The Hunter's Song II: Lost Blood

3: Darbek Monastery (Lor)

"Fuck!" A mass of brown stinging tendrils slithered around a male razkur's forearm.

SHINK

A female Zhaguai sliced the gangly floating jellyfish from her comrade then ran it through with the barbed bayonet clamped to the end of her assault rifle.

"Thanks!" The male razkur soldier shook off the few remaining gelatinous hairs wrapped around his arm.

"Move now!" The female Zhaguai spun to provide cover fire as another flock of jellyfish minions swooped down at their heads.

"Stop!" The male razkur's ears shot up.

A stray corrupted jellyfish darted at the female Zhaguai soldier from below.

ZTTZ

The razkur shot down the chicken-sized abomination before it could clasp its pulsating bell around the Zhaguai's helmet.

"Good ears," his Zhaguai comrade chittered in gratitude. Then the pair regrouped with their designated squadrons.

Once again, Darbek Monastery was under siege. It was the second attack today, but at least it was above ground. This latest incursion was a swarm of small floating brown jellyfish drifting in from the north side of the city ruins.

"Divide and push them into position!" The Entente Alpha called out through his helmet to the razkurs and Zhaguai soldiers under his command.

Six heavily armed squadrons let loose a barrage of specialized white plasma fire and split the mass of jellyfish into two disoriented herds.

"Group them tight!" The Entente Alpha relayed coordinates to a series of orbital cannons stationed far overhead while his troops maneuvered the jellyfish minions away from the monastery and into two clearings on the opposite sides of the valley.

"All units pull back," the Entente Alpha ordered.

The squadrons ceased fire and quickly withdrew from the corrupted jellyfish.

"Fire in three.. Two..." The Entente Alpha confirmed his subordinates were at a safe distance.

WOMM

Two wide blinding white beams of light flooded the barren valley, obliterating the two swarms of Graven minions. Nothing remained except two large scorch marks.

Finally... if we're lucky, we'll get a few more hours of quiet.

.

.

"The north wing is secure, Primary," Yrox, my head of security provided by the Entente, eventually stomped into the rustic conservatory that I had re-appropriated into a small makeshift office.

The Entente Alpha was an eight-foot-tall black and green male Elder adored with a motley of piercings on his face and body. One of his thick oxen-like horns was broken, and he wore a smattering of feathers in his long black quills matched with a dozen razor sharp bird beaks protruding from his well-weathered gun-metal grey armor.

"The new orbital cannons from the razkurs decimated their numbers in seconds," he huffed in relief.

The Elder raised his wristcomm to display a replay of the Menthla-manufactured laser incinerating the Graven minions. Old chemical burn scars leftover coated his hands and all of his fingers and claws had long since been replaced by prosthetic replacements.

"Yes, I was monitoring the security feed. Thank you for moving swiftly, Yrox," I nodded and motioned for him to join me in the hallway as I returned to the lower levels. "Work in the crypt wasn't impeded."