Free Web NovelChapter 53: Chapter 53: Finally Out
"Give him back!"
Thalara moved first.
She shot up the tree with frightening speed, her black claws carving into bark as her long white hair streamed behind her. She looked less like a wounded creator now and more like something old that had once taught forests how to hunt.
Soren moved at the same time.
His full snake body whipped through the water, white scales flashing, his jaws opening.
A stream of pale poison blasted from his mouth.
It struck the roots and infected bodies near the cub.
Wood smoked.
Rot melted.
A tree trunk hissed and collapsed halfway into the swamp.
Kael went mad.
He tore through the infected below the tree with claws and teeth, no longer caring what stood in front of him. Beastman, infected, root thing, drowned corpse, it did not matter. His cub had been taken. The world had become enemies.
Raku smashed two infected aside and pushed toward the tree.
Swanly raised her gun.
Her hands were shaking too badly to aim.
{Host, breathe.}
"Shut up."
{Host, breathe or you miss.}
The vine jerked.
The second cub screamed.
An infected creature dropped from the branch above him.
It was thin, fast and almost silent.
Its mouth closed over the cub’s shoulder.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The scream that came out of Swanly did not sound human.
Kael froze for half a second.
Then his roar split the forest.
The cub had been bitten.
The cub had been bitten.
The cub had been bitten. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Swanly could not breathe.
Thalara slammed into the infected creature from above and pinned it to the bark. Her claws pierced its throat and chest, but it thrashed under her, its teeth stained with the cub’s blood.
Soren reached the cub next.
His tail snapped up and sliced through the vine.
The cub dropped.
Soren caught him against his chest with one coil.
Another infected lunged for Soren’s neck.
Soren twisted and struck it with poison.
The thing melted across one side but still clawed at the cub.
Soren pulled the cub close.
Too close.
Protective.
The infected’s teeth grazed his shoulder, but he turned into the bite and ripped its head off with his claws before it could sink in.
Thalara tore the biting creature apart and flung its body into the water.
Soren brought the cub down.
The second cub was crying now.
Not loud.
That was worse.
Tiny broken sobs shook his body, and one small hand clutched Soren’s damp hair because he had nothing else to hold.
Kael reached them with blood on his mouth and madness in his eyes.
Soren gave him the cub without a word.
Kael took his son and nearly crushed him from fear.
Then he shoved him into Swanly’s arms.
Swanly caught him.
She looked at the bite.
Two small punctures on his tiny shoulder.
Darkness was already spreading under the skin.
"No."
Her voice vanished.
"No no no no."
The system was talking beside her.
{Early infection detected.}
Swanly did not hear.
{Host, respond.}
She did not hear.
{Host.}
Swanly looked from the bite to the horde, then to the giant thing moving behind them.
Something inside her went silent.
The world became very clear.
The infected were not random anymore.
They moved when the giant thing moved.
They grew faster when it looked at them.
They reached for her cub because it wanted her pain.
It wanted the living female.
It wanted her scared enough to make a mistake.
Swanly slowly lifted her head.
Kael was still killing, ripping through anything that came close.
Soren was bleeding black from his mouth again.
Raku stood in front of them, his huge crocodile body blocking the path. An infected beast crawled under his chest, snapping for his belly, but Raku slammed one clawed foot onto its spine and crushed it into the mud. His tail lashed down a breath later, bursting its skull before its teeth could reach him.
Thalara crouched in the tree above, staring down at Swanly with her purple eye wide.
The horde was gathering again.
The giant thing opened its broken mouth.
"Bring her."
Swanly laughed.
It was not a happy sound.
It was the kind of laugh that came when something in a mother broke in the wrong direction.
Kael turned.
"Swanly."
She handed the cub to him.
Kael’s eyes widened.
"No."
"Hold him."
"No."
"Kael."
Her voice made him stop.
She touched the cub’s face.
He was crying, trying so hard to be brave that his little mouth shook.
"Mama," he whispered.
Swanly kissed his forehead.
"I am coming back."
Then she stepped away.
Kael reached for her, but Raku shouted as three infected lunged.
Soren’s head snapped toward her.
"What are you doing?"
Swanly did not answer him.
She looked at the system.
"You still hungry for points?"
The system froze.
{This is not the time for old arguments.}
"For months, I stopped taking tasks because your tasks became insane."
{Host refused growth opportunities.}
"Shut up and scan that thing."
The system’s wings trembled, then it shot upward.
Golden light spread across Swanly’s sight.
The giant creature became a map of red lines, black knots and rotten pulses.
{Command source identified.}
"Weak point."
{Multiple. Main control root behind skull. Secondary rot hearts along spine. Primary brain mass protected by bone plates.}
"What kills it?"
The system hesitated.
Swanly’s eyes turned flat.
"What kills it?"
{Rot-burner hybrid launcher. High impact. Short range. Extremely expensive.}
"How much?"
{Ten thousand points.}
Swanly almost smiled.
"How many do I have?"
{Eight thousand and nineteen.}
"Put the rest on credit."
{Host, debt terms are terrible.}
"My cub was bitten."
The system went silent.
Then a dark weapon appeared in Swanly’s hands.
It was heavier than the gun and stranger than the bow. Part launcher, part blade, part clawed hook. Black metal curled around her forearm like armor. A barrel sat along the top. A jagged edge folded under it. Thin glowing lines ran through it like fire trapped in veins.
{Rot-burner loaded. Three heavy shots. Hook line active. Blade edge active. Do not miss.}
Swanly looked at the giant creature.
Her fear was gone.
Only rage remained.
"Fucking go to hell."
She fired.
The first shot did not sound like a gun.
It screamed.
A burning black shell tore through the air and struck one of the giant creature’s side hearts.
The explosion lit the swamp white.
Rot flesh blew outward.
The giant creature roared.
Every infected staggered.
Swanly moved before anyone could stop her.
She fired the hook line into a dead tree and let it drag her upward. Her body swung over the mud. An infected leaped for her leg, and she cut its head off with the blade under the launcher without slowing down.
Kael roared her name.
She did not look back.
Soren stared.
Raku stared.
Even Thalara stared.
Swanly landed on a root above the giant creature’s shoulder and fired again.
This time she hit the second rot heart along its spine.
The blast ripped through bone plates and black water.
The creature screamed so loudly the trees shook.
Infected fell to their knees.
Some clawed at their own heads.
The second cub stopped crying.
His wet golden eyes fixed on his mother.
Swanly ran along a half-fallen trunk while the giant creature thrashed below.
A root whipped toward her.
It caught her side and slammed her into bark.
Pain burst through her ribs.
She almost fell.
She dug the blade into the tree and held on.
Blood slid down her arm.
The system screamed in her ear.
{Host, left. Left.}
She ducked.
A bone spike tore through the space where her head had been.
Swanly twisted, shoved the launcher against the spike, and fired the third heavy shot into the exposed bone plate near the creature’s skull.
The plate cracked.
Not enough.
The giant creature’s mouth opened below her.
Black roots shot out.
They wrapped around her ankle.
Kael launched himself forward, but infected swarmed him.
Soren spat poison across the path and melted a line through them.
Raku crushed bodies beneath his claws and tail, his jaws open in a furious snarl but never closing on infected flesh.
Thalara dropped from above and severed one root with her claws.
Swanly was still pulled toward the monster’s mouth.
{Heavy shots empty.}
"I noticed."
{Core exposed for seven breaths.}
Swanly reached into her space and pulled out the first gun again.
Her body swung upside down over the creature’s open mouth.
The rot stench slammed into her face.
She aimed into the crack she had made.
The system’s golden light marked the pulsing black mass behind the broken skull plate.
{Shoot.}
"BAM!" She fired.
The bullet went in.
The creature jerked.
{Again.}
"BAM!" She fired again.
Roots tightened around her ankle until pain flashed white.
{Again.}
"BAMMMMMMM!!!!" Swanly screamed and fired a third time.
The black mass burst.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the giant creature’s head exploded outward in a storm of bone, black water and rotten light.
The whole Rot Nest screamed.
Every infected connected to it froze.
Their bodies shook.
Then one by one, they dropped.
From the trees.
From the mud.
From the water.
The horde collapsed like cut strings.
The root around Swanly’s ankle loosened.
She fell.
Kael caught her before she hit the mud.
He caught her in human form, arms locked around her, chest heaving, eyes wild.
"Swanly."
She did not answer.
Her ears rang.
Her ribs burned.
Her arm bled.
Her breath came too fast.
But she pushed away from him at once.
"My baby."
Kael’s face twisted.
He brought the second cub forward.
Swanly took him and dropped to her knees in the mud.
His bite was darker now.
The black veins had spread down his small shoulder.
"No."
She kissed his wet face.
"No no no no."
The cub tried not to cry.
He failed.
"Mama hurts."
Swanly made a sound that had no words.
The system hovered near the bite.
{Early stage infection confirmed.}
Swanly’s eyes were huge.
"Fix him."
{Cleanbirth Seed can cleanse if applied immediately.}
Swanly looked down at the Seed.
It pulsed inside the fur wrap.
Soren was staring at it too.
His face was deathly pale.
Black blood ran from his mouth again and down his chin.
His broken core was tearing itself apart now.
He had come for the Seed to live.
Without it, he would keep breaking.
With it, Riverbone might survive.
With it, the cub could be saved.
Swanly looked at him.
The question hung between them without needing words.
Soren held out his hand.
Swanly gave him the Seed.
Kael’s whole body went still.
Raku lowered his head.
Thalara watched without blinking.
Soren looked at the Seed in his palm.
It was bigger than a fruit pit, smaller than a heart, and warm enough to glow through the black blood on his fingers.
His plan had been simple.
Half for himself.
Half for Riverbone.
Enough to slow the crack in his core.
Enough to take back to the tribe.
Enough to keep standing.
Then the cub whimpered.
Soren looked at him.
The small panther child stared back with frightened golden eyes.
The same cub who had tried to attack him in the night.
The same cub who had asked if bad could save.
The same cub who had clutched his hair when Soren snatched him from death.
Soren broke the Seed in half.
Swanly’s breath caught.
Soren’s fingers trembled once.
He hid it badly.
"Half will save him."
Swanly stared at him.
"What about you?"
Soren looked away.
"Open your mouth, little cub."
The second cub looked at Swanly.
His lips trembled.
Swanly nodded quickly, even though tears had filled her eyes without permission.
"Open, baby."
The cub opened his mouth.
Soren placed half of the Cleanbirth Seed on his tongue.
The glow melted at once.
Warm light spread under the cub’s skin.
The black veins stopped.
Then they faded.
The bite closed slowly, pink skin knitting together where rot had been spreading.
The cub gasped and clutched Swanly’s fur.
The system scanned him with frantic golden light.
{Infection cleared.}
Swanly could not breathe.
{No rot remains.}
She crushed the cub against her chest and kissed him over and over.
His little arms went around her neck.
He sobbed now.
Loudly.
The brave act was gone.
He was only a baby who had been bitten in a death swamp and wanted his mother.
"Mama."
"I have you."
"Mama hurts."
"I know."
"Mama stay."
"I am staying."
Kael knelt behind Swanly and wrapped both of them in his arms.
His whole body shook.
He pressed his face to the cub’s hair and closed his eyes.
For a moment, there was no Soren.
No Rot Nest.
No dead giant thing.
Only a family trying not to fall apart.
Then Swanly looked up.
Soren had turned away.
He was still holding the other half of the Seed.
It was not enough.
Everyone knew it.
Swanly’s voice came out rough.
"And you?"
Soren wiped black blood from his mouth.
"I will figure it out."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the only one we have."
He looked toward the broken path.
"We leave."
Thalara stepped forward.
The Rot Nest had gone strangely quiet after the giant thing died. Too quiet. The black water no longer chased them, but it still watched.
"I know the way out," she said.
Swanly looked at her.
She had not forgotten the horns from Thalara’s face, the single purple eye, the claws, the voice too soft for such a place.
But Thalara had led them.
Thalara had cut roots away from her.
Thalara had helped save her cub.
Swanly swallowed.
"Thank you."
Thalara blinked.
Slowly.
As if gratitude was a word she had not heard in a long time.
Then she smiled.
It was gentle.
It was also wrong enough to raise the hair on Swanly’s arms.
"You are welcome, living mother."
Kael’s arms tightened around Swanly.
"Do not call her that."
Thalara looked at him.
Her smile widened a little.
"As you wish, rude panther."
Swanly was too tired to deal with that.
They followed her out.
Thalara moved through hidden root paths that opened only when her black claws touched them. She led them over bone bridges, under hanging vines, past sleeping infected that did not wake because the thing commanding them was dead.
At last, the black mud became brown.
The water thinned.
The air stopped tasting sweet and rotten.
The trees ahead showed pale daylight.
Riverbone’s outer path waited beyond the roots.
Swanly stepped onto solid ground and nearly cried from the feeling of not sinking.
Kael held the cub.
Soren held the remaining half of the Seed.
Raku leaned on his weapon, breathing hard.
Thalara stopped at the edge of the Rot Nest.
She did not step past the last black root.
For some reason, that made Swanly uneasy.
The mud ended there. The rotten water thinned. Ahead, the trees looked normal again, wet and dark, but alive enough to make Swanly’s chest ache with relief.
Behind them, Thalara stood barefoot in the black water as if an unseen line held her there.
Her purple eye moved over Swanly’s face.
Then to the cub.
Then to the half Seed in Soren’s hand.
"My sisters are still lost," she said softly.
No one answered.
No one asked her to come.
No one thought she could.
Thalara smiled with that strange gentle mouth.
"You should go before the dead learn how to follow without a master."
That sounded exactly like a sentence Swanly did not want to unpack.
"Right."
They turned away.
They walked toward Riverbone.
Swanly did not look back.
Behind them, at the edge of the Rot Nest, Thalara remained still until they disappeared between the living trees. Then her gentle smile stretched too wide. Her claws touched the bark, her purple eye brightened, and she climbed silently after them.
