‘Now!’Slayer demands, and I yell the command. I slash at the puca’s neck, slicing straight through the closest one to me, and it’s down within seconds. I don’t even bother to look up at what ripped through this thing’s defenses within those milliseconds; I’m just glad it’s on my side. Besides, there’s already another puca waiting to be taken down.
Slayer wasn’t kidding about keeping up. If I’m not efficient in dropping them fast enough, it’s a longer fight when the next puca gains their footing and is looking for revenge. Unfortunately, I’m the one within their range of attack when that happens. I strike down my fifth puca and look up, not seeing my next target, and get turned around.
Fuck. Where do I go?
I jog around the tree, seeing the tailless puca too late, and it’s already charging me. Not moving fast enough, it grazes me as I try to move out of the way, and I crash to the ground, landing hard. Luckily, Astaroth taught me to land properly with my glaives or else I would have cleaved myself in two.
This puca doesn’t go far but immediately turns to stomp on me when I think it would run by and give me more time, so when I roll onto my back, my eyes go wide as I see the puca rear up to land on me.
Time seems to slow down, but I can’t tap into my magic.
Shit. Stomped to death by a mutated alien My Little Pony.
Two white pads with multiple hooks extend over the puca’s shoulders like live vines and latch onto my thicker shoulder pads. My head snaps back as I’m yanked up into the air and over the puca as it slams to the ground and the empty space I once occupied. I’m airborne and flying through the air until I land on a branch of a tree and come face to face with a Slayer look-alike, if he were white, had very pale grayish blue spots along with sky blue eyes, and a lion's mane of spikes around his head.
“Um. Thanks,” I say in relief, but I only get a chance to take another breath before I’m airborne again. This time, I let out a yelp as we swing through the trees.
Swing? How? I’m already propelled in the air with the two tentacles.I look down and find two more pairs of tentacles attached to this… what is this? It doesn't exactly look like Slayer.
"We are still Netherwraiths, Golden One, but a distant cousin to the sacred Netherwraith," agentlefemininevoice answers me.
Cousins?
We spin through the tree as we get closer to a hell of a fight. Right as we land, I hear Moni’s boom.
“It broke free!” Chester yells.
“I’m running out of vines in the area,” Moni explains, panic obvious in her voice.
I guess that would put a damper on making things easy for her.
“It’s okay.” I run up and place a hand on her arm. “We’re here to help now.” I look back over my shoulder and find not only the white netherwraith but a few dozen that helped us take out the pucas dropping from the trees behind it.
Moni’s bark turns glitter bomb as her eyes widen. Her lips make a small O, and Chester spins her around and quickly overtakes them with a kiss before she passes out. The white netherwraith only cocks an eyebrow at me as it moves past the making-out couple.
“Newlyweds,” I say sarcastically, explaining why their kiss goes a little too far.
‘Clearly.’The sassy words must be said to all because the couple breaks apart, and they both sport shades of pink.
“Sorry,” Chester mumbles, pushing up his glasses as Moni’s eyes are still wide with awe.
“I heard you in my head,” Moni says, shrinking down and getting closer to the smaller white netherwraith. “You’re special!”
‘Later, let’s take care of the capradilla first, then we’ll toast with friends.’
“Can I at least know your name so I can stop referring to you as the ‘white netherwraith’ inside my head?” I call out before it takes off again.
I hear a feminine chuckle before the word‘Devinyx.’
“Okay, Devinyx,” I repeat. “I like it,” I reply.
‘Good, because I wasn’t changing it for you,’she sasses before taking off towards the broken trees.
“Damn, Moni. You must have exploded, or that thing is huge.” I take in the devastation in front of us, and it’s Chester who turns white.
“It’s huge,” he says before jogging after Devinyx.
I can’t help but picture the cabaybaras I’ve seen on my phone. The cute mammal, over-sized beaver-like rodents. Yes, they can come up to my knees, but they aren’t that huge to make a mess like this. As we run up to a bend in the river, JP, Levi, Ryker, Zeke, Knots, and Lynx join us before I skid to a stop and almost fall into a flooded area of water that I’m sure shouldn’t be here. There are more leaves and twigs floating on top of the water than one would expect, and about twenty feet away from the riverbed, where it should be.What is going on?
