But we couldn’t just keep hacking away at it. That clearly wasn’t going well for us. We were barely holding our own at three-to-one odds. Sooner or later, one of us was going to go down and not get back up. The other problem was that sunset was less than an hour away, and this much blood would attract even more predators.
A coldness passed over me that had nothing to do with the temperature. I wouldn’t let Bastian or Ryker die, and I sure as fuck didn’t want to die either. Pushing aside the dread, my mind rapidly went through options before finally settling on one that seemed the most likely to succeed.
“Buy me a minute,” I yelled before turning and sprinting back to where we’d first fought the beast. Behind me, it let out a low growl that changed to an outraged snarl midway through. A quick glance over my shoulder told me Bastian had gotten close to hitting its eye, and the monster was very much not happy about that.
I flew across the ice before skidding on my knees to where the small crack had formed after the monster’s tail had collided with it. This time of year, the ice wouldn’t be that thick, not this far south. I sprung back up to my feet and raised my axe before slamming it down. The crack barely widened. I raised the axe again.
Slam. Crack. Slam. Crack. Slam. Crack.
Now for the fun part. Dismissing my axes, I raced back to where Bastian and Ryker were tag-teaming the monster, and my breath caught at the blood coating Ryker’s side and the way he was ever so slightly favoring his right hind leg.
“Bas!” I screamed. Bastian’s head snapped towards me. “Give me a boost!”
Bastian crouched and interlocked his fingers. I didn’t miss a beat, slowing just enough to jump and land my foot in his hands. Bastian straightened, launching me into the air just as Ryker leapt forward, snapping at the monster’s nose and drawing its attention.
I landed on the monster’s back, my feet immediately slipping on the smooth scales. I let myself fall onto my knees and scrambled up to its neck. The monster roared and tried to shake me off, but I hugged its neck as best I could and held on.
Bastian and Ryker dove forward, forcing the monster to pay attention to them. My knees dug into its sides, and I sat up, releasing my hold on its neck and summoning my axes again before bringing them down hard on two small holes on either side of the beast’s head. It had no visible ears, so I assumed these were them, or at least something that wouldn’t respond well to being hit directly.
Based on the high-pitched roar the monster let out, my assumption had been correct. I dismissed the axes again and scrambled off its back, bending my knees as I hit the ice and tucking my body into a roll before springing to my feet a second later. The beast growled, and I didn’t have to look to know it was chasing me. I slid to a stop just before the cracked ice and stared down the monster thundering towards me.
“Come on!” I screamed and called my axes back. Adrenaline coursed through my system as I leaned forward on the balls of my feet. The monster’s claws dug into the ice as it slowed, jaws wide open. I darted to the side and slammed my axe into its face, forcing its head to snap away.
Another pissed-off snarl rolled across the ice before the monster rose onto its hind legs.
I held my ground as the monster towered over me.
“Move, Rynn!” Bastian screamed. Both he and Ryker sprinted towards me, the silver wolf pulling ahead.
The monster let out another ground-shaking roar, but I didn’t move until it started to stomp down with its giant paws. I darted left. Not fast enough. The downward strike clipped my shoulder, and I spun before being slammed to the earth, one paw pinning me to the ice.
Both axes slid away from me at the impact, and it felt like time slowed. All I saw was the monster’s wide open maw dripping in blood as it came for my head.
Then I heard a crack so loud, I thought it was thunder reverberating through my mind, and the next second, air was being sucked from my lungs as freezing cold water enveloped me. Claws raked my side, yanking me farther down into the water as the monster frantically tried to swim up, but all those plated scales came at a price: it was too heavy to swim.
Another paw hit me, this one sending me spinning away from it as it sank lower in the cold, dark water. I kicked, trying to swim, even as my lungs screamed for air. Falling into the water hadn’t been part of my plan, but at least I’d taken the monster out.
My vision started to dim and my kicks lost their strength.
I could barely make out the light of the surface as I feebly swam towards it before the world went black, and for a few blissful seconds, I felt nothing at all.
Then pain.
A fiery pain erupted in my heart, snapping my eyes back open.
With renewed vigor, I started swimming, but the freezing water was sapping my energy too fast, and after only a few kicks, I felt myself waning again.
I wasn’t going to make it.
A hand plunged into the water, gripping my wrist and yanking me out. I was vaguely aware of Ryker’s teeth grabbing my shirt and hauling me farther back as large blocks of ice teetered in the water.
What felt like an eternity later, Ryker flopped down next to me on solid ice and Bastian collapsed on my other side.
“So. Much. Punishment,” he rasped.
Chapter Twenty
Rynn
