Chapter 257 - The Desert of Forgotten Weapons ( Part 3 )

The centipede attacked. Jennie studied its body. Armor of the creature altered itself each time Jennie hit it. Weapons of the creature rearranged to cover injured segments, fortifying weak spots with whatever metal left available.

It was impossible to attack it head-on.

However, the rearrangement was not instantaneous. Each time the creature changed its armor, a small window appeared. Segments of it separated. Weapons shifted, spun and locked in place.

An instant of weakness inside the creature’s biggest strength.

Jennie watched how the centipede crawled across the battlefield. It hit the ground with its head. Rotating shield over its eye spun. Hundreds of swords rearranged themselves. And then the armor locked again.

Jennie frowned.

She had to make the centipede change its armor in some point where it could not stabilize. In some place where the weapons themselves would become a problem.

Jennie’s eyes scanned the battlefield. The black soil. The broken weapons. Veins of dark stones visible under the ground.

She remembered the strange sensation she had felt earlier, when she moved the dagger near the half-buried spear. The metal had vibrated in her hand as if it had wanted to pull the blade out of her grip.

Magnetic ore.

The battlefield was full of it.

Jennie looked at the creature. Then she looked at the dagger.

A terrible plan formed in her mind. From her point of view, it was a great idea.

What meant that there was a very good chance it would kill her.

The next few minutes can be described as a torture of the human body before its official complaint to the higher authorities.

Jennie ran along the remnants of a trench. The centipede chased her, cutting ancient earth with its blades. She purposely passed near the creature’s head and let the broken dagger brush against a half-buried shield.

The monster attacked. Jennie turned aside. Rotating crown of its weapons crashed into the wall of the trench, shattering ancient stone. She dived into the gap in the wall and started running towards the veins of dark mineral visible on the battlefield.

The creature followed her, of course. As if being made of weapons of dead warriors could make it patient.

Jennie reached the mineral deposits and threw herself behind the half-buried statue. The creature slammed its head into the ground. Tremors went through the mineral veins.

Half a dozen loose swords vibrated. Then several of them slid from their places on the battlefield towards the exposed deposits of ore.

Jennie’s eyes grew wide. The magnetic force was more powerful than she thought.

The centipede raised its head. Jennie stood behind the statue and hit the armor with the broken dagger.

Clang!

The impact barely scratched the metal.

"Hey!"

The creature turned. Jennie hit the armor once more.

"Yes, I’m addressing you!"

The crimson eye of the creature fastened on her.

"Okay, come on. Let me see what kind of intelligence is in your head made of cutlery."

The centipede screeched and attacked. Jennie rushed towards the mineral deposits. Right before the last possible second she flung herself sideways behind the statue.

The head of the monster crashed the exposed ore.

For a second nothing happened.

Then the battlefield roared.

Each metal item located in the mineral vein moved towards the creature. Swords tore out of the armor of the monster. Shields turned. Spear-heads detached from the segments and struck the black stones.

The monster shuddered violently. Its body trembled as magnetic force tore the hundreds of weapons out of order. The carefully arranged armor, which had protected it for centuries, turned into a chaotic mess of blades, shields and broken hilts.

Rotating crown of the monster froze. A shield detached. The other one crashed against the eye of the creature.

The centipede roared.

Jennie watched the mess. Then she grinned.

"I see your weakness."

The creature struggled. Its bladed legs tore the ground, but every move only dragged more of its armor into the magnetic force. Weapons clattered against the deposits of mineral, locking themselves in the mess of metal.

Head of the monster fell down. For the first time its eye was visible.

Jennie seized the opportunity. She rushed forwards, leaped on the fallen shield and started climbing towards the head of the creature. With her left hand she held the edge of its armor while with her useless right hand she struck against her side.

The pain shot through her injured wrist. She ignored it.

Eye of the creature glowed crimson inches from her face. Jennie raised the broken dagger.

"I’m sorry. It was not personal."

She plunged the blade into the narrow gap below the eye.

The dagger plunged deep. The centipede screeched so loudly that the earth shivered. Jennie felt how the blade twisted in her hands. The blade broke.

She jumped away from the creature as it crashed its head into the ground. Impact launched her into the air. She struck the side of the buried shield, rebounded off it and crashed onto the ground on her back.

For several seconds she could do nothing but looking at the dark sky above her.

Then she started laughing. Not because anything was amusing. Because she was still alive and started to think that the Celestial Battlefield was built by somebody with peculiar sense of humor.

She sat up. Her broken dagger laid several feet away from her, the blade was broken in several pieces.

The creature was still alive. Its armor was badly damaged, its head bled dark liquid and segments struggled against magnetic force.

It was not dead.

Of course it wasn’t dead.

Jennie looked at the ruined dagger.

"Well, you’ve done everything in your power."

She picked up the blade and put the fragments in her belt.

And then she ran.

The deposits would be able to keep the monster in place only as long as the creature stayed close enough to them. Jennie got that.

Also, Jennie realized that the beast was starting to free itself.

Weapons that stuck into its body started moving again. Some of them broke off. Other weapons detached from it and got buried into the soil, whereas new armor plates shifted into their places.

Jennie watched in horror as the monster continued learning and adapting.

She ran into a small crevice that was located between two huge rock formations. Behind her back, the creature tore itself away from the deposits with a sound of a mountain getting dragged across an iron plain.

Its head raised itself, and the rotating crown had changed. Now the shields overlapped each other in a different way, while the remaining swords formed a ring that surrounded its exposed eye.

The creature had learned how to defend its vulnerable spot.

Jennie turned around. "You seem to adapt pretty quickly."

And the monster attacked her again. Jennie gathered all her remaining strength in a gust of wind and made a powerful spell. It hit the ground below her, pushing her forward. She went flying through the crevice, crashed into the opposing wall and fell out into the open space.

The beast crashed through the rock formations behind her. Rocks collapsed, and Jennie ran faster.

Her lungs were burning, her legs were trembling, and breathing hurt her ribs, while the damaged nerves in her right hand provided a dull and distant pain.

Jennie had no chance to defeat the monster. At least not today. Or perhaps even with a real weapon.

However, staying alive was a victory of its own, and Jennie had become really good at it.

The surroundings changed as she fled from the battlefield.

The black glass desert turned into a valley of white stones. Huge cliffs appeared on both sides of the valley. Their surfaces were filled with the bones of some huge creatures. Some of them were so big that their skulls looked like ruined fortresses, while others formed an arch over the valley and their ribs stuck out from the ground.

A giant spine ran across the valley. Vertebrae of it were higher than houses.

Jennie slowed down a little bit to look at the valley. "...What exactly died here?"

Something started moving behind her. She turned around.

The Thousand-Blade Centipede appeared from the dust. Its armor was damaged, and several segments hung crookedly. Its crimson eye shone through the cage made of mismatched shields.

However, it was still alive, hungry, and followed her.

Jennie looked at the valley. Then at the creature. Then at the valley again.

She smiled tiredly.

"Right. Of course, the next place is filled with bones."

The beast lowered its head. Jennie clenched the broken dagger in her hand.

"Fine, then."

Jennie backed away from the monster into the valley, between the ribs of something that had died a long time ago, even before humanity learned to worship their gods.

Behind her, the Thousand-Blade Centipede followed.

And somewhere beneath the surface of the valley, below the huge bones of dead creatures, something answered to its approach with a low and distant rumble.

Jennie’s smile faded.

"... Please tell me that there is another, bigger creature."