There were only two other mages on Mannemid who studied the order of Buhhu, and the thought of either of them somehow being out here in the wilderness randomly summoning Abhorrent seemed completely laughable. If this Abhorrent wasn’t summoned, then….

“Rihan, fall back,” Tamharu said.

The pale woman’s eyes opened and she looked around slowly. “Ya shlf n'ghft ep,” she said in a voice both resonant and grating, the words she spoke so incomprehensible as to be nightmarish.

Rihan backed up, catching his foot on a rock and stumbling slightly. At the same time, the woman extended her hand in his direction. The movement revealed her breast, but Xerxes wasn’t paying attention to that as he watched her fingers suddenly extend unnaturally in Rihan’s direction. They moved quickly, like striking snakes, arcing through the air toward the soldier.

Rihan was no stranger to combat situations, and ducked behind his shield. But the fingers seemed to ignore any known laws of physiology or motion as they simply curved around the barrier.

Before Rihan could react, two of them stabbed into his neck and shoulder, while the others wrapped around his arms. He shrieked miserably and slashed at one of the white fingers with his spear, severing it. The severed portion, which had been wrapped around his forearm, dissolved into a white ichor that splattered to the ground beneath him.

“Loose arrows!” Tamharu shouted.

Two arrows flew forth, one piercing the woman’s chest, just below her collarbone, the other hitting her arm. She ignored the arrows. Then a squelching sound could be heard as the just-severed finger reared back and then shot forward, stabbing into Rihan’s biceps. Xerxes’ heart flip-flopped at the horror of it.

“Fuck!” Rihan shrieked, and again slashed at the gangly fingers.

“Sir?” Bel said, her hand hovering above her component pouch.

“Just wait,” Tamharu said. After all, Bel needed to touch someone for her healing spell to work.

The Abhorrent woman jerked her arm, and the bizarrely extended fingers began to retract, pulling Rihan with them, dragging him along the ground despite how he kicked with his feet and swung his spear wildly.

“Loose arrows again!” Tamharu shouted. “Ap, get back here now! Mages, take cover.”

More arrows flew, but they seemed of no concern to the Abhorrent.

“Sarge, we can’t just let Rihan—” Tekinalp began, but Tamharu cut him off.

“Nobody’s going down there.”

Rihan writhed as she dragged him closer, until he was right in front of her. With her free hand, she reached out, grabbed his throat, and ripped it open. His cries ended along with the shower of blood and cartilage.

Then the woman shoved her free hand into the pit of his stomach, just below the breastbone, and jerked it around briefly. “Bak melam,” she spat, and threw Rihan’s corpse down in front of her.

Ap was running back to their position, and the other two soldiers had shot more arrows, both of which penetrated the Abhorrent woman’s torso. Snarling more words in that disgusting language, she reached down and pulled each arrow out of her before tossing it to the side. Then she rose up out of the pit, and that was when Xerxes’ heart nearly skipped a beat.

She didn’t have legs, at least not in the human sense of the word.

A pale, spindly limb like that of a spider gained footing on the rocky crater. Then another, and another. It reminded Xerxes of Gandash’s summoned Abhorrent, and he suddenly wondered if this terrifying woman was somehow related to those two spawn.

Ap was back, and the woman was rising out of the ground, dozens of bug-like legs supporting her as her hair flowed behind her. Somehow, it was only now that Xerxes noticed her eyes, which were black like the night. And they seemed to be looking at him.

Smiling, she extended her arm, and suddenly her horrible fingers were shooting in his direction.

“Xerk!” Bel blurted.

Reality seemed to blur for a moment as he felt like he was back in the tavern in Kisiga, up on the stage, with Gem throwing knives at him. Except, there weren’t two objects flying toward him, there were five. And he knew that if he didn’t react perfectly, he would end up skewered just as poor Rihan had been.

There wasn’t really time to think, so he reacted on instinct. Drawing his sword up and to the right, he defended himself from two of the fingers coming from that angle. The blade slashed through the serpentine things, preventing them from reaching him.

Two more he dodged mostly by luck and the way his body shifted after moving his sword. The fifth missed him as he tilted his head to the side.

He could see the disgusting, maggoty flesh inches from him, and the stench from it was almost overpowering.

He heard a choking sound from his left, and turned his head to see that one of the fingers had curved to the side and pierced Tekinalp through the throat.

A slithering, slurping sound could be heard as the rest of the fingers similarly curved toward the now-doomed soldier. The bow tumbled from his hand as fingers pierced his belly and wrapped around his arms, then started dragging him back toward the crater.

“Back down the hill!” Tamharu snapped.

Xerxes took a step backward, and watched in horror as Tekinalp was pulled inexorably toward the pale, many-legged Abhorrent woman. Then he turned and scrambled down the hill, flipping his sword to face backward along the way.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” blubbered Ap.

The other surviving soldier, Goran, wasn’t saying anything, but his face was nearly green as he lunged his way down the hill.

“The trees will give us more cover,” Tamharu said. “Mages, you can run faster. Don’t hesitate. Get back to the camp immediately!”

“Sir,” Xerxes replied, “what if—”

“That’s an order!” the sergeant shouted. “Get back to the camp!”

Goran’s foot caught on something, and he tumbled. Being just off to the side, Bel slid to a stop and knelt to help him, wrapping her hand under his arm to pull him up.

Which was when five white streaks stabbed into her.