The Crimbulmination (3)
Gaia'ajh-dsli Ak'lwej is momentarily stunned by the attack -- wouldn't you be? Crimborgatron follows up the initial punch with a mighty left cross, and the ancient monstrosity staggers backward and stumbles, crashing to the ground, snapping trees like toothpicks. As she screams bloody murder and thrashes around to regain her footing, Crimborgatron steps forward for another punch. The attack is intercepted by a black-clawed tentacle that whips out in a blur of motion, striking the collective in the shoulder. The entire right arm detaches and falls to the ground, scattering into dozens of bodies on impact. Most of them rise to their feet and run back to the main body. They start climbing up the legs, racing to reform the amputated limb.
Another long, rubbery tentacle whips out, wraps around Crimborgatron's remaining arm, and pulls. The collective resists for a moment, and then the members at the shoulder joint simply let go. The tentacle snaps back like a rubber band, and the arm smashes into the creature's chitinous bulk. The individual Crimborg members instantly leap apart from each other and swarm across the monster's back, pulling knives from their belts and searching for openings and gaps in the creature's armored hide. Greenish-black blood sprays from numerous wounds. and Gaia'ajh-dsli Ak'lwej screams again.
Crimborgatron pulls back its now-reformed right arm, and swings a straight-armed haymaker punch at the monster's head. The creature leaps backward, dodging, then coils and springs forward, crashing directly into Crimborgatron and knocking it to the ground. Most of the Crimborg are pinned and crushed beneath the ancient horror's bulk. Those that escape this fate are scattered apart. They tumble in separate directions, then leap to their feet and swarm at the monster, cutting at its legs and tentacles with their knives, climbing up its back, searching for weak points. "Power to the people!" they shout again, in unison.
That shout finally breaks you out of your reverie, and you yank your sword from its sheath. (For the purposes of not writing a dozen different versions of this, I'm just going to assume you're using a sword.) You charge forward to where several of the Crimborg are wrestling with and hacking at a large rubbery tentacle, and grab the end. "Pull!" you shout, and you all haul mightily on the tentacle, stretching it taut. "...NOW!"
The tentacle rubberbands back with a SNAP as the Crimborg let go, flinging you into the air and sailing straight at the monster's face. You manage to catch the edge of a lower eyelid, and hang there for a moment, feet scrabbling to find purchase on the monstrosity's craggy face. An eyeball four feet across, red-irised and with a rectangular pupil like a goat's eye, swivels down to glare at you. You brace yourself and use all the leverage you can muster to whip your sword-arm around and directly into the eye, which bursts like an ichor-filled beachball. The "Earth Mother" howls, and the sound turns into muted static. You think maybe your eardrums have ruptured.
Half a dozen gray-uniformed arms reach down and help you climb up onto Gaia'ajh-dsli Ak'lwej's back. One of the workers is a reindeer, but not one you recognize, and anyway nothing needs to be said. You all start hacking at the monster's hide, dodging scythe-tipped tentacles and holding on for dear life as the beast shudders violently in an attempt to shake you off. The reindeer manages to get a grip on the edge of a plate of chitin, and wrenches it open far enough for you to skewer the glistening meat underneath.
This continues for an amount of time that you can't possibly quantify. The Crimborg are picked off one by one. Only a handful are left, and yourself, coated green-black and shining from the blood of the elves' abomination.
And then, despite your damaged ears, you again hear a voice. This one says:
"Stop."
| Huh? |
Occurs when picking Ahhhh! in The Crimbulmination (2).
