Page 50 of Alien Hunter's Prize

The unnatural yellow glow in its eyes fixed on me, or perhaps the pulsing crystal behind me, ignoring Nirako entirely. Foam flew from its jaws, and a low, guttural growl ripped through the high-pitched whine of the crystal, a sound of pure agony seeking an outlet.

"Jen, back! Nirako, flank!" The command tore from my throat, instinct overriding conscious thought. I shoved Jen hard, sending her stumbling back towards the relative cover of the massive ghostwood trunk near the crystal, simultaneously drawing the obsidian knife.

Its familiar weight, a solid piece of Arenix gifted by the Aerie, felt like an extension of my own arm, a necessary counterpoint to the wrongness radiating from the creature and the crystal. Nirako, reacting instantly, moved left, spear shaft held low, a grim line forming around his mouth—a broken weapon against a maddened apex predator.

The Trelleth crashed through the brittle undergrowth like a runaway boulder, its usual silence replaced by ragged, gasping breaths that sounded like tearing cloth. I braced myself, sinking my weight low, planting my feet wide on the strangely yielding earth, feeling the vibrations of its approach through the bottom of my boots.

My lifelines flared hot beneath my skin, energy surging to meet the threat, pushing past the dull ache of my own recent injuries. Through our link, I felt Jen's fear, a sharp, cold spike like plunging into icy water, but it was instantly overlaid with a fierce, analytical concentration, her senses already dissecting the creature's chaotic energy, its spasming movements.

Spasming lunge... low... left side favored... energy surge precedes... Her warnings weren't words, but pure sensory data, instinctual flashes of precognition flooding our connection, fractions of a second ahead of reality.

The Trelleth shrieked—a grating, tearing sound that scraped against my hearing—and launched itself forward, exactly as Jen's warning blazed through the link. It came in low, a blur of dull scales and snapping jaws, claws extended like hooks aimed to tear tendons.

Trusting Jen's insight completely, I didn't meet the charge head-on. I pivoted hard on the ball of my left foot, letting the creature's own corrupted momentum carry it slightly past me. As it hurtled by, close enough for me to smell its foul breath and feel the heat radiating from its hide, my arm snapped down, the obsidian blade slicing through tough scales and muscle along its flank. A clean, deep cut.

It roared, a sound thick with pain and bewildered fury, stumbling as the unexpected wound registered. Dark ichor sprayed, steaming slightly where it hit the pale dust. It caught itself with frightening speed, spinning on its powerful hind legs, ignoring the bleeding gash.

Its heavy, armored tail whipped around in a spasming, uncontrolled arc, faster than Nirako, anticipating a more conventional turn, could react. The sickening thud echoed through the grove as the tail slammed into his side. I heard Nirako grunt, saw him stagger back several paces, his spear shaft flying from his grip, though sheer Aerie resilience kept him on his feet.

The Trelleth paid Nirako no mind. Its burning yellow eyes locked back onto me, onto the pulsing crystal just behind me. It gathered itself again, muscles bunching erratically beneath its dull hide.

The sickly yellow energy crackling around its twitching sensory stalks intensified, casting flickering, grotesque shadows. Another charge was building, fueled by agony and the crystal's maddening influence. This one would be worse.

The crystal! Its resonance is erratic... causing feedback... amplify a stable frequency? Disrupt the flow? Jen's thought, sharp and desperate, lanced through our link. A gamble based on the Lurker encounter, applied to this raw, natural energy source. Disrupt the crystal? Could it even work?

There was not any time for doubt. As the Trelleth coiled, its powerful legs tensing to launch its pain-wracked body forward, I made the choice. Not the creature. The source.

Ignoring the waves of unpleasant energy thrumming against my lifelines, ignoring the heat coming from the massive, milky-white crystal formation, I lunged towards it. Bracing myself against the vibrations shaking the very ground beneath my feet, I slammed the flat of my heavy obsidian knife hard against its flawed, vibrating surface, right near one of the dark, weeping veins Jen had pointed out.

The impact didn't just clang; the crystal itself shrieked, a high-pitched, piercing sound of stressed, ancient stone thatlanced through the air, momentarily overwhelming even the creature's roars.

A blinding pulse of pure white light erupted from the point of impact, pushing back violently against the sickly yellow glow radiating from within. The force of the resonance shockwave slammed back up my arm, making my teeth rattle, but I held my ground.

The effect on the Trelleth was instantaneous and catastrophic. It convulsed as if its entire nervous system had been overloaded. Its limbs locked rigid, its back arched unnaturally, throwing it heavily onto its side.

The yellow fire in its eyes flared blindingly for one agonizing heartbeat, then sputtered and died like a snuffed flame, leaving only the natural deep gold beneath, now wide with shock and incomprehensible pain. The creature collapsed, twitching feebly, its ragged breathing shallow gasps.

The direct link to the crystal's chaotic energy seemed violently severed, leaving it stunned, broken, overwhelmed by the sudden silence in its mind.

Through our link, I felt Jen cry out, recoiling as the crystal shrieked, the pure harmonic shockwave undoubtedly agonizing to her amplified senses. It worked... resonance disrupted... her thought came through, laced with pain but also relief, quickly followed by alarm. But the crystal... Iros, it's more unstable now...

I spun back towards the crystal. She was right. The brief flare of white light faded, leaving the yellow pulsing within looking even more frantic. New, finer cracks spiderwebbed visibly across its milky surface from where my knife had struck.

The high-pitched whine intensified, climbing towards an unbearable frequency. My desperate action had stunned the Trelleth, broken the feedback loop tormenting it, but it had pushed the stressed crystal closer to its own breaking point.

Nirako, recovering quickly, moved cautiously towards the downed Trelleth, retrieving his spear shaft. The creature lay panting, its eyes clouded with pain and confusion, but the madness was gone.

It tried weakly to push itself up with its uninjured forelimbs, letting out a low, pitiful moan, its flank wound bleeding freely onto the pale dust. It was defeated, trapped in a body ravaged first by corrupted energy, then by our necessary violence.

Nirako looked at me, his gaze shifting from the suffering creature to the increasingly agitated crystal, then back to the Trelleth. A silent understanding passed between us—the grim necessity recognized by two warriors familiar with the harsh realities of survival and the mercy of a swift end to unbearable agony.

He nodded curtly, his face set. With a single, precise thrust of the sharpened spear shaft, delivered with a warrior's respect for the magnificent creature it should have been, Nirako ended its suffering.

The silence that followed felt heavy, somber, broken only by the accelerating, high-pitched whine of the stressed crystal behind me. Jen slowly emerged from behind the ghostwood trunk, her face pale, her gaze moving from the still form of the Trelleth to the vibrating, cracking crystal formation.

"Striking it disrupted the immediate feedback loop affecting the Trelleth," she said, her voice trembling slightly, confirming my assessment, "but it destabilized the crystal's internal structure even more. The energy buildup is accelerating."

Her eyes widened as she focused her senses on it. "I think... I think it's going to overload completely. A major discharge."

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