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CH 15: Boss Fight
🕑 Added 2024-11-21 17:37:49 +0000 UTCReid reached a hand to his back and pulled the salamander claws embedded there out with a series of grunts. Warm blood flowed slowly down his back and onto his pants from the now-open wounds. He was also still bleeding from his leg, shoulder, abdomen, and arm. The broken corpses of eleven small salamanders dotted the flat space around him, their leaking blood gave the brook downstream a distinct tinge of color.
On the ridge, the leader kept its eyes trained on Reid. It hadn't moved when Reid stomped in the heads of the wounded salamanders, nor when he'd wiped some of the blood and gore off of himself and rinsed his hands in the brook.
Reid felt himself growing weaker from the blood loss. He needed to finish things, or scare the beast away. He shouted up towards the beast.
"Get down here and die like the rest, you ugly fucking lizard! I'll tear your goddamn arms off!"
He punctuated his taunt by throwing the handful of claws he'd removed from his back at the creature. They cut fast through the air with a whistle - and narrowly missed the large salamander as it sidestepped the projectiles. It looked at where the thrown claws had impacted a tree, then back to Reid before it let out a low-pitched screech. It walked down the hill at a diagonal, careful to keep its footing even as it continued to stare at Reid. This wasn't good. He needed a fight he could end quickly, and the large salamander had shown too much patience and intelligence to rush in like the others.
If Reid were facing a strong foe, and that foe was wounded and bleeding out, he would wait for it to be weaker before he tried attacking it. The salamander had done the same thing. Now, it was being too careful, too measured in its advance. If Reid couldn't provoke it further, there was a chance it would just try to outlast him.
Reid picked a nearby corpse and chopped off both arms in a fluid pair of cuts. He stabbed his sword into the corpse like it was a knife block, and picked up one arm in each hand. He threw the first just a bit to the left of the salamander, and quickly followed up with the second arm aimed where he thought the thing would dodge.
He guessed right, and as the salamander sidestepped to avoid the first arm, the second slammed into it, knocking it off balance and tearing a small wound just above its lower legs. It screeched, and Reid drew his sword. The fight came to him.
The salamander tore up grass and dirt as it ran, then started to lunge. Reid brought up his sword for an overhead strike -
And missed when the beast spun to the side. It used its momentum to bring its tail to bear, and Reid was thrown back with the wind knocked out of him as the long appendage slammed into his chest. He landed in the brook, and cold water stung in the claw wounds on his back. He had only made it to his knees when the creature was on him again. It swung in at him with both claws coming from different directions, like the world's most dangerous bear hug. Reid slashed out at one of its claws and tried to sidestep the other.
Claws skittered against his sword, then the beast screeched as the blade slipped down and made contact with the flesh of its hand. The claws on the salamander's other hand opened shallow cuts on Reid's abdomen as it jumped back from his sword. It inspected itself, watching the separated skin flap away from its hand and wrist like a flag in the wind. It bit off the flap of skin, and ate it. Reid felt his stomach turn as he watched the salamander chew and swallow its own flesh.
Reid charged in this time, sword held above his head. His advance seemed to surprise the beast, and he managed to cut it across the tail as it jumped out of the way. He pursued, sword out in front of him, and hacked away in the salamander's direction. It blocked with claws, and tried to turn away to make distance, but Reid was relentless. He slashed into its back, a leg, and one of its arms as he pushed the creature back. Sword met claw, the creature jumped out of the way of some blows, and took others as it failed to counter Reid's ferocious advance. He could feel his stamina fading, his right leg was still bleeding and threatened his footing with every step. He wanted to jump at the creature to get a better angle on its head, but putting that much weight on his leg would probably make him collapse.
The salamander grew more frustrated after each exchange. It took more damage and tried even harder to hit Reid, but he still hadn't gotten the right kind of opening to finish the fight.
And then it happened. The salamander crouched down to spin into a tail slam, and Reid caught it in the head with his sword. His blade came down in a wide overhead arc and connected just behind its orange eyes. The impact drove its head towards the ground, split skin, and sent blood flying - but it didn't penetrate further. Reid felt the skull under his blade crack slightly, but not enough to break through.
The salamander was prone, dazed from the last blow, and Reid used the opportunity to follow up with a thrust down at its head. A loud crack echoed through the valley as bone and skull connected. The blow had further weakened the skull, but he still hadn't managed to penetrate through the damn thing. Reid readied himself again, hands on top of each other as the gripped the sword and thrust it down.
A claw shot out and into his leg as he slammed the blade down into the salamander's head. His sword broke through the skull and sliced into the salamander's brain - while the claw sliced through Reid's fibula and dug into his tibia. The kill notification popped into view, but Reid ignored it. He'd won the boss fight against the group's leader, but he was in bad shape.
His vision was blurry, and he felt ready to topple over at any moment. The boss salamander's claws scraped against his tibia as he disentangled himself from the beast. He cursed loudly at the pain, then cursed again as both legs gave out and he fell backwards to the ground. There was no time to think. He needed to triage his wounds.
Reid pulsed his senses through himself. The bite wounds were plentiful, but not too deep. If left alone, many of them might clot by themselves. The claw wounds on his back, right leg, and through part of his left leg were the worst of the lot.
He started with the back injury. It had nicked one of his lungs, and could more easily get infected since he was laid down on his back. He coughed and sputtered a bit when the pain and heat regrew lung tissue, but largely ignored the rest of the discomfort. He chose to treat the right leg next. The cut was deep and bled quite a bit, but there was no broken bone to worry about there.
He stitched together well enough that the bleeding stopped, and then moved on to the final severe injury. If he weren't in such a rush, Reid probably would have dedicated some time to thinking about why his left side seemed to take so much more damage than his right.
But his left leg was a mess, and he needed to work quickly. The wound was rough and mangled, and his fibula had been separated into multiple pieces where the claw went through it. He knit flesh and blood vessels together in small area bursts. Each burst slowly and painfully shifted a piece of fractured bone back towards the rest. It was only after he'd finished that Reid realized he had been screaming. He let himself keep going until his voice was raw, diving back in and forcing his body to repair itself all the while.
Pain was a funny thing. Sometimes it would be sharp, and others it would be an aching sensation. Some pain was at the surface, other pain would be bone deep. It could be debilitating, or it could help keep you awake when you should've passed out long ago.
Reid rode the wave of adrenaline that came with his body's overwhelming pain. He didn't stop to lessen his headache. He just pushed on, healing, then strengthening himself until he finally fell unconscious.
--
~ Marlene ~
Marlene's face was dark as she stared through binoculars into the valley. She'd been trailing the man since he grew a sword out of his arm back in the clearing. Louis and Oscar were close behind her, sharing nervous glances with one another.
The sword had been the first oddity. The second was how he had casually snapped it free - she'd heard the bone pop. Nobody just broke a bone and carried on as if nothing had happened. Except that this man did.
Investigating the clearing after he left confirmed that he'd spent some time there. There were still-dying fires, and multiple bodies. The salamander corpses matched up with the progress in her quest. She had assumed a group had to be responsible for the rapid kills, but they were instead the work of a single, dangerous man. His body language signaled that he wasn't looking for nor expecting any other people to be around in the woods, so Marlene was quite confident he had been fighting on his own.
That assumption was proven correct in a terrifying display of barbaric ferocity. He showed almost no understanding of basic tactics, his attacks and strikes were uncoordinated and ugly, but he decimated the attacking salamanders all the same. He took hits like he was made of iron, and hit back like a wrecking ball.
When he used a single kick to cave in the salamander's skulls, Oscar gasped audibly. She'd chastised him quiet, ignoring the fact that she'd been so engrossed in the fight that she forgot Oscar and Louis were watching things right behind her.
They all gasped when the tall salamander had entered the fight. Marlene watched it closely, with one other eye on her quest. The quest to kill five salamanders had been completed when the first waves were killed, but the next quest - which was automatically assigned again - showed no progress.
Kill Salamanders level 4 or higher (5/5) completed! Bonus xp awarded for high performance. Difficulty automatically increased based on performance.
*New Quest Assigned*
Kill salamanders level 10 or higher (0/3) (47:53:59)
*WARNING!*
Two-day timer automatically applied to quest. If the quest is not completed within the allotted timeframe, a beacon defense quest will automatically begin.
The level requirement was high enough that the beasts would likely be difficult to find, which was bad for their chances at completing the quest in 48 hours. Worse, the warning had changed from saying a defense quest would be assigned to saying that the defense quest would automatically begin. If they failed, Sanctuary would be attacked as soon as the timer was done.
When the big lizard finally went down, she got her confirmation.
Kill salamanders level 10 or higher (1/3) (47:40:22)
"Fuck." She muttered, drawing inquisitive looks from her two followers. She shook her head. "Sorry, it looks like we have to kill a few of the big ones to complete our next quest."
Both men gave meaningful glances out to the valley, then nodded.
They'd all focused back on the man when he started screaming and writhing on the ground. Marlene nearly dropped her binoculars. Oscar made a sign of the cross and muttered something unintelligible. Louis was very pointedly breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth to keep himself calm.
The rampaging barbarian had suffered serious injuries in the final fight against the big salamander, including something that looked like a broken leg. Those wounds visibly healed as if Susan were using her skill, stitching back together skin and bone. Except he appeared to be doing it himself. And it looked like it was very, very painful.
A lone man in the woods. Marlene wished she'd paid more attention when Sara had shown her the photo of Reid. If it was the girl's father, they could have a powerful ally. If it was anyone else, they had an unknown element to deal with. Even with Identify's upgrades, she had to be within 10 feet of a person to be able to see their information. She would need to wait until the man was asleep to get her answers.
Screams echoed out in the valley for another six hours before things finally fell silent and the man stopped writhing on the ground.
Oscar made another sign of the cross as they all neared the now-snoring man. Each one of them had weapons drawn. Marlene's pistol was pointed at the man's head.
When he was finally in range, she used her skill.
Identify Successful!
-
STATUS
Name: Reid Oliver Calderwall
Race: Human
Grade: G
Level: 7
Health: 94 / 150
STATS:
Constitution: 15
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 1
Perception: 1
Power: 19
SKILLS:
Strengthening [Basic]
Hardening [Common]
Calcification [Uncommon]
Petrification [Rare]
-
"Holy hell."
