14.

  A second of the insectile creatures crawled free of the burning lake and started after the first monstrosity. The second creature was identical to the first, all chitin and hard edges that cut at the air around it. It chittered, thorax bobbing, in a screech that made Erak wince as he started forward toward the Demonic Chimera lvl. 28.

  The first creature lurched forward, legs wobbling as its many arms churned the air as it raced forward to meet Erak’s charge. Erak cut downward and to the side to sever the chimera in half. Dragonbone screamed across the air and the chimera lifted a bony arm into the air to intercept the sword. For a moment its arm held firm against Erak’s strength and the sharp dragonbone blade. Then the arm yielded and the blade entered the thorax.

  Yellow blood exploded outward in pulsing blasts that burned the ground with an audible hiss, some few droplets landed on Erak’s armor and fizzled away. Leaving nothing remaining but a few small pock marks. Thick chitin didn’t shear under the weight of his blow, the dragonbone blade embedding itself a few inches into its torso. The creature screeched in pain, more yellow blood flowing in pulses around the blade, not outwardly damaging the blade.

  It was stuck though.

  Erak let go of the pommel of the blade and stepped back as the creature’s remaining clawed hand scraped across his hastily raised shield. Sparks launched from the point of the contact, the power of the blow forcing Erak back another step. He growled in anger as the creature continued its attack, arms pummeling his shield as he was forced back. Trails of yellow burning blood slashed through the air and Erak had to keep his shield raised to protect his eyes from the trails of acid blood.

  He kicked an ankle joint, hobbling the creature as bone snapped loudly. It screeched again and hit his raised shield with two fists at the same time with a massive clang! The force of the blow picked him up and threw him, his flight quickly ending as he hit the ground and rolled across the ground.

  Sammus raced by him, just a flash of color as he and Pomp tried to slow the beast. Erak grabbed at the loose dirt, gauntleted fingers digging deep as he slowed himself. He surged to his feet and started back toward the fight as Sammus kept the beast at bay with increasingly desperate footwork, his blade flashing about to keep the claws from entering his flesh.

  Pomp blew a wave of freezing cold over the missing arm and the pumping acid blood froze as white frost crept over the wounded limb and over the torso. The second creature ignored the prince and dragon and raced around the two of them and toward Erak. The Fury’s knife felt undersized in his hand as Erak squared off with it. Its pumping arms lashed out in whip-like strikes that cracked against his shield and pauldrons with bruising force.

  Erak couldn’t close the distance, the monster’s arms were too long and powerful to push in close to use the knife. Erak jumped backward and the creature stumbled forward as its overhand swing met no resistance. Erak threw the knife, watching it flip end over end to embed itself in the creature’s neck. The blade bubbled and dissolved away under the yellow, acid blood.

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  As the creature gurgled, Erak raced past it and toward the first monster. Sammus’s footwork had dissolved into a hurried retreat as his once precise bladework had become the frantic swinging of a man in his last desperate gambit. Sparks flew as the sword connected with claws, hardly having the strength to deflect the strikes.

  Pomp raced around the edge of the fight, attacking with his sub-zero breath attacks. Each time the breath attack landed thick rime grew and grew across the creature’s body. Two of its arms were nothing more than pillars of ice but the monster never slowed as it kept its lightning fast attacks coming at Sammus. With enough time the prince and dragon would have likely won, their tactics slowly whittling the abomination down.

  If there wasn’t a second monster recovering from a melting knife in its throat that was only moments away from rejoining the fight. If the boiling lake wasn’t filled with more of the cocooned monsters.

  Erak charged into the fight on the monster’s crippled side, shield raised up to his shoulder. He crashed into the frozen limbs that shattered like glass, spilling chunks of frozen flesh about itself as Erak drove it off its feet and to the ground. The sword jostled deeper into its side, releasing another burst of blood that scorched Erak’s armor. He reached down with his free hand and grabbed the pommel, standing up and planting his foot on the creature’s chest. He ripped backward and the blade came free as the creature howled.

  The second monster was loping toward them as Erak lifted his sword straight in the air, tip angled down. The monster was thrashing under his boot, arms pinned to the ground. Its bucking body was hard to keep pinned, Erak straining against it as he aimed the tip of the blade towards its thin neck. He stabbed down, severing flesh and the thrashing stopped as its head rolled away.

  Sammus was gasping, sides heaving, as he looked toward the second monster. Pomp raced forward as his body began to become ethereal as he burned through the stored Essence he had acquired. Erak pulled the sword free from the ground and turned toward the second charging toward them. Pomp blew icy breath across the creature’s legs, ice creeping across the thin limbs. The attack drained the last of the dragon’s strength, leaving him nothing more than an ephemeral spirit that dodged out of the hobbled creature’s path.

  Erak charged it in a bull rush, the frustration of meeting a physical equal fueling him. He swept the blade out in a devastating, downward, horizontal attack.The beast didn’t try to protect its frigid limbs. Which was a mistake.

  Dragonbone blade hit the frozen limbs and they shattered under the blow. It sailed by him, hitting the ground and rolling past him. Its wings fluttered as it passed by and Sammus stepped up to it, stabbing it through the head as it finished sliding. The beast shuddered twice, massive ripples that made its hard chitin seem liquid.

  The lake was still boiling away, lowering as the fires turned water to mist. The top of the cocoons were becoming visible as the water lowered. Leathery shells slowly breaking apart as clawed hands tore at the interior as dozens of the beasts started to work their way free.

  “Erak, we’re not going to be able to fight all of them,” Sammus said, panting as he held his sword tightly. Erak agreed with the prince. There was no way they could fight the dozens of abominations if they managed to free themselves.

  Erak started toward the cocoons, stepping onto the soft earth and beginning to sink. Heat hit him as the boiling water covered his armored legs, the rare grade armor keeping the heat from overwhelming him. He got to the closest of the cocoons and stabbed it. Foul, burning, yellow liquid came spurting free to mingle with the burning lake.

  Essence flowed into him, not as much as when he had killed the other creation, but not poor either. He looked over the veritable feast of Essence stretched out in front of him. Erak pushed deeper into the forest of cocoons, cutting and slashing as the burning water slowly boiled him alive. It became a race as Erak killed the trapped monsters if he’d finish them before he died from the increasing toxicity of the lake.