Knights of Rhimellot (Day 4) 1/2

“C’mon everyone! Let’s get movin’!” Fiakhiss yelled from outside the tents. “Faster we kill this thing, more time for fuckin!” I groaned as Katli’s mass shuffled from on top of me, she was never an early bird, or harpy I should say.

By the time I managed to wake up and drag myself out of the tent, all of the mamono and knights were already in a meeting lead by Terry.

“Alright. We make our way up Blackholde mountain and wait outside the Cleesean cave scouting for the beast.”

“We’re going straight in, no game plan?” The mantis chimed in.

“We have no idea what we’re working with. Could be one wyvern, could be a thousand liches. Let’s agree to stick together until we see what we’re up against.”

“No problem for me!” The alraune spoke out. “I’m not letting anything happen to this guy!” She squeezed one of the knights in a viney embrace. The ant girl gave her a thumbs up.

“Alright then. We’ll continue in the path and up the mountain to the cave, do NOT enter, though. We’ll do some recon and see if we witness anything.” Murmurs and nods came from the group. With a plan in motion, we set up the mountain.

********************

The whole trek up I imagined the horrors we would face. Slime girl? Dragonkin? Blood-thirsty lamia? Only time would tell for our efforts.

Then came my pessimism. ‘We won’t be strong enough.’ ‘It’s all a ruse.’ ‘We’ll be trapped.’ Those horrible thoughts flooded my mind as we crept up the jagged rocks. Low and behold, we eventually came the cave.

We peered over some rocks to see the entrance. Piles of bones and skulls were strewn about the clearing in the front, various weapons and armor rusted from the elements...

And a fluffy little baby bunny.

“A were-rabbit?” Katli asked. “The hell is she doing here?” The white fluffy mass just hopped about the gravel, unaware of the crowd now watching her. We must’ve made too much noise because she turned her attention to us.

“Where’s the beast?” I began. “Is it behind-“ The largest clawed paw I’d ever seen snapped out from in the cave, nearly as big as the were-rabbit. The bunny’s head snapped clean off as her lifeless body was dragged back inside the ominous black cavern as a low grumble echoed out from within.

“Jesus Christ!” The bunyip squealed. She coiled herself around the knight she had taken before and began to slither down the trail. “We’re outta here!” We stared at the two as they left our vision down the steep rocky hill.

“I agree.” The mantis shouted, grabbing her knight.

“Me as well.” The ant screamed, following in the footsteps of the others. “I’m not dying today!” That left is with 10 now, a good amount, but I had no idea if it’d be enough to take down whatever that... thing is.

“Look.” The bicorn began. “You didn’t come all the way from wherever the hell you came from just to back down! Let’s get in there!”

“Yeah, but I want to live!” One knight shouted. It was too late, the three mamono who had joined in last night were already rushing inside.

********************

The cave was (of course), dark, good thing the owl mage lit a small fireball to help us see. It didn’t help much as we crept through the winding maze of stalactites and boulders strewn along our way.

The deeper we went, the more complex and nastier it got, I nearly threw up. We thought the creature had gone a different pathway then us.

“Good, maybe it’s afraid!” Katli snickered to herself before suddenly stopping. She looked into the air. Now, I have seen her scared, but now she was mortified.

The creature that stood before us was something out of any humans worst nightmare, I’m sure even most mamono would fear the monstrosity that beaconed above us...

An Ushi-Oni...
Manticore...
Hellhound...
Chimaera...

The sand green arachnid legs stomped onto the ground cracking the stone beneath the large claws. The black toned body was covered with battle scars and multiple shredded pieces of red cloth adorned with ancient ruins. A fleshy, quilled tail sprouted out from the abdomen, a small mouth opening on the end.

The creatures face was another sight to behold. I heard of flames being seen in Hellhounds eyes, but not literally balls of fire with slits. The shadow left by the large horns made the eyes appear like a crescent sun. The beast hadn’t seen us...

I hoped...

“Shh...” Fiakhiss ordered as we stepped back. Slowly... Slowly...

*CRASH*

Oh fuck

OH FUCK

The beast darted her attention at the sudden noise of a few stray boulders that had collapsed behind us. The look of the beasts fiery haze sent chills down my spine, a sense of both overwhelming panic at the looming feeling of danger left me in a trance as the group screamed in terror. The monster rushed toward us as Katli dragged me out of the way of the impact.

“Watch out!” I screamed as I became fully aware of the situation. The chimaera slammed into the wall of boulders before letting out a guttural roar that shook the entire cave.

“Quick!” Terry shouted at the owl. “Try flying up and distract it!” He pulled out his sword. “I’ll stab its legs. Eric, deal with the tail!”

Great, THAT part.

I could see the hesitation in everyone’s eyes, but we went forward with the plan, mostly because the beast was already charging at us.

This would get ugly...