Brutes

The six of us all stare at the door where the creature and Crawlers left a few moments ago.

Jimmy looks at me with a serious expression, "What was that thing?"

"Whatever it was, it was bipedal with huge feet wrapped in white cloth?" Aponi adds.

Sam nods, "And it drug away an adult grizzly bear like it was nothing."

"Well, being able to drag away the grizzly just means it has high strength. If that's all it has, then it may not be as bad as we think." I respond.

Abruptly the grizzly cubs in the arms of Eden and Aponi begin to struggle as the tense atmosphere dissipates somewhat. Hearing its siblings, the grizzly cub in my own arms also begins to struggle, so I scratch it behind its ears. It gets a bit louder from the stimulus, but gradually it gets quieter and quieter until it props its head against me, giving me a bit of a warm feeling. A smile breaks out on my face, and I start petting its back as well.

"What are we going to do now, leave?" Eden asks.

"Well, right now, I'm just waiting for it to get a bit ahead of us so we can follow its footsteps from a safe distance. That being said, it's probably the reason we came out here in the first place, so we're going to follow them."

"Is it really safe to follow that thing, though? Not to mention all the Crawlers following it."

The bear cub starts to purr, and my heart feels like it might pop, '...What is this thing doing to me?'

Someone pokes my cheek, and I turn my head to find Eden looking at me with a knowing smile, "Eira? Are you okay? Why are you making that face?"

"But what about the bear cubs?" Aponi asks with concern.

Walking toward the door, I think for a moment, "Hmm, they might be useful in the future, so no point getting rid of something that may be of use. Just whoever is carrying them stick to the back, and if they get too loud, find somewhere to stash them or… well, you can decide what to do if they get dangerously loud."

Sam steps forward, excitedly, "Okay! Then I'll take the one you're carrying."

I squeeze the bear cub, and shake my head, "N-No, he's fine where he is. See, he is hardly making any noise at all." I show Sam the bear cub who has its face buried in my chest.

He raises an eyebrow, "Uh, okay? But you said…"

"I know what I said! Stop arguing with me; let's go before we lose them completely."

"...No need to yell at me."

Exiting the restrooms, I stroke the back of the bear cub, causing it to make a low purr.

"Hehe, you little rascal," I whisper to the bear softly.

"Eira… are you okay? Didn't you say you'd get rid of them if I didn't do something?"

"Shush, Eden! I don't know what you're talking about."

We leave the bathroom and begin to head in the direction of the creature. As we go deeper into the building, signs of something having altered the layout to make it more cave-like become apparent. The windows have been blocked haphazardly, but deliberately by furniture and other objects to obscure the sunlight. Trees, grass, and other vegetation have been dragged into the room to cover the floor to various degrees. The walls have been smeared with… well, I don't want to think about it, to be honest, but it makes for an incredibly unpleasant smell, especially to our vampiric senses.

"I'm gonna vomit if it gets any worse." I hear Aponi mumble to Eden.

Suddenly, I notice shadows up ahead, and motion to others to be quiet while pointing at the shadows ahead. We move gently forward and turn a corner and find a large area of the hotel that has been hollowed out. Many of the walls that once separated the rooms have been torn down, and some of the rooms from the second floor have collapsed without the load-bearing walls below. Through a nearby doorway, the undamaged front lobby is visible, explaining why it was impossible to see such a significant alteration to the building from the outside.

'Did they leave the front lobby mostly untouched on purpose? In order to not draw much attention? Maybe, I'm overthinking it, and this is all just coincidence.'

Some movement catches my attention as I notice the Crawlers from earlier seem to be preparing some kind of ambush.

I count them, only finding twelve, which confuses me a bit, 'Hmm, I think there were three or four more Crawlers? Where could they have gone? If they're in this room they're really well hidden, but I don't think they are.'

The Crawlers gradually and lightly step forward toward the center of the room where the creature from earlier sits.

The creature sits hunched over the grizzly bear corpse, ripping meat from it and chewing loudly. The creature shoves fistfuls of the meat into its mouth as its throat swells like a snake as the meat slowly sinks downward. Hearing the noise, the grizzly cub tries to look, but I push its head back into my chest and begin inspecting the creature the best I can from this distance.

The creature has blue-green skin as I was able to see before, but now I can see it has a humanoid appearance; however, our angle is terrible, so I use <Anaylze>.

Name: Unnamed

Gender: Male

Race: Brute Crawler

Level: 3

Health: 330/330

Mana: 20/20

Strength: 29

Endurance: 20

Agility: 10

Intellect: 2

Constitution: 33

Talents: -

Skills: Intermediate Club

Titles: Breakaway

'It's a variant Crawler!? Why? How? And it has a gender now! Can it breed now? Wait, by far, the most significant thing here is it's in the system! Why did something that was originally supposed to be simple become so complicated?... Okay, just calm down, this is the reason I'm out here doing research in the first place.'

The regular Crawlers move toward the brute, I also get closer to make out its appearance better. It has long spines sticking from each vertebra while its skin is wrinkled and loose, unlike normal Crawler skin which is pulled tight. Its feet are large and human-like with ugly ingrown toenails and its hands share similar qualities. Around its feet and body are rags wrapped around aimlessly as if it has recovered some of its human habits.

Its face reminds me a bit of a neanderthal with a big brow, low skull, and a big wide nose. Next to it sits a large pipe with various dents and bends covered in dried blood.

'Now what are the regular Crawlers doing… are they still normal? <Anaylze>.'

Name: Unnamed

Gender: None

Race: Human Crawler

Level: 2

Health: 120/120

Mana: -/-

Strength: 8

Endurance: 7

Agility: 10

Intellect: 1

Constitution: 12

Talents: -

Skills: Animalistic

Titles: -

'The normal Crawlers are also in the system. This is going to be a problem, but at least they don't seem to be getting any significant benefits from it right now. The only thing this one has is the animalistic skill, which is just a generic skill for any creature that is mostly acting on instinct. All it means is they'll bite, claw, kick, sting, or whatever you'd expect a low intelligence creature to do.'

Just as I am about to start looking into the Title and Skills, the Crawlers reach the area just above the Brute. They screech loudly, and then four of them fling themselves at the Brute while the remaining eight scatter and spread out. Having heard the screeching, the Brute responds almost immediately by grabbing its pipe and swinging without hesitation. Luckily for the brute, it scores a direct hit against one of the Crawlers causing its head to burst on impact.

Still, three of the Crawlers continue unimpeded and topple the Brute who is in an awkward stance after having swung its pipe. The three Crawlers pin the Brute and begin chewing at it, furiously ripping at anything their teeth and claws come in contact with. However, the Brute howls loudly and fiercely to the extent that it causes a small vibration from the floor beneath my feet.

Suddenly, heavy footsteps can be heard from behind a door in the corner of the room before it bursts open, sending the door off its hinges. Rubble falls from the already damaged hotel as two more Brutes storm into the room.

'Is one of them a female? It's hard to tell, but I think it might be?'

The two new combatants stop for a moment taking in the situation before howling and charging at the three Crawlers pinning the original Brute. The female Brute smashes what looks to be a boat oar against the head of one of the Crawlers. The second Brute follows suit, except it grabs the Crawler with its bare hands and squeezes its head between its palms until it explodes like a watermelon. Meanwhile, six of the Crawlers hanging on the walls have moved in position and launch themselves at the two Brutes.

The two Brutes stumble back under the weight and momentum of the Crawlers; however, having braced themselves they do not collapse to the ground. Instead, they start grabbing at the Crawlers trying to smash or fling them off of themselves. As for the remaining two Crawlers, they stay stuck to the wall as if waiting to see where they might be needed.

'Too many questions, maybe I should interfere? If I can catch one of each, that would be optimal.' I continue scratching at the bear cub's head, trying to keep it calm as the fight continues.

Finally, the two new Brutes manage to each fling a Crawler from themselves. However, unexpectedly the two Crawlers do not resume their attack on the two new Brutes, but instead, join the others in attacking the original Brute.

'Seems they're trying to kill that one first? I guess they recognize that it is stronger than the other two?'

The original Brute becomes furious and finally manages to force itself up as the Crawlers try to drag it back to the ground. Once on its feet, it draws itself up revealing itself to be around nine feet tall, around two feet taller than the other two Brutes. Meanwhile, the other two Brutes aren't fairing well as they keep trying to throw the Crawlers off of them. They have broken or seriously injured the Crawlers attached to them, but the Crawlers don't seem to have much concern about their own well being.

Seeing its companions being attacked as well, the original Brute becomes even more violent and charges at the two while still being ripped apart by its own Crawlers. When it arrives at its companions it grabs a Crawler from each of their bodies and holds them in the air by the neck.

He roars loudly and squeezes, snapping the necks of the two crawlers. Seeing this the two remaining Crawlers hanging on the walls screech. They charge down and bite and claw at the original Brutes heels in an attempt to cripple him. The Brute howls in pain and collapses to its knees as seven Crawlers start biting and clawing at him in his vulnerable state.

The other two Brutes eventually get the upper hand on their Crawlers, snapping off all their limbs, but it seems it might be too late as the big Brute has stopped fighting back and collapses to the ground.

Quickly I start using <Anaylze> on the Brutes and some of the Crawlers. Seeing the two Brutes are a little weaker than the original Brute and that the Crawlers are all around the same strength I come to a decision.

I start trying to pull the bear cub away from me, but it hangs on to my clothes, "Don't worry, I won't be long." I say to it, quietly enough that the others can't hear me.

Walking to Sam I give him the bear cub, and I motion to Eden and Aponi to do the same. The three cubs struggle while biting and scratching at Sam in displeasure.

"Why are they biting me!? What are you about to do!? I wanna go too."

"You wanted to hold them right? There you go. Your job is to make sure nothing surprises us as well as babysit the cubs" I respond.

The fight continues in the background as I turn toward the others and go over the plan.

"Jimmy and Aponi you two target the Crawlers only, and Eden and I will focus on the Brutes. Kardama while Aponi and Jimmy shoot the Crawlers you distract them and keep them away from them. If you can kill them go ahead, but remember I want to take one alive. Oh, and one of the brutes as well."

Eden looks at me questionably, "Brute? I guess you're talking about the big ones?… But, Eira, ho…"

"No time for questions! If things get bad, we'll just run away. Besides, this is a good opportunity to practice fighting as a group since almost all of our opponents are already injured."

I turn, but Eden stops me, "Yeah, that's fine, but I don't have a weapon."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot you lost the saber."

Cracking the scythe open some blood drains out and I combine the blood, along with some of my own, to form it into a saber.

"Here. Just distract the big female Brute. Let's go."