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To the creature’s credit, it was fast enough to move its
mountainous body clear of the killing share of my father’s
blow. Still, it was sorely riven, as was the ancient stone upon
which it slept.
It became a storm of glistening shadows and elongated
stingers as it proceeded to fill the stone chamber with its
lethal assortment of slaying limbs. It discharged a boiling
stream of liquefied flesh into the darkness at me. The Red
Dream had almost evaporated, and I tapped its last reality-
defying reservoir as I leaped beyond the scorching fluid.
While airborne, I freed my sisters into the darkness,
their laughter skipping across the webs of squirming flesh
that filled the Weaver’s lair. The alien abomination quickly
recoiled from their glittering smiles, and they disappeared
into distant darkness, their laughter following after. When
an adequate amount of space had opened up between myself
and the Flesh Weaver, it hauled itself up to an impressive
height, presiding like an insectoid mountain over the range
of its underworld. “’Twas no idle boast you made, was it,
human? You really do have the power to kill me. But it
seems your fires have died away, and your precious knives
are lost to you. While I’m certain that axe of yours is death
incarnate, I’ll not again let it so close to me.”
The beast extended two lengths of serrated bone pincers
from sheaths of flesh that lined its swollen abdomen. Its speed
again proved incredible—it crossed almost instantly the
distance between us, stabbing one of its boney appendages
into my leg. The monster lifted me from the ground by my
wound and attempted to fling me into its throbbing webs,
laughing as though it had already triumphed.
I wrenched free of the spiny weapon and launched my
father into the darkness. The Weaver withdrew with a
lopsided combination of fear and wisdom, but the creature
was not my target. My father collided with the stalactite-
dripping ceiling of the cavern, detonating like laughing
thunder. For a moment, it seemed as if the earth itself had
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