Chapter 276: Don’t let it die.

Before Jacob could register what he was reading, Maria slammed her spear into the side of the human-like figure, digging its tip deep into its ribs, puncturing all of its organs. The creature grabbed the spear and ripped it out of itself before throwing it at Maria in retaliation. Maria ducked under the attack and tried to sweep the creatures feet off the ground. However, her kick was stopped its sturdy shins. A foot came crashing down where her leg was, but Maria was prepared for it. She elbowed the ground as hard as she could, throwing everything around her out of balance.

Jacob jumped away to gain a bit of distance and view the fight. Maria’s spear appeared in her hand once more, allowing her to swipe it in the air to disperse the dust that kicked up around them. She panted heavily as her dark green eyes pierced the soul of the spirit standing in front of them. Jacob could hear Maria’s heart beating heavily in her chest. Those first few attacks she threw took a lot out of her. She would need a short respite before another assault. However, something odd began to happen with the creature. Instead of healing itself or try to run away, it smiled grotesquely and began to dig its own hand inside its open wound, allowing more dark blood to splatter over the meadow.

"It’s killing itself."

Maria grinded her teeth and shot towards it once more.

"DON’T LET IT DIE!"

"Wait! We can’t just get close to it!"

Jacob charged after her. The moment Maria got within its attacking range, it ripped its hand out from its torso and swung it at her with full force. Maria blocked the hit with her spear, but the impact sent her flying backwards into Jacob. They were sent through thirty feet of dirt before coming to a stop. Jacob coughed and looked down at Maria.

"Are you alright?"

"I took it okay. We need to get back. I don’t know what a Dreadnaught is, but it doesn’t sound like anything good."

Jacob cursed under his breath while taking the lead of the charge this time.

’I wish Doc was here.’

"I’ll go around it. We can attack it from both sides. It’s an infant so it isn’t that smart. On my signal, I want you to throw your spear."

Maria nodded her head. The creature successfully managed to tear out an entire one of its organs and throw it on the ground in a bloody mess. They were running out of time. Jacob clapped his hands together, signaling to Maria to throw the spear. She threw it perfectly towards Jacob, but the creature jumped in the air and shoved its head in its trajectory. Jacob smirked.

’Just as planned.’

Before the spear could impale the creature in the head, Jacob tackled it to the ground and pinned it down using all his strength. Screetches echoed out of its mouth, causing Jacob’s ears to ring and bleed.

"Damn it. I can’t hold him long!"

Maria jumped in the air and slammed the spear right through its upper back. Maria managed to break enough of its spine to completely paralyze it from the shoulders down. It went completely still but wouldn’t stop its screaming. Jacob looked around the meadow.

"We need something to stop this bleeding!"

A thousand thoughts flashed into Maria’s mind. Memories of the rough treatment Jacob had to go through to heal the most serious wounds came to light.

"We need fire. Gather as much kindling as you can. Is this grass dry enough?"

Jacob looked around and began to snatch huge handfuls of dead grass.

"It’s going to have to be."

After making a small pile, they shoved the dead grass into the bleeding wound. Jacob grabbed a rock and threw it to Maria who immediately started scraping her spear against it. Multiple sparks kept flying over the grass, but it refused to ignite. The creature’s screams were growing softer, and its head was moving much less than before.

"It’s not working! What do we do?!"

"Don’t give up! We have to do this!"

After one last good attempt, the rock completely shattered with no fire being made in the process. A dark shadow casted itself over them as its movements became stiller. Jacob looked up, his eyes glistening at what he saw. The giant mechanical doll had made its way over to where they were and was seemingly about to crush them. Maria, instead of moving, jumped upward and shouldered the side of the giant alloy monster, sending it reeling backwards for a few seconds to balance itself.

Jacob caught her as she landed back towards the ground before they both ran away as fast as possible.

"It’s hopeless. We need to regroup and think up a better plan."

"We came here to kill something and all we ended up doing was try to prevent something from dying."

"But... did it die? I don’t see anything yet."

"If it’s not dead yet, it’s about to. Look at that metal creature."

Jacob turned his head. The metal creature lifted one of its rectangular hands and sprayed a weird substance all over the other monster’s body. After gaining a respectable distance, both Jacob and Maria fell back to the ground and continued their scouting.

"What did that just do? I still see that humanoid thing breathing. Did it save it?"

"I don’t know. There’s weird light coming out of those two circles on its blocky face. Do you see that?"

"I do. Did you also notice that our eyes don’t work on it?"

"I did. What the hell could it possibly be?"

Maria rubbed her chin.

"Maybe it’s not a creature at all."

"Not a creature? How can something move like that and not be alive?!"

"I don’t know, but didn’t Slimo mention something about the technology being different on these continents? Could this be something the giants made?"

Jacob felt a surge of curiosity flow through his veins.

"He did mention something about that. But this is almost like creating artificial life! Doesn’t that seem a bit too crazy to be technology?"

"Who knows? All that matters is it prevented that creature from dying. That means it was smart enough to know what would happen if it did die."

Jacob stared off into the distance.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, it’s just a little weird to me. This... whatever you call it. If this really is the land of the giants, you’d think they would build something much larger than that thing if they wanted artificial life. That would hardly be the size of a toy compared to themselves."

"What if that’s exactly what it is?"

Jacob laughed.

"That thing? A toy? It almost just killed us by existing! No chance that’s a toy."

Suddenly, weird music started spouting from the metal figure. Not only that, but it started swinging its arms as if dancing to the tune coming out of itself. The whole thing reminded Jacob of...

"...okay maybe it is a toy. But if there’s a toy around here, wouldn’t that mean there were people who lived close by to this area to have lost it here?"

Maria nodded her head.

"That’s a possibility, but I don’t think we have time to investigate that. Besides, it is also possible some very large bird could have just picked it up. Do you see those marks on its shoulders?"

Maria was right. Jacob didn’t notice it before since they were too far away, but there appeared to be claw marks on both its left and right shoulder. It’s movements also appeared to be very stiff, as if it wasn’t in its best possible condition.

"I think the real question we should be asking is what the hell it sprayed that creature with. I don’t trust walking back up there and accidently summoning something we have no business summoning."

Maria smirked while staring at Jacob. He lifted his hands up and shook his head.

"Oh no. No way. I know that look, Maria. There’s no way we’re actually going through with it."

"But why not? We need strength, right? If I kill that spirit, I will become much stronger. Not only that, neither that toy nor that creature have anything on them that we can cut Sheeby’s scales with. We need something stronger than them."

"Weren’t you just on my side with not summoning something we know nothing about?!"

"I was, but that was until I realized it’s either this or everyone is going to face giant-size jungle horrors with weapons that would hardly scratch an Elder Monster."

Jacob shook his head.

"This is crazy. Absolutely crazy, you know that? You’re crazy!"

Maria smiled and nodded her head.

"Oh, so you don’t love me anymore?"

Jacob became flustered and stumbled over his words.

"Y-You know that’s not what I said! You know what, I-I’ll kill that bastard myself to show you that I do love you, even though you are crazy!"

"You’re just as crazy for saying that."

"At least I admit it!"

Jacob stomped his way over and glared down at the still human-like figure below him. He lifted his foot and situated it right under its chin, preparing to snap its neck with a single turn. He looked back towards Maria to make sure she was ready. She gave a nod of approval. However, just behind Maria, Jacob saw it again. The same figure completely wrapped in bandages from head to toe wearing a strange suit. It lifted a finger to its face as if to tell him to be quiet, but while it did that, it slowly shook its head, as if to warn Jacob for what he was about to do. The familiar feeling of fear grasped his heart. He began to hyperventilate. Before his mind could get too carried away, he twisted his foot as hard as he could.

Snap

He looked down at the now dead creature below his foot before turning back towards Maria. The Watcher behind Maria was gone. He suddenly realized he just made a mistake. He was so lost in trying to defend himself, he forgot to let Maria get the final blow.

"Shit."

Sirens began to sound across the open sky.