[GlacierDragon]

There's only one word for this. Splendid!

I hope to see the last few chapters.

You will, I'm sure. Unless you get abducted by aliens.

Yeah, this is totally awesome!

Thanks

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Chapter 29

The Scrab couldn’t believe how simple it was to kill these creatures; how easily their bodies tore apart; how simple it was to snap their bones. Her razor-sharp claws sliced through their flesh like a knife cuts butter. Her strong jaws crushed their skulls as if they were little more than frail egg shells. She didn’t have to do much before the Sligs were all dead, their tattered and lifeless bodies littering the ground, staining the soil red with their blood.

Satisfied with her work, the Scrab folded her wings and gracefully descended to the ground, landing amid a heap of blood and gore. She was aware that she’d killed two of the Sligs she was after – her instincts told her that much – but she didn’t really care. Two were easier to carry back to the lab than four, after all.

As the adrenaline from the fight began to wear off, the Scrab gradually became aware of sharp pains in various parts of her body. It wasn’t until then that she realised with dread that she’d been hit numerous times by the Sligs’ bullets. Already streams of blood were flowing from the puncture wounds like miniature waterfalls. Luckily she hadn’t been hit in any major arteries or organs, but the pain was still horribly unbearable.

You are a Scrab, she snarled to herself angrily. Deal with it and get on with things. This thought in her mind, she forced herself to ignore the pain and focus on current matters. Where had those two Sligs gone? She thought she saw them escape into the trees. They couldn’t be too far

She limped forward awkwardly, having been hit on one of her forelegs. Each step brought a fresh wave of pain, and after several paces she accepted the grim reality that she wouldn’t be able to walk properly until the wounds were healed. With a slight clumsiness she opened her wings and took off, silently gaining altitude until she soared over the trees. Though she tried her best to ignore the pain, she couldn’t help but wobble slightly in the air. She would have to do something about her wounds and get back to the lab quick or she risked too much blood loss.

The canopy below was thick and obscured the ground, making it impossible to see anything that could be hiding in the trees. If she were any other creature, the Scrab could spend hours trying to find her prey and still not succeed. But her species had the ability of electroreception, enabling them to sense the electromagnetic fields given off by living beings. It was because of this that the Scrab almost immediately spotted her targets running franticly beneath the branches.

If her beak was designed that way, the Scrab would have smiled at their helplessness.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The noises behind us suddenly ceases, which can mean one of two things: The Scrab has been killed, or the Sligs have been killed. I pray it’s the latter one, as I’d rather have a single deranged Scrab pursuing me than a bunch of Sligs trying to take me prisoner.

As we both run my thoughts drift back to Creck. He never did strike me as the happiest of Sligs, but I can’t believe he turned on me so suddenly. And now he’s dead. Well, I guess it taught him a thing or two about Quarma.

As we run, the pain in my arm worsens. Each step sends shocks up and down my shoulder, fogging my mind. It isn’t long before I have to stop running, holding my swollen arm and cursing Creck for making matters worse.

“You okay?” Zevenk mutters, stopping as well. He’s covered in painful-looking bruises, most of which are red and swollen. If they pain him he doesn’t say so.

“I’m fine,” I say between breaths. “It’s just my arm, and I’m not used to all this running.”

“Heh, if you think this is bad you should see what I’ve been doing. Those Sligs had me running all day without so much as a five minute break. Now come on, do you want to be Scrab food or do you want to survive this?”

As if in response, a shrieking howl sounds from directly above us, even louder than before. Without hesitation we resume our running, though at a regrettably slower pace than before. I try and force myself to go faster, but my mechanical legs won’t obey me. I’m pretty sure they weren’t built for this.

The Flying Scrab releases another howl, only this time it comes from in front of us. We skid to a halt as the creature comes crashing down through the canopy, branches splitting and falling to the ground as it forces its way unceremoniously through the trees. Roosting birds are woken abruptly and launch themselves into the sky in terror, crying and shrieking their fear to the world.

As the Scrab lands its front legs crumple beneath it from the injuries, sending it to its knees for a brief few seconds before it manages to right itself. Despite its wounds, the creature darts forwards with lightning speed before any of us can turn to escape. It crashes into Zevenk and he goes flying backwards, smashing against a tree. The force of the impact makes him fall out of his mechanical limbs and he tumbles to the floor in a crumpled, unmoving heap.

The Scrab turns to me directly afterwards, flexing its mechanical hands as if to draw my attention to its deadly bloodstained claws. Fear keeps me rooted to the spot as it lowers its head and charges, the wounds in its legs causing it to limp slightly as it picks up speed. At the last moment I regain control of my limbs and I try to leap to the side, but I’ve left it too late and only get half out of the way before the Scrab is upon me.

The creature extends one of its arms and swipes its claws at me, and I gasp as I feel the cool metal slice through my skin. I tumble to the ground in pain, hot blood pouring down my torso from the five huge claw marks in my chest. My head quickly gets clogged up with fog and a loud hissing sound fills my ears. My vision goes blurry and nausea rises from my stomach.

The last thing I see before the world goes black is the Scrab standing silently above me.