Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 64-

Day: 65

Days Left: 5415

Lives Saved: 0

Corinna and Harmony trekked through the sandy wasteland, their eyes scanning the horizon. They remained close together, their shoulders against one another for safety. Though the chimaera had explained that there were fewer prisoners in this sector compared to others, they still needed to be on the lookout for monsters.

As they ventured onwards to the food drop-off point, the sand and dunes morphed into brittle grass and flatlands. The slope that led to the area was now in sight, and that was when Harmony stopped and held Corinna's shoulder.

"Wait," she hushed, sniffing the air. Her ears spiked up, and she shoved Corinna to the side. "Get down!"

An orange and black beast leapt above from the slope and pinned Harmony to the ground. Corinna stumbled upwards, seeing the chimaera wrestling against the tiger from last time.

"Harmony!" Corinna lunged forwards with her spear and the blade pierced into one of the tiger's front legs. The tiger howled, her eyes darting towards the young woman. With one of her hands now free, Harmony reached for her sword and plunged it into the tiger's chest, then heaved the large cat off of her. Whining and whimpering, the tiger collapsed onto the grass, blood oozing out of her wound.

"Don't worry," said Harmony as she stood up and saw Corinna's alarmed expression. "She's not dead. She'll heal eventually."

They both rushed up the slope only to fall back down. There, at the top of the hill stood a headless armoured knight riding on top of a white horse. In one hand, he held a lance and in the other was his helmet with, presumably, his severed head inside. The horse whinnied and reared its front legs as the horseman threatened Corinna and Harmony with his weapon.

The young woman and the chimaera stepped back, preparing for the horse to charge. Suddenly, a large hulking creature appeared from behind and slammed into the knight, causing the horse to buck and kick the creature in defence. The knight swivelled around, its attention now caught by the towering minotaur that had just attacked him.

With both of the knight and the minotaur distracted, Corinna and Harmony sprinted up at the slope once more, just in time to see the moon in the sky open up into an eye. The voice boomed across the Eternal Abyss, yet even then it was difficult to hear over the screams and howls of the monsters that fought below. Silver food packets poured down from the sky and into the centre of the stone circle.

Corinna was just about to head straight for it when a jet of fire burst out in front of her. She turned and saw the horned demon standing in their way. It stood higher than the chimaera at almost seven feet tall. Staring at Harmony, its eyes glowed with embers. After throwing its orange cloak to the side, the demon rolled its neck and shoulders. Veins of fire and smoke spread across its dark rock-like skin.

"Go get the food, Corinna," said Harmony, brandishing her sword. "I'll deal with this one."

The young woman nodded and darted to the side, avoiding the demon spewing fire out of its mouth. As she ran to the pile of food, she glanced back to make sure that Harmony was okay, seeing her locked in combat with the demon.

Amongst the pile of food were the seven imps, all of them scratching and clawing at the packets, tearing them open with the teeth and eating the contents. They all turned to face Corinna as she got closer, their mouth's salivating, eyes large and twitching. Now distracted from their meal, the imps' lust for violence from the blood moon was redirected to Corinna. Dropping the food, they stepped closer to the young woman, eyes wide and unblinking, chanting malicious gibberish.

Corinna twirled her spear and screamed at the imps, however, her usual tactic did not work this time. The imps charged at her. She whacked two to the ground with her spear but the rest clung to her arms, their claws and fangs tearing into her flesh. Shrieking, Corinna thrashed around, attempting to throw the imps off of her, but they continued to clutch onto her. They pulled her to the ground, tugging at her hair and skin.

"Harmony..." Corinna sobbed, overwhelmed by the seven imps that mauled her body. All she could feel was pain. She raised her head, her vision blurred, only able to see two tall figures in the distance fighting. "Harm-"

A howling shriek resounded across the Eternal Abyss. Corinna and the imps covered the ears, writhing in pain from the high-pitched noise. The young woman used the opportunity to escape from the imps, then saw the origin of the noise. It was a blue female spectre with long hair that seemed to be floating. Her legs were translucent and bare-footed.

"A banshee..." Corinna gasped for breath, her ears still ringing.

The imps changed their target to the banshee. Almost reaching her, the banshee screamed again, and Corinna and the imps collapsed onto the grass, covering their ears. The young woman pulled at her hair, wanting the noise to stop. And then it did. Every noise stopped. She couldn't even hear her own thunderous heartbeat, she couldn't hear anything.

Corinna glanced over to the imps. They were clearly moving their lips, but nothing came out. With this realisation, Corinna froze, gripping at her dress to stop herself from shaking. She couldn't let this stop her now. She darted towards the food and shovelled them into her backpack, telling herself that her being deaf would only be temporary. Of course, it would. It must-

The ground crumbled beneath her and half of the pile of packets tumbled down the hole. From inside, the giant mole-rat reached out with its small claws and yanked at Corinna's backpack, pulling it down. The mole-rat then sealed the tunnel with dirt.

Corinna collapsed onto her knees.

She had no backpack.

No hearing.

And no food.