Chapter 8: Chapter 8 Atlas

              “This was not us.” Charley said looking just as surprised as he. “Only the Twins are capable of something like this.”

              Atlas turned towards Charley and the lumbering golem standing further behind, closer towards the wall.

              “The Twins?” Atlas asked.

              CRASH!

              There was another boom, and the barrier tore itself apart like dried leaves under foot. Nearly translucent shards fell around them, stabbing into the ground then disintegrating into magical energy. Atlas shoved Charley hard, sending the boy sprawling to the ground and narrowly missing a barrier shard nearly four feet long impaling the ground where he had stood only moments before. Bane let out a squeal, and Atlas could see multiple splinters along the giant dog’s back. Luckily, they were much smaller than the average. Any that fell on Tom just shattered along his thick metal armor as he moved to lean over everyone that he could.

              Bane whimpered and fell to his haunches, then to his side. Atlas looked over the dog unable to see what was wrong, could the shard have stabbed a vital organ? It hit him. The splinters in his back were now ebbing with a light red glow. All the other shards that fell had quickly disintegrated into mist, but these stayed. Now that he was actually seeing, Bane was beginning to shrink. No, he wasn’t shrinking, the fat and muscle along his massive body was disappearing. It looked as if he were deflating somehow.

              “What the…”

              “ATLAS!” Tom yelled.

              He turned, and as the barrier fell apart in a wave from the top of the dome down to its base, he could see a few creatures flying in. They were humanoid with devilish wings and sharp boney joints. Their eerily naked bodies were glowing with that same red hue as the shards. Their bodies, save the wings, were just not human enough to make them odd to the eyes.

              “Chernobog!” Atlas shouted.

              He summoned his armor, cursing himself for not already doing so. At the same time, he summoned up a small dagger, in which he threw the moment it finished forming. The blade soared through the air and took the first Chernobog in the throat only twenty feet away. As the blade flew, he called up a sword in each hand. They were three feet long each and gleamed with their unnatural sharpness on both sides. His first thought was for his go to longsword but dismissed it. Firstly, he could see at least ten of them, now nine divebombing them. The longsword would be good to keep one or two of them off, but he needed speed and quick jabs as they dove on him. Secondly, the longsword took too long to summon as the monsters fell on him.

              The first Chernobog took the blade in its throat and came to a near sand still in midair. The one flying right behind him caught the monster by the back of the neck and its left wing. It tore the wind off the dying monster, then spun him in a wide circle to gather momentum then flung the still flailing monster. Atlas dove out of the way as it came crashing down, and with a quick glance to the side, he could see the mangled body was never going to move again.

              The barrier kept crumbling, and Atlas’s heart dropped as it fell completely. He was unsure what happened, the Chernobog’s were not visible through the barrier, and neither was anything else. But now that their protection was gone, he could see large monstrosities standing tall behind his obsidian barrier. They were tall gangly creatures, ones that Atlas had never seen before. They stood around twenty feet tall with two heads and five arms each. Two to each side, and one punching out from the center of their chests. Their six fingered hands were lifting people from behind the barrier and dropping them on the other side.

              The Chernobogs fell on him before he could spot the other intruders. They attacked like birds, with hands and feet covered in bloody talons nearly six inches long. The first one clamped down on Atlas’s shoulder and lifted him in the air. Before he was too high up, Atlas was able to flip the sword in his right hand in an awkward grip and stab up into the waist of the monster. The armor did not give him much flexibility, so he was unable to go for the hands, but stabbing its waist proved to work nearly as well.

              The monster screamed out with a maw willed with hundreds of needles like teeth. Its hands dropped Atlas, but the feet still held on to Atlas's legs. Now dangling upside, he leaned up and severed both legs just above the ankle. The monster screamed again as it was launched upward unready for the loss of weight. Atlas fell ten feet, back slamming into the ground. Blood from the monster splattered across his armor, but it did not faze him. He was not hurt by the fall, but it did knock the wind out of him.

              He coughed and rolled to the side narrowly missing another set of talons. He swung hoping to get the legs but missed as the creature took off too quick for him. Too quick for Atlas, but not for Tom. The Chernobog was twenty feet up when a large golden hand grabbed the monster in one hand like Atlas would to a fly. The hand squeezed in, there was a quick cry from the monster, but it was silenced just as fast as it came. Green blood and pulp slopped out of the golem’s hand, he then turned to Atlas and threw the remains directly at him.

              Atlas ducked but realized that its throw was just above him when he heard a disgusting slapping noise colliding with something else. Atlas turned to see a man now screaming out in pain. He was human and looked like a barbarian primitive covered in nasty fur with mud-stained skin. He reeked of excrement and monster blood and screamed through his mouth with only three teeth. The man coughed, and a mixture of black and red blood came pouring out like a fountain. Atlas was about to put the man out of his misery when something crawled out of his throat. Thin crablike feet stabbed out from inside the man’s neck, and it tore itself out, completely ruining the mans face. It was about two feet long, with a body nearly identical to a centipede. It had tons of little legs on each side with blood red tips. Where the insect’s head would be, was the upper half of a demonic woman. She had carapace similar to the rest of the body that ran up her chest, but from the lower neck and arms, she looked like a normal human woman. Her skin was a sickly grey and her fingers ended with sharp red tips like the many feet he had.

              Atlas stepped back barely holding in his stomach.

              “WHAT IN THE…”

              The creature screamed and lunged. At the same time, he felt the talons clamp down on him and lifted him in the air. The centipede thing caught onto his foot when he was jerked up in the air. He looked down with wide eyes as she leaned back then began to scrap at his armor with its many spiked feet. Atlas had never been more thankful for his armor than he was in this moment. The thing stopped and tilted her head in surprise, it then looked up at Atlas. He whipped his legs around to try and knock it free, but it was holding on too well.

              The ground was getting further and further away, but he could not take his eyes away from this… this… thing. It then began to whip her taloned fingers around and it spoke out in a language he had never heard before. Slick and quick words spilled out and a small flame built up in her palm; she was casting a spell.

              “You… are… so…. Gross!” Atlas grunted out, unsuccessfully able to fling her off.

              She looked up at him with a wicked grin, and just before she let loose the spell, Atlas slammed his legs together, squashing her like a bug. She let out a little squeal, then fell the hundred to the ground.  

              HUNDRED FEET DOWN! Atlas just now really noticed just how high he was. He looked up, and in the mess that was the few seconds before, he had lost his swords, again…

              “Shit…” Was all he thought.

              Before Atlas could second guess himself, he summoned a dagger from the rocky plate on his left foot. He turned and tore down one of the wings as it flapped down towards him. The creature roared out and tried to release him. Atlas did not want to fall a hundred feet and was ready for the creature to let go. With his other hand, he grasped its leg and at the same time, he formed the stony gauntlet around the Chernobog leg, which was a good thing as Atlas began to be thrashed about. He felt his shoulder pop out of its socket, then pop back in, but barely noticed the pain as his brain was rattling around in his skull.

              As he hoped, the long slash was not enough to make them fall outright, but it was bad enough that the monster was unable to maintain their altitude. They began to fall, and the weight of Atlas on the monster kept him from being able to fly off with any real control. Atlas smiled to himself, but about fifty feet from the ground, he heard a loud tearing noise. He knew what happened without looking up, even if he could look up. They fell and any ability the creature had to keep them up was now completely gone. They both screamed, and for an instant, they made eye contact. Atlas laughed, never would a winged monster ever think that they would die by falling.

              Something smacked into Atlas’s side. It both broke his fall but sent him flying off to the side. Atlas shook his head, but all that did was exasperate his headache. He moved to stand up, he placed his hand against a tree, and smacked the side of his head with something. It was a foot, it was the Chernobog’s foot was still wrapped at the thigh by his stone gauntlet while the rest of the monster was nowhere to be seen. It dripped with blood on the patted grass, and Atlas tore the foot out of his makeshift grip. He adjusted the stone gauntlet back to its original configuration, then summoned more of the earth to close the gap in his greave from what he used to make the dagger.

              He gathered himself and saw that he was a few hundred feet out of his compound. He could see the large obsidian wall surrounding his home, and hundreds upon hundreds of people shouting at those two headed monsters to lift them up. They all were wearing those awful hides; he could smell them from where he was standing.

              What had saved him?

              Atlas turned to the sound of a whimper. It was soft, and if its source was an abnormal dog, then it would have gone unheard. But, further off in the forest, he could see the crushed body of the Chernobog missing part of its leg, and a bit further was Bane. Atlas ran to him. The dog looked emaciated and weak, nearly fur and bone. He was lying on his side with his mouth open, and he could see the gums around his teeth were pulling back exposing yellowed roots.

              “Bane? Was that you?”

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              He realized that Bane must have been the one to save him. He then saw the shards still stuck in his back. They were not a light glow anymore; it was now pulsating with a vibrant bloody red. Atlas ran up and tore out the shards throwing them away into the forest and one stabbing into the tree next to him.

              With all the shards removed, he examined his monstrous dog again, and like filling a waterskin, Bane began to fill back in. The bones disappeared under thick muscle and healthy fur, the gums formed back around his teeth like normal, and his eyes refocused. Just like a puppy once more, the massive dog jumped up on all fours, licked Atlas’s entire body, then turned and took off towards the wall.

              “Bane! Wait!” Atlas yelled exasperated.

              The dog did not listen. The ten-foot-tall dog seemed to grow even more then dove headfirst into the mob from behind. He tore into their ill-defined ranks with ease crushing men beneath each paw and tearing limb from limb. Atlas watched as his dog mutilated the invaders then turned to leap onto the chest of one of the five armed monsters. It teetered but stayed upright. That was until Bane’s jaws clamped around one of its heads and tore it off. The other head cried out, then fell limp, with Bane jumping off just before hitting the ground. He then turned and jumped on another. His momentum took the second one by surprise, and they both tumbled over the obsidian wall and out of sight. By the inhuman cries, he could tell that Bane was just fine. As for the monster, he was less confident. Atlas was now thanking the gods that Bane was at the other side of the wall, when his ridiculous dog came jumping over the wall. He seemed to freeze in midair, all four paws were lifted to his chest, his large ears were shot straight up and his perpetual goofy grin, now covered in blood, looked gleeful as he fell among the men once more.

              Atlas tried to stifle a laugh but failed. Unfortunately, that was heard by the men closest to him. swearing to himself, Atlas summoned up his longsword and ran at them, mimicking their roar cry.

              Thick roots erupted from the ground, and stabbed through every one of their chests, killing them immediately. Their bodies looked to have ages fifty years in an instant as their corpses fell to the ground. From behind, something slammed into his back, sending him reeling. He turned to see a thick root, now with a crushed red tip, whipped back underground.

              “Now what!”

              As Atlas yelled, something wrapped around his chest, and he was jerked underground. He was flailing his hands around, but through the disorientation he noticed where he was at. The earth was his domain, and now surrounded at all ends by the source of his power left him feeling invigorated.

              He let loose with a pulse of magic that hardened the earth around him in an instant. He felt the root around his waist go taut after a jerking snap. He willed the stone around him to push outwards, leaving him alone in a small cavern made by his own hand. Besides the blocks of stone, the walls, ceiling and floor were that of mud and dirt. Thick and thin roots stretched their fingers around his cavern. They began to slither like some snake or worm. The first root shot out at him; Atlas’s quick reflexes allowed him to catch it only inches from his armored face. Just before his eyes, the tip of the root had a sharp red barb stretching closer to him. He slammed his other hand down, snapping the root in half. What remained in his hand puffed out in red mist.

              He quickly summoned up the two small blades once more, cursing once again for dropping his longsword, he really needed to work on that. The onslaught began.

Root after root, big and small shot towards him with those wicked red barbs. He cut and slashed frantically, just barely able to keep them at bay. He ducked, just dodging one while slicing upward to take another. They were relentless and never ending. Like being stuck in river rapids, Atlas  flew himself around, to the ground, used stone pillars as barriers and even projectiles to shove him out of the way. After what felt like hours but was only minutes, Atlas was tiring and growing sluggish. He cut a thick root coming at him from above, then leaped up. The roof of the cavern opened for him, exposing the open air nearly thirty feet up. A thick pillar of stone shot up from beneath him and carried Atlas to the surface as the roots continued to whip at him with frantic vigor.

              Atlas jumped when he reached the surface and rolled away from the hole. He turned to see what he imagined a leviathan’s tentacles would look like in the middle of the Sea of Bas. Hundreds of roots flailed about in an odd mockery of a flame. They were not hindered by the ground and Atlas saw this. He turned and ran away as the hundreds of roots began to get closer. No, they were not moving closer, they were just multiplying. Thousands broke from the earth, getting closer and closer. It looked like an evil wave ready to wash him away.

              Atlas would not be able to defend himself from that many, so he just ran. He ran as fast as he could, and the roots attacks drew closer and closer. He could see the mob; they were under the horrific attack of Bane, but they gathered themselves and were now surrounding the dog.

              “Bane!” Atlas yelled.

              Many of the men turned towards him, but his boy didn’t.

              “BANE!”

              He perked up, spotted him, then looked past him. He could swear the dog’s eyes grew wider.

              “RUN!”

              Atlas ignored the men running towards him. They came down on him with crude weapons that were no real threat to his magical armor. He took the blows but continued to run past even through their bewildered looks. Bane then ran up to him.

              “BANE… I… SAID… TO… RUN!” he shouted through breaths.

              Atlas’s vision went dark, as Bane’s huge maw came down and clamped down around his waist. Atlas yelled out, but the dog did not tighten down any further. He was lifted in the air, then flopping back and forth as Bane took off. He could feel Bane jumping in the air, then felt weightless as they fell. He was getting queasy with motion sickness when Bane spat him out. They were inside the walls. Turning, he could hear terrifying screams coming from outside…then silence. The tall giants stood stock still like statues with thousands of roots spiked out of their flesh and a far-off gaze. He turned, there were four Chernobogs dead on the ground and a spattering of crushed men, but that was it. Charley was gone. Tom was torn to pieces, one of his arms lay torn up and crushed while the other was missing completely. His legs were also missing. The golems chest plate was ripped to shreds and the golden light looked much too dim. The gears inside, though they still moved, they jerked around and fell from their housings. How did the Chernobogs get though the golem’s armor and now his?

              Atlas ran to him.

              “They…took him.” he said, voice sounding more mechanical than human. “Find him… He… needs to…”

              The golden light within his chest winked out, and the golem body dissolved into golden mist.

              Atlas didn’t have time to think as Bane barked at him and he turned to see the roots. Not sated by the men and monsters outside the wall, they were breaking through the ground towards him once more. Atlas turned towards the golden light, then to the sky where the Chernobogs must have taken the boy, then back at Bane.

              The dog ran up to him and opened his mouth.

              “NO! Not even if we die!” Atlas ordered.

He awkwardly climbed up on Banes back, and Bane took off before Atlas was read. He rolled backwards off and back on the ground. He swore he could hear Bane scoff at him; if rolling eyes could make a noise, he sure would have heard that too. Bane turned and bit down on his waist even though his protests. He was lifted and Bane took off. Atlas was able to watch his home disappear behind him. The root continued to give chase; Bane was barely able to stay ahead of them, but after a few miles, they withdrew. It was then that Bane stopped and let Atlas up on his back. He held on properly to his thick hide but nearly fell again, Bane was fast, and he was unprepared.

 Just like that, in one day, his home was gone. He needed to find Charley, that little shit was going to build him a new home.

              “Now what…”

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