The campfire sputtered, and a cold wind swept unimpeded through the hut.
The shocking scene froze Anna in place just as she was about to intervene. She had no idea what to do, her thoughts a tangled ss.
Had Lu Li missed? Was it an accident? Was he hallucinating?
Anna only snapped back to reality when she saw the woman's headless body sway a few tis, slowly turn, and then lurch toward Lu Li, its arms outstretched.
Everything above her lips was gone, revealing a ragged cavity where her mouth should have been, a lone tongue twitching within.
Indistinct, gurgling sounds rasped from where her throat had been. "You... are not... a guest..."
The thing—for it was no longer a "she"—took a few steps and stumbled on a stone at the edge of the fire. Deprived of its head and sight, it didn't react. The movent sent a pot of boiling stew toppling into the flas, erupting in a shower of sparks.
Her clothes caught fire first, followed by her body. A bright red glow pulsed from beneath her skin, her torso shining from within like a hot coal. Then, with a dull whump, the body erupted in crimson flas.
An ordinary person wouldn't have ignited so quickly. Then again, an ordinary person would have died the mont their head was blown apart.
Lu Li took a few steps back, watching as the still-mobile creature rose from the fire. Licks of crimson fla shot from the cracks in its charred flesh as it climbed out of the smoldering embers. There were no screams, no signs of pain—only the mindless movents of a twisted body heading for the open doorway and the pouring rain beyond.
It ignored its "husband," who was locked in a fierce struggle with a Six-Ard Savage by the entrance, shuffled past them, and vanished into the downpour.
The torrential rain hamred down on it. The creature's body hissed like hot lava plunged into water, throwing off clouds of steam. Before their eyes, its charred flesh darkened and cooled, turning black as obsidian.
The cold rain seed to extinguish the last vestiges of its unholy life. The creature's movents slowed, then stiffened. It fell to its knees in a puddle, hands pressed to its chest, slowly closing in a gesture of prayer.
A prayer to the Mother of the Swamp.
The rapidly cooling, headless body went still.
A final wisp of smoke rose from it, dissolving into the rain.
Screee!!!
The boy suddenly let out an inhuman shriek and lunged at Lu Li.
As if jolted from a trance, Anna threw up a ntal barrier in front of Lu Li, shielding him from the boy's attack.
Lu Li dropped the arm he'd raised to defend himself, snatched a burning branch from the fire, and jamd it into the boy's mouth. Then, with a powerful kick, he sent the child flying backward.
Thud!!
The boy's back slamd hard against the wooden wall. The burning branch had punched straight through, bursting from the back of his skull and lodging itself in a gap between the planks.
Lu Li backed away quickly, dodging the boy's frantic, flailing limbs.
Like his "mother," the boy ignited easily. Within seconds, his head was wreathed in steam and smoke as flas burst from his wide eyes and open mouth.
Pinned to the wall, the boy struggled desperately, but the fire quickly consud his entire body. His cracking skin split open, releasing jets of fla.
His struggles weakened, then ceased entirely, his body still pinned to the wall.
The flas on the surface of his body gradually died down, leaving only glowing embers within.
Lu Li reloaded his pistol and holstered it. The Spirit Gun was proving ineffective against this family, and besides, the battle was nearly over.
A Six-Ard Savage had torn off the man's arm. No blood flowed from the wound, only a strange substance that looked like sawdust. Five of the creatures now sward the man, ripping off his other arm, his legs, and finally his torso.
The Savages tore their victim apart with a fury that seed almost personal, as if venting so deep-seated rage.
The man never scread or groaned, and there was no blood. The whole scene looked more like a troop of apes tearing a wooden puppet to pieces.
When the last piece was torn away, the Savages, who now filled half the hut, turned as one to face Lu Li. They froze for a few monts before huddling together again, their teeth making a loud, grating sound.
The grinding gradually faded, losing its aggressive edge.
"So, were they helping us?" Anna whispered.
"Perhaps," Lu Li nodded. "I suppose that's why they're called Six-Ard Savages, and not monsters."
After a minute or so, as if having finished so silent conference, the Savages turned and filed out of the hut, heading toward the shed behind it.
Lu Li pulled on his cloak, picked up his lamp, and followed. He walked over to the shed door, which the Six-Ard Savages had torn from its hinges.
From the darkness within ca the sound of sothing being dragged. Lu Li reached in and raised his lamp.
In the lamp's dim glow, he saw a pile of filthy, mud-caked bodies in the corner of the shed. At a glance, there were about a dozen of them.
They were the bodies of Six-Ard Savages. Each was missing its four arms, leaving only the legs, which were tangled together in a way that could be mistaken for human limbs.
The living Savages crowded around the bodies of their kin, touching them one by one, but there were no survivors.
"Ugh..." Anna, hovering behind him, choked back a gag.
"If you can't stand to look, then don't," Lu Li said without turning.
"No, it's just... I rembered the stew in the pot... It must have been made from... from them..."
"You already slled it. What's the point of being sickened by it now?"
Anna knew Lu Li was right, but she couldn't help the wave of revulsion that washed over her.
Finding no survivors, the Savages turned to a new task. One by one, they began to carry the bodies out of the shed, disappearing with their burdens into the depths of the forest like ants carrying their dead.
Lu Li and Anna watched as the pile of bodies in the shed dwindled, until finally, the last one was gone.
Another Six-Ard Savage erged from the forest, walked past Lu Li, and peered into the shed. It looked around but found no bodies.
Apparently, the last one to leave hadn't told it that the bodies had all been moved.
The rain had washed the mud from its body, revealing pale, scarred skin. A scrap of torn cloth was tied around its hips, and both Lu Li and Anna found it familiar.
It was the sa Savage that had followed Lu Li, the one he had spared and later saved.
Grrr...
The grinding of its teeth was lost in the drumming of the rain. Scrambling on all six limbs, the Six-Ard Savage vanished into the forest.
The entire ti, none of them had interacted with Lu Li.
"So that's it..." Anna said, her voice tinged with disappointnt. "I thought they were here to help us. Turns out they were just looking for their own kind."
"Or both," Lu Li replied, his gaze fixed on the forest.
A flash of lightning illuminated the darkening woods. The figure of the Six-Ard Savage had vanished into the undergrowth.
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