WnW 3.17

My whole body reacted, straining to reach Nell’s side but the armored creature in the doorway held me fast in a grip that felt like an iron vise.

“Nell!” I shouted.

She stumbled back, face stricken with fear as the monster opened its large pincer with an audible snap. She raised her hands instinctively to protect her face and the crab-like claw closed around her forearm. There was an audible crack and Nell paled, her scream cut short.

Nell’s emotion shuddered through my body and antlers burst from my skin, striking the monster who held me. The points skittered along the armour’s rounded surface, catching on the places where the pieces of armor plating connected and snapping off harmlessly.

The head full of eyes that didn’t have a clear ‘face’ loomed over me and I heard a quiet chittering. To my addled mind it sounded like laughter. I speared antler points towards its eyes and the thing reacted with inhuman speed. My shoulder was wrenched as I was thrown through the shattered window, sailing through the stale air before crashing into a table, knocking it over with a bang that echoed throughout the large room.

I was on my feet in an instant, pain forgotten as I saw Nell being lifted off the ground by the crab clawed monster. Why didn’t Nell sense them? The one with the huge claw had a stockier build, with feet that splayed claws in four directions to stay stable while the other one had more human-looking proportions, if you ignored the fact that it had eight limbs.

The chittering grew louder. Nell kicked and struggled to no avail, looking especially small in the creature’s grip. The taller insectoid exited the windowed room, facing me down. The way it held itself rigidly straight with its armored carapace made it look like a black knight in the dark. They aren’t attacking her. I felt a chill as I realized, they’re here to bring her back. 

There was a whoop of excitement and Alek ran at the taller knight, slamming into it with his shoulder. The knight was driven back on the dusty floor but remained upright.

Nell’s panic was bouncing off the walls of my skull, making coherent thoughts difficult to drag together. The other knight exited through the broken window, carrying Nell in front of it. I charged at it. As it reached out with its other arms, I leapt, landing on its shoulders. My hands settled on the eyes and found that even these were made of some hard substance. As the arms jerked upwards to catch me, I slid off the back. It turned quickly, arms extended to strike at me. This time I ducked low and then caught hold of the enlarged pincer that gripped Nell. 

Pull. I let out the fire, trying to absorb the armor to expose some weakness beneath. The other claws descended on me, clamping down painfully on my arms and head. I’m absorbing too slowly.

“Nell… Shape!” I forced out the words as a claw bit into my cheek.

“I can’t!” she said shrilly.

“Me!” I groaned, feeling my tendons stretch as the monster tried to pry me away in different directions.

Nell’s power rippled through my hands and enough of the armor had melted into me that I could slip my fingers under the armor plate. I projected small antlers and Nell guided them like surgical tools, cutting through the meaty interior. The claw snapped open and Nell fell to the floor, her arm covered in terrible purple bruising. 

But she wasn’t done. Something rough and dense pushed out of my skin at the points where I was being grabbed. Once I was free, I felt a roiling sensation in my midsection. Looking down, my skin was twisting like a whirlpool. 

The Arachknight reached for Nell again and her emotions flared. A tree burst from my body, driving into the monster, pushing it back. Bark scraped past my skin as branches unfurled with white jagged leaves. My vision flickered and I could feel my muscles weakening as the tree continued to push the Arachknight into the corner where it slammed into the pile of machinery. 

The weight was too much and I fell to my knees. The monster thrashed against the tree, splitting bark with its flailing limbs. This proved to be too much of a disturbance for the pile and large metal boxes with dials and buttons near the top began to topple, falling down the pile to land around the bug. Dust plumed, obscuring the creature.

I felt hunger the likes I had never felt before. The desire to feed was so strong, I swear I could feel Nell’s heat emanating off of her, energy waiting to be devoured.

“Nell!” I said weakly. “Calm down!”

Nell stopped Shaping, blinking rapidly as if just waking from a dream. She cradled her arm gingerly.

I started to absorb the tree back into my body, reclaiming the energy that had been drained from me.

“You can’t Shape them. Explain,” I panted.

“I told you before, I don’t have experience with anything but humans and plants. It’s difficult to grasp, which means it’s hard to even start understanding what they are.”

“They aren’t Wolves?”

Nell still had a wild look in her eye. “No… Maybe. They could be, it’s hard to Shape another Witch’s Wolves. But they’re so far from human anatomy. That’s why I didn’t notice them.”

There was motion from within the dust. The last bits of the tree slid back into my skin and I stepped forward, renewed, the hunger ebbing.

A spike of fear drove through my brain.

“Don’t leave,” Nell pleaded. I could feel the unintentional use of her power, bleeding through her emotions, slowing me down, locking my joints.

“Nell, you got hurt. That freaked you out. But we need to deal with this now, while it hasn’t recovered. Work with me.”

She relented and I could feel her emotions come more into alignment with my own. I was scared, of course, these things were terrifying. But I could push my fear down if I could focus on the objective. Immobilize or kill, so that we can escape.

I ran at the Arachknight, seeing that it was acting more defensively. Its limbs were curling inward, protecting the crab claw that had been damaged. It saw me coming and lunged forward, skittering at me with more limbs than just its ‘legs’. Nell felt my intent and my Shaping was fluid and focused, Locust Legs. The bones snapped into place, building tension in a heartbeat as I slid forward on the dusty floor. Release. Just as the Arachknight reached for me, I sprang up and over it, sailing far and high onto the pile of large machinery.

The bug froze in place, two arms waving in the air. Deciding. I knew I only had a few seconds. Antlers cracked and bent into place around my legs as I wedged myself behind a large box of a machine covered in red and yellow labels. I knew it would choose to go for Nell. Her capture seemed to be its objective. So it didn’t turn towards me as I released the pressure, shunting the box into the air for just a moment, before it toppled down on top of the creature. The room shook with the impact.

I jumped down and saw that it was still alive. It chittered loudly, arms moving in a frenzy. But as I suspected, it couldn’t bend its arms far enough back to shift the heavy machinery that held it pressed to the ground. The stiffness of the armor prevented that level of flexibility.

There was no time to admire my work or finish the job. Alek was fighting the other one, a manic grin on his face as he struggled to outpower the Arachknight. Every time he got into an advantageous position, the other arms would strike at him with alarming force. He had bruises covering his shoulders and face.

But that didn’t matter. I took Nell’s healthy arm. “Let’s get out of here!”

I kept an eye on Alek’s duel as we ran towards the exit. We dashed up the stairs and out the door into the Old Town street before Nell pulled free, sucking in deep breaths of fresh air. 

The mottled purple on her arm was spreading and the bone looked broken beneath the skin. She would need to get it set at a hospital.

“Sorry,” Nell said quietly. “I got freaked out.”

“It’s fine,” I said.

“It’s really not. But it felt like a dream I have sometimes where I don’t have my power.”

“That sounds like it could be pleasant.”

“It’s a nightmare.” Nell said, looking up at the stars. “Okay, I got my breathing back under control. Let’s keep-”

I heard someone coming up the stairs. The footfalls were heavy and something was being dragged along the floor.

My armor slid back into place as I turned to the entrance.

Alek emerged from the shadows, blood running down his face. He had the Arachknight by the head, dragging it with effort as it tried to pull him down. The pincers bit deep into his skin but he just set his jaw and pulled it the rest of the way out of the building.

“Finally,” he grunted. “Some room to breathe.” He stepped over the head with one leg, straddling it. Then he locked it into place between his thighs as he readjusted his grip. He began to pull. The Arachknight struggled harder. One of the claws tore a small chunk of skin off his arm but he just grimaced and there was a sickening sucking noise as the head and neck began to free from the thorax. Blue bodily fluid spurted onto Alek’s face as his muscles bulged. He roared and gave one final wrench to the head, pulling it completely free. He tossed it to the ground and got up.

I eyed the body, still twitching, its limbs curling up tight to its chest before going still.

Alek smiled toothily and looked like he was about to say something when his expression froze, staring out at something behind me.

I turned around and my heart sank.

Two more shining black knights stood on top of a nearby rooftop. One was quadrupedal, with only four ‘arms’ while the other was thinner than the others, with sharp edges to the armor.

“Shit…” I whispered, feeling a wave of despair.

“Blyat, that does it,” Alek said, spitting a glob of phlegm onto the ground. “Every man for himself.”

I almost took my eyes off the ominous creatures, but there was a chance that would be the trigger that made them move.

“What?!” I hissed. “ You’re abandoning us? I couldn’t even handle one of those things.”

“We’ll see who they go for, eh?”

“They’re after Nell!” I said angrily, glancing at him. “Organ is trying to take her back. You have to help!”

Alek’s expression looked thoughtful for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “Nope, sorry, I’m not putting my life on the line for you two. Isn’t that what you wanted? For me to fuck off?”

I gritted my teeth. What were the odds we could make it out of Old Town? Nell can’t run more than a few blocks before she gets too tired.

“But if you do want some help, I know someone who could…” Alek said slyly.

I had a terrible feeling about this.

“If you can make it to Red Regent Casino, it’s real close to the barricades south of here. Ask Sullivan for protection.”

“Who is that?” Nell asked quietly.

“He’s the leader of one of the Rings.”

That got me to tear my eyes off the Arachknights to look at Alek with fury. “You can’t be serious! You’re still trying to get us involved?”

“Tell him you can help him Find the Queen. That should be enough for him to give you protection,” he said, backing away.

“Alek!” I shouted as he turned and ran.

I was already so tired. But anger pulsed through me to Nell and back again. We weren’t going to let him just run away.

“Hop on,” I said grimly.

Nell jumped onto my back as my legs began to strengthen.

Like the start to a race, the moment I started to run, the Arachknights began to pursue, scaling down the side of the building with alarming speed. Us chasing Alek, with some deadly competition. It was a ploy borne of desperation. But there was no way I was letting these fucking bugs take Nell. I was set on dragging Alek into the melee and so the chase was on.