Tuchanka
Part 2
So here's the continue boys and girls! Still does not convince me 100% but i had to place something after all of this silence. Unfortunately i cannot yet say that i am out of the woods, but i am trying to pull it through. Hoping what i have written is not too insane. See ya
Arena
Lena barely avoided the Thresher Maw's sweep aimed at her body, and the Claymore felt the serpentine scales of the massive beast crashing under the stone pavement. The same sidewalk where she stood just a second ago. The stone pavement buckled and dived under pressure and the Claymore dreaded at the idea of what would happen to her weak body if the massive beast could manage to get a grip on her.
-I doubt that even someone like Deneve would survive this one!- She thought grimly. -This beast crumple steel and stone-like paper.-
The creature, on the other hand, did everything in its power to turn the four annoying ants into its dinner, and the arena was paying the price for this.
All of their weapons proved useless against that thing: bullets bounced away. Rockets crashed harmlessly on its scales. Even Lena's sword failed to pierce the beast's layers, no matter the strength she put behind it.
Ten minutes. Only ten minutes had passed since the Tresher Maw's arrival, and already Lena and her group were on their last legs!
All around her pieces of flying stoneworks and metal flew like maddened shards, forcing her and her companions to duck for cover lest they wanted to have their heads chopped off. Even Grunt had to take cover, his natural bloodlust cowed by the insanity of the situation.
"This is insane, Shepard," screamed Lena to the commander in one of the rare seconds of peace. "How do we defeat such a beast?"
"We don't" simply replied Shepard. He was some meters away from her, too busy using a crooked piece of stone as cover and trying to stay alive "We hunker down and hope that it moves away."
"That's it!?" shouted Lena back, just a second before she was forced to duck for cover. The Claymore felt the acid spat from the massive, frothing mouth missing her scalp by a hairbreadth and the stench of smouldering hairs invaded her nostrils. Once back on the ship, she would need one hell of a haircut.
"I am on Lena with this one!" replied Garrus some meters away from them "This thing seems hell-bent of having roasted Turian for dinner Shepard, accompanied with fried humans and a pinch of Quarian in the mix. We need to do something more than simply hunker down!"
"This will be the first and last time I am saying this, but I wish we had the Mako right now!" shuddered Tali behind a steel pillar. The suit hid her face and body, but everyone could see that she was shivering in fear at this point.
Lena moved away from the smouldering wreck that was her cover and dived away from the beast, firing wildly at the Thresher Maw with her machine gun. The bullets ricocheted when hitting the beast's scales. In response, the Claymore received another goblet of acid that splashed the floor next to her. Her armour sizzled and melted under the shower, but it held. For now.
"Behind you!" screamed Shepard to her, and Lena's honed reflexes barely managed to avoid a crumbling column collapsing next to her, its foundations crumbling under the acid's bite.
The entire arena was going down under their feet: shattered by bullets, hit by the beast, melted by acid, steel and stone failed to withstand such a terrifying onslaught. What just some hours ago had been a fully functioning arena was nothing more than a wasteland. Broken columns dotted the landscape, massive craters absorbed the debris and everywhere jagged pieces of rocks created a shifting labyrinth of rubble and rock.
It was the only reason both Shepard and his squad were still alive: so battered and confusing was the battlefield right now that not even a Thresher Maw could catch them.
"Starting to get low on ammo Shepard!" warned Garrus while shifting positions once again.
"Same for me!" replied Shepard grimly "And this thing refuses to fuck off! Maybe we should"
"Scatter!" Lena's voice interrupted Shepard's trail of thoughts, his body reacting to the impending menace before even trying to get a look at it. Thank God he did it, because just a second later another goblet of acid, this time ten times bigger than the others, crashed upon their positions.
Once again, steel fizzled and melted, more columns collapsed, and the sand itself started fuming under the burning acid. Garrus swore loudly in Turian, barely avoiding a splash of the dangerous liquid. Shepard,s helmet received a full blast, and the commander was forced to rip it away from his face, lest he wanted to have acid dripping on his face. Lena was not as lucky, and this time the Claymore felt her armour break down under the acid and melting part of her skin. Lena shrieked in absolute pain, and she felt part of her skin peeling away from her now seared flesh. Still, a combination of both adrenaline and Yoki allowed shrugging off the wound.
But Tali was the one that felt the worst of the hit. The young engineer failed to duck for cover in time, and when the acid hit the ground, the surge hit her square in the chest. Shepard heard Tali scream as she had never done before, and saw in horror the acid melting and burning her suit like a living beast. The suit ruptured in a flash, opening the Quarian's delicate body to the scorching air of Tuchanka. Red alerts blared inside Tali's damaged suit, and the girl felt the dizziness of nausea and disease immediately hitting her with the power of a mallet.
Two seconds later, the acid still fizzling on her, Tali collapsed on the ground, her body overloaded by diseases and burnt marks.
"No!" Roared Shepard. He immediately moved toward Tali, but Lena proved to be faster.
The Claymore grabbed the now wheezing girl from the ground and sprinted away from the battlefield, barely avoiding the Thresher Maw's gaping mouth already poised to eat Tali. Instead of flesh, the beast ate even more stone, its jaws gnawing at where its new dinner was supposed to be.
Lena didn't even turn back to check how close was the beast to her. She knew that it was a hairbreadth away from here, and that was enough. She simply sprinted away from the battlefield, carrying the wounded Tali with her. The girl was trembling under her hands, coughing feverishly under a fulminating fever and twitching madly, but was still alive at least. The Claymore stopped when they were far away from the Thresher Maw, behind a small barricade of steel and stone caused by the battlefield near the exit of the arena. It was not a safe space, not by any stretch, but it was at least away from the beast's main body, and Lena hoped that it was enough. Garrus quickly joined her and started administrating first aid.
"I got this, you go and help Shepard and Grunt distracting that thing," he said calmly, his hands already activating the Omni-tool, and she obeyed.
She darted back toward the battle, into the same mess of steel and wrecks that the beast was still happily shattering in an effort to reach its dinner. She arrived just in time to slash at the beast's scales and prevent it from eating Grunt.
"How is she?" immediately asked Shepard once he saw Lena coming back. Even with his helmet still on Lena could see the fear in his eyes.
"No idea!" shrugged Lena while grabbing her machine gun once again. She was also running low on ammo, but still hammered the beast. "Garrus is tending to her right now, but it will be all for nothing if this thing eats us for dinner."
"About that Shepard" intervened Grunt all of a sudden "Lena's words just gave me an idea."
Same moment. Observatory one kilometre away from the battlefield.
With one drink at hand and a haunch of fried Varren meat in the other, the shaman kept witnessing Grunt rite of passage through the safe spot one kilometre away from the arena, looking at the battle with consummate interest.
After all, who says that a shaman must see the struggle of some pent up young blood and his little posse like during the old times? Waving bones and being at the forefront of the battlefield?
He had witnessed such rites so many times at this point. He did not feel the need to be present anymore.
Smiling softly, the shaman moved his gaze away from the humans and back to the new blood. This Krogan, this Grunt that some clansmen accused of being some kind of tank-bred mistake.
The shaman gruffed at this. For being a mistake, the runt was fighting well. Him and his little detachment.
The way they killed the varrens, the Klixen and all the other beasts that Tuchanka threw at them was nothing short than exemplary. Such display of raw power, strength and cunning manage to rattle away a sight of happiness even from an old, scarred bastard like him.
But how would they deal with a Thresher Maw?
It was not the first time that such a beast come to the rite, attracted by both the stench of fresh blood and the sound of the mallet, and the shaman knew that it would not be the last. Killing it was not a requirement for passing the rite, the shaman knew it of course, but performing such a feat usually meant that the gods had marked said Krogan for greatness.
Like Wrex. He was the last Krogan that had managed to kill one of such beasts, and now he was the war leader.
"So, Grunt," said the shaman to no one in particular while watching the battle "How will you deal with this obstacle?"
The shaman saw Grunt running away from the beast bellowing against it so to gain its attention. For a moment, the shaman failed to understand the reason behind this action. Had the runt simply decided to kill himself? Had he given up on life?
Then he saw it, the place where Grunt was dragging the Thresher Maw. A ruined place at the centre of the arena. One now covered in rubble and broken columns glinting at the air. Columns now as sharp as razors.
This time the smile escaping from the shaman was far more savage.
"Oh Grunt, you sly Pijiack."
Arena. Two minutes later
It worked. Against all the odds, it worked.
When Grunt told them just what he had in mind for killing the Thresher Maw, Shepard had honestly thought that the insanity of the situation had finally taken him. And frankly, no one could blame him for this. Not after hearing Grunt's idea.
His grand plan was nothing more than dragging the massive beast toward the ruined arena and have it pierce itself on one of the steel columns while trying to devour one of them!
Thanks to the goddesses Grunt volunteered to be the beast's bait because there was no way in hell for Lena to fulfil such a crazy role.
The Claymore witnessed, alongside Garrus and Shepard, Grunt bellowing at the Thresher Maw with all of the strength his lung could use. No one fired at the Thresher Maw in the meantime, allowing Grunt to catch its full attention.
The Thresher Maw's antennas twitched madly at this, moving erratically left and right until they finally decided to focus on Grunt. For some seconds no one moved from its place: Lena and Shepard, too tense to even move a muscle. Grunt, refusing to back down from the challenge, and the Thresher Maw, unsure by the prey's behaviour. Then, with a lightning movement, the head of the beast dashed forward, followed by its massive serpentine body cracking the ground all around it. Soon, the beast's jaws were meters from Grunt's position, and Lena half-expected to see the Krogan freeze in place, so terrifying it must have been the visage in front of it. Instead, Grunt bellowed even louder and fired another shot at the beast's face, adding even more fuel to the fire.
Lena had to admit: Grunt was utterly insane. And beyond brave.
The beast was close to the ground now. So close than Lena could see the different colours and hues of the scales in front of her and the thickness of the tongue. She could only imagine what was witnessing Grunt. Its mouth opened up and prepared to swallow the prey.
It noticed too late the razor-sharp columns next to its prey. It had fallen on the trap.
A second before the Thresher Maw's massive maws was able to snap Grunt's body, a pair of sharpened columns collided with the beast's bent shape, and Lena saw the beast's hide shattering with a sickening sound under the direct impact of steel against flesh. A torrent of greenish, acid blood escaping from the massive wounds.
The beast roared in pain with so much power that Lena felt her ears ringing, its serpentine body thrashing wildly in the sky. What was left of the arena next to it crumbled in a jumbled mess of splintered columns, broken stones and goblets of green blood. Many of these remains hit Grunt's frame, but his armour coupled with his race's renown resilience allowed him to stem most of the damage.
Still, Lena bet that he would have felt at least some of that the next day.
"can't believe it actually worked," muttered Shepard next to Lena, and the Claymore had to agree.
"Still, this is far from over." quickly added more to himself than the others "It may be wounded, but it looks far from beat."
Lena nodded, grimly at this. She knew such a fact by experience, after fighting so many Yomas and Awakened ones.
Grunt, on the other hand, starter laughing maniacally at sight in front of his eyes, all while pieces of ripped meat and steel washed over him in a horrible parody of rain.
"Yes!" he roared madly at the beast. "This is the reason I was created!"
"get away from it, you cursed idiot!" snapped Shepard back to the Krogan, but Grunt refused to listen. he simply grabbed his shotgun and started firing wildly at the wounded beast in front of him.
This time, the bullets hit their mark, and the weakened scales shattered under the heavy slugs. Another roar of pain boomed inside the arena, and the beast started to retreat inside the earth back from where it came, leaving a trail of blood behind it.
Slowly, bleeding heavily from dozens of wounds and chased relentlessly by Grunt, the beast retreated back inside the ground. The stake still impaled on his body cracked and broke when hitting the ground, its pieces showering the entire arena with deadly shards and forcing everyone to take cover.
Bellowing in pain, the Thresher Maw disappeared into the earth.
An eerie quiet invaded the arena.
"Is it...over?" asked Lena tentatively to anyone in particular.
"Maybe yes." answered Shepard "Maybe getting skewered by a massive spear was enough to get him to fuck off." Cautiously, the commander moved toward the tunnel, weapons at hand and feet ready to run if necessary.
"What?! don't you dare run away, you cursed snake!" bellowed Grunt inside the hole left by the beast. Lena cursed loudly at this. The last thing she wanted was having the creature coming back for a second round. "You and I are not done yet!"
But no one answered. No bellows of rage, no sound of scales moving. Nothing.
Lena sighed of relief at this. It was over finally! The beast had been defeated, and Grunt had completed his rite of passage.
They could finally go home!
At least, until Lena heard Garrus screaming something from the perch they had refuged Tali, gesturing wildly with his Omni-tool. He looked scared, terrified almost, and when he saw that Shepard had still not noticed his actions.
"Shepard" Lena quickly warned the commander, pointing at Garrus. Shepard looked back at Garrus, trying to understand what he was saying, but the dust of the battle mixed with the distance made it impossible for Shepard to do so.
Considering the distance, Shepard decided to try to contact Garrus via the inter-comm but received only garbled noises in response "My comm bead is busted Lena," he said to Lena "It was installed on the helmet, and now it is a piece of slag. Yours?"
"You saw the state of my armour?" replied Lena laconically "That cursed acid did a number on everyone."
Meanwhile, seeing that his shouts had no effects, Shepard saw Garrus throwing cautions to the wind and running toward their positions, still screaming something toward them. But this time he also gestured with his hands. He pointed frantically at the earth, then at Shepard again and again.
This time, something clicked inside Shepard's heads, and the commander felt his blood turn cold.
"Shepard," asked Lena back to him, sensing his newfound fear. Shepard didn't even bother to answer, and pointed his Omni-tool at the ground, scanning as fast as he could.
What he saw immediately confirmed his fears.
"Run!" he shouted immediately.
"Shepard, what?"
"Scatter!" he repeated.
It was too late: with a loud sound, the Thresher Maw destroyed the arena right beneath Shepard's and Lena's feet, throwing them away like dolls on the wind.
Shepard flew into the air for what felt to him like hours until he finally hit the ground with a loud thud. The hit took all breath away from Shepard's lungs but, surprisingly, it came out mostly unscathed.
When his eyes managed to regain some senses, he understood why: he had landed on the mangled carcass of one of the many beasts they had killed this day. The strength of the slam had literally squashed the poor beast's corpse into bits, and Shepard was now covered in gore and blood exploded from the carcass after the hit, but he was fine. He felt that some ribs were bruised but nothing more.
Lena had not been so lucky: no corpse or body part stopped her travel into the air, only a steel beam. The Claymore managed at the last second to twist her body mid-air and avoid to hit the crossbar with her back, but the legs still felt the brunt of the strike.
Lena felt the bones of her legs breaking under the blow, and an anguished scream of pain escaped from her lips all while her sight escaped from her eyes. She fell on the ground, her legs now useless and shaking in pain. Her sword, a second before tightly lodged in her arms, was now gone and far away from her.
When she tried to move, her body answered with stabs of pure pain.
"Lena!" shouted Shepard to her. He fought against the pain and moved away from the broken mess that had been its life-saver. Behind him, he heard the sound of Garrus's sniper rifle crackling at the beast, and he was sure that Grunt was somewhere nearby already blasting at it.
Too little, too late.
The wounded beast, now mere meters away from them and sensing Lena's distress, moved for the kill and swallowed her whole.
Everything hurt like hell. Her legs, her arms, her body, her heads, there was not a single piece of her that was not screaming at Lena to simply give up. But she didn't.
Because she refused to surrender to a goddesses forsaken giant worm after surviving for too long!
The moment Lena felt the tongue of the beast wrapping down her body was the moment her brain just understood how in danger she was and pushed back all the darkness in favour of survival.
She could do nothing to stop the tongue from dragging her toward the massive maws of the beast, so she simply let it do it.
When she finally reached the mouth, and the massive maws opened revealing a fleshy cavern waiting to devour her, Lena stroke with all her power on her arms in an attempt to free herself from the tongue.
It worked, but too late, and instead of falling away from the beast, she ended right into the middle of the beast's jowls.
Lena fell on something fleshy and cold that immediately reacted to her presence and tried to dislodge away. Flesh walls wanted to move her, bone teeth hit her, and the Claymore felt like she was riding a massive bull. One hell-bent of ripping her apart from its back.
It almost succeeded but, just a second away from falling into her doom, Lena's outstretched hand grabbed something stable and held it for dear life. It was a fleshy bump, some kind of hole covered in old, greyish flesh as strong as steel and placed next to the lower teeth. Maybe once it held something valuable inside the beast's mouth, perhaps it was an old wound caused by someone as insane as Grunt. Lena couldn't care less at the moment.
It was here, and it was saving her.
The effort proved almost fatal, and Lena felt the pain of the wounds coupled with the insane pressure almost ripping her apart. She poured every inch of her remaining yoki on her right arm to hold on, and it worked somehow. Her flesh mutated wildly in answer to such a request, broke the armour and turned the white tissue into pitch-black scales right in front of her. Claws appeared in place of fingers, digging deep inside the beast's hide. The backlash of reawakening her right arm almost sent her over the edge, but the pain this time helped her stemming the tide.
The arm was gone, awakened beyond repairing, but her mind was still whole.
Lena swore weakly in pain. Her arm, despite the new claws, was losing the grasp. All around her, the muffled sounds of guns firing mixed with the noises of the beast in a twisted cacophony that maddened her ears.
Lena's brain wracked itself desperately to think of something, anything that could get her out of this mess, but nothing come to her mind. Her sword was gone, and the machine gun was nowhere to be seen. Her armour was in shambles and her right arm, despite the mutation, was on the verge of collapsing. Her grenades...
Lena's eyes lit for a moment. The grenades! They were still here and ready to be used. If only she could somehow detonate them inside the mouth then...
Another wave of pain crashed upon her. She could not last for much longer, and she knew it.
"To hell with it!" she mouthed "If I have to die" the free hand grasped the grenade belt locked on her chest "Then let's try everything." Shacky fingers clicked on the activation button of one grenade. Using her last drops of strength, Lena arched her left hand and prepared to throw her deadly payload right in the beast's teeth, but her strength failed her this time. Her tired hand opened up at the last second, allowing the belt to slip away from her. Groaning in desperation, Lena saw her lethal cargo falling deep inside the Maw's gullet.
The belt dropped far, far below the Thresher Maw's throat, its deadly payload blinking dangerously every second of its travel until it ended inside the beast's stomach and landed on something metallic.
Lena had no idea, but Thresher Maws were creatures renown for being capable of eating absolutely everything. Krogans, Salarians, Humans, machines, everything either living or death always ended up inside the monster's gullet if allowed to do so. This was one of the reasons such beasts were so feared in the universe.
Such prizes always took a long time to be digested by the Maw's stomachs, even with its powerful acids, and could remain for days before being completely disintegrated.
One of the previous lunches was right now simmering inside the stomach, a Krogan APC swallowed whole just one day before coming in the arena. Coupled with the crew, fuel and explosives stashed within.
Everything necessary to make a beautiful mess of things.
When the grenade detonated, the clouds of fuel around the stomach lit on fire almost instantly. This generated a chain reaction that inglobed the APC and all of its content in a ball of fire.
Shards of metal and burning fuel exploded all around the stomach, ripping away chunks of flesh at every hit. An entire section of the Thresher Maw's internal organs were torn apart from their places and disgorged their fleshy entrails. Scores of blood, deprived of its normal exit, started resurfacing from the throat like a tidal wave.
This was what Lena's grenades managed to do to the Thresher Maw, and this was what was about to hit the small Claymore still lodged in its mouth.
"And now what?!" shouted Garrus in exasperation. Both him, Grunt and Shepard had been firing to the bloody beast the moment they managed to regain some measures of control. Seeing Lena swallowed by the Thresher Maw had done a number to everyone outside. No one could believe it: the peerless swordswoman, the person that could fight in melee against husks, Krogans, massive mechs and Collectors' monsters had just died! Like this, swallowed by an oversized worm!
The surprise was quickly ripped away by a more brutal emotion: vengeance.
Surprisingly, Grunt was the first to react. Roaring all of his madness the young Krogan took his last thermal clips and poured shots over shots on the beast's back. He didn't care about the rain of acid or the danger of coming so close to a wounded animal. Frothing in rage, he simply moved forward and aimed for the kill.
Shepard and Garrus reacted in the same way. The cold fury of seeing a fallen comrade fueled their pain, and soon a stream of automatic fire hit the animal's face with relentless violence.
The Thresher Maw reeled under the violence and prepared itself to strike at the remaining enemies. Shepard saw the beast's maw opening in preannouncing of a second attack, and his brain screamed at him to dive for cover.
Then, all of a sudden, the beast stopped.
Such behaviour surprised Shepard. It made no sense for the beast to stop right now: it was poised for the kill, ready to pounce at him; stopping would have only granted its prey a chance to escape.
-Then why did it stop?- Screamed Shepard's brain. His eyes then immediately noticed something else.
Smoke. There was smoke escaping from the beast's wounds now.
It almost looked like a flamethrower had been ignited from the inside of the beast. Shepard could do nothing less than gape at the insanity of the situation in front at him. Never, in all his life, had he seen such a spectacle.
An anguished scream of pain escaped from the beast's throat, one of absolute misery and rage that shocked Shepard to the very core and left the commander even more confused.
Just what the hell had happened inside the beast?
"Shepard!" Garrus interrupted the commander's thinking with a taloned hand, pointing at specific flying debris falling down on the sky. It was bigger than the others and glinted weakly in the sun. It also had a roughly humanoid shape. When Shepard locked at his eyes at it, he quickly understood Garrus's movements.
That debris was Lena. And she was coming down, hard.
"Shit shit!" cursed Shepard "We need some kind of mass effect field, and we need it now!"
"No one is biotic here, Shepard" replied Garrus, "But I think I can do something."
Garrus didn't even wait for a reply and moved away, following Lena trajectory with his eyes. When he reached the place where Lena was supposed to fall, Garrus planted his feet on the ground and waited with his arms outstretched, waiting for her all while he removed part of his armour plates from the chest.
All of this didn't make sense for Shepard. Did he want to grab Lena mid-air? The hit would have still killed her!
Then, the second Lena's body reached Garrus, Shepard saw his friend's arms hitting the Claymore's frame and sliding together with her on the ground. He literally accompanied her last meter of the fall with his body, arching it and allowing to hit his flesh instead of the hard ground. They both fell on the dirt, the impact enough to make even a Turian like Garrus to stagger and fell on the ground, but they looked mostly fine.
"Garrus," asked Shepard after seeing this stunt "How?"
"I grew on Palaven Shepard." replied Garrus, his arms still wrapped on Lena " A place full of scalable mountains that I loved to climb. The first thing my instructor taught me was how to drop in case of slipping out properly. Second, how to grab someone that is falling from a cliff."
It was almost incredible to believe: Lena had fallen from a height of at least ten meters, and yet he somehow managed to ease her fall without breaking his bones in the process!
"Good job." he simply replied "You must show me how to reply that trick next time. How is she?"
"Bad." replied Garrus while looking at Lena "Her vitals are off the charts. Bones of the legs broken in six points at least, burn marks everywhere, a significant concussion in the head, and her right arm is a mess! She needs medical care as much as Tali, and she needs it now!" his mandibles twitched in pain for a second "And I need a second to make myself better after this stunt."
"Understood. Move away with Lena and find a safe place to hide. Just use the sniper rifle."
"And you?"
Shepard didn't reply immediately. Instead, he activated his Omni-tool and pointed it at the wounded Thresher maw, looking at the streams of data coming from it. He had no idea about how, but now it was clear: somehow Lena had managed to ignite some kind of explosive sack of gas placed inside the beast's body. Probably using her grenades. It was not unknown for these beasts to devour metal as well as flesh, so it was not that far fetched as a theory.
Most of the gas was gone at this point, explaining the sorry state of the creature, but there were some traces still lingering in the air, just next to the thrashing beast. And these traces could easily be ignited again with the correct shot of a missile launcher.
"I will ignite the remaining gas and kill this fucker for good!"
"You want to do what!? Shepard!" screamed Garrus at this idea "Have you gone insane?! Just hunker down and wait for it to go away."
"And as you said, Tali and Lena need medical care now so we can't afford to waste time! Now obey!"
Garrus tried to protest again. Still, Shepard simply darted away, his missile launcher already on his hands and his eyes aimed at the beast. He had only one last shot in the barrel. If he missed it, he was done."
"Grunt! Distract it for one last time!" ordered Shepard and the Krogan complied, firing his last shots down into the wounded beast. Once again heavy calibre slugs shredded what was left of the Maw's scales, creating even more holes from where torn organs poured out. Until Grunt heard the sound of a spent gun.
"All out, Shepard!" he shouted, and the commander nodded. He was in position.
Shepard's legs planted themselves on the ground, uncaring on the tremor caused by the beast now so close to them. The commander grabbed his missile launcher and locked the last missile in his possession inside, taking aim at the creature.
The Thresher Maw finally felt him, and the possible danger of his arrival, and turned toward it. It was a broken mess of flesh, bone and organs at this point, its life energy seeping away from dozens of excruciating wounds, but it still refused to back down. Maddened by the pain, he simply charged at the commander without care nor prudence, wanting only to kill.
Shepard was unfazed by this. He could not afford the luxury of fear at this point, because one mistake and he would end up as a Thresher Maw's dinner.
The beast devoured the meters that separated it from Shepard, thrashing and breaking everything in its path. But it was not the right time, so Shepard waited. It moved even closer after even more seconds, the mouth now mere meters away from Shepard's frame. So so close. Garrus close his eyes in fear of what would happen.
"Eat it, bitch!" finally roared Shepard at the beast. The missile flew away from the barrel and darted toward the head of the Thresher Maw. The aim was true, and it detonated precisely one second before hitting the beast, igniting the remaining gas.
An apocalyptic explosion followed the missile's detonation, one strong enough to deafen Shepard and threw him back on the ground. Cherry red flames ignited into the air, and the head of the Thresher Maw simply ceased to exist, turning into a twisted mess of bones and brain matter. What was left of its flesh rained on the battlefield, covering the squad in gore and red pieces. The body, now severed from the head, twitched madly in the air before collapsing on the ground with enough strength to make the earth shake.
Now it was finally over.
"Sprits, I cannot believe it!" declared Garrus behind his hiding spot. The hands covering his face were slightly opened, enough to reveal an utterly astonished visage. "I saw it, and I still cannot believe it! you actually did it!"
"Shepard!" bellowed Grunt "That was amazing! You truly are a battle-master worthy of being followed until the end!"
"Yeah yeah, thank me later," groaned Shepard back to them. His ears were ringing, and he was having some trouble staying still for more than two seconds. But apart from that, he felt mostly fine.
"Garrus, I fear you are the only one with still functioning comms. Call the Normandy and tell them to send a shuttle asap. Also, ask them to warn doctor Chackwas about incoming patients. We need to."
"Wait, Shepard" interrupted him Grunt. He pointed at one place horizon with his now empty shotgun, just before the exit to the destroyed arena
"Some Krogans are coming, and the shaman is not among them."
Center of the arena, next to the dead Thresher Maw. 2 minutes later.
The unwelcome guest turned out to be nothing more than Uvenck itself alongside two of his bodyguards. Like every self-respecting Krogan on Tuchanka, they were coming armed and armoured to the teeth. Yet, they were not used against them as Shepard had first suspected. For what other reason would that bastard come here if not for killing the "mistake" as he had so candidly pointed out mere hours ago? There was no love lost between Udvenck and them, and the commander had half-expected to be embroiled in another fight the moment that giant asshole entered the arena alongside his goons. Instead, the Krogan ambassador calmly reached Grunt and the rest of the still-standing squad, his weapons still holstered in their places and his eyes glued to the Thresher Maw's corpse.
Behind Shepard, Garrus took his sniper rifle and aimed at one of the Krogan but still refused to fire. Grunt placed himself next to the commander ready to brawl if necessary all while Shepard quietly unholstered his last, loaded weapon, the shotgun.
"Uvenck!" bellowed Shepard to the trio when they were finally in front of them "Why are you here?"
If he was angry at the sudden brashness of Shepard's request, the Krogan ambassador did a great job at hiding it.
"You slew a Thresher Maw!" he simply replied back to them. "Wrex was the last one that managed to perform such a feat, centuries ago! You truly are a powerful creature, Grunt!"
"I was not alone!" replied Grunt with pride at this. He did not even tried to hide his gloating "My Krannts granted me strength beyond my genes, that are already amazing by themselves!"
"Yes, they did, but this not reduce the height of your achievements." murmured Udvenck again "Enough to make me rethink about previous assumption."
Now this phrase surprised everyone still standing, especially Grunt.
"You see Grunt as a Krogan now, Uvenk?" asked Shepard flabbergasted. Udvenk scoffed at this.
"Of course not, human! He is, and will always be, a product of artificial breeding; a thing. But his power is simply too great to be squandered. Wrex would use it to enforce his ludicrous new ways on my people. I could use it to set this place on the right path. For this reason, Grunt, I am willing to let you enter inside my clan."
Garrus's mandibles twitched in utter surprise at this, all while Shepard could not prevent himself from looking at Uvenk in total amazement. Grunt, on the other hand, gritted his teeth.
"You come here, spitting on my name, on my Krannts's names, and then offer me to enter inside your clan?!" He bellowed loudly enough to unnerve the guards behind the ambassador, but now Uvenk.
"With limitation, of course" continued imperterred the ambassador "You will not take a mate, or command warriors in battle, but you will receive your clan name and be one of us."
"What an astonishing offer!" chided Shepard sarcastically "Grunt, it is your choice to make, but please be quick about it."
"My choice?!" roared the young Krogan back, and he answered his way.
It happened all in a second. With uncanny grace from one of his species, Grunt tackled Uvenk on the ground and ended the negotiations in his way, dragging the other Krogan back on the sand and mercilessly pummeling him with his bloodied fist.
"Here is my answer, you Pijiack!" he roared at a struggling Uvenk "I reject your offer, I reject your pitful clan. I. Am. Krogan!"
he shouted with all of his might back ad Uvenk that was desperately trying to defend himself.
The guards behind him quickly grabbed their weapons and aimed at Grunt, but failed to count Shepard and Garrus in the mix.
One-shot from Garrus's sniper rifle shattered the shield of the Krogan on the left, and Shepard quickly capitalized on this by blasting the warrior's head with his shotgun. The now headless Krogan slumped down on the ground without a sound.
The other Krogan dived for cover and avoided the second sniper shot and fired wildly at Shepard, that barely eluded the blast.
Shepard quickly aimed his shotgun at the second Krogan, but this time, when he pulled the trigger, he only felt the sound of an ejecting clip and nothing more.
"You got to be kidding me!" cursed Shepard while looking at the ammo counter.
All out. The Krogan in front of him smirked savagely at this.
Another blast hit the place where Shepard was standing a second ago. And another and another. Shepard sidestepped away from the enemy, moving for cover to cover and trying to think about a way to deal with this new problem. One blast clipped him right into the right shoulder and destroyed what was left of his armour, but nothing more.
-Jacob will have to work overtime this night.- Thought Shepard grimly
"Welcome to my perch Shepard!" Garrus sarcastically greeted him once he moved for his part of cover "Any idea how we deal with this problem? I am at my last shot right now."
"Just give me a second Garrus," he replied. His gaze wandered around the battlefield, trying to get a grip of the situation. Grunt was happily beating venk, so no problem from there. The first guard was dead but too far away for reaching his thermal clips, and the first guards seemed hell-bent of killing Garrus and Shepard instead of helping his boss. As if to point it, another wave of bullets hit their cover, creating a small storm of dust and rocks.
It was at that moment that Shepard saw it. Lena's sword, glinting in the sun, was just some meters away from him.
That sword could cut through Krogans's scales, Shepard knew it. But could he use it with the same ability of Lena? Could he kill a Krogan with it?
-Well, only one way to find out!- he thought. It was a stupid, desperate idea, but the only one with a slim chance of success right now.
"I am gonna use Lena's sword. When I grab it, break the Krogan's shield with your last shot."
"You what?!" bellowed Garrus of course "Shepard, this is the stupidest thing you even considered about doing."
Shepard didn't reply. Instead, he looked at Garrus in the eye and then pointed at the Thresher Maw's carcass.
"Point taken" conceded Garrus "This is the second stupidest thing you ever considered about doing."
"Got a better idea that is not waiting until he kill us?" replied Shepard this time
"No, but"
"Then do it!"
And then he sprinted away from cover, not waiting for any reply. Shepard immediately felt the sound of bullets impacting his kinetic barriers, and this made him redouble his efforts. The sword was close in theory, but when you are under fire, two meters can become two hundred.
Two, three, Shepard lost the count of how many shots impacted his shields and armor until he felt a sharp pain in his back, followed by the sound of blood dropping on the ground. He grunted in pain but moved on. His armor stimmed him up with all the adrenaline shots left in the containers, and the pain disappeared.
The sword was now whiting his grasp, and Shepard wasted no time in grabbing it. He took it with both hands, and almost fell on the ground.
Shepard was strong, stronger than many humans in the galaxy thanks to both his training and enhancements received from Cerberus. And yet he almost fell on the ground when he grabbed the hilt of the black blade and tried to raise it.
The weight was insane, far greater than any weapons eve used by Shepard. Greater than even some Krogans's guns
-How the fuck she always manage to swing this hunk of metal with so much grace is beyond me.-
Wondered Shepard astonished. Still, this was not the time to ponder. Shots were still raining upon him. Just another shattered the stone centimeters behind him.
Redoubling his forces, Shepard finally raised raised the black blade away from the ground and pointed at the Krogan as a spear. More than this, he could not do it.
The Krogan guard saw this new menace and aimed once again his gun at Shepard, but before he could fire once again, the last shot from Garrus hit him. The shield exploded under the blow, opening his body for Shepard's attack.
With a shout of rage, Shepard burned the last meters and aimed at the Krogan's head. So startled was the Krogan by both the sudden attack and shot from Garrus that he failed to avoid the sword.
The blade hit the Krogan at the base of the neck, and it dug deep inside it. Blood spurted everywhere while scales broke and shattered under the black metal, but they held. Shepard tried, he tried as hard as possible to keep the momentum, but it was simply too much for him.
The sword weighed like a mountain on his tired hands, and the Krogan was simply too big and strong for him to push.
Roaring in pain, the Krogan dropped his weapon on the ground and grabbed the sword still lodged in the base of his neck. He ripped it apart from him, despite Shepard's attempt of keeping it in place, with such strength that Shepard lost his footing and almost fell on the ground. Then, one of his fists hit Shepard square in the face. Shepard grunted in utter pain, and the commander lost the grip on the sword, his vision clouded by torrents of blood spilling from his nose.
He fell, clutching his face and groaning in pain while the Krogan grabbed Lena's sword and raised it on the air.
The sword stroke, and Shepard barely managed to avoid it by blundering away from it. The wounded Krogan growled in frustration at this and stroke again, and again, and again. Still, Shepard managed to rumble away from the sword at the last second, until he stumbled into something metallic on his back. Turning toward the source, his face still covered in blood, Shepard saw the Krogan's shotgun the warrior had dropped when hit by Lena's sword. Loaded and primed.
Shepard reacted as fast as he could, and he grabbed the massive shotgun with his hands. Behind him the Krogan raised the sword another time, ready to cleave Shepard in half now that he was still in place.
The sword flew in the air, but a second before connecting with Shepard, the shotgun boomed in the air and hit the Krogan square in the chest.
The kickback of the weapon almost dislocated Shepard's shoulders but did the job. The Krogan's armour shattered under the blast, flesh and bones were shredded, and the warrior fell on his back alongside the sword, shouting in pain.
He was down, his chest a broken mess and utterly unable to raise from the ground. He couldn't even move his arms or legs. He could only growl in pain and rage at the hopelsness of the situation.
Shepard didn't allow to do even that. He reached his resting place, and cracked his weakened head with the butt of the shotgun.
This sound was followed by one of a neck snapped, alongside Grunt's cries of victory. Uvenk was now also death, his neck broken.
Now it was truly over.
"Spirits! I cannot believe that we survived this mess!" murmured Garrus after the battle, observing the battlefield "I am calling the Normandy."
"Yeah!" groaned Shepard in pain. Now that it was finally over, all the pain kept at bay by adrenaline was coming back to bite him. "And warn Wrex that we will soon be back for ending the ceremony." another stab of pain stopped Shepard mid-sentence and made him moan in frustration
"And let's hope that nothing else come to beat us today!"
So, hope is good. See you next time
