The Mother of Monsters

Teyva ran for her life. She couldn’t chance running back towards Azrael so she changed directions; heading wide around the field. Behind her the Bound One’s heavy footfalls came fast, the enraged machine swinging its arms wildly in her direction. She glanced back just in time to notice a flare of white in its eyes and quickly sent Nephral away. The little Sphinx spared the sudden chill of death as another column of Pale Dawn magic washed over her. She ignored the chill, her immunity making its ranged attacks pointless. In contrast, she got the feeling that if she stopped to fight back or cast magic it would cut her in half.

As she ran she glanced toward the fallen root, she could still feel her mockeries buzzing around it as well as The Marble somewhere underneath. They weren’t going to be much help at the moment unless The Marble could get free somehow. Instead, she focused on trying to slow her pursuer down. She pointed her hand behind herself as she ran, not putting a lot of imagination into the walls and instead just making one after another. Simple structures to confound and delay her enemy. Instead, all she heard was the steady repetitive smashing of metal limbs against rock and dirt. The obstacles proved useless as well.

Teyva let out a sound that was a mix between a growl and a whine, how the hell was she supposed to stop this thing now? Why couldn’t it have died beneath the root when it fell? Her mental bitching and moaning did her little good, ultimately, and instead, she was forced to change direction when she almost slammed head-first into a rock formation. She ran around the formation, heading for the outer wall, and considered climbing the wall again. If she did, though, the Bound One would go hunting after Azrael. She cursed and turned just as she heard a horrible crash behind her.

Teyva turned to see the rock formation pulverized beneath a hammer-shaped mechanical arm. Teyva stopped, staring at the limb while the Bound One tugged at it. It was lodged completely into the stone. Teyva prepared a [Pale Bolt] and sent it hurtling in the direction of the Bound One, hoping to interrupt its use of [Simple Shift] to escape. Instead, the Bound One canted its head in her direction while a spray of white sparks trickled from its mouth and eyes. Teyva's eyes widened as The Bound One raise its other arm, a sword gleaming at the end, and severed its arm at the joint, black ichorous liquid spraying from the ‘wound’ until it stopped.

Teyva stared in disbelief at the Bound One. It had dismembered itself rather than using [Simple Shift], why? Was it going haywire or something? Could a golem go haywire? She thought back to the copper coloration of the Tomb Guardian back in the queen’s tomb. Teyva made a face, the Tomb Guardian back then hadn’t been old and decrepit, it had probably been as fresh as this one, it just had ripped itself to pieces for some reason. Could she get this one to do the same? It was already down one limb, the wrist joint on the remaining sword arm had been damaged as well after she’d grabbed it with her own Arm of the Guardian.

Teyva cracked off another shot with [Pale Bolt] the second one making contact before she started to run again. She looked around, trying to spot where Nephral had run off to. Movement from the left caught her eye and she made the mistake of hesitating. The sudden pain in her back pushed all the air out of her lungs. She staggered, turning around in time for a mechanical leg to snap out and catch her in the chest. Teyva found herself crashing into the nearest formation of rocks. Her vision swam, dots and stars clouding her sight while she tried to make sense of what had happened.

A metal foot crashing into her left shoulder gave her a hint. She let out a cry of pain as the metal limb pushed down. She reached up to grab it with her mechanical hand, squeezing the limb only to have a metallic fist crash into her face. She felt blood trickle down her nose, her vision blurred again and her brain began to feel fuzzy. She tried to right herself but another blow to the face sent her reeling. Somewhere beneath the confusion a small part of her screamed to retake control, to focus. The foot returned to her left arm and pressed down, harder, harder. She screamed, shaking her head and grasping at the proffered limb again. It was too late; she felt the limb dislocate with a crack and a pop; her mind went white with agony before it all went dark.

She snapped back to consciousness a few moments later, her vision clearing. She concentrated on the pain in her shoulder, using it as something she could hold on to even if it was just suffering. She blinked a few more times and was greeted with the face of the Bound One. It had dropped to a knee and was looking her in the face. Its one good arm was clenched into a fist and more cracks had damaged its face. It looked furious now.

It canted its head to the right and reached for her shoulder, sparks dribbling from its mouth as it gripped her shoulder with those powerful fingers. The pain lanced down her arm and all the way up to her neck and chin. Her fingertips twitched with the torture. She’d been through worse, though, she told herself. She cracked a grin at it as it pressed harder drawing beads of sweat from her.

“Your brother killed me over and over in a tomb, you’re going to have to do better than a broken arm,” Teyva hissed.

The Bound One tilted its head and nodded as if it fully understood her. It stood up, changing its arm to a sword, and stepped into position over her. She looked up at the weapon and let out a sigh. Now was as good a time as ever to test if respawning still worked. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

The thundering sound to her right and the Bound One’s left drew both of their attention. She snapped her eyes open and looked for the source, spotting The Marble charging in their direction, its powerful legs lifting its flat marble body and hurling it forward with each step. The Bound One rose to its feet and angled its head forward before raising its arm. Teyva looked toward the oncoming mimic and the mighty dungeon boss and bit her lip; she couldn’t stop The Marble at this point.

The blade came down and there was a moment of silence as the two of them stood there, facing one another. Then the light faded from the eyes of the many-eyed mimic. Its body split and fell to the ground with a thunderous bang. Teyva felt a lump in her throat form, she’d only just created The Marble, but he was one of her babies and he had fought so bravely for her. She turned her gaze on the mechanical monster that stood motionless over the body of the mimic. Its sword-arm limp and small squirts of foul liquid coming from its joints.

It turned its head to look at her.

She stared back at it with vitriol in her eyes.

She got to her feet and approached it, her limbs trembling from the pain in her shoulder. The Bound One didn’t move, it just stood there, wrapped in chains and unable to use either of its arms. Teyva raised a boot and kicked it in the chest, knocking it to the ground. She hopped atop it and raised her mechanical fist up before bringing it down, again, again, again, and again. She kept punching, even as the thing fell still, even as all she could hear was her own scream in her ears drowning out the distant tone of a prompt. She kept punching it, crushing its head in with blow after blow. Nothing satisfied her, nothing quelled her rage, she couldn’t stop.

Only a gentle hand on her shoulder drew her mind out of her fury. She jerked, twisting to see Azrael sitting on the mimic that had served as her lift to the top of the room. It had changed the position of its legs and served as a makeshift gurney for Azrael. Azrael gave her a sympathetic look; “It’s done, Teyva. The fight’s over.”

Teyva let out a pained sob, shuddered, and pulled herself off of the Bound One’s corpse. She glanced at her status and let out a derisive laugh.

She hung her head; “We didn’t win that fight, we survived it,” She said pulling herself to her feet and kicking the remains of the [Bound One] “Son of a bitch, I hope it hurt,” she snarled, holding her beaten arm close to her side. A prompt appeared.

She nodded her weary assent and both the root and the remains of the manikin began to dissolve into piles of white sand. As they did, the room underwent a change of its own. The dirt beneath their feet began to shudder as blades of grass crawled forth from the soil to fill the ground. The sound of thick liquid flowing around the chamber grew harsher and harsher until the faint roar of water filled their surroundings. Teyva turned, looking up to see water coming from new openings in the walls. Above them, the purple veins that had infected the tree faded away leaving nothing but healthy wood behind.

“Woah,” Teyva breathed; “I-” She was cut off when Azrael let out a shout of frustration, the oil coating her had suddenly turned to water and she looked far more sodden than she had before. Teyva let out a laugh and Azrael scowled at her. “It looks like we did it, I guess?” She murmured, turning to her prompts.

Odd, no update for her inherited abilities? She resisted the urge to shrug and moved her attention to the items they’d obtained. Since Azrael had allowed her to take the gear from the humans in order to get at least a half-decent kit of gear she wanted to find something to give to Azrael. She opened her [Old Satchel] next.

She was about to react to their acquisitions when the sound of approaching creatures drew her attention to the entrance to the large room. Her jaw fell open when she took in the sight of the Greatwolf himself and his pack pouring in through the small entrance, their mighty frames barely fitting through the passage that lead into the larger chamber. Teyva raised a hand to her face and sighed; “You’ve got to be kidding me.”