It was wounded, weakening. I was bruised, but still relatively whole. We both knew who had the upper edge here and now, as we stared at each other under the light of the moon. It couldn’t retreat - if it needed Ar’Tuel essence to continue living, then it likely couldn’t heal naturally, which meant that it needed to kill me to consume whatever ‘light’ remained in me, before it could try to go for its next victim. Its distorted eyes flicked away from me, scanning the area around us, leaving my form for only a moment or two.
Too long. As its eyes left me, I sprang into action, hurling myself forward, finally going on the offensive and taking the fight to the beast. The tip of the Saw-Spear dug into the earth as I ran, tearing a light trench in the soil of the construction site with every step I took. Those twisted eyes returned to me, widening as it realized its mistake - but by then it was too late, I was in its face and lashing out. The Saw-Spear swung forward, arcing upwards - and met where one of the abomination’s legs met its body. Jagged teeth bit into hardened exoskeleton - and the carapace lost.
With a grunt of exertion and a twist, my blade tore upwards, ripping through chitin, flesh, and sinew. Purple-black ichor gushed from the wound as the drider’s leg fell away, and I felt a surge of exultation run through my body as the thing let out a shriek of pain. I didn’t let up, though, and as the creature tried to move back and away, I stayed on it, moving forward to match its retreat. It let out another of those gaseous clouds, spewing that acrid, putrid smoke directly into my face as I pursued it.
I ignored it. To me, this cloud was nothing more than a foul smelling smoke, even if it did make me slightly dizzy for a moment. Nowhere near enough to stop my dogged approach. But now - now the thing was injured in a big way, there was a gaping hole right there in arm’s reach. I let the Saw-Spear fall to the ground from my hand, and it clattered loudly as it bounced off stone as the two of us moved away from it.
The beast apparently thought this meant that its cloud had actually affected me, because it stopped fleeing. That was a big mistake on its part, because it meant that I was moving even closer as it stopped - and then the spot where the leg had met the body before I severed it really was in arm’s reach. So I did.
My fingers sunk into the hole, digging into the meat there, burrowing through the resistance with ease. There was another shriek of pain from the abomination as my fingers hooked into the flesh, tearing through it. I held on as it tried to jump away, and I heard a cracking, splintering sound from its shell as I gripped it tight. My weight was just enough to keep it from moving, though the muscles in my fingers grew sore after that attempt. Still, I let a wide smile cover my face as the thing tried to scrabble backwards as I moved forwards, driving my hand deeper and deeper into its flesh.
