by Ben Wolf
But this was his best chance to get free. He dug his gauntleted fingers into the tentacle around his wrist and pried it off, and it finally released him—until a flurry of new tentacles zipped toward him and latched onto his limbs again.
They pulled on his joints as they had before, and he again cried out for help. By now, his strength was all but gone. Nicolai was out of the fight, unable to save him, and Magnus had the other Gronyx to handle on his own.
Axel charged back into the fray but couldn’t reach Calum.
Lilly shot more arrows, but they didn’t stop the Gronyx from pulling on his limbs.
Commander Anigo ran forward as well, but a barrage of tentacles leveled him.
The tentacles pulled even harder, and though Calum’s joints begged for relief, they found none.
Another tentacle coiled around Calum’s neck.
He would die soon.
And he would die horribly.
Chapter Forty
A mass of gray-and-brown fur filled Calum’s field of vision and landed on the Gronyx’s left torso.
Riley.
He chomped down on the torso’s neck and thrashed his head back and forth. Glowing green blood and chunks of flesh splattered on the walls around them.
The Gronyx wailed and writhed, but Riley didn’t let go.
The tentacles’ grip went slack, and Calum hit the ground. They lashed to grab Riley, but Axel’s sword severed them from its torso.
Commander Anigo recovered, darted forward, and together with Axel, he hacked at the torso’s base. It disconnected altogether and dropped to the tunnel floor with Riley’s jaws still locked onto its throat.
The other torso whipped its tentacles wildly—almost frantically. Commander Anigo ducked under them, but they batted Axel clear over Calum’s head. He smacked into the tunnel wall with a clank.
“Get up!” Lilly shouted, perhaps to Axel, perhaps to Calum—probably to both of them. She sent another arrow at the Gronyx then zoomed toward Calum and Axel.
Riley darted over to them as well and nudged Axel with his nose until he clamped onto Riley’s fur and pulled himself up.
While Commander Anigo bravely distracted the Gronyx, Calum recovered his sword. Axel recovered his, too, all while moaning about his left arm. It hung at a strange angle, and it looked like the impact with the wall had dislocated it, but Calum couldn’t tell for sure.
Commander Anigo pulled back, breathing heavily, and regrouped with the rest of them. He glanced between all of them, his bloody face now streaked with glowing green slime as well. “We need a better plan.”
“Riley, you’re the fastest one,” Calum said. “I need you to distract it. Get it to chase you, and try to get behind it if possible. If we can divide its attention, it’ll be easier to fight.”
Riley rolled his eyes. “Great. I get to be bait.”
“Commander,” Calum asked, “are you on board with this plan?”
“I am. We killed one of its torsos. Now we just need to kill the other.”
Calum turned to Axel, but didn’t take his eyes off of the shrieking, flailing beast before them. “Axel, are you alright?”
“My left arm is out, but thank the Overlord I’m right-handed. I can still fight,” Axel grimaced, and his left arm hung limp at his side. “For your sakes, I’ll have to if we’re gonna get out of this.”
Calum smirked. Even injured, Axel’s confidence never ran dry. “Keep its attention focused on us. Try to distract it from reaching Nicolai again.”
Lilly nodded. “Let’s finish this.”
Riley growled, and they started toward the Gronyx again.
A power unlike anything Magnus had ever felt permeated his body. It flowed through his veins, teased his taloned fingertips, and pulsed through his muscles, begging for release. Pleading to be used.
The Gronyx in front of Magnus lashed the full multitude of its tentacles at him. With his sword still in his right hand, Magnus allowed the tentacles to ensnare his limbs, waist, tail, and neck. The Gronyx lifted him off the ground and began to wrench his limbs in opposite directions.
Magnus glared at it and pulled back, using a portion of that newfound strength. The tentacles strained against his resistance but couldn’t do him any harm.
Let us see what more I am capable of. Magnus concentrated his strength and jerked his arms and legs. The Gronyx’s two torsos lurched forward and smacked into each other.
Amid the Gronyx’s pained screeches, the tentacles released their grip, and Magnus landed on his feet. He lunged forward, grabbed all four of the right torso’s tentacles in his left hand, and yanked on them so hard that the right torso not only tottered toward him, but the Gronyx actually had to take a rocky step forward in an attempt to right itself.
As the right torso lowered toward him, Magnus released his grip on the tentacles and leaped forward. The right torso’s red eyes flickered at him until Magnus’s broadsword cleaved clear through its head.
He wrenched the blade out, flinging green blood against the cavern walls, and swung it at the bottom of the torso. It severed from its base in one blow, and a geyser of glowing green blood erupted in its place.
The Gronyx wailed and shrieked again. The left torso’s tentacles pummeled him into the tunnel wall, but he rebounded, unfazed, and reengaged the fight.
Lilly’s scream stole every ounce of Calum’s focus away from the fight. A tentacle had latched onto her ankle and now pulled her down toward its chomping ravenous mouth, unwilling to stop even though she rained arrows down on it like a thunderstorm.
Calum rushed toward her, but Commander Anigo got there first.
“Cut her free!” Calum shouted.
Axel dodged a pair of stray tentacles and severed the one that had hooked around Lilly’s ankle. Commander Anigo caught her when she fell out of the air, and Calum exhaled relief.
“Thanks,” she said.
As soon as Commander Anigo set her down, she drew another arrow and shot it at the left torso, then she took to the air again. The arrow embedded just above the fang-ridden mouth in its gut, but it didn’t seem to faze the Gronyx.
“I can’t get behind it!” Riley called between snarls.
“Axel, let’s do a jump,” Calum hollered. “Commander, come at it from the left.”
Axel shuffled back over to Calum.
Riley darted behind him, barking, trying to steal the Gronyx’s attention.
Together, Axel and Calum rolled under the first two tentacles and sliced through two more that came at them, then Axel dropped to the dirt in front of the right torso on his hands and knees.
Calum ran up behind him, planted his right foot on Axel’s back, and leaped toward the Gronyx. He sliced his sword down at the left torso’s head.
Before Calum’s sword could make contact, a wall of tentacles smacked him away as if he weighed nothing, and he skidded to a halt on the tunnel floor. Dirt mixed with glowing ooze in a clump in his mouth, and he spat out the foul taste.
A tentacle coiled around his ankle and lurched him back toward the Gronyx. One swing from Commander Anigo’s sword freed Calum, and he jumped to his feet and reentered the fracas.
Magnus batted four tentacles away in one swing with his left arm. The left torso shrieked and whipped its tentacles at him again. They latched onto his arms and legs, but they couldn’t stop him from advancing.
Then, to Magnus’s surprise, the monster actually started retreating.
No. Magnus smirked. You started this. We are going to finish it.
He plunged his sword into the hard-packed ground, grabbed the Gronyx’s front left leg—originally a quarter section of its original boulder shape—and started to twist.
The Gronyx reeled back on its hind legs and released its tentacles’ grip on Magnus. It used its tentacles to brace itself against the wall to keep from tipping over, but that was exactly what Magnus wanted.
With one jerk to his left, Magnus ripped off the Gronyx’s boulder leg. Glowing green blood sprayed him fro
m the wound, and the Gronyx pitched forward, shrieking like it never had before.
Magnus wrenched his sword from the ground, drew it back, and slammed it down on the monster’s left torso. It cleaved all the way through the torso and into the base in another eruption of green blood.
The Gronyx let out a final pitiful wail, then it dropped, dead.
As Lilly drew her last arrow from her quiver, every regret she’d ever had about leaving home sharpened in her mind.
She’d gotten into so much trouble in just a few months’ time, all because she’d made one emotional decision. If there had ever been any doubt in her mind about whether or not she’d been right to leave, it was long gone, now.
She never should have left her home. It was an inescapable truth, and Kanarah, or the Overlord, or life itself had insisted on proving it to her time and time again ever since she’d left.
As Lilly moved to nock her final arrow, a tentacle lashed at her left arm. It caught her by surprise and batted her bow to the ground far below, but she still held that last arrow in her right hand.
She swooped down to retrieve her bow, but another tentacle wrapped around her waist and stopped her momentum. She gritted her teeth and resisted.
She’d already learned that no matter how hard she pulled, whether flying or not, she couldn’t escape its grasp. But there were other ways to fight back, especially with an arrow in her possession.
“Lilly!” Calum yelled from somewhere beneath her. She caught sight of him trying to rush to her aid, but a tentacle tripped him. “Axel, Riley, help Lilly!”
A valiant attempt, and one Lilly felt grateful for, but she’d had enough of this mayhem. She had a plan, and she was going to see it through to the end.
Below her, the others moved to try to come to her aid. Axel ducked under one tentacle, but another leveled him with a blow to his face.
Riley leaped toward the tentacle that held Lilly but two others walloped him into the tunnel wall. He let out a miserable whimper and slowly forced himself back up to his feet.
Commander Anigo dueled with a trio of tentacles that kept trying to grab him, but he couldn’t get away.
Lilly was on her own. Again.
The Gronyx pulled her toward its gaping mouth. This time, she didn’t scream, didn’t yell. She just drew her arm back and waited for the right moment.
She couldn’t pull away from the Gronyx—it was too strong.
But she could push toward it.
She timed her move, pushed against the putrid air in the tunnel, and plunged her last arrow into one of the Gronyx’s bitter red eyes.
Green fluid squelched out of its wounded head, and it wailed and slammed Lilly to the ground. The impact hurt—a lot, actually—but her armor kept her from sustaining any serious injuries. At least, she hoped that was the case.
Regardless of her own fate, she inhaled a breath of foul air into her lungs and shouted, “Kill it now!”
Dozens of tentacles flailed in every direction, lashing like glowing green whips as Calum, Axel, and Commander Anigo rushed forward. In a moment of perfect synchronization, they swung their swords with the timed dexterity of lumberjacks felling a mighty tree from three angles. They hacked and hacked at its base, relentless and furious.
The tentacles plowed into all three of them, pulling them in opposite directions up and away from its torso, which teetered forward and backward like a drunkard. They couldn’t finish it.
A stone-shattering roar filled the tunnel.
Lilly grinned.
They couldn’t finish it, but Magnus could.
The newly minted Sobek soared through the air, his brilliant blue sword clutched in both hands, and felled the right torso in one stunning slash.
The Gronyx released its grip on the other three, and they hit the ground in quick succession. Luminous green ooze splattered everywhere.
After a final moan, the Gronyx lay there, silent as its green light faded away.
Lilly lay on her back and exhaled a relieved breath. She couldn’t help but laugh to herself—at herself. She definitely should never have left her home.
But if I’d never left, she reasoned, I never would’ve gotten to experience all of… this.
She lay there, staring at the green ooze coating every surface and everyone around her, and she continued to laugh.
As Calum made it to his feet, so did Axel and Commander Anigo. Riley soon joined them, and the sight of the Wolf turned Calum’s head toward Lilly.
To Calum’s dismay, Axel was already helping her to her feet. He cursed himself for not reacting faster.
The five of them gathered together, their eyes fixed on Magnus and his new massive form.
Calum marveled at the sight. It felt like the first time Magnus had walked into the quarry, escorted by the King’s soldiers, all over again. The effect of seeing him was the same: utter shock laced with a hefty dose of fear.
“Is it still you?” he asked.
Magnus’s hard gaze softened into a grin, and his deep voice vibrated through Calum’s chest. “Of course it is me.”
Calum lurched forward and threw his arms around Magnus’s midsection, now armored with darker yellow scales that felt rough and angry against Calum’s face. But it didn’t matter. His friend was alive, and he’d grown stronger—far stronger. Strong enough to save them all.
Soon after, Axel joined them, much to Calum’s surprise.
Then, of course, he ruined it.
“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any uglier,” Axel said, still hugging them both, “you go and do somethin’ like this, Scales.”
Calum laughed, and even Magnus gave a chuckle. Whether it was out of pity or not, Calum didn’t know.
He glanced at Lilly, Riley, and Commander Anigo. Dirt mired with glowing Gronyx blood covered all three of them. He grinned and motioned them over. “You belong with us, over here.”
Commander Anigo declined, but Riley and Lilly looked at each other, then they joined their friends.
All except for Nicolai.
Chapter Forty-One
Nicolai.
Calum tore free from the group embrace and ran past Commander Anigo to Nicolai.
He still lay on the ground, almost perfectly centered between the two dead Gronyxes. The Gronyx had clipped off his legs beneath his knees, but the wounds, instead of bleeding, had crystallized into a variety of brilliant, shining colors still visible in the Gronyxes’ fading light.
Additional crystals had formed in the corners of Nicolai’s eyes and mouth, and his breathing rasped against his lungs. Now Calum understood why Gronyx stones were so valuable—and what it cost to create them.
Calum knelt to the ground next to him, sighed, and hung his head. “I’m so sorry, Nicolai.”
Nicolai looked up at him with those dark eyes, now glassy. He rasped, “Don’t be.”
“What’s happening to him?” Lilly asked from behind Calum.
“Some kind of poisoning, I guess. When the Gronyx bit off his legs, it must’ve spread throughout his body.” Calum clenched his teeth. “I don’t know for sure, but it looks like his entire body will crystallize in time.”
“Is there a cure?” Axel bent down next to Nicolai and touched one of the crystals that had formed on his severed legs. It broke off onto the dirt, still shimmering in the waning light, and Axel recoiled.
Calum smacked his hand away. “Don’t touch him.”
His eyes wide, Axel backed off. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright.” Nicolai’s voice scraped against his throat. “It doesn’t hurt… much.”
Lilly turned to Magnus. “Will your veromine help him?”
Magnus shook his head. “I regret that all the veromine in the world could not save him now.”
“Calum.” Nicolai’s gritty voice pulled his attention back. “I know I don’t have long, but I wanted to thank you again for sparing me back in the fields—both times. You believed in me when no one else did. You’re—honestly—you’re the best frie
nd I’ve ever had.”
Calum managed a half-smile. He felt horrible admitting it, but he owed Nicolai the truth, at least. “I barely know you.”
Nicolai smiled, and tiny crystals rolled down his cheeks to the tunnel floor. “But I know you. You see the best in people, even when there isn’t much worth seeing. Don’t lose that.”
Calum granted himself a sad chuckle, and Lilly touched his shoulder again. He turned back to glance up at her, and her warm smile eased the pain in his heart.
She gasped, and Calum turned back to find that Nicolai’s chest no longer heaved up and down. His eyes had turned to glass—literally—and he’d stopped moving entirely.
You see the best in people, even when there isn’t much worth seeing. Don’t lose that.
Calum would remember those words as he continued his journey. They would drive him forward just as much as his dreams of Lumen did.
“Your debt to me is more than paid, my friend.” Calum leaned over Nicolai and shut his eyelids with his fingers. “You have fulfilled the Law. Be at peace.”
Lilly touched Calum’s shoulder again, and he stood up and faced her. “He was right, you know.”
“About what?”
She smiled. “About you. You truly are amazing, Calum. I don’t know you that well either, but you have a genuine heart. That much is apparent.”
“Thank you.” He gave her hand a squeeze, though he longed for much more.
Maybe in time, he considered. After all, their journey was far from over. Who knew what the future held? Maybe in time.
Even in the growing darkness, Calum could see Axel glaring at him. “Are we just gonna hang around here all night and let another one of those things find us, or are we getting outta this death trap?”