NOVEL NEXT 08 - Break the Horde
David surged into the crisp morning air, the wind from his wings flattening the grass in a wide circle around him as he glanced at his readouts. The last of the creatures had just crossed from the dense pines into the clearing when he climbed a dozen feet in the air and began to hover.
–Health: 30/30–
–Stamina: 126/130–
“David! Wait! What do I do?!” Claire bellowed from behind him as the horde of green apelike creatures began to charge, shrieking and hooting shrilly.
“I’m gonna try and use my ability on them! Run away, I think it’ll hurt you if you’re too close.” David screeched back shrilly before he tilted his wings and caught the morning breeze to lift himself into the air.
His stamina drain evened out and he allowed himself to gain some more height before leaning forward and letting himself drop towards the bizarre creatures. As he fell he sucked in an enormous breath of air, his ears folding back as he desperately tried to keep track of everything. The current of wind he was punching through as he dove at the leathery green ape things, the drain on his stamina that was ticking down at an alarming rate as he continued to charge up the biggest screech he had ever attempted, and the ominous warning about death being the penalty for failure adding up to a lot to keep track of for him. David had a moment of weirdly calm lucidity as he watched the grass blur under the shadow of his wings, instinctually putting the sun at his back to keep the blinding light out of his eyes. The twin shadows fell across the first of the creatures as several of them launched themselves into the air aggressively at him as he passed close overhead and David screamed as hard as he could, finally allowing the ability that had been building to activate.
David’s head swam as his stamina plummeted, falling dangerously low in seconds as the massively overcharged Screech exploded out of him. He tasted blood and his throat was turned raw almost instantly, only for the ability to continue and the pain to worsen for a handful of seconds before his breath cut off and he nearly fell from the air, sagging pathetically as he attempted a feeble turn. Despite the blurriness of his vision, the readout was crystal clear as he brought it up in an attempt to figure out what had happened, gliding into the wind in an attempt to cheat some more height as the light shone prettily through the dense trees around the clearing.
–Health: 20/30–
–Stamina: 62/130–
–You have taken 10 Backlash Damage: Screech–
–Screech has leveled up! x2–
–Gained 6xp–
–Unnerving Mutagen has leveled up!–
–Gained 3xp–
As his head cleared he snapped out of his daze, banking to the left before he crashed into the ring of pines that surrounded the meadow and wheeled back around to bring the horde into view again. As poorly as he had handled the powerful attack he saw that the horde of creatures had fared even worse than he had, with several of the small monsters convulsing on the ground as blood poured from their eyes and ears. David squinted hard into the rising sun, struggling to see as the light seared into him and made flying almost impossible. He slammed his eyes shut and pulsed the area ahead of him with Echolocation as fast as he could, the overlapping images forming a terrifying slideshow of information as he surged back toward the fight.
A large amount of the creatures staggered about drunkenly, falling over themselves, and they seemed incapable of walking straight or focusing. Several of the larger ones were vomiting or shaking their heads violently while they screamed with pain and rage, tearing handfuls of grass and tossing them into the air as they shrieked. The handful of creatures that had made it past his attack and were far enough away to avoid the debilitating effects had surged across the grass and over the scattered boulders towards the fruit tree where Claire had retreated. She roared with fear and backed away, flailing her tiny clawed arms at the beasts as they sprinted towards her.
“NO, NO, GET AWAY FROM ME!” She bellowed as a particularly large ape monster launched itself at her, fangs bared and long leathery fingers grasping greedily.
Claire leapt like a startled deer, her long powerful leg kicking out with surprising savagery at the beast and connecting hard, her long tail providing an incredible balance for midair attacks. Leathery hide parted like tissue paper under the powerful clawed foot, Claire’s strike nearly ripping the unlucky creature in half with the force of the blow as it offered no resistance to the attack. She landed with an agile bounce as the corpse was blown back, rolling away in an arc of flattened grass while the body twitched and jerked. Her neck shot forward suddenly, long thin jaws closing around the head of another ape creature as they desperately attempted to slow their charge too late. Her body coiled like a spring and fired another hammer blow of a kick that gutted it immediately before she tossed it away to bounce off a rock with a powerful contraction of her thick scaly neck. The rumbling hiss that left her jaws after was utterly inhuman and, frankly, scared the shit out of David as he watched through the constant Echolocations.
Convinced she’d be completely fine, and not willing to get near her when she was violently freaking out, David swung back towards the debilitated group of creatures before he realized something he hadn’t considered a few moments ago.
I fucked up, I don’t have enough stamina to land another attack and get away…
David rapidly considered his options. The beasts he was closing in on were still mostly disoriented, flopping around uselessly, and even attacking each other blindly in a few cases. Huge apelike fangs flashed as they tore at each other in pain and confusion, thin trickles of blood flowing from their ears from the powerful sonic attack. The deep, raspy roar of fury from his right toward the fruit tree was followed by a wet tearing sound and a shriek of pain that he barely registered as he made up his mind, folded in his wings and dropped through the air like a shot into the middle of the creatures. He blasted out another Screech as he landed in the flattened grass beside one of the scattered patches of wildflowers, using the impact to force the attack from his body in an almost solid wall of sound. Most of the creatures collapsed, seizing on the ground as they tore at their ears or simply twitched impotently in the grass while they drooled bright blood under the rising sun. David coughed, blood splattering his dusky grey jaws and filling his mouth with an unpleasant metallic taste as the damage from the earlier Screech that had shredded his throat seemed to worsen.
–Health: 14/30–
–Stamina: 22/130–
–You have taken 6 Backlash Damage: Screech–
He whirled in place, gasping for air while his limbs shook from fatigue and the world tilted slowly to the right. A few of the largest ape things were still standing, though just barely. David surged forward, jaws snapping at the throat of the closest creature as he bounced toward it with all his remaining strength. Cartilage crunched in his mouth with a grisly sound as he locked his jaws and shook his head swiftly before he attempted to drop free and run back. Instead the thrashing of the creature pulled him into an ungainly tangle of limbs, his fragile wings twisted painfully by the weight of the creature as it collapsed on him.
David had a vague impression of a huge shadow bearing down on him before it rolled over him like an avalanche, his vision greyed out and the world became strangely muted.