An ache.
A longing?
Whatever it is, he brushes a stray lock of hair out of your eyes before pulling back, setting you on your feet.
On the muddy road in front of you, the skaddler picks itself up on all its pinchy, snappy, sharp claws, lowering itself like it’s preparing to lunge again.
You’re half-expecting Ziros to step in front of you and take it out on his own, but maybe he wants to give you a shot, because he just folds his arms and says, “Aim for the backs of the joints.”
You lift your sword again, adrenaline racing as the skaddler rears-up.
Ziros grins encouragingly at you like he’s proud. Like he’s enjoying watching you take it on.
And that just makes you want to show-off more.
“Here goes nothing,” you say, charging toward the skaddler, letting another blazing bolt of magic rip through your sword.
Only…is it your imagination, or was this one a lot weaker?
It kinda…fizzles.
“Chosen One,” Elena calls from where she stands with Eli a few yards back. “Please be careful. You must conserve your energy.”
Maybe it’s because you’re new to this whole having-magical-abilities thing and just kinda winging it, but you must have put too much of your magic into the first attack.
Not to worry.
You can just swing the sword without magic, taking down the skaddler the good old-fashioned way.
Right?
Or…that’s your plan.
Except the skaddler seems to have other ideas.
It lets out a grating, screeching snarl, slashing wildly with its claws. Out of the corner of your eye, you just barely glimpse black scaly claws as something very hard and painful smacks into the side of your head.
You yelp, flying sideways.
“Human!” Ziros lunges, sweeping you into his arms.
He sets you down on the boardwalk twenty feet back, just out of the skaddler’s reach. “Don’t move,” he growls, turning back to face the monster himself.
You groan, rubbing your head.
Ouch.
The world spins, darkness tunneling in around your vision.
Is this the end?
Is one sideways hit from a skaddler all it takes to end this town’s so-called Chosen One?
You might laugh if it weren’t so stupidly painful.
If you weren’t about to pass out.
And out of the haze, you barely make out Elena rushing toward you. And a distant flash of light as Ziros cuts down the skaddler in one go.
