The dwarf edged up to the corner, his spear gripped tightly in both hands, desperately trying to keep his bronze armor from clattering. As he reached the corner, he paused for a moment to wipe the copious amount of sweat off his forehead, his eyes tightly closed. He felt that horrible tingle in his beard, like static electricity running across his face. A spawn was around the corner, he just knew it. He kept thinking, 'Nothing there, nothing there, nothing there...'.
The sturdy creature sprang around the corner, spear readied to impale the vicious beast, but the corridor was empty. The dwarf grimaced, knowing that only meant he'd have to hunt it down through the labrynth of dormitories, barracks, and bedrooms on this level. He edged forwards slowly, barely breathing in his attempts to be silent. His feet cautiously picked out their next movement to avoid rasping against the floor, or letting his boot thunk against the smooth stone. He came upon the first room of this wing, with a beautifully decorated gneiss door. Again, he psyched himself out, and kicked open the door, spear leading.
Empty.
By the blood god, this was getting hard. He thought at his squad furiously, mentally begging them to hurry to his aid, but he knew that the trip from the magma sea to this high a level took nearly an hour. He'd be long dead before they got here if he needed help. He continued on his mission, kicking open empty rooms, no longer concerned about stealth. Surely the beast had heard the first door bang open. Odds were he was being hunted now. Like a damn deer.
The frightened dwarf finally reached the dormitories and barracks, having cleared over forty small rooms. He slid the door open gently, scanning the room for threats. Nothing. Then he heard it. That raspy, gurgling double breathing of two mouths. He pinpointed it with his beard. That door. It was right there, behind the door.
Watching him.
The door edged open eerily, in a cruel parody of his entering the room. The twisted, monstrous creature stepped into the room slowly, its evil rictus grin of vicious teeth and leering eyes pinning the dwarf where he stood. He was looking into the eyes of his death. The death of all dwarves. One bite, and he'd be a monster, just like the spawn.
It walked toward him, its long arms and stubby legs eating the distance swiftly. Just a few feet from him, he remembered his spear, his armor, and most of all, his family.
His first blow sheared through its left wrist, severing its beclawed hand. It roared fiercely, lumbering forward, and swiped at him with its unharmed limb, and he rolled backwards, coming up into a crouch, spear braced against a bed. The charging beast impaled itself onto the spear, the tip piercing through its blackened heart. As it died, its mouth moved gently, not snapping like a beast, but like the last words of a dying dwarf.
The soldier could almost hear the words...
Thank you.
What the soldier really heard was the roar of more spawn. Two, then a third, then more, burst into the room. He pushed the dead spawn off his spear, and drew his dagger. As they encircled him, his mind cleared, his beard hairs spiked out straight like divining rods, and his pupils dilated hugely. Time seemed to slow infinitely, and he saw such detail. The ropes of vile, corruptive spit hanging from their jaws. The blood of kills on their claws. The patches of unkempt hair, and the ruined beard hairs hanging limp and dead from their chins. The beautiful eyes, still the same color as the living dwarves' had been.
He moved like a snake, striking and coiling. Their strikes were so slow, telegraphed and clumsy. There was no way they could touch him. He rolled past a snapping chest maw, between the leg and the arm, hearing the steel-hard teeth digging into the floor behind him. His dagger slashed off a reaching hand. He kicked a knee, and as the creature stumbled, impaled a brain. He spun around the dying beast, only the dagger in his hand, the spear lodged too firmly to recover.
A brutal sidekick from one of the spawn sent the dwarf skidding across the dormitory, under a table and into a wall. He snapped back to reality. Four spawn, one injured, stomped across the room at him. He had only a dagger. He dropped the dagger and wrapped his hands around a huge obsidian coffer. He heaved, lifting it up with pure martial fury, and slammed it down on the lead spawn's skull. The beast crumpled under the furious blow, crushed by the weight of the coffer and the strength of the dwarf. He lifted it again, and threw it this time. It spun in midflight, catching the second spawn in the maw. The spawn fell back, the coffer on its chest.
He scooped up his dagger, and jumped at the third spawn, his dagger diving through its eye socket, gouging out that familiar eye. It bellowed furiously from its maw, and snapped at him. He stabbed again and again, finally piercing the thick skull and ripping its brain.
The last spawn bowled both him, and the slain spawn over onto a bed. He fell to one side as the enraged beast's claws ripped through the furniture to get at him. He jumped up, and scrambled past the spawn under the coffer, praying for enough time to retrieve his spear. He yanked the spear out of its hideous scabbard, and turned. Too late. The unharmed spawn was upon him, its jaws snapping shut around his arm as he turned. The armor held, but he could feel the crushing pressure of the bite breaking bones. His spear jabbed awkwardly into the side of its chest as he desperately went for the heart. It skipped off, once, twice. He felt his forearm bending unnaturally, heard the armor groaning. His spear dived in, gashing across the heart.
The awful strength of the bite relented, and the beast fell dead to the floor. His hand hung limply, and the trapped spawn finally got out from under the coffer. He sighed, and then growled at it, "Come on then, let me show you how to BREAK A SPEAR!"
The soldier sprang forward, spear leading. True to his words, it ripped through the beast's chest, and snapped as it skipped off a rib, both pieces lodging firmly inside the monster. It almost grinned at him, and opened its hideous maw wide, wider, wide enough to completely engulf him. As it tipped forward, and its maw came hurtling shut, he heaved forward and up, over the upper edge of its mouth, and headbutted it right in between the eyes. The force of the blow pushed it back, and its maw snapped shut on open air. He headbutted it again, cracking both their skulls, then kicked its knee, shattering the bones. His good hand made a fist and crunched into the side of its body, snapping ribs, and finger bones, with the force of the blow.
As it reeled from the surprise assault, he scurried to the side, and wrapped his good arm around the side of its neck, letting it buck him onto its back. He latched down on the back of its skull with his mouth, straining against the thick bones of its skull. Several of his teeth cracked from the pressure, but the skull also started cracking. The cracks in the forehead and the back both widened, and suddenly, insanely, its whole head crunched, halving its width, crushing its brain.
The brutalised creature fell forward, dead. The exhausted soldier collapsed atop it, his good arm trapped underneath. As he passed out, he heard a voice, a wonderful, dwarven voice.
"By the blood god, look at what Urist Okablokum did to them!"
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2278368 times)