Chapter 108: In Comes The Threat
"A dalki?" Fex asked, tilting his head, "Like a real one?"
Before Layla could elaborate, they heard a loud earth shaking thud land right outside of the old building. Then, immediately after, sounds of large heavy machinery fell to the ground.
"It’s— It’s— It’s here!" Layla stammered, pointing right at the window.
Immediately, Quinn’s eyes widened.
"Erin, she’s outside!"
—
Standing outside was Erin standing still as she held her rapier on her waist. Tears fell from her eyes silently, but she blinked them away.
Just moments prior, the single spiked dalki had jumped into the large machinery, causing it to crash to the ground, and kick up sand everywhere. He didn’t immediately see the blonde girl in front of him, but Erin had to hold her ground. Not once did her face change.
This was something she had to do. This was why she had trained so hard, why she wanted— no, NEEDED, to be so strong. She had to prove to herself that she wasn’t weak. If she was going to stand in front of the dalki, then she needed to be unmovable.
But that was easier said than done.
The dalki stood in the middle of the wreckage, holding a piece of the now broken well.
"What is this junk?" The dalki said, tossing aside the metal, "This is not a shelter."
That was when the sand settled clear enough for the dalki to spot Erin, the girl he was following this entire time.
"You should tell me where the shelter is, now," The dalki threatened, pointing at Erin with his clawed hand.
Swallowing her doubts, Erin took a few unsteady steps towards the dalki, taking out her sword.
"I— I—" Erin gulped.
She had to be strong, who else could defeat the monster in front of her?
"Hurry it child," The dalki coldly stated.
"I’m not— I’m not scared of you," Erin nervously gulped, doing everything within her power to keep herself together, "You won’t get to kill another person... Never again!"
"... So what I’m hearing is that you won’t tell me where the shelter is," The dalki huffed, before crossing his arms, "Fine, you’re just another sad human child in the way of my mission."
The dalki kicked up a piece of metal, and twisted it into a spear before throwing it at Erin.
She jumped out of the way, but the spear crashed into the house, destroying the wall facing the well.
Peter, Fex, Layla and Quinn had been lucky that they weren’t near the wall at the time, but as the dust settled, they saw Erin was still standing in the shadows of the house. Due to the fact that the sun was setting, it was providing more area of shade than usual, but it didn’t cover the rubble of the destroyed well.
Sticking her hand up, Erin aimed her fingers in the dalki’s direction.
"Bloodspray!"
[-5 HP]
[HP 65/70]
The blood shot into the dalki’s chest, and Erin used the move a few more times, causing him to take a step back.
[- 5 HP]
[- 5 HP]
[- 5 HP]
[HP 50/70]
He was initially surprised by the first few moves being strong, but when he saw that she had stayed within a specific area, continuously spamming the same attack, he started to smile.
"Are you too frozen in fear to move from your spot?" The dalki taunted.
Erin gritted her teeth, but flung a few blood swipes from her rapier. The dalki at first dodged them, before one had landed into his arm, and he saw that it barely did anything at all.
[-3 HP]
"Is that all you can do?" The dalki sneered.
Angered by the taunt, Erin flashstepped towards the dalki, and sliced at the dalki with all of her strength, frantically swinging her sword to make several small cuts. Something must’ve landed as she managed to gain some health back.
[+5 HP]
[HP 52/70]
Unfortunately, that was all Erin could do, make small cuts.
"My turn," The dalki commented before swinging his clawed fist back.
Erin saw the hit, and she was about to make a shadow shield to defend herself, but the fist was too fast. It collided with her ribs, and her body flew through the air.
[- 32 HP]
[HP 20/70]
[You are being hit by direct sunlight]
[All stats have been reduced by 70 percent]
Erin landed into an area that wasn’t shaded by the old building, and where the sun was at. Coughing up blood, she was scrambling to get upright, but the sun was blaring down upon her skin. Despite the heat, internally, her blood was running cold.
’It’s happening again, I’m not strong enough!’
—
As Layla was watching from the bed frame, she was beginning to realize why Erin was struggling against the dalki.
’The sun is still out, and she doesn’t have the MC to make another shadow dome,’ Layla thought.
"Guys, you have to support her! Buy her time!" Layla called out to the others.
Fex and Quinn glanced back, realizing what was happening. The sun was soon to set, the sky red. All they needed was to stall a little.
Fex ran out in front of the others, and flung his string with a dagger at the end of them towards the dalki.
The dalki narrowly ducked under the blade, before grabbing the string and ripping it as he did.
"That’s okay, I got more where that came from," Fex smirked, then flung his hands around, swinging some metal to crash into the dalki.
The dalki had smacked, smashed, and punched the incoming metal chunks. Shooting 5 strings upon a large chunk of metal, Fex flung it onto the dalki’s head, only for him to slice it mid air as if it were butter.
However, that distracted him just long enough for a humanoid metal figure to sneak up behind the monster.
This figure was completely covered head to toe in the old rusted metal of the abandoned well, save for the joints, which were covered in mud. This had allowed the figure to bend their limbs without issue, and on the ends of the figure’s hands were metal gauntlets with spiked knuckles.
The figure threw punch after punch into the dalki’s back, putting everything he had into each one.
The dalki glanced over his shoulder, and twisted his body, flinging his tail into the face of the metal figure. The figure fell down the pile of rubble, but because of the tail whip, it caused a piece of metal to dislodge from the figure’s head, revealing it to be Quinn.
’Thankfully, this metal armor took the brunt of the attack,’ Quinn thought.
Quinn scrambled to get up, then shifted mud to form around his hand, shooting tri-spikes at the dalki, but they bounced off of his form.
Then, the dalki picked up a piece of metal, and threw it at Quinn as hard as possible. At the last second, Fex was able to use his string to wrap around Quinn’s arm, and yank him out of danger’s way.
Quinn fell onto the floor, but before he could recover, the dalki jumped down. He stood above him, hand raised, about to strike.
Immediately, Quinn shifted the earth around himself to form a shell, blocking the attack. Then, he formed a pillar that broke through the shell, and shot himself into the dalki’s torso.
The move caused the dalki to step back, but before Quinn could recover, he grabbed him by the head, and lifted the curly haired boy into the air.
"Looks like they’ve finally started to train you children a bit, I see," The dalki spoke, slowly tightening his grip, "Perhaps we need to wage war against you humans before you grow even stronger."
The metal creaked under the dalki’s hand, and desperate for anything, Quinn flung his hand out, controlling the mud from his mud pouch to land into the dalki’s eyes.
The surprise move caught him off guard, and his grip loosened for a moment, trying to wipe the mud off.
Then, Quinn collected another handful of mud, and placed his hands together, shooting it out into the dalki’s chest.
"Mud spray!" Quinn yelled.
The dalki let go of Quinn, and suddenly, a few strings had attached themselves into the boy’s backside. He was pulled away from the dalki, and landed on his feet a short distance away. Unfortunately, Quinn’s helmet was crushed in the dalki’s hand, and he winced thinking what could’ve happened to his head if he wasn’t fast enough.
Fex then flung his daggers, strings still attached, at the dalki, which he had smacked them away like flies.
Gritting his teeth, Fex yanked his daggers back, and tried to throw them again at the dalki’s face, but he had caught it with his mouth, and bit hard on the metal. Fex stepped back in shock watching the dalki chewing the metal daggers like gum, before spitting them out into an unrecognizable mess.
"Tasty, I gotta thank you for the delicious snack," The dalki smiled with a wide toothy grin.
’This guy, he’s... He’s too strong, even for me!’ Fex thought.
