They watched as a sinister creature adamantly patrolled the length of the road below.
Its insidious crimson eyes left a remnant glare as it moved, like how water would ripple once something interacted with it.
Eight legs pierced the soil below, with flared edges as sharp as swords, and terrible spines that looked as if they would pierce his skin with the slightest touch.
And this terrifying spider beast became no more than a simple drawing in her endlessly-expanding journal. She vehemently sketched it onto the page, labeling every distinguishable part of it as if it were life-and-death.
Although, to her credit, this time it was.
"Are we going to stop and record every single thing in the city?"
He wasn't particularly annoyed, but it just didn't make any sense to him. Didn't she have any sense of danger?
"Feel free to go on ahead, if you wish." She replied. She seemed so very amused.
She closed her journal, contemplating for a moment.
And so he continued to watch it far down below. Large carapace shells covered the majourity of its body, save for parts of its underbelly and the blade-segments of its legs.
They had come to hunt this predator for a singular purpose, that besides the dull stone blade that Ruffliette often used, they had no other weapons. In such a dastardly place, this was a death-sentence.
So it was time for them to become the hunters.
"…just like when you fought the armour…" she murmured, pulling on Artemis's sleeve. Her whisper suddenly became filled with her exuberant realisation. "That power that lets you break things that otherwise couldn't be…! You can tear it apart-!"
He placed a hand quickly against her mouth, his eyes widening with anxiety. His other hand reached upwards, a finger against his lips begging her silence. As she realised what she had done, she nodded her head understandingly.
But it was already too late. The maddening crimson gaze had already turned towards the hillside above the road.
Motherf-cker…
"How did you ever manage to survive the city?" He drolled, turning away from her.
He sprinted forward from the hillside, surprising the beast as he rolled through the underbrush, quickly appearing right beside it.
If I use that power, I'll have to ensure we kill it. Otherwise, I won't be able to effectuate the contract's terms. I need to eat this beast!
And more than that, I need to make sure that she doesn't see it happen…!
Artemis lurched forward, grasping the sinister blade-like leg that hurtled towards him. Red liquid spilled from his palms, but it was to his benefit that he was hurt in this endeavour.
They had prepared for this encounter for an entire day. Studying the carapace-covered spider's behaviour, the way it would hunt lesser beasts, he had become adequately acquainted with it. Its movements, its mode of attack, even the length that it could extend the blades, he knew it all.
He had wrapped his hands in thick strips of cloth before antagonising the carapace spider, concealing thin sheets of stone from the ruins within. What cut his hands was the jagged stone itself, not the blade-like leg of the beast!
When watching how it would hunt lesser beings, the foremost concern was how sharp and tough its legs were. Besides its back and head, the portion of the leg closest to the body was also littered with the large carapace shells, meaning that the segments in-between had to be vast as to not disrupt its movements. This was where Artemis would strike!
An insidious black mask spread over his face, the black wolf mask that recognised Lark's authority, borrowing her power. Eliciting the use of 'Gambit', he ensured that as he tore away the limb of the carapace spider, it began to snap at the divide between its plates, sinew and flesh snapping loudly like the crackling of flames.
Putrid liquid assaulted his senses as he fell backwards, staring up at the beast as it reared up in the air, wielding its remaining foremost pincer.
It let out a terrifying scream. It wasn't like a beast would howl when they were in pain, it was more than that. It sunk deep into his bones, writing its memory deep within him, repeating in his mind long after it had ceased.
He felt entirely stunned. His fingers, still stiff around the blade-like leg, were frozen in place. While he could glance around, he couldn't open his mouth to speak, and his limbs felt like they were coated in stone.
I can't move!
It quickly lurched towards him, spilling the foul liquid from its wounds onto the ground, which seemed to wilt the grass nearby a considerable amount. He would be loathe to get the same on him.
Step-by-step, it drew closer, until he could feel its hot, terrible breath on his skin.
Well, I don't think it matters much…
Suddenly, a shadow wisped down from above, collapsing on top of the carapace spider's head. It was Ruffliette, who had remained on the hilltop above the road.
She had only been waiting for it to get closer, to become more distracted, more enamored by its wounded prey.
How terrified would such a creature be, to learn that its prey was really its hunter?
She reached overhead with a large rock, bashing it downwards onto the spider's head shell with all of her might.
This was the second step of their plan. Of course, they had seen how this targeted scream would affect the creature's prey. How good of an observer would Ruffliette been had she left a stone unturned?
The rock only left a dent in the head-shell of the spider, but this was to be expected. She only wished to test it herself, as if to gather further data as to its defenses. The real target was what had been gazing at them this whole time, those sinister crimson eyes!
She bashed down once more into one of its eyes, causing it to reel in pain, letting out another loud scream. However, it couldn't 'direct' one of these screams without intentionally harming itself.
This was crucial to their survival in this fight. Positioning had always been key in order to restrict the carapace spider. And delay in the event of being paralysed was their route to victory.
It would only ever last around twenty seconds at a time, weakening in certain areas of the body quickly.
Thirteen… twelve… eleven…
Artemis slowly felt vitality return to his fingers, curling tighter around the hilt of the blade.
Seven… six…
He began to prop himself up, forcing movement in to his expression as he grimaced.
Two…
Strength shot back into his shoulder and arm as he swung the blade in an arcing motion.
One…
It made contact with several of the spider's exposed eyes, spilling blood and pus onto the ground below.
Targeting the weak points was crucial, as they had run into an odd problem when considering how they would approach the hunt.
Their thinking raised a concern— how could a blade as tough as its armour-counterpart adequately pierce it? The legs were made of the same material as the spider's carapace, so how could he kill it effectively?
Artemis grinned, anticipating the next strike of the beast as he parried with the ebony leg-blade, grasping ahold of another of the spider's legs as he pulled with all of his might, severing it between the carapace's partition with the blade instead of Lark's Gambit. Green, putrid liquid spilled out from the wound, a thick vile scent permeating through the air.
He tossed the other blade to the ground, scared that if he threw it directly towards Ruffliette, she might have tried to catch it by the blade, and sliced her own fingers clean off. She quickly picked it up, pointing the blade towards the carapace spider as Artemis distracted it.
Her part of the plan was the most crucial.
He had appointed the observer to be the one who killed the beast itself!
Ruffliette dashed underneath the creature, stabbing upwards with the blade into the exposed underbelly. Viscera and pale-green blood spilled out from the wound, as if the spider was only a sac that contained its organs, no sense of structure in place to keep them safe.
This is its main weakness!
And now that we have weapons, there's nothing stopping us from killing it!
But there was a larger problem.
If it died here, how could he consume it in secret in order to effectuate the contract?
He needed to find some way to distract her...
As Ruffliette stood up and backed away from the spider, she suddenly felt a chill go down her spine.
The road running along the edge of the Gale was covered in a fast forest of grey-trunked trees. Shadow often coated this region in the mire of despair, and so it was impossible to tell what lurked within it.
She dashed backwards, raising her blade as another shot out from the darkness, cutting deep into her arm. Blood spilled out onto the ground, causing her to reel in pain as she rejoined Artemis, back-to-back as the shadows trembled. She grasped at the wound on her arm, trying to count out the number of creatures based on the eyes she could see glinting through the shade.
"Maester, what if it wasn't just a weapon? What if we missed something in our observations?"
Dozens of crimson eyes peered through the shadows of the forest on both sides of them, pinned in place by beasts.
Artemis grimaced.
Right… what if it was a call for help…?
Are we now really the prey?