Chaos god, p.5
Chaos God, page 5
“Ryfon,” Elora hissed at the one-eared asshole. Then she turned to me. “There are no other camps anywhere near here, we have scoured the area all we could to check. There is nowhere else for you to go.”
“Of course not,” I sighed.
“Will you accept the challenge to prove yourself, or will you not?” Ryfon demanded, and he tapped his foot impatiently on the rocky ground like a little kid.
Elora stepped closer to the asshole and crossed her arms. “It appears to me as if you are attempting to shirk your responsibilities, Ryfon.”
“Nonsense,” Ryfon denied. “I have never shirked my duty in regards to the wolf-sharks before.”
“So, you guys have done this before?” I asked, and I started to get a little hope that maybe this wasn’t a total suicide mission.
“The wolf-sharks have been an issue for decades,” Elora confirmed. “In the past we have been able to drive them from our shores before their numbers grew too large. We needed at least two warriors to handle the situation, but it was manageable.”
“Elora, Ryfon, and myself have taken turns working together to hunt the beasts,” Ayen added, and he narrowed his midnight-blue eyes accusingly at the mohawked asshole. “However, Elora and I have been left to deal with the situation by ourselves for too long.”
“I tried to step in and lend my assistance,” Azariah added, “but my axe is not an ideal weapon to hunt the beasts.”
“Lies,” Ryfon scoffed. “I assisted in the hunt most recently, and if the stranger claims he can be useful to us, then he should have little difficulty in lending a hand.”
“Right.” I rolled my eyes, and I considered how to proceed.
If what the beautiful elf said was true, and there weren’t any other camps, then it sounded like this trial-by-wolf-shark was really my only option. If they’d been able to hunt the monstrous creatures in the past with just two of them, then I should be able to do just enough to win a place in the camp while keeping my hide intact. I had to admit, I was damn curious about a wolf-shark, and I wasn’t exactly ready to walk away from Elora’s gorgeous smile.
“So, you’ve done this before?” I clarified, and I addressed Elora and Ayen directly. “Successfully?”
“Yes,” Ayen said, and he cleared his throat as his eyes flicked away.
“We have successfully hunted the wolf-sharks before.” Elora nodded, and her fingers gripped tighter around her bladed staff. “I feel honor-bound to inform you, however, that the wolf-sharks’ numbers have grown to an unreasonable amount at an alarming rate. This is why they have become a more serious problem than they ever were before.”
“And why they will need a third warrior to assist them,” Ryfon added, and he shoved an old-looking harpoon into my hands. “Come along, now.”
The one-eared elf smugly grinned at me, and then he marched off to what I had guessed was the east. I couldn’t help but notice it was the direction I’d smelled salt air and heard ocean waves coming from. I supposed that the shark part of the wolf-sharks was a dominant feature of these animals.
As I followed casually behind the egotistical man, I was both surprised and a touch relieved that the one-eared asshole had armed me. The harpoon didn’t feel like the most sturdy of weapons, but it was better than nothing. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that these people had hunted wolf-sharks before, and I got the feeling that Elora and Ayen would lead the charge anyway.
I just had to keep up.
Ayen had picked up a wooden longbow from somewhere and slung it and a quiver of feather-fletched arrows over his broad shoulders.
“Do not worry,” Ayen whispered gruffly beside me as we marched behind the cocky elf. “Elora and I will kill the beasts, you must only be present in order to complete this task. Do not run, it will only prove weakness and cowardice to the people.”
“Yeah, not a problem,” I said, and I glanced over my shoulder to find the people were following us to the shore. “So, you’ve personally killed these things before?”
“Elora and I both have.” Ayen nodded.
“That’s a relief,” I sighed.
After a few minutes of walking, the solid and rocky ground under my boots started to shift into rolling dunes of loose sand. Ryfon continued to march forward with purpose, but his pace slowed noticeably. Ayen trudged silently by my side, and Elora slowly started to pass us as she walked along the very top layer of sand.
The gorgeous woman had also picked up a weapon from somewhere, and she held a long spear in her elegant hands. I watched her flat leather boots for a while, and I found that her feet barely sank into the sand. The sight reminded me of Legolas walking over the top of the four-foot-deep snow drifts as the men and hobbits tried to climb the mountain in The Fellowship of the Ring. Nobody had actually used the word “elf,” but I was outright convinced I was in the presence of some kind of elves, and my inner nerd was pretty stoked about that.
We walked for a few more minutes, and finally, I started to feel the salty spray of the ocean on my face. The mist felt incredible on my overheated skin, and I sighed at the soothing chill that ran down my spine.
“So, how big are the wolf-sharks?” I leaned closer to Ayen as we crested over the last dune, and the lapping waves finally came into view.
“They are quite large.” Ayen grimaced at me. “And they have congregated in a larger group than we have ever seen before. We are not sure what drove so many here, but the situation got out of our hands before we could properly address it.”
“Goodie.” I gripped my harpoon tighter in my fingers and walked the last several paces before I stopped just behind Ryfon and Elora.
If I’d had any other options, I would have turned right around and flung both my middle fingers at this situation, but wandering into an endless field of lava didn’t exactly sound like a good time. At least with the wolf-sharks, I had experienced hunters behind me and what sounded like a decent possibility for success.
And more importantly, survival.
The ocean spread out as far as I could see, and waves crashed erratically along the rocky beach. The sky was covered in thick white clouds, and a brisk wind whipped my hair all around my face.
In the distance, a huge dark shadow moved quickly through the water, and a large dorsal fin poked up out of the waves. Then more appeared, and I watched in shock for several seconds as the giant creatures arched along the surface of the water. They were way bigger than any shark I’d ever seen before. They seemed to be at least twenty-five feet long, but I figured that under the water, they were probably even bigger than what I could see.
“Welllll… Shit,” I breathed.
“You have strange words,” Ayen said quizzically at my side.
“Here is your challenge, stranger!” Ryfon announced. “These wolf-sharks have hindered our ability to gather the crustaceans and fish in these shallow waters. Assist Ayen and Elora in ridding the beach of these beasts, and you shall prove your worth.”
“Riiiiight.” I cocked an eyebrow at the large blond man beside me. “So, what’s the plan here?”
“You will act as a diversion,” Elora declared succinctly.
“Okay,” I said dryly. “I’d rather not be swallowed whole by one of these things, so could I have a little bit more information?”
“The wolf-sharks do not swallow their food whole.” Ayen smirked at me. “They would surely tear you into bloody pieces before consuming you slowly.”
“That’s not exactly comforting, man,” I said to the broad-shouldered blond guy.
Ayen just shrugged at me as if we were discussing a casual weekend fishing trip between buddies, rather than discussing enormous apex predators.
“You must draw the creature’s attention,” Elora explained. “Distract the beasts from myself and Ayen and allow us the time to come up behind them. We should certainly be able to handle the entire group as long as they are not focused on us.”
“Alright.” I nodded, and I considered the benefit of diversionary tactics. In my fighting days I’d used a good fake-out maneuver more than once. “That makes sense, I guess.”
“Do not worry, as I said, Elora and I were able to do this with just the two of us before.” Ayen turned to me, and then he flailed his arms about in an exaggerated charade of splashing. “You must splash around and make noise in order to draw their attention.”
“Right, that sounds like it will definitely make the job of hunting them easier for you guys.” I glanced between the elf and the blond man. “But how does this not lead directly to me being eaten?”
“Do not fret. I have confidence in you,” Ayen said, and he clapped me hard on the shoulder. “And you have a harpoon. Stick them good and hard if they get too close, and that will deter them long enough for us to destroy these creatures before they can lay a single one of their three hundred teeth on your flesh. Now, come! I feel a thirst for the hunt!”
I sighed and glanced around at the small crowd of villagers that stood at a safer distance from the water. They were huddled together and chattered nervously amongst themselves. It was pretty obvious to me that I had to put all of my faith in these two strangers to keep me alive today, but seeing as my only other choice was wandering aimlessly through one of the barren wastelands of this strange place until I died of exposure to the elements, it was still my best option.
“Alright,” I said, and I kicked my steel-toed boots off and rolled my pants legs up twice to keep them from bogging down my movement too much. I couldn’t deny the fact that I was a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and getting huge apex predators to charge at me was definitely going to give me a big dump of the good stuff. “Let’s do this.”
“You seem rather excited about the prospect of possibly being torn to pieces,” Ayen remarked. “I believe I like you.”
I smirked at the big blond guy and walked into the small crashing waves, and I pointed my harpoon out in front of me as I moved.
The sandy beach had shifted into small pebbles, and with every step I took into the refreshingly cool water, the ground was littered with larger stones. Some of them were sharp and jagged like they’d broken against the boulders that stuck up out of the water at random locations. I watched my steps carefully and focused on avoiding the jagged edges. The last thing I needed was to slice my foot open on one of these rocks and die of an infection.
I walked out to my waist, and then I turned to see where Ayen and Elora had moved to. The big blond man had climbed onto one of the larger boulders that pointed up at the cloudy sky from the right side of the shallows, and he held his longbow in his hands. The blond man’s muscular arms tensed as he pulled a single arrow from his quiver, nocked it in place, and drew the string back in preparation.
Elora had waded out into the shallows a short distance away from me, and she daintily climbed onto a boulder that stood just as tall as the waves. She perched on the boulder like a leopard ready to pounce with her long bladed staff in her hands. She must have tugged her thigh-high leather boots off and left them on the beach, because the water lapped erratically around her bare feet. Elora’s amber-and-ruby eyes caught mine, and she gave me a single swift nod.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself, and I gripped my harpoon tighter in my hand.
I took a deep breath and started to splash hard against the surface of the water with my free hand. I started to kick my feet around and make as much movement as I could, and I kept my eyes glued to the dark arching shapes of the wolf-sharks in the distance. They didn’t seem to notice me, so I turned to glance at Ayen and Elora.
“This is not enough movement.” Elora frowned at me.
“Behave as if you are a dying fish in order to draw their attention!” Ayen shouted, and I could almost hear his chuckle at my predicament.
“Great,” I snorted.
I took a breath and dunked myself completely into the refreshing salty waves, and I positioned myself horizontally on the surface. Then I thrashed my entire body and made as much motion in the water as possible. I raised my head about the water, sucked in a deep breath, and let it out in a harsh scream under the water. I hoped the wolf-sharks had some form of hearing as I came up for another breath, and then I let out another frantic cry into the salty water.
“Well done!” Ayen shouted with excitement.
I braced my feet back on the rocky ocean floor, and I looked out at the dark shapes that were now rapidly swimming toward me. I gripped my harpoon tight in my hands, and I tried to get a look at the beasts as they advanced on my location.
Finally, the lead wolf-shark, who seemed to be the biggest in the group, broke the surface and let out a disturbing howl as they raced forward. The beast had the head of a great white shark, complete with rows of triangular teeth, and its beady black eyes were located on either side of its gray head. It dove back into the water and popped up again much closer to me before it bared its teeth like a growling guard dog.
I saw several of Ayen’s arrows pierce into the wolf-shark’s hide, and I was hit by a bit of panic as they barely dug into the creature’s thick skin. Then Ayen pulled another arrow back in his bow and let it fly straight and true into one of the lead wolf-shark’s beady black eyes. The beast didn’t stop coming, but it roared with pain, and it pivoted its huge head in an attempt to keep me in its sights.
I glanced back at Ayen, and the smirk on his face made it clear to me that he was rather enjoying himself.
I wondered why Elora hadn’t struck yet, but then I realized she was further to my side. She wouldn’t be able to reach the wolf-sharks with her bladed staff unless she came splashing into the water or threw it like a javelin. Neither option would give her an advantage, and I realized Ayen had been trying to drive the beasts closer to her.
I decided I needed to help the blond archer lure the beasts closer to the beautiful elf’s boulder, too, and maybe I could even get in a good shot with my harpoon. Besides, I couldn’t deny that I’d missed the rush of a good fight. It was almost fun to face imminent danger again after the relatively safe existence I’d lived since leaving my fighting days behind me. I didn’t expect I would have missed it, but here I was, enjoying myself.
I forced my breathing to remain steady as I started to quickly move in Elora’s direction, and I let my years of fighting instincts take the reins. The familiar dump of adrenaline pumped through my veins, and everything seemed to shift into slow-motion. My vision became super focused, and I could see the droplets of ocean water as they sprayed out around the lead wolf-shark’s rounded muzzle. My heart thumped steadily in my ears, and I anchored my bare feet in the loosely shifting stones as I watched the huge beast rapidly close the distance between us.
Then a terrifying and exciting sensation raced along my nerves like lightning.
My limbs pulled in a strange way, and I felt a bit like soft clay in the hands of an artist. My body extended and stretched as my arms widened and flattened into huge fins. My vision shifted, and I could see everything on either side of me like it was dead in front of my face.
Ayen and Elora’s shocked expressions were clear in my line of sight as they stared at me with wide eyes and open mouths, but I barely had time to register this.
I felt myself grow to three times my original size, and I could feel the water move against my bare flesh. I tried to look around at myself, but all I saw was black skin where the dark hairs on my arms had been only seconds before. Somehow, I knew my entire body had shifted into a new form, and I suddenly felt ready to take on the world.
I tried to cry out to Elora and Ayen, but the only sound that came from my huge, teeth-filled mouth was a weird clicking and popping sound. My mouth opened wide as I recognized the noise from one of my favorite areas of YouTube that I’d discovered on one of my many late-night rabbit hole dives.
Somehow, I’d turned into a killer whale.
I curved my spine, and I peeked from the corner of my side-facing eye to make sure my assessment was correct. The large black-and-white tail that was located where my feet should have been was enough confirmation for even the most skeptical parts of myself.
If I could have formed English words, I would have shouted a long litany of elaborate curse words in complete shock.
I didn’t have the luxury to linger in my shock, or to explore my new body and abilities because the lead wolf-shark was still coming straight at me. It didn’t seem to mind at all that I was now the great white shark’s only natural predator, and I could only assume that either killer whales didn’t exist here, or these wolf-sharks just weren’t afraid of them.
My body instinctively started to breathe through the blowhole on the top of my huge head, and I took a deep breath before I dove under the water. Then I blinked and found that I could see perfectly through the saltwater to the lead wolf-shark that was racing toward me with bared teeth, and there were five others quickly following behind.
I swished my tail and darted straight toward the hideous beast.
It was much more shark than wolf, but I could see the thing doggy paddling with four huge wolf paws. It was shockingly fast, and I swerved at the last second to maneuver to the left of the beast.
As I dashed past, I chomped down hard on the wolf-shark’s pectoral fin, and the beast jerked violently as my teeth tore through its skin and muscle tissue. I yanked on the fin and flapped my tail hard in the water to rip the wolf-shark apart. Blood seeped heavily into the water and obstructed my vision, but I could feel the wolf-shark’s location by the way the water moved. I pushed forward and bit down on the creature’s tailfin, and I ripped it to pieces just like the first one.
The beast’s snout opened wide in a muffled scream, and a flurry of bubbles rose up to the surface.
The five other wolf-sharks hesitated for a second as they watched the lead beast sink to the rocky ocean floor. Then the second largest of the beasts growled at me and charged at my side. I was still getting a hang of maneuvering my new body in the water, and I couldn’t pivot fast enough to block the wolf-shark’s attack. Its snout drove hard into my side, and I was thankful for the thick layer of blubber that helped to cushion the blow just a little bit. The air was still knocked right out of my lungs, and a quick flash of panic spiked through my brain before I remembered that killer whales could hold their breath for at least ten minutes at a time.
