Songs: Danheim - Berserkir; Paleowolf - Feral Spirit
There was another bone being hurled away once the monster was done eating it. I just hoped it didn't hit Brick and Tina on the head or something. Those flying bones were getting really dangerous. Maybe it would be a good idea to warn them about that. Then again, I didn't see any more dead animals lying around, so maybe it was done eating. Better safe than sorry, though.
"Hey, Brick, Tina, watch out for flying bones. Our boy is hungry and likes to throw chewed out bones around. Don't get hit in the head or something." I echoed them. I looked through my scope again.
"Ah, shit." I could hear Mordecai say. I raised an eyebrow and checked on what this thing was up to. It was still sitting there peacefully, but it was holding its head in the air. Oh shit. Oh no. Was it... was it sniffing? Could it smell us?
"You think it can smell us, Mordy? We're pretty far away, aren't we?" I asked him. He looked at me and shrugged.
"Not sure. I think the wind might just be to our disadvantage. Looks like it's picking up some smell, not sure if that's us or anyone else." he replied. Fuck. If that thing could smell us, we were done for.
"Brick, how far away are you?" I asked over the ECHO.
"Not too far. Why?" Brick replied.
"Hurry up and get here. Looks like that thing is smelling something. Not sure how long we can wait up here, without being discovered." I told them.
"Got it. We'll hurry." he said.
"Nova, go and see if Anouk knows anything that could help us here. It's only the four of us and Tina is basically a child. This whole thing could end badly if we don't find something we can use to our advantage." Mordecai told me.
"Anouk? Are you free to talk?" I echoed her. There was nothing for a while, then some white noise and then finally Anouk's voice.
"Yeah, I literally only just finished reporting to the officials. What's up? You find anything yet?" she answered.
"We found something alright. There is some huge monster, white fur, about 12 feet tall. It's got two arms and two legs, horrible claws and horribly sharp teeth. Any idea what it could be and if it has any weaknesses? We suspect it can actually smell us right now." I quickly summarized.
"Sounds like the Mirka. The Mirka is basically a legendary snow monster, but it's more of a thing in other parts of the planet. Not this area. There is a theory that they actually were a thing millions of years ago, but went extinct long ago and all the legends are either from telling stories about it or from seeing some of the last surviving ones. Of course, it could be that there is one that is surviving out here, but chances are..."
"Anouk, there is no time for a lesson on cryptozoology! We've got one of them in front of us, what do we do?" I interrupted her.
"Right. They have a very good sense of smell, so chances are it already knows you're there. When you see the teeth up close, it's already too late. The claws are basically unbreakable and they are sharp. Don't get close to the claws." Anouk explained. Great. Did that thing have any weaknesses?
"Any strategy you suggest?" I asked her.
"Uh... run? I don't know, the whole thing with Mirka is that people who see one don't make it back alive. You could try fire, maybe? If it's weak to anything, it's probably fire. Good luck, please don't die." she replied.
"That's not much of a help, is it?" Mordecai commented.
"No. Thankfully we all got fire weapons on us. Happy days." I murmured and sighed. I really hoped that Brick and Tina would be here soon, so we could go and kill this thing and then get the Vault Key piece.
"Damn it, I wish I had brought Talon. She'd be damn useful right now. Shouldn't have left her back in the village." Mordecai mumbled.
"Hey, maybe I can echo Anouk to let her out of her cage? She'd make it in time, wouldn't she?" I asked. Mordecai shrugged.
"Yeah, might work. Go ahead. But better hurry, because that Mirka thing is coming right for us." he said. I looked through my scope and started swearing. He was right. I hadn't even realized that the Mirka was moving right in our direction. This was bad. Plus, it was tearing out A LOT of trees.
"Anouk, can you do us a favour and let Talon out of her cage, so she can come and find us? I think we need an assist out here." I echoed her.
"Sure thing, I'm on my way." she replied promptly.
"Okay we're here and we can hear it. What the hell is it?" Brick wanted to know. Holy shit. I was getting scared seeing that thing running towards us. At this rate it would just break down our tree and we'd die.
"No time to talk. It's apparently called a Mirka. If you have fire weapons, try those, they might work well. We'll start shooting or we'll end up with all our bones broken in the best case scenario." I explained over the ECHO, while I could hear the first shot from Mordecai's rifle. I looked through the scope.
"What are we aiming for?" I asked.
"I'd say eyes, ears, heart, and then legs and arms. Try and make it disoriented before attacking vital organs." Mordecai answered and shot a second time, this time hitting the eyes. There was a deafeningly shrill shriek from the Mirka. It sounded like a whole swarm of rakk.
"What the hell was that?" I heard Brick say.
"That was the Mirka. Mordecai shot its eye. You better be careful down there." I told them and aimed for the other eye.
"It's gonna tear out our tree soon, if we don't stop it any time soon, so better brace yourself for that." Mordecai warned me. Shit. This was really, really bad. I didn't think it could actually go this bad. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger and got it right in the other eye. At least it was blinded now. There was still the problem that it could smell and hear us, especially now that we were being loud and there was the smell of gunpowder from us shooting.
"Well, I sure hope it wasn't blind to begin with." Mordecai commented and took another shot at its ear. I aimed for the heart (or at least where I thought the heart was). Maybe we could manage to take that thing down, before it could reach us.
When I shot it, it screeched loudly again, but it didn't stop. There was some blood running down its face now. Its blood was purple and seemed thicker than human blood. It was the weirdest thing I had seen so far. Mordecai took another shot at its leg now while Tina was throwing grenades at it.
Maybe we could work with the grenades somehow to bring this thing down. It didn't look like the shots were hurting it much at all. Its fur was probably thick enough to stop most bullets from even breaking the skin. And this thing looked muscly. It would probably take a lot to bring it down.
"Hold onto something, we're going down any second now!" Mordecai shouted at me. I quickly shouldered my rifle and clang to the branch I was standing on. Just in time, as I saw a massive hand with sharp claws reach out and just knock our tree to the side as if it was a grass blade.
I closed my eyes as I felt myself falling. I was hoping and praying we'd both land on top of some other branches so at least we'd have a soft landing. It almost felt as if it took ages until we hit the ground. Luckily we did fall on top of some other branches, so it only hurt half as much as I expected.
I opened my eyes again and saw the Mirka hovering over us. It was huge. It was so much bigger when you were on the ground trying to catch a breath after getting all the air knocked out of your lungs. I tried grabbing my gun, but I could barely move. And it was looking directly at me.
There was purple blood dripping out of its empty eye sockets as it moved even closer towards me. I wanted to move, I tried, but it was like I was frozen in place. All I could do was try and pull myself backwards on my elbows, but I obviously wouldn't get far. I could hear Brick, Tina and Mordecai calling my name, but it sounded really distant. The fall must have gotten me harder than I thought it had.
I could see the massive hand come down on me. That was it. This was where I died. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, getting ready for even more pain. But it didn't come. All I heard was loud cawing and the screeching of the Mirka. I opened one eye and saw Talon diving down onto the Mirka, digging her claws into its shoulders. With how fast Talon was, the Mirka had no chance of grabbing her or even seeing or smelling where she was coming from.
This was my chance. This was the one chance I had to get away. I forced myself up onto my feet and stumbled away. My whole back was in terrible pain and I had difficulty breathing. I felt like I could barely keep my balance, but I made it away from the Mirka until I could feel some arms around me.
"Damn it, are you alright? I thought you were gonna die back there for a second." I heard Mordecai's voice.
"I'm okay, I think. No time for that. I need a healing hypo. And one of Tina's special grenades. I've got a plan." I said. I had no idea where that courage came from just now, all I really wanted to do was run away and hide for the rest of my life. But something told me that running wouldn't save us right now.
I could feel the needle of the healing hypo in my upper arm, as Mordecai gave me an injection. I took a few deep breaths and could feel the medicine working. I could finally breathe a little easier again. I turned around and saw the Mirka still trying to get Brick, Tina and Talon.
"Keep it distracted, Mordy, I'm going in." I said and ran off again. I had no idea how I wasn't limping. Maybe it was the adrenaline of a near-death experience kicking in. Who knew. I got the rifle from my shoulder and ran up to Tina, ignoring Mordecai's protesting.
"Tina, I need your best grenades. Whatever packs the biggest punch. Let's finish this thing." I shouted over the roaring of the Mirka. I was still covered in its blood. If I was on the right track here, then maybe the smell of its own blood would cover over my own smell. Which meant it wouldn't be able to tell where I was. Which again meant I'd be able to get close without being noticed.
"You sure about that, girly? You look beat up." she answered. I rolled my eyes and held out my hand.
"I'm sure, get me those grenades, Tina!" I told her. She started searching through her backpack and her pouches and handed me three grenades that were definitely self-made and definitely highly explosive.
"These should do the job. Better not waste them, they're some of my favourite babies." she replied. I nodded.
"Thanks. Now keep that thing distracted." I said and sprinted towards the Mirka's back. This was it. Either this worked or I would die a terrible death and I was about to find out, as I jumped on the creature's back.
Thank God Tina had some duct tape on all her grenades. I quickly taped the three grenades onto the back of the Mirka's head and pulled the pins. I jumped off its back as it was howling and swinging its arms, trying to get me.
I wasn't sure whether I landed before the grenades went off or after, all I knew was that it was loud and shortly after there was another massive quake, which was probably when the Mirka hit the ground. I couldn't see or hear clearly for a good while after. It was only when Mordecai, Tina and Brick came running to me that I started feeling less dizzy and could see anything at all again.
"Chica, that was the dumbest and most amazing thing I've seen you do. What the hell were you thinking?"
"Best use of my grenades, gotta admit that."
"Damn, Nova, that was pretty cool."
I looked around me. There were some bits of flesh and more blood on me. It smelt kinda fouly. I carefully sat up and tried taking in my surroundings, but everything was still way too bright.
"Did... did we do it?" I asked with a raspy voice.
"Hell yeah, we did it. You did it." I heard Mordecai say in a proud voice.