Auras

Auras could smell the dead an hour before he arrived to the town of Orkrom.

He looked at the position of the sun: three hours had passed since noon. He hoped to still be alive by sunset.

He was tracking an Oristlox, a giant cross of spider and man.

Auras leather laminated armor didn’t cover his bronze coloured legs and arms, and his helmet didn’t protect his face, so he took his oroa — a crescent-shaped shield — from his back and held it readily with his left hand.

As the town’s white buildings became clearer in the distance, the road gradually became littered with human carcasses.

Oristlox inject their poison through sharp chitine ridges that grow on its front appendages.
The substance causes the recipient to suffer spasms, shakes and bouts of delirium as it seeps into the bones’ marrow, disintegrating the skeleton from the inside out. The victim’s bodies then collapse under their own weight. By that point, the Oristlox comes back to enjoy a soft, tender meal.

Three hours into the afternoon, Auras made it into the town with his short sword unsheathed.

Orkrom was silent, submerged in the peace of a graveyard. The white adobe walls of the two dozen houses that made the town were stained in hues of black and red. The bodies were everywhere, and the humid heat combined with their stench was enough to overwhelm a regular man.

As Auras walked, he noticed not everyone had been released from this world into the darkness. Some poor souls were merely halfway there. They sat empty-eyed with their garments torn to shreds, mumbling to themselves as their teeth fell and their limbs twisted on themselves.

The smell of raw flesh made Auras stomach grumble.

His eyes couldn’t see more than bodies, houses and the blue cloudless sky, but his ears picked up an interesting sound. Underneath the roar of the river that gave this town its name, Auras heard battle.

The warrior had a decision to make. His long years had brought him a distaste for killing but Oristlox were untamable, as far as he knew. No amount of love, training or fear could redeem them.

It’s hard to believe they were humans once, Auras thought. Their monstrous nature remains hidden even to themselves until they reach middle age. Then, their minds start changing, abandoning their’s civilized ways and turning more and more beastial. One day, their bodies change all at once. By then, of course, the creature already birthed children who would unknowingly inherit its nature. These kids would grow to have families of their own before they turned, and so the Oristlox multiplied.

After they turned, it didn’t matter who they once were. Who they had loved or had been loved by. Oristlox would kill and feed, and that was all Auras needed to know about them.

The Orystlox had to die. It was decided.

It took him nearly another hour of walking towards the clamor to see the monster from afar. It was at least nine feet tall. Its torso was an inflamed bulge of purple arteries oozing slime the colour of rotten blood. It stood on six long hairy limbs, as long as the monster was tall, and it fought using two black appendages that glistened like a helmet struck by sunlight. It’s head was human except for the face, which had been replaced by a vertical gap filled with multiple rows of teeth. Eight eyes, similar in appearance to black pearls, hemmed this monstrous mouth.

Surrounded by bodies, the creature was pounding on a small cottage in an attempt to get inside. All entrances must’ve been blocked and secured, but Oristlox were untiring. Sooner or later, the monster would find a way in.

Twenty yards away from the creature, there was another building. A storage shed.

Auras circled around until the shed hid his approach from the creature. He sheathed his sword, exchanging it for a javelin. He had only three so he had to make them count. Twenty yards was the distance between him and the monster. Just about the limit for a good javelin throw. He couldn’t risk getting closer for his first shot.

He stepped to the side and threw a javelin to the monster, using his whole body to give the weapon range and power.

A high pitched scream reverberated through the riverside. The monster, with the javelin dangling loosely on its back, turned too late to catch sight of its enemy.

Auras, hiding behind the shed, grabbed another projectile. He heard the monster creeping towards him but its steps were uncertain.The Oristlox was too smart to ignore what it couldn’t see, but the pain it had just tasted tempered its ferocity with caution.

The rapid sequential thuds of the creature steps reached the shed and moved leftwards, towards Auras right, so he turned to his left, blocking the line of sight of the creature.

He waited an instant and then lunged back to where he was a moment ago, throwing a javelin as he did so, right as the monster leaned in to inspect the back of the shed. The javelin sank on the Oristlox whirling mass of a torso.

Auras heard the creature screech as he jumped back to his left and a black appendage struck the ground beside him, digging into the earth. When the limb retracted a phlegmy discharge remained on the soil.

Auras then took another javelin and ran backwards towards the river as the creature smashed recklessly through the shed, smashing it and the amphoras within it into pieces. Auras threw his last javelin but his suboptimal stance made it so his enemy could easily parry the weapon to the side.

He then turned around and, still advancing towards the river, he unsheathed his sword. He, having heard the staccato sound of the creature’s advance, spinned just in time to catch the perforating tip of the monsters arm with his shield. The nightmarish extremity pierced through the lamb skin, slashing Auras’ forearm. He rapidly severed the creature’s black limb with his sword and then pivoted quickly to avoid the creature’s left arm from ripping him in half.

He dropped his now useless shield and examined his wounded arm. The injury was red, warm and bubbly. It was covered by an unpleasant transparent film that stank of corruption.

He continued making his way down to the riverbed. Oristlox made poor swimmers, so he hoped to use the ferocity of the rapids to his advantage.

He was a few yards away when his muscles suddenly contorted into a spasm that sent him tumbling down.

He managed to stop his fall with his hands before hitting the water but he dropped his sword in the process. Still dizzy from the tumble, he managed to roll on his back just in time for the Oristlox to leave a gaping hole in the sediment right where his head was an instant ago.

The monster then went for the bite.

Auras lay disarmed, dazed and wounded, at the mercy of the monster’s fangs.

“Mother, stop!” He shouted.

It was desperate. Auras didn’t even know if her ears still worked the same or if language was lost to her like the rest of her humanity.

But the creature paused. Her face drew closer to Auras’ and the eight eyes blinked sideways seeming to recognize the warrior’s features.

Auras didn’t hesitate. He reached for the javelin that was embedded on the front of his mother’s torso and began to pull it free. She screeched as she jerked her body back trying to get away from the pain, inadvertently tugging against Auras pull hard enough to tear the javelin from her flesh.

The warrior then lunged forwards and drove the metal tip of his weapon deep into his mother’s head through her chin.

The monster’s screech turn into a gurgle as she staggered towards the river deeper and deeper. She finally collapsed and the water washed her body off as it washed every other insect.

By then It was sunset and Auras, his mission now complete, hobbled towards the cottage, clumsily taking his armour off as another spasm shook him.

He ignored the urge to eat flesh.

“Monster’s dead.” He said as he banged on the cottage.

The door opened showing an elderly man and a room full of straw beds. Three young men and a young woman lay on them. They had been wounded by the monster and were fighting against its poison. An apprehensive small child braved to show himself from behind the door.

Auras saluted the old man and tried to smile to the child but his face rebelled into a twitch.

“You’ve been poisoned” Said the man, noticing the wound on Auras' forearm. ”But not gravely. If we amputate the arm, you should live.”

“It isn’t the poison that’s killing me, physician.” Auras said as he dug the grip of his sword into the soil. When he finished, the blade stood erect on the ground. “I’m the son of the creature. I’m turning.”

“But only females fully become Oristlox. The transformation depends on the womb. Without it, it starves and ceases.”

Auras didn’t know if what the man was saying was true. If he turned, he would kill them all and feed. He wondered if it was worth the risk.

He looked at the child’s brave eyes.

He looked at the old man and his patients.

He looked at the sunset.

He managed a smile...

...and jumped on his sword