Three Square Meals Ch. 045

*Holy shit! What the fuck is that thing?!* Alyssa gasped in shock.

John had no time to respond, he just opened up on full auto with his railgun, sending dozens of rounds slamming into the Fulmanax behemoth. He might as well have been using paint-balls for what good it did him, and his bullets ricocheted harmlessly off its reinforced hide. Alyssa had run out onto the ledge next to him, and she began to fire bursts at the behemoths face, shooting out its eyes with uncanny accuracy.

That seemed to have no effect, and it pounded ever closer, stepping over the yawning gap with ease. Alyssa backed off a little, emptying the rest of the magazine into the creature, trying to take out joints or other weak spots, but it seemed completely impervious to the railgun rounds.

John reached for his sword and sprinted forwards, bringing his blade around in a massive chop at the behemoth's lead leg. The huge, thick leg was nearly eight feet wide, and although his mighty swing cut through its armoured hide, and several feet into the tough sticky fibres beneath, it got stuck half way through. John put a booted foot on the hulking Fulmanax creature's leg, and was about to yank the sword clear, when it swung its leg forward, sending him sailing through the air.

He slammed into one of the calcite pillars, his heavy armoured body crashing straight through, and breaking the pillar in half. He bounced off the pillar behind it, and slumped bonelessly to the ground.

Dana, Rachel and Irillith glanced behind them at the terrifying roars coming from the cavern behind them, but they were still being assaulted by another wave of Fulmanax warriors. All they could do was keep adding to the rapidly growing piles of Fungoid corpses, and pray that John and Alyssa could handle whatever new threat had appeared by themselves.

Alyssa dashed to John's side to check he was alright. "John!" she shouted at him desperately. "You have to get up!"

He had been knocked senseless after being slammed through the pillar, and was reaching for her feebly, trying to pull himself upright. The Fulmanax behemoth roared once again, and stomped unimpeded across the gap. It raised one of its massively thick arms, and swung it around to smash into a huge calcite pillar, which sheared off at the ceiling, and toppled over directly on top of John and Alyssa.

*JOHN!!* she screamed, and held her hands above them reflexively, in a futile effort to stop the towering pillar from squashing them like bugs.

Except the pillar had stopped falling.

It hung motionless in the air, inches above them, suspended mid-fall by some unknown force. The Fulmanax stepped forward and placed its colossal foot on the pillar, stomping downwards. Alyssa groaned under the strain, and with an agonised cry of pain, she collapsed as the pillar crashed down on them.

Dana felt Alyssa's searing pain over her telepathic link, and whirled around in horror. "No!" she cried out, her heart lurching as she saw her friend's crumpled body lying half buried under shattered stone. Dana raised her railgun, and blazed away at the towering Fulmanax beast that loomed over her friends, but her shots proved equally as ineffective as John's had.

***

Irillith glanced behind her, and saw the bullets ricocheting harmlessly off the massive white legs of the creature behind them, and felt fear grip her chest. As much as she loathed these Terran women, unless she did something, she was doomed as well.

"Hold off the Fulmanax warriors, I'll stop that thing!" she shouted at the white armoured woman standing beside her. The Terran turned and stared at her dumbly for a moment, until Irillith screamed, "Now, you fool! Before they overwhelm us as well!"

Irillith stood and raised her laser rifle to her shoulder, walking forward as she began to send bright blue laser bolts into the Fulmanax behemoth. The creature's armoured hide was over a foot thick, and although the laser bolts punched through the surface of the vast white tree-trunk of a leg in several places, it seemed to make no appreciable difference to the enormous beast.

She had to stop firing for a moment to let the heat vent out of her weapon, and she dived to the side when the Fulmanax reached down and lashed out at her with its long arms. The huge six-foot-long claws sailed over her head, whistling as they missed her by inches. Irillith had landed by the crumpled white body of another of those insufferable Terran whores, and she smirked when she saw how badly wounded this one was, lying crushed under a stone pillar. The Fulmanax behemoth flailed out at her again, and she had to roll and leap over the shattered stone, to avoid its cruel claws.

The laser rifle was linked to the interface in her helmet, and it let out a soft chime to let her know the heat had been fully vented. Raising the weapon to her shoulder, Irillith began to fire bright laser bolts into the Fulmanax again, the blue laser bolts searing holes through its armoured leg, and scorching the pasty fibred flesh beneath.

She spotted a slight movement out of the corner of her eye, which drew her immediate attention to whatever this latest threat could be. A massive chunk of the fallen pillar trembled again, and she backed away cautiously as it began to rise from the ground, while darting wary glances at the looming danger of the Fulmanax behemoth.

She stared wide eyed as the enormous slab lifted ponderously into the air, revealing that a figure in white armour had been trapped underneath. Rising to his feet, John effortlessly tossed aside the colossal rock, and she watched open mouthed in awe, as the huge chunk of pillar sailed through the air, before snapping her attention back to him.

"John!" she gasped, not having realised that he'd been pinned under the rock.

His helmet had been broken in half, and his armour cracked and crushed in several places, but he looked unharmed as he turned to stare at her. She met his cold gaze, and immediately shrank back in fear, as a single contemptuous glance from him sent a shiver of terror down her spine. Not even her mother had managed to send such icy fingers of dread clawing at her soul.

"Out of my way, slave," he snarled at her dismissively, and Irillith staggered backwards, desperate to clear out of his path.

She kept up her stumbling retreat until she bumped into a pillar, watching transfixed, as he strode past her towards the Fulmanax monstrosity. He raised his hand toward it as he walked, and she noticed that the sword he'd been wielding earlier was now buried in the enormous Fungoid creature. The blade seemed to tremble, and then before her astonished eyes, it ripped clear of the colossal leg, and flew straight into John's outstretched hand. The impact made a resounding clang as he caught it in his gauntleted fist, and he swung it down and to the side, holding the huge sword in his right hand. The huge Fulmanax creature bellowed a defiant challenge, and John's eyes gleamed with anticipation, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

Irillith stared in shock as his sword suddenly erupted in bright blue flame, flickering and dancing up the blade, as it burned with a dreadful ethereal hunger. She shrank back against the rocky pillar behind her, wishing it would swallow her up, and quivered with fear as the Mael'nerak stalked forward to go about his dreadful work.

All these years, she had dismissed Tashana's stories as the fanciful fairy-tales of someone far too naive and trusting for her own good. Irillith had only started to half-believe Tashana's nonsense when she had seen the Mael'nerak for the first time, back on Geniya Station. She had seen the pictures of course, and had instantly recognised him for what he was. However, her initial fear had turned to contempt, when he appeared so soft and trusting with his women and Ceraden.

But now here he was, unmasked at last. The devil made flesh before her terrified eyes.