On his knees and panting, the violent convulsion of his blood had stopped. But that did nothing to dull the agony tearing through him. If anything, it made it worse.
His head was ringing and his vision was blurred. It was even harder to stand, not to mention his one real advantage had been severely weakened.
"Damn it all..."
Without his enhanced ears and eyes at full strength, he was as good as dead.
This was not to say he was blind or could not hear anything, they were still functional but not at the same supernatural capacity. He could still see shapes and hear the cries of pain from the other Rangers.
’What just happened? Did it attack us?’
After hearing the Wrath’s howl, it felt as though his own blood had turned against him for just a moment. It only settled after the howl died down. Had it continued, it was possible he might have exploded into red chunks of meat.
’How could a single attack do this much damage?’
Around him, the forest had become a bloodhouse.
Blood had soaked into the roots and moss, turning the earth dark and slick. A few of the Rangers were already on their feet while another few were crawling on the ground as red liquid spilled freely from their mouths and eyes.
"I can’t stop bleeding! It won’t stop! Someone help me!"
"My ears are ringing! Keeper, I can’t hear!"
"I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna diiiieee!!!"
Rhos heard the panicked and sobbing sounds of the Rangers near him. He hardened his fist and punched the ground, using the pain to anchor himself. With a strained groan, he forced himself onto his feet.
When he looked around with his red streaked vision, he saw the kind of mess Division 14 was left in. And when the Wrath made its followup move, a sinking feeling crawled at his gut.
The colossal creature lowered its head and along its spine, the crimson horns began to melt. Their solid form dissolved into viscous blood that elongated and reshaped itself in midair.
With a single twitch of the Wrath’s body, all hell broke loose.
The blood horns shot forward impaling trees, splitting apart trunks with explosive force and piercing the earth itself again and again, tearing through the battlefield in every direction.
"Get down!"
"Cover! Take cover quickly!"
They tried to react, but it was already too late. A horn punched through a Ranger’s chest and pinned him to a tree behind him. Another skewered two people at once, lifting them screaming in the air before slamming them into the ground. A woman tried to run, but a horn erupted from beneath her feet and tore straight through her torso.
Screams of terror and anguish filled the forest as more people succumbed to the assault of the Wrath.
Even Red Deer Rhos had his hands full. Two stretching horns streaked toward him at terrifying speed. At his current state, he should have been dead a while ago.
However he relied on his trusty instincts to carry him. Pair that with his enhanced speed and agility honed by two years of brushing against death on multiple occasions.
He had a decent chance at surviving. After all, Prey like him was pretty good at avoiding their untimely demise.
It was also times like this he thanked being classified as Prey. Nobody expected much from him. Even if he were to leave them all to die here would not make him seem like a coward or a bad person. It would be just expected behaviour.
The crimson horns chased him while tearing through bodies that were not as fortunate as him to survive.
At the corner of his eye, Keeper Taru was still standing.
He powered through the agony with blood flowing down his squinted eyes. His teeth clenched as he caught one blood horn that tried to drill through him with both hands.
"Bastard mutt, I won’t let you....get in....my way!"
Taru threw the horn aside and rushed to confront the Wrath by himself.
Meanwhile, Rhos saw the woman Nimra meters away from the creature.
She was kneeling in the dirt and shaking violently. Blood streaked down her cheeks like tears. Or it was mixed with tears because right now she seemed to be crying.
She was not even trying to defend herself, almost as if she was not used to pain.
’What the hell?’
Naturally, this had him confused. But he did not have the luxury to think about it too deeply.
It was sheer luck she had not been targeted yet while everyone else was dying. If this kept up, she would die eventually.
Rhos had expected for something like this to happen. For a Ranger, death was constantly a looming threat. Dying in the field was normal.
Even so, he wanted to survive. And even though he wished for her to suffer an agonizing death, he did not want it like this.
It was way too early for her to die now. She was still a newbie and besides, she had not seen the true horrors that came with this job.
"Damn it!"
Rhos clicked his tongue in irritation when he turned to the direction of Nimra. He dodged more crimson horns, stepped over fallen corpses and slipped on the blood soaked ground, all to reach the woman who had succumbed to her fear.
"Nimra, get up! If you don’t move right now you’re dead!"
He shouted at the woman in a hoarse voice, but it did not reach her. The chaos around them was too loud!
Just when he was about to make it to her, a rogue horn curved unnaturally and slammed into him from the side.
"Ghhaa!"
Rhos was launched violently across the ground. His world spun as he skidded through the dirt and blood of his allies. The pain he felt in that moment detonated through his entire body.
He lost momentum and rolled to a hard stop. He did not have a lot of pain tolerance so he needed a second longer to let himself feel it, process it and pick himself up.
It was only luck, nothing but blind, merciless luck that had saved him, that he was still alive to gasp air.
The barbed edge of the horn had missed him by a fraction. If not, his torso might have been torn open.
Now surrounded by the dying screams of Division 14, Rhos coughed a couple of times before forcing himself to his feet once again.
"What...?"
Rhos’s vision may have been terrible, but there was no mistaking what he was seeing.
Mountain Gorilla Taru....was running away.