Lazybones
Adventurer
CrusadeDave said:
Fair fight? New to the story?
* * * * *
Chapter 133
GRIM FINALITY
While Talen and the clerics had been battling the shadows, the rest of their group had not been idle. Sextus and Octavius had continued firing heavy quarrels into the gatherer’s body as it had climbed ponderously up the slope, while Galen moved into position behind a boulder a short distance down the hill. He carefully put down his shield, recognizing that it would offer next to no protection against a monster as huge as the gatherer, and took up his axe in both hands. He looked at the engraving on the blade, a griffon with outstretched claws, the sigil of his family. Within his gauntlets, his hands were slick with sweat, but he calmed himself both with a prayer to the Father, and with a glance up the hill, where Talen stood silhouetted within a white radiance of holy fire.
The young knight remained hidden in cover as the undead hulk continued its ascent. The slope that had given them such trouble when they’d climbed it seemed to give the monster no difficulty, except to slow it slightly. But then again, the thing was nearly as tall as the hill itself, and it had to weigh thousands upon thousands of pounds.
How did one fight an animated mountain?
Galen could hear something else over the massive thuds of its feet... groans, coming from the undead bodies trapped within the hulking colossus. The boulder he was hiding behind was now shaking with each step, even though it was twice his size. He wondered what would happen if the creature decided to step on it, and resisted the urge to peek around for a look. Maybe it didn’t matter; the thing could probably sense his presence, anyway. Would it even care, that he was waiting here to attack it?
But as another deep thud shook the hill, it appeared that the creature was heading for the summit, where Talen was fighting the shadows. Galen looked up, and saw the monster now, looming high over him. His body trembled; he felt infinitesimally small.
A huge foot came forward, and landed not ten feet from his position. He saw the gatherer start to lean forward, its intent clear. Talen stood before it, lifting his holy sword in challenge; he was not afraid of it.
The sight energized Galen. Taking up his axe, a war cry erupting unbidden from his lips, the knight leapt at the creature, and with all his strength behind the blow, he clove the weapon into its ankle.
The axe bit deep, and to his surprise, the weapon clove into its substance, ripping out a considerable mass of packed earth from the joint. A smell of rot washed over him, and he could see bones jutting out of the gray dirt of its body. Tangled black tendrils were visible within, and Galen thought they were roots, until they moved.
Yelling, he lifted the axe to hack at it again.
The two armsmen fired off a last pair of bolts from their crossbows, then dropped the weapon as the undead monster reached their position. They saw Galen rush out of cover to attack it, and shared a look.
“I never thought I’d end up fighting a mountain,” Octavius said, as he drew his sword.
Sextus nodded. “I didn’t expect I’d die an old man.” His sword flashed slightly as he drew it; Serah had aligned the weapon when they’d taken up position atop the hill, and it still contained the potency of that magic.
“For Camar!” he yelled, as both men leapt out of cover to attack.
The gatherer shifted a massive leg, forcing both men to abort their charge, leaping to the side. Octavius was struck by its foot, and was unlucky as a slab of granite headstone the size of a platter hit him in the collarbone. He was knocked flying, and landed in a heap nearby, unconscious. The monster seemed oblivious to the effect of its attack, bending down to grab Galen as the knight slammed his axe down into the monster’s damaged ankle once more. Galen tried too late to dodge back, and was caught up in the creature’s huge fist. It lifted him high into the air. His axe glittered in his hand; he was still trying to attack with the one hand he had free.
Talen and the others on the hilltop charged down to the aid of their companion, but it wasn’t immediately obvious what they could do to help him. Galen was already twenty feet above them, a prisoner in the monster’s implacable grasp. The young knight screamed as the colossus squeezed him, then it opened its fist, smashing him into its chest. The others watched in horror as the knight was held there, pinned by the grasping arms that protrodued from the creature’s body. Then a dark opening gaped in that ugly mound, and Galen, now unconscious, vanished inside.
“Galen!” Talen yelled, charging down the hill with Beatus Incendia blazing in his hand. Unfortunately for him, exhaustion and weakness from the shadow’s touch conspired against him, and his boots slipped on the treacherous footing. His heavy armor kept him from breaking bones as he hit the ground, but he shot down the hill, sliding twenty feet past the gatherer before he came to a rough stop by slamming into a boulder the side of a horse.
Trying to recapture the breath that had been knocked out of him, Talen staggered to his feet.
The knight’s companions continued to press their attack upon the monster. Sextus sliced through its right shin with his sword, cutting the head off a zombie as he did so. The aligned weapon seemed to have a good effect upon it, and dark matter was hacked from its body from the hit. Black tendrils trailed a sick-smelling ooze from where they had been shorn by the blessed blade.
The armsman lifted his sword to strike again, but before he could follow up with another attack, the monster lifted its foot, and slammed it down onto the fighter. Sextus was crushed under its full weight, and there could be no doubt about his fate, as his armor crunched loudly under the impact, and bright red blood splashed out from under the edges of its massive tread.
Allera was nearby, having dragged the unconscious Octavius a safe distance away, but she knew at once that there was nothing she could do to help the other armsman now. Swallowing back the gorge that rose in her throat, she dug deep into her reservoir of energy, casting one of the few healing spells she had left to stabilize the dying warrior.
Shay was not far from its foot after it had crushed Sextus, but as the monster shifted toward her, she realized that staying put was not at all a good idea. She charged past it, swinging her sword in an attack that was little more than a feint. It swept its hand down at her, but she saw it coming, and leapt into a roll that took her behind a boulder a moment before it smashed hard into the ground with enough force to uproot the slab of stone. The impact knocked her off her feet, but she narrowly was able to somersault back into a crouch, dodging fist-sized shards of stone that flashed through the air around her.
Serah, still on the hilltop, cast a spell from a scroll she’d taken from the body of one of her fellow priests. A piercing blast of sound exploded around the creature’s head, but it seemed to have no effect upon it.
“Spell resistance, most likely,” Varo said. “I doubt that our cure wands would have any more effect, if we could get close enough to use them.”
“What can we do?” Serah asked, her voice bordering on panic.
“Pray to your god,” the cleric said. He reached into his pouch, and drew out a scroll. As Serah looked at him in amazement, he invoked the power of his patron, and disappeared.
Talen yelled out a wild challenge as he rushed back up the hill toward the corpse gatherer. Once again, its reach gave it the advantage, and it swept a hand around to meet him before he could get close enough to strike. Talen lifted his shield as the hand came around, but the corpse gatherer merely grabbed him, closing his huge fingers around him, crushing his arms and legs against his body as it lifted him off the ground, helpless to do anything but struggle uselessly against its incredible strength.
