CHAPTER 41

  This Ironhide had looked rough when the fight had started, and things weren’t looking better for it as things went on. Nick had learned his lesson about hitting it directly, and with Cait busy fucking around her new aboveground pool, he was forced to use the ruins of New Davenport as his weapon instead of a bodacious blonde mace. With plenty of rubble at hand, or tentacle, and 13 of those to use, the poor monster was outmatched. That said, neither he or Dawn had made any progress on finishing it off.

  -YOU HAVE TO USE CORROSION- he pleaded with Dawn.

  The roots, vines and branches Dawn struck with had been universally and ineffectually shredded against Ironhide’s fur. Even in her obvious fury at finding herself back in her destroyed home, she was reluctant to employ Kennedy’s corruption of magic sacred to her entire worldview.

  -DAWN, WE HAVE TO SAVE CAIT-, the fop he sounded like whined. He saw the deer’s eyes flick up towards where their idiot friend was suspended face twisting up in shame, resignation and disgust. Her throat produced an odd, keening wail, the kind usually reserved for horror movies.

  The ground beneath Ironhide burst to life, grass, flowers and saplings rising nearly as fast as the monster’s thrashing cut them down. More and more of that verdant vegetable ichor covered him with each movement, until it looked more like a Hammer films swamp monster than a metallic mutated raccoon. Then Dawn's shreik cut off as she clapped her hands together.

  Immediately, the green goop turned black, and the scent of an ancient, decaying swamp filled the air. The monster made an ‘aroo?’ sound of confusion before it began to . First its fur, then its skin, smoked and steamed as its thrashing became more frantic. It was no longer trying to avoid or fend off Nick’s blows. Instead it tried to get rid of the corrosive, corrupting muck. It failed. It only managed to get rid of its skin. After a minute, it was a raw, stinking, mess. After 2, it was just more black goop.

  YOU COULD DO THAT THE WHOLE TIME!?

  “Fuck you, Breastman.” Dawn said coolly. She looked behind her, and gasped when she saw the state of Kennedy. She rushed over, grabbing the girl’s severed foot. Disgustingly, a few tendrils of malleable flesh were already beginning to slowly pull it back into place. She sped the process along, sprites of leaping green magic knitting the appendage back onto the girl. She pulsed power into her, and Kennedy’s eyes fluttered open.

  Immediately, she gasped, and shot up to a sitting position to look at her foot. She looked confused for a second, then wiggled it. She beamed at Dawn.

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  “Christ is it good to have you on the team,” she said, accepting the hand Dawn proffered to pull her to her feet. She looked up at where Cait was still being battered in the Risen River. “So how the fuck do we get dumb slut out of the air?”

  “It should be very similar to the first monster you all fought, is it not?” Dawn asked.

  “Yeah, it should…. But to kill that thing, we sent Cait in to grab its core.” She gestured at Cait, who had just curled into a ball as rubble continued to batter her. “She’s in, but I don’t think she’ll be doing any grabbing.”

  “True, perhaps we could throw-,” Dawn stopped short as a black blur shot out of the sky, through the roiling, aqueous slime and tumbled out the other side, entangled with Cait.

  “Rose!” Kennedy yelled, sprinting towards where the wet Cruma lay on top of a groaning Cait. Nick went to follow, but a low droning roar pulled his attention back towards the monstrous water column that had held her. It crashed to the ground, and Nick barely had time to whip up a tentacle to block a brick that spurted out of it's mass directly towards him, and at speed.

  Immediately, he went into point defense. The living water rushed for them, and as it moved, rubble flew out of it with pinpoint accuracy. Dawn gestured, erecting a vine barrier, and Nick covered Kennedy as she dove behind it. Cait followed close behind, having picked up a yowling Rose and sprinting to rejoin the group.

  “This is a good goddamn cat, Kennedy!” she said, as the Cruma screeched and scratched at her as it tried to escape her grip.

  “Of course she is! She’s my best girl!” Rose bit at Kennedy’s fingers as she got close, the combination of being wet and being held making her extremely irritable. Cait let her go, and she dropped to the ground, shaking off.

  “Any ideas, people?” she asked. “I’d volunteer to go in, but based on experience I don’t think it’d accomplish anything. Also, thanks!”

  -FUCK YOU- “Fuck you!” “Fuuuuck yoouuuu!”

  The team nearly formed a harmony with their chorus of rebukes. Cait held up her hands, the dazzling smile she returned them going some distance to smoothing things over.

  “Yeah, I, uh, I fucked up," she said, letting just the of shame creep into her voice. "But really. Thank you all for saving me, that thing could have kept me as long as it wanted.”

  “We should’ve let it!” Kennedy yelled, slapping at her. Nick didn’t feel the need to point out that rescue had been her idea, or that she’d compromised personal values to do it. He found he liked life, thank you. Now, at least.

  A particularly loud crash against the barrier pulled them back to reality.

  -FIGHT OR FLIGHT?-

  “I don’t think Samsara is coming, this time,” said Kennedy with a forlorn shake of her head. That bridge was going to take some doing to un-burn. Then she gave them all a concerning grin. “But I have an idea.”

  Nick felt her link to him drop, and a second later, Dawn gasped.

  “I did not realize…”

  “Neither did, I, until Rose,” Kennedy responded, panting as a bead of sweat appeared on her temple. “They’re…. different, but I can find them.”

  She rose to her feet, with visible effort. It looked like she was holding back an unseen flood, her body the only support for a wall she alone could feel. As Nick stretched out his senses, he realized that’s exactly what she was doing.