The Atlantian System: Creation

What tromped up the stairs could only be described as a human rhinoceros.

It was so large that it had to tilt its head slightly to avoid hitting the ceiling tiles, and it was bulky with muscle to the point that it looked nearly unbalanced as it walked.

Its skin was thick with stiff, leathery muscle that looked more like plate armor than flesh. Its arms hung lower than was anatomically correct on a human, the four digits that resembled fingers skimming just above its knees as it hobbled up the stairs after Allister.

It was also completely naked save for a few parkas that had been tied together to form a loincloth-like skirt, chain around its neck that Bonnie was dangling from as she tried to tug at the beast’s neck like a dog that wouldn’t get up its toy.

The monster’s face, though, was anything but human.

It was completely bald with small round eyes set far apart on its face and a wide mouth with thick lips pressed against long tusks like that on a warthog. Its nose, however, was nearly non-existent. Its nostrils were small pinprick slits set far apart to make room for a long keratin protrusion that very much resembled a rhino’s horn which extended half an arm’s length from its face and curved towards what would have been its hairline.

“God must have run out of ideas making this thing,” Leta remarked as her heart fluttered in fearful excitement, like a base jumper standing at a cliff’s edge.

Allister got back to his feet, his holo-shield winking out of existence.

“One charge left.” He grunted, pulling his axe forward as he stood between Leta and the Ogre.

Bonnie’s tugging finally caught the monster’s attention, and it glanced down at the canine still dangling from its chain collar.

Bonnie looked it in the eye and gave a muffled growl, her head thrashing back and forth until the ogre grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and threw her into its next of boxes and bones.

Leta could see the wolf slowly getting to its feed among the cardboard, dazed but thankfully still in one piece.

Hayato looked around cautiously. “Where’s Atreus?”

They heard Atreus’s voice grunt, “Here,” before the ogre jerked, turning to swat at something on its back, only for them to spot Atreus propped up against the beast’s back, his daggers lodged deep into its shoulder muscles.

“Need to get its mouth open,” Atreus barked as he dodged the incoming arm with a twist of his body, “That’s its only weak spot.”

Allister growled as he swung his sword at the beast, “Pretty sure that’s what we’ve been trying to do.”

The swing caused the ogre to stagger as his axe barely chipped its chest plating and nearly knocked Atreus off its back.

The General strained as he tried to use his knives like a climber’s pickaxe to get further up its back, “Well, that’s obviously not working.”

Hayato had ghosted further into the room and out of reach as he pulled his crossbow out and loaded a bolt.

Like a waiting cobra, he held his pose while waiting for an opening. When Atreus managed to dig his dagger into the beast’s neck, it grunted in pain, the sound like boulders falling down a cliff.

Hayato pulled the trigger, timing the release of the bolt with the stab of Atreus’s blade.

It whistled through the air only to ping off the ogre’s fat lip. The beast flinched as if it had been stung by a bee, but the bolt didn’t even chip its hardened skin.

Behind her, she could hear Hayato expertly resetting the crossbow with another arrow.

Leta yelled, “What’s the code word for you to move so I can shoot it?”

“Fucking move?” Allister grunted as he used his axe to parry a backhand from the ogre, the force of which sent the man crashing into another wall.

“That works, too.” Leta raised an eyebrow before throwing her hand out as a stream of lightning shot from her fingers to strike the ogre in its breastplate.

The arc collided in a small explosion of dust and sparks that blew a chunk the size of a fist out of the beast’s armor.

Leta’s wide smile at the damage she managed was short-lived as she watched the small crater in its stony skin wriggle as worms tunneled beneath the granite. Beneath its skin, muscles reattached themselves and calcified, its body healing before her eyes with a speed only she could match.

Her stunned pause to watch its body erasing the damage nearly killed her as it lashed out in her direction. Leta jumped out of the way as one rock-hard fist came down like a hammer where she had been standing just a moment before.

Just as she landed on the musty carpet, Leta felt something clamp onto the neck of her jacket and tug as Bonnie pulled her out of the creature’s reach just as it tried to slap at her prone form.

Leta managed a “Thanks, Bonnie,” as she rolled to her feet, her dagger ready.

Atreus had managed to hold on for dear life while the ogre had tried to stomp her out of existence and shouted for Allister.

The Hunter pulled a long chain with a thick hook at the end and swung it above his head once, twice, picking up speed before he let it loose.

Like a precision missile, the hook sailed through the air for Atreus, who could barely catch it as the beast was momentarily startled by Bonnie’s barking an nearly topped backwards.

Atreus caught the beast’s chain collar with the hook before shouting her way. “Leta! Now!”

Gripping the chain tight, Atreus braced his feet against the ogre’s back and pulled, his muscles straining and his teeth clenched as he threw his weight backward.

The ogre cried out, the sound like a landslide crashing as one hand tried to grip the chain that was suddenly digging into its craggy skin while the other tried to keep itself balanced and not fall backward.

Leta saw its mouth open wide in a scream, the moment frozen in place like a snapshot as she activated Storm Step.

Her lightning shook the building as it skipped over the floor and past the ogre’s guard before ejecting her like a rocket up toward its head, a battle cry burning her lungs.

She could feel the beast’s hot breath on her hand as she plunged her dagger past its massive tusks, through the top of its mouth, and into its skull.

Its bellow of pain was the breaking of a dam as its wide, dark eyes bore into the tiny woman with sparks of electricity snapping around her head like a halo.

It paused, momentarily shocked by the sight of her, before its granite arms began to come around, intending to squeeze her to death.

“Atreus!” Leta screamed, “Let go!”

She felt the beast’s body jolt slightly beneath her as Atreus dropped to the floor and rolled out of danger just as she let loose a torrent of electricity down the ogre’s throat just as it managed to wrap its massive hands around her.