Robe

Chapter 28

Tayra led them straight into the gloom. Shah thought she might skirt the Common, maybe follow the boarded-up shops and buildings along the edges, but she told him the Common was clear of the enemy for now. "Besides, we do not have far to go," she said, pointing with her spear into the opaque fog. Shah decided to take her word for it.

They continued to move, the blue fire from her lance hissing and sputtering as dust motes flowed past the tip. Aside from this, there was no sound whatsoever around them, and they traveled for an interminable amount of time through the smog. It seemed they were entirely alone.

Which they weren't.

A large, stationary shadow appeared in the haze ahead. Shah's first thought was that it was a building, and that they had completed their traverse of the Common.

Tayra, however, paused. She did not approach the shadow. "We are not far enough across," she said quietly to Dresden and Shah. "What is that?"

Her question was answered when the hulking shadow moved, lumbering toward them. The smoke parted, revealing a Gol'ur-Klem that was not a brute. A solitary 'Klem-Core', maybe twelve-feet tall, wielding a massive sickle in one hand and an equally-gargantuan bullwhip in the other.

Shah was the only one who said anything: "Oh, bollocks."

The creature's eyes were keen and intelligent. It registered the group standing there as the smoke whirled around them, then breathed in deeply, sucking in smoky air as it did, and bellowed thunderously.

"Klem-Core!" Tayra screamed back at the beast, and raised her spear. "Die!"

But the creature was faster than she was. The bullwhip snapped out and wrapped around both her spear and her hand. Then the Core jerked the whip up, and Tayra was sent flying with her lance, becoming an arcing shadow in the haze. The captain was still screaming, but now in surprise rather than fury.

"Double-bollocks!" Shah said. He engaged the one-five and dashed forward. Dresden, meanwhile, dropped to one knee and started firing arrows at the Core in rapid succession, the bowstring thrumming.

The Klem-Core, head still facing in the direction of the bullwhip (Tayra and her weapon had sailed out of sight now), dodged the arrows with ease, then struck out at Shah with its enormous sickle without even looking.

Blindside? Shah thought. The beast is actually good!

But Shah was better. He drop-rolled to the right as the sickle whickered over his head, missing him by an inch. He continued to move forward, trying to get within striking distance of the creature, all the while dodging sideways as the giant sickle came down at him again and again. The huge blade crashed onto the stone – whung! – each strike sending sparks into the air.

The Klem-Core brute brought the sickle back up, and went to slice low, to give the pesky darting thing on the ground a horizontal cleave that could not be dodged.

Shah ducked, swinging the one-five upward as he did. The sickle clove in two, the larger remnant spinning away into the gloom like a giant boomerang gone awry. It landed somewhere, the clanging muted by the dank, dense fog. The Klem-Core discarded the handle of the sickle and darted backward – surprisingly graceful for such a large beast – all the while weaving its head to avoid Dresden's arrows. It did this even as it watched Shah's lightning-fast advances. With no primary weapon, it now used the bullwhip at Shah, not actually hitting the boy (Shah was much too fast for a direct hit) but keeping him at a distance, toying with him. The whip cracked in front of Shah's face with eerie precision. It was as though the creature could predict his every feint, every step.