Chapter 38
Two Sides of a Coin
The monster shifted slightly toward Eren on its whip-tendrils at the sides. Its head lifted a little. Two "antennae" on top trembled, aimed straight at him.
Eren's left arm gave a faint twitch. Under the sleeve it felt like an invisible thread tugging—the other end tied to that raised pair of sensory rods in the middle of the road.
He did not look away. With the thing facing him, he raised his right hand, found the half strip of old belt buckled around his left arm, and yanked the clasp free with a snap. He wound it tight over his knuckles. His eyes never left the monster's head.
Then his right hand went to the small of his back and closed on the war hammer.
Lila stood behind Eren, finger already on the trigger. She stepped half a pace sideways and put Nova, Meng Xiangyang, and the two porters with shoulder poles on the roadside slope all behind her.
Meng Xiangyang was climbing up from the ground. He caught the stance and hurried Nova behind Lila with him.
The thing's layered plates suddenly contracted, back humping like a bow.
Bang!
Its whole body left the ground—a shell skimming the dirt—and shot straight at Eren.
It came too fast. Eren sidestepped half a pace and barely cleared it; a plate edge ripped a long tear in his coat.
As he dodged, his right hand swept the war hammer sideways. The facet on the hammer head caught the monster's tail.
A dull crack. Eren's right arm jarred open. The scale armor did not seem to break—only a scatter of grit fell away.
The monster landed on open ground a few meters from Eren. Whip-tendrils writhed beside it as it turned. Two lashes snapped out—crack, crack—and swept for his shins.
Eren rolled aside and dodged the first. The second caught the outside of his calf. The iron plate under his leather greave dented in; under the cloth a hot stripe of pain flared at once.
His knee buckled. He stood again through the pain, eyes locked on the monster.
One hit landed. The attack tightened.
A tendril braced down and lifted the front half of its body. Head up, tail and the two shorter side tendrils on the ground—it reared like a cobra. The belly plate that had been flat to the earth showed now, thinner there, with a crack down the middle and sticky gray fluid seeping at the edges.
The crack under its belly opened a finger's width.
Hssht!
Gray, murky, slick fluid sprayed out, straight at Eren's face.
He jerked hard to the right and kept his upper body clear. The spray still caught his leg; half his calf was coated in a thin gray slurry.
He started—looked down—and found nothing wrong.
No burn. No numbness. No corrosion.
While Eren's attention slipped, the monster dipped its head. A tendril whipped up from the ground behind him on the diagonal.
"Look out!"
A crossbow bolt flew. It struck the base of the pair of sensory rods on its head. The point sank a few centimeters in and hung in a gap between plates.
The thing's head jerked. The coiling tendril veered off—but still cinched around the leather over Eren's ribs. It tightened. His breath caught.
Eren wrenched free.
His left hand clamped the tendril wrapped at his side. It was still trying to tighten. His fingers dug into the joints between plates. Gray tracery flared under his skin, running from arm over shoulder, and he hauled.
"Not getting away!"
The war hammer came down in his right hand.
His footing slipped as he struck.
The slime the monster had sprayed earlier—slick and greasy—made the ground hard to stand on.
Crack!
The hammer still hit the tendril. Barbed wire on the head scraped the plates and threw a string of sparks; a few barbs bent flat against the teeth. The blow slid along the surface without snapping it, but the force was enough—the monster pulled the tendril back in pain.
A hiss of air squeezed between the plates, like a scream.
Eren did not wait to catch his breath. Eyes wide, he closed half a step. Shoulders low, he dragged the hammer head along the ground with a dull scrape—the next strike already rushing.
His left foot drove off and the boot sole slid on the slime again. He pitched forward.
He could not set his feet. He jammed the war hammer into the ground and hauled himself out of the slime's edge.
When he looked up, the thing had drawn that tendril all the way in and lifted its head. Another lash came out, caught him off balance, slipped past his side, and whipped at the wrist of his hammer hand.
Lila had no time to stirrup-cock the long crossbow again. Her left hand snatched the short hand-crossbow from her belt. The bolt tore past Eren's ear with a sharp rush of air.
She had meant to drive it into the seam on the side of the head.
But as the tendril was about to hit his wrist, her head filled with what a miss would cost—Eren choked breathless in the thing's coils, or smashed beyond recognition by that charge.
The concrete beam in the tunnel weighed on her heart again.
Her focus broke. The bolt left her hand a fraction off.
The head struck thick scale on the flank—skidded along the surface in a line of sparks, chipped off a few flakes, bounced away, and buried itself slanting in the road.
Still, the impact snapped the thing's head sideways.
The tendril meant for Eren's right wrist lost half a beat. In the end it only grazed the outside of his right shoulder. His leather pauldron cracked.
Eren did not look at the split in his shoulder. He tilted his head aside, as if the lash had been too light to bother with.
The monster came again.
This time the whole body pulled back. Light under the plates surged—the same charge as before when it had launched along the ground, only now the head was lower.
Lila's first bolt still hung in its head, between the two sensory rods. The shaft trembled slightly as it gathered power.
The next instant it shot at Eren's chest like a round leaving the chamber.
Someone on the main road screamed something, but the wind of the charge tore the words apart.
Eren did not dodge sideways.
Behind him were Lila, Nova, Meng Xiangyang, and the porters just getting up. One graze through the cluster and the damage would be unthinkable.
He planted his right foot, heel biting into dirt, so he would not slip again. Both hands closed on the haft—left on the foregrip, right on the butt—and he swept the war hammer from his side up behind his head.
As his back twisted, dark yellow surged under his skin, body run through with heat. Veins stood out on his neck. Naked killing intent rose in his eyes.
Head-on.
The hammer head arced down from above, straight between the two sensory rods. The thing was still charging, could not check its rush—it drove its own crown into the blow.
The hammer face smashed the bolt shaft. The shaft snapped. The arrowhead, pressed by the blow, drove another few centimeters into the gap.
Hammer, charge, and arrowhead driven home—all on one point. Even armor hard as iron could not hold.
The plates between the sensory rods collapsed. The head was driven down and under. Momentum died. The thing was nailed into the road, blunt teeth and barbed wire wedged into shattered plate.
Gray gel oozed from the broken armor in pulses, like melting glass—red at first, then fading as if cooling.
The breathing glow on its back weakened pulse by pulse until it died out at the tail tip.
Both of Eren's arms hummed numb from the shock. The hammer head still pressed on the shattered plates, tendons standing on the backs of his hands, until the armor was fully crushed flat. Only then did he let out a slow breath.
He peeled the old belt off his knuckles, wound it back around his left arm, and hooked the hammer at his back again. Gray-white gel still clung to the head.
The main road went quiet.
Lila did not relax. She walked to the middle and tapped the edge of the collapsed plates with her boot.
Gray gel seeped again from the seams and ran down the scales to the ground.
Sure it was not moving, she lowered the crossbow and exhaled. She pulled the bolt that had lodged in the road, wiped the shaft, and slid it back into the quiver.
Nova had already pressed in beside Eren. He checked Eren's arms, then his calf and the half-dried smear on his ribs. "Are you hurt?"
"No."
Meng Xiangyang climbed up from the slope at last, hand on his knee, face white. He looked at the thing in the road, then at Eren, voice unsteady. "Damn—I walked with you all this way and never saw you fight like that. I thought we were all dead out here."
Eren did not know what to say. He shifted the hammer haft at his hip and looked at the still shape in the road.
The driver had the mules' bridles secured and came around slowly, still short of breath. He thanked Eren and Lila first. "You two. If not for you today, we'd have lost cart, cargo, and our lives on this road. Lose this load and half a year's work goes up in smoke."
Eren nodded and gave a small smile.
"As long as nobody's hurt."
Lila slung the crossbow on her shoulder. "What is that thing? Have you seen one before?"
The cart hand jumped in ahead. "We call 'em Warheads—charge like a warhead coming at you. Real fight, you need mine guards with muskets ringing it, or someone like the mine-guard captain—the one they call Red Tea. Heard he took down two by himself once."
Lila pressed on. "Warhead… never heard the name. What's the proper name for it?"
The driver smiled. "Proper name? We just say what comes out of our mouths. Want a scientific name, get a scientist out here."
If Lin Ce were here, he would probably pick something obscure.
Lila thought it and kept her face flat. "Fair enough. Things like this only showed up after the Impact, right?"
The driver was tying down the load and pulling the tarp over as he answered. "Of course. Never had critters like this before—came down with the meteorites, they say. Not common even at the mines. Never seen one anywhere else. Heard they eat ore—lie on a pile and suck it into their bellies in no time. Don't often hear of them attacking people. Maybe it had its eye on our cargo."
Lila glanced at Eren, nodded, and said nothing.
People on the roadside saw the monster still and heard the talk up front. Only then did they decide the scare was over.
Cheers and chatter broke out together.
Eren and the others did not stay to chat. They did not want to linger. They set off toward Rusak.
They had just turned away when heavy footsteps rolled toward them from the direction of the town.