13 - Rakham

"But I couldn't see anything. If this rakham you mentioned was a gigantic eagles, we should be able to see it by now." Ezlām said, trying to calm Ejrām a little.

But it was no use. The expression of fear on the snake hinn's face only grew worse. Her gaze locked onto the night sky, feet rooted in the sand as if shackled.

Meanwhile, any other rattlesnakes around was fleeing in fear. They had left the place, leaving their matriarch as if they didn't care. As if, at a time like this, only their lives mattered.

Disloyal creatures.

Gassār moved even closer to Ezlām, protecting the one who had just given him his name. He hissed fiercely in the same direction as Ejrām.

In such a situation, Ezlām, who didn't -or perhaps couldn't yet- feel the presence of the rakham, felt panicked because of the sudden difference in atmosphere. "Hey, hey. We need to get out of here, right?"

But Ejrām wasn't responding.

And right after that, as he panicking, Ezlām activated his imaginary eyes as every hair on his body bristled unnaturally. He paid attention to the surroundings.

And it was there that he found the source of all these phenomena. In the sky, in the exact direction that Ejrām had been staring at, a vast amount of black astral energy covered the horizon.

Damn!

Without thinking twice, he carried Ejrām's body on his shoulder, and ran as fast as he could to avoid whoever owned that terrifying amount of black astral energy.

"Come on, Gassār! We couldn't fight that creature!"

In his attempt to escape, Ezlām occasionally looked back to see whether the creature he couldn't yet see was still chasing them or not.

And yes it was.

In the midst of the escape, he had thought about letting himself die if the rakham's threat was real. After all, he would still come back to life afterward.

However, his common sense immediately took over. It was true that he could come back to life if he died after this. But, a death was still a death! It would hurt so much.

His breath was gasping. The longer he ran, the more energy was drained from his body. His whole body was shaking, as if he would fall and hit the sand if he continued to force himself to run in that position.

"Oi Ejrām! Back to your senses, you horny head! We couldn't get out of this situation without your information!" He screamed his lung out angrily as he spank her butt cheek hardly several times.

It wasn't an answer Ezlām needed that came out from Ejrām's mouth. It was a very sluttish moan. "Ah! Harder!"

Gosh! This horny bitch make me ill already! Even the auto-pilot responses her body had was this lewd!

Ezlām stopped his spanks and continued to run even faster. His adrenaline was pumping so fast, faster than when he defeated the anubises.

However, it was the worst choice he could have made. The strength in his body was fading away as the oxygen seemed to leave his lungs. Not long after, he fell face first into the sand.

The lower part of Ejrām's body was trapped by the sand and his body. Meanwhile, the momentum of gravity brought the upper part of the woman's body to fall forward, causing the back of her head to hit the rocky sand.

The incident made her awake from her sudden unconsciousness. "Let me go! Let me go!" she said as she struggled, trying to free herself from the pressure.

"God! Finally!" Ezlām got up and cleaned the sand that was stuck all over his body. "What we can do about those incoming giant bird?"

"Giant bird?" Ejrām looked confused for a moment. "Oh!" Then she realized it, her eyes wide open. "We have to go!"

"I've brought you as far as I can. However, that creature's astral energy seems to follow us wherever we go!" Ezlam screamed in panic. The presence of rakham pressed him even more, creating an uncomfortable sensation.

"There wasn't any options. Me myself, despite being in mustawā es-sābi'a¹ couldn't equally match it." She grabbed Ezlām's hand, trying to get the shayṫān to run with her. "Come on. We need to go as soon as possible!"

"Where to?" However, his breath hadn't recovered yet. His heartbeat was getting more and more erratic. Ezlām let go of Ejrām's hand. "I couldn't run anymore!"

The eagle's cry seemed to split the sky in two. A sign that the creature chasing them was getting closer and closer.

Amidst his heavy gasps for breath, Ezlām spoke with a slight stutter. Every word that came out of his mouth seemed to make him choke on his own saliva. "How, how to defeat it? There are three of us now. Maybe we have a small chance of winning."

"Are you dumb or something?! There wasn't even any spells could affect rakham's body that much! Their feathers repel magic!" She screamed her lungs out. Anger, fear, and rage, all mixed together on her face.

"How about physical attack? Could it be affect it?"

"Yes it was! But what you expect from us?" She lifted Ezlām's body and placed it on her back, preparing to flee as the eagle's cry grew closer.

Suddenly, some scenes echoed in Ezlām's head. The scenery of a sturdy fortress that was successfully breached using a tool from the future.

It was doable! If I had enough astral energies, I could make that weapon by using manifestation technique.

He stopped her. "Wait, wait. I have a plan."

"Now what!? What kind bullshit you gonna spit this time?!" She kept trying to run, but Ezlām's feet, which were deliberately stuck in the sand, kept her from running.

"Did you know how to transfer your astral energies to me?"

"Of course I knew! But for what?!"

"I promise you, we could escape this situation if you believe me. I won't let the person who gave me informations to die just like that."

She threw Ezlām onto the sand, then screamed in frustration. "How?!"

"Manifestation technique. I can create something you have never seen before. But, the astral energy inside my body wasn't enough. I need some more."

The screech of rakham getting nearer and nearer.

"Do it now or we die! Choose!" He sat with his legs crossed. He closed his eyes and activated his imaginary body. If she flew, then he would die. If she stayed, they're gonna life.

In front of him, Gassār stand highly to protect. His shield-like hood opened widely. He began to hiss fearlessly to that direction.

She look hesitated for sometimes. "Fuck! If we die, we die!" She sat behind him, made a movement as if stabbing Ezlām's back in two different places, and placed her palms on those points.

"We don't die here," Ezlām snarled, more to himself than Ejrām. "Not to an overgrown pigeon!"

Even though Ejrām's stab was aimed at his imaginary body, Ezlām could feel the stab so clearly. And right after, he began to feel the additional astral energy flowing inside him.

Without furder adieu, he began to circulate all the astral energies inside his body, manifesting a weapon that had been on his head for sometimes.

Not a rifle. But a giant canon.

Ezlām then divided his focus into two things; circulating the astral energies that had just entered his body, and releasing it from the wound on his imaginary hand to form the cannon he had intended.

"Don't move around too much! You're slowing down the process!" Ejrām screamed.

"Just transfer your astral energies and follow my move!"

"Screw you, Ezlām!" Even though she kept on whinning, she kept following Ezlām's body movements and tried to transfer her energy well.

The eagle's screeching deafening both of their ears. In just a matter of seconds, that rakham would arrive and devour them alive.

"Hurry up, Ezlām!" She screamed In panic.

Fuck! I didn't have enough time to make this properly! Okay, calm down, Ḥamād! We got this. We got this!

After all the processes were completed, he opened his eyes. Astral energy coiled into cold iron—a human weapon, foreign to this world, yet lethal in its simplicity.

An old-style large cannon, gunpowder, and several big iron balls that would act as projectiles, had formed in front of him, causing Gassār to shift his position slightly.

"You waste my energy on this garbage?!" Ejrām spat, but her hands steadied the cannon. "If this fails, I'll hunt your soul in the afterlife!"

"Shut up!"

He put the gunpowder and projectiles into the cannon, then tried to direct the muzzle of the cannon towards the rakham's arrival. However, the object was too heavy for him to move it alone.

Ejrām still didn't fully understand what Ezlām was going to do. However, she knew that he was trying to direct those strange object in the direction of the rakham's arrival. That was why she helped him.

Ejrām's breath hitched, her serpentine pupils dilating into thin slits. "They're here. That rakham is here!" She swallowed her saliva hardly as her whole body trembled.

And there it was.

The creature that had been chasing them finally appeared on the horizon. Its wingspan was so large that it seemed to block out the moonlight, making darkness envelop the desert.

From down here, the two of them could see the creature's massive body, every feather that covered its body was probably enough to be used as a blanket, its sharp claws were probably able to pierce even a modern steel tank.

That rakham descended like a storm, wingspan blotting out the stars. Each feather gleamed like obsidian, its beak a curved scythe capable of shearing stone.

God! It was gigantic! Could this cannon pierce its body?

The impact of the rakham's flapping wings began to blow sand in various directions. Gassār hissed even more fearlessly at the creature, as if not caring about the comparison of their body sizes which were like heaven and earth.

Ejrām was -again- unable to move her body because of the fear that had taken control of her so severely. She was stunned. Ezlām then landed a hard punch on Ejrām's face to bring the woman back to her senses.

"Wake up! I need you to make this plane work out!"

"Huh? Huh! Where-, oh crap! Hurry! What should I do?"

"Lit your fire here!" Ezlām pointed a little hole at the cannon's back.

"And then?"

"JUST DO IT!"

She hurriedly chanted her spell, fire lit up on the tip of her finger, then the fire spread into the intended hole.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The desert night crackled with the roars of the makeshift cannon. Ezlām, muscles straining, rammed another crude iron ball down the muzzle while Ejrām frantically adjusted the aim, her eyes wide in the flickering fire at her finger.

"Its neck, aim its neck!"

Above them, the rakham, shrieked its fury, talons tearing at the air.

BOOM!

Another deafening blast. The cannon bucked violently. This time, a guttural screech ripped from that rakham's throat. Feathers the size of blankets rained down as the massive creature faltered in its dive.

A dark stain bloomed on its neck, spreading rapidly. With a final, earth-shuddering thud, the rakham crashed into the sand dunes, its terrifying reign of the night abruptly ended.

Ezlām and Ejrām stood panting, the acrid smell of gunpowder thick in the air, the silence that followed the beast's fall almost as deafening as the cannon fire.

Ejrām stared at the corpse, voice trembling. "There wasn't any kind of hinn has felled a rakham in centuries…"

Meanwhile, Ezlām's vision began to blur. It was true that his crazy hypothesis worked, and Ejrām managed to compensate for his lack of astral energy. However, such a manifestation process was very draining.

Both of his legs started to shake, his consciousness was getting thinner. "Guys, I think I'm gonna take a nap for a while."

"Ezlām!"

The last thing Ezlām saw was Ejrām who runs towards him, trying to catch his body so that it doesn't fall into the sand.

From a distance, hiss and rattles began to fill the sky.

***

Notes:

(¹) mustawā es-sābi'a: the seventh level.

***