Grand Saint Alloy

Tristan threw his blanket aside and got to his feet at the scream. Well he tried to. He was wearing his blanket, in the form of padded armor, so all he accomplished was rolling himself over. Once he was lucid again, he jumped to his feet. It took no time to find the source of the screaming.

Ray was writhing on the floor. His shirt was soaked with sweat and he was crying blood. He was half way between the fire and the door. Unfortunately, the ghost crabs did not realize that they could not get in. They were banging on the door, which flexed enough to get one of their serrated claws in. This was another tier three and while the claw was not sharp, it functioned like a saw. If this kept going on, eventually they would cut the bar in half.

Tristan yelled, “Someone, shut him up! Knock him out if you have to!”

He did not see who went to Ray, as he unsheathed his knife and sliced the claw off. The ghost crab on the other side jerked back at the sudden pain. It instinctively, jabbed its tail forward, striking only wood. Another one, that was the same size, climbed on top of the injured on and rammed the door. The crab was strong, but the door was sturdy. It only pushed open as far as the hinges would let it. Unfortunately, the hinges could not hold forever.

Tristan could see this going south real quick. The crabs were acting like battering rams, and eventually, the door would buckle. He looked for a solution, and found it at the back of the warehouse.

“Eve, Bruce, we need to brace this door,” Tristan pointed to the crates filled with grain, “Help me move these.”

Terror overtook their faces. They had thought that the door would hold indefinitely. Adrenaline gave them strength, and they managed to push some crates over to the door. They were too heavy to stack, otherwise Tristan would have built it up higher and deeper. As it was the half ton crates were able to take some of the force that was originally on the hinges.

Bruce turned towards the screaming Ray and Clive, who was caring for him, “What happened to him!”

Clive held up an empty bottle, “He couldn’t wait to kill the egg, he took the poison.”

“What!, Why, we were going back today or tomorrow. No more than a week at the absolute latest!” Bruce was fuming, “He would have been fine.”

Oddly Clive seemed to be holding up the best. Bruce was stomping around and Eve was looking at Ray with a haunted expression. Clive was focused pressing a wet rag to Ray’s head and wiping the tears of blood away before they could crust. Tristan was thinking, he felt like he was forgetting something important.

“Sage, you seem to know about these things, how long will they stick around?” Bruce asked.

Tristan could only shrug, “I don’t know, but I assume that in their natural habitat they would move on after a day or two.”

“What about this habitat?”

“This is just an assumption, but the three caldera’s have locked off all exits, meaning most of the wild life in the plain is now a ghost crab,” Tristan pointed at the creatures trying to get through the door, “That means they have only two choices for food, us or cannibalism. Both options are actually available here. They only have to get through a hard shell either way.”

Bruce rubbed his temple, “So, we have to get rid of them.”

“I don’t think this is as big of an issue as you seem to think it it,” Tristan said.

“Oh, please enlighten me,” Bruce said.

Instead of answering, Tristan picked up a spear and walked to the door. The ghost crabs were still throwing themselves at it. Tristan waited for one to nearly strike the door, before striking. Using both his strength and the crabs, he shoved the spear directly into its eye, The strike was by no means lethal, but the crab staggered back. Half its body lost its coordination, then another crab jumped it. It shoved both scythes into its mouth and pried it open.

The injured crab was unable to resist as its aggressor started eating it alive. Little tier zero crabs scuttled around, picking up the scraps that the larger crabs did not care about. Sure enough, if Tristan crippled them, the hungry healthy crabs would do his job for him. Unfortunately, the crab rearing back had given him a good view of what was behind it. There were dozens of tier three crabs, more than Tristan could handle. More than even their make shift barricade could handle.

Worse than that, there were hundreds of little ones and a few in between. The in between ones were most likely around tier one or two and would have the ability to get through their gambeson. Tristans usual tactic of crawling under the tier threes would not work, the tier twos would still be able to get to him. To make things worse, he couldn’t even target the tier two crabs without taking a blow from tier threes.

Well it was not the end of the world, they did not have a way to get inside. Tristan jabbed another one in the eye, but had a bad angle. The crab lost an eye, but that was it, Tristan did not pierce deep enough to get its brain. It quickly backed away from the door, however, it still had motor control, so its compatriots did not turn on it. He watched the ghost crab scuttle away, looking for an easier way in.

The sky started getting gloomy and rain clouds were forming. Tristan was glad they were inside a building, the warehouse was built on high ground, so flooding would not be an issue. He kept his spear ready, as he stabbed crabs to the tune of Ray’s screams and the sound of rain drops sizzling.

Sizzling? Tristan turned to see rain falling on the fire, but no where else. The window. He looked at the rafters where a square of cloudy sky could be seen. The window needed to be closed. Looking around Tristan found a ladder built into the wall. It led up to the rafters which doubled as cat walks.

Tristan sprinted to the ladder and grabbed ahold of it. Bruce yelled, “Sage what are you doing?”

He pointed at the roof and started climbing. Tristan only made it half way up the ladder when a large figure dropped through the open window and landed on the rafter below. The one eyed crab had somehow made it to the top of the warehouse and jumped in through the window. Tristan cursed and doubled his climbing speed. If one that size could climb the wall, then the little ones definitely could.

The ghost crab spotted Tristan and started scuttling towards him. It actually flipped over and ran along the bottom of the rafter like an actual spider. The sight was terrifying, as this definitely counted as a mythical ability, it was just way too heavy to move like this otherwise. Tristan had to decide whether he would keep climbing or jump to the ground. There was no way he would be able to fight something like this while clinging to a wall.

He narrowed his eyes at the open window and kept climbing. The ground would be the better place to face it, but he would have to worry about more coming if he did not shut that window. While climbing he realized the crab would arrive before he reached the top, so he threw his spear at it.

It bounced off harmlessly. Thankfully, the crab had learned the hard way to be wary of spears. It flinched back, arresting its momentum. That gave time for Tristan to climb up the rest of the way and climb onto the rafter. The rafter doubled as a catwalk about three feet wide with waist high railings on either side.

Tristan sprinted for the window. He could handle the one eyed crab after he stopped more from arriving. The ghost crab was poorly suited to move in reverse, giving Tristan a head start while it figured out how to turn around.

The window was half over the cat walk, and half over the warehouse floor. As its original purpose was to let in light for working men, the window was huge. Easily ten feet by ten feet, the shutter was made of four wooden squares held together with steel bolts. Tile quarried from the Stone Caldera covered the opposite side, making it far too heavy to close by hand.

Fortunately there was a winch by the window that would allow Tristan to close it. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of shutter that you could close fast. Tristan frantically spun the crank as the crab climbed up onto the cat walk. It lowered into position way too slowly. The ghost crab charged straight for Tristan. He could not dodge to the side, but sliding beneath it was still an option.

Tristan charged at the crab and at the last moment he slid on his knees below it. The ghost crab tried to catch him with its scythe claws, but it was used to prey running away. He took advantage of the body barreling over him, sliding his long knife into its belly. The blade slid in killing the crab in seconds.

This proved to be a mistake. With a bisected brain, the ghost crab’s brakes were off. Its momentum carried it to and through the winch, tearing it off its mounting and out into empty space. Tristan watched the cadaver hit the floor with the winch, then a boom caught his attention. Looking up he barely had time to dodge as one hundred square feet of tile, wood, and steel, lost its support, and crashed straight through the roof.