WAR: Monster Attack

Chapter 21: Brisquen
Chapter 22: Be careful what you ask for
Chapter 23: Pick a partner
Chapter 24: Unfair fight

Chapter 21: Brisquen

Most of the group watches the creature in a semi-paralyzed state of morbid fascination.

Seeing the snakes, Asura shudders and cringes hiding behind Crow,"Oh gods above! I can't handle this” she wails.

Keegan worried that the man doesn’t see the danger behind him shouts, “Hey! Look out behind you!” And charges forward to help the stranger.

Xedel moves quickly after him, showing surprising speed for his age. The fact that Xedel even bothered to help is enough to put his sister in shock.

The man hearing the dwarves warning steps sideways as the snake strikes. He reaches out and again crushes the snakes’ skull with little effort.

When he sidestepped though, he moved fully out into the open. It is then that everyone can see that he is definitely not a human. From the head to his waist he looks like a burly human. From then on the similarities end as from the waist down he has the body of a black horse. He seems to have the skull of some large horned creature implanted in his chest and has used the creatures' bones to create fearsome looking barding.

It calmly wipes the shakes the gore off of his hand. He holds his right hand out, palm out, fingers splayed outward.

Xedel and Keegan slow down, but only Keegan stops. Xedel keeps on going and Keegan briefly tries to stop the old man who pushes past the dwarf, but finally slows his advance.

Seargent Voreas shouts, “Xedel halt where you are! Xedel! Xedel!” He mutters, “This must be what it’s like with Pyros under your command. An powerful idiot who doesn’t listen!”

From somewhere Xedel produces his favorite toy, a rod with a clear gem on top of it. He peeks at the creature from several yards away. The creature points at his chest and in a rough voice says, “Brisquen.”

Xedels only response is, “Yes. Yes. Yes...” as he approaches moving slowly closer to the creature.

Wasting no time the Captain rallies his troops; he turns and orders them to drive forward fast and hard, "I'll not be taken by surprise again." If they see that half my force is missing they'll think it's a trap and go looking for the trap. In the meantime we'll get to the tower by hook or by crook.

The caravan is moving so fast that many of the troops have to hold on to a carriage lest they be left behind.

They are making very good time when suddenly they are attacked by more of the same creatures as before.

The Captain has little patience for this kind of foolishness now and orders everyone to keep moving. He himself literally rides over one creature foolish enough to get in his way.

Seeing that they will not stop a few of the creatures get bold and attack as it goes by. Two men fall off the caravan in the middle. Both scramble to their feet one makes it back onto the caravan, the other puts up a valiant battle but is slain as the caravan leaves the ambush site behind.

By nightfall the caravan has gone very far, but going against all reason he orders his men to keep going until the horses drop. Luckily they don't, in fact they pull into the tower sometime after the middle of the night.

The creature looks at the group then at the slowly approaching old man. He points to the old man and says, “Zedel?”

Back with the rest of the group Flint says, “I can’t tell if he is brave, foolish or both. He’s got to have a plan if he is being that bold, but then...”

Xedel for his part continues to move closer, examining the creature through the gem on the rod. In a soothing voice he says,“Yes, I’m Xedel. Brisquen is it? Nice to meet you. Goooood boy. Just stay where you are.”

As the old man gets closer, the creature Brisquen begins to move back, seemingly wary of the old man, even when it’s obvious he could probably kill Xedel in a dozen different ways within seconds.

With Asura cringing behind him, Crow puts one the mantle of a brave protector and Stash looks at him sideways and mutters, “Yea, whose acting different now. It’s odd lately I’ve been able to sense when the hostilities are about to begin, but from this abomination I get nothing. Lets face it, it could probably take out a couple of the people here, but it doesn’t seem very hostile. But then again those flying creatures didn’t attack us directly either. How do we know this thing isn’t another flunky?”

Now that the snakes are gone, Asura steps out from behind Crow who looks worriedly at her to make sure she is okay.

“Does it really matter?” Flint grunts, “Either that monster is hostile and we kill it or we add another attraction to this freak show we ended up in.”

Tristan looks at the creature many thoughts racing through his head as he realizes he recognizes the creature as the one he saw the day before near the caravan. He, too, moves closer until Voreas stops him. “Stay here. No one else moves unless I give the order.”

With that Voreas moves closer until he reaches Keegan who promptly retreats to the group with a gesture from the Sergeant. “Xedel stop it your spooking him.” In a louder voice he points to his chest and says, “Sergeant Voreas. We come in peace. We mean no harm. We are just passing through.” He makes a motion to emphasize this meaning. In a loud whisper, “Xedel get back here before he kills you.”

The creature points to himself again looking away from the impudent old man and says, “..called Brisquen.” He pauses frowning for a moment the says, “..no arms.”

Voreas holds up both hands and puts them behind his back, puzzled by the command. The creature tries to say something and gives up. He then tries to tell them something through gestures, but they little sense as he waves his arms and at one point looks like he is trying to act like a bird.

The wind shifts and blows toward the creature and it suddenly rears up and turns around bolting back into the forest.

Xedel watches it go then turns around and charges at the Sergeant, “You Idiot! What did you think you were doing? You chased him away, and I was getting so close to examining it.”

“You’re the one that chased it away you fool!” Voreas counters, “Couldn’t you see that it didn’t want you any closer? Next time listen to me.”

The last is said to the air as Xedel has already moved past him and walks back to the group, shoving his toy back into the backpack.

Voreas looks in the direction the creature vanished looking for some sign of it still being near by, but he can find nothing. He turns around obviously furious with the foolish old man and the fact that he isn’t regular army so he can’t discipline him. He gives the order to march north and like good little soldiers they follow orders.

Despite not being army most of them are veterans of many battles and know that teamwork is more important than one or two egos.

Xedel falls in step next to his sister who promptly smacks him on the back of the head. He looks at her in shock as she says, “That’s for taking a stupid risk. That thing could have killed you easily. Luckily for you it was at least slightly intelligent. But I wouldn’t rule out it running away from the smell. You need to take a bath.”

“That’s not me.” He complains, “I don’t have proper containers from some of my ingredients.”

Pheras whispers to Tristan, “First he acts like a coward for no good reason then he acts like he’s fearless for really bad reasons. The more I get to know him the more I wonder how he survived this long. Sindel’s obviously been watching him for a while, but how did he survive before that?”

Flint shakes his head, “Humans! Complete fools the whole lot of them! Must the lack of air that high up. Scrambles the head, makes them act stupid. Give me a dark dank tunnel anytime.”

As if his words summoned it, the earth before him explodes leaving a gaping maw. From that maw comes a creature that resembles an enormous six-legged brownish yellow worm with armor. The creature pauses half out of the hole its powerful mandibles clicking. Its glistening black eyes take in the group before lunging at Keegan who stops its attack cold by slamming his war hammer into its face.

The ground explodes all around the party as another five of the creatures spring up out of the ground to attack.

Aruna cries out as one of the creatures explodes out of the ground from directly underneath him. He goes flying back to land roughly outside the circle created by the creatures.

Voreas shouts, “Everyone pick a creature and attack in groups!” He slaps the rear of his horse, “Go!” The horse takes off between two of them and escapes leaving him behind. Voreas draws his and swings at the nearest creature. His sword hits the armor with a mighty crack and the creatures armor cracks open. This earns him the creatures’ full attentions and he has to jump back as the creature rounds on him.
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Bormann and Flint pull their weapons out and charge to aid Keegans aid. Bormann begins chanting in a strange language as he swings his pick at the creatures’ armored underbelly and watches as it scrapes across the scales without penetrating.
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Pol Crane ducks and rolls out of the way of one of the attacks. As he comes to his feet he looks to see the creature coming after him and his bow on the other side of the creature.

The creatures’ forward moment is interrupted as Wismerhill appears and brings his sword down just behind its head.
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Xedel drops his backpack and gives a whoop of joy. He furiously starts digging in there muttering, “Kill them quickly, kill them quickly, kill them quickly, KILL THEM QUICKLY, OH YES THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT!!!”

Sindel however is only partially distracted by her brothers’ rant as she tries to keep the creature away from him.

Tristan and Pheras help her, but the three of them seem to have trouble getting past the creatures’ armor. The creature rears up and Pheras charges in with an overhead blow. The creature takes blow in the face splitting its shell. Then the creatures’ mandibles close on the blade and sheer it clean in half. The creatures head comes down forcing Pheras under it. Luckily he has the presence of mind to drop the broken sword and crawl away from the mandibles.
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Gwydeon says, “Everyone surround it quickly!” He draws his two swords and runs to attack the nearest creature. Gedai, Crow, and Stash move to surround the creature and attack it as it comes out of its hole.

Asura takes out her sword, which starts glowing brighter and nearly as bright as the sun. She joins Crow in attacking the creature.

Aruna scrambles to his feet and quickly moves back away from the creature, that hasn’t noticed him yet. Its feelers test the air and it turns and zeros in on Xedel who is at the moment slightly distracted.

Aruna draws his bow and mutters something about dying a painful death. He aims carefully as the creature, oblivious to him, charges the old man. He lets the arrow fly and it flies straight at the creature, it slams into the creatures tough skin piercing it, the shaft of the arrow breaks off leaving the tip in. The area near the wound starts to turn an unhealthy shade of green. But the creature doesn’t pause in its charge and attacks taking a large bite of Xedel who oddly enough doesn’t go down screaming. Xedel turns as the creatures mandibles close on him trying to slice him in half. He jams something into the creatures mouth and grimaces as its teeth tear into his arm.

Aruna launches another arrow at the creature this one also pierces the skin, but the creature ignores it.

Sindel risks a glance back and sees her brother in trouble with a feral scream she swings at the creature’s head removing both antennae and cutting a small patch off.

The creature starts to stumble as Sindel attacks again hacking at the head of the creature. Aruna holds his fire as the creature suddenly lets go of Xedel. It stumbles away groggily and falls down. Xedel smiles and says, “Yes go to sleep. I’ll get back to you later.” He looks down in annoyance as Sindel attempts to tend to his wounds. “Stop it! I’m fine go kill the other Ankheg quickly before they start spitting acid otherwise this will be a hugely wasted opportunity.” Sindel looks at him shocked and a little angry, until he continues, “Also there will many more dead bodies. Now go help those in need.”

Reluctantly Sindel pulls her sword out of the ground and with a last worried glance toward her injured brother she looks around for a target.
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While Pheras is trying to get out from under the creature, Tristan charges in hacking at the damaged face and mandibles. The creature has decided that it has had enough and turns around and starts to head back into its hole. Pheras draws his dagger and scoots backwards along the ground trying to get away from the creature. Tristan swings and gives the creature a long cut on its back, but his sword gets stuck in the creature and drags him along with it for several moments before it falls free and Tristan just barely misses getting trampled by the creatures clawed feet. Within moments the creature is gone back down the whole. And behind them, they Xedel muttering several curses and making comments about incompetent fighters.
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Pol Crane quickly draws his long sword and attacks the creature along its side hacking at its legs, while Wismerhil concentrates on the head. The creature suddenly charges out of its hole circling around Wismerhil, trying to get around to his back, but the dark haired warrior turns with the creature continuing to use his huge bastard sword to assault the creatures’ head. Finally the creature lunges and Wismerhil steps back and to the side to avoid the lunge. Unfortunately that puts him dangerously near the hole the creature came out of.

Pol attacks once more then uses the creatures’ distraction to his advantage. He drops his sword and runs for his bow. As his hands curl around the thick yellowish-white bone, he hears a screech. He turns to see Wismerhill swinging at the creature constantly, but it still forces him back closer to the hole.
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Across the battlefield one poor creature picked the wrong spot to appear out of. Asura’s blazing sword slices through the air cutting off another leg of the creature. The creature flops down onto the ground with two legs completely sheared off, two shattered beyond use and three more hacked into bits. Gwydeon leaps up on top of the flopping ankheg and drives his sword into the creatures back. Holding on for dear life, he rides the nearly leg-less creature forcing his sword to dig deeper until it gives up.

Gedai wipes his brow and shakes the mucus like substance off of his sword, “That wasn’t so bad. I must be getting better.”

Stash shakes his head, “This was hardly an appropriate battle, and we out-numbered it six to one.”

Gwydeon stands triumphantly upon the creature’s back and pulls his sword from the body of the creature, “You guys did great, but this battle is far from over! I see the others need out help. Crow, Stash, Asura, go help out Voreas, it looks like he’s in trouble. Gedai we’ll help the dwarves.”
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Despite the fact that the monster is bigger than the three of them combined, the dwarves put up a mighty battle. Bormann’s pick strikes repeatedly at the creatures’ chitinous sides and underbelly while trying to avoid the razor sharp claws that try and crush him underfoot. Keegan takes the patient approach and waits in front of it for it to attack him. When it does he ducks his head a little and charges. As the creature opens its maw to accept the morsel, at the last second Keegan swings his war hammer smashing it between the eyes. One would think that this trick would only work once, but these creatures are known for their appetites not their intelligence. After the third hit the creature has a huge dent in head and still it picks itself up and lunges at the tasty looking morsel before it.

But as it does it starts to have some trouble picking itself up and seems to be favoring one side over the other. As it lunges again, Keegan finds he has to retreat or be buried under the mass of the creature. He falls back just far enough to be out of reach of the creatures lunge and levels another attack at its face.

Bormann finally succeeds in getting past the creatures’ armor as his pick rips through the thick skin, he presses sideways cutting a wide swath in the creatures sides as the pick exits creating a long slashing wound. The legs thrash wildly and he gets hit several times before he retreats back pulling the pick out of the creatures’ side. But his retreat is only strategic as he moves to open the wound even further, using the pick to try and keep him from getting hurt too badly from flailing legs by batting them aside or breaking them. The creature seems to be trying to move forward, but it also seems like it’s trying to roll over as it moves both forward and away from Bormann, who isn’t about to let the creature escape.

On the other side of the creature, Flint Bloodrock takes a different approach. After getting nearly skewered by a sharp claw, he decides to work his way in slowly. He concentrates his devastating blows on the creatures’ legs until they are shattered stumps. Oddly enough the creature doesn’t seem to notice or care. Though every now and again it falls down and has to pick itself up. Each time picking itself up gets harder, because that is when Flint does the most damage when taking out another leg. Soon the poor creature literally doesn’t have a leg to stand on, near the dwarf. But he can’t take advantage of it because the creature starts moving forward, sort of.

It lurches forward and to the side, nearly rolling over the diminutive dwarf, who has to scramble out of the way, lest he be squashed.

Sergeant Voreas has the most trouble of all. Despite the mans imposing size and strength, the creature seems to be able to weather his blows and inflict punishment of his own. After narrowly escaping being crushed by the creatures’ pincers, he tries to flank the creature and take out its legs. While his sword does cut through one of the creatures’ legs, the swiftly moving creature knocks him down. Instincts taking over, he rolls over quickly attempting to get out of the creatures way and narrowly dodges the thrusting mandibles that plunges into the ground where he landed. He quickly rises to his feet amazed that his sword is still in his hand. He aims and overhead blow at the creature and hammers one of its mandibles, which cracks under the force of the blow, but that only slows the creature down momentarily.