Chapter 111: You lying bastard!
{Some creatures carry rot contamination. Others are uninfected ancient predators.}
{Ordinary infected-kill methods may fail.}
Swanly already knew.
The gun inside her storage would kill a man.
It could destroy an ordinary infected skull.
But these things wore bone like armor and kept moving after severe wounds.
Bullets would be wasted against their backs.
She summoned her black bow.
A crawler lunged toward Nahla’s medicine group.
Swanly fired.
The arrow struck its eye.
It screamed and twisted toward her.
She fired another into the soft joint beneath its front leg.
The creature stumbled.
Swanly grabbed a pouch of fire resin from a broken supply bundle.
She poured it across an arrowhead, struck the tip against a burning resin spark from Tovan’s emergency kit, and fired beneath the crawler.
Fire burst across its underside.
The creature shrieked and rolled violently onto its back.
Thalara’s roots pierced through the exposed flesh.
Dagan’s lie shattered in front of everyone.
The crawlers did not rush toward the flame.
They recoiled from it.
Raku saw.
His eyes snapped toward Ashclaw.
"You lying bastard!"
Dagan lifted both hands.
"Some fear it. I warned you about the others."
He still did not send his men forward.
They watched Riverbone fight.
Swanly’s hatred sharpened.
A crawler smashed into Kael.
He shifted into panther form and struck it with both front paws.
The bone shell resisted his claws.
He slammed his entire body against its side, forcing it toward Raku.
Raku’s tail flipped it.
Kael tore through the soft throat beneath its jaw.
Another crawler came from behind.
Swanly fired into its eye.
Kael twisted away just before it hit.
For half a breath, they lost sight of each other.
Then something crashed into Swanly’s back.
She struck the ground.
The crawler landed over her.
Its bone shell blocked the sky.
The weight crushed the air from her lungs.
Swanly shoved both arms against its underside.
It did not move.
One claw pressed against her stomach.
The sharp tip pushed through her clothing.
Another hooked beneath her ribs.
Her skin split.
Not deep.
Not yet.
"Swanly!"
Kael’s roar tore through the gorge.
The crawler lowered its jaw.
Human-like teeth clicked inches from her face.
Swanly reached for her bow.
Too far.
She grabbed the broken half of an arrow beside her hand.
The creature pressed harder.
Pain ripped across her stomach.
Swanly drove the arrowhead beneath its jaw.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
Black blood poured over her hand.
The crawler screamed and snapped at her face.
She stabbed faster.
"Get off me!"
The arrowhead disappeared into soft flesh.
The crawler’s claw pushed deeper against her stomach.
Then a black shape struck it.
Kael hit the creature with enough force to lift the shell from the ground.
His claws caught beneath the jaw.
He tore it off Swanly and slammed it against the stone.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
The creature stopped moving after the second impact.
Kael did not stop until part of its head collapsed.
Swanly rolled onto one knee.
Black blood covered her face, chest, and arms.
Kael turned toward her.
"Swanly."
Another crawler climbed from beneath the leaves behind him.
Swanly snatched up her bow.
She fired past his shoulder.
The arrow entered its eye.
Kael spun and attacked.
Swanly rose.
His shoulder binding had split open again.
Fresh blood poured down his arm.
"Stop moving!"
"We are being attacked!"
"You are bleeding!"
"So is everyone else!"
He caught her around the waist with one arm and dragged her behind him.
A crawler lunged.
Kael’s claws tore through its exposed leg joint.
The creature collapsed.
He broke its neck with his other hand.
Swanly stared at the blood soaking through the medicine she had used.
"You are wasting my healing gel!"
Kael shoved another crawler away.
"I will apologize when nothing is trying to eat you!"
"That is not good enough!"
"Stay behind me!"
"I have the ranged weapon!"
"Then shoot from behind me!"
They glared at each other while creatures shrieked around them.
Raku ran past.
"Mate fight later!"
"We are not arguing!" Swanly shouted.
Kael roared, "She is not staying still!"
"That sounds like an argument!"
Near the center, five crawlers broke through the healer line.
Soren stood.
Nahla caught his arm.
"No."
"They will reach the wounded."
"Your core cannot take it."
His scales darkened.
"Then it should have chosen a better time to break."
His tail struck the ground.
Soren released his venom.
A pale mist exploded through the center.
It entered eyes.
Mouths.
Open joints.
The crawlers screamed.
Their soft flesh blackened beneath their shells.
Two collapsed immediately.
The others convulsed and tore at the ground.
The venom spread farther than Soren intended.
A Riverbone guard ran toward him.
"Soren!"
Soren turned.
His pupils were completely black.
The guard smelled like blood.
Everything smelled like blood.
Enemy.
Prey.
Threat.
Soren’s hand closed around the guard’s throat.
The male’s feet left the ground.
"Soren!"
Raku moved forward.
Nahla caught him.
"Do not!"
Soren’s claws pressed against the guard’s neck.
One more movement would tear the throat open.
Swanly saw.
She shoved past Kael.
"Soren!"
He did not react.
She reached him and caught his wrist.
His head snapped toward her.
For one terrifying second, there was nothing human inside his eyes.
His claws moved.
Swanly’s scale burned around her wrist.
Soren froze.
His blood recognized the piece of himself embedded against her skin.
Her scent cut through the venom.
Swanly.
Not prey.
Not enemy.
Swanly.
His fingers opened.
The guard fell and crawled away, clutching his throat.
Soren stared at his own hand.
The blackness faded from his pupils.
Everyone around him had stopped moving.
Even Soren looked frightened.
Only for one heartbeat.
Then his face became cold again.
"Leave."
The survivors moved away from him immediately.
Raku stared.
"You almost killed him."
"I know."
Soren looked at Swanly’s hand still wrapped around his wrist.
She released him slowly.
His gaze dropped to the scale on her skin.
Then to the blood covering her stomach.
His face changed.
"Who touched you?"
Kael stepped between them.
"She is not injured badly."
Soren’s eyes moved toward him.
"You allowed something to pin her."
Kael’s claws extended.
"I tore it apart."
"After it reached her."
Swanly shoved both males in opposite directions.
"Not now!"
A cub screamed near the rear supplies.
Varek turned.
Lumi had fallen outside the stone shelf.
One leg was trapped beneath a broken carrying frame.
A crawler rushed toward her.
Selka stood several steps away with Brann and Varek.
Her belongings lay scattered around them.
Furs.
Shell ornaments.
Carved bowls.
Extra clothing.
Nothing anyone needed to survive that night.
Selka shoved a heavy bundle into Varek’s arms.
"Take this!"
He looked toward the trapped cub.
"Selka."
"My things are being crushed!"
"The cub cannot move."
"Her mother can save her!"
Ena was bleeding on the other side of the fight, trying desperately to reach her daughter.
"Lumi!"
The crawler closed in.
Varek dropped Selka’s bundle.
She shrieked.
"What are you doing?"
He ran.
Varek reached Lumi first.
He threw his body over the little rabbit cub.
The crawler’s claw drove through his back.
It tore out through his chest.
Varek jerked.
Blood sprayed across Lumi’s face.
The cub screamed.
Varek grabbed the creature’s leg and held it.
"Run."
Lumi crawled from beneath the broken frame.
Mora caught her and dragged her toward the stone shelf.
Brann roared.
He charged.
His boar tusks struck beneath the crawler’s shell.
Raku’s weapon crushed its exposed head.
Varek fell.
Brann caught him before he struck the ground.
"Varek."
Blood filled Varek’s mouth.
His hand searched blindly until it caught Brann’s wrist.
They were not bound to each other by a mating mark.
But they had shared the same female for years.
The same sleeping places.
The same hunts.
The same wounds.
They had buried other co-mates together.
Varek had been the one beside Brann every time Selka demanded more than they could safely give.
Now Brann felt him dying in his arms because Selka had cared more about a fur bundle than a cub.
"Stay," Brann said.
Varek’s eyes moved toward Lumi beneath the shelf.
"Cub?"
"Alive."
His body relaxed.
Then his grip disappeared.
Brann shook him.
"Varek."
No answer.
"Varek!"
The battle continued around them.
Brann pressed his forehead against Varek’s.
Something inside him cracked.
A mating bond was not easily broken.
Selka’s mark still owned part of his life.
If she rejected him, the bond could kill him.
He could not simply walk away and become free.
But loyalty was more than a mark.
For the first time, Brann looked at his female and felt something stronger than obedience.
Anger.
Selka stood beside her scattered belongings.
She stared at Varek’s body.
Then at Swanly.
Her face twisted.
"This is your fault."