The Wastes

The sun was hidden behind the chemical smog, casting the sky in an eerie green-gray glow. The two individuals taking refuge from the elements in a small pig-iron shack paid no attention to the dull, lifeless color streaming through the many holes in the ceiling. They were too busy arguing amongst themselves.
“Please just listen to me. I’m not saying we won’t find what—who you’re looking for in Ouroboros. But shouldn’t we at least take a few days to recuperate? This hut seems steady enough to ward off potential predators, anyway.”
The girl speaking set her satchel down on the hard stone floor of the cabin with a sort of cool defiance. Despite being a fair bit older than her companion, she was considerably shorter. That’s not to say she WAS short. This was simply because he was so tall.

The man eyed her with a distinct, knowing glare. In this case, he literally eyed her, seeing as his left eye, from an inch above his brow down to nearly the corner of his mouth, was wrought through with a jagged, thick white line of scar tissue. The eye itself was devoid of anything, a milky orb.
“Have you forgotten just what we’ve encountered on our way here? A Trisk would rip right through these sheets of metal. That aside, you remember what that bartender said. He jumps from town to town—With Twice the speed we’ve been doing.”
She harrumphed and stormed out the door into the metal-and-debris-ridden wasteland. He groaned and took off at a run after her. “Wait! Rena!”
She angrily stopped and turned, giving him the chance to catch up. “Stop CALLING ME THAT! My name is Renoa!” She gave him a frosty stare as he straightened himself.
“Get back to… Eh, the shack. Fighting won’t do us any good. Just… Go rest.” She trembled with anger.
“STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!”
She ran away from him, this time leaving him to sit there, scratching at the stubble on his chin.
“Jeez… I’ll never understand women…”

As soon as he was out of sight, Renoa sat on a chunk of debilitated bridge,trying to calm herself.
“I can’t believe him… Arrogant, bossy jerk…” The girl was too apoplectic to hear a strange skittering noise behind her. It was only after she finished her lethargic grumblings that she noticed the shadow blocking out the light above her. She turned, face ashen as her mind told her what she already knew she would see.

A massive, arachnid-like creature stood before her, easily ten feet tall. It stepped closer with its thick legs, the ends of said appendages tapering into deadly points that punctured the ground below with each heavy footfall. The floating orb that hovered above its neck rose into a thick horn, the same shade of blood-red as the rest of its body. A small, opaque red ball was suspended in the hollow of the head. This small object served as both an eye, and a brain. Renoa was uninterested in this. She was only interested in pleading her last wishes to any gods there might have been as the Triskelion moved closer, raising one of its spiked legs to impale the young human. She shivered violently and whispered,
“Please don’t let me die like this… Someone out there, save me…Please…?”
The air whistled as the point of the blade-like leg slung through the air. She clenched every muscle in her body…

…And heard a sickening sound, as though something sharp were entering something fleshy. This was followed by what sounded like fluid hissing out of what must have sure been her body. But it wasn’t. As she cracked one eye, she saw the Triskelion’s leg inches from her eye, wobbling slightly. She scrambled back on her hands as she saw a thin line of silver protruding from the left side of the creature’s head. With inane speed, it’s slid out the right side of the Trisk’s skull. There was a moment of stillness, then the massive beast’s head slid in half. The rest of its body tumbled to the ground. Behind it stood Agito Kai, the man she had been arguing with not ten minutes earlier,cleaning blood from the katana he wielded. Looking up,he smiled.
“Ask a question, get an answer.”
She gave a half-smile and took the hand he extended.
“Oh, shut up.”