Risen World

Chapter 43: Surprise Assault

Joshua raced out of the mansion and looked up towards the sky to see what exactly the cause of the noise was. That's when his eyes traced a purple trail of smoke flying just above the farm. The scene was similar to what he had seen on the broadcast with Nathan as the purple trail quickly descended as it flew over his head and crashed right outside the front gate of the fence. Joshua and many others rushed over to defend the base, as the guards at the gate pulled out their bows and aimed at the haze. By the time Joshua and the others had made it to the gate the haze was slowly starting to clear. Laura and Madalyn rushed over to him ready to attack whatever emerged from the smoke, while Natalie rushed to the top of one of the wooden towers so she could get a clearer shot at their enemy.

For a moment things grew quiet as everyone waited to see what would come of the situation. Then two enormous wings stretched out from the haze before spreading out wide. Just from their size Joshua new they were up against at least a sub boss. Whatever the thing was, its wingspan was over thirty feet and judging by the faint outline he could make out from the haze it was close to two stories tall. When the wings had spread out as far as they could they suddenly smashed downward causing all of the haze to blast into their surroundings. After a moment of covering themselves from the dirt and debris from the action everyone was finally able to get a good look at what they were up against.

The monster towered over the fence line as its glowing purple eyes looked around its surroundings. Its wings folded in since they were connected to its arms that were now pushing it up to its full height. If Joshua were to describe its looks then he would definitely say it reminded him of a bat, but with a thinner frame as it almost looked sickly and a far larger mouth. Its jaw seemed to fold into its face like that of some insects, but that was a sign that it was clearly able to open it far wider than its head would suggest at first site. It also had a rather long tale that was extremely whip like as it slowly motioned back and forth as the creature sized them up. Its skin was extremely dark which would make things harder for them sense it was turning dark and it would be harder to follow its movements without good lighting.

As everyone stared on in shock one of the farmers that held a bow tensed up in fear and accidentally let an arrow fly. It languidly flew past the giant creature as the man's panicked aim was horrendous. The monsters eyes followed the path of the arrow before turning to look toward the man who had shot it. "Get to cover!" Joshua shouted as a bad feeling started to course through his veins. In the very next moment the creature's expandable jaw opened showing four large fangs and several rows of teeth before letting out a loud screech. The sound was extremely shrill and caused an instant pain to Joshua's ears. It was incredibly disorienting causing him to have to right his self before turning his attention back towards the monster.

That's when he saw that although it was just a screech for him, for the man it was directed at it was far worse. Ripples could be seen passing through the air in his direction, but they seemed to only stir up the wind at first glance. Then when the screeching stopped everyone looked on in disbelief as the poor guys ears started to drip blood, followed by his nose and mouth. Then he slumped to the ground as his body stopped moving all together. The monster seemed to smile before it jumped and used its wings to push off into the air before soaring over the fence and off around the estate.

Joshua was preparing to chase after it when he saw it effortlessly swoop down and pick up someone with its clawed feet before tossing the man into the air. The man's panicked scream could be heard as he started to fall from the sky, but before he could reach the ground the creature flashed by and chomped down on him only leaving an arm to fall into the grass after it flew away once again. It had what Joshua assumed was a giant smile on its face as it seemed to enjoy toying with its food.

"Damn it, get to cover. Hide under the stands or by the fence so it can't get to you so easily." Joshua shouted once again before gritting his teeth. This was the first time he was forced to watch one of his people killed before his eyes in such a way. It was a horrible feeling, but no one was expecting an attack like this on their base. The fact that the creature could fly was a whole different problem to deal with. At the moment the only things he had to use on hand were his fire axe and combat knife sense the rest of his gear was still back in the mansion. Many of the others were also here without their equipment outside of the guards who were on duty.

"How the hell are we supposed to kill this thing?" Dave shouted back as he moved towards one of the large stands to help people get to safety. His two brothers were doing something similar while Natalie tossed them some of the bows and arrows that were kept in the wooden tower for them to use.

'We're going to have to get it on the ground somehow.' Joshua responded through the mental link. 'If we don't there's no way we'll be able to hit it at the speed it's able to fly around.'

'My flame spells are to slow to hit it at the rate it's moving.' Laura replied as she headed over next to Joshua.

'Same goes for me, my acid takes a while to form before I can shoot it. By then it would have already passed by and attacked us.' Madalyn said as well as she picked up one of the bows Natalie had thrown down. Just as Joshua was about to reply the monster made another dive as it was passing over them. This time its target rolled out of the way before its maw could reach him, but the monsters tail lashed out and tore its victim in half. The monster flew off before any of the arrows people were shooting at it could hit.

'Natalie, you think you could hit a shot? If we can poison it a bit we might have a better chance of taking it down.' Joshua said through the mental link while running closer towards the tower she was on.

'Leave it to me.' She calmly replied. As she knocked one of the stronger poisoned arrows Madalyn had made for her. She watched as the monster turned around as it glided past the mansion and back before once again heading in their direction. It seemed that it had found its next target as it started head towards a man that had yet to reach the stands. As it locked in on him Natalie took a deep breath and released the string in her finger tips. The arrow soared through the air at a fast pace as it headed for the location of the man. Just as the creature opened its maw as it dived down to engulf the terrified man and arrow smashed into its eye causing it to pull back up into the air in surprise before letting out a pained screech.

'Nice shot, but be careful. These things tend to be vengeful.' Joshua said as he had almost reached the wooden tower that Natalie was on. Just as he had said the enraged creature had now turned its focus onto her as it let out another loud screech before turning around and heading towards the tower in its blinded rage. Joshua could already tell the poison was starting to work, because now he could clearly see its movements instead of having to react to a blur.

This time around Natalie moved closer to the edge of the tower before notching another arrow. She was going to try to get in one last shot before escaping its incoming attack. When the massive monster got close enough she released another arrow before jumping off the tower. She landed with a role before standing up and looking to see if she hit her mark, but instead of taking out its other eye it had moved its head out of the way and took the blow into its shoulder.

The monster crashed through the wooden tower not to soon after Natalie had jumped, but its attack wasn't over. Its whip like tail went slashing towards Natalie at a speed she wouldn't have been able to completely avoid, but luckily Joshua had arrived at the scene just in time. Instead of moving her out of the way though, he decided this was the perfect time to get rid of one of the creature's most annoying weapons. Since it was so focused on Natalie it didn't take notice of Joshua sanding a ways ahead of her as he swung his axe as hard as he could at the tail that was passing by. The force of the blow from the tail was enough to send Joshua sliding onto his back, but on the other side a large portion of the long tail was now squirming on the ground.

It let out another loud screech as blood now rained down from its wound. If it was like all the other creatures they had fought before it would end up healing, but it seemed like appendages took far longer to heal than cuts or stab wounds. The only reason its eye hadn't yet healed was because the arrow was still lodged into it. As the creature soared off once again wailing in pain, Joshua raced up one of the stands as a plan started to form in his mind. 'Guys get ready to attack it when I say so. I'm taking this thing out of the air.' He said getting a sense of agreement in return.

The creature turned back around as it locked on to Joshua who was now standing on one of the long walk ways. It started to fly towards him as it inhaled a large breath of air before screeching once again. Joshua raced ahead of its attack making sure to avoid the deadly sound waves. He led the creature away from the others as it closed in on him. When he was starting to run out of room to run he started to pace himself as the creature started to close in on him. That's when just at the last second Joshua jumped into the air a s high as he could making sure to lift his legs up as well to avoid the monster crashing into the walk way beneath him. He then landed on its back and stabbed into it with his combat knife to avoid falling off.

The scene caught the others off guard, but lots of the town people cheered him on as they saw the creature whine in pain from the stab into its back. Joshua made sure to keep a good grip as it started to spin trying to peel him off. The jerky movements were nauseating, but Joshua hung on for dear life until the monster finally stopped and turned back around. It seemed to think that it had gotten rid of its unwanted company and flew back to make another pass and attack the group once again.

Joshua pulled himself further up the creatures back while keeping close to its body so the heavy winds wouldn't blow him off to the ground below. When he got just above its wings and behind its head he shouted through the mental link. 'Madalyn get ready to melt its wings off. Laura you prepare for the kill, start charging one of those spinning fire spears and aim for its chest.'

'Alright.' They both replied. When the monster got close enough to the group Joshua made his move. He lunged forward and towards the left wing. He made sure his momentum was heading in the direction of his target sense the moment he left its body he would quickly fall behind. In the next instant he swung out his axe with one arm and plunged it into the thin membrane of its wing. There wasn't much resistance which caused him to slide all the way down the wing at a fast pace. The monster let out a pained shout as it fell off balance and crashed into the ground not too far away from the rest of the group. Joshua jumped off beforehand then started rolling to a stop after landing.

Before the monster could regain its composure Joshua jumped back onto its back and climbed up it without being noticed. It stood up on its hind legs and stretched outs its wings once again to inspect what had gone wrong, that's when Joshua shouted through the mental link. 'Madalyn melt its other wing NOW!' She nodded in reply before the large cloud that she had been condensing ever since Joshua jumped onto the monsters back the first time was aimed towards the monsters one working wing. The next instant acid sprayed out from in front her out stretched hand and landed all over its wing causing the creature to shriek once again in pain as it flailed about. Joshua hung on for his life as he waited for it to calm down.

Then the monster turned its rage towards its attacker, but seemed to freeze up at the sight in front of it. Its body tensed up as it could see one of the puny humans in its sights condensing what looked like a large flaming spear that started to spin in rapid pace. It could fill the massive threat that attack was to it so it decided to deal with it beforehand. In that moment the creature reared up once again and sucked in a lot of air before turning in Laura's direction. She was sweating at the effort of trying to form her attack before the monster could kill her, but she knew she would be too late at this rate.

Just as the monster was about to open its large mouth and send out its sonic screech Joshua jumped from its back and slammed the axe as hard as he could into its skull. The blow made a large crunching sound as the blade lodged into its head before Joshua pulled with all his strength. The pain and the sudden pull caused the monster to turn its large head up towards the sky as it let out its attack harmlessly. 'KILL IT NOW!' Joshua shouted through the mental link so they could hear him over the monsters sound waves.

In the next moment Laura released her attack sending it crashing through the creature's chest. In a split second the giant spear spun through it leaving an enormous hole that took up most of its chest area. The flames continued to burn around the area of contact. For a while the monster continued to stare up into the air before slowly falling to the side and crashing into the ground. Its breathing had come to a stop and its body had stopped producing the haze. Joshua fail off its head where he had been hanging on for dear life and pulled his self-up off the ground. He walked back over to where his axe was lodged into its skull before pulling it out and smashing it into its head over and over again until he could see what looked like a large red stone where a brain should be.

Joshua stepped aside before waving Laura over and handing her the axe. "You get to kill it, don't want it to go to waste." He said with an exhausted smile. Laura simply nodded before lifting the axe and slamming it into the stone repeatedly until it shattered. A wave of strength seemed to fill her body and she looked towards the other two girls to see that they had felt the same thing. After it was officially dead its body started to crumble away and fade into purple smoke, leaving behind a lot for Joshua and the others to have to deal with.