Chapter 268-9: Gruesome Slaughter (Patreon)

Even more pressing than his pain, a black wave of exhaustion rose to engulf him, threatening to drag Nick down into the murky depths of unconsciousness. It was an unfortunate consequence of burning through the last remnants of his stamina to fuel his incredible leap. If he didn’t do something fast, he was going to pass out, helpless if any of the swarming horrors found him.

An instant before the rising fugue could knock him out, he reached down to his belt and pulled out his flask of restoration. After popping the cap off with his good thumb, he quaffed the elixir in a single shot, which had finished refilling a few hours prior.

The second that the elixir completed the short voyage to his stomach, a roiling ball of energy coalesced inside him. It condensed and then expanded, releasing a concentrated tide of stamina that met the onyx flood of exhaustion head on. The opposing forces brought each other to a standstill, allowing him to straddle the cusp of consciousness as the potion took full effect over the next minute.

For a long moment, Nick was deathly afraid that he was going under, even with the elixir’s assistance, rendered powerless against the monsters milling just beyond the glass. But a few heartbeats later, the wave of energy and the tide of exhaustion canceled each other out, leaving him bone-weary but relatively functional, all things considered.

Meanwhile, the flask’s healing properties had sealed the cut on his thumb and taken the edge off his tapestry of bruises, reducing the damage he had inflicted to the muscles of his legs wile unleashing his explosive burst of speed. Nick lay sprawled out with his back against the cold stone floor. He fought to keep his breathing slow and steady. To be as quiet as he could, every scrap of concentration focused on the chittering and scraping outside.

Nick was afraid to so much as twitch, lest he disturb the nearby debris, alerting the swarm to his presence. By now, the monstrosities had finished rising from the earth around the ruins and begun to prowl, hunting for the taste of fresh meat.

There must be even more of them than I thought, he shuddered in horror. Because the bone-chilling cacophony had risen, swelling to become a thunderous, nightmarish dirge. An otherworldly racket, evoking images of teeth tearing into flesh and gnawing upon bone.

While he lay there recovering, his eyes began to adjust to the dim lighting inside. Over the last few minutes, more of the blood moon’s light had started shining through the glass, bathing the interior of the building in its abyssal sanguine radiance.

When Nick was able to see clearly enough to make out his path, he began crawling toward the window on his belly. He needed to see what was going on out there, or fear would drive him mad well before the sun rose.

Slowly. Slowly. Taking excruciating care not to make the slightest sound, Nick approached the window. He braced his hands against the stone to peek one eye past the boundary of the glass.

Awaiting his gaze was a hellish scene. A twisted panorama straight out of a fever dream. A sight that would haunt his nightmares for long days to come, if he survived to see the sunrise.

Peering out from the hilltop, he had a clear view of the bog below. Of a world bathed in an eerie crimson light, like Blackmist Bog had been submerged beneath an ocean of blood.

All across the marsh, the chittering swarm had begun to hunt. Nick could see dozens of glossy white bodies in the distance, including a pair that were bigger than bull elephants. They were lightning quick, streaking across the marsh grass as they sought out living meat, occasionally stopping to tear apart one unfortunate creature or another who hadn’t hidden well enough.

It was a terrifying show of force, power on a scale that he had never witnessed before. Size up told him that facing even the smallest of them would result in a desperate battle. That fighting any of the larger specimens was a recipe for disaster.

Nick didn’t know how the foul creatures sensed their prey. He was hidden behind cold stone and glass, but if they could locate their quarry by using some manner of magic, he was likely a dead man walking… or standing perfectly still in this case.

To guard against the possibility that the swarm hunted by scent, he reached into his belt pouch and removed the charcoal filling one pocket, rubbing the gritty powder across his body before working it into his hair.

All the while, Nick moved with glacial slowness, careful not to make even the slightest sound or move in a way that would be visible through the glass.

Just as he was deciding that he had done everything he could to reduce his odds of being detected, a primal scream erupted from nearby. The earth started shaking as something massive ran alongside the wall of the building.

For a long, terrifying moment, Nick was sure that he’d been spotted. That a monstrous creature would come bursting through the glass and initiate a desperate battle for his life. Thus, what he saw next filled him with a strange blend of horror and relief.

Unleashing a piercing wail, a gigantic beast rounded the corner of the structure and darted into view. It had a wedge-shaped face and was bigger than a grizzly bear. Its earthy brown torso was coated in thick spines longer than Nick’s arms, tapering to form razor sharp points. Most unusual of all, every inch of the beast’s body was covered with intricate swirling grains, like it had been carved from living wood.

The combined effect made the beast look like an oversized wooden hedgehog, with powerful jaws and jutting claws on each foot. Size up informed Nick that fighting this beast one-on-one would be a risky venture at best. A battle that he would choose to avoid in almost any circumstances. But what followed behind the beast half a heartbeat later was so much worse.

There were three of the god-awful things, two the size of wolves and a third as big as a donkey. The smaller swarmlings looked like maggots or grubs, covered in chitinous spikes with round, gaping maws protruding from the fat end.

They wriggled and slithered across the ground with a sickening grace, surprisingly dexterous given their forms. With the mobility they displayed, Nick was certain that they could close the distance by using some manner of leap as well.

The big one ran on six legs, the front two reaching up before narrowing to form a pair of wicked blades, each the length of Nick’s sword. This monster was a bit slower than the hellish grubs, but size up was screaming that it was considerably more dangerous than the other two combined. That if Nick attracted its attention, he was doomed. That moving to lower his head would be even more dangerous than remaining exposed.

Each of the swarmlings was covered with a sickly white exoskeleton, pulled tight around their heads like cloth over a skull, revealing faces trapped in eternal anguish. Nick had the sense that their true form was contained within, the white shells being some manner of armor or container for their bodies. Whatever was inside the macabre exterior was even more foul. Something that felt wrong in a way that he had never known before.

They weren’t the biggest creatures that Nick had encountered, but his instincts were convinced that they were among the deadliest. More dangerous than beasts many times their bulk. A truth that was revealed in the language of carnage and blood only five seconds later.

The hedgehog was running straight down the hillside, fifty feet away from where Nick huddled in terror. It pressed its body into a greater burst of speed, sending clods of earth flying beneath its claws and pulling further ahead of the monstrosities that followed. For a moment, it looked like the beast might escape after all, but that was when its luck ran out.

The moment they had a straight shot, both grubs skidded to a halt, scrunching their bodies tightly together like springs being pressed down. In the next blink of Nick’s eyes, both ghastly hellgrubs shot forth like bullets, screaming through the air toward the beast fleeing below. Their unearthly chitters reached a fevered pitch as they flew. It was a deeply disturbing sound, evoking images of a hunger that would soon be sated in flesh.

The swarmlings hit the hedgehog half a heartbeat apart. The first landed squarely upon the end of a wooden spine, impaling itself and holding it back. The creature didn’t even flinch at its injury. It merely squirmed, driving the spike deeper into its body, sliding down the length as it reached for the warm meat below.

The hedgehog revealed remarkable reflexes, sensing the danger, and detaching the spine within the blink of an eye. The motion dropped the grub to the ground, where it fought to free itself and resume the hunt. Unfortunately for the clever beast, that was the moment its luck ran out.

The other grub slammed straight into one of its hindlegs, its chitinous spikes penetrating wooden flesh to hold its body in place. Its jaws closed around the beast’s knee, shearing straight through the fibrous tissue like a hot blade through cream. Its first bite tore the beast’s limb free from its body, releasing a fountain of bright green blood.

The hedgehog cried out in agony and came crashing to the ground, turning upon its assailant to fight back with tooth and claw.