. There was only one way to find out.
I charged at the creature as it finished its wave-lunge toward me. The upper torso was rocking forward, the momentum carrying it slightly closer to the ground. I activated Bull Horns and Shield Charge together, using the magical speed to carry me in closer than the abomination could be ready for. Rather than striking at the gelatinous body I leapt onto it, scrambling upwards toward the mottled and scarred torso. As my boots sank into its flesh more skin rose up to envelop my ankles.
The things body was absorbing me!
I fell to my knees, gaining just a little more traction to struggle forward. My sword hand clawed at skin and fur, pulling me up its body as far as I could. I slashed upwards, my poisoned blade scratching across the mottled ratkin's chest. Black blood spurted from the wound. Its remaining arm grabbed for my wrist even as the flesh of the body rose up to envelop me.
I withdrew my arm, driving the scimitar into its unarmoured flesh and pulling it towards me. A large gash opened across its skin, and the ratkin screamed for the first time. It wasn’t the sound of pain though, it was anger. Raw, unadulterated fury. The abominations wound spread, then seemed to close in on itself as the flesh shifted. My scimitar was still buried to the hilt, but there was no sign of the cut I had left.
The flesh had enveloped me up to the knees now. Tendrils were wrapping around my shield arm, pinning my hand to the skin where I’d tried to scrabble up. It was uncomfortably warm to the touch, like someone who’d been swaddled in blankets for too long. It was also moist, like an unwashed armpit. I twisted the scimitar, work
ing it in circles with my only free hand. The beast didn’t seem to feel pain, but it was the only thing I could do.
I contemplated gouging at it with the horns that still stuck out of my skull, but that would only let the monster devour my head faster. There was a horrible sucking sensation as the abominations body convulsed, pulling me deeper. A thick tentacle of flesh wound around my sword hand, pulling the blade deeper into its body and swallowing my arm. It was lapping at my waist now. No matter how hard I struggled against it, the invading flesh continued to inch up my body. I couldn’t get purchase on anything to push with.
This was how I was going to die. Slowly assimilated into a giant ball of corpses. My entire life snuffed out by a blob monster in a god damned video game. I thought about my parents and my younger brother. Would they ever learn what happened to me? My life wasn’t flashing before my eyes - that was supposed to happen when you died wasn’t it? You were meant to relive all the best bits?
I saw the opposite of a highlight reel. The time when I’d tried to ask Mindy to the dance and she’d laughed in my face. The sinking feeling I’d felt when I’d been caught shoplifting a candy bar. Having to explain to my parents why I’d got detention when I’d kicked the ball through Mr Smiths office window.
The abomination was sucking me down. That had to be it, the reason I was reliving these memories was because my stomach was literally sinking. Those memories were the best match to the physical sensation I was feeling.
The abomination was slowing now. Maybe it was savouring me, wanting me to suffer in my last moments. The vibrating seemed to have almost stopped. The flesh still roiled in strange spastic motions, but they weren’t as fast now. It was twitching more like my cat did in her sleep, kind of pawing motions rather than spurts of speed.
The flesh consuming me seemed to be moving a little slower as well. Awkwardly flexing away from me before slapping against me a little higher. Like the incoming tide lapping at the beach. The ratkin was screaming at me in its backwards language, but the words didn’t seem to do anything anymore.
The abomination didn’t feel so hot now.
I strained my muscles again, trying to pull my sword arm back out. The flesh sucked at me. It stuck to me, resisted me, but couldn’t stop me. Slowly at first, and then in a sudden rush, I pulled my arm back. Everything below my elbow was covered in black gore. The scimitar was a curved shaft of darkness in my hand.
The ratkin was still jabbering away in his unknowable language. Drool dripped from his lips, and his arms hung loosely from his sides. I stabbed the scimitar into the body, using the blade as a handhold as I pulled my other arm free. I pushed my newly freed shield against the cooling flesh and dragged myself up its body. My boots came off, slurped into the creatures belly as my legs came free. The abominations body was barely moving now. It gave a sudden lurch every now and then but could no longer reshape itself.
I was face to face with the mottled ratkin now. What little fur it had was red and rusty, stained with blood and gore. It’s eyes were unfocused, and drool flowed freely from its mouth. Still it muttered in that strange language.
I decapitated it in a single strike.
The old ratkin's head rolled down its body, bouncing off the flesh and splattering on the floor. The creatures single arm reached for me, slow and clumsy. I hacked at it with my scimitar, separating it at the elbow on my second strike. The beast started to sag, like a balloon deflating. There was a tearing sound, like a damp paper bag coming apart, and then I was sinking. The liquefied innards of the abomination were spilling onto the floor like a ruptured water balloon.
The stench of rotting meat filled the room as I rode the collapsing corpse to the ground.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Death filled the room.
Before I could get back on my feet every single ratkin that had stood frozen in one of the ritual circles collapsed. Beyond the concentric rings of corpses the few remaining ratkin were fleeing, making for the myriad of tunnels around the room. Only a handful of guards were still standing, grouped in a semicircle around the entrance tunnel.
Rudy was nowhere to be seen.
The guards started making their way toward me, grouped close together in case another wave of attackers came at them. I looked at the dead abomination. Its putrid innards had washed across the floor in every direction, staining my bare feet with chunks and gore. There were a few ratkin skeletons amongst the unidentifiable meat. I caught a glimpse of a guards hand and almost lost my lunch. At least I wouldn’t need to worry about the guards seeing my rotting feet, there was no way to tell where the abomination-goop ended and I began.
The creatures skin was gathered like a pile of dirty washing in the centre of the mess. From within I could see the glint of gold. I leaned closer.
Beneath the skin, as if it had been rattling around the entire time, was a small mountain of gold coins. There was enough there to buy out my contract with the guards and still have enough left over to take a holiday to Hawaii. I transferred it to my inventory immediately. There were disappointingly few other items. A few regular weapons, spears and swords, presumably from the dead guards. I took them anyway. My strength gave me a stupidly high carrying capacity, so dropping a bunch of weapons into my pack didn’t cause any problems.
After a little more rummaging I found a charm affixed to a ratkin skull. I surreptitiously slipped it into my pocket. I wasn’t sure what the guards policy on loot was, but Jira had said charms were incredibly valuable, and I wasn’t going to risk having to hand it over. By now every instinct was screaming at me to get back to the safety of town as quickly as I could.
The last item I found was an amulet. It was made from yellowed bone and as wide across as my hand. The image of eight rats was etched into it, each facing outward from the centre. Their tails were entwined in an intricate knot. I inspected it but no prompt appeared, only a name: Ratking’s Pendant. I slipped it into my inventory as well. I didn’t have a clue what it would do, but it looked like a unique drop.
The guards had cautiously reached the centre of the room by the time I finished picking through the loot.
“What happened to Captain Rudy?” One bloodstained man asked. He looked exhausted.
“Dead I think. We got separated in the fight. I haven’t seen him since.” I announced. It actually pained me a little to think of his death. He’d fought with me until the end, and had led us well to get to where we were. With so many guards killed, and now their leader dead, I wasn’t sure what would happen once we got back to the surface. The Whiteridge guard was all but finished.
“We should get out of here” One of the other guards said. He was a younger man, about my age, and his eyes were constantly darting to the various tunnels. His sword hand kept twitching next to his sheathed sword.
“We should loot the dead” I said, pointing to the sea of corpses strewn around the room. I didn’t expect to find much of use amongst them, but surely the guards could do with any extra cash they could find.
“Hell no, lets just get back to the surface.” Another guard said, eliciting murmurs of agreement. I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it again. The loot from the dead ratkin wouldn’t be worth much, and I’d certainly feel safer back on the surface. Besides, with the cash I’d taken from the abomination I didn’t need anything more. Once we were back on the surface I’d buy out my guard contract, then rent someplace in town for a few months. Surely someone would figure out how to reunite all the stones and get us back to reality by then.
“Okay. Lead the way.” I said, sheathing my scimitar. We were a long way from the surface and I was exhausted. It wasn’t a game effect. I was mentally shattered. It felt like I’d done nothing but fight all day, and the adrenaline low was definitely kicking in.
I took up the position at the rear of the group as we made our way back towards the tunnel. We had a long walk ahead of us.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
The return to Whiteridge wasn’t quite the party that I’d
expected. When we emerged into the church basement the guards stationed there looked at us in shock. One of them began to cry as he realised we were all that remained.
Of the dozens of men that had gone into the depths, only a handful had returned. We walked in silence through the town to the barracks. The few townsfolk moving around this early gave us a wide berth. Given our appearance I couldn’t blame them. None of us were quite sure what our duty was. Rudy wasn’t here. Duncan was his temporary replacement. I supposed that made Duncan the captain of the guard now.
The barracks were almost deafeningly quiet. The absence of life seemed to emanate from the walls. I wondered if this would now become haunted, occupied by the souls of those that gave their life protecting the town.
Duncan was sat on the steps outside, waiting patiently for our return. Every other guard was stationed on the walls, or patrolling the town. He went ghost white as he saw us, understanding striking him like lightening.
“Report” He stammered, his voice barely more than a whisper. The guards with me stood silent, prompting me to speak. I knew I was only talking to virtual characters, but that didn’t matter to the lump in my throat.
“Countless ratkin were killed. They were performing a ritual, trying to create a rat king. We killed it.” I stuck to the facts. There was no need to state our casualties. The emptiness of the courtyard stood testament to that.
Duncan nodded slowly, but remained silent. I could practically hear the whirring of his brain as he chased his thoughts in circles. He wasn’t ready to take charge, not in this moment. Hell, I doubted he’d ever be ready for this kind of responsibility, and I didn’t just think that because I was still sour about his general dickishness.
I turned back to the remaining guards.
“Go home to your families. Report back in the morning.” I ordered. The men nodded, obeying the order as if I was the most natural leader in the world. It was easy to give orders when you were instructing men to do what they wanted.
