Endangered has gone haywire. Sunshine-pilled can't fix this.
"Faster, Bastard!" I hopelessly flick the reins. Bastard is already galloping at blistering speeds.
The wind rushes around me as my rent-a-wagon rattles like death.
It's strong foreshadowing because I've fucked up bad this time.
After thirty minutes of riding through open plains that stretch for miles and miles and miles, I was spotted by not one Corrupted, but two.
They're not usually this perceptive, but these creatures adapt and grow stronger. I should've guessed that after 100 years, they'd be able to form eyeballs. That was hyperbolic; most had eyeballs, but they were also a deadly combination of stupid and oblivious.
Trailing on the ground and quickly gaining is what I can only describe as a cheetah made of black glass.
It's featureless, foaming at the mouth to devour me. The cheetah is faster than Bastard, only by a little, but enough to scare me shitless.
In part, because of the damn vulture in the air.
It hungrily trills like a gator rather than a vulture. I hate that sound. It takes a stranglehold over my spirit. I'm thoroughly intimidated.
It has massive wings, a massive head and beak, but a small and soft body about half my size. Each grey-green wing looks sharp as a knife.
I align Bastard in a good direction before hopping into the rear.
My Shiv unfolds in a scale-like fashion, forming a ceramic-like shortsword. I assume a sturdy, defensive stance from my One-star Manual.
The vulture reaches the wagon first. The Corrupted want me, so I'll hold their attention.
Roaring a deathly screech, the gator-vulture reels. Obsidian talons burst out, slashing me upward and taking me by surprise.
CLANG.
With a quick wrist flick and sidestep, I managed to deflect it sideways. I gain a few seconds due to the wind pushing the vulture back.
Its fucking talons curve upward! What's wrong with these creatures? They mutate in the most fucked up, unpredictable ways. I can't do much against an unknown enemy.
A few wing flaps later, and the vulture is back in striking distance.
CLANG, CLANG.
I deflect two quick pecks of its obsidian beak. It leaves no openings. We are still gauging one another.
The cheetah is only a few beats behind. I'm expecting a lunge of some kind, but I must focus on the vulture first.
This time, the vulture defies physics.
It pecks and talon slashes simultaneously. I'm forced into a backstep, my back foot touching the front end of the wagon.
Flesh tears.
Blood gushes down my face, my right eye blinded by red. Those sharp talons barely clipped my face. The cuts are deep. I wipe it off through gritted teeth, adrenaline flooding my system.
I need to get off the back foot.
The cheetah is close. I can't handle both of them. Desperate gambit, it is then.
The vulture knows I'm a wounded animal backed into a corner. It'll gauge again, maintaining pressure while letting me bleed.
CLANG.
I'm right. It pecks again, and I defend—blood already returning to cloud my right eye's vision. I tried to parry, slipping my Shiv along the great beak's side to pierce the eye, but the damn thing's too agile.
It's not going to peck or jab again. The next attack will be to kill.
My feet are set. With a breath, I fill my lower body with Essence. The world slows.
Two upward talons come to gut me.
I twist my body. One talon slices my cloak, then the air near my face. I can see my reflection along the surface as both talons pass.
The vulture overextended. Greedy fuck. I have it dead to rights.
In tight, I force Essence into my hand, grabbing the vulture by the ankle…
THUNK.
Then I plunge my soulsteel through the soft underbelly and straight into the core.
Black ink hisses out of the vulture's skin like a popped balloon, covering my sword arm in viscous black liquid.
It's a bit slow to die. I'm worried about the cheetah, but I need to confirm this.
Wait.
My left arm is gone.
I watch as my arm flies off the wagon, hitting the cheetah square on the face, forcing it to decelerate.
POOF.
┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐
E-Rank Sky Skavenger slain.
►Shard Obtained
└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘
I stumble backward, out of the black mist that the vulture left behind, and collapse onto my wagon's storage.
Holy fuck. Holy fuck.
The Sky Skavenger's feathers weren't just knives, they were fucking tendril appendages.
I didn't even have time to react. It wrapped around my arm and squeezed, slicing it clean off at the elbow.
Blood squirts from the wound. The heat is scorching. Bone, arteries, veins, muscle, sinew, ligaments. I can see it all. My body turns cold.
I fumble behind me, frantically searching for the expensive emergency stabilizer within my medical supply bag.
My crimson blood liters the wood wagon, pooling so thick that its turns black. I'm going to die.
SHHH.
The injector punches through my neck. The bleeding stops. My entire body turns from a shivering cold to numbly frigid.
I'll live.
With a deep breath, I try to stand up.
THUD.
My head collides against my supplies. I'm sent reeling backward.
I see darkness, then stars, then I see the jowls of a big black cat. He's jumped onto the wagon.
I push all my remaining Essence into my legs, repeatedly kicking the beast, trying to ward it off with my Shiv.
It claws, bites and scratches, stripping pieces of my flesh. I can barely push the thing backward. Eventually, the Corrupted cheetah takes a step back.
It hisses like a snake, slithering, trying to find an opening. I scramble to my feet, keeping the Shiv between us.
The wind howls once more. There is a calmness to my drug fueled psyche. The wagon's rumbling is the bass to my heart's beating drum
I flood my body with the very last of my essence.
For a moment, everything is still. Absolutely still.
…
I'm thrown backward as the cheetah lunges.
SCHLICK.
My blade grows wet with ink.
And I am elbow deep in the shut jaws of a Corrupted beast.