The glittering shield continued in an arc over my head and came down just in time to catch a sideways cut from the flanking beast. Without proper time to brace myself against the attack, it threw me to the side, and I skidded along the stone in a low crouch. The separation gave the upended Serathid time to regain its footing, and the pair charged me in unison a moment later. A burst of adrenaline slowed the world around me as I prepared my counterattack. Glance parry the first with fourth switch, momentum transfer over the second, disable movement, re-engage first, repel, finish the second, finish the first.
Time jerked to double speed as the battle commenced. I feinted a dodge to my left as I slid right, baiting a downward stab from the left Serathid. The attack was well wide of my position, but I still reached out with my shield to catch the blow. As the bladed arm made contact, I depressed one of the levers in the intricate mechanical grip of my shield, and the force of the blow set the stained glass disc whirling around its midpoint. I launched into a sideways flip as the telltale swish of a blade through air hissed out from behind me. The second beast’s scythe grazed along the armor on my back as I passed over it and continued to careen towards the attacker. At the midpoint of my jump, I flipped another switch, and the shield immediately locked back into place; its sudden change of momentum yanked me forward, and I rolled onto the back of the second Serathid.
I took a knee on my unwilling mount and raised the shield over my head before bringing it down with both hands onto the beast’s left hind leg. The chitin and bone beneath shattered all at once, and the Serathid tilted dangerously to one side, dumping me into a controlled roll along the ground. I landed beneath the wounded beast’s companion and stared directly into the monster’s hideously distorted face. Thick strands of pale orange spittle dripped down onto my skin from the beast’s cavernous, circular mouth as it struggled to reposition itself to a more advantageous position. I pushed myself up on my shield and threw a punch with my heavy gauntlet, connecting directly between the beast’s empty eye sockets.
The blow knocked loose a hail of small chitinous shards that pelted my face as the monster reeled in pain. Its bladed arms rose and fell dangerously close to my head as it launched a volley of panicked attacks, seemingly unable to accurately locate me despite my immediate proximity. Failing in its repeated attempts to stab me, it suddenly lowered its central body and began to gnash its multiple rows of teeth as it grew closer. I repeated my earlier attack again and again, bashing the Serathid’s broken carapace with my fist until its foul, dark ichor coated my hand and splattered across my face. With a final, triumphant roar, I broke through the beast’s skull and embedded my fist in its brain.
It gave a single, violent spasm as I withdrew my arm, then collapsed. I rolled out from beneath it a second before its hulking weight crunched against the cavern floor, where it remained, unmoving. My body begged for respite, but I pushed myself to my feet and turned toward my remaining foe. A bladed arm was there to mee
me, flying in a pointed stab directly towards my chest. I barely had time to raise my shield to catch the blow, and the attack violently jarred my shoulder, sending a sharp spike of pain all the way back to my spine. Gritting my teeth, I hopped onto the back of the dead Serathid and pushed onwards, circling left around my prey to force pressure onto its broken hind leg.
Despite its injury, the beast continued to launch a flurry of vicious strikes as it backpedaled. I parried each blow with increasing ferocity, quickly flicking an array of levers to rock my shield side to side in order to counter the monster’s fearsome range. After a particularly extended overhead strike, the beast stumbled and fell backwards onto its wounded leg, and I pressed my advantage in a flash. My shielded rocketed out to smash against its torso, then bounced back to add even more momentum to my unarmed punch. The pair of blows stunned the beast into inaction and gave me enough time to bring my shield down edge-first onto its back. It struggled feebly to regain its footing, and another downward strike ended its suffering permanently.
A gurgling scream cut short my desperately needed moment of rest before it began. In my intense focus, I had shut out everything apart from my immediate surroundings, and it took me a few seconds to catch up with the rest of the world. A fight between my vanguard and the remaining two Serathids had taken place parallel to my own, and as I sprinted across the cavern to assist, I saw it was nearly over: One of the beasts had been slain, and the other looked as though it would soon follow. The victory had come at a cost; five men lay dead on the stone floor, and another half-dozen limped away from the battle with vicious, bloody wounds.
Bryce held up his sword in triumph as he noticed my approach. “The Shield is with us!” he cried. “With me, men! We will not fail!” His orange hair burned in the flickering torchlight as he pushed to the front of the vanguard, leading a renewed charge at the remaining Serathid. The beast flailed as it bled from innumerable cuts, slashing in wide strikes in an effort to catch as many soldiers as possible. One of its bladed arms cut through a portly man garbed in chainmail and snagged on his spine; the momentary hesitation was all the front line needed to advance and pierce the beast’s shelled body with a half-dozen stabs, and it
