章節 27: Price to Pay
'2 charges left...' Rackshar thought bitterly, looking at the three athonexs standing in front of him. With so few explosions left Rackshar was struggling to think of a good ending for this battle.
The top of the crag was not large, only a jagged 15 meters platform jutting above the tree line, like a gray tooth emerging from a sea of green. This, unfortunately, left Rackshar very little room to maneuver. Rackshar was outnumbered 3 to 1 against an enemy with superior defense and, with his lack of explosions, also a superior offense.
To make matters worse the athonexs had ranged attacks. This, combined with the small, barren top of the crag, nullified Rackshar's only advantage, his maneuverability.
Even if he used his previous strategy to close the gap and finished them off with his knife, he would still come up one short. Not to mention that the other two athonexs wouldn't just sit there and watch him finish off their companion. With the athonexs covering for each other, he would have to pay a price for that strategy to work.
Of course, all these thoughts ran through Rackshars head in a single second. Therefore, the athonexs had yet to make their attack, only having just gotten over the ledge.
Knowing that if he let them attack first the fight would already be lost, Rackshar decided he would have to take some risks to survive. He quickly sprinted toward the athonex on his left as fast as he could.
The athonex, seeing his enemy offering such an easy target, quickly released a volley of spikes to stop Rackshar's advance.
"So predictable." Rackshar taunted, as used his strategy for the third time.
The explosion took him over the rush of spikes, but this time instead of landing on the athonex, making himself an easy target for the other two, Rackshar landed just to the left of his prey.
His knife already unsheathed and his opponent making a nice shield for him, Rackshar had a grin as he regained his feet. He turned to stab the athonex in the neck, but instead threw his arm up on instinct and watched as the athonex sunk its teeth into his forearm.
Standing by its side, the shocked Rackshar now had full view of its long and snake like neck, currently bent in half to bite into his arm.
Normally its neck was kept hidden inside its shell and only taken out when it was eating. When athonexs grew to adulthood they would tower over the tree line, so, to eat, having a long neck that could reach the ground was necessary. It also comes in handy when enemies try to attack from their blind spots.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Rackshar couldn't feel the pain of having his arm bitten and due to that was able to react immediately. By jamming the knife into the athonex's eye and twisting it until he felt the pressure relieve from his arm.
As the athonex collapsed to the ground and Rackshar crouched behind it while more spikes flew overhead.
'Huh. Seems like they don't want to shoot their friend even though he's dead.' Rackshar thought, noticing that none of the spikes hit his body shield, even while they fired all around it. 'Oddly sentimental for brainless turtles.'
As if to prove his point the athonexs began to circle Rackshar's position, while maintaining their distance.
'If only this was a little lighter' Rackshar sighed. He wanted to use the body as a running shield to close the gap, but the dead athonex was too heavy for Rackshar to even roll over.
Instead Rackshar just circled his protective boulder, keeping it between himself and his assaulters.
Their game of ring around the rosy continued for a few minutes, with Rackshar just exposing himself enough to get shot at. His new plan was to get them to burn out the rest of the energy in their bark shell cores. It wasn't his usual style, but Rackshar could tell that he had taken too much damage on his left arm. Even though he couldn't feel the pain, he was having trouble moving his fingers.
There was, of course, a reason that Rackshar wanted so desperately to repair his soul and gain complete control over his body. Though it could be seen as convenient to not be distracted, shocked or blinded by pain, the price was that you wouldn't have complete control. You wouldn't be able to accurately gauge what your body could handle and tell when it would fail.
That was the position Rackshar was in now. He had taken so much damage that his left arm was now failing him. Also, even if he heals much quicker, thanks to his increased constitution, he will still struggle to know when it was fully recovered, since he couldn't feel its limits.
Therefore, Rackshar decided to be more cautious for the rest of this battle, to make sure that he didn't take even more damage with his already fragile body.
Unfortunately, the athonexs seemed to figure out his plan, or at least they got frustrated enough to stop. Rackshar heard their angry sounding grunts, as craned his head over his shield to see what they were doing.
Their grunting, that Rackshar could only assume was their primitive form of communication, continued for a about a minute before they began to move again.
This time only one of them continued to circle Rackshar's hiding place while the other one remained where it was.
Seeing this, Rackshar grit his teeth in frustration.
"Dammit..." he growled, realizing their plan.
With this method, while one circled and the other stood guard, if Rackshar continued to circle the dead athonex to avoid the moving one then eventually walk right into the range of the other.
'How the hell did these stupid beasts come up with this?' Rackshar thought bitterly while he realized he was about to be caught between a rock and a hard place.
Seeing the circling athonex, Rackshar could literally watch his time to come up with a new plan fading away with each step.
Frustrated beyond words that one of his rare attempts at planning had failed, a dangerous light flashed in his eyes.
"Time to go back to the basics." he said in a quiet, monotone voice.
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