A large, thick-boned arm with a massively oversized hand grasped the wooden beam, anchoring the bone demon in place as it slowly swung side to side like a deadly pendulum. The main mass of the creature was balled up, limbs curled tight and difficult to distinguish from each other. Visible at the top, though, was a row of skulls in a strip like a mohawk, five in total, all of them decidedly human in appearance.
Jadis’ eyes stayed locked on the demon as she thought about what she should do next, watching for the slightest indication it had spotted her. Aside from the gentle rocking, the bone thief was as motionless as the dead.
Should she attack it? She had made the stone clubs specifically for the purpose of fighting any bone demons she came across. Her heart was beating like a drum and shivers were running up and down her spine, not from fear but from anticipation. This monster was the adventure she was looking for, the fantasy turned reality she’d been dreaming of whenever she read a book or played a video game. She had to admit, she’d come back to the dwarf village half because she was looking for a fight, not just because she needed to scavenge supplies.
Still, now that she was staring down the barrel of impending combat, she hesitated. Not for fear of the fight, but for simple logistical purposes. How exactly was she supposed to start the battle with the bone thief? It was hanging from the top rafter of the roof of a two-story stone building across the road from her. Her instincts screamed at her that the best thing to do would be to attack it while it was unaware of her presence, get the drop on it.
She doubted she could, though, since she had no confidence she could climb up that building without making enough noise to wake the monster, if sleeping was what it was doing. For all she knew, the second she stepped out into the road it would roar to life and come leaping down upon her, skeletal claws coming for her flesh.
“What do I know about these things?” Jadis whispered quietly, watching her foe.
“Other than they are made of bone?” She replied, both heads tilting a bit in thought. “They don’t die unless you kill the eyeball hidden in the core. That, and they can run pretty fast. Aggressive, too. At least the first one, was.”
Jadis recognized that everything about the first one might have been specific to it as an individual, but with how Oros’ reality was built like a game, she felt as though a bone thief could be relied on to act as any other bone thief would.
“Besides,” she murmured, plans forming in her mind, “A dog will act like a dog. Let’s throw this one a bone…”
Having gotten into position a few moments later, Jadis found a fist-sized stone and tested its weight. She doubted she could do much damage to the demon’s skeletal shell, but she took careful aim. Maybe her surprise attack would get lucky and she’d kill it with one toss of a rock?
With a grunt of effort, Jadis hurled the stone at the hanging demon, the projectile flying farther and faster than she had expected. It zipped through the air and struck with a loud crack. Unfortunately, what it struck was a wooden roof beam several feet to the side of the bone thief.
“I never did do much pitching in softball.” Jadis shrugged, taking a few steps back and readying her club as the demon stirred.
The skeletal monstrosity unfolded itself from the ball it had made, far too many arms spreading out around the egg-shaped torso. The demon had two improbably large arms and two smaller pairs below the big ones in a triangle pattern on either side of the body. What Jadis at first took to be a tail turned out to be a third leg jutting out the rear, each leg terminating in a horse’s hoof. The row of skeletal heads all clacked together like a macabre Newton’s cradle.
Jadis had only seconds to process these details as the creature unfurled itself, spotted her, and immediately launched itself out of the roof. It landed on the road two stories down in a clatter of bones on stone, seemingly unaffected by the fall.
“Come and get these bones, fucker,” Jadis snarled with a savage grin, backing a few more steps away, club raised overhead. She stood ready, just beyond the corner of the stone building she’d last searched.
The demon rushed directly at her, leaping over the wooden fence with ease. It charged with single-minded purpose, using its huge arms to lope along like a malformed gorilla. Just as it passed the edge of the building corner, Jadis sprung her trap.
Her second body, waiting for just this moment hidden behind the building, slammed her stone club down on the attacking demon with perfect timing and coordination. Her ambushing body didn’t need to see the bone thief to know when it would be in striking range; her body acting as bait did all the seeing for her.
The demon was wholly unprepared for the surprise attack, the stone club smashing down on top of its torso, instantly shattering the rearmost skull. Thrown off balance by the weight of Jadis’ attack, it tumbled to the ground in a rolling heap that the bait-Jadis was able to skip out of the way of before it bowled her over.
Wasting no time, both of Jadis’ bodies rush at the downed demon and started hitting it with their clubs, the loud cracks of breaking bones echoing in the village.
The bone thief only took seconds to right itself, but in that time Jadis was able to destroy one of its large arms and break several of the others.
Before Jadis could land another blow, though, the demon lashed out with a leg and cow-kicked her in one stomach, sending her stumbling back with gasping for breath. Worse, the pain of the attack was enough to distract her other body from its attack, turning her swing into a miss. Off balance, Jadis couldn’t move out of the way in time as the demon used its remaining large arm to sweep her legs, knocking her to the ground.
In an instant the demon was on top of her, a familiar pattern of many arms grasping at her own, trying to immobilize her as the big arm rear back to crush her.
Jadis didn’t hesitate as her second self swung her weapon like a golf club, smashing into the bone torso with enough force to lift the creature up and off her downed body.
Leaving her club on the ground, Jadis grabbed the demon’s big arm as it scrambled to right itself, yanking it hard and straight out. Her standing body struck true at the opening made, snapping the bone like dried wood. With its primary weapons eliminated, Jadis resumed her assault on the reeling bone thief, striking at it from two different angles, giving it no room to strike back.
Raising her stone club over her head for another blow, aiming at the cracks forming in the torso shell, a movement behind Jadis caught her double’s eye. Instinctively, she spun to the left and out of the way just as a second bone thief launched itself through the air in a tackle.
The second demon landed in a pile of flailing skeletal limbs on top of the first, the mass rolling across the ground in a clatter. Jadis didn’t stop for a second and immediately ran, sprinting into the forest to the east, making a beeline for her fortified hut. With a second bone demon’s arrival, the numbers were no longer in her favor. She needed to get to her defenses where she could turn the battle back into a two-on-one combat instead of even numbers.
As she ran, Jadis occasionally whipped her head behind her to see how close the demons were to catching up. The new demon, body smaller than the other and shaped like a dog, ran on all four legs, a pair of human-like arms jutting from its back, clawed fingers reaching out towards her. One of its three heads was antlered like a deer and Jadis thanked D it hadn’t managed to skewer her from behind with the sharp weapons.
With the enemy closing the distance, Jadis strained to sprint even faster, breath coming in ragged gasps and sweat pouring down into her eyes. Soon, the clearing with her stone hut came into view. Putting in a final burst of speed, she ran for the door to her base.
Seconds before her body in the lead reached the door, a cold and bony hand wrapped around the ankle of her body running in the rear. She tripped, falling hard onto the ground with a jarring impact. Distracted and in pain, her self in the lead failed to stop in time and ran directly into the wooden door of the hut, just barely avoiding smashing her head into it by turning her shoulder.
Stunned, Jadis didn’t have time to react as the dog-like bone thief got on her back, human limbs wrapping around her neck and squeezing in a stranglehold while its front legs pressed down on her arms, holding her in place and keeping her from struggling.
Jadis gasped for breath, eyes watering and pale face turning red. She could barely do more than feebly twist and kick with her legs as the demon choked the life from her.
No, that was wrong. She could do more. Unlike the poor men, women, and animals the demon had stolen its skeletal body from, Jadis had more to defend herself with than just one set of arms and legs.
Struggling up from her stunned slump against the door, Jadis turned and ran at the demon that was strangling her to death. Grabbing hold of the monster’s antler rack with her left hand for leverage, Jadis slammed her stone club like a hammer on the scapula of the demon’s left-side back arm. She shattered the bone in two strikes, its arm falling off in a heap of disconnected remains with its connection to the demon severed.
The thief reacted wildly, letting go of Jadis’ neck and trying to switch targets, bucking and thrashing at the unpinned Jadis.
Dropping her club, Jadis picked the bone thief up and swung it around, tossing it away and off to the side with a scream of effort. She knew she didn’t have time to follow up on the overturned demon, though. Despite the blood pounding in her ears, Jadis could hear the sound of the first bone thief crashing through the trees towards her.
Getting her coughing body to her feet, Jadis dashed inside the hut, managing to get within just in time as the tripod-gorilla monstrosity came into the clearing. From what she could see, it had put some of itself back together, having regained its other large arm, though she could still see many cracks and breaks in the bones of both arm and shell.
Readying herself, Jadis realized she’d left one of her clubs on the ground outside.
“Fuck it,” she coughed, tears still streaming down her snarling face, “I only need one hammer to deal with you!”
Perhaps reacting to her shouted challenge, the bone thief rattled its four remaining skulls together, jaws snapping and clacking. It ran forward, barreling into the open doorway where Jadis stood, club raised high.
As it reached the door, Jadis’ second self slammed the door shut, the impact jarring both woman and demon, but the demon taking it worse. Its large body caught in the door, she held it shut on the creature and pinned it in place with all her strength.
With a rage-filled shout, the other half of Jadis brought the stone club down on the demon, shattering a hole in the curved back of the skeletal torso, exposing a wriggling mass of purple flesh. She swung again, muscles burning from the effort as she aimed for the newly made hole, trying to land a death blow. The skeletal monster struggled and twisted about, arms and legs flailing, throwing off her aim but unable to effectively attack or defend itself.
By the fourth swing, Jadis’ club struck purple flesh with a squelching, popping sound. The bone demon’s struggles went wild, desperately trying to pull itself out of the door. At that moment, the second bone thief charged, crashing into the door with enough force to momentarily send Jadis reeling back.
However, the demons’ actions acted counter to each other. With one trying to pull back and the other rushing forward, neither were able to act to full effect and take advantage of the few seconds it took Jadis to get back into position at the door.
Once again, Jadis slammed the door shut, this time catching both demons between door and stone frame, cracking and breaking several of the smaller limbs on both creatures. With perfect coordination, Jadis attacked at the same time she crushed the demons in the doorway, breaking two of the smaller demon’s heads off the body completely.
As the dog-like bone thief flailed, one of its legs went deep into the hole Jadis had cracked open in the larger demon’s protective shell. With a disgusting squelch, the clawed skeletal paw sunk into the purple flesh, dark goo spurting out in a fetid torrent. With a shudder, the bone thief ceased its struggles, going still as death.
Seizing the initiative, Jadis grabbed hold of the still fighting demon’s arm with both hands. Putting one foot against the door and leaning back hard, she yanked the demon against the hard edge, holding it firmly in place while her second self lined up another blow.
With two swift strikes the un-grappled back arm of the smaller demon was broken off. Held in place, it had no means of defense at all as Jadis bashed through the bony torso. Once a large enough hole had been made, she jammed the end of the club into the wriggling mass and pulped it like a mortar and pestle, not stopping until all movement from the demon ceased.
All went quiet in the hut with the death of the second demon. Jadis stood there, heart beating in her ears and gasping breath rough against her throat.
Speaking as one, both bodies expressed the only ineloquent thought her numb mind could think of in the silence of victorious combat.
“Holy shit.”
615