R.E.solve (Rain Experience Book 2)

by Thomas W. Everson

  “Hey! Hey! Over here!” I yell at the top of my lungs at the creatures. “You want a fight? I’m right here!”

  How do I do this?

  Hundreds of lizard-men track and chase me. I run out of time. They close in from all sides. To defend myself, I draw my sword, wielding the crystal as a mace. When the first wave arrives they attempt to maim and maul. I duck and dodge under their arms, through their grasp, and under their muscular legs. In a flurry of swings, I club and slash at them anywhere I can, but I only land grazing hits because I am keeping out of their reach too.

  One makes a grab at me. I pull away and feel the breeze as it barely misses my chest. Bringing the sword down, I cut its hand off; it lets out a screech and stumbles back. I turn around, swinging the crystal wildly. It meets with the arms of another, deflecting the blow. In a smooth follow through motion I bring the sword down on the ridge between its eyes. The efforts are useless against the wall of innumerous beasts. I am surrounded with no way out but up.

  Blasting the dirt with a few shockwave bursts sends up a dust cloud to give me cover for a brief moment. I sheathe my sword and jam the crystal as deep into the ground as I can. With the dirt cloud settling, they can see me again. They begin to advance.

  “Come get me,” I mutter, glaring at the ones directly in front of me.

  I wait until the last possible moment before they attack. I squat, place my hands on the crystal and force the biggest shockwave I can produce into the crystal. Launched skyward so rapidly, my heart nearly stops out of fear and I choke on my own breath. Reaching this new height gives me a bird’s eye view; but I focus on where I had just been.

  The shockwave tears through the air across the ground like an explosion. A dirt-storm rolls across the land, and the lizard-men not obliterated by the initial blast, or tossed into chasms in the ground, are caught in the current of the wave and bounced around. The ground opens up and begins sucking everything down in a whirlpool of destruction a mile wide.

  I freefall. My destination is the center of the crater with the same fate as the creatures if I fail to act. Though I have nothing to push against, I point my arms out in front of me and let a shockwave go; my trajectory barely changes. The speed at which I am falling reaches terminal. I do everything I can to spin to face the ground. Coming up on the churning earth below me I turn just in time to use another shockwave against the unsettled ground to put me back into the air. Because of my angle of attack, I’m not launched high enough. I fly straight at a cliff of level ground. The impact against it hurts. I clamber to grab the top of the ledge. My arms dig deep into the earth and the sinkhole underneath threatens to suck me in. I heave and cough while I try to pull myself up, but I don’t seem to move. Loose dirt sends me sliding a bit.

  A shockwave now would either cause the ground to collapse faster, or not give me enough energy to clear the crater.

  The feeling of all being lost overwhelms me and I nearly succumb to despair. But a glimmer of hope appears a few feet above my head at the cliff’s edge: a hand reaches over and Eve’s face appears.

  “Don’t just sit there, imbecile! Grab my arm!” she barks.

  I struggle hard against the current pulling me to grab hold of my last lifeline. My hands and feet dig and grab at anything. The effort is nearly useless. I gain little ground. Exhaustion from using so much energy in so little time begins to set in. I’m weakening. I look into Eve’s eyes and she sees it.

  “Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare give up on me, Rain!”

  “I can’t go on Eve,” I yell up at her.

  “That’s garbage, and you know it! Try harder!”

  She arcs her head around, momentarily distracted. She yells, but I can’t make out what she said. When her eyes meet mine again, she smiles and tosses a rope down at me. There is a faint whinny from a horse. Help has arrived. The rope reaches me and I snatch at it. I wrap it around my arm several times, and grab firmly with both hands. She disappears and I hear grunting from what sounds like a few people. They pull me up and over the ledge and I scramble to move away for fear of it collapsing beneath me.

  “I told you.” Eve punches me in the shoulder.

  Looking up, I see Eve, Taki, and the chief of the tribe there, along with our horse. I give them a weak smile and collapse on the solid ground with a sigh. But my rest is short.

  “This isn’t over Rain. There are still lizard-men everywhere, and more are continuing to pour from the cylinders,” Eve is blunt.

  “Well, we can’t just let them run amok, can we?” I sigh.

  Standing up slowly, I feel every muscle in my body ache. Knots have already formed in my hamstrings and calves. Behind me the crater has swallowed a large portion of land, taken out countless lizard-men, and destroyed several pillars.

  The chief and girl mount the horse. He grabs a spear from the side of the horse and hands it to Eve before galloping off toward the tribe. Eve and I head for the next group of creatures. They appear to be massing in a group rather than just attacking.

  Their actions indicate they have some intelligence, but how much? Could they be hive-minded?

  “No rest for the wicked,” I sigh.

  “I’m going to sleep for a week after this nonsense.” She laughs.

  “Agreed.”

  Along the outside edge of the crater Eve and I take out as many of the creatures as we can safely, and I decimate every cylinder within our reach. Within a few hundred yards from where the creatures are gathering area we stop.

  “Can you do again what you did back there?” Eve asks.

  “No, I don’t have another crystal – it magnified my power.” I groan. “We’re going to have to try and lure them out of the larger group to pick them off.”

  Nearing a cylinder we holler for their attention. It only takes a moment for them to see us. Several break away from the group and begin advancing on our position. We hold our weapons at the ready, but before we can engage we hear yelling from the other side of the grouping of lizard-men. I can hear the war cries of the tribal people while the creatures let out ear-piercing screeches and guttural growls.

  I look at Eve and nod. She nods back and we break into a sprint. Eve and I engage the creatures coming at us while listening to the same thing happening on the other side of the group. Battle ensues, and there’s no time for thinking.

  Clashing on the battlefield, I evade being skewered by claws and ripped by teeth. I leap and somersault underneath one. Back on my feet I wheel about and run my sword into its spine. I draw it out and spin to counter an incoming attack. Holding a set of claws in place for a moment gives Eve the opportunity to run her spear into the beast’s underarm. It drops its guard. I behead it quickly and engage more coming at us.

  Roaring fills the air directly in front of me. One charges. I brace myself in a battle stance. It feigns attacking me with its claws and when I go to block, it switches tactics and swings around, using its tail to sweep me off of my feet. I hit the ground with force and it tries to tackle me. I position the flat of my sword between us.

  Battle tactics?

  Snapping teeth approach my face. Its decaying breath makes me gag. I turn my head to breathe and so it can’t bite me. Propping my feet on its chest, I push up. It gives me room to position my sword and I let my legs down a little. The lizard-man descends right onto the tip. It flails and struggles to kill me. I twist the sword and shimmy it upward, spilling its innards all over me. When it stops struggling, I have to heave to shove it off of me.

  Upright again, I leap onto the back of another one, thrusting my sword in. Hanging by the hilt, it attempts to buck me, scales scratching my bare skin. I wrap my legs around it the best I can, pull my sword free, and bring it back down into the scaly flesh. It collapses to its knees. A heavy set tribal comes to my aide to finish with a slit to its throat with a knife.

  As quickly as he takes it down, another one tackles him and rips into his flesh. I leap at it, throwing my shoulder into its ribcage. I knock the monster free, b
ut I am too late. The man is already beyond saving. The creature falls. Its arm swings around and catches my face with sharp claws, gashing my forehead. Blood runs into my vision and I’m forced to close my eyes. I stumble back. Eve shouts and I hear the cracking of a skull.

  Wiping my face repeatedly does no good. Eve rips off a strip from my shirt she’s wearing, and wraps it around my head. I can partially see again and we rejoin the battle where the lizard-men and the tribal people’s numbers have begun to dwindle. In the heat of the battle I head to the nearby cylinder.

  “Eve! Here!” I yell.

  She comes as requested, and I point up. Nodding, she puts her hands together and lifts me so I can climb on top of it. From there I have a good view. Despite the lizard-men’s height, I’m able to stay out of harm’s way for a moment.

  The battle looks even in numbers, as far as I can tell. I start tipping the balance by sending out controlled shockwaves to distract the lizard-men. It works. The people gain opportunities to take the monsters down while the lizard-men are focused on me. Soon enough the lizard-men realize they are outnumbered and some attempt to flee. No mercy is shown as I blast at their feet. They stumble and are overtaken. Tribal people put them down for good.

  Another shockwave, this time at my feet, disables this cylinder and I feel a sense of triumph. Tribals pick off smaller groups of lizard-men here and there across the shattered land.

  When the earth begins to quake and the cylinder tilts, I’m thrown to the ground.

  “Again?!” I think out loud.

  The quaking is localized to the crater nearby. I turn to look. Dust and dirt spew upward. A spine-chilling shriek bellows from inside. Everyone and everything has stopped to look. All attention is on the crater. What couldn’t come up through the cylinders is breaking up through the ground. As its enormous head and shoulders appear, there comes frantic cries and weeping from around me.

  The giant lizard-beast I collapsed the tunnel on arises from the hole. It pulls its whole body up onto the plain and lets out another ear piercing shriek which turns into a roar. The air vibrates so heavily my bones shake. Everyone falls silent. We stare in awe at the monstrosity, taller than our two story house. The tribal people begin to run away screaming. But it pays no attention to them. Its eyes fix directly on me, a beacon for it to focus on.

  It recognizes me!

  Looking around with haste, I find the chief is still on the horse. Heavy thudding against the ground brings my attention back to the sinkhole. The lizard-beast hurtles toward me on all fours. I’m its prey. The earth trembles at the weight in which the beast forces upon it with every bound. I have little time to act. I run to where the chief is.

  Grabbing his crude reins and hopping up, I commandeer it from him. He’s startled, but jumps down when I yell and point at the lizard-beast. I turn the horse and gallop directly at the monster.

  “Hyah!” I shout at the horse while digging my heels into his sides.

  The horse’s legs carry us on a collision course toward the beast, while it uses the ground as a springboard to reach me. A few hundred feet before we meet I fire a shockwave at its head and turn the horse, leading him away from the people. It’s obsessed with me – it changes course.

  Spinning around on the horse while he gallops, I face the lizard-beast. It’s closer than I’m comfortable with. The horse feels the ground rumbling behind him, doom on its heels. It runs hard, trying to escape.

  The beast is determined to catch me. It snaps its jaw. Drool drips freely onto the dusty plain. Only my legs hold me on to the horse, but I’m ready to fight. I grab my sword from its home and ready to find it a new one. The lizard-beast nears, taking a swipe at us. I deflect it with a decisive slice to its hand. It roars, but doesn’t falter.

  Leading us wherever it pleases, my steed sees fit to arc around and run through a group of tribal people and lizard-men still waging war on each other. I swing my sword down to fell a couple foes while passing. Barreling through, the larger one takes out just as many tribal people, crushing them underfoot or sending them flying. The screams and the sounds of death makes me queasy, but I shake it off and focus.

  When I look over my shoulder to see where the horse is headed, my heart skips a beat. We are near a larger portion of the chasm in the ground – too big for him to clear. Turning around, I take the reins again. I barrel straight for the chasm, forcing the horse to do my will despite it wanting to turn away. At the last possible safe moment, I pull the horse sharply to the right. It makes the turn without sending me over the side, and gallops along the edge of the cliff. The beast behind us has too much momentum to stop. Just when I think I have the creature where I want it to be, it leaps the chasm with a powerful push off the ledge from its hind legs. The ground rumbles as it lands safely on the other side. It roars so loud it’s all I can hear.

  Having landed directly in the middle of an encampment of tents, it begins rampaging, tearing everything apart while staring me down. However, the area is empty of native people, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

  Leading the horse along the main chasm, he leaps over smaller offshoots of the giant cracks in the ground. We reach a point where it becomes thin enough to get across. I spin the horse away and gain some distance. I slow him and turn around to see the monster is still decimating the remnants of the encampment. It has lost its fixation on me.

  Back into a gallop, I aim the horse directly for an area I know he can clear. Though I have confidence in his ability to make it across, my heart palpitates. Leaping into the air, he vaults the chasm with ease and we’re now on the same side as the creature.

  It sees me again. It throws its arms out to its sides and leans forward to screech again. It takes some effort, but I force the horse to gallop directly at it. The lizard-beast simply waits for me. Closer, I begin to position my legs on the horse’s back and shift my weight. Sword and reins still in hand, I move to a crouching position and ready myself.

  Die!

  My jaw clenches, my mind races, and my body tenses up when I leap off the horse as it passes the monster. It swipes at me and, as it connects with my torso, I bring the point of my sword to cut deep into its forearm. It screams in pain, and snatches at me with its other set of claws while I hang from the hilt.

  I squirm and pull the sword, enlarging the gash while kicking its enormous scaly paw away. It finally grabs hold and begins to squeeze the life from me. I wrench the sword free and, before it breaks my bones, I chop down on its thumb. Its grip loosens. Aiming the sword between my arm and body, I thrust and dig the sharp edge directly into the soft flesh of the monster’s palm.

  In protest, it screeches and spikes me into the ground, with only a tent to break my fall. All of the air leaves my lungs and I nearly lose consciousness. I lie there recovering while leather collapses in on me, concealing me. I wheeze, trying to catch my breath and it begins rampaging again, tearing up the area to find me.

  A few moments are all I need. I wiggle free and jump from the sheets of leather. The lizard-beast hovers directly over me on all fours, its armored underbelly directly in my face.

  Gripping the sword tightly, I scramble toward its hind legs and tail. I arc back and swing forward with all of my might. I hit it right in the crease where the front of its foot meets its leg and as I draw the sword across, black blood spurts out.

  Its legs wobble. I leap out from under its tail just before it collapses to the ground. I jump on its back and stab into its spinal column. It squeals and tries to dislodge me, but its arms aren’t long enough to reach the middle of its back. It stands up on hind legs, bucking and spinning wildly to shake me off. One hand is gripping my firmly planted sword and the other is digging under sharp scales. I hang on. When it slows, I pull the sword free, leap up and find a new home for it right underneath the armor plating. I flay it open, cutting a chunk of its armor off.

  Furious it cannot reach or stop me, it acts in desperation. It stands straight up and falls back trying to crush me. I jam the blade
in as far as I can. It fails and I find myself dangling over the edge of the chasm. I hang tightly onto the sword embedded deep into the lizard-beast’s dense muscle. But the blade won’t hold for long. My weight and the creature’s writhing causes it to slip.

  I swing back and forth, catching my feet on the ledge. Using my lower body strength I pull myself to safety, sword in hand. I scoot away from the edge while the creature flails around.

  Though I want to catch my breath, I seize the opportunity of the behemoth being on its back. I climb onto its belly.

  It notices and tries to grab me but I swat its arms away with a couple strong shockwaves. Sword ready, I aim where I think the thing’s heart might be. Its scales peel off with a few swings. A fair sized opening now exists and it’s a perfect home for my blade. The beast continues to swipe at me. Either the heart isn’t in that location, or it’s too far down to reach.

  I duck, free my sword, and jam my whole arm into the bloody mess, into beast’s innards. It screeches and wails but I do as I did with the smaller one below ground. I end its misery by unleashing a shockwave directly inside its body.

  Gurgling for a moment, its muscles go limp and finally it lies lifeless.

  I retract my drenched arm and collapse in a heap on its stomach, sighing in relief. But the relaxation is short. Nausea rolls over me. My muscles ache and my bones hurt. I become dizzy and vomit. My eyes close, and I curl into a ball.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The sun has set and a cool night breeze flows over my body. I don’t want to move. But battle continues in the distance, urging me to rejoin the fight. Under the ever-darkening sky, I grab my sword and sheathe it.

  Dismounting the beast, I find my horse a few hundred yards away grazing. I pat him gently and slowly make my way onto his back.

  How am I not dead?

  The cylinders are easily pinpointed in the dark, as the light pouring from their doorways act like beacons. Trotting along between cylinders, the lizard-men have stopped coming through. I blast holes in each one and veer off to stop at nearby fights to turn the tide of a battle in the favor of the tribal people. Bodies litter the ground as I circle wide around the house, which is not too far away now.