The fire blast spread, sweeping across the sand where the edge of the crowd had just been; the Leviathan was like a Scorcher but big as a mountain, and Aloy felt her heart already sinking. Is it even possible to kill a Machine this big? Especially one with a fabricator module?
"To the guns!" Orns shouted, his Focus's connection with the player enhancing his voice.
"No!" Aloy shouted, "you can't fight that thing! Any piece of it you manage to break, it'll just rebuild it immediately! Get to the arena, you'll be safer there!"
"We can't just run from it," Orns told her grimly. "Ocean Machines don't stay put, they chase you no matter how far you go."
"Then…" A sense of helplessness rose in Aloy's chest, quickly followed by a wash of anger. No. I won't let this happen. Snarling, she turned back to the Machine that was slowly edging its way out of the water; one of the massive leaf-shaped limbs she'd seen in her Focus's scan of the thing emerged from the depths and slammed down on half a dozen or so small boats, crushing them as it pulled itself forward, roaring loud enough to hurt as some guns began to emerge from its island-sized back. It was weak to frost, but too big to reasonably freeze, and knowing how the Annihilator had fought, brute force wouldn't do the trick.
Suddenly, Nil was blocking her vision, bow in hand.
"Hey-!" Aloy exclaimed, trying to push past him.
"You can't fight," he growled at her, nocking an arrow. "You're unarmed and defenseless."
The words cut deeper than a spear. Aloy looked down at her shimmering dress, suddenly hating that she'd left her gear at camp. What had she been trying to prove? But that only fueled the fire of determination consuming her, like a canister of blaze. She would not be helpless, and she wouldn't let a tribe be wiped out by one hunter-killer.
By now, some of the Corsair had picked up oversized guns, like what the Oseram used, while most of the others were all trying to flee back towards the arena - the ones who couldn't fight, she assumed. The blasts and bullets from the guns looked intimidating from a human's perspective, but when Aloy turned back to the approaching beast and craned her head to see past her partner, they were all catching on plates of solid armor that were immediately reforming. With so many guns, it might be possible to take down a Machine of this size, but not one with a working fabricator module.
But maybe…
On a sudden inspiration, Aloy opened up her Focus's Machine catalog again, digging until she found the new monster and swiping along to the fabricator module. The yellow box that lit up, if she was seeing it right, was on the creature's back, under its armor but not buried nearly as deep as it had been on the Annihilator. It was a long shot, but it was possible, if only she could get her things…
"I have an idea," Aloy told Orns. "Is there something, anything you can do to slow it down while I run back to camp and get my gear?"
"Not much more'n what we've got here," Orns answered.
"I have an idea."
The input, surprisingly, came from Nil, and Aloy turned to see him tying a black shape to an arrowhead with a length of wire.
"Figured you'd need a minute," Nil remarked, flashing his teeth at her. "Let's see if this works."
"Is that-?" Aloy began.
The improvised arrow fitted just barely into the Voice of Our Teeth, and Nil raised his weapon, aimed, and fired. Despite its odd shape, it flew far, and the Leviathan had lowered its head to snap its jaws shut around a cluster of the fleeing Corsair. Nil's shot landed between the eyes, resulting in a sudden blinding flash and a high-pitched sound Aloy could hear even from a distance. The Leviathan roared, its head lurching back, its intended victims just barely escaping.
"We can blind it," Nil commented, already crafting another flashbang into an arrow. "You'd better go now, though; I don't have many of these, and I'd hate to use them all here."
"Nil," Aloy began.
"The fireworks," Lanida suddenly spoke up, the first time she'd said anything all night, and Aloy jumped and turned to her; the deputy's eyes were fixed on her Sheriff. "They may not be made for combat, but they're bright and loud and explosive."
"Good thinking," Orns nodded, and he tapped his Focus. "Captains, ready the fireworks, and go for the eyes…Aye, aim 'em at the monster. Just do it!" he shouted in response to an apparent protest, and he tapped his Focus again before turning to Aloy. "Go," he told her.
Nodding her thanks, Aloy turned and leapt down from the wooden platform, trying to keep a good distance between herself and the Leviathan without the fleeing masses slowing her down.
Running in a dress, as it turned out, was a tricky thing - the fabric twisted around her legs, and she nearly tripped several times before finally bunching up the skirt in her fists to hold it out of the way. Behind her, the Machine roared, bombs blasted, and she had just reached the former food stands when an explosion rocked the beach. Stumbling, Aloy glanced back and saw a cloud of colorful sparks dying in front of the Leviathan; more explosives flew towards it, barely marked by streaks of fire that must have propelled them forward before they burst right in front of the Machine's face, causing it to roar and thrash. The sound was deafening, but the colorful lights were beautiful; Aloy hadn't been able to appreciate them in the daylight at Lanida's victory, but against the backdrop of the night, she could understand why people would make them. Still, she could only allow herself to stare for a few seconds before she tore her gaze away from the spectacle and resumed running.
Never had Aloy imagined herself to be slow, but as her fancy boots pounded against the dusty ground, she felt like she might as well be a slug for how much ground she was covering. Why did the attack have to happen at the southern corner of the settlement, as far from her camp as possible? How many fireworks did they have for keeping the Leviathan back while she gathered what she needed for a chance to help? Don't worry about it, just keep running!
The blasts were still going by the time she finally reached the northern wall, echoing in the distance, and the camp wasn't far. As she emerged from the Corsair settlement to find no hostile Machines waiting to slow her down, Aloy clawed her way out of her dress, jerking it over her head just as she reached her Striders and bunching it up impatiently, hastily yanking off her fancy boots even as she lunged for her packs. She was good at changing quickly - that had saved her life in the Sun-Ring, after all - but every split second was one too many when a whole tribe was at stake against something that made a Deathbringer look pathetic. Even the Annihilator would have been easily preferable to this, the Leviathan was just so huge…!
Her armor in place, Aloy strapped on all her packs, everything she had to her name, just in case there was anything that could be of use. For on-hand weapons, she picked her Sharpshot Bow, her Blast Sling, her Tearblaster, and after a moment's consideration, her Icerail - unlike the Annihilator, the Leviathan had a single weakness in the form of frost, while it resisted everything else, and firing quickly wouldn't be useful when she doubted she'd have a chance to nock more than one arrow at a time, every shot had to count. Granted, as she'd already surmised, actually freezing it would probably be impossible, but the chillwater spray would be more helpful than any other broad attack she could aim at the thing. Ready as she could be, Aloy hopped on the back of one of her Striders. "Yah!" she shouted at the feeble metal creature, knowing it would be smashed as soon as she arrived but needing the extra speed. "Yah, yah!"
Under Aloy's kicking heels, the fabricated muscles surged forward, metal hooves pounding in the sand as the Strider dashed as fast as it could go, and Aloy didn't give it a moment's rest, though her mind was racing. Her only viable option would probably get her killed, but saving a tribe was a cause worth dying for, she already knew she wasn't going to hesitate. Even so, she got her frost and shock arrows ready to hand off to Nil once she reached the fighting, eyes out for red feathers as she flew towards the colorful explosions.
By the time she reached the battlefield, it seemed like a lot of the Corsair were out of the Leviathan's range, though at some point, the monster had managed to launch a burst of fire towards the arena, clusters of burning stalls now slowing down and cutting off a good number of the fleeing tribesmen. Aloy felt a growl in her throat, anger and determination raging through every fiber of her being - this thing was actively working to wipe out this tribe, almost cleverly, like it could plan ahead. HEPHAESTUS, you'll have a lot to answer for, she thought. But I won't let you succeed at what you're doing, and you'll thank me for stopping you someday!
Arrows flew at the massive creature from a single source, and Aloy aimed her mount towards the sole bow-user among the fighters. "Nil!" she shouted.
Her partner turned to see her charging for him. "Aloy!"
"Here," she said, pulling up just short of him and holding out the ammunition. "Frost and shock arrows. If you get any shots at any components, take them - we need to break as much of this thing apart as possible."
"And what will you do?" he asked, taking the elemental arrows from her hand.
"I'm going to get on its back and try to tear it open enough to remove its fabricator module," Aloy answered.
"Is that possible?!" Nil exclaimed, his silver eyes wide as he looked up at her.
"Probably not," she shrugged. "Any more questions?"
He blinked, then bared his teeth. "No," he replied. "I have your back, Aloy. Go do what only you can."
"Be careful," Aloy told him, softening for just a moment.
"I won't," he assured her, still grinning. "And neither will you. That's not who we are."
"Then at least try not to get killed," Aloy chuckled. Offering him one last smile, she turned her Strider around and tapped her Focus, scanning the Leviathan so its components lit up in her view, then kicked. "Yah!"
The Leviathan was roaring, but only half-submerged in the ocean; whether or not it would be any good at moving on land remained to be seen, but Aloy didn't want to find out. Something important was illuminated in yellow on its nearest leaf-leg, and Aloy drew her spear, balancing on the back of her dashing mount and carefully timing herself before leaping from the Strider's back and plunging her blade into what was probably some sort of power cell. Ever reliable, her spear slid between armor plates and shattered the component, burying itself deep in the Machine's limb.
In response, the Leviathan roared and thrashed, but Aloy had expected this; rather than removing her weapon, she pressed it in harder, planted her boots, and held on as the creature tried to fling her away, hurtling through the air on its slick metal skin. The armor was both smooth and wet, slipping would definitely be a danger if she intended to climb this thing, but it was too late for second thoughts; Aloy's heart was pounding, her mind crystal-clear with the intensity of battle, and when the Leviathan settled just a little, she pulled her spear out and jumped forward, reaching out to grab some ridges in its armor a little ways up the wide, flat appendage.
As it turned out, the Machine wasn't quite as big as she'd feared - it was still far bigger than a Tallneck, but she'd climbed mountains that were taller. The bigger problem was that it was moving, and on such a massive monster, even small movements were liable to send her flying. Gritting her teeth, Aloy measured every leap, every reach, every step as she crawled up to its side, where there were more handholds and footholds to make use of. Sometimes, when it lurched, it also splashed, spraying her with sea water, but Aloy spat the salty droplets out of her mouth and kept going, working hard not to slip on the wet metal.
Finally, she reached its back, at least to a point where she could feasibly stand without falling as long as it held still - which it wasn't liable to do. Trying to assess the situation, she got down and grasped one of its armor plates in one hand, tapped her Focus with the other, and searched for the particular component that was the fabricator module. The monster was broad but relatively flat, and the module itself was somewhere near its middle; passing over a few rows of guns and cannons and canisters of fuel, she finally found a cube that her Focus confirmed was what she sought. There was no way to tag that particular component, but with it in her sights, she started forward.
Not even two steps onto the thing's back, three guns popped out of the plating around her; two were aimed at the men fighting on the shore, but one turned to her and fired before she could prepare. Her armor saved her from damage, but the blast knocked her back, and she was sent flying out over shallow water. In a split second of desperation, Aloy took her grapple and threw it at a protrusion on the Machine's carapace, catching herself and sending her body swinging at an awkward angle towards the beast's side. Rather than rappel down, Aloy gripped the rope and slammed her boots into the plating, jumping off slightly before trying to run sideways and propel herself back up to where she'd been. This didn't quite work, the metal was too slippery, but the swinging of the rope reminded Aloy of how the deputies had used their grapples in the contest. As she reached the peak of her swing, she kicked out to turn around and face the direction she was about to fall, then mimicked Lanida's movement in the ropes of the obstacle course, feeling her weight thrust forward with her legs and increase her speed.
At the apex of her arc, Aloy reached out, and by the tips of her fingers, she barely managed to grab a chunk of armor on the edge of the Machine's back, which was just enough for her to haul her way up. Not waiting, she ran away from the edge even as she looped her grapple rope back to her waist, then tapped her Focus to try to illuminate the fabricator module again, her blood burning in her veins. Knowing the shape, she didn't have to search, and though a couple of the Leviathan's guns aimed at her, she dodged them, trying not to slip as the Machine reared back, still working to get at the majority of the Corsair tribe.
When Aloy took a moment to assess the situation, she saw that only a couple of fireworks were coming every now and then, and while a solid band of Corsair were firing big guns and Nil was keeping up the aid of his arrows, any bits of the Machine's armor that came off were still rebuilding immediately; the beast itself, meanwhile, had heaved itself most of the way out of the water, its wide, flat limbs slamming into the ground, and had already smashed half of the platform the Sheriff had been on.
Too big, too strong, Aloy thought, turning back to her quarry. Can't waste any time. But… Remembering the one flaw in the Annihilator's fabrication function, and praying the same oversight had been made here, Aloy drew her Sharpshot Bow and nocked a tearblast arrow, aiming for the gun that had knocked her off earlier and firing. To her alarm, one tearblast arrow wasn't enough to dislodge the weapon, but she nocked and fired another without thinking, just before she tripped on a spike of wet metal plating that jutted out underfoot. Her armor caught the impact as she slammed into the monster's back, and she quickly scrambled to recover; when she glanced back, the one gun had popped off, and she got to her feet and kept running until she was right over the yellow box she was aiming for.
"Time to see if I'm crazy," Aloy muttered, drawing her Tearblaster, and she began unloading charges in the direction of the fabricator module. Chunks of armor came flying off, and as with the Annihilator, they didn't come back while the broken gun was being fixed. Of course, the Tearblaster wasn't meant to dislodge sinews and fabricated muscle, but even after the armor was gone, Aloy unloaded the rest of charges, hoping to make the job as easy as possible. Then, she got down, drew her hunting knife, and started trying to cut her way through the forged body to the component she needed to break.
Years of stripping felled metal beasts had prepared her for this moment, she knew how to tear Machines apart once they were dead, but the Leviathan was still alive and moving, the cables still pumping with fuel and Machine blood. Not even thinking to worry about whether or not the Leviathan could feel what she was doing, she ignored the oily fluids that leaked out and coated her blade and hands and kept digging, hoping to get to the module before it finished rebuilding the gun she'd knocked off. After about two hands' breadths of wiring and mesh, Aloy suddenly found an opening, and she reached inside and started working to rip open a passage, eventually forging a hole just wide enough for her to barely squeeze through, allowing her to fall inside the creature headfirst.
Thick, glowing cables came out of the fabricator module, an entire web of them, from all directions, though there was space around the box itself, just enough for Aloy to fit. Unfortunately, between all the lines connecting it to its owner and the fact that it was nearly half as big as Aloy, it looked like removing the component intact wasn't going to be an option, and Aloy scowled at the design as she scrambled and twisted to her feet, then got an idea.
"Sylens?!" she shouted as the monster rocked and lurched around her. "Sylens, are you there?! Answer me! Sylens!"
"What is it?" the maybe-Banuk's dark voice finally came.
"I'm fighting a Machine with a fabricator module," Aloy explained quickly. "I'm inside it and have the module in front of me, but I can't take it out in one piece, and this thing can't be killed as long as it's working, it's too big. Can you maybe scan the module through my Focus, figure out how it works?"
A moment of infuriating silence met this statement, though Aloy would later realize Sylens was choosing not to ask the myriad of questions this statement must have presented him. "I can try," he finally answered. "Scan it now, we'll see what I can do."
Nodding, Aloy tapped her Focus. A proper scan started up, her Focus informing her of the process, though it was slow, slower than anything she'd ever scanned before by a wide margin. Outside, the Leviathan heaved and lurched; Aloy didn't want to imagine what it was doing, she just braced herself and tried to keep still enough that the scan wouldn't be interrupted.
"Got it," Sylens finally told her. "I've downloaded the design, and I'll examine it while you're out there."
"Thanks," Aloy replied, drawing her spear, and she went to smash the thing, only for her blade to bounce off, with no apparent effect. Alarmed, she drew her Blast Sling, but quickly reconsidered using it given how cramped the space was. "Hey, do you have any idea how I can break it?" she called to her associate.
"Not easily," Sylens answered. "Its casing is built to resist damage, I don't think you can smash it outright."
"Maybe if I freeze it…?" Aloy thought out loud, not really talking to him as she awkwardly drew her Icerail, struggling to position it in the tight space.
"Possibly," Sylens responded. "I make no guarantees."
"I wasn't asking for your guarantee," she sneered, finally finding an angle at which she could hold her weapon and aim it at the box.
Thinking quickly, she downed a frost resist potion before she started spraying chillwater from the Banuk weapon, and was soon glad she did - the air and metal around her quickly turned cold enough to remind her of the Cut, and some of the frigid mist rising off the fabricator module wafted over to her body, its effects blocked by her shield and the resistance she'd ingested. Of course, she couldn't freeze the entire Machine from in here, the ice wouldn't set in permanently, but frost began to build on the shining metal, and after unloading a full charge, Aloy decided to take a chance. Quickly, she swapped out the nozzle for Varga's special enhancement, charging the ice spike cannon as she let her armor recharge as well - wedged inside this tiny chamber so tightly, she knew there was going to be a lot of backlash for firing, but maybe she'd survive it with the help of her Shield-Weaver Armor. When she was as ready as she could be, she placed the very tip of the weapon against the frosty corner of the module, and fired.
CRACK!
There was severe backlash, a lot more than she'd even feared - enough to not only get through her ancient shield and hurt her, but to break her arm, dislocate her shoulder, and crack at least two of her ribs all at once. Aloy screamed as white-hot agony speared through her side, the weapon slipping from her now-useless right hand, she would have collapsed if she'd had the space; but through the pain, she saw a small split in the corner of the metal box, enough that she knew her plan had worked.
Grunting and growling, she tried to reach for her spear, but any movement sent bolts of pain shooting through her body, and her right arm was limp and unresponsive. Gritting her teeth, Aloy reached over with her left hand and grasped her arm above where the recoil had shattered it, screaming as she wrenched her shoulder back into place - and she was far from glad she did, the pain only multiplied tenfold for her doing so, if not more. It was all she could do to stay conscious, only the lurching of the tiny chamber reminding her that a whole tribe was on the line gave her enough willpower to keep her eyes open. Desperately, she considered her options. Extracts would be patchy work, even the potent ones were more of a stopgap that sealed the body with internal bandages while the flesh repaired properly; and though herbs did a better job, fixing the problem at the source, they would take a lot of time to heal this kind of damage. Or, at least, most would…
Still one-handed, Aloy fumbled around in her medicine pouch for the little orange-and-white mushrooms Nil had found in the Cauldron. Dawn's omen…Rost had told her about them once, when she'd asked him to describe every medicinal plant he knew of and what they did. He'd said he'd only seen the stuff once, and that it was incredibly potent, stronger than any other medicine, be it herbal or animal in nature. When she'd asked him where he'd seen it, he'd hesitated, then shrugged off the question with a vague "It was a long time ago." Now, of course, she knew it must have been during his hunt as a Death-Seeker, and she had wondered if maybe he'd seen it during his own venture into the Forbidden West, as Teersa had said he'd gone this way, though he must not have gotten far enough to meet the Deima, and he certainly hadn't been in a Cauldron. Given the mere chance that these little sphere-capped mushrooms Nil had found were really those legendary herbs, Aloy had been saving them for an emergency, and even now, she was leery of using them - what if something else came up?
What could be more of an emergency than saving a tribe from a hunter-killer bigger than a Tallneck? she argued with herself, and, still hissing for breath, she shoved the entire little mound of mushrooms into her mouth and chewed, leaving not even a single one in her pouch.
The taste was indescribable and overwhelming, it was all Aloy could do to keep chewing, her face scrunching up and her head thrashing back and forth involuntarily, sending fresh spears of agony piercing through her body. Mustering all her resolve, she forced herself to swallow, stamping her left foot against the Machine's innards, the only part of her she could move safely. With her left hand, she reached over and grasped her broken arm, trying to maneuver the splintered bone roughly into the position it was supposed to be, fragments grinding against each other as the jagged pieces scraped loosely into place. But the pain was already receding, an overwhelming wave of relief washing over her as warmth blossomed in her stomach from where the dawn's omen mushrooms entered her system. Quickly, shockingly quickly, her body knitted itself back together, even the bones - it might not have been a perfect job, her arm would end up a little crooked, but what mattered was that she could keep going.
At last, she returned her attention to the fabricator module. As she'd seen, a small tear had opened in the metal just at the corner, cracked open like the inner shell of a coconut under a chisel; the opening was thin, but big enough for Aloy to wedge her spear inside and lever it wider. After shouldering her Icerail, she drew her blade and started working at the split, prying the casing aside. Overhead, white light glowed, marking the Machine rebuilding its body after finishing its work refabricating the gun Aloy had knocked off, and she knew she didn't have much time. Once a hole about as wide as her palm and half as long had been torn in the device, she leaned over and looked inside.
"Okay," Aloy panted, "I've got it open. Now what?" As she asked, she peered through the hole. The cables snaking through the space she'd forced herself into continued right through the casing they were attached to; in fact, Aloy couldn't see where they began. What she did see was a lot of incredibly small moving parts, mostly clusters of gears, as though an entire Cauldron had been shrunk down and streamlined to fit in this one box.
"Those mechanisms are built of the same metal, so don't try reaching inside, they'll shred your hands," Sylens told her calmly. "However, every component is very intricately linked to the pieces around it; if you can make one stop, the whole thing will be forced into a state of shutdown."
"Okay," Aloy said impatiently, "and how do I do that?"
"That's up to you to figure out," Sylens informed her, and she growled in frustration. "You've done remarkably well at that already. Just know that anything you put in there will be damaged at best."
"Not much I can fit in there anyway…" The Leviathan lurched again, and Aloy braced herself, trying not to get caught in the glowing parts above her; interestingly, the muscles and sinews seemed to be taking a lot longer to reform than she remembered the Annihilator's armor doing.
Refocusing on the hole, she thought through everything she had. Most of her metal shards were too big to fit between the gears, and the ones she'd broken down for use were too small and probably too brittle, as Machine metal tended to be. Glass was even worse, being even more fragile than Machine metal. Maybe a strong weapon coil or armor weave could do it, but…
Suddenly, on a burst of inspiration, Aloy dug into her pack of valuables until she found her dress, and the one sack of coins still tied to it. "Glad I didn't spend these," she muttered to herself, opening the cloth bag. The metal disks were thick and tough, tougher than they needed to be, but they were also thin enough that they just might jam the gears if she was lucky. "Well, a thousand chances is probably all I need," she sighed, and she dumped the coins into the hole.
Metal clattered and clacked inside the box as Aloy poured, and as the last of her money spilled into the component, there was a loud thunk! and a lurch, and the fabricator module began shuddering and shaking while making some sounds that probably indicated a malfunction.
"Oh, and Aloy?" Sylens suddenly spoke up. "I just noticed that the module is designed to self-destruct shortly after functionality ceases; I'm not sure how forceful the destruction will be, but you probably want to get out of there now."
"Way to give me a warning," she snarled, but she turned back to the hole she'd broken open, seeing with some relief that the parts that had been rebuilding were already crumbling into dust that seemed to simply vanish rather than fall. Not questioning it, she threw her grapple up and out, hoping it would catch on something, and when she pulled it back, after a few loops, it went taut. Though she'd never tried climbing a rope like this before, she reached up and started pulling her way out of the monster's body, scrabbling at the jagged opening for handholds and wriggling through the tight space until she managed to grasp a chunk of plating on the monster's back and haul her way out. Behind her, an explosion grazed her feet - a relatively small one, but Aloy was glad she hadn't been inside the tiny chamber for it.
Chest heaving, Aloy took back her grapple just as the Machine screamed and surged upward, thrashing wildly. Quickly losing her footing on the wet metal, Aloy was tossed into the air, and on a reflex, she threw the grapple she was holding at one of the guns bristling along the beast's back, where it caught and held fast, allowing her to swing back to the monster's body. She planted her feet and held the rope tightly, riding out its wild movement until it settled enough for her to let go and grab her Blast Sling.
"You're just a big target now," she told it softly, and despite how intimidating the thing's size was, she felt a vicious smile tug at her lips. No more complications, she just had to hit it until it died.
First priority, like with Thunderjaws, was to aim for the weapons, disable as many of its abilities as possible, and Aloy lobbed bombs at the guns until one finally shattered. They were stronger than on any other Machine she'd seen, but the fact that they could break meant they were worth hitting. Her Focus informed her that the beast was damaged, and like with the Annihilator, that alone told her the cause wasn't hopeless, even though the Leviathan was almost twice as big as an untouchable Tallneck.
Now that she was actually focused on the attack, she could better assess the situation overall. The Machine didn't seem to be paying any attention to her, instead working to heave its way up the beach, guns blasting at everyone who was trying to fight back from the shore; the fireworks had stopped coming, but shots from the Corsair guns and cannons were still beating against the monster's body like rain, though its armor deflected most of the damage. As Aloy lobbed her last explosive, the Leviathan roared and opened its mouth, revealing the massive flamethrower it had started with.
Gotta get rid of that, Aloy thought, drawing her Sharpshot Bow and wishing it was her Powershot Bow, doubly so when she realized firing arrows with her slightly-crookedly-healed arm would take a little getting used to - the time it would take her to adjust each shot with her bent arm would probably be enough to fully charge a shot, too. Still, there was no help for it now, she had no time to swap her weapons; the fire-breathing gun was a big target, at least, and Aloy fired precision arrows at the component, hitting for solid damage but not breaking the thing as a cloud of fire billowed out of its face and hit the shore.
"Stop it!" Aloy shouted in desperation, firing another arrow. When that didn't break the gun, she aimed her next arrow at the beast's eye. "Hey!" she shouted. "Over here!"
The arrow struck true, and the Machine roared and shook its massive head, its flames dying, then finally turned to Aloy, the glowing scarlet lights radiating with malice. It wasn't like other Machines, it almost seemed like it could really see, not just react…and it hated her.
"Oh boy," Aloy muttered. Having allowed herself that momentary fear, she raised her bow and fired another arrow at the thing's face. "Come and get me!" she called. "I'm just gonna keep taking you apart if you don't make me stop!"
Shrieking, the monster released its fire-breathing gun again. Aloy held her ground until the last possible moment, then dove off the side of the Machine just in time to avoid getting burned to death, tossing her grapple behind her in what was already becoming a natural movement so she could swing along the monster's side. As she'd hoped, the fire that landed actually damaged the Machine it came from, which could make this fight a lot easier if she just played it risky. It also occurred to her as she ran along the armored body that the gunmen on the ground would be able to do a lot more without all this plating in the way, and her brain immediately concocted a plan that she made her goal by the time she was standing on the Machine's back once more. Taking only a few moments to craft more Tearblaster ammo and load a set of charges, she dove away from where she'd landed near the monster's neck so its head could see her.
"You missed me!" she shouted at it, drawing her bow and firing another arrow at its left eye. "Wanna try again?!"
Genuine rage seemed to make the whole monster shake as it screamed, and again, Aloy waited, planting her boots and firing another arrow for good measure, hitting the nearly-activated flamethrower gun. Some of the fireworks had probably hit the same component earlier, because that last arrow was enough to shatter the weapon, and Aloy grinned and aimed a few arrows at the various guns and cannons on the thing's back and shoulders that had been shooting at her the whole time, mostly deflected by her armor. With an earsplitting roar, the enormous fanged mouth came for Aloy, and she jumped at the last second, tossing her grapple behind her to catch on a protrusion on its face. Her rope was flung wildly as the monster accidentally bit a massive chunk out of its own body, but she drew her Tearblaster, shifted her weight to try to control her trajectory, and as she swung past its shoulders and chest, she unloaded charges, blasting off tons of the shiny metal used to protect these new hunter-killers. They came off unusually easily, and some distant, rational corner of Aloy's mind thought that maybe making these plates loose was the trade-off for the strength of the metal, and so it was only used on hunter-killers with fabricator modules since they could just be immediately rebuilt anyway. If so, this thing wouldn't have been built to worry about self-preservation, which would explain why her ploy had worked so well.
All of that barely crossed her mind as she flew around, the grapple detached as the Leviathan reared its head and roared, and she barely managed to swing it to catch on another part of its body in time to avoid plummeting to her death. Just as an extra precaution, as she neared her landing, she drew her spear and plunged it between plates of armor, sticking fast to steady herself. As soon as her feet were back on solid metal, she quickly downed a potent extract, knowing she was probably close to death between all the blasts and impacts she'd been taking. Then she pulled her spear free and ran forward, bow in hand, firing at the guns while the Leviathan continued roaring. It seemed mostly if not entirely focused on her now, and there wasn't much she could do about how many hits she took from its weapons but break them. When it lunged to try to bite her again, she barely managed to leap out of the way, and a couple of its guns were collateral.
"Missed me!" she jeered at the monster even as she downed another potent extract. "Come on, your maker wants me dead more than anyone! Make him happy!"
Its red eyes turned on her again, and for a moment she wondered if HEPHAESTUS could actually see her through his creation's eyes, if the vicious loathing she thought she felt hit her like a fire blast was in fact coming from the Father of Machines. Then, suddenly, an explosion rocked the monster, and when Aloy looked over, she saw chill mist in front of its right shoulder.
I must've exposed a chillwater reserve, she thought, and as she drew her Icerail, she smiled. Nil. They didn't need to see each other to be in sync, and she started unloading liquid ice onto the beast's back, turning it colder and colder, its one weakness; when she'd finished emptying the two charges left over after breaking the fabricator module, finally, the metal turned brittle, and the Leviathan screamed and thrashed, coated in frost. This time, Aloy was able to drop down and grab a gun beside her to save herself from being thrown off, though the ice-covered surface nearly slipped from her grip as she rode out the Machine's tantrum.
With its body frozen, the gun and cannon blasts raining down on it all but tore the Annihilator apart, and soon, its body was sparking. The frost didn't last very long, Aloy only managed to fire two arrows before it recovered, but on such a huge Machine, that was understandable - what mattered was that it was severely wounded, and the attacks from the Corsair on the shore weren't letting up. Neither was Aloy, and she kept shooting, even as the Machine turned back to the gunmen and screamed at them, lifting one massive leaf-shaped limb and slamming it down on the ground in front of it.
"What about me?!" Aloy shouted, forging more bombs for her Blast Sling and lobbing them at the remaining weapons. "I'm still here! Don't you want me gone?!"
Maybe it could hear her, because it did indeed turn back around to roar at her again. Another explosion rocked its body, this one of fire, but there was no sense trying to overheat it, the damage was all that mattered; unfortunately, this did make it turn back around, away from Aloy. Gulping down a few of the other mushrooms she'd picked in the Cauldron, Aloy looked around, then tapped her Focus, trying to pick up on more components. Yellow shapes lit up everywhere, and one on top of the monster's head caught her eye - she'd noticed in passing while looking through its components when it had showed up, it was a highly fragile reactor core similar to a Thunderjaw heart, but Aloy could see the neatness of its placement, if nothing else; being on top of such a massive beast made it difficult to get at.
Unless…
"Over here!" Aloy screamed, nocking three more tearblast arrows and readying them carefully. "I'm still here! Come get rid of me, you stupid metal lump!"
When it turned, she took careful aim and fired, just barely missing the top of its head - between the finesse required for bow-wielding and her slightly-lame arm, she wasn't quite able to hit the narrow mark. Snarling, Aloy crafted more tearblast arrows, but then an explosion interrupted her, one she wasn't prepared for this time. The movement upset her balance, and she fell, sliding down the damp side of the monster that was now slick with recently-melted frost. Growling, she threw her grapple up as hard as she could, but it didn't catch, and she tumbled down one leaf-shaped limb, scrabbling for purchase to stop her fall. The moment she caught herself, the leg swung upwards, hurling her skyward, and she didn't even have a chance to catch her breath before she had to swing her rope and send the grapple at the Leviathan's head for her only chance of survival.
It caught.
Shouting with bravado, Aloy swung forward, drawing her Tearblaster on a whim and unloading more charges onto the creature's shoulder and neck, revealing more fuel canisters, even the dark blue of a power cell. As the ride ended, she drew her spear and thrust it between plates of metal into the wires and sinews, sticking the landing, heaving for breath, barely able to get down another potent extract. Even with an entire tribe's worth of fighters shooting this Machine, it still wasn't going down, and Aloy hated to think what she would have had to do if she'd faced this thing alone, or even only with Nil.
Aloy holstered her spear, drew her bow, and kept firing, still trying to get a clear shot with a tearblast arrow at the beast's forehead but not neglecting to hit its other components in the meantime, quickly crafting more precision arrows when she ran out. The Leviathan's attention was divided, and more canisters started bursting where she'd blasted its armor off from the shots from the fighters down below, but Aloy didn't forget her idea, doing her best to make the Machine pay attention to her again. By the time it screeched and turned to try to bite her, clouds of sparks were coming off its entire body, it wouldn't live much longer. Even so, Aloy wanted it to be over, and she fired three tearblast arrows at the much closer target before throwing her grapple at the head she just managed to dodge out of the way of, catching on a protrusion behind its right eye. When it roared and swung its head up, she was thrown into the air, but she kept a firm grip on her rope and quickly tried to pull herself towards her target, focusing entirely on her intention. By chance, the monster's thrashing sent its head right towards her, and she let go of the rope, drew her spear, took aim, and slammed it right into the component she'd mercifully bared, a resounding crack! her reward for hitting the mark.
With a final roar, the Leviathan threw its head back, Aloy clinging on by her blade. For a moment, all was still, and she had time to collect her rope; then it began to fall, and Aloy pulled her spear out, trying to balance on the swiftly-descending head of the dead Machine.
Might not survive this, she thought, but her armor was charged, and she kept her precarious footing just enough to reach a safe distance from the ground before leaping off and forward, barely catching herself on the dusty earth as she tumbled and rolled to a stop.
Gasping, Aloy picked herself up; she felt battered and broken in every way, but she was alive, and when she turned back, she saw that the Leviathan was well and truly dead. With shaking hands, she downed another potent extract, heaved for breath until she felt like she could speak, then turned away from the dead Machine to the men who'd been fighting with her.
"Is…everyone alright?" she panted. "How many are injured?"
No response came; instead, she noticed, the few dozen men who carried guns of various sizes were just staring at her, wide-eyed. "Great Mother Ocean," one of them finally breathed, but when Aloy turned to the one who had spoken, he wasn't looking at the Machine, he was looking at her.
"How many are injured?" Aloy repeated, her voice coming stronger now. "Did it kill anyone?"
She looked around again, and finally caught sight of the purple coat of the Sheriff, who was walking over to her with long strides. Orns tapped his Focus and spoke, but Aloy knew it wasn't to her: "Captains, assess your crews and report back to your deputies. I want a casualty count within the hour." Then he reached Aloy, tapped his Focus to deactivate it, and met her eyes. "By the sea and the stars, little lady, what in tarnation were you thinking?"
Bristling, Aloy snarled, "I was thinking I had to stop that Machine from killing your tribe!"
"I meant no offense," Orns chuckled, raising his hands. "But you're either brilliant or stark raving mad."
"Why not both?" said a new, welcome voice, and Aloy turned with relief to see Nil finally reaching her side. His teeth were gleaming, as were his silver eyes, and he added, "This is just who Aloy is. She's unstoppable."
"So I can see," Orns nodded. "Listen…huntress Aloy, I…" He shook his head, gray ropes of hair swinging wildly. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done tonight, against this…this…I've never seen a Machine like this, it's-"
"A Leviathan," Aloy told him, her tongue stumbling slightly over the unfamiliar word. "Dakir named it earlier today, when we talked about the idea of an ocean-dwelling Annihilator."
"Did he now?" Orns mused, stroking his knotted beard. "A Leviathan…aye, that it is - the most fearsome sea beast of the Old Ones' legends, right here in front of us. But no matter how bad the damage is, it would have been a lot worse if you hadn't been here."
"I'm just glad I could help," Aloy told him. "Do you need medicine? I have some herbs-"
"Young lady, you've done more than enough for us already!" Orns laughed. "Keep yer medicine, we can take care of our own from here!" Sobering, he met her eyes again, and told her with grave seriousness, "My tribe is in your debt, Aloy of the outlands. Call on us any time, for any favor, and it's yours."
"That's not necessary," Aloy said, shaking her head.
"It is," Orns stated. "I may not know your story, Aloy, but you are as much a gift to this world as Elisabet Sobeck was, maybe more so…a gift to us, at least. Like the Leviathan itself, what you did tonight is like something out of one of the Old Ones' movies, but real."
"Please don't say that," Aloy begged, hating the whimper in her voice. "I only did what I had to."
Orns turned to Nil, eyebrows raised. "She always like this?" he asked.
"Oh, yes," Nil chuckled. "She doesn't know what a wonder she is, and won't hear anyone tell her."
"Please stop," Aloy sighed. Casting around for something to change the subject to, she quickly asked, "What will you do now? You can't finish the celebration without the fireworks…"
"We'll regroup, then start stripping this beast for parts, if it's all the same to you," Orns answered.
"Yeah, of course, you can keep the resources!" Aloy assured him quickly.
"Right kind of ye," he nodded, tipping his hat. "Once we've salvaged what we can and recovered from this attack, we'll return to the sea, hopefully by sunup, so we probably won't see you in the morning-"
"Are you sure you should return to the sea?" Aloy questioned. "There might be more of those out there - and if there aren't yet, there almost certainly will be."
"If there are, the ocean is the best place for us," Orns replied to her surprise. "These guns we have are paltry things compared to our ships' cannons, we'll be better suited to fight back on the water."
"If you're sure…" Aloy said slowly, but unease was coiling in her gut. I need to stop HEPHAESTUS…but the only way to do that is to fix GAIA…
"In any case, you can contact my Focus from yours wherever you are," Orns reminded her after a moment. "So if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to call on me."
"That's not necessary," Aloy insisted. "I'm just glad for every life I managed to save tonight."
"Well, the offer's always open if you need it," Orns said, and he tipped his hat to her again. "I need to tend to my tribe, but I thank you again, on behalf of all of us. May your seas stay calm, and your horizon clear of storms."
"Yours too," Aloy nodded to him. "And, er, call me if another Leviathan shows up, so I can at least explain to you what I did. Maybe you'll find a better way to accomplish it than what I had to settle for."
The Sheriff chuckled. "Aye," he nodded back, "that I will." With an added nod to Nil, he turned and made for where most of his tribe were clustered, presumably to tend to the wounded and organize the relief efforts.
Sighing heavily, Aloy turned north and started walking, unable to help looking around for Iani and her group. What she saw was a lot of wide-eyed stares, expressions of absolute awe as she passed; it reminded her of how the Nora looked at her now, and she curled in on herself slightly, shying away from the worshipful gazes of the tribe she'd saved.
Beside her, Nil chuckled.
"What?" Aloy asked, turning to him.
"You really have no idea, do you?" he snickered.
"About what?" she hissed.
"About how you looked just now, fighting that thing," Nil responded, still laughing. "Aloy…" He shook his head, his teeth gleaming. "You were breathtaking. No one here has ever seen such an incredible sight - how fearless you were, how powerful, doing things no one else would dare to do and surviving!"
"I did what I had to," Aloy repeated firmly.
"No," Nil told her, "you did what you could. And that was a lot more than anyone else here could do, because you're just that incredible."
"Nil-"
"Aloy!"
The sound of her name interrupted Aloy's frustrated groan, and she turned quickly to see Iani running over to her.
"Iani!" she exclaimed with relief. "I was looking for you! I'm glad you're okay."
"Thanks," she panted. "I'm glad you're okay, too."
"Where are the others?" Aloy inquired.
"They're okay," Iani assured her. "They got to the arena before the fire. But you were right next to where that thing showed up, I was worried about you."
"I'm okay," Aloy assured her.
Iani blinked, then looked Aloy up and down, leading Aloy to realize that this was the first time her new friend had seen her in something other than a dress. "…Cool armor," the dark-skinned girl remarked after a minute.
"Thanks," Aloy responded with an awkward smile. "I, uh, raided some ancient ruins where the Old Ones were testing a new armor before they died, and it works well enough stitched to leather like this."
"Everyone's saying the outlander girl saved us," Iani said softly. "That's…true, isn't it? You fought that thing, and won."
"I didn't do it alone," Aloy said quickly.
"Though she did do the hard parts," Nil spoke up, and when Aloy glared at him, his teeth were gleaming. "Like the Annihilator, this Leviathan had a fabricator module; if Aloy hadn't climbed on its back, dug her way to the component, and destroyed it, your tribe wouldn't have stood a chance."
"Nil," Aloy groaned.
"It's true," Nil shrugged.
"The Leviathan," Iani repeated softly. "Just like Neyda feared…"
"I told Orns that Dakir named it," Aloy told Iani, forcing a smile.
The Corsair girl nodded, her expression somber. "Will there be more?"
"…Yes," Aloy admitted. "I don't know when, but…there will be more. Orns mentioned that your ships have more powerful cannons than anything you have here…?"
"We built them as a tribute to the Old Ones," Iani sighed. "We never imagined we'd need to use them like in the movies."
"I'm glad you did," Aloy told her. "I…won't be able to help next time."
"You're leaving, then," Iani said, not asking.
"I'm not Corsair," Aloy pointed out. "And…I have my own roads to follow. But I enjoyed every moment I got to spend with you and your friends, experiencing the best sides of your tribe. I'll remember all of you, and…I'll always think of you as my friends, if that's okay."
"You'll always be our friend," Iani told her. "Will we…see you again?"
"Probably not," Aloy answered. "But…I hope we do."
"Me too," Iani nodded. "Thank you for everything, Aloy."
"No," Aloy said, shaking her head, "thank you, for helping me enjoy your festival. This has been one of the strangest, most wonderful experiences of my life, and I'm glad I got to be part of it."
"I'm sorry about the fireworks," Iani offered, finally managing a small smile.
"Me too," Aloy responded with a slight, mostly-mirthless chuckle.
Before the farewell could get any more awkward, another shout cut in: "Aloy!"
"Kryse!" Aloy exclaimed, recognizing the black-cloaked outlander immediately. "You're okay, too!"
"Aye," Kryse nodded, stepping over; Aloy noticed his parrot was back on his shoulder. "I took up one of the guns in the rear, and that beast didn't get close enough to hurt our rank…thanks to you. I saw ya climbing and swinging all over that thing like a spider on a fox." He shook his head.
"I wish I could have seen it," Iani spoke up, and she offered Kryse a smile. "Howdy, I'm Iani, from Demar's crew."
"Aye," Kryse nodded, "I could tell from the way you talk, his crew holds the high-society folks."
"Well, that and the snob mob," Iani giggled.
"Hah!" Kryse laughed. "At any rate, I reckon you know me."
"Of course," Iani nodded. "But I'm not like the snob mob, I…I don't think there's anything wrong with not getting your kicks from regular fistfights."
"Right kind of ye," Kryse nodded, tipping his hat.
Aloy smiled, happy to see her friends getting along. "Iani and her friends took me in for the last day of the festival," Aloy told Kryse. Turning to Iani, she added, "And Kryse has been an enormous help to us while exploring the outlands."
"Well, maybe I thought I was," Kryse mumbled, and he shook his head again. "Seeing you take down that monstrosity makes me think y'all didn't need me one bit."
"Listen, I have to get back to my crew," Iani said quickly, and she turned to Aloy and Nil. "Take care, though, okay? Both of you. May your seas stay calm, and your horizons clear of storms."
"Yours too," Aloy told her, and she could feel Nil nod in agreement behind her. "And tell Dakir, Viva, and Neyda I said the same to them."
"I will," Iani assured her. "Thank you again, Aloy."
"And you too," Aloy responded.
With that, the dark-skinned Corsair hurried away, leaving only Kryse.
"Nice girl," Kryse remarked. "I'm glad you met her, seeing as how I had to tend my business."
"Me too," Aloy smiled. "No offense…" Turning back to Kryse, she added, "I'm glad you made it out okay. Do you know how many are hurt?"
"A fair few," Kryse answered, "but not nearly as many as would've been without yer help. You saved our tribe, y'know? Almost single-handed. Makes me feel like all this time I've been swindling a god, like in one o' the Old Ones' tales, gotta worry I'm gonna end up cursed for my greed like they often did."
"I'm not…" Aloy mumbled, stepping back. "I'm not going to curse you. Please, Kryse, don't start treating me differently. I only did what I had to."
"What you had to?" Kryse repeated, raising his eyebrows at her. "I didn't see anyone else up on that thing's back, swinging around on a rope that could shake loose any moment and taunting the monster to keep its attention off the shore, did you?" He shook his head, and Aloy cringed at the look in his eyes. "I heard ya shouting at it once or twice, you've got quite a voice on ya…for all that monster's power, you made a fool of it. You're quite something, young lady. Never thought I'd see anything like ye."
Aloy felt her eyes start to burn. "Please don't let this change things between us," she whispered. "I value our friendship just as it is, I…I don't want you to think differently of me."
Kryse chuckled. "Word of advice, little lady," he said; "if you don't want people to think ye're a wonder, don't do wondrous things while people are watching."
"Well said!" Nil laughed, and he flashed his teeth as Aloy glanced at him reproachfully. "Not that she can help it. Aloy is simply a wonder, whether she likes it or not."
"A hero," Kryse nodded in agreement. "Like one a' those superheroes in the movies. And folks say the Old Ones' movies are lies!"
"They are," Aloy told him. "And I'm not…I'm not magic, or anything. I've trained my whole life to fight Machines, that's all."
"Somehow I doubt that's truly 'all'," Kryse remarked, but he lifted his hand before Aloy could protest further. "Now, I didn't just come over here to worship you-"
"Please don't!" Aloy yelped.
"Alright, alright," Kryse laughed. "But I wanted to let you know I'm heading out now, and offer you a chance to take up my quarters for the night. It'll be a lot safer there than in some old ruins by the shore, and after a fight like that, y'all deserve to rest comfortably." He turned and pointed towards the arena. "It's right in the northern corner between the arena and the wall," he told them. "Made of logs, and absorbs plenty a' noise so I can sleep when my tribesmen are still making a ruckus, too, so ye'll have privacy if y'all wanna-"
"Okay!" Aloy interrupted, heat blooming in her cheeks. "Thank you, we'll, uh, keep that in mind."
The outlander chuckled again. "Just wash up in the back before using the bed," he said; "getting metal oils and filth outta those sheets is a right hassle, though I'm sure I can handle sweat and-"
"Kryse!" Aloy cried, her face hotter than it would have been if she'd failed to avoid the Leviathan's fire blast. When he chuckled again and turned back to her, she nodded. "Thank you," she told him, struggling to keep her voice even. "If you're really sure it's okay, we appreciate it; the shore isn't as safe as I thought."
"Least I can do for you, considering y'all saved my tribe," Kryse shrugged. "No charge, o' course, that dead Machine's payment enough."
"Where will you go?" Aloy asked, deflecting her embarrassment with curiosity.
"I'm gonna see if I can get a good canteen of the monster's blood, then head to the Bacchan, stopping by the Deima on the way to tell 'em what's up," Kryse answered. "Best if I get a move on sooner rather than later. What about you?"
"I…I'm hoping to find some way to parlay with the Deima myself," Aloy replied. "Do you have any ideas for how I can approach them?"
"'Fraid not," Kryse responded with a frown, shaking his head. "But best of luck to ye, with whatever ya do."
"And you too," Aloy told him. "Thank you for bringing me and Nil here, I had a lot of fun. You know, after the first day."
"I'm glad to hear it!" Kryse said, brightening up. "May your seas stay calm, and your horizon clear of storms!"
"Yours too," Aloy laughed. "And, um, don't be a stranger."
"Hah!" Kryse slapped his stomach. "And you neither! Good night."
"Good night!" Aloy called as he walked away, headed for the dead Leviathan, and Nil echoed her words as they were left alone.
"Aloy?" Nil asked as soon as Kryse was out of earshot.
"Hm?" she questioned, turning to him.
"There's…something I need to check on," he told her, a twinkle in his silver eyes that she didn't quite know how to read. "Why don't you go on ahead to Kryse's place? I'll be right there."
"Is everything okay?" Aloy asked.
"Oh yes," he assured her casually. "Just something I need to take care of. Don't wait for me."
Before Aloy could question him, he turned for the direction Kryse had gone and walked away, leaving her dumbfounded, and worse, alone with people who stared at her like she was some sort of goddess-given gift.
Gritting her teeth, Aloy turned for the direction Kryse had pointed and started walking, trying to ignore all the looks she got from the people she passed. Don't do wondrous things while people are watching if I don't want people to worship me? Aloy thought bitterly. What choice did I have? Let them all die? If I hadn't done what I did, the Leviathan would have wiped them all out - sure, I could have died, but it was a fight worth dying for.
But, loathe as she was to admit it, a counterpoint rose in her mind: this wasn't her tribe, yet she'd done more to save them than any of them had done, even their Sheriff, going so far as to permanently render her arm slightly lame. As Kryse had said, no one else had gone up there with her - and all the deputies and captains had Focuses, they could have known about the fabricator module and where it was if they'd wanted to. Yet they'd all taken up guns and fired blindly at the thing, without thinking; only Lanida had used a clever tactic, with the fireworks, but even then, Aloy had been the only one to think of her gambit.
Back east, she'd always comforted herself with the knowledge that the stories people whispered about her were all due to her device, that she wasn't actually some goddess-given gift with strange powers…but even here, with a tribe who used Focuses, she alone had been able to destroy this monster, for the sake of a tribe that wasn't even her own.
My Focus isn't what makes me a hero. It's…something else about me.
The thought made her feel sick with something akin to fear. For as much as she told herself she wanted to know her identity like Nil knew his, as she felt answers come within her reach, she found that they terrified her, like no Machine or battle ever had. She didn't want to be special, she didn't want to think that she was in some way inhuman. If she was a wonder, like everyone said, then…then she really was just a gift from a goddess, not a real person. Real people couldn't be that special, could they?
With relief, Aloy found the log cabin that Kryse had directed her to, nestled between the metal wall of the arena and the wooden wall the Corsair had built to protect their festival grounds. It felt a bit like Rost's house, and Aloy was glad to open the door, step through, and shut out the sound of the recovering tribe. In the dark, a couple of lanterns caught her eye, and she took a moment to light them, taking stock of the place. A large bed took up most of the room, and Aloy found it incredibly soft and cushy when she tested it, far softer than anything she'd ever rested on, to the point where it risked being too soft; rabbit furs lined the mattress, silk sheets and thick hides alike provided blankets, and the feather-stuffed pillows were covered in a strange, soft cloth.
Guess my experimenting with luxury isn't over, Aloy thought drily, and she started unstrapping her packs and armor, piling them in a corner. As she did so, she noticed another door that led out the back, and remembered Kryse's request that she wash before going to sleep. Out this door, in a small corner penned in by the arena, the wall, and the hut itself, were a number of basins of various sizes full of water - rainwater, Aloy assumed - and a pile of woven grass squares that would be useful for scrubbing. On the far side was a small structure Aloy could only guess was for other basic needs, which she quickly went for with some relief after all but throwing her Focus down on a small table by the cabin's back door. Once those needs were buried, she went back inside, took off the rest of her clothes, then headed back out to start washing as Kryse had asked-
Suddenly, as she picked up a square of grass, her heart leapt into her throat. Had she forgotten? Closing her eyes, she frantically counted the days, adding them all up…and relaxed. No, her birthday wasn't for a little less than a week. She still needed to find a good location, but she hadn't neglected to keep up her ritual, that one thing she'd maintained since her childhood and vowed she'd never let anything change. Still, Kryse's request was valid, and she cleaned up anyway, focusing especially on the stains on her hands from tearing her way through the Leviathan's body to get at the fabricator module, as well as her lightly-bleeding loins - luckily, that latter wasn't too bad, it was only ever a minor inconvenience that usually left barely a smear on her clothing in the course of a week as long as she cleaned herself regularly, but the former would have been impossible without something abrasive. The sound of the door to the cabin opening made her tense for a moment, but she relaxed when she heard Nil call her name.
"I'm back here!" she shouted back, still at work. "Everything okay?"
"Oh yes," he answered from behind the remaining door, along with a rattling that made her think he was taking off his armor, "everything's perfect. And you?"
"Just cleaning up," she answered. "You can come out here once I'm done-"
But the door was already opening, and then Nil was there, wearing only his pants and boots and framed by the lamplight she'd left behind.
"Nil," Aloy groaned, "you can't just walk in on me while I'm washing!"
"Why not?" he smirked, raising his eyebrows at her as he ran his eyes over her naked figure. "I've seen you like this already, many times."
"I'm not sure about 'many'," Aloy muttered. "But this is private." With a huff, she tossed the last square of grass towards the structure in the corner. "Clean up so we don't ruin Kryse's bed," she told him, pushing past him. "I'm tired."
Nil chuckled and stepped outside, the door closing behind him, and Aloy took a breath. The craziness of the fight was dying down, and rational thought had started creeping in, along with fatigue. Everything she'd done that night had seemed perfectly reasonable at the time, but thinking about it, maybe she really had gone a bit too far trying to take down the Leviathan - even not taking into account her sacrifice in sabotaging the module, she could have just climbed back down afterwards and joined in the gunfire, there had been no real need to stay up on the monster's back. But had she stayed up there because of her identity, or because she'd been created by a life-loving AI that needed her to save the world?
"I'm too tired for this," she mumbled to herself at last, rubbing her face, and she reached for her leggings.
As she started tugging them back on, Nil came in, his armored boots and silken pants in hand, which he discarded the moment he was inside. Then, suddenly, his hands were on her, knocking her wrists aside so she dropped her leathers and pulling her close, his mouth claiming hers roughly. Aloy jumped, but was already reciprocating, moaning as she tasted his sweet-poison tongue and clinging to him fiercely. It had been too long since the last time…
"You were amazing tonight," he breathed between kisses, his rough hands scraping along her body. "Seeing you up there, so fearless, like an insect fighting a boar, and winning…that's the real you. That's the Aloy I love…and adore…so much…"
"Nil," Aloy whimpered, trying to both keep practical and avoid ruining the bed they'd been loaned for the one night, even as her pulse quickened at the feeling of his hardness jabbing her belly. "I'm…tired…"
"Hmm…" Nil's chuckle reverberated through Aloy's whole body as he kissed his way down her neck, and she sighed, already giving up. "May I try something?" he asked against the skin of her shoulder.
"Huh?" It took a moment for Aloy to understand. "Oh…sure…"
A darker, more malicious chuckle met her concession, and then, suddenly, Nil spun her around and shoved her towards the bed, where she fell face-first onto warm, soft furs. Before she could even react, his calloused fingers dug into her hips, he kicked her legs apart, and then he thrust his hardness inside her, right where he belonged.
Aloy cried out into the mattress, fingers fisting in the blankets - she hadn't quite been ready, but the wetness of her monthly blood compensated, and soon enough, it didn't matter. As Nil began to move inside her, it was different, a different area of her inner walls taking the brunt of his assault that sent delicious shockwaves rippling through her body, but as intense as it was, she wished she could kiss him, too. He came down on top of her, thrusting wildly, and she scrabbled and arched away from the bed, trying to push back against him, wanting him deeper and feeling that she could have more if she could just get a handle-
His arms wrapped around her, lifting her up so her back was flush with his chest, and then he turned and slammed her against a wall, still pounding in and out of her flesh, groaning, teeth grazing the skin of her shoulder. She clawed at the wall, bracing her palms to push, meeting his movements - and yes, deeper, his manhood striking something that sent white-hot bolts of bliss spiking through her whole being.
"Incredible," Nil grunted as he moved. "Amazing - you're so - fearsome - powerful - can't - believe - you - I love you - I - love you-!"
Pleasure building, Aloy pushed, struggling for breath that came out in screams, her climax fast approaching. As she began to writhe, Nil reached down and touched her, one fingertip swirling around a sensitive spot he'd discovered the last time he'd 'tried something', and Aloy lost all control of her body, jerking and clawing at the logs until she exploded, ecstasy shooting through her core and expanding, washing over her in waves that didn't recede, only built - it was as though she was burning alive in bliss from the inside out, and when it reached her skin, she grew a new body for it to burn through all over again, it lasted and she didn't even need to know time to feel the eternal euphoria of it.
When she came to, she felt a hot wetness dripping down her thighs, Nil's breath against her neck, his body pressing hers to the wall, now still. Feebly, she tried to move out from under his weight, whimpering, only to collapse to the floor once she was free, her knees refusing to hold fast. With all her strength, she crawled to her packs and dug out an antidote - she'd brewed the corruption glaze roots she'd brought from the east into new doses, but she distantly realized she hadn't seen any on sale at the medicine stand of the festival, nor had she seen any in her travels. Still, she had eight bottles left - seven, now, as she drank down the first of the new ones - and that would sustain them for a while still, right?
More concerning was the mess Nil had made - and her, too, to be fair. Aloy dragged her way out the back and picked up a square of grass, washing off Nil's remains, tinged brown and red with her own productions. Why did it always have to be so messy…?
Back inside, at last, Aloy crawled under the layers of silk and fur, cradled in the softest bed she'd ever had, already slipping away. Some thumps and rustles told her Nil had at least had the courtesy to clean off, too, and then he was there, lying with her, his arms pulling her close.
"I love you," he murmured into her forehead, but she was already asleep.