46. Sling Blades
Sling Blades
Moni
The first person to break away from the wall is my brave Chestie, with Knox on his tail.
The two ferocious hunters break off and flank the first two guards, attacking the students who are vastly unprepared for a fight.
They both easily cut through the warriors’ necks from behind, leaving their bodies bleeding out and drifting to the bottom of the seafloor.
‘Welp, might as well see if I have any tricks up my horsey scales,’ I say, speeding off towards the fighting. I get close enough, and, since I’m without hands, I just picture my boom coming from my belly and aim at the guards wearing the golden armor.
BOOM!
A couple of guards go tumbling back from the shock wave, and my little tail drops.
‘Moni? Did you just do your boom?’ Rez asks, her excitement contagious.
‘Yes. It seems my powers are still here, just need to work it differently,’ I giggle with glee. I know I’m neon green, but I don’t care. This is freaking amazing.
‘Best news ever!’ Rez lets out a whoop.
Ryker swims past her and grabs a soldier, squeezing him like a grape until he pops.
Eww.
‘Unwind us, Rez, and throw us in a second,’ I hear Knots tell her.
‘Throw us?’ Lynx argues. ‘Are you wild, Deadwood? I’ll hurl chunks.’
‘Great, more shit to distract the guards with,’ Knots agrees in a patronizing tone, then cheers as the dorsal fin along the ridge of their back goes ridged. ‘Ah ha! See, blades! Now, Rez! Throw us like a boomerang!’ Knots yells.
I turn to see Rez take one of their eels by the head, Lynx, if I have to guess, judging by his cat ears on top of his head, and chuck them through the water, just like one of those freebies. Surprisingly, the guys aren’t limp dicks like they were around Rez’s neck.
‘I heard that,’ Lynx yells as he spins through the water. ‘Ahhh!’
Well, it’s true. At least now, they look like that one weapon that the Grim Reaper carries with him.
Their dorsal fin turns sharp as they cut into a warrior.
Before the soldier can turn and try to pull them out of his side, Lynx and Knots work together to saw through his abdomen, slicing him in half.
My stomach churns, and I know my scales are turning a yellowish-green as I face the students we just saved.
The look of horror on the creature’s face mimics the waves of nausea I’m currently fighting to keep down.
I flutter my small dorsal fin to move towards the students, only for them to scream and the squid to expel ink before they make their escape.
‘Why didn’t they do that in the first place?’ Ryker asks, aggressively wiping off the ink from his tentacle.
‘Think of it this way, we at least learned we have more weapons at our disposal than we thought,’ Chester says, smiling. Then again, I think his creature is always smiling, yet those teeth look mighty pointy to be a friendly smile. Hmm. That has to be a trick.
‘True. Let’s keep going, and if we see a fight, let’s tackle it as a practice and see what we are capable of,’ Levi agrees.
We follow JP’s lead as he traces Delvin’s power signature around another landmass and alongside a massive coral reef, where we find a smaller group of animals that are down to a few stragglers trying to hang on.
This time, Levi sneaks in first and makes quick work of devouring all of the guards.
Once again, the students didn’t stick around, but with the way Levi snaked in with his electric hazel eyes glowing, he looked like the devil himself come to claim their lives. I wouldn’t have stayed either.
A few more run-ins, and I can confidently say we have these “practices” down. Or at least I think so. That is, until we run into another cave that opens into an underwater grotto with an air pocket that we rise to see, but this time, it’s not students we find.
‘Fuck!’ Ryker curses.
‘A duck,’ Rez adds.
‘In the butt,’ Lynx says.
Inside the air pocket is a massive cave that an ogre could easily stand in and still have room above his head.
The walls are covered in bioluminescent deep-sea mosses, sponges, and volcanic rock.
I wish I could say the atmosphere takes my breath away, but it’s the decorations that do that. They’re ugly.
I float away from Chester’s tail, and my own tail drops at the sight in front of us, or it would, if I had one.
At least two dozen guards are waiting, floating in the water, while the midnight twins are lazily sitting on the ledge behind them, flipping their tailfins along with Serafin.
Off to the side, I catch the tail end of pink hair—Emer—disappearing up the stairs back into safety.
I don’t know if it’s the annoyance of being in their presence or something more serious, but I feel that tingling feeling underneath my skin, like ants are crawling all over me again.
‘Well, look what we’ve found,’ Serafin sneers. ‘Instead of tracking you down, you came to us.’
Instead of delivering the evil monologue like most evil villains are known for, Serafin goes straight for the kill.
‘Kill them, unless they beg for mercy.’ Her smile says that even begging wouldn’t save us.
‘Why is that bitch even here? She doesn’t need to be present to sic her dogs on us,’ I seethe as I feel my anger build up within me.
‘That’s easy to answer. She’s here to take out Rez personally,’ my brother answers before his form turns into water, making it hard to trace his outline.
‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ Serafin hisses.
As the guards advance, I let loose a boom that throws half the guards out of the water and into the stone wall behind the twins. Rocks break loose and tumble down into the water along with the guards and the midnight twins as well.
Oops. I didn’t mean all that devastation.
‘Great job, Moni,’ Knots shouts out, as he and Lynx wrap around a guard’s waist and slice through his middle.
‘Thanks.’ I curl my tail to give him a thumbs up, but I’m caught off guard when a spear sails past me and almost hits Chester.
Turning, I find the soldier with the empty hand and feel myself expand as anger washes over me. It feels similar to when I ran out of coffee and turned into my monster. What did Lynx call me last time? The Demonized Incredible Hulk? Sure, I’ll take it.
At least that’s what I feel like, but this time, I’m not bulking up, or turning black as far as I know, but I feel as if I could blow up this entire grotto down to Hell.
‘Moni! You’re covered in long spikes!’ Chester calls out in shock.
I flick my tail in the direction of the asshole who thought he had balls big enough to attack my mate, and surprisingly, a spike detaches and impales into the soldier’s equivalent of his thigh if he wasn’t an underwater creature.
‘Yes! Call me Fin Diesel, the porcupine spiny seahorse. Let’s drop some bones!’ I yell, launching another spike into his torso as Chester aims for a quick kill while the soldier is occupied.
This might be fun.
Zeke
It’s fucking chaos as the other soldiers dive deeper into the water after Moni sends some of the soldiers into the wall.
The cave rumbles and shakes, causing most of the people to dive underneath the water for cover, but I’m back further that I don’t have to worry.
From my position, I easily watch Serafin grab a soldier by the collar of his underwater shirt and yell at him, before pushing him toward the back tunnel.
What’s that way? Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not a good thing.
Her eyes move over the water, searching furiously for something as she grips the dagger in her hand tighter. A slow smile arises on her lips as she slips into the water, and I dive underneath as well, keeping my eyes on her.
When I first changed into this form, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
I loved the idea of being a horse in a way; it made me appreciate Lisa and what she goes through, crazy as that seems. But when Rez, JP, or anyone, for that matter, accidentally touches me and they have to deal with the tar that covers me, I feel dirty.
I know they love me no matter what, but this form isn’t very beneficial at all. At least I haven't found it to be.
I see Lynx and Knots wrapping themselves around a soldier’s waist as Reaper and Knox play tag with their own prey.
Ryker, always the show-off, is handling his fair share as he takes on multiple soldiers with his tentacles.
Just one touch, and a few soldiers start to convulse before going still from his toxins.
Serafin slinks around the fray of soldiers by Ryker, and I keep pace parallel with her until I see Rez’s back in her line of sight as she’s fighting with her own guard.
Shit, that has to be her goal. If I call out to Rez, it will distract her.
Any person who’s watched a horror movie knows better than to call out someone’s name.
Before I can get to her, Serafin stabs Rez in the left shoulder with her blade. Rez quickly slashes through the soldier’s neck with her glaive and turns to slice her opponent behind her, but Serafin is too fast and has backed up.
Fuck. Serafin raises her arms and starts to make fast, tight circles. I’ve seen that move before, and her underwater cyclones aren’t pretty.
Damn, I need to be in front of her right now, I think, and with that thought, I collide with Serafin’s hand.
‘What the fuck?’ she yells as I jerk back in shock. I had no idea this form could teleport.
Talk about a handy advantage! As I move, I realize Serafin shifts along with me, her one hand against my chest. Her face distorts into all sharp angles and razor teeth.
‘Zeke!’ Rez yells.
I managed to stop the water cyclones from growing, but Serafin is powerful in her own right, and she sets two free in the grotto. One cyclone veers off towards the entrance; the other easily pulls Levi and JP towards its center as Rez desperately tries to reach me.