Followers of the Godbeast: Treacherous Vermin

For one of the top votes of the month, this one took a while! I had some general sleepiness going on but mostly it was just lining up the pieces in my subconscious. There’s kind of a lot going on with this one, including a misunderstanding between parties that don’t speak full English, a giant hivemind monster, a fight involving up to 4 different factions that are mirrored by their kaiju friends, thinking as both cave people and giant animals, and setting up a plot in a mostly episodic series.

But in the end, it’s what you expect! Lots of brutal action mirrored by cool giant animal fights.

Leega and the Stonehammer Tribe remained alert for danger as always, but things were surprisingly peaceful and quiet for their deadly world. Arragunn was free to rest and feast on their sacrificial meals, as even holy Godbeasts needed to slumber, it seemed. Outsiders were sparse, and they were easily driven off or killed by the Runin clan. Their chief and massive ox godbeast had agreed to settle on their borders in exchange for protecting them for their hosts. Even their negotiated allies were treated with suspicion at first, but even the war priestess herself was starting to relax more when they came to barter or just to socialize. Some were even starting to mate between the friendly tribes, something Leega rarely saw. Most who were trusted at that level were ones who had been captured from conquered tribes and forced to worship under Arragunn.

Ultimately, Leega’s vigilance was rewarded. She was busy with her worship, reveling in the pungent glory of Arragunn as she groomed his fur when she heard the startled cries. There was no universal language among most humans beyond the gifted and brilliant Speakers who used their word magic to understand one another, but Leega dabbled in the art. She also knew the sounds of fear quite well.

“Arragunn,” she urged, half plea and half command. She would never order one as wise and powerful as the true Godbeast, but she had been with him for so many years that she had come to know his way of thinking. He protected his people in his benevolence and destroyed the unfaithful and heathen intruders.

Her feral deity extended an arm in its loping walk, allowing Leega to cling to its fur and ride at its wrist. Arragunn lumbered from his cave and went towards the noise. Even the villagers fleeing the threat knew to give their divine beast plenty of space. His mind was set on the divine, greater plan and to draw his attention was a bold crapshoot at best.

A small band of unfamiliar humans approached them, seeming to have circled quietly around the Runin borders into theirs. They wore furs and lightweight armor at most, with wolf heads prominent in their weaponry and garb. The reason was clear based on the two enormous black wolves walking on either side of them as their guardian Godbeasts. Neither was quite as large as Arragunn, even in his hunched over stance, but their extra numbers were clearly a concern.

The humans themselves were led by twin humans priestesses. They approached with furs stained with old and new blood of various shades and using long spears as walking sticks. They were distinctly younger than Leega by many seasons, though she had always been surprisingly long-lived for her time let alone a Godbeast’s priestess. It was a testament to her strength and righteous guidance, no doubt. The girls were still in their primes, leanly muscled with pale white hair tied in braids that hung over either shoulder.

“Hold,” one of the wolf girls ordered. Her twin gave a few swift gestures over her shoulder, bringing their tribesmen and the wolves to an alert stop. The one who spoke pursed her lips before making a few low, stilted noises at her sister. The other gestured a few more times to her and she nodded back.

“Stone… hammers?” she asked. Leega warily stepped off her deity’s wrist and set foot back on the ground. The speaking outsider nodded back and tapped her chest.

“Baki. Sister Voln. Come with war words.”

“See,” Leega said, glaring at the wolves. They seemed focused on Arragunn as the massive creatures postured territorially. Even with the truce between the Stonehammers and the Runin and the Sea Landers established, it was difficult to believe that their actual Godbeasts were anything friendly. Deities clearly were not fond of other cults.

“Hear Stonehammers kill many gods,” Baki went on.

“Arragunn true Godbeast. Fakes,” Leega hissed. Baki stared at her unflinching as she reached out and ran a hand over one of the wolves’ legs.

“Wolfkin follow Haru and Gara,” she explained. “Protect us. Worship. Feed in same pack. Where we go, death follows.”

Leega huffed and squared her shoulders, her deity sensing her building aggression. She had warded off enough invaders to know where this was going.

“Arragunn IS death! Is life! Ruins all not Arragunn!”

The giant gorilla bared its teeth as it gave a thunderous roar. The wolves growled back and tensed their limbs as the attending Wolfkin cultists scampered away. Any but the Godbeasts’ chosen wanted to be nowhere near them when they clashed.

“Not fight you want,” Baki warned. Their clan was small enough that she was the closest to a Speaker that they had.

“All threat Arragunn dead!” Leega barked back as she drew back her heavy staff. “You too!”

The older blonde moved in and swept her club at Baki. The wolf priestess stepped back and let it swing wide as she kept her distance. Her sister Voln leapt in at the opening, tackling Leega around the waist with the simple grunts and snarls common to most of the remaining humans. Voln unleashed a barrage of punches down at Leega’s face and her blindly blocking arms, and while the Stonehammer priestess barely fended her off, Baki flanked her and drove a kick into her side. Leega huffed and attempted to curl up, but the other twin was still on top of her and swinging wildly at her face.

Leega suddenly felt the weight pull off her, apparently acting on some unseen cue from her sibling. Voln withdrew, just for Leega to see Baki above her with her teeth bared and spear raised above her. The breathless war priestess gasped and barely lunged to one side to avoid being impaled by the incoming sharp stone. She used her tumbling to crash into Baki’s legs, tripping her over her as she tried to buy herself some time to regroup and get her eyes on both of her opponents.

Arragunn faced a similar situation in his own battle. He roared and beat his chest as he stormed after one of the retreating wolves, only for his sister to bite at the great ape’s heels. Arragunn bellowed and swung a backhanded fist as it, just for the first to pounce onto his back and bite into his muscular shoulder. Arragunn gave another frustrated howl as he grabbed his latest attacker by the head, trying to wrench its deeply buried jaws out of its fur and flesh.

The second wolf just barked and pounced on him, disorienting the ape godbeast about who exactly it was fighting. It bit into his arm as it tore him down to the ground, the wolves shaking their heads to aggravate his wounds rather than risk going in for the kill. Arragunn still thrashed and fought back too hard for them to risk it, but he could barely reach them at the awkward angles to do more than scratch or graze them with his fists.

Leega took a calculated lunge at Baki, only to turn sharply and go for Voln. As she expected, thinking a step ahead caught them offguard as the silent sister was already charging at her. Leega slammed an elbow into her face, catching her by surprise and sending her to the ground.

Baki rushed at her to try and compensate, but Leega charged at her with a low tackle. She caught the smaller priestess around the middle and lifted her off the ground. With a loud warcry, she body slammed her back into the grass to crush her under her bigger, bustier form. The white-haired sister grunted and flopped beneath her, momentarily out of breath. Leega pulled on her top to drag her closer to her, lifting her back off the ground before pelting her face with several angry punches.

“Land takers! Monsters! Fakes to Arraggunn!” Leega ranted as she unleashed her fury on the younger priestess. It didn’t last for long before her blind rage was interrupted by a kick to the face, Voln knocking her off her sister. She quickly helped her back up as the twins started to bury Leega in vicious stomps and kicks, crushing her stunned form underfoot.

Arragunn pulled at his arm, unable to rip it free from Haru’s jaws. It settled on dragging the wolf closer and slamming it with a headbutt between the eyes, getting it to yelp and recoil. Arraggun freed up his bloodied arm to grab Gara by the scruff of its neck. He lifted the wolf to drag it off its shoulder, rising up before spiking it back into the ground. The bloody-jawed black wolf groaned and tried to get its paws back underneath it but Arragunn would not release his foe. He lifted and slammed him in a hooting rage, smashing it around before Haru lunged in and locked its fangs around his ankle.

Arragunn bellowed as his leg gave out, dropping the injured wolf and hitting the ground with a resounding thud. He tried to lifted himself back up but Haru twisted and pulled at his ankle, turning him onto his belly as Gara leapt onto his back. He started to claw the gorilla’s back and bite at his neck, going for the throat to finish him off and slay the immortal.

The ground shook again, but not from the thrashing of the giants. Harnyorn, the colossal ox of the Runin neighbors, came barreling into the battle. A sharp swing of its horned head cracked its dense skull into Haru’s side, sending it flying through the air as the bigger bovine bucked. Arragunn let out a started roar, thrashing around enough to throw Gara off its back. The confused wolf looked up just in time to take a mule kick to the face, the heavy hoof catching it by surprise and sending it tumbling away.

Arragunn rose to his fists and feet, furrowing his brow as his mighty mind pondered the implications. Godbeasts were normally highly territorial, so even the neighboring ones gave each other plenty of space. But with two strangers compared to one peaceful local, the choice was clear. Arragunn thumped his chest and shook the earth with a roar from the depths of his wounded body, immediately joined in by the throaty bellow of the ox. They each squared off with one of the wolves, separating them with their bulkier bodies and charging in.

Leega wasn’t able to worry about the earth-shaking battle with her own raining down on her. She only recognized something had changed when one of the sisters yelped and the beating suddenly ceased.

Fayjen arrived, the bearded and muscular man tearing Baki back by the hair. She clawed at his hand, shrieking and kicking at his legs before he slammed a deep punch into her ribs. She wailed and crumbled as he kicked her aside, catching Voln in a bearhug from behind. She shrieked and bit into the redheaded man’s thick bicep, but Leega stumbled to her knees and drove a punch into her groin. The largely silent Voln let out a wet grunt as she doubled over, bucking out of Fayjen’s grip and staggering away.

“Saw the battle,” he replied breathlessly. “Fast as Harnyorn can go. Friends?”

The bearded man smiled hopefully as he offered Leega hand. She looked at it with a brief look of contempt and disgust. Help from others was not one she was used to as a war priestess. Others were meant to be rivals or followers. Then her ribs ached, so she begrudgingly grabbed his hand and pulled herself up to her feet.

“Calm time,” she grumbled, the best she could think of for the word truce. Peace was never especially prominent in Stonehammer vocabulary until very recently.

Baki threw herself at Fayjen as soon as he turned to her. She kneed him in the stomach, getting him to grunt before he grabbed her by the hair. He headbutted her firmly, knocking her silly before he lifted the lightweight girl over his head. The normally peaceful nomad gave a shout as he brought her swinging back down across his knee, crashing her back across it hard enough that she went bouncing off. She gasped loudly as she tumbled away from him, fumbling at the ground. She caught her spear and gave a wide swipe, landing a shallow cut across his arm that was largely deflected by his armor. A trickle of blood ran down his flexing arm as he punched her in the chest, knocking her top aside as she went rolling across the ground again.

Leega turned the tide as well on her already injured opponent. Voln was keeping one hand on her groin as Leega slammed both fists into the side of her head, knocking her silly as she stumbled to one side. The older priestess grabbed her top, tearing it off and landing a punch in her smaller breast, but Voln grabbed her by the hair in reply. With a wordless snarl, she drove a few rapid knees into Leega’s stomach before hip-tossing her to the ground.

Voln trieed to follow up with a stomp down on her head, but Leega rolled in between her legs to avoid it. She grabbed her offending limb and rolled as she rose to her feet, swinging the twin sister almost all the way around before smashing her head into the ground hard enough for dirt and grass to fly up in her wake.

Gara backpedaled as it snapped and nipped at Harnyorn to no real affect. He caught a few bites at its ankles but its thick hooves and shaggy fur made doing any real damage with its non-committal strikes impossible. Gara was clearly vulnerable without its pack mate to compensate for its size, so it made a desperate dive to try and land on the ox’s back. Harnyorn merely had to buck its head to the side, slamming the duller inside of its horn into the wolf. It caught it between its horns before charging forward, smashing it through several large boulders before stopping to spike it into the ground.

Arragunn had a much better time dealing with one opponent. Even with them both injured, Haru had trouble getting past its long and powerful limbs. It dove in, only to take a firm gorilla punch to the face. Haru yelped and jerked aside before lunging at Arragunn’s belly beneath its grip. Its fangs and claws left a few crazing nicks before the ape caught it by the neck and lifted it high in the arm. He shook it viciously as it let out a few choked barks before hurling it into the ground with devastating force. The wolf yipped and rose back to its feet, limping slightly on one leg.

“Not… the fight,” Baki choked out weakly, spitting some blood aside. Fayjen furrowed his brow and frowned at her, picking up on subtleties of language that Leega hadn’t.

“Say again? Not a fight?” he pressed. Baki shook her head, pointing at herself and then off in the distance towards her tribe.

“Not fight you want,” she urged desperately. “Attacked. From fight to fight.”

Fayjen blinked in slow realization. “Not… invasion? No attack?” he tried to clarify. “Warning?”

“Werni,” Baki said, nodding rapidly. “Yes! Dark godbeast come. Devilbeast!”

Fayjen looked even more worried. He gave a sharp yipping noise into his cupped hand and Harnyorn stopped its trampling attack, retreating cautiously from the wolf. Leega looked up from her opponent to glare at him.

“What?! Finish them!” she demanded.

“Not the enemy!” he insisted. He looked to Baki who nodded and pointed back the way they came.

“Enemy,” she said as the distant trees seemed to rustle. They moved as if shifted by the wind, though no breeze came by their skin.

A godbeast unlike any other they had seen came moving from the treeline. It moved like a wave of black water rippling across the ground as the Wolfkin sprinted away from it. One tripped before he could get beyond the other godbeasts, quickly becoming buried in a number of black figures. It was the first sign that it was not a single creature that formed this godbeast, but a mass of tiny bodies for it. Rats the size of a man’s torso ripped their victim apart as hundreds of them swarmed towards the battlefield. Behind the tip of their swarm were five figures in dark cloaks, walking in slow rhythm to keep pace with the racing giant rats.

“Chicha,” Baki warned. “Of Devilbeasts. No territory. Only roam and kill. Heard Stonehammer kill many godbeasts.”

Leega stared at the unearthly creature Chicha was, shaken to her core until the earth shook again. The giant vermin hesitated as Arragunn beat his fists on the ground, hurling fistfuls of earth at them and giving another ferocious roar that drowned out their shrill chittering. His holy voice penetrated the sea of ominous darkness, shaking Leega out of her momentary shock.

“Stonehammer!” she shouted, snatching up her club without even looking to see where it was. “Runin! Wolfkin! Give death for death!!”

The Wolfkin sisters nodded and let out a shrill whistle. Fayjen gave a hearty whoop to Harnyorn and the godbeasts hurled themselves into the unholy swarm.

The pieces of Chicha died easily enough. Arragunn leapt into the middle and crushed half a dozen with a stomp, swinging his arms to crush and throw the rats that built it away. Harnyorn was nowhere near as agile but barged right into it, trampling anything it passed over to clear a path. Gara and Haru bolted to one side, skirting the massive devilbeast and swiftly tearing apart any stragglers to eat their way in from the sides.

The piercing counterassault went well at first. They decimated Chicha’s numbers, but their aggressive attack left Arragunn and Harnyorn in the center of the hivemind of rats. They quickly turned inward, piling onto the much larger godbeasts and digging into their flesh. Their bites were tiny but countless as they tore off chunks of flesh and fur. Arragunn couldn’t tear them off as fast as they piled on and the ox’s stomping deterred them slightly but they were still tearing their way through his greasy armor of fur.

“Don’t waste their opening,” Fayjen urged, waving to the others. The four priestesses charged into the open space left as the godbeasts collided, rushing towards the cultish figures behind Chicha. Up close, their hooded robes did far less to cover their pale and scarred bodies.

“More flesh,” one muttered lowly. They reached sluggishly for a stone dagger when Fayjen shoulder checked her in the chest.

“Feed the devils more,” another droned as she grabbed him by the hair. She pulled him back as another rat cultist punched him in the balls. The brawny man huffed and dropped to his knees but Leega barged in to smash one with a club before they could finish him off. The blow landed firmly but she only had time for a frantically warding swing before one lunged in with their dagger with sudden speed. She barely dodged but their swift strike caught her in the leg. It didn’t cut deep but the jolt of pain was enough to make Leega’s leg give out rather than worsen the wound.

With a feral shriek, Voln pounced onto the back of one of the preoccupied women. The cultists seemed to be entranced by their deity, focusing on whatever crossed their paths first. It made it easy for the silent sister to ambush them, tearing off their fur hood to bite into her forehead. The pale woman gave a startled scream just as Baki swept in behind her. She smashed the blunt end of her spear into the back of her leg, dropping her down and skewering her chest to impale her on the ground as Voln leapt off in a swiftly coordinated strike.

“Lee!” Baki shouted as one of the cultists turned towards her. The young priestess threw a swift kick at the cloaked, ghastly woman who backed away. It passed her right into Leega’s grasp, where she grabbed her cloak and wrenched her to the ground beside her and throttled her with her bare hands.

“You done taking!” Baki shouted as she and her sister dove into the fray. They tore the crowd of cultists down in a frenzy of pulling, biting and kicking, knocking their foes to the ground. The two of them were still outnumbered but their coordination kept any of the Chicha cultists from organizing in any way. From their downed positions, Fayjen slammed his boot into one of their faces to noisily snap a part of their skull. They went limp as Fayjen hastily drew his axe, hurling it to bury into one of the straying pieces of Chicha. It had sunk its fangs into the nearest dead cultist, but he didn’t want to risk it feeding any further before he went along with Leega to finish off the cultists. They were clearly too far gone into whatever they were doing to be spared.

The wolves were still picking their way towards their new allies, but the going was too slow. Arragunn staggered from the countless bleeding bites, but he grabbed a fallen hunk of wood and swung it at Hornyorn. It swept just short of the ox’s thick fur, knocking a dozen of the burrowing rats off its hide. Hornyorn looked at the ape in brief surprise before it twisted to one side, throwing rats off its other half and slicing through several of their backs as they tried to cling to Arragunn.

The momentary relief that came from their teamwork was enough for Gara and Haru to bound in, ripping off several more rats in their fangs and claws. They hastily circled Arragunn and Hornyorn, barking and gnashing at the hungry vermin.

It brought them a moment as Arragunn looked to Hornyorn, its thick fur torn out in places but barely injured at all so much as it was panicked and exhausted. With a low grunt, it steadied the ox with a grip on its horn. Hornyorn gave a low moo of annoyance but stayed steady as Arragunn hefted itself onto its back. The divine ape raised its makeshift club and gave another rallying bellow as they tore into the swarm anew. This time the deadly godbeasts fought as one, with Arragunn’s strength atop the unstoppable Harnyorn with Haru and Gara barely ahead, picking off stragglers and baiting them into the wrath of the ox’s hooves or the ape’s club. They decimated the twisted rats to the last, and as Leega stomped in the throat of the last cultist, Baki and Voln wept at the sight of the united godbeasts.

“Pack!” Baki shouted. “Pack! Pack! Vengeance for the pack!”

Their tribesman hiding safely nearby echoed the cry as they prostrated themselves at the sight of such power. Leega simply let herself fall back to the ground, catching her breath as her bloodstained bosom heaved beneath her cloak.

“Too many enemy,” she panted distantly.

“For one day at least,” Fayjen offered with a weary chuckle. He squeezed the cut in his arm before fishing out a strip of thin material. He wrapped it around his bicep before offering it towards Leega and nodding towards her leg.

“Had enough fighting, right?” he offered. Leega grunted in annoyance but stayed flat on her back as she let him bind her wound. The Runin and Stonehammers had started to gather, looking confused to find the fighting over while more than one godbeast alive. The battlefield was filled with the corpses of Chicha’s giant rats, which the dismounted Arragunn and the wolves devoured out of hungry spite.

“What is all this?” Fayjen asked, looking at the Wolfkin sisters as he finished bandaging Leega’s leg.

“Devilbeasts. Darker, stranger than godbeasts. Unsafe to fight alone. Eat most our tribe,” Baki explained. She nodded towards the worshiping villagers. “All left. All pack. Need bigger pack to live against the other devils.”

“OTHER devils,” Fayjen repeated.

“Dee vills?” Leega asked with similar concern.

“Dark things. Hungry for gods. Will come eventually. Allies of Chicha.”

Baki and Voln looked to the other priestesses blankly. Leega breathed a sigh as she finally sat up, steadying herself on her club. She gestured towards the twins dismissively.

“Go towards big water. Tell Sea Lander the same. Then return and I will let you stay safe under Arragunn,” she decided sternly. The wolf girls’ eyes lit up with excitement.

“Big pack!” Baki gasped, looking eagerly to Voln. “Day rest. Then back before sundown. Not far. Bring word of war to water people.”

“Maybe!” Fayjen cut in. “Maybe I’ll go with you. Just to make sure you deliver the right message this time.”

Baki’s smile dropped as she looked embarrassed. She nudged her sister. “Voln is smart sister. Sore. Sore sorries.”

“Wouldn’t have guessed,” Fayjen sighed. He nodded to Leega. “I guess get the people ready. We don’t know the devilbeasts are or when they’ll be here.”

“They be when they be,” Leega answered sternly. “And what they are will be dead.”