Strange Tales of the Deadslayer Ch. 02

I'm blasted off course by a bolt of bright blue light, strafed across my body from one of the flying dinosaurs circling and flanking above. I can see more lasers coming at me, bright blue in color -- then more from another direction, bright green. Now bright pink from behind. I grit my teeth and let out a growl, hopping up and landing both bare feet onto the rough back of a stegosaurus, digging my toes in before using my momentum to bound upward, catching one of the harassing pterosaurs by its neck and dragging it downward. I ignore the alien screams of its male rider (who I notice seems a bit shorter and slighter than the females) as he falls off of his mount. He's the lucky one, here.

Snarling, I form my fingers into a fist and ram them into the flying pest's ribcage, reaching in deep to take a firm hold of its spine from within. The creature lets out one last gurgling shriek and goes rigid, the sharp, saw-toothed makeshift blade of its beak now firmly in my grasp. Landing back on my feet and on ground level I whirl in an arc, neatly bisecting a charging raptor before leaping again, this time targeting a larger mark -- a tyrannosaurus, so large that it requires multiple handlers, seated in a small, spiked metal hut on its back. It charges me, jaws opening and the flamethrowers at its shoulders gushing out a bright orange inferno in my direction, but I duck and roll forward, narrowly avoiding the cones of fire. Crouching beneath it as it starts to lose balance, I lash up with the sharp beak of the stiffened pterasaur I'm using as a puppet, making puncture after deep puncture in the thing's soft underbelly and causing it to stumble forward harder. I can hear the screams of its riders above and see one abandon the mount entirely, and I toss aside the beak-gauntlet to grip the bigger beast's skin, starting to climb up its side.

It stumbles, but I hold on fast, dodging a laser from above and finally climbing up to the top, kicking off the metal hut on the t-rex's back (along with its remaining inhabitant) before crawling towards the great beast's head. I'm not sure if I'm filled with rage or drunk with power, but I know that if I'm going to save Ciphia I need to get these things off my back, and that means denting their numbers. I reach for the rex's top jaw and draw it back, feeling it strain to snap its jaws shut around my hand... but it fails, struggling against my strength and frantically gnashing its lower jaw, already weakened from my deep, repeated stabs to its underside. Climbing up higher I plant my feet on its neck, my muscles straining as I reach to grab the lower jaw with one hand, then forcing my arms apart, pushing with everything I've got until I finally hear that satisfying pop.

The beast falls and I fall with it, hopping down to ground level at the last second and turning, ripping the lower jaw off of its head entirely and swinging the massive thing in a sharp circle, tossing it towards another pterasaur and sending it soaring out of the sky. I duck out of the way of another barrage of laser fire but one of those strange lances catches me from behind, hitting my shoulder and sending me stumbling forward. I turn and react, lashing out with a punch that I'm fairly certain kills the offending raider on impact. I don't sit around to find out.

Breathing hard, I stumble to the side, and I'm starting to feel fatigue setting in... but no, can't stop yet. I can see that big beast loaded onto the ship and see it start to pull away. I can still get there, I can still save Ciphia. I didn't rescue her from Thodax just for her to get taken away this quickly. I grit my teeth and start to run forward again, kicking off the back of a fallen stegosaurus and leaping up, grabbing another pterosaur and redirecting it, riding its descent downwards and targeting its auto-firing laser pack at another incoming flying rider, hitting her, sending her spiraling away before tightening my grip on the pterosaur I'm using as a hang-glider, throwing it down to the ground and pouncing a raider and his raptor mount. The raider is swatted aside, but the raptor gets far worse as I reach between its shoulder blades, grabbing its spine and tearing it free along with the two shoulder-mounted flamethrowers that appear to be attached to it with some kind of simple, invasive machinery.

As the fuel packs continue to spew fire in all directions I grab the base of the spine, whirling it in wide, rapid circles, smashing into everything that dares come near me, sending warriors and their mounts skidding backwards, burned or beaten, collapsing into their fellow raiders. The ship is starting to move, along with the others, sliding out along strange, transparent space-canals and taking Ciphia with them. I roar out, flexing the muscles of my tattooed back and smashing my improvised flame-whip downwards, shattering the fuel tanks and creating a massive blast of fire and bone shrapnel, sending countless aliens flying backwards in the inferno... including me.

I struggle to get up, to stand again, my vision bleary, and I feel more lasers start to drill into my inhumanly tough skin, sending me staggering, falling again each time I try to stand. I blink my eyes and try to look up, reaching around for some kind of weapon... but all I can see are the raiders, circling around me now with different kinds of lances. Lances with hooks and collars at the end. I feel one clasp around my neck, then my wrists, then my ankles, and I feel a sharp blow to the back of my head.

Then, only darkness.