Ink had sustained worse injuries than this.
Yes, he was bleeding profusely. True, parts of his body were emaciated. Yes, there was blackened flesh that looked and smelled disgustingly similar to that on the dying Dreadclaw.
Despite all this, Amos fixed his mind on how he had seen Ink before - chunks taken out of him, blood streaming freely. He knew Ink's healing factor was formidable as a side effect of whatever his 'Master' had done to him.
If we run, then we're leaving Ink to die. The only way to get him out is to fight!
The Terradrake roared again. A smattering of Leafshears launched themselves into the air, screeching in a frantic manner. Amos met its multitudinous eyes - it was daring them to stay. Mondir's eyes were wide with fear. He held his bow slack at his side, body half turned to run. Bin darted to his side and pulled on his shirt, shaking it gently to rise from his stupor.
"We're fighting it," Amos said. "I'm not leaving you behind, Ink."
"For fuck's sake," Mondir muttered morosely. He hid the moonstone Mutagem in his pocket.
Amos set down the furs and meats Mondir helped him harvest from the Dreadclaw gently. The Terradrake was bristling; it was an intelligent beast and seemed to have a sense of honour for its opponents. It waited with coiled energy until Mondir's bow was readied and Bin was crouched low to pounce.
Amos raised his Dreadclaw talon to the Terradrake. "Come and kill me," he whispered, "if you think you can."
It started with a low grumble. The throaty noise crawled along the forest floor, rumbling stones and kicking dead leaves up in the eddies of the sound. It opened its gigantic jaws, strings of viscous saliva dripping between dagger-sharp teeth to pool on the ground.
Amos charged. He channeled his mana swiftly and shot small bursts of flame as he run. The fire burned his hand everytime he loosed it. The scorching attacks bounced off the Terradrake's layered scales ineffectually, melting into nothingness. They seemed to invigorate the Mutabeast.
Thanks a bunch, Aries!
Mondir loosed an arrow from behind. It glanced off the scales much the same as the flame, deflected with a metallic clang.
"Get back, Amos!" Mondir called.
Amos ignored the Wildman. He was the expert, but his best friend wasn't dying here.
The Terradrake ripped an entire tree from the ground behind it using its tail. It whipped the tree around horizontally, swinging it like a club at Amos as he ran forwards.
"Shit!" Amos scrambled to the ground. He felt the rush of the wind above him - a near miss. He was on the ground next to Ink and Bin. Ink met his eyes. His lips were dry and caked with blood. He was trying to say something, but his voice wasn't working.
Amos steeled himself and looked back to see Mondir leaping above the speeding trunk, pushing off of it with a slender foot and seeming to hover in the sky. The sun lit Mondir from behind. He let loose another arrow and it flew true this time, piercing one of the monster's eight horrifying eyes.
The Wildman landed silently and the Terradrake roared in pain. Amos stared in awe. It wasn't incapacitated, not really when it had seven other eyes, but it proved the beast could be hurt.
Amos' mind turned to the Mutagem the Terradrake would be hiding within its organs.
The size...
The power...
"Stop fucking gaping, Amos!" Mondir screamed. "Use the talon!"
Amos gave Ink one last look before pushing himself upwards and facing the Terradrake. Bin was by his side, her hackles raised, growling softly.
"That all you got?" Amos called out with false bravado.
The Terradrake seemed to be smiling. It was toying with them.
I'll make you fucking regret that.
Amos started forwards again. The Terradrake responded simply by exhaling. As it did so, a thick grey smoke fell from its slitted nostrils. Tendrils of smoke curled around its gargantuan feet, obscuring them from view, and it kept coming. It rushed forward, enveloping all. Presently, even though Amos was running with all his strength, he was blinded from his surroundings. He spluttered as he inhaled the smoke, stumbling and coughing through the disorienting space. The mental map of the forest told him where to go, the challenge was getting there without choking to death.
THOOM!
The Terradrake's clawed forearm slammed into the ground just in front of Amos, throwing detritus into the air and throwing him off balance. The clawed hand lifted and swiped, but Amos scrambled backwards, dodging and weaving. He swung wildly with the talon, but claw met claw and sent sparks flying, worsening Amos' vision.
THOOOOM!!
The forearm slammed again. Amos was on the ground, unscathed but in trouble. A shape low to the ground burst through the smoke, snarling and gnashing its teeth.
"Bin!" Amos called in desperation. The friendly Mutabeast turned her head a fraction and understood the situation immediately. She sprinted forth and slowed just in front of Amos, just enough to allow him to grab hold of her. Then she was off again.
Bin was as fast as Ink, faster maybe. Her legs worked like clockwork to get them out of danger. Another arrow went whizzing by in the smoke, another thunderous cry of pain in the distance. Amos pulled himself onto Bin's back and rode her like a horse. She grunted in protest but didn't shake him off. He couldn't help himself - he was grinning. Laughing.
"Let's save Ink, girl," Amos said, leaning low against the rushing wind.
Bin and Amos burst from the boundaries of the smoke.
I'm like a knight in shining armour... Without the armour.
They were close, so close, to the Terradrake now. It shifted slightly, moving with unnatural speed to swipe at the two. The blow caught Amos squarely in the chest, taking him off Bin's back and sending him flying. He landed on a nearby tree trunk with a sickening thwack, very nearly wrapping around it.
He was dizzy. Couldn't tell what was going on. Coughed up blood. Tasted bad. Black shape moved fast. Bin?
His vision cleared all of a sudden. Bin had launched herself through the air, clambering up the side of the Terradrake like she would the trunk of Mondir's treehouse. Her claws found purchase without piercing the Terradrake's armour and she nearly made it to the thing's neck.
Nearly.
It reached up with one of its freakishly large arms, bending it in a way that shouldn't be physically possible. Any human who attempted to move in such a way would have to snap their arm in several places, but the Terradrake plucked Bin from its side with ease.
Amos tried to stand on shaky feet, tried to move forward. He wasn't fast enough. Coughed up more blood. The Dreadclaw talon was dangling loose in his hand.
The Terradrake held Bin in an iron grip. It lifted her, wriggling and biting uselessly against scales in front of its face and inspected her. She was miniscule compared to it. About the size of its nose. The same nose that sniffed, precluding the reopening of the jagged mouth - the cage for the fire within the belly of the beast.
The light crawled up from the gullet of the Terradrake, pulling itself across the ridges of its mouth.
"No!" Mondir screamed faintly from the distance. Arrow after arrow went flying, a veritable barrage. He pierced flesh inside its mouth, another eye, the tongue. Nothing mattered. Steel would not stop flame. "Amos, help her!"
Amos realised what was happening. His brain was slow, but his body moved faster. He raised his hand and instinctually channeled his mana, releasing it from a single finger. The extra pressure from a smaller release point sent the tendril of Cancer's golden energy darting forth to form a thin barrier just in front of Bin as the Terradrake released its hold on its firey breath.
The heat scared the air into waves. It burst with power and fell with its own substance, dripping heat onto the ground and causing spotfires. The tree branches around the Terradrake were lit ablaze, suddenly throwing their caustic smoke into the air, though the earlier exhalation had dissipated.
Amos' shield held.
Around Bin, the thin golden energy began to flicker just as the Terradrake was running out of breath. The Mutabeast realised what happened and two of its five remaining eyes swivelled to fix on Amos.
He was an ant, a gnat on the ground, compared to the giant beast. It seemed to smile as it realised what had happened. Amos was sweating. From the heat, or the mana exertion, or both, it didn't matter. The shield was gone.
Without taking its gaze off of Amos, the Terradrake began to squeeze. If fire won't work, then pressure will.
Bin started wriggling more frantically, faster than before. She was desperate. The Terradrake had a hold on her.
It squeezed harder.
Bin yelped repeatedly. The high-pitched cries of the friendly Mutabeast wrenched at Amos' heart. He could hear Mondir screaming dimly in the distance but couldn't make out the words for the rush of blood in his ears.
"Stop!" Amos screamed at the Terradrake, foolishly. "Wait! Stop!"
It squeezed harder.
Something cracked. Wet snapping.
"No! No, no, no!" Amos repeated himself as he ran to the Terradrake's foot. He plunged the Dreadclaw talon underneath its scales, levering them up and stabbing over and over again. The Terradrake didn't care. It just kept squeezing.
Amos looked up at Bin. Her head was lolled backwards, all her red eyes trained on Mondir, far off. He couldn't help. Amos' shield prevented piercing, not squeezing. Even a blunt attack would still damage the recipient of his magical armour. The knife wasn't working either, and his fire was useless.
Amos started to cry. There was nothing he could do. He just kept stabbing, pre-emptively vengeful, painting himself with splashes of blood. The red mixed with the salty tears.
Mondir shot another arrow.
Bin's squealing stopped.
He never missed.
Amos looked up. The arrow was lodged in Bin's skull. The same shot as the Dreadclaw. Mondir's words floated into Amos' mind:
It was suffering...
Injured...
Amos looked to Mondir. His bow was held high, but his shoulders were stooped. His face was couched in shadow, despite the midday sun. The light reflected off a single tear. The Wildman dropped his bow and started forward.
Amos looked back up to Bin one last time. Her body was limp in the Terradrake's claws, unseeing eyes trained on the spot where Mondir last stood. Unceremoniously, it threw Bin's corpse down its gullet and swallowed without chewing.
Amos was stunned.