Followers of the Godbeast: The Hydra

I’d been setting this idea up for a while, and been putting off writing it for most of the month as a top vote story. These stories always take a special touch with their brutality and weird language and parallels of humans and their giant pets.

I realized near the end I’d unwittingly made the fight with Boros a bit like Thanos. You can punch and stab her like everyone else, but she just doesn’t care. I think I laid it out well enough but her order’s hopped up on spiritual drugs, probably some venom from her monster or other snakes. I haven’t settled on what the Devilbeasts are, as much as I haven’t settled on what caused the godbeasts to exist, but in the end they’re the same thing. Giant aggro animals with barely any intelligence. The devilbeasts may just be anomalies or ancient bioweapons or something, or their cultists remnants or servants of a mad scientist, but they all work the same. I have no idea if the heroes (or as best we’ve got) will even learn the truth or understand it when they hear it. Leega pretty famously DOES NOT CARE about your shit. It’s whatever makes her own tribe survive.

It was a strange time for the Stonehammer tribe. Leega had seen war and peace within her years as a war priestess, but never quite like this. She was used to the tribe being quiet and secluded, or slaughtering invaders and their godbeasts. The tribe now had allies and enemies left alive, something she found very unusual.

The people of Sea Land had moved along the coast to get closer to the Stonehammers. They had dug and connected a large enough river to the sea that not only boats but their giant kraken could reach the village if either needed help. The Runin people lived in the distant but visible fields, farming and fending for themselves while acting as protection against potential invaders with their great ox Harnyorn.

Now there was the Wolfkin Cult. After some misunderstanding, they had laid out the need for an alliance. Dark worshipers of Devilbeasts had started to appear in the form of a swarm of giant rats that had nearly defeated their Godbeasts on its own. They had given vague descriptions of others still waiting out there, which had earned Leega’s trust and concern enough to let them stay nearby. She had worried that their twin priestesses would become clingy or invasive, but was pleased to find that they were quite content to keep to themselves. Much of their reduced tribe was out hunting or exploring for most of the day, often sending one of their giant wolves out with them while the other stayed to watch their camp. Frankly, their urge to keep to themselves and stay out of sight was more of a relief to Leega than the more chummy alliances. Paranoia and suspicion were normal in most of her encounters, and even a few early trades with the Sealanders had ended up with someone getting brained.

It was a cool night when a howl went up from the Wolfkin. Mostly from the actual wolves they kept, but a few human voices piped up in mimicry. Leega’s guards and the other neighbors were alerted and raising torches as Leega left her tent.

“Disturb Arragunn,” Leega snapped at the nearest warrior. She marched out of her roomy tent, fully nude in her patient urgency until a servant hurried to pull her thick fur cloak around her.

“Scare!” the guard grunted despite his serious grimace.

Leega listened closer. The beasts weren’t trying to panic, judging by their tones, but more of the distant calls she’d hear from wolves in the deep dark night. Passing word or standing sentry rather than stalking or herding prey. She thumped a hand to her breast, signalling the guard to go rally the others. She walked off with some guards and a Speaker as several other primitive humans approached. She recognized the distinct red hair common among the nomadic herders along with one of the pale Wolfkin and their trusted canine beside them.

They traded hurried, tense words with Leega’s Speaker who passed it onto her in simpler terms. The wolves picked up on the strange scent of the devilbeasts again. One of their scouts returned with word of a great serpent coming in their direction in the dark.

“Too many on land,” Leega huffed impatiently. “Desecrate. Call Arragunn.”

She stormed off into the knight, sensing where her mighty deity would be by her divine sense (though the smell alone would do). She reached the great cave and gave a throaty series of shouts and grunts. The primitive expression of her aggressive will was enough to raise Arraggunn, the stories-tall ape lumbering out to meet her. Even in the moment of tension and preparation among the villagers, she felt an intense peace and euphoria wash over her to be in his unstoppable presence. His fur was thick but bearing small patches of scarred skin, lingering testaments to her deity’s obvious immortality and omnipotence.

The godbeast scooped her up wordlessly as he moved in the direction of the commotion, his holy will clearly detecting where the defiler would be. His nostrils flared as he neared the edge of the forest.

The newest threat to their village appeared to be a mass of snakes at first in the night air. As they drew closer, Leega saw it was technically one. Its large, black and silver body was longer than any of the other godbeasts were tall, and eight heads of different serpentine shapes and sizes grew from its middle. They shifted slowly one way or the other, staring blankly around with its cold and narrow eyes. Standing ahead of it was a tall figure with ghastly pale skin and a long, hooded black robe. Two very long and curled fangs like sickles were bound to the hips of the loincloth underneath.

“Remnants,” the figure announced, a woman by the sound of her voice alone. She raised her arms and spread them in welcome while showing off the incredible thick and dense muscle of what was an amazon among amazons.

None of the listeners knew the word and didn’t respond. Leega was still glad to see the others war priestesses had arrived with their own godbeasts in tow. Even Metui was there with her kraken stirring in the nearby river.

“We look forward to replacing you all. The god of evolution has taken its time, so we find ourselves dealing with the devils. The godbeasts were a step on a journey, as were humans. New devilbeasts will become the new world, and theirs to rule alone.”

“Stupid big noisy speak!” Leega screamed territorially. “Go! Godbeast Arragunn only!”

The wolf sisters folded their arms nearby, but nodded in support.

“Baki and Voln. Still live, still defy,” Haru said.

“Yours is not a choice. Yours is a destiny to-”

Fayjen stepped forward and the brawny, thin-bearded man threw a punch right across the cultist’s face. The hood tumbled off, revealing heavily shaved and dyed purple hair that only seemed to grow heavily on one side. A couple thin, possibly ritualistic scars lined one cheek. Her head snapped with the punch but her broad body didn’t, and it seemed to just hit Fayjen that like her beast, she was almost a foot taller than him as the largest of the other war priestesses. She set her grey eyes on him with a slowly growing manic smile.

“They squirm. Shraa! Your child Boros beckons! Feast! Feast!”

“She’s going to eat us!” Fayjen hastily translated, but Boros grabbed him by the face. He was immediately stunned by her powerful grip as she picked him up and hurled him to the ground beside her. She shrugged off her robe, showing her broad and muscled chest to be topless as she confidently approached the other warriors.

Leega shrieked and swung her club wide. The wolf sisters were already darting in, feinting with their blades to distract their mutual threat so the weapon struck true. Leega’s club slammed into her muscular side and made Boros stagger a step before she looked almost curiously at her ritualistic weapon.

“Adorable,” she said with a glassy look to her beaming eyes. She shot out with a speed unnatural to her size, grabbing Leega by the top. She was lifted off her feet and before she knew where she was, Boros smashed a straight into her face. Leega’s head snapped back, forced to eat a few more of her stunningly hard punches before she was lifted overhead and slammed into the ground with an almost lazy act of raw power.

---

A far more colossal feud was settled a short way away. The giant divine wolves shot out to the sides of the multi-headed serpent, barking and snarling to draw as many eyes as they could. Shraa’s heads turned and their tongues flicked patiently as Arraggun and Harnyorn charged in with far less subtlety to take advantage.

The giant ox’s bulk and horns were enough that he lifted the snake off what equivalent of footing it had, its long body tumbling awkwardly as it was plowed over. Its heads struck out rapidly at Harnyorn but Arraggun leapt in beside it, bashing down with its colossal fists to hammer on the snake heads. Its hut-sized hands grabbed and bashed one of the heads into the ground, crushing it under fist. Its scaly hide kept it writhing and gnashing through the beating, but the other heads swarmed around the ape. Arragunn bellowed in raging pain as countless bites began appearing across its fur and muscles, forced to let go and retreat from the fight with blood trickling after him.

The ox struggled to stomp on the snake’s thick midsection but it simply wrapped around the shaggy godbeast’s body, clinging to it and squeezing its ribs tightly in its coils. Harnyorn bellowed and bucked, trying to escape as its body did its best to flex and resist the crushing force of the devilbeast.

With its otherworldly screech, Akagak the kraken burst out of the nearby river. Tentacles lashed out and grabbed as much of its body as Shraa’s body as it could, strangling and squeezing its midsection. It managed to rip the gigantic monster away from its allies just before its many fangs sought out its latest attacker, proving it would even be difficult to sneak up on a creature with that many eyes and heads. It tore chunks of tentacle from the kraken until its grip was weakening, just as Gara and Haru leapt in as well. The wolves didn’t bother eliminating the heads as they simply latched on with their teeth and raked their claws over its eyes. Two of the blinded heads hissed fiercely and thrashed around, its doubles catching some grazing bites at the more tactical godbeasts.

---

The war chieftesses struck at Boros, only to find their blows remaining ineffective. Their fists bounced off her tight muscle and whatever drugs her cult had her on had her shrugging off the pain and fast enough to catch any sharper weapons coming her way. She shoved at a charging Leega’s shoulder, knocking the blonde priestess off balance before knocking her clean off her feet with a heavy cross that knocked blood from her nose.

Metui suddenly pounced on Boros’ back, wrapping her arms and legs around the bigger woman’s. Boros glared back at her and jerked an arm free, just for it to be snatched up once again by the quick and pale Sea Lander.

“Get her! Finish it fast!” she shouted.

With Leega still reeling, Fayjen seized his horned handaxe and charged the slowed cultist. Boros still tore a leg free from the entangling priestess fast enough to kick his leg out from under him. The swing still went through but was off enough that the axe buried into the side of her abdomen.

Boros grimaced at him menacingly, as if she was aware of the axe embedded in her rather than feeling it.

“Learn to die faster,” she snarled as she tore a hand loose from Metui’s grip hard enough that the Sea Lander shrieked in pain from how fierce she was overpowered. The escaping arm slugged Fayjen in the chest just below his neck, knocking him flat on his back.

Boros twisted and started pulling Metui off at last, but the Wolfkin girls dove onto her. With a shout they tackled the cultist’s midsection in unison, but she still barely budged even with the slowly bleeding gut wound. Boros turned her attention to them as she shook off Metui, grabbing them by their chalky white hair. The sisters winced but quickly changed tactics as they bit into her breast, clamping their teeth down on her nipple and gnashing like the wolves that protected them.

“AGHH! Miserable little witchbaits!” Boros shouted furiously as they too started drawing blood. She rained some powerful blows down on Baki’s head until she dropped back limply, beaten unconscious at her feet.

Her sister Voln shrieked and leapt higher, the agile young woman wrapping her legs around Boros’ neck. Her solid build worked against her as she made a great balancing point for the sister to steady herself on as she started rapidly raking and scratching at her face.

Metui was down and battered but she kicked out at the back of Boros’ knee. She knew something resembling martial arts for this primitive age, which made her lean and wiry figure much deadlier than she looked. As mad and powerful as Boros was, she still obeyed physics as she tumbled over backward. With a furious snarl, she grabbed Voln by the neck and lifted her off of her. She leaned over to start slamming her into the dirt. She flopped like a ragdoll in her grip as Leega leapt in and grabbed one of Boros’ leg.

“Get!” she barked at anyone who would listen.

Fayjen lurched over and grabbed the other leg. He met Leega’s eye briefly before they both stomped a heavy foot down on the tank of a cultist’s crotch. Boros finally let out a cry of pain as her eyes went wide. Her drugs prevented much of her pain, but her privates seemed to be less protected.

“Begone, you idiots! Evolution will wipe you off like a stain!” she roared at them. Her kicking and thrashing warded off the two from her legs as the remaining four circled around her.

---

The wolves retreated from the snapping snake heads but the other beasts had followed suit. Harnyorn staggered back to its feet and bellowed as it broke into another charge. The unholy snake prepared itself and snapped at it just as the ox feinted away, slicing its horn up the neck of one of the heads. It gave a wet, choked hiss before it fell limp on the ground but the serpents went striking after the ox.

Arragunn loped into its way with a shrieking battle cry, sweeping its thick hands through the ground. Its large fingers scraped up and threw enough dirt into a thick, quick cloud at the snake’s focused faces. They recoiled and let out a maddened shriek, heads snapping everywhere in the chaos among its blindness. Even with its ungodly senses to feel through the earth, the dozen legs stomping around like miniature earthquakes did not make for the most precise depiction of them. The godbeasts struck with primate punches and canine bites, picking off a few heads here and there to thin out its number of heads.

With a bellowing gurgle that deafened all nearby, Akagak leapt out of the water in an even more bodily lunge. It abandoned the river altogether to lash out with all of its tentacles, seizing the heads that were still active and constricting them. Its tail end wrapped around the kraken but its rubbery body proved a much more complicated shape to strangle out. Especially with its needly jaws mounted in its middle where it could chomp onto the scaly hide.

The tentacles ripped off or choked every head after a few moments, the wolves and ox quickly helping to stomp or bite them to finish them off as they fell limp. Arragunn leapt over all of its allies and landed on the snake’s middle body, crushing an assortment of ribs as it raised a boulder overhead. The last of the snake heads bit into its arm and it didn’t slow in its bloody, berserking righteous fury as the huge stone crushed the back of its head. The fangs drove a bit further in like a brutal nail but the great ape found it a fine price to finish off the monster of monsters that had nearly finished each of them off.

---

Boros rose again as Fayjen charged in screaming. The only male priestess had grabbed a broken spear from the ground and bore it like a stake as he ran in. The huge woman gave him a dismissive sneer as she calmly lashed out and kicked him in the groin. He huffed and doubled over, but was already in the motion of passing the makeshift weapon behind him. Metui was right behind his bigger body, springboarding off his bent over body and leaping into Boros’ chest as she jammed the stake into their seemingly unstoppable foe’s lower neck.

Still she stood. Boros turned her disgusted glare to her as she grabbed Metui’s forearm and twisted, digging her fingers and nails into the pale limb until she screamed in pain.

“Can’t even aim,” Boros snarled, but as she started to pull Metui’s arm away she felt a deep jolt of pain and a streak of blood ran down her chest. She stared in horror to see that it had dug deep enough to hit some painful, if not vital, veins that was being kept plugged up by the weapon. She flinched as for the first part of the fight, she felt her own sense of mortality return.

She didn’t risk removing it but she did throw Metui away. She barely held onto it for a moment, making her scream and twitch from the fresh jolt of pain as she departed. Now with two weapons stuck in her, Boros was far more cautious and sluggish. Fayjen rushed in and tried to tackle her, getting a knee to the face. Voln shrieked wordlessly as she ducked down and speared the bigger woman, this time hard enough to knock her back against a large stone. She was pinned there as the wolven girl drove some rapid body blows into her sides, stinging her wounds and making her shudder with nauseating pain.

“I am going to break you all into powder, you disgusting vermin!” Boros growled unsteadily.

She grabbed Voln by the hair and turned to slam her face into the rock she was pinned up against, but it rose from the ground before she could connect. Arragunn lifted it as an improvised weapon while removing it from the mortal humans’ battlefield, giving Boros a disinterested grunt along the way.

Metui gave another swift kick to her legs, tripping her up so she fell to the ground. Boros wailed as it rattled the weapons stuck in her, clutching the jagged stake and glancing up fearfully as a shadow fell over her. Leega stood over her, stomping her heel down on the axe in her belly as she held a heavy rock over her own head.

“Stop it! You unevolved morons! You brainless little weaklings with go extinct like-”

Leega threw the stone down, hard and heavy enough that Boros’ head seemed to vanish under it and be replaced by a splash of red.

“Arragujnn say you too much word!” Leega grunted, spitting down on her foe’s body. She rubbed her bruised up bosom as she looked back at her allies, all variously exhausted and injured as well. Her first instinct was spotting their weakness. She was battered herself, but with the right edge she could finish off the priestesses of competing godbeasts right now.

But she found herself hesitating. She looked back to the battlefield where a massive snake laid like unspooled rope. One of the giant wolves watched it warily while its sibling licked its wounds for them. Akagak was lurching sluggishly back towards the water after its risky assault, but Harnyorn moved to start nudging it back to the river. Seeing what was going on, Arraggun lumbered over and put itself to good use as the only godbeast with hands. He lifted the kraken up enough that the two of them could return it to the water with a content little hiss.

As the cheers went up from the Stonehammers, Leega gave a sharp, stern whistle at them.

“Get heal!” she ordered, pointing towards the more heavily damaged priestesses. She wiped a smear of blood from her nose as she stormed off towards her village.

“Arragunn never die. They will,” she huffed as her more medically capable tribesmen hurried to help bring them herbs and bandages, even offering to tend to them if they allowed it.

Voln growled territorially as they approached her unconscious sister, but Fayjen let himself sit wearily on the ground.

“I’d let them go ahead,” the red-haired man sighed with a wearily smile. “This is about as polite as I’ve ever seen her, so she must have taken a real affection for you all.”

The Wolfkin girl paused silently before she shifted back a couple steps. It was all she would spare as she keenly watched them work on her sister, reviving her with their various medicines. Humans and godbeasts licked their wounds as they slowly returned to their normal lives while their hunters bargained out who would get how much of the huge amount of snake meat left behind.

Leega simply went to her hut and collapsed to fall asleep. She was weary in mind and body, flooded with many new thoughts. While it wasn’t assuring to know that more of these devilbeasts just as deadly as all of theirs combined, it was a small comfort to know that eventually, they could  die like everything else. Comforted by the reminder of even the gods and devils’ mortality, the warpriestess drifted off to a deep sleep.