Chapter 51: Outnumbered
1120 Words
Luther saw that Eric had been knocked down by the Otyugh. He realized it would be better to let the lizard kill him so Luther wouldn’t have to.
Now he just had to hold off the lizards and buy time for Elena to climb across safely.
Luther looked at the rope and found that Elena was over halfway there. He was relieved.
But while he was distracted, a lizard attacked him from the side.
He could sense danger coming from the left, but it was too fast for him to dodge it. He had to turn and take it head on.
Luther hadn’t used his water powers very much. But he was going to need it even more than he needed his ice powers now.
A thick curtain of water fell around him. Because there was so much rain falling now, he could use that water instead of making his own. This was much faster for him, and it didn’t even take very much energy on his part. He felt surprisingly powerful now.
He felt so powerful, not only was he faster and manipulating the water around him, but he was able to create ice armor on his body quicker.
Luther quickly made a breastplate of thick ice for himself. Even under the dark sky, any light around him reflected off his armor like a mirror.
Now that his defense was up, the shrouded zombie was unable to reach him.
Luther reached back and was about to slice at the monster through the curtain of water while it was standing still. But he sensed more oncoming attacks from his side. Another corpse was coming for him now.
Luther changed his fighting style and turned his blade on his side to protect himself.
The zombie showed itself now, exactly where he knew it would be.
Although the zombie stopped in its tracks, a green bubble grew from its chest. An Otyugh crawled out from it. It shot its tongue at Luther. Even with his frozen armor, he knew he couldn’t let its acid come near him.
Luther turned sideways. The poison tongue missed him and only grazed his armor. It burned straight through the outer layer, making it look distressed and broken.
Although Luther could heal his armor and reseal the break, it took up more energy than he was ready to use. He left it the way it was.
The Otyugh was in the body of the zombie. It had become so much more powerful when controlling the corpse.
They were very quick to think and react, so whenever they missed their shot, they would turn invisible to prepare their next attack,
The Otyugh attacked Luther from the other side, making him struggle to keep up.
He was very patient, but now he was getting annoyed by this tactic.
From the corner of his eye, Luther could see even more lizards crawling out from inside the tank. He knew he had to find some other way to fight them off.
I have to find a way to corner them and prevent them from surrounding me. Luther thought. I’m going to have to limit their attacks.
From his side, another Otyugh attacked Luther. Luther built up his armor to be even stronger.
His armor was cracked, but he didn't care. The lizard in the corpse stuck its head out to shoot out its tongue again. But an icicle stuck straight up from the ground.
The icicle slid through the body easily, from the zombie’s bottom to its head.
Inside the zombie’s chest, the impaled lizard couldn’t leave the body.
Luther watched as the Otyugh tried to crawl out.
"I’m done playing your little game."
He waved his blade and the zombie was cut in half.
It was so sharp that the top half of the body fell to the ground instantly.
Without its legs, the torso of the corpse tried to drag itself up with only the use of its hands. It had become worthless.
Luther did the exact same thing to three other zombies that were being controlled by Otyughs.
In a matter of minutes, the zombie bodies were almost all deemed useless for the lizards to control.
The lizards had lost their host bodies and crawled out into the open.
Four lizards were now on the rooftop and invisible.
Luther found that it was harder to sense the smaller ones.
Before he could sense it, he saw a black shadow rush at him. It was fast enough to take him by surprise.
He was lucky, though. The lizard showed itself right before it reached him. Luther saw it and lashed out with his sword, injuring it badly.
The Otyugh was weak and Luther simply kicked it away.
These lizards outside were a lot tougher than the one he had fought inside the stairwell.
Luther looked around cautiously. The Otyugh he kicked away had turned invisible again.
The rain was incessant, and the wind wasn’t dying down. The door to the roof was swaying back and forth. The sound of the rain hitting the metal door added an eerie effect to the scene in front of him.
Luther dodged another attack. But there was yet another one coming for him, and he was almost too late to dodge it.
He sensed something was coming for his waist now.
Luther could only see a dark shadow rushing towards him. Luther twisted his body but didn’t dodge the attack completely.
The lizard’s corrosive tongue hit Luther's armor and penetrated it easily.
Luther withdrew a few steps and quietly sealed the gap with more ice.
He was afraid that he was going to lose this fight if he had to keep fixing his armor.
These lizards had the advantage of turning invisible, but that didn’t mean they had vanished. Their bodies were still there, even if he couldn’t see them.
There were two kinds of invisibility. One was like a chameleon. Allowing it to blend with its surroundings. This kind of invisibility was terrifying. It was based on the angle the object was being viewed at, so it would show itself by its movement.
The other kind of invisibility was transparency, which would let the creature look as if it had vanished into thin air. Nothing would reveal the whereabouts of that creature, not even its surroundings.
The Otyugh had the second kind of invisibility. Luther had seen it before in movies. If he wanted to see them even when they were cloaked, he’d have to coat it with a pint or something colorful that would stick to its body.
But he didn’t have access to anything like that.
But there was another way. He could injure the creatures. That would make it harder for them to cloak themselves.
They wouldn’t disappear. If he could just attack them from further away, he wouldn’t be in as much danger.
The rain gave Luther an idea. He could use it to send a spray attack. Although water wasn’t enough to harm these creatures, maybe ice would do the trick.
- Writer
