Chapter 219: Rule Number Three
The queen pounced on Da’kea unexpectedly, sending the two of them to the ground, the Saalistaja on the bottom. Opening her mouth, she lunged forward, trying to take off the male’s head. Luckily, he managed to raise his arm just in time so that she ended up biting down on his armor.
Seeing her distracted by Da’kea, Tha’juen jumped onto the queen’s back. Raising his right arm, he plunged his wrist blades into the back of her neck but came up short, her skin too thick to pierce.
"Fuck," grunted Tha’juen, and he jumped off the Istar creature’s back. Using his legs and hips, Da’kea threw the queen over his head. Since her teeth were still embedded into his arm, he went with her, using the momentum until he was the one on top.
Pressing his forearm even deeper into her mouth, he waited until she had no choice but to lessen the pressure of her bite before he ripped his arm out. Pinning the Istar down, his entire body weight on her shoulders and upper chest, he rained down blow after blow onto the creature’s face.
"Is she safe?" he demanded between strikes. No one had to ask who he was referring to; they all knew. There was only one ’she’ that mattered to any of them.
"Yes," grunted Au’dtair as he ripped one of the smaller bunnies off of his shoulder. Its teeth managed to tear a chunk of his armor off. But before Au’dtair could take another breath, his armor repaired itself, adding an extra spike of protection on both shoulder blades. "Midnight caught her and has taken her away."
Ye’tab stabbed one of the smaller bunnies, his wrist blades quickly penetrating the neck of the beast. He jumped back as its blood splashed all over the place, the acid eating away at anything it touched. "The smaller ones are more vulnerable," he advised Au’dtair as he retracted his blades back into his wrist sheathes.
"Yeah, but there is a crap ton of them," grunted the other Saalistaja as he threw out his chakram. The round blade spun around, taking off the head of a second bunny before returning to him. Gripping it by its handle in the center, Au’dtair flicked his wrist, getting as much of the blood off of the blade before it did too much damage.
He wouldn’t be able to use this particular weapon after the fight, but thankfully, Ye’tab didn’t have that issue with his wrist blades. Was that because they were considered to be part of his armor, and therefore, they ’healed’ themselves from the acid blood?
"Behind you!" yelled Tha’juen, throwing the long spear he had in his hand. It was his weapon of choice, both deadly and not, depending on how he chose to use it. In this case, however, he chose the deadlier option. As he let the weapon go, he twisted his wrist, causing the end of the staff to morph from a single, triangle-type blade to one covered in spikes.
His aim was true, and the Istar queen stumbled back in pain, no longer as interested in killing Da’kea as she was in removing the object from her eye. Pulling the spear out, bright red blood gushed from her eye socket, the organ itself remaining firmly on the tip of the spear.
"Eyes are vulnerable," called out Tha’juen, letting everyone know that he had managed to finally injure the creature. With a hiss, the queen jumped up and disappeared into the shadows of the ceiling.
"We can’t let her get away!" shouted Da’kea, crouching down low so that he, too, could reach the ceiling in a single jump.
"We need help!" said Ye’tab, his eyes widening as he and Au’dtair slowly backed away to join their brethren.
"What—" started Tha’juen as he spun around to see what was causing the other two males to back away.
Looking over Au’dtair’s shoulder, he watched as two of the Istar younglings turned to the two dead ones and pounced on them. They ripped the flesh and meat from their nestmates until there was nothing left.
"I didn’t read anything about them being cannibals," grunted Ye’tab, pulling up his wrist unit and frantically adding to his own personal notes on the Istar.
"I don’t think they are," replied Tha’juen, his eyes never leaving the grizzly site in front of him. "Or at least, they are opportunistic feeders."
The four Saalistaja stood there watching as the two bunnies that had just ferociously devoured their fallen comrades fell to the floor, their bodies twisting and jerking.
"Mei Xing is saying that rule number two is don’t get them wet, and rule number three is don’t let them eat after midnight," grunted Midnight, coming in over the comms in the male’s helmet. "I don’t know what she is talking about, and she isn’t sure why it is important. But even unconscious, she keeps muttering about rules two and three."
His remark was meant with silence as the four males started transfixed at the scene before them. The two tiny bunnies stopped moving altogether for a moment, and then chaos erupted.
Shadows and fog seemed to pour over the bodies, completely blocking them from view for a second. There were two high-pitched screaming sounds, and then two sets of bright blue eyes stared out of the darkness from almost seven feet into the air.
The first one stepped out of their cover, the mist and shadows retreating slightly as a furry black hind leg stepped forward, quickly followed by a second one. Then, the torso with both fur and thick skin was revealed to the males, thanks to their night vision. Thin, twisted arms with razor-sharp talons at the end of five fingers glistened off of the low light inside the room. Its teeth, at least three inches in length, still had the red blood and flesh of its brother.
The eyes stared at the four males as if the creature had seen its next meal, and the lips twisted into what might have passed for a smile if it wasn’t so grotesque. The thing’s ears flicked around, capturing every hint of sound, and saliva dripped down from the mouth, burning a hole in the floor by its feet.
"Fuck," grunted Au’dtair as a second Istar monster, the same as the first, emerged next to its brother. "I think I know why rule number three is in place."
