Bound Evil

Emily crashed to the ground, the impact knocking the wind from her lungs and leaving her dazed. The only saving grace was that the waves of fresh pain sharpened her focus just before she went under. That and the blessedly soft sand.

She would never curse the dunes again as they absorbed the impact of her, no doubt, graceful landing.

Unfortunately, that was where the good news ended. She'd managed a small act of rebellion by sacrificing an arm, but the massive creature was still on top of her. Judging by the speed of its initial attack, this was not the time to be ambling about. Without giving herself any room to breathe, she pulled herself back through the sand using her blood. Leaving a trail through the glittering black sands as she tried to make some distance.

The venomtail –if she could still call this creature that– was not pleased that its prey was trying to escape. There was also a hint of confusion in its wails. Almost as if to ask how she had done that.

Contrary to Emily's expectations, the beast did not chase her right away in favour of studying her.

There was a dark intelligence in those soulless eyes, even if it was clouded by pain and madness. From its condition, living looked like agony, yet it persisted.

Then, to Emily's horror and disgust, the creature brought its pincer up to what she assumed was its mouth and began chewing.

Emily could just make out her mangled arm disappearing down the creature's maw with an unnerving crunching sound.

She wanted to be sick, but the rage building in her stomach cooled her mind. The battlefield came into sharp focus. With the storm being as dangerous as it was, she wasn't seeing many options.

By this time, the venomtail had finished its snack and had decided to move on to the main course. Emily had already put a house-sized gap between them, but even now, she knew it was not enough.

Its charge was accompanied by a screech. Because of this, Emily managed to yank herself onto her feet in time to see it arriving. She refused to underestimate its speed or power again.

Her mantle fell around her shoulders, and cords of blood shot out in all directions. Latching onto the surrounding buildings.

A single powerful yank caused the stone to shatter, causing the time-worn structures to crumble in on themselves. With their support gone, the buildings on either end of the street fell toward the venomtail.

The debris crashed over the creature, burying it in rubble and obsidian. Emily didn't think for a second that the titan would be hurt. But at least it would block its sight long enough for her to recover, maybe even slow it down.

The explosion behind Emily quickly robbed her of these notions. The venomtail charged through the stone and mortar like a tank. Chips of stone and dust went dying in all directions, luckily, her mantel blocked any stray projectiles.

Emily dashed down one of the few remaining side alleys and noticed the opening was thankfully free.

Before she was even halfway through the narrow passage, a shadow passed overhead. Blocking out the light from above. Emily skidded to a halt, digging her heels in. Sand scattering, but she stopped just before running out into the open again.

The venomtail crash-landed on the other side, sending a wave of black sand rushing through the street. That speed with such a large body was downright unfair, she thought.

With her path forward blocked, she turned around and went back the way she had come. Clutching her stump with her free hand, she felt Ruby Guardian already working to heal the wound, but she was leaving a trail of blood in the sand.

Behind her, something akin to laughter shook the air. It was high-pitched and grating on Emily's nerves, but she kept moving.

The thing was hunting her, she thought as she burst from the alleyway and dashed for the bottom of the steps leading up to the temple.

The sound of another building collapsing rang out behind her, followed by an equally concussive scream.

Hiding wouldn't do her much good, as anywhere she found would be flattened under the beast's massive body. That left retreating into the storm, but without her prize, that was unacceptable, so the next best thing was to advance.

The moment her foot touched down on the stone step, she felt the creature arrive behind her.

Unwilling to have a repeat of earlier, she created a large ball of blood at her back, ready for her to use.

When she caught sight of it moving in her peripheral vision, Emily pushed her concentration to its limits. She shaped a dozen blood spears and gave them rotational force before launching them at the creature.

But as the attacks moved downwards, they began to change.

When Emily's blood was close, she could protect it by extending her matrix slightly. However, the moment it got too far away, the reaction to the surrounding heat was immediate.

Her blood flashed-boiled, immediately beginning to denature and carbonize as steam burst free. So rapid was the evaporation that by the time the attacks had arrived at the creature, they were a third of their usual size and strength. The attacks pelted harmlessly against its shell, unable to even leave a blemish.

'Fuck' she muttered under her breath. She wasn't going to get far if her strongest weapon was limited by range.

She could try a stronger attack, but she had a feeling that even if she were at point-blank range, it would not be able to get through this thing's armor.

The creature had seen her by now and was on its way, so Emily unfolded the remaining blood sphere into a wide sheet to obscure its vision of her again.

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The blood was vaporized again, leaving only a paper-thin layer of blood suspended in the air before her. In just under two seconds, she lost any kind of feedback from her blood as the lifefore sustaining it fizzled away.

With the sheet in place, Emily continued running up the side of the temple. In its heyday, this place must have contained hundreds of steps to reach the pinnacle. But now that half of it was buried under the dunes, it made the journey far shorter.

Suddenly, a hair-raising sensation picked up all the hairs on Emily's arms, and without hesitating, she threw herself to the ground.

In that same second, a whip-like snap of thunder temporarily drowned out the sounds of the howling winds.

The world lit up with brilliance, and the smell of ozone lingered in Emily's nostrils.

Glancing back, she saw that her screen of blood had been pierced by a large offending stinger.

The tail of the creature had stabbed blindly through her barrier and into the stone.

She was lucky, too, because from the way lightning arced from the appendage, it was electrified.

Balking at the destroyed spot she had been seconds ago, she scrambled up and continued running, ignoring the throbbing pain in her knees.

Sadly, with the significant lack of hiding spots, the cat-and-mouse game had to end.

The venomtail rushed up the side of the temple, but its speed was greatly reduced on the staircase.

Still, it was enough that it quickly overtook Emily and planted itself in front of her, hissing in annoyance as it did so.

This was it, fight or die.

Its pincers swiped out at Emily, but she couldn't take another hit like the one before.

When the hit arrived, she directed the blood into her surroundings a created several bands. Emily jumped back as the hit arrived and used the band directly around her to cushion the blow.

Instead of trying to block the hit, she absorbed its momentum and latched onto the side of the creature's pincer, just out of reach of the dangerous claw.

Sending her blood between the interlocking chitin to hold her in place.

The blood ignited because of the creature's internal heat, but it also built a bridge between her and it.

Emily then did the one thing she was good at. She pulled at it in its lifeforce.

The venomtail freaked the moment she began, as it let out a stricken screech.

What Emily didn't expect was how little life this thing had.

Comparably, it was still worth dozens of human lives, but for a creature of this size and mass, it should have been worth hundreds.

Emily had thought it had adapted to living in this place, but it was clear that even with a body of this size, it was still suffering and sickly.

This made her smile as she realized there was a ray of light in this shit show.

The creature's other claw disabused her of this notion as the bus-sized appendage came down on Emily, trying to squash her into a pancake.

This thing was done playing around, and with its strength, there was no way she could shield herself, so Emily unlatched and dove up into the air.

Tactically, it was a bad move, but if she wanted a chance to end this, she had to take the risk.

She needed to find a place that couldn't be reached easily. Underneath it was just asking to be crushed into the rocks, and on top there was the tail to worry about, but apart from those two places, there weren't many options.

Emily's eyes narrowed when its stinger pulled back to strike.

Realizing she only had seconds, she made her decision. She shot bands down and latched onto the thing's head. And a swift yank pulled her down toward the top of its body before it had a chance to attack.

Harnessing herself to its back, she turned to see the stinger coming. What she didn't expect was for it to miss as the thing backpedaled while thrashing.

The attack was fast, blindingly so, but the stinger swung to the left of her, narrowly grazing her leg.

Emily didn't even have the time to celebrate as electricity arced through her body, causing spasms as it locked up. She clenched her jaw so hard she thought her molars would break; the scent of burning flesh filled her nostrils.

At first, she thought she'd let her matrix drop, but it was just the lightning tearing through her body, burning her alive.

As the voltage stole control of her body from her, she absentmindedly wondered if her skills would keep working if her heart stopped.

Then, as quickly as it had come, it passed. That simple graze was enough for her to be certain she didn't want to try that again.

While the beast was still rallying, she dropped to her knees and plunged spikes of blood into its carapace again. She took out all six of its revolting eyes while she was at it, popping them like bulbous water balloons.

The beast bucked like a stallion, but Emily was too well situated by this point.

With ten times the contact, now she drank deeply of its life force.

The venomtail's life source was ripped from it, and she took it all in. But with it came something Emily had never encountered before.

Usually, stealing life force was a genuinely pleasurable experience. It felt a thousand times better than any adrenaline rush, but this creature was different. At the core of its being, there was something more than just life, something cold, dark, and ancient.

And as she drank this beast's life, it slithered into her.

The feeling was like drinking the scum from the bottom of a fetid pool. It sent waves of nausea up from the pit of her stomach, reminding her of the shards, but far weaker.

It made her want to retch and close the connection, but as the thing flailed and screeched, she knew she wouldn't get another chance like this.

Attacking it head-on was suicide in her current state.

If she let up now, she'd be thrown off. Whatever this stuff was, she would have to deal with it later.

So, Emily pressed on.

She took whatever she could while she could, feasting on the decay.

By the time the tail came around again, she was already more than halfway done.

She couldn't stop or even defend herself.

So when the tail came from behind, it speared through Emily's ribcage, pushing her off the beast.

She didn't even have both arms to stabilize herself, so she went forward over the front of the beast.

Her saving grace was that there was no electrical charge this time. It had used all of its energy, or there wasn't time to build it up.

Either way, it didn't matter.

Emily held on using the only method she had available, her teeth.

As she pitched forward, over the "handlebars," as it were, she caught herself with her remaining hand, jamming it into a groove in the creature's carapace. To steady herself, she drew blood to her lips and bit down on one of its shattered eye sockets.

It wasn't a noble sight, nor a clean one, just a woman clawing to stay alive. The taste of copper and rot filled her mouth, thick and putrid, as the creature thrashed beneath her. She didn't let go. She couldn't until all of the strength was gone.

In this position, its blood trickled down her throat as the stinger whished past her several times, but seemingly unable to reach her.

The bottom of Emily's boot got caught in the mandibles, and it began to chew through the tough leather, shredding it and swiftly crunching into her right foot. Pain bloomed, but she couldn't even scream.

Emily held on even as the venomtail tried its best to eat her alive. For a time, the two were locked in a desperate struggle, life against death, one refusing to let go, the other refusing to die.

The creature had just reached her knee when Emily finally tore the last thread of life from its core.

It let out a final, wheezing wail and then fell still.

But the stillness wasn't a relief. Its massive jaws, no longer guided by instinct or pain, clamped down harder on her leg in death.

With a strained whimper, Emily pried herself free from the corpse's mouth and collapsed onto the staircase below, panting.

She barely had time to breathe. Her body had already begun to heal, but the momentary relief gave way to a slow, creeping realization.

The beast, in its final thrashing moments, had carried them higher, much higher.

She was now just below the peak of the temple.

Glancing upward, she spotted it: an open-air amphitheater at the summit. And in its center, resting upon a pedestal, was an orb—cracked, broken, and pulsing with pure shadow.

Blood points: 666