12 Glen-gohr

In a silence, the horrid beast and its bold opponent were staring into each other's eyes.

"Come hither, thou foul cur; come and meet thy doom." Said Gael with both hatred and confidence.

As if the beast well understood what she just said unto it, Glen-gohr shortly rushed into her position, with its fangs and talons held up high, to rip her pieces to pieces. Gael snorted, and then leaped over her foe with an aid of her exo-skeleton's artificial muscles. The beast, once again, charged onto its opponent with a formidable velocity. Now was her chance; she evaded it by activating her turbo-boost, and then, as soon as she landed on the ground, she hollered up at her comrades to engage the enemy altogether. The warriors soon charged at Glen-gohr with their war-gears drawn and ready for combat. Two of them at the back row soared into the air using their jet packs. They then aimed the tips of their tech-swords onto the monster while airborne, seeking to pierce its head to its jaw as a whole.

Glen-gohr did not care whether they would overwhelm it by their numbers or fight him one after another in turn. It simply wanted the flesh and blood of its enemies; satisfying such hunger was the only thing that mattered. Out of fury and terrible hunger, Glen-gohr swung its bloated right arm towards the pair of warriors now in the air. It scored a hit on one of them, crushing him right into the thick brick wall of the corridor. Then, the monster stretched its left hand upwards to block the airborne assault coming in from the other warrior. His sword somehow managed to pierce the opponent's hand thoroughly. However, as he fell onto the ground soon after loosening his grip on the sword, Glen-gohr then, not missing a chance, stomped on his fallen enemy with one of its huge feet.

Despite the casualties, every warriors on the scene were still willing to fight on, dauntlessly keeping up their assault. A tech-maiden struck the monster's lower torso with a swing of her tech-axe, while followed by her colleague's stabbing its left leg from behind. Gael too joined up the fray; she swung her axe into its right shoulder so as to cleave it apart. The beast stumbled and then started to bleed severely. Yet, it was yet to be defeated, for its hunger was still there inside its soul. It could no longer possibly bear the very pain and misery it was suffering from such desire. The monster did not matter whether its own flesh would get sliced and minced in pursuit of satisfying its hunger. All that mattered to it, was getting its want for the human flesh granted.

The beast once again swung the enormous arm onto its assailants. Gael and most of her warriors managed to evade it barely without a scratch. Nevertheless, Glen-gohr was at least able to snatch one of them in the course of its counterattack. The beast then held the victim's both legs in its other hand, and pulled his body in either directions.

"Lo, I die; I now follow the footsteps of my great ancestors!" He exclaimed so in utmost pain, as his body and the exo-skeleton he was wearing were being torn apart in two.

Though she did not show it outright, Gael felt like her heart, too, was being ripped with sorrow at such sight of her brothers and sisters getting killed. Already four of her finest warriors had been slain by that loathsome beast. She, despite her eyes burning with hatred and urges for vengeance, had been left no other options but to momentarily withdraw her squad. The hallway they were in did not provide any merits to Gael and her warriors; being a corridor of a governor's palace, it was surely wide enough, but still too narrow to be the space for a fierce battle. She somehow needed to lure the monster into the building's main hall, just as she and the Prince had planned in the first place.

"Brothers and sisters, withdraw immediately and regroup at the main hall! Good grenadier, hold off the beast and buy us some time to retreat." Ordered Gael.

"Understood, my liege."

The boomer then took out his 40mm grenade launcher, and loaded up a high-explosive round in it. Knowing that the enemies were now retreating, Glen-gohr prepared itself to make another rush onto the warriors. Their boomer, however, well knew exactly when he should be firing his weapon. As soon as he got a glimpse of its upcoming assault, he shot his grenade launcher on the part of the ceiling that was quite close to, but not right above of, the beast's position. The ceiling exploded, and soon collapsed on the vicinity of Glen-gohr, practically blocking its way onto the warriors. Without hesitation, Gael and the surviving barbarians headed for the hall. She then made a call to Aelthred via her comm-link.

"My lord, we just had a contact with the abomination. We got four men and women slain, and are currently heading for your location at the main hall."

"Affirmative, make haste onto our position; we shall be preparing for upcoming battle with the beast."

"Understood. Gael out." The transmission ended.

Rothgarr, now with his heirloom sword in his hand, was walking down the hidden, underground passage alone. Alcohol in the blood vessels and terrible hangover still tormented him. Nevertheless, he was obliged to be on his way, no matter which destination it would lead him to in the end. As he was pressing himself onward along the hidden passage, he occasionally felt like he would throw up any minute. Yet, he had a score to settle with the beast. Though he might be just an old man by now, he was, in the past, once a tech-knight of honor and valor. His soul had always been that of a knight, since the very moment of his appointment to the Empire's knighthood. He should be acting like an honorable knight. He should be the one dealing with Glen-gohr face to face, for the sake of his honor and Wuntwail's salvation. This was his inalienable duty, with his glory at stake, that had to be carried out no matter the cost. With these thoughts in mind, Rothgarr threw up on the side of the passage, and then continued with his way to the hall.

Aelthred ordered his troops to aim their hand-cannons front and center toward the hall's entrance. In less than a minute, he was sure, the demon would surely barge into their position through that gate yonder. His warriors, along with Gael's remaining squad, already got themselves ready for an imminent action.

"All men and women, fire your cannons and bolts as soon as you get your eyes on the target. Without hesitation." Said Aelthred.

Soon, only a few seconds later, Glen-gohr showed itself beyond a threshold of the gate. It then ran into the ranks of warriors with a formidable speed.

"Open fire! Give everything you got!" Barked the sergeants under Aelthred's command.

"Bring it down, once and for all!"

All at once, the muzzles of their semi-automatic guns went on blazing with laser beams and plasma shots. Nevertheless, Glen-gohr already knew what would be coming at it, for the beast was not a mindless fool. As it was about to take a huge leap above the ground, countless holograms soon appeared from its vicinity, and then rushed toward their opponents. Technically, these were nothing more than mere, harmless illusions of senses to any living beings. Yet, whenever they came to outnumber their enemies by dozens to one, they were no longer just dismissable sprites; they would prove themselves to be thousands of nightmarish specters.

"By the Divines and only, what are those things?" Shouted a tech-warrior in astonishment.

The shooters soon became distracted in their aims. The holograms took variety of forms to startle even the most fearless souls of Gaia-seven. Mutilated corpses of tech-knights would suddenly appear before them out of nowhere. All kinds of horrid chimeras and abominations, too, appeared and then jumped upon the warriors, who were struggling to get their eyes back on Glen-gohr again. The tech-warriors tried hard to ignore such terrible hallucinations of mind. However, as their augmented reflexes kept on reacting to every single movements of these ghosts nearby, maintaining their focus on the target alone became nearly an impossible task for them.

"It's up there! The target is on my ten o' clock!"

Yet, just even before the tech-maiden would finish her words, Glen-gohr already took her head off with its talons. Blood spurted out from her now beheaded neck, being sprayed all over around where the body was. Shortly after, another warrior, who was even more than 10 meters away from the scene, lost his life to the beast, with his entire torso getting cleaved in two. Glen-gohr soon jumped on top of the gigantic statue raised right in the middle of the hall. There, it gnawed on the limbs and body parts of its fallen prey. Such was an act of looking down upon, and, at the same time, showing utmost despise to its enemies. This fueled the tech-warriors with hatred and hostility they could ever conceive, but they were not yet broken free of the assailing holograms still haunting them. They had to do something with these specters before they would ever deal with Glen-gohr once and for all.

"Stay away from them, ye evil cur, for it is I who thou should be fighting with all thy strength!" Suddenly heard a shout from the entrance.

Everyone in the hall, except for Glen-gohr, could not believe what they were seeing out there; it was Governor Rothgarr, still half-drunken, with his sword held high at the beast above.

"What in the world...? Protect the governor! Take him back to safety immediately!" barked Gael to her warriors.

"Out of my way, thou mindless savages! This should, from the beginning, be a duel between him and myself! I shall cut down anyone who comes near me!" So resisted Rothgarr.

He madly swung his tech-sword here and there, keeping everyone nearby from approaching him. He roared, cried aloud, and soon wailed with terrible sorrow. He collapsed on the floor, with tears ceaselessly rolling on his face. However, as soon as Prince Aelthred and other warriors came in to escort the Governor out of the place, the beast then seized the initiative, snatching him away from where he was lying upon. Glen-gohr, after taking a short glance on his face, threw Rothgarr aside the hall as if it had no intentions to murder him at all. His body and head alike were smacked into the stone pillar there. Shortly after, he lost his consciousness.