Perversions of the Flesh

Bren’s scream sent everyone into action.

Kat charged the creature with a feral scream, slamming her shield to taunt it.

Rosalyn got to her feet and stood ready to cast.

Lucia raised Fillianore, cracking off a shot into the thing’s ribs, snapping one off.

Ann and Alruna were racing Kat to get to the creature first.

Bone darts kicked up snow around them as Ann dodged them without slowing down a single step.

Alruna wasn’t as lucky and had to slow down to avoid a couple.

Lucia hit the arm holding Bren.

Groaning in a far too high pitch, the creature’s grip faltered.

Ann used Burst of Speed, digging her paws into the hard dirt and launching herself at the falling Bren. She hit him hard, arms wrapping around him, and folding into a tumble as they landed. The manoeuvre would have been simple, but Bren’s lack of coordination made things a chaotic mess. It didn’t matter; he was safe.

“Thanks,” Bren gasped, getting to his feet.

“Yeah, can’t leave Lucia alone,” Ann chuckled.

A silvery shield appeared to block a dart an inch from her head.

“Head in the game, Annita,” Bren ordered.

“Yes, sir.” Ann was grinning as she ran back at the monstrous Warped. It had to be thirty feet tall, and those tentacles were no joke.

Kat took a hit from one, skidding a few feet back before returning the strike with her new blade. The jagged edge of the many teeth shredded the flesh to ribbons, but it quickly began to heal.

Alruna was dealing with her own set of tentacles. One had lashed out at her, knocked away by the hammer, but a second was right behind the thing. Alruna flexed, stopping the momentum of her massive hammer far too quickly and brought Complacency down on the squirming flesh.

Rosalyn was casting, but not at the creature. A quick glance saw the things in the trees.

They were like sloths, sort of, with long metal claws on their hands. They did not share their ancestors’ lethargy and were actively scurrying around the treetops. Every now and then, one opened its maw and a spine shot out at blinding speed.

Ann couldn’t pay attention to them right now. A tentacle was whipping at her head. A flying cartwheel sent her up and over the attack right onto the creature’s flank to sink her gauntlets into flesh. The rubbery substance parted easily enough, but the muscles underneath were like iron and sent reverberations up Ann’s arms.

The Warped’s overburdened head swung her way.

Ann flinched, expecting an attack, but nothing came.

The creature’s milky eyes locked onto Ann. A bony finger rose at the end of an emaciated arm, directly at her chest. The woman’s mouth opened wide, black teeth glittering in her maw, as she let out a howling wail.

Nothing happened, so Ann just went back to attacking the thing. Her next strike put a smite into the muscles, which seemed to do a little better than the raw strike.

The problem was that it distracted her from the arm that caught her in the side. The impact sent her flying backwards.

As she landed, the creature gathered its many arms, twisting them up close, then spun. Snow and dirt flew as it knocked them all away again.

Ann dug both sets of her claws in as she ran on all fours right back into the fight.

Something hit her shoulder.

Pain, followed by immediate numbness, spread from the point of impact.

Ann’s arm bent back, and she pulled a dart out of her shoulder.

She looked up, seeing one of the sloths cackling at her.

Two more opened their mouths and released deadly barbs.

Ann tried to dodge, but both slammed into her chest. Staggering back, she looked down, confused. She should have been able to dodge those. The one in her shoulder wasn’t that bad yet. Thankfully, the thicker armour on her chest prevented one of the needles from penetrating, bouncing off a metal stud, but the other struck true. More poison entered her system.

Three more shots. They were pretty sure five sloths were dancing up there.

Ann watched each bone-white barb sail through the air. She knew where each was aimed and moved to get out of the way. One was caught by Bren’s shields, but the others hit her in the leg and arm.

The fuck was happening? She couldn’t dodge anymore?

Just then, the tentacle monster lashed out at Ann, and she slid under the attack easily, bending backwards at her knees with only her paws keeping her up.

So it wasn’t that she couldn’t dodge anymore, just that the barbs couldn’t miss? How… oh. The point and the scream. She’d been marked.

“Fuck, Bren! I’m marked or something! The things in the trees can’t miss me! I need cover!”

“Get to me!”

“Also, I’m poisoned!”

“I assumed so. How did it happen?”

“The point and scream,” Ann shouted as she hobbled her way to the healer. Her leg was numb and almost unresponsive. So were her right arm and left shoulder. It was getting harder to breathe, too, with numbness in her chest.

The pressure released as soon as Bren laid a hand on her.

Taking the brief moment, she caught up with the fight.

Alruna was spinning her hammer like a mad top of bludgeoning force. Her sleeves rode up as she moved, giving Ann a clear view of the imitation muscle provided by the worm colony inside her. Black and writhing, they flexed and relaxed just like normal muscles. When Alruna swung, they bulged to massive proportions, giving her a boost strong enough to knock the huge Warped back a foot. Not only that, but a shockwave exploded from the impact, sending snow flying. Skills added to Warped strength were terrifying.

We will match her power. You just need to accept the bargain. Waheela rumbled in Ann’s mind.

Not yet. Still not decided on that whole thing. We fight as we are.

Waheela sighed and retreated from Ann’s attention. She knew the old wolf was still watching, though. She wouldn’t miss a fight.

“Stand with me. If you are indeed marked, it will be easier to protect you here,” Bren directed.

Ann shucked her right gauntlet and drew her revolver. The weight and wooden grip still felt good in her hand after so long. She took to distracting the sloths from the rest, but that seemed entirely unnecessary. Every dart they fired was directly at Ann.

“Kat, take a hit! I am getting low on barriers!” Bren shouted.

“How nice o’ ye,” Kat laughed. A tentacle whipped out at her, but Kat just stood there and took it. Ann saw Reactive Defence get used, and when the princess didn’t get knocked on her ass, Stand Your Ground was also in use.

She looked so damn cool doing that!

The next moment, her shield glowed brilliant blue. The gleaming piece of shell rammed into the monster’s flesh, and Ann swore she heard bone crunching.

Kat wasn’t alone in taking it to the monster.

Lucia had been peppering the woman’s body with shots, keeping her from doing much with her upper body. Restrictions weren’t working, and her enhanced shots were just getting healed back.

Alruna was a beast. She was taking hits, absolutely, but every hit she took was repaid with a teeth-rattling impact from her hammer. Her worms also seemed to harden sometimes, absorbing hits. Lifting a foot, she stomped hard into the ground. The earth literally shook, and the creature, despite its many legs, staggered.

Alruna dropped Complacency, reaching out and wrapping her arms around a tentacle. With a grunt that sounded like wires stretching, she pulled it taut. “Katlyn!”

Kat was there in the next second and sliced through the limb with a powerful swing.

“Good shite. How ye doin’ Ann?” Kat called, not turning away from the creature.

The sloths were starting to lose interest. A dart flew at Lucia, making the markswoman roll out of the way.

“Worn off! Coming in!”

“Make it a big one! Up and over?”

“Up and over!” Ann confirmed.

She ran from Bren’s protection, straight at Kat’s back. Her warrior stood her ground, fending off attacks from all angles. She barely flinched as Ann’s paws used her shoulders as a springboard, getting Ann on top of the writhing mess, next to the upper body.

Immediately, she had to dodge the woman’s spindly arms, trying to grab her. She had a feeling the woman’s gaping chest was where she’d wind up, and that was one part of a woman she didn’t want to get acquainted with.

Using her training, she kept her footing on the moving, unsteady surface. Her hips and torso swayed like liquid, offsetting any movement or attempt to shake her off.

Smites flashed against dappled red and yellow skin, blowing smoking holes in the body. Even with the cauterising effect, she didn’t feel like it was doing much.

On the woman’s next clawed swipe, she caught the inside of the elbow and sliced through tendons that stood out like ridges under the skin. The forearm went limp and floppy. She’d still be able to move her hand, but being unable to control the forearm would slow her down.

Or so Ann thought.

The warped shoved the arm into her gaping stomach. The ribs snapped closed around it. With a pained cry, she ripped it free, leaving her arm a spiked stump. Another weapon, if a shorter one.

“Fuck!” Ann dropped as a burst of magic fired from the stump. A sizzling hiss cut the air above her as necrotic energy framed in white lanced where she’d just been standing.

The thing’s head was looking at her again. Its remaining arm twisted, a bony finger curled like a talon toward her.

Ann ran forward. Blindspot. She had to get to a blind spot! On hands and paws, she scrabbled forward to use the woman’s body to block off the spell.

That awful head, weighed down by whatever was in her skull, swung around and hit her in the side. It felt like a water balloon more than a skull. Squishy, with some kind of liquid inside. Still, it was heavy enough to push Ann back.

Black boots landed next to her, stopping Ann’s tumble. An impossibly strong hand grabbed her armour and lifted her like a child, setting her daintily on her feet. Alruna stood there, looking slightly winded. Black blood seeped from a gash in her cheek, and there were several cuts in her sleeves. The hood was writhing, controlling the worms no longer the woman’s focus.

“Kat alright?”

“Fine. You?”

“Fine. It’s got magic.”

“Noted.”

The two warriors surged forward. Ann tried to skirt around the woman’s back, but the head just swung her direction again.

“Alruna!” Ann shouted, changing her direction toward her ally.

The black blindfold turned her way. Ann would have to hope she knew what was going on.

Ann sprinted past the Daughter of Worms and around the central stalk.

The head swung around to meet her.

Just like she hoped.

Ann sank claws into the writhing flesh underneath her and reversed her direction.

The head couldn’t stop its course.

Complacency struck true.

A wet pop announced the hammer striking flesh. Blood burst away from the impact as Alruna obliterated the thing’s cranium.

Something in that blood moved.

Dozens of limpets clattered to the ground, spread far and wide from Alruna’s mighty swing. Each was about five inches across, with the same red-and-yellow patterns of their mother adorning their shells. Each opened up, revealing razor-sharp teeth and teeming eyes of all kinds inside. They flew. No flapping, just rising up and darting directly at Alruna.

The main creature still wasn’t dead. Ann could only assume the sloths were taken care of, since darts hadn’t been a problem for a minute. Either that, or the creatures didn’t want to hit their ally.

Thank the Gods this thing had human anatomy. Ann finally got behind the body and set to work. Tendons tore free as she hooked claws into the points Remmi had beaten into her body. Disable the shoulderblade by cutting the scapular tendon. Deaden several nerves in the back, preventing bending. Punch into the lower spine, inflicting as much pain as possible. Normally, she’d work on internal organs, but with the thing’s front ripped open as it was, there probably weren’t any.

Even with all this, the head swung her way again. No longer weighed down by the fluid, it only needed to turn its neck. Flesh hung in curtains from the remnants of a skull. Only the jaws remained; everything above them was demolished with the rest.

It lunged at Ann, trying to bite her. A feint. As Ann moved to the side, the remaining good arm twisted unnaturally and grabbed Ann around the waist. Two gunshots and a plethora of thorns assaulted the creature as soon as she was airborne, but this thing was determined to hold its prize.

Ann writhed in the rigid grip. It swung her around and upside down, the sudden movement throwing off her efforts.

Then it was black.

A force wrapped around Ann and squeezed. Burning erupted against her stomach. Something was eating away at her skin, trickling down and spreading further.

Ann’s helmet rang with a desperate scream. Using her inhuman flexibility, she got her claws into the fleshy wall around her and shoved as hard as she could. Darkness turned to blinding purple as A Fistful of Love punched into her confinement.

Light again!

A disgusting schlorp and crunching came from behind her, and something grabbed her ankle.

Ann was flying the next moment, too confused to know what had happened.

Black and white energy shot out, hitting her left leg in a shock of pain.

“Get free!” Rosalyn yelled.

Ozone filled the air as the Druid channelled a spell.

Thunder slammed into Ann’s sensitive ears, followed by an explosion.

Ann pulled herself up onto her elbows.

Where there’d been an upper body to the creature was now a smoking crater.

Lucia was on her ass, meaning she’d added her big shot to Roslyn’s Lightning Crash. The combination was devastating.

Tentacles still twitched and writhed, but with none of the coordination they’d shown before. Automatic reflexes delivered via an expanded and decentralised nervous system only made sense for this thing. Ann quietly thanked Orenous that it was just the impulses, and not full-on extra brains.

Kat trotted up. Her armour looked scuffed, but she’d avoided getting hit in the head this time. “Oi, mutt, ye doin’ alright? Heard ye screamin’ fer a sec.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure what happened either,” Ann said, groaning as she stood.

“You were consumed. You experienced what it likely wanted to do to me,” Bren informed her. “Show me that leg.”

Ann stuck out her badly burned and grossly crumbling leg. The beam had gotten her unprotected calf, and the flesh looked sickly.

“A nasty spell, but I can fix it. Hold still.”

Alruna trudged up. Her arms were still moving with worms, but her posture was relaxed. “That was a fright! Do you always get eaten by the Warped?”

“Nope. She usually does get tossed around, though. Or is flying around because she did it. Remember that time with the Snail when you got all gunked up because you got tossed, Ann?” Rosalyn giggled. “That was really cool, even though it hurt you.”

“Shoulda seen ‘er earlier on. Twinwolves took a few chunks outta ‘er,” Kat laughed.

“I remember a tree beating the hell out of you,” Ann shot back.

“Hey, that thing was full of birds!”

“What tree?” Lucia asked, walking over. Out of all of them, she looked like she’d done the best. Her armour had taken any darts shot her way, and staying back had meant she only needed to dodge blasts from the Warped’s mangled arm.

“Tell ye later. The feck was that, Alruna? This normal out ‘ere?”

“An encounter is fairly common, but not of this scale. If it were like the wyverns from the other day, their dispatch would have been effortless. These?” Alruna clicked a dead limpet’s shell in her hand. “These were far more dangerous. It may be time to reduce our activities on the surface. The Warped hunt us.”

“Hunt you?” Ann asked.

“Yes. There are theories why. We are an affront, incomplete, or just smell delicious. Tarnu is a proponent of the latter. Regardless, they seem attracted to our presence and strike with fury. Well, more fury than a normal person.”

“So, that pheromone thing, or the magic sensing, could be real?” Rosalyn interjected. “Like, if they know you’re not right to them, then they could single you out really easily. That definitely means there’s something inside that’s letting them do this. Ugh! Did you have to blow up her head that much?”

“You did more damage with your spell,” Alruna replied, her head cocked in confusion.

“I guess I did. Ugh, what a mess. I’ll see if I can find anything.” With an annoyed huff, Rosalyn started climbing the rubbery flesh and cutting away at the body.

“What is she doing?” Alruna asked.

“That is her field of research. She will spend some time dissecting that corpse until she is content. I hope this time does not take overlong.”

“Did you guys know this thing had a beak?” came an excited cry.

“Yeah, we’re gonna be here for a while,” Ann laughed. She needed a break anyway.