Something hot and steaming dripped onto her shoulder, just as Azariah screamed from the back of the group.
Sonara’s curse pointed upwards, sensingdust and rotting flesh. Poison, oozing from pincers that were reaching, reaching…
Sonara glanced up just in time to see the massive, dripping jaws of a Hadru open wide.
Out of the darkness, it came, a carrier of death.
Lazaris sang as Sonara drew the blade. She stopped the Hadru’s pincers a moment before they snapped off her head.
The Hadru was enormous, a hideous crimson beast that was covered in scraggly patches of hair, with eight disjointed legs extending from a bulbous abdomen that ended in a long, coiled tail. A poisonous barb was at the end of that tail, able to be lashed like a whip and render its victim motionless in a single strike. A second strike would stop their heart.
The beast hissed and scuttled down the rounded wall, turning on Azariah next.
The Princess did not even utter a scream as it approached her, tail uncoiling slowly. She shook from head to toe, her pupilless eyes wide in shock, as if fear had overcome her fully.
“Run!”Sonara yelled.
The tail struck.
Markam tackled the princess aside a breath before the barbed tail reached her. The rock exploded from the impact instead, left with an oozing drip of acid that reeked of rot, of sulfur and death.
Sonara swung. Lazaris bounded off of the Hadru’s armored side.The beast whirled back around, a blur of red and brown so perfectly camouflaged they would not have seen it without Sonara’s warning curse. Its tail uncoiled again and struck out, narrowly missing Sonara as she ducked and dove to the side.
Lazaris scraped against the ground as Markam helped her stand. “The belly is its weakest spot. I’ll go for the legs.”
She nodded, and they parted. Markam clapped his hands loudly to draw the beast to him before he used his curse and disappeared. Sonara heard his footsteps running down the tunnel, towards where Thali stood motionless behind her torch, unnoticed by the beast. Perhaps it was the Canis mask, or the reek of bones she carried.
But the cleric did not know how to fight. “Stay back,” Sonara commanded her.
The cleric nodded silently, backing further away with the torch.
Sonara turned, assessing the situation. The Hadru was focused on Markam, who appeared and disappeared, using his dagger to strike at the disjointed, sinewy bits of flesh that connected each leg to the abdomen.
Azariah was on its other side, back pressed against the rocks, hands pressed to her mouth as if she could hold her terror in.
“Strike it down!” Sonara ordered her. Then she lunged out with Lazaris, aiming between the beast’s back legs to swing at its fleshy underbelly. She managed a single slice, earning a screech from the Hadru, but it was not deep enough. She’d have to get closer.
“Use your power,Azariah! Now!”
One strike from the girl’s lightning would have the beast down.
So why didn’t she move?
Sonara danced, avoiding the Hadru’s pincers, catching glimpses of Azariah every so often.She had lifted her hands, holding them before her as her entire body shook.
A spark formed, between her palms.
A tendril of lightning formed, but it died out, as soon as Sonara saw it.
“DO SOMETHING!”Markam screamed.
The Princess stared at her hands, her eyes wide. “I… I can’t!”
The Hadru turned again, tail rising back in a striking position. Poison dripped from the sharpened tip as it struck another near-death blow.
Sonara’s body moved on instinct. Her muscles remembered the steps Soahm had once taught her, sweat in their eyes, hot air rushing from their lungs as they’d rehearsed move after move, step after step, so that she could defend herself. So that she would become a young woman that did not have to fear those who wished to prey on the weak at night.
Markam appeared suddenly again behind the beast, dagger in his hand as he finally dismembered one of its legs. Acidic blood sprayed, eating at Sonara’s duster and burning her flesh beneath.
