I immediately hear something crackle and sizzle, and a loud crack rings out.
“Yes!” Blessing shouts. “It’s free.”
Knots yanks back on the lever as hard as he can, and the cover starts to close. I let out a sigh of relief and smile at Knots as he starts to fly over to me. A shadow blocks out the moonlight a split second before something careens into Knots while he’s afew feet away from me, knocking him unconscious, and sending him careening towards me.He’s not going to make it.
I reach out as far as the damn spiderweb will let me, and I’m able to grab his limp wrist.
“Gotcha.” I try to pull him closer or at least onto some of the web to hold his weight, but my shoulder gives out, and I cry out as my shoulder pops.
Before I can twist and grab him with my other hand, a screech rings out, and we’re hit hard enough to tumble out of the webbing. Knots is knocked out of my grasp, and I lose sight of him as I tumble and fall onto the back of a spider. Pain ricochets over my body, but it’s my shoulder that has fire rushing to it.Fuck, my shoulder is trashed.Using my good arm, I quickly grab my glaive, activate it, and dig into the spider’s flesh beneath me to hold on so I don’t fall off. The spider screams in pain, but we land upright, and I get jostled, but I stay on.
“Nixdice,” Blessing yells in horror.
“What’s a Nixdice?” Zeke asks.
“Their queen,” Blessing answers as I pull myself into a sitting position.
“Well, all hail the Queen,” Ryker says as he smiles up my way.
I look around at everyone and realize I’m still sitting on a moving target. Shit!
The problem is, this target is twice as tall as the normal Darkstars, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take it out like I did the other ones, except my shoulder is garbage, and I have no powers.I might have bit off more than I can chew.
Nixdice starts attacking my friends as I balance along her back. I’ve been in this position before, so it should be nothing to slice her neck. As I move forward to get into position, a pincher swings up into my face, and I stumble back.
“Not so fast, dubious one,” Nixdice hisses as one of her torsos and heads turns toward me.What the hell?
“She has two torsos?!” I yell out in shock and warning.
“Yes!” Blessing answers. “That’s what Nixdice means, night having two heads for short.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I grumble to myself as I block the pincher and dodge the hand reaching for my useless arm.Fuck, this will not be easy.
Well, since there are two torsos and heads on this hairy beast, I’ll call one A for Asinine and B for Brazen Brat.
“I’m coming, bestie!” Moni yells and flies up to me, increasing her size. She stands on my right and looks down at my injured arm. “Oh, you’re honey-glazed and peppered with ripped berry poppers.” She wrinkles her nose. “Sorry.”
I don’t know what she just said, but I think she means I’m fucked. Tell me something I don’t know. She does a mini boom that rocks the torso back, causing us to shift along Nixdice’s back.
“Oopsies.” Moni turns pink as she pulls out her sias. “I’ll just stick to these.”
“You’re good. Use whatever you can. I’m not much help, I’m afraid,” I tell her, raising my glaive right as the pincher comes around again from torso B. The sheer force of it colliding with me causes pain to shoot into my injured shoulder and slides me across the monster’s back a few inches.
“Oh my goodness. Do you need help?” Moni asks, concern lacing her voice. Even though I don’t dare take my eyes off the pincher in front of me, I know she’s turning her nervous dark gray.
“I got this distraction, help take down the bitch,” I grunt.
I could possibly take it down like I did the other one, even with one arm, but I would have to be faster. I quickly dismiss that idea. Even if I could somehow mask the burning and throbbing of my arm, my body just can’t pull more speed out of thin fucking air.
I guess I can just be a distraction while everyone else takes this thing down, like I told Moni. Slashing down at the pincher, I spin towards its weak joint and try to hit it, but I miss as it pulls away to strike again. I take a defensive stance, knowing I’m not doing much beyond just being annoying, but if I can help out at all, then I’m helping somewhat.
“No! Sister!” A shrill scream makes me flinch, and my eyes flick over to Moni and Asinine’s torso, who’s jerking unnaturally.
The slight deviation costs me when the claw strikes and I miss it as it catches my injured arm, clamping me at my shoulder. White-hot pain pierces me as I’m lifted up, dangling from my socket alone, causing screams to be torn out of me as I fight blacking out, but eventually lose.
‘We are not weak,’the voice in my head growls as I see two slight glowing orbs floating before me in the darkness. They are at least fifty feet away and look no more than a pinpoint in the distance. Where am I? Am I inside my own head? The light disappears for only a moment before the shimmer returns, brighter and closer, looking more radiant with each passing moment.
‘We are the vexed, the frenzied, the one that deals out the pain. Not the one that bows to it.’Five feet in front of me, and I realize, the orbs areeyes,and they are the bluish gray luminousness of a lethal psychopath.
