Book 3, Chapter 72 - City Within the Volcano (1/2)

Cloudhawk’s arrow had blasted its head apart, but still Magmesa quickly climbed back onto his feet. The red light of its body had dimmed significantly, and it trembled from end to end like it was struck by lightning. An oozing mass dribbled from the hole where its throat had been. Fluid and meat rained on the tribesmen below, as well as a powerful stench.

Cloudhawk had seen all sorts of incredible things as he traveled the wasteland, but never anything like this. A creature this large, headless, jerking like some demon puppet.

This creature had been feared and deified by the indigenous people of the Blisterpeaks for who knows how many generations. Passing years didn’t make it old, but just the opposite. Magmesa had only become larger and stronger as its food was provided by the tribesmen. Could it be that this thing, after possibly thousands of years of worship, had somehow left mortality behind? Could it really keep on living without a head?

A torrent of ruined organs and fetid discharge continued to ooze out of it. The bits of meat that tumbled out were unrecognizable, bits of shredded organs and intestine probably. But no – as they continued to watch the bits of meat writhed and twisted. Cloudhawk’s hair stood on end as he watched them change, spotted the outline of a limb here or there.

More insects. About the size of a fingertip, hundreds of them.

The continuous sludge expelled by Magmesa’s corpse were its babies, and the monster’s killers watched in horror as ever more poured free. Hundreds, possibly thousands, writhing around and over one another with the same savagery as their mother. Their hunger was directed toward Cloudhawk and the others.

Meanwhile Magmesa’s body continued to decompose into more offspring. Somehow, it seemed the titanic beast was made up of these smaller bugs.

Cloudhawk figured this was a reproduction system of last resort. A monster like this wasn’t male or female, or maybe both, so it produced the next generation on its own. When its bodies were destroyed it set off a chain reaction to release its brood. Given several centuries or a millenium, the critters would grow into a creature just as terrible as the one they crawled out from.

When the humongous monster eventually was split apart, the ground was covered in its progeny. It was a dire fate for the mountains, which in the future would be covered in these awful things. Even newly hatched, they were vicious and aggressive, and many were skittering toward the crowd of people hungry for a meal.

But they were living things, and all livings things died eventually. Magmesa lost its head but somehow kept moving, however that was just as a host for its children. The enormous beast could no longer fight. The swarm of insects was dangerous, but they were nothing like the threat its mother posed.

“Deal with them!” Cloudhawk’s eyes flashed toward the bubbling like a lava and called out to Coal. “Knock them into the lake!”

The creatures of the Blisterpeaks had evolved to deal with intense heat, but it didn’t matter the methods or mutations – underneath the protective measures, all things were made of meat and blood. Coal could wade through lava, but even he couldn’t stay immersed for more than a short time.

The newborn insects were no exception. No natural thing was going to survive after being thrown in a lake of lava. It was important to kill them now, before they grew big and became a pestilence on an already inhospitable environment.

Several of the tribesmen hurried over to what remains of Magmesa and started pushing it into the lake as well. The insects that had already burst free bit at them with toxin-covered mandibles, however, which were strong enough to pierce their stone-like skin. Those that were injected by the toxins fell to the ground and began to twitch uncontrollably.

Magmesa’s upper half swelled grotesquely as another burst of insects prepared to emerge. If the tribesmen were left where they were, they would be picked apart by the swarm in seconds. Cloudhawk flicked Heavenly Gale back open and waved it towards them just as the insects burst free. A formless gust of air knocked them away.

With an angry roar, Coal ran up to where his brothers had fallen and started to shove Magmesa’s corpse toward the edge. Sensing something, the mindless yet still mobile remains swayed and bucked to deny him.

The rest of his fellow tribesmen gathered round to help, but as they came close cracks in the chitinous armor of the creature became clear. More insects poured out of the fissures, proving once more that the whole thing was filled with offspring. Sacks where the young were kept bubbled under the armor like boiling water, ready to burst and release their horrific payload.

Once that happened millions of mutated centipedes would rain across the area. They all would be eaten alive.

Cloudhawk knew the danger, but there wasn’t much he could do to stop it.

He rushed forward, joining Coal and the others as they heaved against the enormous monster. Even dead the animal was so much stronger than all of them. Cloudhakw’s addition to their efforts was insignificant. But he gritted his teeth and called on the mad rage that always boiled deep inside him. Vessels in his eyes engorged and turned his vision red while the blood in his veins started to boil. Steam rose up from his skin and seeped from the pores.

In an instant Cloudhawk became five or six times stronger than normal.

Heave!

Magmesa’s body caved in at the point where he shoved.

It was just enough, the final straw to break the centipede’s back. It collapsed into the lake with the upper fourth of its body first, immediately trapped by the ropy threads of molten rock that splattered over it.