The hammering quickened.
"Steady dwarves, these walls will hold together yet."
Below, the awful roar of Dirlu went forth again, picking up strange echoes in the caverns. Fear
Dobar spoke again.
"The runes indicate that Dirlu is some form of giant tortoise. Be careful.It has giant mandibles that will crush your guts out. Still, we don't know much about it, Armok teaches that its associated with lies."
"Heh, it has to be better than Tirlu, that monster was ugly to drive anyone to suicide."
"Enough.". Gortex said."Let's get on with it."
Dobor nodded. Without a further word, he leapt into the bloody pool that sanctified dwarves who entered the underworld.
"For Glory!"
"And Zimun takes the rearmost!" The god of disease and deformity was a loving god, that routinely called those he liked to worship at his feet.
At the base of the column, Dirlu opened it eyes. Heat. Movement. Sound.
Prey.
"Hey ugly. Catch this." Dodging its mandibles, Dobor raised his arms to stab. Dirlu snapped, moving forward to bite Dobor . Caught by surprise, Dobor could do nothing but scratch the Tortoise head, catching it in the neck. By sheer desperation, he caught a scale and tore it off, leaving behind a thin trail of blood before the fat sealed the wound off.
Seizing the change in space, Dobor seized the oppurtinity to dodge underneath and stabbed Dirlu left rear leg, elicting another roar from the forgotten beast. Gortex was not one to miss the oppurtinity, rushing forward, he delivered a mightly bliow at Dirlu wound,doing nothing more than causing a bruise in the spot.
"Stab it, not punch it!"Dobor screamed.
A sudden expulsion of air left his lungs as the monster reacted instinctively to the pain, running away. The giant tortoise used its mass to good effect, slamming Dobor into the ground.
Stunned, Dobor could only blink as he stared blankly at those huge mandibles, stretching forth to seize his life and sending him to meet Immast, goddess of war. Somewhere in his mind, a often cited hymn sent forth. Blood, for the goddess.
"His soul is not yours to take foul beast, but Immast and Zimun."
With blurry eyes, he saw Gortex stand right in front of her. A quick strike, another punch, a classic one two, as employed by any unarmed gladiator. Before the beast could respond, Gortex finally unclasped his bismuth bronze hammer from his belt and struck at its feet and exposed belly.
It was to no avail. Dirlu regained its footing and towered above the small, heavily musculared dwarf. The mandibles clicked and clacked as Dirlu once again stretched its neck to grasp its prey.
"Chew on this." Gortex, unfazed, raised his hammer and delivered a massive blow. It chipped the bone and rendered the mandible useless. Dirlu roared in pain again as another Slayer seized the oppurtinity to strike at its wounded left leg.
Dirlu was not without intelligence. It had over one hundred years to ponder on its existence and that of this world, and in that journey, it had learnt one thing. Dwarves were stubborn, reckless, and utterly dumb.
And Armok favours the idiots, cause they were the ones which shall inherit the world. It could only watch as the Slayer turned its miscued strike into a follow on attack against its leg. The strange, shaven dwarf in front of him chose to flail wildly at him, ignoring the hammer in its other hand.
Instead of fleeing, its first victim chose to step forth and thrust, stabbing once again into Dirlu wounded foot.
The roar Dirlu sent forth was accompanied by a great crash as the beast fell to the ground. Dirlu was not stunned. It was a great beast. One from ancient times. It could still fight and move. Now, if it could only get these pesky dwarves off it.......
"Have at it dwarves! Are you deers, or are you dorfs!"Gortex ordered. Like wolves, they fell upon it. Strike. Blow. Scratch.
All these caused pain on a beast that had not known opposition. On a creature that was so vast, so forbidding, so armoured that no other predator of the deep had challenged it.
Dirlu screamed! A strange, high pitch cry that shattered the senses of any living creature near it. A cry of fury at a strange new sensation. Pain. And in response, rage!
Dobor, stunned at its sonic assault simply uttered. "Shut up beast" and slapped Dirlu on its head, reaching past the bloodied mandible.
Another dwarf reached past, ignoring his axe as he swung a fist into Dirlu guts. Another dwarf, a blow into Dirlu lung.
Blood sputtered forth. There were those who were trained in the medical arts in the squad. They could recognise the sound of wheezing and gasping, as Dirlu began to drown.
"ARRRRMMMOOOKKK!!!" They screamed, unleashing more blows upon the flailing beast.
Surprised beyond belief, Dirlu was now attempting to flee, inching its way across the fungus riddled floor. The dwarves would not let it. They bite it and held on, attempting to hold it trapped to the ground.
"Gortex, who do you think killed it?"
Gortex pointed to the new kid. "He did it."
Medlib new steel hammer saw chittin on it, from where scale had broken off. But no blood. There was no noticeable dent on his shield,where it might had been used to bash the beast.
Instead, there was ichor dripping from his lips.
"Turns out its weak spot wasn't the head. Nor its mandibles, although that was a good guess. It was a muscle down there... in the lower body" The dwarves looked down on the turtle corpse. The males in sympathic empathy, the females smirking beneath their beards.
"So, how does it feel, knowing you just"
"I need beer. Lots, and lots of beer....... Wine even. Ale. Anything"
The Crystalline Lions laughed as the assembled squads dispersed.
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Topic: The death of Dirlu, short story (Read 825 times)