Cheg-Cheg reached the foothills a few thousand feet beneath Krak. The monster slowed, looked around, and ripped a gigantic pine tree out of the ground. Before he could hurl the tree, Weldt jumped out from hiding near the monster, whirled his sling, and shot a flaming lead ball into Cheg-Cheg’s armpit. The foul, monstrous armpit hair began smoldering.
As Cheg-Cheg flapped his arm to stifle the fire, Effla sprinted past Weldt, a bright-red slash brandishing a sword quite a bit taller than her. Fingit smiled because he could hear the sword singing from where he stood. The singing sword would drain the monster’s will if she could pierce its skin. Or maybe the beast would just feel faint. Or maybe nothing would happen. But the singing itself was a nice effect, anyway. Effla leaped the last ten paces to Cheg-Cheg’s leg and swung at the black, leathery shin with all her godly power. The sword bounced off with a discordant note, and she bounced with it, right into Gorlana. The two of them tumbled another hundred feet before rolling to a stop.
Effla’s failed attack hadn’t even gotten the monster’s attention. With one arm pressed down tight to smother the armpit blaze, the monster flung the pine tree at an improbable velocity, even for a huge supernatural being. The tree trunk landed on Weldt with a gargantuan explosion of dirt clods around the supine, iron-gray deity. Fingit told himself that since Weldt was protected by magical armor, he should be able to survive even that attack. Cheg-Cheg snatched the tree like a switch and smashed Weldt five more times. As the god’s decapitated head sailed into a stand of timber, the great Void-beast tossed the tree over his shoulder a quarter mile up the mountainside. Fingit didn’t lie to himself about Weldt surviving that. The elevated god should be on his way to the Dim Lands right then.
Cheg-Cheg began climbing the mountain. A rainbow of six more gods plus Lutigan’s fourteen nasty thugs assaulted the monster from behind. This was the main attack. The demigods charged all around to confuse the monster. Lutigan hacked at the Void-beast’s Achilles tendon, leaving shallow cuts that released a foul vapor like hissing steam. Harik threw lightning-javelins at Cheg-Cheg’s gibbous, yellow eyes, and Chira shot arrows up his pug nose. Casserak thrust her spear under one of the creature’s luminous, white talons to stab the nail bed. Trutch leaped atop the beast’s immense foot like an insane, yolk-dipped shrew. She flailed with her ax, with a zero probability of hurting him at all.
Madimal hurled his net, and it spun out to an enormous diameter suitable for enveloping Cheg-Cheg. The monster stuck out one horrifying finger, snagged the net, and collected the collapsing net into one hand. He chucked it back toward the river valley, and it disappeared past the horizon. It might have sailed past the valley, or out of the Gods’ Realm entirely.
“Now!” Krak bellowed. He ran down the mountainside to join the fight, a boulder of incandescence gaining speed. Fingit and Sakaj followed him.
Cheg-Cheg stiffened and turned under the coordinated attack, looking back the way he had come. Then he staggered three steps backward away from the mountain.
“He’s going to run!” Fingit shouted. “He’s breaking!”
Indeed, Cheg-Cheg took another step back and lowered his head, streamers of acid-drool pouring down to dissolve the foliage and soil. Then the monster sighed and shook his head, reminding Fingit of a frazzled mother who had found filth tracked onto her clean floor. Fingit stopped shouting about victory. He ran faster instead.
The monster roared. Every raucous noise the gods had heard from the monster throughout history was immediately reclassified. Many were relegated to “bellow” status, and a good number were recognized to be “howls.” Very few became “yawps.” The measure of a Cheg-Cheg roar became how far it tumbled you across the landscape, and how much blood gushed from your ears, nose, and eyes.
Fingit tumbled “pretty far” and gushed “a lot.” The roar had hurled him almost back to the foothills by the time he stopped himself. Everyone else was dragging and staggering to their feet, including Lutigan’s demigods. Fingit sneezed some blood and watched the demigods begin recreating their formation.
Cheg-Cheg bounded a step forward and landed one-footed on half a dozen of Lutigan’s shield-men. Fingit gaped as the monster hopped to the side and squished three more demigods, and then landed with both feet on the remaining unfortunate pawns. Without breaking rhythm, the Void-beast jumped back to his original position to complete the combination.
“That was rather graceful.” Sakaj sneered from her knees. “You should ask Cheg-Cheg to dance. I find most mystical creatures to be quite agile. Even the imps.”
Fingit wiped his face. “Let’s serve tea and read poetry too. If you can read poetry with your lungs hanging out your nose.”
Sakaj shrieked a spine-withering battle cry and ran toward Cheg-Cheg. Fingit followed her. He didn’t know what had happened to Krak.
Everyone was charging toward the monster, but Casserak was the first to close with it. She lifted her spear with both brown armored arms and jammed it into the earth. The ground jerked and clashed in an expanding earthquake directed toward Cheg-Cheg. Old trees heaved over and fell as the quake passed. It flowed up to the Void-beast and shattered the ground under him. Their enemy flexed his knees and stuck out his arms for balance. The earthquake passed without bobbling the creature.
Cheg-Cheg took a casual step forward before bending and shoveling an enormous pit out of the ground with one swipe of his clawed hand. At the same time, he seized Casserak in his other hand and lifted her. Her spear spun away into the trees. The Void-beast hurled Casserak into the pit hard enough for her brown armor to ring like a dropped pot lid. Then he shoved the dirt back into the pit on top of her and stomped it flat, three times.
Now Harik, his wife Trutch, and the Forest Goddess Chira
