Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

There was a sudden rustling off to his right, and Gus could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, ever increasing.

I’ve got to get out of here!

Pushing his fear down, he switched the broken shaft to his left hand and unsheathed Razorback. He tried to recall how far back he had left his other spear. Slowly he started to walk backward carefully, keeping his eye on the creature. The beast dropped to the jungle floor and followed. The pierced arm hung limply, slightly tented away from the body by the angle of the protruding shaft. He slowly shuffled his feet as he retreated, keeping them always in contact with the ground so he wouldn’t misstep and trip over anything. He made painfully slow progress, and kept waving the broken spear and Razorback in front of him to keep the creature at bay. He did not dare break eye contact. The creature held its hale arm curved in front of it like a praying mantis with its talons curved downward, so Gus decided to call these things ‘Mantids’. The insect-like mouth sealed the deal on the name.

A scream disrupted the tension between the two, startling them both as the other Mantid flew onto the trail between them. Gus’ heart tightened as he realized the effect of Wreck-Luse must have worn off. What was left of the creature amazed Gus. A large section on the side of the Mantid had sloughed away and looked like a huge shark-bite on its side.

It flailed about and gunk tumbled out of the large wound on the side, revealing an oily, metallic sheen surrounding the bones visible through the breach. The creature had difficulty maintaining itself upright as the wound was extremely large, to the point that the torso was not being supported appropriately, so it folded and straightened as the creature attempted to maintain its posture.

The Mantid that had been winged by the spear swatted at the other, irritated at the distraction, noting that its prey had used the opportunity to retreat down the path in a sprint. Leaving its brother to flail on the path, it loped after Gus.

Gus was amazed at how quickly the jungle flew by as he ran. It felt like he was running on a moving walkway, which added to his speed. He would have to ask Nick later how speedster’s powers worked, as he did not feel like his muscles were exerting themselves any more than usual, but he was moving much faster than he should be. Or maybe he was just getting stronger and quicker. A loud screech brought him back to the present.

The Mantid kept screaming in anger at its lost prey, which inadvertently helped Gus, as he could gauge how far away the creature was by the sound, and spurred him to run faster. Gus reached the spear he had left behind. He threw the broken shaft and Razorback aside in his hurry to wrench the spear free. He spun and rushed the creature, hoping to take it by surprise. The Mantid saw Gus change tactics and jumped to a nearby tree, out of range.

It bared its maw at Gus in quiet challenge, and a chime sounded. A quick check on his minimap showed the distant yellow circle had become hollow. The other Mantid must have succumbed to its injuries. He slowly crouched down and picked up Razorback and reattached it, eyes locked on the monster.

“It’s just you and me, ugly…” Gus challenged. The Mantid swung and leapt, stretching its hale arm outward. A membrane under the arms billowed out and allowed the creature to half glide toward Gus, foot talons extended. If it had full use of both of its arms, its attack would probably have been successful. Its injury threw its coordination off just enough to give Gus time to twist and let the creature slide past. He stabbed outward and scored a deep gouge on the creature’s right thigh. The Mantid’s red health bar dipped to a little less than half.

Pressing his advantage, Gus moved to attack again, but the Mantid scuttled away on all fours. Realizing its situation, the creature became frenzied, snarling and brandishing its talons. The Mantid had the luxury of only needing to score one hit that punctured the skin and Gus would be done.

Gus remembered his training session and got into his stance. When the creature got close, he would jab defensively and the Mantid would back up in ever growing frustration. It was hitting itself with the shaft embedded in its flailing right arm, and the blade must be doing some internal damage, because there was a slow drain on the red health bar. Encouraged, Gus set in to wait for the creature to damage itself to death. He sighed in frustration as the Mantid turned tail and ran back the way it came.

“Dammit! Nothing’s ever easy!” Gus screamed. He pursued the Mantid, squinting his eyes as he came upon the fiend leaning over the crumpled form of the other Mantid.

What the hell is it doing? Turning back, black ichor dripped off its prehensile jaws. And its health bar had regenerated to about 80%! They eat brains to heal? They shouldn’t be able to do that to each other! The head of the other Mantid was cracked open and the empty cranial vault testified as to how the Mantid was able to regenerate so quickly.

“Hells to the bells! I am seriously done with you…” Gus roared, pointing the intact spear at the Mantid, who looked back, the expression on its insectoid face somehow resembling a sly smirk. This was not looking good. Gus’ thoughts bounced around, trying to find something that would allow him to defeat this enemy. He tried to jab at the Mantid, but it had relaxed into a defensive posture and was quick enough to easily avoid Gus’ spear.

“That rules out Wreck-tums!, if I can’t land a hit.” A brief glance at his display showed that Wreck-luse