NOVEL WEB Chapter Thirty: Separation and Reunion
Jilamaka leaped from the roof, its impossibly large body casting a dark shadow across them all, blotting out the fumu that glowed above. Joe grit his teeth, and shook himself free from his paralyzation right as Jilamaka impacted with the plaza. The world seemed to tilt after it impacted, shattering the ground beneath its weight as it brought itself to its full height. Varig had said that Jilamaka was as large as a house… but it seemed to have grown in the millenia since old Ugals fell. This creature was large enough, that its unsettlingly human mouth could have swallowed Betty whole, had it so desired.
Joe rushed over to Prolo, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him along toward Varig. Once Prolo began moving on his own, Joe let him go, repeating this with Varig. Jilamaka stared down at them, grinning with apparent amusement… its teeth, despite its yellow coloration, seemed to gleam in the darkness. The ninjas hadn’t broken free of their paralysis, still staring up at the monster with wide eyes. Yugo, for his part, seemed to snap out of it, and moved to rescue his comrades… that was when Jilamaka made its move.
With a lazy paw, it swatted at the nearest crowd of assassins, sending bodies flying. Any those paws struck died on impact, not even screaming as their corpses traveled through the air, impacting the stone buildings with a sickeningly wet splat. Joe had no illusions that his dragon-plate would save him from that type of raw force… The armor itself might be fine, but if Jilamaka hit him, it would turn his insides into jelly.
“Shoot it!” Joe shouted at the paralyzed dwarves, shaking Varig, “Shoot it now!”
Joe released Varig then, raising his Benneli and resting his poleaxe in the crook of his arm, firing at the monster. The slug impacted with the things neck, biting deeply into the flesh and sending steaming blood falling to the stone. Joe watched with horror as the stone began to disintegrate where the blood fell, creating deep pockets in its surface. What was worse though, so much worse… was the fact the wound he’d inflicted was already beginning to seal.
Jilamaka barely seemed to notice the injury, its eyes locking onto Joseph with interest, “New tricks? Men are surprising… but I have new tricks too.”
It was a regenerator, but Joe didn’t despair yet, regenerators were always limited in how much damage they could recover from. Normally it was based on their metabolism, if he and the dwarves here could hurt Jilamaka enough, it would turn into an emaciated husk. Varig then raised his own shotgun, his breathing shaky as he pulled the trigger. The next slug struck Jilamaka in the paw, and it winced, lifting the injured limb with a sigh.
“That actually hurt! My turn!” Jilamaka shouted, rearing its paw back.
Joe’s eyes widened, “Take cover!” He shouted, he and Prolo rushing Varig over to the nearest building, the dwarven guards following their example and running to take cover behind various chunks of debris.
However, some dwarves weren’t fast enough.
Jilamaka swung it bloody paw, spattering massive droplets of acidic crimson across the plaza. Joe watched at a large spattering impact with a dwarven helmet, eating straight through the metal without issue and sending the guard into a panicked frenzy, trying to rip off his helmet before the tainted blood could reach his skin… but he wasn’t fast enough. The disintegrating metal melded with his flesh, Jilamaka’s blood stripping the skin off the bone. Joe didn’t stop to watch the rest, hearing the screams of other dwarves and ninja’s, all having been struck with the spattering of blood.
He, Prolo, and Varig found shelter behind one of the toppled pillars, the screaming behind him intensifying. Right now, he had to assume that old Potor was dead, the three bolts in his back and that spattering of acid meant it was unlikely he survived. The other dwarves, from the sound of it, had begun firing their shotguns. Jilamaka let out a bellowing roar that shook the entire cavern, and Joe quickly peeked out from the pillar, taking a shot at the massive beast.
Massive wounds were punched through Jilamaka’s mishmashed flesh, boiling blood fountaining from dozens of wounds. Varig and Prolo emerged as well, firing with their own guns. Jilamaka screamed as the slugs tore through its rapidly regenerating flesh, and as Joe suspected, the monster became just a tad bit thinner as it regenerated. Matter could not be created nor destroyed, unless Jilamaka ate something it would starve to death.
Yugo joined in on this, directing his surviving men to fire on Jilamaka, bolts and knives impacting the beast's flesh along with the shotgun shells. Jilamaka howled and lunged forward, mouth agape before it gobbled up three men at once, not even bothering to chew them before it swallowed. Joe cursed as he saw Jilamaka begin to put weight back on near instantaneously, of course it would have rapid metabolism! Damned regenerators!
“Use the c4 Joseph!” Varig shouted as he loaded in another shell, “Throw it and shoot it!”
“That ain’t how it works!” Joe shouted back, loading another shell of his own, “I gotta plant ‘em and activate ‘em with an electric detonator, they don’t blow up if ya shoot ‘em!”
“Damn!” Varig shouted, firing again as Jilamaka continued to eat the unfortunate ninja’s.
“I got these though!” Joe shouted, removing a grenade from his hip.
He hastily removed the pin, and hucked that little green bastard right at Jilamaka. The grenade rolled right next to its rear paw, detonating as it swallowed up another helping of men. Unfortunately, the limb wasn’t completely blown off as he had wanted, but a sizable chunk had opened up in its ankle, bleeding profusely. Shrapnel had also found purchase in other parts of Jilamaka’s leg, and that limb buckled beneath the beast's weight.
That didn’t stop it though.
The monster thrashed violently, killing dozens more ninja before Joe hurled his second grenade. Blasting a hole in its guts and letting its now-shredded intestines spill out onto the floor. Jilamaka continued to howl, its limbs all flailing wildly, one claw colliding with the temple and caving half of it inward. They could do this, they could win-
Jilamaka’s eyes then locked on Joseph, and it snarled, ignoring everything else as it scrambled quickly toward him. Pure instinct took over, and Joe ran, not sure if Varig and Prolo were following behind. Jilamaka must have seen him lob that second grenade, and had identified Joseph as the biggest threat. Joe caught a glimpse of old Potor on his way out of the plaza, seeing that the old man still had his hands clasped together, but he was now prone, the three bolts still sticking out of his back.
Joe didn’t run to save him, there was nothing he could have done. Joe took a sharp right, hearing Jilamaka still in hot pursuit, rocky rubble flying past him as the Forgotten Beast’s body crashed through the ruins.
“I’ll kill you!” Jilamaka screamed, its voice rapidly closing the distance.
Joe began sprinting faster, trying to make it to the end of this street to take another turn.
“Lord, please help me get out of here!” Joe prayed as he ran as fast as his legs could take him, “Please Lord!”
He didn’t have time for a more complicated prayer unfortunately, but frankly he didn’t have air to spend on it. Joe took a sharp left, cutting through the corner. Joe briefly turned his head to see that Jilamaka had flung itself forward, smashing through another street and sliding right past the one Joe had entered. Taking advantage of the fact that he was out of sight, Joe dipped into an alleyway, but didn’t stop running, moving between the stone houses sporadically in the hopes of escaping.
He hoped that Prolo and Varig had cleared out of the way as he had, along with the other dwarves of course… He couldn’t herd them every time there was danger, they had been snapped out of their paralysis, surely their survival instincts would have kicked in… right? A pit began forming in his stomach as he ran, wondering if maybe… just maybe, they hadn’t managed to get out of the way. Could they be dead? He needed to run back and check, rendezvous and come up with a plan of attack-
“Fool!” He heard Jilamaka shout, its voice echoing, “I will trample this whole cursed city to find you! There is nowhere to hide!”
Joe ran harder as he heard buildings being flattened behind him, veering left through the narrow alleys in the direction of the plaza. His lungs burned as he sucked in air in lungfuls, lifting his gas mask as he ran. The cavern air was stale, yet clean thanks to the fumu. Sweat poured down his face as he stomped down the streets, hearing Jilamaka slowly gaining on him, the beast's wild thrashing flattening everything in its path. Hopefully it hadn’t eaten anyone else and was still bleeding out, but he wouldn’t know until he got back together with everyone.
He huffed and puffed, his legs and the bottoms of his feet growing hot from the sprint through old Ugals. Once he returned to the plaza, he saw a massacre… Old Potor was dead, though it seemed that he had succumbed purely from the arrow wounds, he hadn’t been killed by Jilamaka’s charge… however, ten of the dwarven guards that had accompanied them had been smashed, their armor crumpled and gore spewing from every chink in their armor. The right pillar had been completely crushed, which was where most of the guards had fled… It was a grisly sight, but thankfully he didn’t see Prolo or Varig among them. However, they weren’t here anymore… not even the ninjas remained. The plaza was completely empty, save for the corpses created by Jilamaka and the brief battle that had taken place between the dwarves and Black Hand.
He considered firing off a flare… but doing so would reveal where he was, not just to Jilamaka, but any surviving ninja. Just because they worked together for a moment to fight a bigger threat didn’t mean that he could trust them. In fact, Jilamaka’s presence might make them more desperate to capture Joseph and wish the Forgotten Beast away. He ducked behind a pillar as he heard Jilamaka tear its way through the city, screaming what it would do to Joseph when it found him.
He took deep breaths, catching his wind as he formulated a plan. He didn’t know where the others had gone, and he only had one more grenade to his name. He had to assume that he wasn’t going to find Prolo or Varig any time soon, they could have run anywhere and they aren’t going to go announcing themselves. Joe needed to just assume that he would be on his own from here on out… but that was okay, this gave him time to formulate a plan. All he needed to do was set up the c4, he had four bricks worth of it, he’d lure Jilamaka with a flare, and blow it to hell. He couldn't set it up right now though, he needed to be a good distance away from the monster, otherwise it might see him setting it up. The last thing he wanted was for this freak to catch him in the act, Joe might not walk away from that one alive.
He was lucky that he even managed to get away from Jilamaka on foot, even when seriously injured it was fast, mostly due to its massively long legs. Should he spread out the c4 or bunch it all together in one spot? Spreading it out might injure more of the beast, but if it was concentrated, it could blow off an entire limb… hmm… He decided what to do. Joe stood tall, popping his back after he finally got his wind back. His chest still hurt like hell from getting hit with that slug, but he’d survive. It was time to go find the perfect trap zone-
Off to his left, he caught a glimpse of something yellow, standing perfectly still in his periphery. Joe raised his Benneli… only to see something shocking. Standing there, clad in the gear he had made her, was Sera.