Aisling had shot at the hanging chamber but could not get it to open and so she turned her attention to the juggernaut again. Now it was using its right hand to block its face. In doing this, it somewhat impeded its own vision.
“Do you think you can get that thing open?” Noelle asked Marie, picking up and returning Marie’s handgun then looking up to the hanging chamber.
“I think so,” Marie replied, holding her ribs. Noelle helped Marie to stand.
“Do you have a plan?” Marie asked to Noelle.
“Yeah, this thing seems to mimic whatever hurts it. The pillar hurts it, now it’s as solid as stone. One of the dead soldiers had a digi-cord, explaining why they’re here. Trust me, just, ah, in short, make it human; make it dead!” Noelle screamed.
While they talked, Aisling was fighting to stay alive, racing and jumping over debris to avoid the juggernaut’s overly scaled hands. Marie took aim at the hanging chamber, Noelle and Aisling tried to give her some free time as they distracted the juggernaut. Attacking it from two different directions at once. Noelle ran around the arena with quickness equal to the speed of sound. But she stopped in her tracks when she saw the juggernaut raise both hands and quickly slam them down onto Aisling! Try as Aisling might she could not have avoided that massive attack; Aisling’s body, however, seemed to become astral, she became like a pale white and sky-blue mist. While she could be seen, she couldn’t be harmed in anyway. When the juggernaut’s hands slammed to the earth, the force caused a small crater around Aisling and it flew into a rage when it saw that Aisling was unharmed. The juggernaut tried many times to grab her or crush with its hands and its tentacles. Each time, they simply passed right through her. Aisling had no idea how she had become astral.
“Get back!” Marie shouted as the front of the chamber fell between Noelle and the juggernaut.
They all looked to the chamber that now showed a body trapped within it; the body was impaled with a number of silver chains, its hands pinned to his chest with a sword!
“Shite, shoot out the chains, I’ll get the sword!” Noelle shouted as she raced towards the juggernaut, running in circles as before, trying to get it to lower its hands once more.
Marie took aim with Aisling. With the reaming bullets in their weapons, they were able to shoot the chains free just in time for the juggernaut to grab Marie again and slam its other hand down upon Aisling. This time, it did as intended and crushed her onto the ground. They were both trapped by the juggernaut and scarcely able to breath, its weight was crushing Aisling and its strength was crushing Marie. This was the only chance Noelle would have to get the sword from the man’s chest. She ran towards Aisling, turning quickly and begun to race up the massive arm as she did before. This time, the juggernaut had a new trick to unveil, as it opened its mouth, an acid-coated oozing tongues reached franticly for her. Noelle was able to avoid them just long enough to grab the handle of the sword, but it was drove in so deep it was not going to be removed without serious vigour. The juggernaut wrapped its acidic tongues around Noelle’s legs and her right wrist pulling her relentlessly towards its mouth. Noelle was not willing to relinquish her hold on the swords handle! The juggernaut continued to pull Noelle with such strain it almost pulled her arm and legs from her body; if the sword had not come free of the body, Noelle would have surely been dismembered. Noelle swung in the juggernaut’s grip, dangling sixty to seventy feet in the air; she used the sword she held so tightly to cut the oozing acidic tongues holding her burning into her flesh. She fell to the ground, cracking the earth, bouncing up onto her hands and knees, but her grip on the sword was as tight as it ever was. She crawled to Aisling, hoping to free her from the symbiotes hold. While on her knees, she began striking the massive hand with all of her might, to no avail, the sword was having little effect on its stone armour. Noelle could feel the symbiote bearing down upon her, she had little energy left to fight with and her will was wavering; she was ready to turn and accept her fate when the juggernaut stopped its attack. It robotically lifted its hand from Aisling and freed Marie from its grasp. Noelle scuttled along the ground to Aisling’s side, throwing her arm around Aisling’s waist to support her as they both faintly struggled to reach Marie.
“Stay with me,” Noelle weakly called to Marie as Marie begun to cough up blood.
“Noelle!” Aisling called out, bringing her attention to the man that had fallen from the chamber.
He now stood facing the juggernaut like he was protecting them! He was tall, quite muscular, with long unkempt hair and beard. He had a number of tattoos on the right side of his body, he was naked, unashamed and unarmed and yet despite being nude and unarmed, he faced the juggernaut without fear! The man was clearly mortally wounded, it was virtually impossible that he was standing tall and strong. With the deathly open sword wound in his chest and the gaping wounds in his wrist and legs, he would be nothing more than fodder for the
