The Wyvern in the Wilderlands: Planeswalking Monster Hunters for Hire (Sci-fi Multiverse Adventure Survival / Weird Fantasy) (Monster Hunting for Fun and ... Hunters and Mythical Monsters) Book 1)

by Eddie Patin

  He was ready...

  Chapter 37

  The rain went on, slamming down in heavy sheets. It drowned out all sounds of the world with its roar and the wet pelting of the splattering on the ground and leaves and trees.

  Jason waited. He tried to listen, but doubted that he’d hear anything other than the oppressive noise of the storm.

  "This is a good thing," he muttered to himself, feeling his mouth move but hardly hearing his words. "It’s a good thing!"

  When the rain ever stopped, Jason would lose a pretty big advantage. Hell—not only would the rain help protect him from the wyvern’s erratic, fiery breath, but it would also make it harder for the monster to see his snare lines hanging around the cave entrance as it crawled out into the valley.

  He thought of all of his plan's angles as he waited, feeling his breathing increase and his heartbeat grow stronger and more insistent. If the creature was stopped at the cave’s mouth, then that deadly, venomous tail could very well be stuck inside the tunnel. He might be protected from that barbed stinger for a while. The monster wouldn’t be able to fly and it wouldn’t be able to spit fire. All Jason would have to worry about was its quick, striking mouth; still nothing to laugh at! He hoped that the snares would immobilize the creature long enough to let him throw his spears and stab it several times, maybe even pierce its wicked, viperous heart before it could get the upper hand...

  Jason looked down at the cannibals and watched for a moment as they leapt around and sprinted through the rain; business as usual. He expected to see the savages carry a dead animal—maybe another smaller ostrich dinosaur—as an offering toward the big, flat rock formation, but they never did.

  He waited, holding the line in his twitching fingers, heart beating in his ears. He impatiently wiped the rain out of his eyes and stared at the dark hole leading into his way home...

  Nothing happened.

  For several minutes, the rain went on, the cannibals gallivanted down below in the valley, and Jason crouched, his wounded left thigh stinging in its bandage.

  He waited...

  Jason looked up, worried that the rain might let up.

  Finally, he stood, picked up some fist-sized rocks, then threw them to the area just outside the cave. He could hardly hear the sound of the stone hitting the scrabbly ground, and wasn’t sure whether or not the wyvern heard it at all.

  He threw more rocks just into the cave, watching the stones sail through the heavy rain and disappear into the black hole...

  Nothing happened.

  "Come on!" Jason shouted, his heart hammering in his chest when he let the challenge fly. "Let’s go! Get out here! Wyvern!"

  The man waited for a minute, listening and watching intensely, casting a quick glance down to the cannibals. Some of them stood still in the rain watching him. Others ran around as if they didn’t notice or didn’t care.

  "Wyvern!" Jason bellowed, then he let out his best warrior roar. "Come on out, you shit! You monster piece of shit! You Dreadwraith killer! You’re in my fucking way! Come out!"

  Jason paused to listen ... and heard mostly rain. For a second, it seemed like something big and bulky moved around inside, just in the darkness, but he could have imagined it.

  "God damn it," he muttered, putting the line down. Jason made extra sure that the trap-line was very visible—he’d need to pick it up without a delay when he came running back here with the beast on his heels.

  Taking his bladed spear in both hands, Jason looked back down at the cannibals and saw several gathering near the sacrificial stone slab to watch. He turned to the dark cave entrance, peered through the rain, set his jaw, and started a careful approach, blade-first...

  The rain was all he could hear, and sheets of cascading water blurred his vision of the front of the black cave mouth. He stalked closer and closer, knowing that he might be jumping backwards at any moment. Jason’s heart flew on beating wings, and his quick breaths started threatening to draw in rainwater. As he approached the black hole, the roar of the storm had melded with a deep drone of his heartbeat and pulsing adrenaline that flushed back and forth in his system, filling him with energy to leap to the stars and strength enough to burst out of his own skin...

  When Jason came close to the entrance of the cave, the darkness started to fade as his eyes pierced the black tunnel.

  He suddenly saw the monster waiting just inside, big and long and decorated with scales and blades and sharp ends all over. It was crouched over its wing-knuckles, its long neck coiled. The grey light of the rainy day gleamed on its scales and curious eyes, and Jason was suddenly reminded of a gargantuan cat, waiting for its prey...

  Cold adrenaline flooded through him almost making him drop his spear.

  "Oh shit!" Jason cried, stumbling backwards in a panic as the wyvern burst forth into the storm! He scrambled back down the slope, slipping on mud and feeling all of his limbs turn into jelly on the inside. The wyvern sprung, unwinding like a striking snake, its spiky and armored draconic head slipping through the rain at him with its terrible jaws open.

  The wyvern snapped its mouth shut as it missed, then immediately curved its neck like a serpent as it scuttled forward on its wings out into the heavy rain. It moved like lightning! Jason almost slipped and fell on the way back to the line he'd left in the open, but somehow he managed to keep his feet, which slipped and struggled in the mud with his heart racing and his vision dim around the edges...

  By the grace of God or whatever might be looking out for him, Jason noticed that the raging wyvern was still slithering out into the rainy outdoors, and its head had passed through both snares!

  Yes!

  The beast moved toward him in quick, slithering jerks, pulling at the ground with its wings' claws, head rising on its long, sleek neck, which coiled back into a monstrous and spiked letter ‘S’.

  "I’ve got you, you bastard!" Jason cried.

  Jason ran toward the other line with abandon, then slipped and crashed into the rocky mud.

  "Shit!"

  He turned to see the wyvern scrabbling at him. The man thought he was a goner for a second, but then the monster jerked to a stop—eyes suddenly bright with fury—and Jason realized that the first snare had tightened to catch the thing’s neck! Without a moment to lose, Jason slipped and scrambled back to his feet then ran to the other line, snatching it up from the ground covered with dancing and splattering rain. He dashed to the hitch-tree as fast as he could, pulling the rope. Running one circle around the big tree, plowing through the underbrush, Jason reeled in the line as tight as he could, then quickly tied down the paracord's end onto the broken branch-stump, loop after loop, again and again until it was secure.

  "Yes!" he cried, his heart leaping to the moon. "I've got you! You're caught!"

  Not bothering to look at the trapped wyvern for sake of saving time, Jason immediately dove for the three waiting wooden spears. When he plucked up the first one and stood into a throwing-javelin stance that felt instinctive, he pulled his arm back, readying his throw...

  The wyvern was indeed caught, held by the neck by both tight paracord lines, one pulling the monster toward the tree, the other pulling it toward the boulder above the cave’s entrance. It thrashed around, beating its wings, whipping its tail around behind it.

  The beast let out a vicious screech that made Jason’s knees shake, and it spat out a small puff of fire that immediately dissipated in the heavy rain. It made all sorts of scary noises, struggling to get free of the ropes...

  Brilliant! Jason thought, feeling the weight of the first spear in his hand

  He aimed at the creature’s chest...

  Jason threw the spear, ears full of the roaring and splattering of the rain. He watched—heart beating madly—as the long, pointed shaft wobbled its way through the air. It hit the wyvern somewhere on the body that Jason didn’t quite see, bounced off, and tumbled away into the rain and the world behind the beast.

  Grabbing a second spear, Jason threw ag
ain, this time landing its point at the base of the wyvern’s neck where the weapon sunk into its flesh six inches perhaps then sagged a little to one side, waving as the creature thrashed around.

  "Yeah!" Jason cried, feeling a burst of elation. He could do this! This was going to work!

  Hefting the last spear, Jason aimed carefully, drew back, and threw with all of his strength. The spear flew wide but didn’t completely miss, piercing the membrane of the monster’s left wing. The wyvern responded with a shrieking cry that vibrated Jason’s bones and it pulled against the ropes, glaring and snapping its jaws...

  Jason took his bladed spear up with both hands, gripped the shaft tightly, and clenched his jaws.

  This was it.

  Wild with fear that flew through his body like birds, Jason glared at the raging beast, knowing that now it was up to him stabbing it to death with his pocketknife lashed to the end of a thick stick. The man's limbs were numb with fear and adrenaline, but Jason knew that he would not back down.

  It all came down to this. The wyvern would die, or he would...

  Jason started strong, stalking steps toward the whipping, struggling body full of spikes and scales and spines, feeling the buzzing energy in him growing, boiling, waiting to explode into motion...

  As if expecting his coming attack, the wyvern slowed down its thrashing, turned to face him, and coiled its neck back, lowering its body to the ground, ready to strike. Its draconic head leveled with Jason’s head, the rain making its scales and horns shine. The beast's dark eyes stared intensely as if the grim reaper waited inside...

  Several steps away, Jason suddenly brought his whole body to action, jumping toward the wyvern while also trying to stay out of reach of its long neck. He thrust the spear at the creature’s head. It dodged easily then responded by lashing out with its jaws, belching forth a dim amount of fire as it tried to bite him. Jason dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding the long, pointed snout full of fangs.

  Jason countered with a thrust to the body, and he experienced a sudden surge of adrenaline and fire inside as he felt his knife plunge into the wyvern’s chest under the shoulder. He could feel the quivering of its powerful muscles through the wooden shaft of the weapon!

  The wyvern screeched in pain, spinning wildly, pulling its body off of the spear’s point. Jason saw that his knife was completely covered in red blood past the lashings and several inches up the shaft. Holy shit, he thought. That was a deep thrust!

  Striking again with blinding speed, the wyvern tried to bite him. Jason used the reach of his spear to stay back, and its jaws snapped shut on air, cutting off a vicious hiss bursting from the wyvern's throat. The ropes were holding, and even though the creature could move a bit around, and—

  There was suddenly a sharp crack and Jason saw the boulder line break. The black paracord whipped away through the rain, out of sight.

  "Shit!"

  Jason grimaced against the rising fear and sense of danger. He thrust in for another spear strike—he had to kill it quickly now! The beast was only being held by a single line; it would be on him any—

  The wyvern caught the shaft of Jason's spear in its mouth, its serpentine neck suddenly flexing sideways. Jason felt the creature’s great strength pulling against him as the monster tried to wrench the spear out of his hands! He struggled, trying to pull away, then realizing that there was no way he’d overpower the wyvern. Instead, he angled so that the point was aiming at the creature’s chest or neck. The wyvern pulled against him with the strength of many men, and Jason lost his footing...

  Suddenly, Jason felt the ground hit his back and he heard the snap of the other line breaking loose. The wyvern still had his spear in its mouth, and Jason was managing to hang on, but the monster was pulling him around the muddy rocks and slope in front of the cave as if he was a toy. Somehow the angle became right, and Jason pushed up from the ground into the spear, then pushed the point through the wyvern’s teeth and pierced a few inches into its neck!

  The wyvern reacted with a furious, explosive movement and Jason was utterly shocked when the spear was suddenly pulled out of his grip with amazing strength. In an instant, the wyvern paused to pull the spear out of its neck—which fell wetly to the ground—then slithered forward on its massive wings, looming over Jason, rearing back like a giant snake...

  This is it, Jason thought. So this is how I die...

  The rain pelted him all over in his face and the beast over him was just a shadow in the bleary storm...

  "At least I tried, you fuck!" he spat.

  The wyvern raised its head, cracked open its mouth with a loud hiss, seemed to relish the moment for an instant, and Jason raised his hands in front of his face as the creature exploded into motion downward...

  There was suddenly a loud boom that shocked the world—a thunderclap in Jason's ears! It was like a cannon firing! An instant later, the wyvern was slapped by a loud thwack. Something slammed into the beast's neck, sending scales and blood and shards of bones and esophagus spraying out from the other side into the rain. The wyvern swooned in surprise as the huge sound echoed in the air around the forest like...

  Like a very big gun...

  Another deafening boom rang out from somewhere in the valley below, splitting the air above the roar of the rain. The wyvern was hit in the chest over Jason, the bullet hitting it like a freight train. Jason saw a hole the thickness of his finger punch through some scales, sending a shudder through the monster’s body. A glut of dark-red blood back-flowed through the wound. The wyvern let out a piercing screech—its head swiveling to look down into the valley—then it looked down at Jason again, full of fury. Jason’s mind raced for what to do. He was on his back almost under the beast. The man looked around for his bladed spear, but it was too far away. With a stab of fear, he watched the wyvern recover from the two shots, rearing up its head again, glaring down at him more pissed off than anything he'd ever seen. The monster seemed to cough, then it puked up a splash of blood, painting Jason’s body with warm slop as it bore its reddened fangs again and hissed...

  The wyvern was going to kill him anyway. What a nasty son of a bitch...

  Opening its bloody mouth wide, rearing back its head on its S-curved neck, the wyvern prepared to strike. A third shot boomed from below, interrupting the monster. Jason watched the round penetrate the wyvern’s right eye, then the creature’s skull, eye socket, and other eye all exploded out into the rainy air, spraying shards of bone, horns, spikes, scales, chunks of meat, and blood as the bullet continued through, flying off to somewhere in the forest. The wyvern’s head lolled, blind and probably missing a good bit of brain matter. Then with a long, grunting exhalation of breath and a few spurts of flames, the beast loudly collapsed at Jason’s feet, shaking the ground under him. The monster’s head and neck fell draped across Jason’s chest and belly, almost knocking the wind out of him.

  Jason gasped full of terror and relief, then felt a shudder run through his body.

  The wyvern was dead!

  Chapter 38

  The wyvern’s head and neck were heavy on top of Jason—dead weight crowned with spikes and horns—and he was sickened by the warm blood pumping out of the beast’s shredded eye sockets all over his chest. Jason stared at the huge serpentine face, now ruined by the final gunshot. He reached out, feeling a fearful energy flow through him as his hands touched the scaled jaws and spiked ridges as he tried to shove the thing off of him. It was a good thing that the rain was still so heavy—Jason knew that he was being soaked with the monster’s blood, but it was also being mostly washed off of him just as quickly.

  "What the hell?!" he stammered against the splattering and drone of the rain as he groaned under the weight of the creature, pushing it off and off until he could finally slide his legs out from under it. The beast's head and neck were slick and Jason slipped as he struggled against the dead body, almost cutting one hand on its spiky cheek.

  The thing’s long tongue lolled out of its mouth, pink
and grey and splattered with blood that ran in the rain.

  Finally, Jason struggled to his feet, feeling the sharp sting of his raptor wound in his left leg. He wiped the rain out of his eyes and looked down the slope to the valley...

  Who in the hell was shooting? he thought.

  They weren’t shooting anymore...

  Through thick sheets of rain and the mist clinging to the lowlands, Jason saw two figures slowly walking his way. One was man-sized. The grey light of the stormy day gleamed on the stainless steel rifle he held in his hands. Jason could tell that the man was wearing some sort of long, dark trench-coat. The other figure was much taller, bulkier; very dark and hard to make out in the rain and mist. Jason soon noticed the long, dark line of a rifle or other long gun in the taller figure's hands. For a second Jason thought he saw ... the flick of a long, black tail?

  One of them shouted from below, half-drowned-out by the rain: "Whoo! I fruking love this slug gun!"

  The howl of a cannibal down near the sacrificial slab caught Jason’s attention. He looked over to see that the savages who were previously standing and watching his battle with the wyvern were now active again, dashing around in the rain, hooting and hollering and hopping through the underbrush. Several of them rushed the pair of sauntering newcomers...

  "Look out!" Jason shouted, hoping that the two would hear him over the deafening roar of the rain.

  He didn’t need to warn them. Jason watched both men—one man and one something else?—react quickly to the approaching cannibals. The large, dark one immediately leveled his gun, letting loose a boom that snapped through the valley! One of the three cannibals closing fell back as if hit by a sledgehammer, dropping his stone club and sprawling backwards into the foliage with his chest exploded and arms spread wide. The other two savages screeched and ran away.

  If it wasn’t raining like hell, those gun shots would have sent every creature for a mile running for the hills...