9 The Beast of Ruin

The beast stopped in a shallow stream. It lifted them into the air and slammed them into the rocky riverbed. Jaini had been mangled into unconsciousness by the dragging. Her limbs were broken and her body bloodied. War was bleeding and stunned but she was still struggling. The beast held them under the war, intent on drowning them. War, no longer dragged about, managed to pull a dagger from her belt and began sawing the gangly wrist.

The beast lifted its spiked hoof and stomped upon her but War sensed the attack and caught the point in her forearm. With a surge of force, she ripped her blade through the beast’s ankle. She stabbed the dagger into the thigh of the leg holding her and dragged it downwards. The beast recoiled, its spear-hoof pulling out of her, while the rest chipped and sparked on the river stones under them. As it shrank away it attempted to keep hold of the broken Jaini, but War was quick and grabbed at the air in front of her niece and held it.

She crushed its wrist and cut off the hand holding her niece, freeing her to drown on her own. War could still not perceive the beast but she still had it in her grasp. She flung the dagger at the likely centre of mass and it bounced off the helm of horns. With her hand now free, she unsheathed a heavy sword that was more like a sharpened block of red iron. She swung where the dagger struck. The sword slammed into the horns and both blade and horns chipped. She swung again and again, hacking away at the horns.

The beast railed against her, slamming her with its shoulder. She fell into the water but kept her grip. From her sitting position, she swung her sword horizontally and the blade shattered a horn. The beast retaliated by turning upon her and goring her into the riverbed. Red bloomed out of the river where broken and battered horns punched into godly flesh. Its front legs knelt and it drove more and more of its weight into her.

“Got you.” She released the arm and her broken sword and tried to wrap her arms around the neck of the bovine thing. The horns grated against her ribs and she could not find its invisible neck so she grabbed the horns themselves. With her legs, she pivoted and took the beast to its side and then back as she rolled onto it. It flailed with its legs, trying to impale her but she stayed close to the underside. She lifted the head and drove it down again and again into the riverbed.

The whiptails lashed up and struck her in the back. Poison seeped into her wounds and she began to falter. Then she heard Death finally arrive at the riverbank. The beast had run quite far to split them apart. “I’m here,” he cried out.

“Give me a goddamned second with this thing!” Death obeyed War and exhaled a saffron mist. This cloud enveloped the melee and sank into their flesh. For a moment the lashing of the tentacles stopped. For a moment those thrashing spear-like legs were stilled. And within that moment, War gripped the two biggest horns she could feel, planted a leg on its chest and pulled upwards with titanic might, ripping the beast’s head from its body. Holding the head aloft and her eyes glowing red, War roared in triumph before the duet of poisons overwhelmed her and she fell as well.