Shriek
1523 Words
Everybody scram!” Israel yelled, his voice filled with anger.
He gently placed Luke on the ground and immediately dashed toward the heavily injured crab. As he closed the distance, Israel began firing arrows rapidly.
The arrows themselves did no visible damage. They simply lodged into the cracked part of the crab’s shell.
Israel stopped firing—
BOOM!
Every arrow mounted on the crab armor shells exploded at once.
The detonations tore across the crab’s already damaged body.
The beast had already been severely weakened by the active skill the shield has, and the explosions pushed it beyond its limit.
The giant crab released a deafening shriek. They all covered their instinctively.
Moments later, the beast collapsed.
It was finally dead.
Amber, Jogo, Sil, and Miles—who had been pushed away by the earlier shockwave—ran back toward Luke. His condition was critical.
“Sil! Help me carry him,” Amber said urgently.
Sil and Amber carefully placed Luke on Miles’s back so they could return to where their Beast mech were to treat his wounds.
Then—
CRACK.
A sharp sound echoed from the direction of the lake.
Israel instantly raised his bow.
Jogo formed a glowing sphere of light energy in his hand.
Sil and Amber froze.
They all turned toward the frozen lake.
The Ground Tremble.
From the water, small crabs began crawling out.
They were far smaller than the giant one they had just fought, they were as big as a cow.
And coming out in great numbers
The crabs began charging toward the group.
“Ahhh! This was supposed to be a light hunt!” Israel shouted as he fired arrow after arrow.
Explosions erupted across the battlefield.
Unlike the giant crab, these smaller ones couldn’t withstand the explosive arrows.
The blasts ripped them apart easily.
Israel grinned.
“Jogo! Distract them with me! Amber—Sil— Miles take Luke!”
Jogo hurled balls of light that blasted into the charging crabs. both him and israel lead the crab towards another direction.
Amber handed Sil a bow as they were running towards the direction of their Mechs
“Give this to Jogo or Israel. They know what to do,” she said before running off with Miles, who carried Luke on his back.
Sil sprinted toward Israel and Jogo's direction
—
A crab lunged at him.
Sil instantly drew his sword.
With a powerful swing—
SLASH!
He cut off one of its claws.
“If I use enough strength, I can cut through their armor,” Sil muttered.
He stabbed the wounded crab through the head, killing it instantly.
Another crab attacked.
Sil blocked the incoming claw with the sharp base of his blade and twisted his sword, tearing through the beast’s shell.
He didn’t stop moving.
“I have to get to them and assist,” he thought.
Both Israel and Jogo relied heavily on abilities that consumed soul energy. If they ran out before dealing with all these beasts, they would be forced into close combat.
And that could get them killed.
Sil spotted another crab.
He threw his sword.
The blade pinned itself deep into the creature’s hard shell.
Sil jumped onto the crab’s back, grabbed his sword, and dragged it downward with all his strength—
SPLIT!
The crab was cut in two.
Looking ahead, he finally saw them.
Israel and Jogo were on top of a thick, wide tree.
Jogo launched spears of light that pierced through the crabs with ease.
Israel fired explosive arrows that blasted the climbing beasts apart.
Both fired their ability relentlessly at the beast that was below and the once try to climb up to them
Sil charged towards the beast hordes killing four beasts that charged towards him
Israel fired an arrow.
But it didn’t explode.
“He’s out of energy,” Sil realized.
Just then, a crab climbed toward Israel.
Sil reacted instantly.
And used his sword throwing technic like he did earlier killing the crab before it could attack.
Using the other crabs’ shells as stepping stones, Sil sprinted toward the tree.
He dodged snapping claws and leaped upward.
Moments later, he climbed onto the tree.
Jogo turned toward him.
“What are you doing here?, Israel asked
Sil pointed toward the bow Amber had given him.
Nice she that's our tickets out of here, Jogo said, pour some SL Energy onto that bow
“Sil started—pour some of your soul energy into the bow.
Once you're done, give it to me.”
Sil did as told.
“Israel kicked away another crab climbing the tree.
They hold off their own against the beast that was climbing up the tree for some minutes as Sil fully channels his energy— on the bow
They heard a c***k!
The tree shook violently.
“Damn it!” Jogo cursed.
“They've been cutting the tree so they could bring us down to the ground all along”
The massive tree collapsed.
As it fell, Jogo threw the bow toward Sil.
The three of them crashed to the ground.
A huge cloud of snowy dust filled the battlefield.
Inside the dust cloud, the trio prepared themselves.
Israel pulled Sil’s sword from a dead crab.
“We’re in a tough one,” Jogo said.
Another crab lunged at them.
Jogo blasted it with a light sphere, burning a hole through its body.
Three more were attacked.
Israel kicked one back, sliced off another’s claw, and threw the severed limb toward the one he kicked.
BOOM.
The claw exploded on impact.
Sil watched in surprise.
“He’s good… combining his ability in versatile ways.”
Meanwhile, Sil focused on pouring soul energy into the bow.
Jogo formed a dagger of light and stabbed another crab.
Finally, the dust settled.
“Jogo!” Sil called.
Jogo ran toward him.
Sil handed him the bow.
“That’s enough,” Jogo said with a smile.
Ahead of them was a larger wave of crabs.
They had black shells that looked thicker and stronger than the previous smaller ones they faced.
But Jogo simply raised the bow toward the sky.
“Doesn’t matter how many you are.”
He drew the string.
“Light Rain.”
A beam of light shot into the sky.
The entire area was swallowed in blinding brilliance.
In an instant—
Light began raining from above.
Hundreds of beams fell from the sky like divine punishment.
All the crabs touched by the light died instantly.
When the light faded…
The battlefield was silent.
The entire swarm was dead.
Sil stared in awe at the countless corpses.
“Surprised?” Israel said while extracting soul crystals from the beasts.
“Amber gave you that bow because she knew what it was capable of.”
Israel held up the weapon.
“the name of the weapon is"Decayed Horn". It stores soul energy and When an ability is used through it, the power of the ability increase expentionaly.”
“But once it's used, it can only be used after it's three hours' cool down.”
Sil nodded slowly.
“That's one strong Bow you guys have.
“Well,” Jogo replied proudly, “it was crafted from an Emperor-tier beast we defeated in a dungeon.”
As they continued collecting the crab crystals, they heard a shriek.
They turned.
One crab was still alive.
It had lost several legs, and its shell was cracked.
“I’ll finish it,” Jogo said, stepping forward.
“Wait,” Israel said suddenly.
“Don’t kill it. Let Sil tame it.”
He grinned.
“ it weak enough to be tame right, Sil?”
“This would be interesting,” Jogo said as he stepped aside.
Sil approached the weakened crab and stretched out his hand.
A faint glow shimmered on the top surface of the crab’s shell.
Then—
The light vanished.
Sil blinked.
“It worked… I successfully tamed a beast.”
But suddenly—
WHOOSH.
The crab lifted its remaining claw and stabbed itself through the chest.
Sil jumped back in shock.
The beast collapsed, dead.
Israel and Jogo stared in disbelief.
“Sil… what the hell was that?” Israel asked.
“Did you tell it to do that?”
“Why would I ?” Sil said, confused.
“I did everything right…”
“That’s sick,” Jogo added.
Trying to ease the tension, Israel shrugged.
“Maybe it was already dying. I’ll just remove the crystal.”
Once they finished collecting the crystals, they headed toward the giant crab’s corpse.
But when they arrived—
Jogo froze.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…”
The giant crab’s body was gone.
Israel crouched and examined the ground.
Something had dragged it.
The marks were clear in the snowy ground.
Straight back into the lake.
Israel slowly stood and looked toward the dark water.
“Something pulled it back in.”
He turned to the group.
“lets heading back and regroup.”
He kept his eyes on the lake as they headed back.
“Before whatever dragged that beast… comes back.”
- Writer
