Chaos is a subject about which I imagine there is a lot of thought and contemplation. Perhaps more scientific, philosophical or mathematical than a day to day consideration. I’d not really given it any real thought in my current memories, after all.

When chaos strikes it isn’t thoughtful.

Chaos is an ineffable mess.

“DOWN!” Friday warned in my skull, a hint of a klaxon-like vibrato shuddering within my head.

Motion to my right, coming through the blurry concealment, something brown, wide and as high as my chest. Eyes… An unexpected amount of eyes.

“Monday! Move!” Muto’s voice grew close behind me as I felt a shove against my back, attempting to push me aside and out of the path of the approaching massive brown furry fanged pedipalp having spidery monstrosity that was resolving through the blurry concealment.

Though I was in mid-step, the shove was not enough to propel me aside. It was the combination of words, warning from Friday and approaching threat that clicked into the basic combat practice the scruffies and I had practiced yesterday. I fell forward, using my arms to slap the ground so as to avoid excessive gravity assisted self harm.

“Avert for flash!” Jazmine yelled, and Friday seconded the command by echoing it with a “Close your eyes, Boss!”

Clenching my eyes shut I heard a grunt, a massive crack of sonic torture, and then my closed eyes failed to block all of the sun's brilliance, letting a split second’s worth of lumens through my sealed eyelids. ‘Huh, still reddish even with grey skin… probably the blood vessels?’ I thought.

Brains are weird.

Looking up towards the brown beast, blinking away retinal distress, I fuzzily saw a fuzzy toothy maw and large pedipalps clamped onto Muto’s right arm, blood seeping through broken armor. A pair of mammalian eyes were blinking rapidly, surrounded by dark orbs looking like additional lidless eyeballs protruding around the lidded pair.

Ears ringing, I attempted to roll away from the monster and Muto, hoping I might spring up to assist. The hides strapped to my shoulders prevented anything remotely coordinated, and I fumbled and flopped for a moment attempting to right myself.

As I worked at getting to my feet, Roy’s voice was shouting out what might be combat orders. My ears were having none of it, still reacting to that thunderclap from before.

“Probably should just stay down, Boss.” Friday advised with a clarity only available from already starting in my head, not fed through the ears at all.

Ignoring my own attempts to remain quiet about Friday when others were about, I whispered rather than tried to subvocalize. “Can you make out what people are saying, Friday?”

“No, boss.” Friday asserted. “But Muto said to get down and Roy said to follow directions when we set out.” Despite Friday’s words, I continued to climb to my feet.

“Maybe, but I’m gonna help or get the heck away from that.” I snarked.

Getting my feet under me I stayed in a crouch, glancing about to take in the situation. Muto’s left hand was thrusting a blade towards the eyes of the beast that was clamped to his right arm. Though the man’s mouth was open and moving, it appeared more yelling or screaming than actual words. Tok had approached the brown creature and was darting in and out to strike with blades in both hands, raining down blows against the joints of the legs on the monster’s right side, and dodging as those legs sought him in retaliation.

‘Why were there claws and visible muscles on what looks like a giant 12 legged spider?’ I wondered, as I pulled my axe from my back and continued to look around..

Jordan had run forward over 10 meters ahead leaving her cart behind and appeared to be blowing into her Ways pass, though I still couldn’t hear anything from it over the nasty ringing remaining in my ears.

I slipped the leather cover from the axe head.

Feathers looked to be taking careful shots at weak points on the beast, so long as those targets were far enough from the scruffies, as I saw arrows protruding from leg joints on the opposite side from where Tok was engaged. Meanwhile Roy looked to be entirely focused on the beast, staff held forward and glowing bright enough to shine in the daylight, lips moving, but nothing I could understand.

Bigger than the Taz, but just as unsightly. 3 measured steps to approach as I raised the axe, aiming to drop it into the cluster of eyes and orbs on the beast’s head. I imagine several of the Merits saw what I was doing, but only Muto was near my line of sight, jerking his head and likely trying to drive me away. 1 more step as the axe descended right where I was aiming.

The reverberation through the axe handle was sharp, stinging my hands as the blade didn’t split the creature like I had both wood and Taz. A few of the protruding orbs were sliced by the blade, blood and clear liquid in equal measure sprayed forth. This time I noticed the spray against my hand and face as I realized my efforts were more poorly rewarded than they had been the other day.

The beasty still didn’t like it though, as it lashed its head towards me, slamming the injured Muto into my side. I could feel the man scream into my shoulder as the monster’s maw ripped and twisted Muto’s arm while smashing us together and throwing us upward and to the side.

A yelp escaped my lips as my feet left the ground, flung to the side with the scruffy still pressed into me. Torn between trying to cushion my own body or Muto I found myself to lack the leverage to do much of either. Letting go of the axe I grabbed at the injured man to do what I could to place myself between the ground and the injured scruffy as we collapsed to the earth.

My left heel grazed the ground first, and I knew I was far too off balance to prevent us from collapsing. Lashing out with my left leg I strove to turn myself so I would be able to cushion Muto. This felt like a good choice even as I felt my back compress my slimeskin backpack between my spine and the ground. Hearing Friday in my head chant “Tuck your head! Tuck your head!” wasn’t distracting or distressing at all.

Lies.

Proof that I lie to myself in the moment.

I tried to grasp and control Muto’s fall as we collapsed into the ground. Hard. His shoulder hitting under my ribs drove the air out of me in a spectacular exhalation followed by seconds of gasping in a way I had no understanding of initially. Though it did trigger a memory of playing with my little sister in a bathtub, small toys floating around us, me gasping after having held my breath underwater for what I imagine was an eternity of 20 or so seconds.

The memory wasn’t an ideal representation of my current struggle to breathe. A bit of a distraction though as it confirmed I’d had regulation little boy bits amongst the memory of splashing and washing and giggling and gasping.

What I could see while lying on my back and struggling to breathe confirmed that the other 3 Merits were still successfully pinning down the monster, more arrows protruding and bloody ichor dripping. The ringing was fading and I could hear snicks, clacks, thumps and twangs as the combat continued. I could also hear Friday saying, “See, I told you. Just stay down.”

Not quite ignoring the voice in my head, I tried to focus on Muto who remained sprawled over my chest and legs. Far too much blood adorning his severely twisted right arm, dripping onto my new clothes. ‘Probably not a great choice, but I can wear the leather outfit tomorrow. At least the hoodie is already red. Totally not wearing the yellow dress. Why am I thinking about clothes rather than the injured man on top of me?’

Whispering again, “Friday, do you have any first aid information downloaded? Like, extreme limb damage?”

“Yes Boss! Hold him still! Primary emergency care is to stop the bleeding and immobilize the limb.” Friday almost sounded exasperated. “So stay down and hold him still for the moment. Use your sleeve and apply pressure to the wound at his elbow.”

I grumbled in my head (very quietly) so Friday couldn’t detect how frustrated I was. “Fine.” My focus narrowed to what I could see, spotting the welling blood from near Muto’s right elbow.

As I was about to explain what I was seeing, Friday inserted again. “Take your right arm and grasp his right forearm. Once you’ve done… Good, now take your right hand and press where the blood is welling up, just above the el… Perfect. Now hold it down snugly. A little tighter… Good.” Cradling Muto to my chest I was securing the wounds as directed by Friday when I heard a new rising sound to my already overloaded ears.

How could low and high sounds impact from the same sound? The reverberation channeled from the west and was rising like a looming tide. Clack, cackle, honk, Honk, HONK, CACKLE…

HONK

HoooooooNNNNNkkkk

HOooooNNNnnnNNNkkkkk!

The flutter of grey wings flew by me, homing in towards the beastie still engaged with the standing Merits.

The movement drew my eyes and I watched as wide webbed feet slammed into the beastly head near where my axe had hit it. The spider-bear’s head concussed, rippling with the impact as the newly arriving attacker blasted the most massively amplified honk I could imagine in that moment. A black beak released sonic devastation from the barest fraction of a millimeter away from the cluster of eyes in that nightmarish face.

The sound impacted with physical force and felt more intense than what my ears or bones had yet felt, even the arrow explosion a short time ago, making my ears become a realm of ringing, felt an order of magnitude lesser than the blast that the monster experienced from the feathered attacker. My back and ribcage trembled as I tried to hold Muto safely to me in his bloody and injured state.

I felt more wet droplets run up my cheek as ripples pulsed from the new flying combatant and the multi-eyed beast, streaking from my jaw upwards towards my eyes, trailing against my face as the concussion flung fluids away from the epicenter of the blast.

A new voice echoed along the path as the headless beast collapsed to the ground. It shuddered through the ground and in the air, as if it was high and low alike, pervasive and total.

“Well, that was just fucking nasty.” It was hoarse and deep and chirpy all at once. “Anyone more hurt than the bloody boy curled up on the bald one?”