Garden

It burns where you were cut, the biometal within you oozing slowly to fill in the gap, your own programmed structural processes reading the depth and severity of the wound before applying a sealant layer to keep the more delicate mechanisms within pristine. Your eyeless face glares in defiance, and bravery which you do not feel. But you have been in enough predator prey simulations to know that the one who flinches first in these confrontations would be the one who was on the backfoot.

Right now circles, hesitates, daring you to do something, to reveal some weaponry against it.

There is ignorance between the two of you, and just as you can feel the purity roiling from its form, it too can feel the dire need of your ideal, to overtake, to assimilate. It watched, unsure of your first move, now that you were aware of it unlike before. But it did not back down, did not slink back into the shadows, as a more ambush oriented hunter would have, instead it paced, and pawed at the ground, alert with anticipation on its roiling exterior.

It was a staring match of the faceless... and you would be the first to break the silent stares. Wondering heart cried out, its communications piercing the air with simple sound, pushing for a moment at which you could capitalize. Even as you watched your foe watch you, you banked on his attention being upon you so heavily that the presence of your detachment would startle it into rash action.

Even as your Wondering heart made its assault, you leaned forward in a toss, throwing the container of sticky sap, ripping away the biometal which had sheathed it even as it was flung.

But the beast surged forward with a single-mindedness which you had not expected, throwing itself forward so that only the barest amount of the sticky colloid clung to its body even as it raked you once more, slamming you into the ground and going in for a lunging bite.

Narrowly you avert your head being shredded by the first snap of its jaws, slamming the Wondering Heart directly into its head then Pulling from it magical pressure to fuel an attack utilizing Absorb Materials to rip the biometal from the surface of its leg which you grabbed, fingers curled about it even as the purity laced biometal rent and tore at it.

With a Heave you rip away the material, from the leg, then in the same motion push it into the enemy Vorid’s mouth as you pull once more with Energy Leech, to replenish yourself, before letting loose once more with Absorb materials to pull the ceramic support structure right out from its jaw, leaving both front leg and snapping mouth crippled in the process.

You try harder once more to kick its greater weight from off of your body, a success now as it recoils from your last spell, only for you to ram your fist into its head in hopes of fully removing it from pinning your person... that how ever does not work out as well as you had hoped, shattering the fist as it shifts it’s head, to use the teeth of the upper jaw like a saw blade in service to ripping at your flesh, whipping its head around as an awful sword, severing the arm completely as it connects.

Only more time you pull an Energy leech, draining away the last of its magical pressure and only barely filling your own to the brim once again.

This time you hold back nothing.

The Conquer’s Fist. A gift from the Mother... You unleash its might, slamming your unbroken hand into the hardened shell of the pristine breast, damaging fingers against the ideal and mechanisms of purification even as you drive the essence of corruption and conquest itself into its chest.

The black ball of hellish encroachment seethed and seeped in.

The beast screamed, tossing itself back from the source of this pain, freeing you completely this time.

But it does not last, empty as the creature’s own magical pressure reserves are, strong as its ideal of Purity burns, you can do little more than inflict further damage to it, not debilitating, merely discouraging.

It makes a hacking coughing sound. Unsure of what more you might be able to bring forth to the table as you stood, severely damaged but defiant.

The creature growls, it knows not that you are on your last legs, it knows not that you have nothing more to give. But it does know, that there is biometal within your lair... and as it slinks back, it slink into what had been your own. No longer did it need conflict with you as much as it felt it needed to heal and recuperate.

In the end, it feels that the resources are more important than the kill... and with grim fortitude, it withdrew into the lair which you had prepared.

You are damaged.

You are alone.

And you are without shelter...


What will you do?