The Hunter's Song II: Lost Blood

Ch 22: Vigil (Mourning Crow)

Six were dead.

Nearly everyone was injured.

We arrived with fourteen and now only eight, including myself and Merrik, were still standing among my squad of Forged warriors.

"Get a hold on those spines," I highlighted the Graven's midsection on our team's vid-link inside our helmets. "We need to split it open and expose the core!"

I couldn't tell if the hidden mass was a brain or a heart, but both the vascular and nervous systems converged through a central organ.

My squad moved like masked assassins, bounding through the chaos as they regrouped and shifted formation. Even with the losses, these warriors were incredible.

No wonder Oru chose them each personally.

The Graven whipped around, crashing into everything with long squiggling cords of orange plasma cascading on and off, creating deadly conduits between the crystal spine tips. Yet still, my squad had the creature skittering on the defensive.

Shar'koth stood out in the frenzy. Officially, he was attached to the landing crew as a liaison between us and the dreadnought, but he was the first to catch onto the plasma ignition timing and his speed was unrivaled.

Kazz'mon trained him well!

The Zhaguai worked together, tethering its spines to the ground with braided noose cords and garrote wires clamped to their spears and longswords.

Shar'koth got extra creative with an old-style pair of long-spoked shurikens. He linked them together with a long vibro-razor cord and sent them flying to sever off the crystal spines nearest to our target. Combined with the blasts from his comrades' proximity mines and heavy blazers, it was only a matter of time until the Graven's white crystal carapace had no choice but to crack open.

"It's triple armored," I shouted from the Graven's head when the core was finally exposed. "Hit it with everything you got!"

The few remaining minions were taking potshots at my head with poisonous projectiles and Merrik had taken to leaping short bursts with a jetpack to thin out our audience.

"Melee weapons only," I gave my squad the last bit of guidance I could offer. "The last strike must decimate everything! There's no such thing as overkill!"

We'd been fighting this thing for too long.

The Forged warriors were quick to take out the guardian and most of the minions who tried to sneak in and snag easy meals.

A shame killing this thing won't equal winning.

I wasn't keen to make the killing blow.

The last thing we needed was me limp and out of commission for who knows how many hours, but I was prepared to do what was necessary to complete this rescue mission.

I can't coddle them...

Death by victory wasn't an experience I wished on anyone, even warriors who believed themselves impervious to the insidious temptation of ultimate power.

Either way, I was ready to end this Graven permanently.

One of the Forged warrior's bodies was stuck, impaled by a spine, and smoldering on fire.

I had to commend Shar'koth for taking a moment he didn't have to fire a lone constrictor collar at the base of the spike. The metal band constricted and snapped the crystal to let the fallen Zhaguai drop loose.

"The core crust will rupture soon!" Shar'koth alerted the others.

I had to chuckle. Even amid the mayhem, Shar'koth's voice was just as cool and determined as his mother's.