Chapter 8 Avery #2
As Heath hacked away at that thick neck, Wyatt was already charging the remaining gorilla.
It took a few additional maneuvers to get the thing down, but he managed to rip its arm off with his strong bear jaws.
It shrieked, throwing Wyatt off, and then it used its remaining arm to swipe at Heath as he approached.
He dodged, but the entire crowd hissed in unison when the gorilla raked its claws across Heath’s back.
His shirt tore, and he winced in real pain, but I could see no blood or open wounds.
Wyatt’s bear circled the gorilla and leapt for it when he spied an opening. They grappled until they crashed to the floor. Wyatt roared in pain as the gorilla landed on top of him, but he managed to flip them and roll quickly away before Heath was back for the final beheading.
Or so I thought. After a moment of quiet, the bodies of the dead wraiths flickering out of sight, one final wraith materialized at the back of the arena, motionless as if on pause.
“That was four L3 Ripper kills,” Cash announced.
“Four thousand points to both Gale and Blackwell individually and to their quad. Note the efficiency of working with one shifted beast and one blade-wielder. This is vital when dealing with most L3s, and certainly any L4s. Let’s see if the boys have one more in them.
If not, there goes ten thousand points from both columns. ”
He was throwing a Giant at them. Kind of a dick move after the four Rippers, but since it wasn’t real, I didn’t feel sorry for them.
Giants were exactly what the name passed down from the days of the First Guardians implied—gargantuan, horrifying monsters.
Bigger and stronger than any Prime shifter, with the possible exception of some of the mythics.
If you were lucky, they might be a little slower than their Ripper brethren, but that was where your luck usually ran out.
This guy was a humanoid werewolf thing, maybe twelve feet tall and standing on two massive legs with clawed paws the size of car tires.
Its head was entirely too big for its body, its wolf jaw unhinging at an unnatural angle and displaying two rows of grotesque teeth, like a mouthful of porcupine quills.
Its hands were only slightly smaller than its feet, the claws curved like little daggers.
Dark gray fur stood on end like tiny spikes over the parts of its body where flesh hadn’t melted away.
Its eyes glowed with the blue light of the magic.
Wyatt, still a bear, exchanged a look with Heath that managed to convey exasperation even on his bear face. Heath just nodded and walked a few feet away to impale his saber in the ground next to Wyatt’s ax.
The trainer working the runes in the booth released the wraith, and it let out a howl that sounded more like glass shards being dragged across cement than an actual lupine noise.
A huge golden wolf tore from Heath’s body.
I snapped my mouth closed, irritated that the form of Heath’s wolf had surprised me.
He was as big as my dad, who was the largest wolf I’d ever laid eyes on until today.
Heath’s wolf was nearly as big as Wyatt’s bear, but he was—somehow—the thicker of the two, his solid muscles bunching under his lush golden coat as he ran.
Wyatt’s bear ran after him, both beasts charging straight for the wraith. It lumbered forward, moving quickly for a Giant that size and swinging its lethal claws in challenge.
Heath skirted the wraith and attacked the back of its legs, sinking his jaws savagely into the gnarled muscle. The wraith roared and whirled, taking a hard swipe at Heath’s head.
He released the wraith and dodged, but the monster still managed to clip his hind legs, sending him spinning like a top across the floor.
Wyatt roared, goading the wraith into following him. Heath recovered, and they both sprinted toward the side of the arena where their blades impaled the ground.
As the wraith rushed them, they turned in unison and attacked.
Two large, savage beasts snarling and tearing at an even larger savage beast for minutes that felt like hours until they finally managed to fell the thing.
It hit the ground with a screeching roar, and Heath buried his teeth in its neck.
Wyatt danced away, shifting back to a nude man with liquid grace.
He plucked his ax from the floor and hefted it high. “Now!” he bellowed.
Heath released the wraith and darted away. Wyatt’s ax came down across the wraith’s neck, severing it entirely in one stroke.
The wraith blinked out of existence, and the jumbotron’s chime echoed through the arena. Ten thousand more points to each of them and also to their quad.
Polite applause sounded.
I took one tantalizing moment to soak in the sight of the naked bodies of Heath Blackwell and Wyatt Gale.
Wyatt’s pale skin was covered in tattoos that dripped down from his neck, expanded across his broad chest, then flowed down his arms. Heath, the golden boy, had an intricate wolf inked in the middle of his tanned chest. Both were male shifter perfection, chiseled abs and thick thighs and round asses you could bounce a tire iron off of.
I tore my gaze away as they began to dress. “What a show,” I said to Ian. “They should sell tickets.”
“I’d buy one,” he replied, grinning salaciously as he checked out Wyatt’s ass.
“Do you think it’s over?” I asked. “Surely they aren’t going to release an Apex wraith on someone.”
Brody made a pained noise. “No, definitely not. They don’t train us on L5s, since they’re only ever seen during a lunar eclipse, and you can’t really kill them, anyway.
Though we can volunteer to try to outlast one in the SWIM, no one does because it’s basically a guarantee you’ll die and lose 100,000 points.
Elijah’s the only one in recent memory to try it.
That’s how he’s so high on the board even though he misses half our classes. ”
The thought gave me a shiver. I hoped I never had the pleasure of meeting an Apex wraith. Or Elijah’s basilisk, if he somehow took one on and didn’t die.
Then I scowled, remembering that it was a fake Apex wraith he’d challenged.
“Bravo,” Cash said into his microphone. “An impressive fight, as always, from the Blackwell Quad. The rest of you need to step your shit up if you ever hope to come in even a respectable second place on the junior class leaderboard.” He paused, scanning the bleachers until his beady gaze landed on me.
“And now that we’ve all been refreshed on wraith classification, battle tactics, and how the SWIM works, I think it’s time we let our gatecrashing female impress us with her street smarts. ”
Half the class snickered.
The others looked mildly concerned.
Cash gave me a mocking grin. “Let’s go, Baxter. On the floor.”