Chapter 121 – Going Under

  “We have got to get that thirty cal. set up. This armored target thing is bullshit.” -Kristi to Kurt.

  “Kurt, I think you will need more room to maneuver.” Val sent over the implant. “The crocodile things are here.” She could count eight of them slowly sliding through the mucky swamp and a couple about to climb up the gentle slope.

  She was not exactly panicking but also saw that being trapped in a tunnel with these beasts would be a really bad time. Where before they had just looked like stretched alligators, she could now see them more clearly. Rather than the scutes being a slight bump or slightly pointy bit of scale, these beasts had long overlapping ones that glinted in the thin light streaming from above.

  Each of the nearly thirty-foot creatures was absolutely covered in thin razor-like protrusions that stuck up from everywhere except their underside. The crocodiles were brown in color but those spiky scales were a strange, almost translucent material devoid of color, looking more like bone than hide.

  “Understood. Moving now.” Kurt responded just as the first of Jades people popped out of the tunnel entrance right below where Val was hiding.

  Within a couple seconds, the rest of the troops were standing on the ledge, looking down the slope just as the first monster crawled out of the water on its surprisingly long legs. Doing so revealed that the spikes weren’t just on their back but also on their flanks.

  “Forties.” Kurt calmly commanded as he pulled out his launcher. It was one of the MIlkor multi shot launchers and all six of its chambers were filled with HEDP. “Drop a couple on them and see the effect.”

  Looking left and right Kurt saw Kristi only level her machinegun while two wolves on Gem squad pulled out single shot launchers. He raised his grenade launcher up to his shoulder and set the sight to the right distance before he pulled the trigger. Just after he fired, he heard a trio of soft bangs, one of which came from above and behind.

  Kurt’s shot went high, barely missing the monster as it sailed over head. The other three shots hit true, however. One took the lead croc in the shoulder but skipped up into the trees, another glanced off the front of its head and a third hit it square on in the base of the neck. All but the one that hit the neck glanced off and Val’s only detonated because it hit from above.

  BOOM. The grenade detonated and the croc pitched forward, its legs giving out as it thrashed. Kurt followed up with a second shot, aimed much lower this time and hit the beast in its chest, right between its front legs as it rolled over. The second explosion blasted off one of its legs and a large portion of its scaley underside in a gout of smoke and blood.

  “Use frags, try to roll them under them.” Kurt said to Jade as her two grenadiers fired their reloaded single shot launchers into the next croc, having little effect as the rounds once again glanced off its spiky and flexible hide.

  Val was still above the tunnel entrance as Kurt and crew spread out a little and began to prime then throw their grenades. She made good use of the higher vantage point as she fired a second shot into the first croc, making sure it was down. She was just thankful that they seemed to be slow or at least were slow in their walking up a hill.

  Four frag grenades bounced their way down the hill and into the path of croc’s two and three as they were the leading edge of the remaining giant reptiles. One of those grenades went awry, bouncing off a stone and slewing to the left where it detonated uselessly along the waterline. The other three stayed true to their path and landed just in front of the croc’s

  BOOM-BOOM… BOOM. The first two went off under the head of the leading monster, flipping the creature backward, throwing it down into the swamp where it thrashed and rolled after landing on its fellows. The third grenade had rolled the farthest and detonated in the mid-section of the remaining croc. It suffered a long split that ran across its belly, spilling purple entrails on the rocky slope as it feebly tried to continue crawling upward before expiring a moment later.

  The entire time that Kurt and the others had been throwing grenades, Val had been firing her launcher into the rear line of the monsters. She had used the remaining four grenades and, after missing twice to find the distance, landed two on one of the rear lines. The creature had tried to submerge after the first one but the second was only a moment behind, taking it in the top of the skull. She quickly reloaded, filling the cylinder with the last six rounds she had.

  Kristi had also been hard at work, having singled out one of the creatures in the middle of the pack. She was using her machinegun and short bursts to ‘test’ the armor on the monster. She had found that the face was rather well protected but the neck, just behind the jaws, was not so tough and had repositioned to take better advantage. She waited for the grenades to go off before moving along their line to get a better angle on the creatures.

  When she made her dash across the hillside, she found a nice rock that was a little over waist height and sturdy enough for her to brace against. She deployed the bipod legs on her machinegun, wedging them against the stone surface and leaning in while looking through her optic.

  BRRRRAT. BRRRAT. Kristi fired two long bursts into the neck of the croc monster and got immediate results. Those results were not the ones she was hoping for as the monster only flinched, curling instinctively and pointing its snout right at her, catching the second burst on its armored head.

  BOOM- BOOM. Just as Kristi was debating if she would be putting her new blade to the test, a couple forty-millimeter grenades impacted the back of the monster’s skull and dropped it. The body thrashed for a few moments, rolling down the slope and back into the swampy water where it eventually stilled.

  She looked up to see Val had reloaded her Milkor and was once again returning fire. “Last four rounds then I am out.” She told them through the implant.

  That left four… BOOM-BOOM…Three more of the creatures. Val was making use of the capacity of the grenade launcher to perform some impressive double taps. Naturally they were aided by the speed enhancing enchants that Kurt had put on their bracelets which made things slightly easier.

  A moment later, Kristi watched the last two grenades splash harmlessly into the swamp. The croc they were aiming at had suddenly ducked and both grenades passed harmlessly over its back. They also failed to explode as the soft muddy water cushioned enough impact to prevent them from detonating. That left the three monsters who seemed to be rather impervious to general small arms fire.

  Kurt quickly surveyed the scene, not quite needing the enchanted bracelet to think quickly as his elven mind already gave him a skewed perception of time. He knew that their regular guns wouldn’t work well on the beasts and Jade had already told him they didn’t have much in the way of HE forty-millimeter.

  “SHIFTING!” He called out before stowing everything in his ring. He made a mental note that he would have to fix that in the near future as manually storing things was becoming a pain.

  When there was suddenly a massive werewolf standing where a normal looking man once was, the closest of the crocs hesitated a moment, one foot raised and unsure if it should continue. It locked eyes with Kurt in a standoff, who would move first and who would get to react. A quick burst in the soft spot behind its jaws caused it to flinch, swinging its head toward the source of the pain.

  That slight opening, the little twist, was all that Kurt needed and he lurched forward, crossing the twenty yards in a flash as he struck with his claws. The upward swipe caused him to cut the throat of the crock, leaving a line of four deep slashed across its neck that pumped blood in gouts of arterial spray. The croc snapped its jaws, trying to track Kurt as he darted past but it missed his heels by a foot. It tried to follow, to turn and chase him down the hill but it just didn’t have enough life left in it after spraying the ground with its vitae.

  Continuing past the first croc, Kurt approached the second which had stopped short, its tail still mostly in the water after taking a defensive pose. Kurt began to circle, trying to keep it and the one next to it in sight. He was hoping to trip them up, maybe get them to sympathetically snap at each other. His plan was dashed a moment later as the croc lunged forward, its tail and long legs propelling it with surprising speed up the slope.

  Kurt dodged to the side, trying to slip past the creature. That would have succeeded if not for the fifth appendage that came whipping at him as the main body passed. His lunge for the throat was interrupted as the tail, covered in what were essentially organic razor blades, swatted him in the side, just below the ribs.

  Bones cracked and flesh parted, staining his fur red with blood from a deep wound which immediately healed. Worse was that the impact had sent him stumbling, landing poorly on his side while the croc pivoted to face him. Kurt looked for the last one but found that Jade and two of her wolves had shifted, all three circling as the rest of her squad peppered it with rifle fire while Kristi provided additional support.

  An instant after assessing the situation, Kurt rolled to the side, going down-hill toward the swamp as he avoided a pair of jaws that snapped at him. The thunderclap of those jaws coming together would have stunned him if he had been any closer to the source of the sound. Instead, he bounced to his feet, now below the croc which had once again turned and lowered itself for another lunge.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Scrambling backward, Kurt retreated out of range from the croc which had the added effect of drawing it away from its last remaining brethren who was beset by its own wolf pack. Kurt was eventually able to regain a little height advantage, circling and taking the high ground once again and cutting the range of the monsters lunging attack. A flash of movement caught his eye which made him try to distract the croc and buy a little time.

  Kurt shifted his features to allow for human speech. “It’s over Croc, I have the high ground!” He shouted, almost hearing the groan from Val over the implant and the necklace.

  The monster paused for a moment, its mouth closing slightly as it looked at Kurt like he had grown another head. It was suddenly alerted by the crunch of gravel but was too late in its turn as a shadow descended from above.

  Atop one of the larger boulders on that side of the slope, a shimmering shape had crept forward. It was nearly invisible to anything below it, but Kurt had seen the movement since he was so much taller. As the croc turned to face him, maneuvering to be slightly higher on the slope, it had unknowingly put its back to the attacker that struck from above.

  Val leapt from the boulder, holding her partisan in both hands with its blade pointed downward. She aimed for the spot just at the back of the skull where her grenades had been most effective against the creatures and pushed as much mana as she could into her weapon.

  The blade seemed to phase out of existence, being both real and a smoky illusion where the location of the weapon’s edge was always in question. Val tracked the slight turn of the crocs head as it reacted, angling the spear point and guiding her partisan until the last moment when she put her foot atop the cross bar and crouched, riding it down into the skull of the monster.

  It was a scene straight out of a movie, epic in its execution. Unfortunately, like most epic scenes in movies, this one didn’t quite work that way in the real world. The spear point easily sunk into the monsters neck, piercing in the small gap between plates and skull, then it hit bone.

  The croc monster had to weigh hundreds of pounds, likely approaching a ton. It was also rather large which meant that it had a skeleton to match. The spear bit in, sinking in a straight line until it hit bone where it was sent skittering to the side. While the blade diverted off bone, its wide base and cross guard were not so deflected by the hide, causing the shaft of the weapon to suddenly lurch to the side. This sudden lurch was then mixed with the flinch of the croc to fling Val off like a catapult.

  “FFFFUUUUcccccc…” The kitsune cried as she was launched into the swamp.

  Kurt wanted to rush to her but the croc was now thrashing wildly in his way. It bellied down and tried to roll to dislodge the partisan but only drove the point deeper, the sawing motion forcing the blade out the bottom of its neck. Blood ran from both wounds as the creature thrashed even harder, eventually dislodging the partisan only to die a few moments later from blood loss.

  “VAL!” Kurt half howled as he ran to where he thought she landed. He had to wade into the water, feeling the thin mud bottom under his toes as the surface rose to his knee. He was frantically looking into the water, trying to spot any sign of where she landed. “Val!” His deeper voice resonated through the trees again.

  “Uuupp here.” Came a groan of a response.

  Kurt looked up slightly, seeing that, while she had been launched into the swamp, Val hadn’t gone far. She hadn’t even gotten wet, instead landing in the trees and getting tangled in the thick upper branches and hanging vines.

  “OH, shit. Hang on, let-.” Kurt was suddenly pulled off his feet and under the water by a painful clamping sensation around his knee.

  *****

  Kristi stepped forward in a lunge, thrusting the spike of her poleaxe into the eye of the crocodile monster. An armored eyelid snapped shut just before the tip could make contact, deflecting it slightly but it still penetrated in the corner of the eye socket. She had abandoned her machinegun after finding the ammunition to be less than optimal in wounding the creature. Even her force magic had little effect against the scales when cast at a distance.

  She had found that her melee weapon responded rather nicely to her force aspect mana, the blade and spike becoming ludicrously sharp. It was also what had allowed her to score a few deep cuts into the unarmored joints which had slowed the monster. Those cuts were only able to be delivered because of the three werewolves loping around the beast. As they distracted it, she would dart in, lunging from afar to deliver a blow.

  Retreating after the stab, the croc swung its tail at her, trying to crush her beneath the mass of bladed scales. Kristi had already skipped backward, clearing the area and not over committing to the thrust. A second later, Jade swept past her, planting a paw on the croc’s head and slashing downward, once more pulling its focus to her as she darted past.

  In its rage, the crocodile over extended, giving Kristi just the opening she was waiting for. She once again lunged forward, spike nearly scraping the ground as the axe blade swept up. The blade caught the monster in the throat, slightly glancing off the back of the jaw but still cutting deep into its neck. With a twist of her hips and a jerk of her arms, she yanked the blade up and out, nearly severing the head of the monster.

  Unlike its fellows who thrashed spectacularly in their death throws, this croc only slumped to the ground, snapping futilely with its jaws in its last fading moments. Finally seeing the fight completely drained from the monster, Kristi’s tunnel vision faded and she could hear the world around her again. She had been so singularly focused that she hadn’t seen what became of the crocodile Kurt had taken on.

  “VAL!” She heard him shout in that strange half wolfen voice and turned to see his giant form wading into the water as his head looked back and forth.

  Kristi heard Val’s muttered response as she began making her way to them, seeing that Kurt had locked onto their kitsune lover as she dangled from the branches overhead. She then saw a short, arrow shaped head break the water for a split second near his leg. A moment later, he was being dragged away, his lupine nose only bobbing up above the surface as he was pulled deeper into the swamp.

  “KURT!” She screamed, rushing toward the water in time to see a thrashing Val suddenly fall into the shallow and murky liquid.

  Val quickly regained her footing, summoning her rifle and looking at the trail of disturbed water and mud. “What was that?” She asked as Kristi reached her.

  “Snake I think.” Kristi responded, barely out of breath as she skidded to a halt at the edge of the water. “I’m goi-.” Her words were cut off as the sounds of splashing and breaking wood suddenly rang out from within the swamp.

  A deep bass snarling growl was the under tone of the noises with a few slightly higher pitched yipping sounds. Before she could continue her earlier thought, three wolves, one of which an alpha, raced past her, throwing themselves into the swamp and making their way toward the disturbance. Val sprinted up the hill, grabbing her spear before returning to the edge of the water.

  Sharing a look, both Kristi and Val followed after. They moved at a much slower pace as the water was up to their mid-thigh in most places but they used the small strips of land or roots to speed up whenever possible. Their progress was accompanied by the growing noise of a fight and some truly awful sounds.

  There came a scraping sound that sounded like someone taking the scales off a fish followed by a high-pitched hiss. That hiss was quickly cut off by a booming snap. Then another snap that didn’t have the echoing report to it but sounded much more… crunchy. The next sound was hard to hear over their sloshing progress but it quickly gave Kristi the impression that the fight was nearly over.

  The sound of squelching mixed with the occasional popping noise echoed between the trees. It sounded like an ogre chewing bubblegum to Kristi. A sudden movement drew their focus to the fight they had been following. Just ahead, a black shape moved between trees and Val pointed it out, identifying one of the werewolves on Jade’s squad. The darting shape was shortly followed by the familiar chestnut brown of Jade in her alpha werewolf form.

  Jade and her two pack mates were circling around what could have been an epic carving in a temple depicting the struggle of two monsters. Or perhaps a still form a Hollywood movie as this one had a lot of color to it.

  Kurt was half standing in hip deep water, surrounded by flotsam of shredded trees and vines. Wrapped around his waist was a massive brown and tan serpent that had latched its jaws onto his shoulder where blood trickled down onto previous bite marks on his hide. What this constrictor was fool enough to attempt was to get into a biting match with something that could easily twist to return a bite.

  A snarling muzzle had turned and bit deeply into the snake’s thick body, just behind its head. He had his hands wrapped around its body, a few feet below where he had bitten onto it and was now…chewing.

  The squelching and popping noise was coming from Kurt as he chewed his way through the neck of the snake. He was making swift progress as blood flowed from the gaping wound that was missing more than was left holding the creature together.

  CRUNCH. “Ugh. Pretty sure that was spine…” Kristi said while watching the spectacle.

  “Ho-how do you know t-t-that?” Val asked while trying hold down her lunch.

  “If you live around dragons long enough, you see how dragons eat.” SQUEALCH-POP.

  “Ah.” Val said before turning and quickly wading back over to a spot of exposed tree root and vomiting.

  The sound of a kitsune puking her brains out was covered by another crunching and a loud tearing before… SNAPPP-CRUNCHCH, SPLASH. Kurt dug his claws into the body of the snake and pushed down, hard. While his hands went down, his head jerked up and he decapitated the snake, letting its body fall into the water to thrash, stirring the muddy bottom into a brown froth.

  The splashing was followed by low, rumbling whine as Kurt then gripped the head of the snake and began to pull it away from where it had latched on like a lamprey. He growled and chuffed as he forced a few fingers into the mouth lined with rows of backward facing teeth then shoved the head forward while prying the jaws open.

  Finally, he was able to unhook the head and tossed it into the water where it bobbed along for a moment until it drifted out of sight. Kristi watched in fascination as the wounds sealed over, the skin and fur growing back instantly. The other three wolves all came closer, sniffing and circling the dead body that had mostly stilled.

  “FUuuuuuuckk.” He groaned, the noise turning into a growling howl. He shook his head before his glowing amber eyes locked with hers.

  She was frozen in place as he took a few steps forward, bringing his blood-stained muzzle down to her level and sniffing deeply. “Are you ok? Where is Val?” His voice was colored by worry and distorted by his lupine anatomy.

  “Her-ubgluah…eer” Val called from where she was still heaving out the contents of her stomach.

  “Did you have to go and chew through the neck?” Kristi asked. She was able to put a little sass into the question after being reassured that Kurt wasn’t out of his mind.

  “Not his fault- huptff- snakes are all neck-heeccak-ptwah.” Val called out between dry heaving and spitting.

  “Let’s just find this fucking core and get the hell out of this swamp.” Kurt grumbled after seeing both of them were safe. “Hop on.” He said and turned his back to Kristi, crouching slightly to give her better access.

  “Are you sure?” Kristi asked but Kurt didn’t have time to answer before a high pitched noise assaulted his ears.

  “EEEEEE! YES!” Val cried as she abandoned her chosen sick spot and rushed over to clamber up his back. “I have been waiting to ride you while shifted.”

  “Funny.” Kristi commented dryly as she followed after Val. “I figured you would want him to ride you while shifted.”

  Kurt snorted in amusement as Val turned a very brilliant shade of scarlet. Together they moved off to find the core with the rest of the wolves in tow as the remaining three had finally caught up in their human forms. Nobody said anything, not even the small half fey who followed along in their wake.