Cyra cursed. Angie shook. Suna's mind blanked. It was too big. Too huge. A grotesque accumulation of lumps of some sort of fleshy, fatty material. No. It was flesh. Human flesh. This realization shook the three to their deepest cores.
It seemed to slide along the ground, like a slug, its folds of flesh jiggling, as if in some sort of state between a solid and a liquid. All three had to fight against the urge to throw up, then and there.
They adjusted their path, but unfortunately, it seemed to have noticed them.
AaaAaaAAAAGHHHHHHHH
A gargled cry of sorts hit the girls. It was inaudible. It rung out in their minds. They were dazed, afflicted, by the sound which seemed to pierce their minds. They could feel it. Its pain. Its suffering. It did not want to live. Yet its existence was forcefully continued, and it was forced into action. But the two did not let the strange sensation slow their steps for long.
It raised what the three guessed to be some sort of limb. It covered the dark sky, the immense shadow it casted on the fields so dark and deep, as if all light was blotted out over them. All three had a bad feeling.
"Akh'Shava'alya!"
A string of green, roaring arrows pelted the skin of the abomination, the projectiles seeming like fleas to its massive size.
AAAHGHHGHHHHHH!!
It let out another soul-shaking scream. And it brought its limb down, letting gravity take it.
The three sprinted for their lives. Behind them, a deafening sound of impact, and a rush of air that assaulted their backs, toppling all of them over. But they wasted no time getting back up. They needed to distance themselves from it, so they ran perpendicularly to their previous direction, around the terrifyingly wide base of the abomination. However, this simply brought them closer to the groups of Geth they were trying to evade, so they had to divert time and energy into evading them and fighting them off.
aaaaaaAAaAaahhhhhh
Movement. All of its movements were so large and terrifying that the group could not miss any of them. The deformed giant started to roll. But it had no top or bottom, so this just seemed like some sort of fleshy movement. It was trying to get in their way. All three let out strings of curses within their minds.
It was just too big. It looked like it was moving slower than a slug, but its size meant that these minor movements covered hundreds of feet all too quickly. They could not outspeed it.
Angie stopped.
"Aerefedor. Phontus!"
She let out a faintly yellow projectile towards the towering figure. Behind it trailed a chain, which seemed to emerge from the ground by Angie's feet.
"Aerefedor. Phontus!"
Another one. And then another. Cyra and Suna fought off waves of Geth, that got closer with every second. They suffered scratches through their hasty defense, but they avoided debilitating wounds, applying every skill they knew to their utmost, extracting every smallest hint of value they could out of every movement, every expenditure of energy. The bodies started to accumulate, their position slowly receded. They were running out of space, running out of time, the Geth were increasingly strengthening their assault with pure, overwhelming numbers.
"Urghhh…
Aerefedor… Phontus!!
Now!!"
They didn't hesitate, ignoring their close attackers and fully committing themselves to running around the now hampered and chained down mass. It was truly impressive. How Angie was capable of conjuring chains that spanned the lengths of short skyscrapers.
The blob did not enjoy being restrained.
AAGAGGHGHHAHAAAAAA
It moved and struggled, it tried to get in their way again, but it couldn't move.
Blurgghghhhhhhhhh
A sound of gurgling. The group was immediately on high alert. And it came, spewing from some orifice of the cursed being. Large globules of fatty flesh and red liquid were spat in their direction. They did their best, to avoid the large impacts of solid and liquid and whatever-in-between. But, like the rain, the smaller droplets were simply unavoidable.
"Aagh!" Angie let out cries of pain as she felt her skin sizzle, fierce burning sensations blanketing the parts of her body that weren't obscured by her robe, which, thankfully, had a hood.
Cyra was less lucky. She was relatively lightly-dressed. But she ignored the stinging pain and continued running.
BLUrrrrpppghhahahahahha
More was coming. Suna frowned.
HahahaaaaarrrrrrrraaaaaAAAAAAAH
She threw one of her throwing knives at the Horror. It seemed to have gotten its attention.
"Quick! Go!" Suna urged the other two, pain and reluctance creeping onto their faces. They, however, did not hesitate to capitalize on the opportunity given to them. Their steps hastened as Suna departed, dashing the other way around the Horror. She had to contend with the Geth that were on their trail, but through a sequence of cat-like and dance-like maneuvers, bearing a few cuts here and there, she was able to skirt the edge of the group of pursuers, which was closer to the abomination than she would have liked.
She had no time or wherewithal to try and ascertain the situation of her companions. She could only focus on her own frantic survival. More red rain came. She cut the arm off of a Geth, one holding a shield, and held it up above her. The sound of corroding, sizzling metal was quite disturbing, but she could do nothing to increase her chances of survival, only being able to place her faith in the flimsy, small piece of metal.
The air moved. The Horror freed another part of itself, and, almost in a fit of rage, it threw it towards Suna. Faster! Faster!! She had no time to even think curses, she simply pushed her legs as fast as they could go, and even faster than that.
BOOOM!!! The terrifying impact threatened to topple her once again, but she was prepared for the blast of air this time, even using it as a little bit of propulsion. But then, a massive, dragging sound. Shit! The sound got louder, as the sliding limb moved closer to her.
She ran almost perpendicular to the path of the limb, away from oncoming Death. She had to run through and on Geth, Geth that were so mindless that they didn't even consider the preservation of their own lives in the face of certain Death. She cursed the Geth in her mind.
She didn't think she would make it. But, WHOOOOSH!!! It passed by. But she felt pain. She looked down. Her right foot was bent completely horizontal to her leg. She was thankful. Thankful that it didn't come off, thankful that she escaped from the terrifying swipe. She brought her hands to her foot, and SNAP! She bent it into position. She knew that continuing to run on it would hurt its chance of healing properly, but she didn't have the opportunity to even care about that. She was just thankful that she wouldn't have to run on the exposed bone of her shin, or be forced to amputate a dangling foot. So, without delay, she continued running. She completely ignored the searing, mind-numbing screams of her leg and foot, focusing on continuing her evasion of the Geth.
More red spit came, but the shield seemed to hold up fine, for now. Her movement was hampered, but she forced her legs to move, and eventually, she somehow reached the end of the seemingly endless wall of goopy flesh. She had made it past the horrific being. She made it.
She ran, and ran, most of the Geth falling victim to the corrosive projectiles raining from the sky occasionally. Their focus seemed to have been entirely fixated on Suna, so they failed to dodge the larger globs of rain and flesh, melting and being smothered and crushed accordingly. There wasn't time to breathe a sigh of relief. She circled around the back of the Horror, at an increasing distance from it, and she looked, desperately, trying to locate the others.
As she got further away, she could see further around the hill. It was them. Her heart sunk. Cyra wasn't even recognizable anymore, merely a figure of red, covered in burns, worrying amounts of her completely burned off. She thought she had distracted the thing, but… it was clear, watching it. It wasn't beholden to a single consciousness. Suna's fists clenched. She failed. But from what she could see of Angie, she seemed to be doing okay, relatively covered by the corroded robe, which seemed to hold up somewhat against the vicious red rain. But then…
BREAK!! At first, one. And then, two. And then the rest. The chains, which seemed like strings compared to the massive thing, broke apart, flinging away and then fading into nothingness. The two hastened their already desperate dash. They were so close, nearly cresting the full depth of the Horror. But they could do nothing, nothing to stop it as it raised a clumpy limb, high into the sky.
AaaAAAaAAAAggghhHH
Like a falling building, the limb fell. Directly over them. Suna prepared herself for the worst to occur.
"A'Rampos Mekh!!"
A flash of green. The whipping of the wind. Angie flew through the air, hit hard by the sudden impact.
Suna saw Cyra. She had no face, but she felt she could make it out, anyway. A smile. And a wink.
SPLAT!!
"..."
Angie rolled along the ground, tumbling, towards Suna. Suna ran towards her. Angie eventually stopped, and Suna quickly took her hand. They were a good distance away from the thing, but a good distance meant little to such a massive entity. She pulled on Angie, whose legs seemed to function on their own. The two ran.
"..."
Angie's face. It was… expressionless.
And then, midway into their run. She seemed to come back to life.
"S-Suna…? Suna? SUNA! WHERE'S MOM!"
Angie dug her heels into the soft dirt, jerking her head back, looking for her mom. But all she saw was a grotesque abomination, which, thankfully, seemed to not be too occupied with them, distracted by other small critters on the ground.
"SUNA! LET GO! I HAVE TO SAVE HER! I'M GONNA SAVE YOU! MOM! MOMMM!!"
Suna struggled to pull against Angie, who seemed to wish to return back to the horrid field. "Ah!" Suna couldn't help but wince, as her ankle seemed to crunch in on itself. Angie started running.
"MOM!! MOMM!!!!"
Then, Angie saw black.
Suna felt she had no choice. She had dashed up behind her friend and hit her on the back of the head, sparing little strength.
She picked up the girl, who she was thankful for not being very heavy, and tried her best to painfully walk away from the mad chaos. She was grateful to not need to attend to any Geth-related interruptions, but she did not let her guard down. She knew at any moment, they could come from behind any of the sparse trees that blanketed the wide fields.
So she walked. And walked. It was painful. It was difficult. But she walked. Paying no heed to her broken ankle, nor her burning skin, or her wavering body.
She walked.
Hooves. They were approaching.
It was a familiar horse, one that carried what looked like an adult and a child, the latter grasped in the former's clutches.
She dropped Angie and got in the way of the horse's path.
The horse knew it had found freedom, so it showed no signs of stopping.
Killing intent. Suna made it very clear. If the horse didn't stop, she would kill it.
The horse shuddered, coming to a halt before the girl.
Suna leapt off the ground, and drop-kicked the Mother on the tall horse, causing both of the riders to tumble down and fall, onto the ground. She wasted no time, not even sparing glances at them. She hoisted, with great difficulty, the unconscious Angie onto the bleeding, yet still vigorous-looking, horse.
An impact. She felt something, on her back, as she finished pushing Angie up the horse.
A small child. Their fist was raised to Suna's back, and the other one was on its way. She had lost sight. Of a potential danger. Suna breathed a sigh of relief that the kid wasn't holding a knife.
She kicked him, square in the jaw, sending the small boy flying. She would remember. The very vivid glare that he sent her, the whole time. She… was reminded of herself. But she had other things to focus on.
She hopped onto the horse, and mentally commanded it to move, urging it with her legs. She had never ridden a horse, but she was thankful that both of their motivations were completely in line. Get out of here. Survive. So the horse cooperated, resuming its steady gallop.
Suna spared a glance behind her. A boy, rushing to his mother, who was sprawled on the ground, bleeding from innumerable cuts. She… It was easier. To simply call it survival and forget the entire occurrence. But it really wasn't that easy. Not for her. She felt pain in her heart, and cursed the shitty world that the both of them found themselves in. That all of them were in. She hated this. She wished that she could simply live in peace, how nice that would be. With her mother. Living a nice, peaceful life…
–
Suna and a now conscious Angie rode on the horse, down the road. Its speed was great, significantly dwarfing the snail's pace that Suna and the rest of the group traveled at on foot, even putting to shame the speed of their past wagon ride.
Angie was silent the whole time. Other than a few healing spells, she said absolutely nothing throughout their entire trip. Suna was too scared to try and put forth even an utterance.
The two let the horse rest when it was tired, Angie tying it to a tree with her Magical chain when they slept, out in the wilderness. Like this, the days passed.
Two weeks later, and after evading many Geth blockades and passing through many empty small towns… They came across a sort of fortification. It was manned. By people.
Suna's first instinct was to get away from the Geth fort, but they called out, their voices ringing through the plain that was stuck between two tall and wide hills.
"Survivors!! Survivors!! Open the gate!!"
Suna remembered. That they were riding on a horse. She, for the first time in a while… breathed a sigh of relief. They were in human territory, now.
Suna and Angie were in a room. A small lodge, in a town that accompanied the modest fort, surrounded by stone walls.
It was still here, but to not nearly the same extent as in New Vall. The Heaviness. She found it startling. This is how a human settlement is supposed to feel…
They both lay down on two separate beds, Angie continuing to uphold their pact of silence. Suna figured. That perhaps it was the stress, perhaps it was the pain of the death of her dear Mother. That hopefully, now that they were somewhere safer, Angie would be more willing to open up to her, that they'd finally be able to reconcile and continue traveling in each other's company.
She Hoped. She certainly Hoped… that tomorrow would be a good day… Thinking such things, Suna let herself be consumed, by Sleep…