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The subtle creaking of long-stopped machinery, the rustle of a fingernail accidentally scraping the ground- all warning signs that made her recognize the danger before she saw it.
Scavengers dropped from the ledges around, and the Hunter whipped her spear into position. She took a slow step back towards the nearest pipe, but several more thuds from behind told her of her position.
She was surrounded.
Looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way. She tightened her grip on her spear and prepared for the imminent fight. Spears raised, claws scraped the dirt, beady bug-eyes widened towards her in anger. Adrenaline began pumping in.
For a moment, all was still- and then, she glimpsed a familiar green flicker in the pipe behind.
A roguish grin broke out across her face. She tilted her head back around and threw her spear, tip slashing blood from the chest in front of her.
This sent the scavengers into an immediate frenzy, but Hunter only had to worry about the ones in front of her- she heard the affirmative chomp-gnash of fangs from behind, felt blood land on her tail in the success of her companion. She slid under the two spears from above and whipped out her back-spear in the same breath, pouncing up into the scavenger before her and running it through. He collapsed as she pulled out her weapon out of his body, attention quickly snapping to the one left standing on her side.
His sky slit-eyes narrowed further in vengeance, and she prepared for his spear, only to see a glimpse of black-red in his hand.
Hunter rolled to the side just in time to dodge the bomb, but the impact threw her aside, her ears ringing and head spinning. She felt harsh claws dig into her chest, and she kicked out with her feet into his stomach. He made an apish grunt and fell face-first into the dirt, and she pushed his stomach, flipping him over and freeing her. She jumped up and bolted to her lizard. Limp bundles of fur lied under it’s black feet, and she flashed it a grin as she clambered unto it’s back, snatching a spear from below at the same time and tucking it on her back.
“Let’s get out of here, boy!” she panted excitedly, glancing over her shoulder to see encroaching backup. It let out a rumble of affirmation as it charged into the pipe and burst through. The slick walls squashed them together, but they reached daylight again soon enough, and Hunter felt alive as her lizard tanked through the urban landscape, the wind howling through her ears, the slowly graying of the sky telling her of her fleeting time.
Fleeting time- her whole life was fleeting, borrowed time, which was why she snatched every chance to enjoy every time she felt her blood rush- because she knew it wouldn’t rush forever. But it rushed now, fear mixing with excitement as she rode on her lizard, her friend, with the hot blood of battle still on her fur and the humid wind driving with them as they sprinted on.
The gate to the next region, she could see, was ahead.
“There!” Hunter shouted and pointed, and while lizards couldn’t exactly speak slugcat, it understood her tone and gestures by now. It barreled forward, and it made a small leap to enter just as a bomb hit the wall.
The smell of dirt and metal mixed as the world went deaf and blind to her. She blinked the blood out of her eyes and squinted through the blurry haze. Brown-gray silhouettes charged forward towards a black-green one- her lizard!
Shaking her head and struggling to her feet, she tore the spear from her back and reentered the fight.
Another bomb flew threw the air towards her lizard, and only from cycles upon cycles of experience did she throw her spear in just the precision to deflect it. It exploded before it hit her lizard- but her weapon was too far to reach now, limp beside the scavengers.
“Run!” Hunter hollered at her lizard, and it perked to attention and followed her lead as she flew into the gate-room. She thanked the Sea Below that she had enough karma to pass it as she jumped into the gateway and gestured frantically for her friend to hurry.
The lizard had freshly entered the room and followed her urging, but too slowly- the flash of white from behind also manifested, and it was furious.
She tensed as the lizard and the scavenger ran forward, the gate closing, and-
Her lizard made it just in time, but so did the scavenger.
The same scavenger she had fought before pinned Hunter to the wall of the gate with a spear. His sky-blue eyes reflected her own self- fear, adrenaline, desperation- before they were ripped away by the sharp teeth of a reptile.
The scavenger rammed his spear into the hard skull of the lizard, making it drop him, and Hunter raced and snatched the rebar, parrying just in time as the scavenger slashed his extra spear in her direction. Now she noticed the scars breaking his beige fur, the bite marks on his brown head; this was not an ordinary combatant. This was a fighter, like herself.
This was danger.
She kicked him in the stomach, and he stumbled back as her lizard once again charged, but he jumped over it and dug his spear straight into his back. Though green lizards had thick skin, it still roared and twisted in agony, and her heart skipped a beat as she sent her spear flying toward her enemy.
The scavenger jerked back, dodging the spear, but behind her, Hunter heard the gate opening. Hesitation, then a quick decision.
“Come on, boy!” she called, and the lizard lumbered after her, but the scavenger drove his spear into it’s body, again, as they stood between the gateways. Again and again- he stabbed so fast.
Weaponless and scared, Hunter lunged towards the scavenger vainly, but he smacked her aside with his spear, blood spraying from her chest as she landed on the ground and watched him stab her friend again. She gasped and threw a rock at the scavenger, and he turned his sights to her, glanced quickly down at the lizard, then abandoned it to lunge for her, leaving her lizard to drag itself across the gateway.
Lifting his spear, the scavenger got in close combat as he lifted the skewer, but she dodged to the side and tripped on a rock. He loomed over Hunter’s fallen figure and prepared to drive the spear straight into her heart when she clutched the rock and flung it into his face. He stumbled back, and she ran and pushed him into the gate- just as it closed. She heard a sickening snap as she staggered back.
Panting and dizzy, she closed her eyes for a moment when she heard a heard a thump from behind. She paused to catch her breath, not turning as she waited for a tired gurgle or victorious growl from the thump behind. But instead came a single reptilian sigh, and then- nothing else.
“We can’t rest here, boy.” Hunter whispered, but she knew what she’d find when she turned around. She continued anyway. “We have to find and help Looks to the Moon. It’s part of my mission, and…”
Hunter fell silent. The groan of the gates filled the air, and barely audible underneath it, the soft drip of blood from the aftermath of the fight.
“And my mission was never meant to be your mission.” she sighed after a long moment. “No Significant Harassment sent me alone for a reason.”
She turned around to face death- to face sleep. She crouched, and rested her head against her lizard’s. It felt metallically cool, soothing under her scar-weathered face and paws.
“I have to go where you can’t.” she said as she stroked it, suddenly feeling her exhaustion and sickness. “I have to find a way out of my cycles. We- I- was always meant for a separate path.”
She forced herself to her feet.
“May your next cycle be more forgiving, dear friend.” she said heavily. “Because I don’t think mine will be.”
Hunter grabbed two loose spears from the ground and made for exit. She hesitated before it for a moment- then the pipe flashed salmon, and she was gone.