Monsterworld, p.105
Monsterworld, page 105
part #1 of Monster Slayer Series
Just as soon as I got back onto solid ground.
My stomach was currently in my throat due to the unnecessarily risky dives, climbs and turns being taken by Mrizandr the dragon, who was being egged on by Lace and Silk, both of whom apparently loved thrill rides. “Woooooooo!” the two cat-women screamed in tandem as the dragon swooped toward the ground, wings tucked back to increase his speed. Silk’s fingers dug into my chest as she gripped me from behind, while I had an equally firm hold on Lace to the front. She was clutching one of Mrizandr’s neck spikes. If she let go…
I tried not to think about that as the dragon’s feet scraped along the ground, causing dust and dirt to kick up, stinging my eyes. Mrizandr came to a graceful landing and then a stop that would’ve been the envy of world-renowned pilots back on Earth. The dragon curled his neck around to look back at us. I didn’t need to have a supernatural connection to the dragon’s mind like Vrill did to read what he was saying: Get the eff off before I eat you.
Silk and Lace bounded off, landing on their feet. As usual. Luckily, my new God-body allowed me to make an equally impressive dismount, though my size made the landing somewhat louder, my boots crunching into the hard ground and causing cracks to spiderweb out.
“Lead the way,” Lace said.
I stared at the shadow-darkened forest that seemed to go on for miles in each direction. On the outskirts, the wood was somewhat thin, which made our initial progress quick as we breached the wall of trees and foliage. But, just like the last time I’d entered this forest, a hundred feet or so in, the undergrowth become overgrown and tangled. We were forced to climb over heavy, curling vines and carefully avoid thick bushes full of thorns as long as my thumb. We climbed over fallen tree trunks as wide as the Statue of Liberty and went around standing trees a football field’s width in diameter.
Due to the thickness of the wood, light was scarce, even though we were still smack-dab in the middle of the Silver time. Thankfully, the two cat-women’s sharp eyes and my own God-eyes had no trouble seeing in the inky darkness. When the Black eventually fell, it would be harder, but not impossible for us. Still, I was hoping by then we’d have located our target and been invited to take refuge before the creatures of the night started prowling around.
An hour or so went by. Then another.
“Are you certain this is the way?” Lace finally asked as we entered the third hour of endless struggle through the wood.
“Not exactly,” I said. “The forest has changed a lot since the last time I was here.” That was the problem with things that grew and died on a daily basis. It was difficult to identify landmarks. Each time we approached one of the massive trees I hoped to find the tell-tale signs of a door built into its side. And each time I was disappointed to find only bark surrounding a solid core. Still, we checked each and every tree matching the description from my memory.
The wood grew darker still, but not from the impending Black, which was still more than an hour away. No, this dark was caused by a roof of tree branches and leaves so thick that neither the bronze nor silver sunlight would be able to permeate its layered veil.
Which wasn’t good, because that meant even night creatures would be able to roam in this part of the forest without fear of being turned to ash by the brutal sunlight. “Uh, Ryder?” Silk said. “Maybe we should backtrack a bit.”
I was beginning to think the same thing. We could head back, skirt the edge of the forest for a while and hope we stumbled upon Buttplug and his consorts. I was about to say just that when movement caught my attention on the edge of my vision.
I turned in that direction, God-powered eyes locking on the spot where I thought I’d seen the…whatever I’d seen. There was nothing but a low-hanging branch, which was moving up and down slightly, as if blown by a stiff breeze. Except there was no breeze, the air still and stale and calm. I smelled something earthy and musty. It had a tang of animal odor to it as well, like the scent you might pick up while visiting a farm.
Movement on the opposite edge of my vision snapped my head back the other way. “Did either of you see—”
I was unable to finish my question because Lace cried out as a massive red shape flew through the air at her head. Lace being Lace reacted faster than should’ve been possible, falling into a backbend which she caught with one hand as her attacker slid past inches from her torso. Simultaneously, she thrust upward with her other hand, footlong claws shooting out.
Those claws should’ve skewered her attacker, but instead they glanced off its red chest, which must’ve been armored in some manner to repel her counterattack.
The thing landed with a thump and bounded away, vanishing into the shadows as quickly as it had arrived. It had run on all fours, but not like most four-legged creatures. There was more of a loping gait to its movement, like it could run upright if necessary but that it could move far faster with the assistance of its upper body.
“That was some Planet of the Apes shit,” I commented, head on a swivel to ensure the fucker didn’t try to sneak up on me from behind.
Lace, who was upright once more, looked at me like I was the ape. Silk was mirroring her expression. “Right,” I said. “Earth pop culture. Uh, basically it’s this movie about these big ol’ apes that have their own culture and clash with humans.”
More blank stares. Protos probably didn’t have movies or apes. Damn, I wished Beat was here. I gave up on trying to explain further, because more of the branches were moving as more large red shapes flitted in and out of our field of vision. They were swinging and bounding from branch to branch. Not just on one side, but on all sides. It was impossible to track a single creature because they moved so fast. It was impossible to determine how many there were, except there was no way it was only the one. So somewhere between two and a hundred. I could hear Beat’s voice in my head: Sooo helpful, Ryder.
I gritted the thought away between my teeth as I raised my hammer in a two-fisted grip. “C’mon, motherfuckers,” I said.
“Want me to blast them?” Silk asked. She had a hold on the locket that was strung on a necklace she never took off. Valencia’s Locket. Valencia was a goddess who had once ruled Tor peacefully for a thousand years. Until her enemies challenged her, that is. Fortunately for her, she’d had the foresight to store a measure of her power in this very locket on a daily basis. When she faced her enemies’ army and opened it, legend had it that the power poured out like a deluge of death, slaughtering thousands. Her enemies had decided attacking her was a bad idea and backed off. It was said that before she died, she may have imbued the locket with a measure of her very soul, allowing her to live on for eternity, assisting the bearing of the locket when in need. Who knew how much of the story was true, but Silk—the chosen bearer—had admitted that she sometimes heard voices in her head. And we’d all witnessed the power of the locket, which had killed dozens of Creed members as well as albino demons on the two separate occasions that Silk had used it.
The only problem: the locket was a one-time-use-only weapon, before requiring a lengthy recharge. Plus, it only seemed to work in a single direction. Which meant it might take out a bunch of these ape/gorilla creatures, but the rest would still have us dead in their sights. No, it was better to save its power for a more certain target.
All those thoughts and the final decision whirred through my God-brain in less than a second, after which I said, “Hold off.”
She dropped the locket and instead drew a wicked-looking machete.
That’s when the red apes attacked.
Their hides were fully red, and yet I seemed to detect patches of some other color wearing through, a brownish gray. The crimson hue reminded me of blood.
I didn’t have time to analyze something as basic as our foes’ color, however, because we were now locked in a fight for our lives. One of the apes swung from a branch and kicked at my face. I ducked away, avoiding the worst of it but still catching a few of its toes on the cheek. They were clawed and jagged, slashing open my skin. With amazing agility, the thing landed on its hands and then pushed up hard to flip back onto its feet.
It stood at least ten feet tall with fists like ham hocks, a chest like a barrel, and a head like an anvil. Its eyes gleamed red to match its skin, and its teeth were long, yellow spikes that looked capable of crunching through bone. While we stood sizing each other up, it beat its chest hard twice, once with each fist, making a thumping sound that reminded me of a boxer’s gloves slapping a punching bag.
Then it made a barking sound, which was swiftly answered by barks from other apes, like some kind of an order and response.
I felt like Indiana Jones as he waited patiently for his foe to finish waving his sword around masterfully in a display intended to intimidate. Of course, Mr. Jones then simply pulled out his gun and shot the dude, which rumor had it was a bit of improvisation by Harrison Ford that had become a classic scene for the franchise. But I digress. I didn’t have a gun. But I did have a big ol’ fucking hammer imbued with god-like power.
So I swung my big ol’ fucking god-hammer at the gorilla’s head. It didn’t duck, which is what I was hoping for, following up the swing with a powerful forward kick. It was too quick, stepping back and out of harm’s way as my hammer whistled past and my boot caught only empty air.
With one hand it grabbed the haft of my hammer. With the other hand it grabbed my foot. Which was very awkward, I think for both of us. As I tried to extricate myself and the gorilla tried to maintain its grip, we began a weird dance that might’ve been a mash up of playing Twister and doing the cha cha. Yeah, picture it, I dare you.
At the same time, other apes were swinging down amongst us, forcing Lace and Silk to stand back to back to try to ward them off with their own weapons.
I had to do something drastic before we were overrun, so I did the last thing my opponent would expect: I dropped to the ground, which forced it to either let go or come down with me. It chose to let go.
Still, the maneuver put me at a heavy disadvantage as the beast towered over me. One stomp of its foot could smash my ribs in two. Luckily, I had a plan.
Though I didn’t have much leverage, I raised my hammer and smashed the head into the ground. It was a trick I’d learned a while back and used several times before. Light burst forth upon impact and a shockwave rolled across the few feet between me and the ape.
It howled, clawing at its red flesh, a portion of which was now blackened, singed and smoking.
Hells yeah.
Actually, hells no. While my creative attack had been somewhat effective, it hadn’t killed the dude. But it had pissed him off. Royally.
I managed to regain my feet just as it launched itself at me, tackling me around the waist and forcing me back to the ground. It pressed its enormous weight down on me, rows of deadly teeth inches from my face. Yep, drool dripping down, splashing on my skin. Blech.
Even as a powerful Demigod, I don’t think I would’ve had the strength to escape this predicament. But I was not a Demigod anymore. I was a full-fledged God now, with all the advantages that come along with it. Using brute God-strength, I shoved at the bastard with the haft of my hammer, which was wedged between us. The gorilla growled as it redoubled its efforts to pin me, but I only shoved harder. It flew back and crashed spine-first into a nearby tree, which shuddered from the impact.
I pulled a karate-style kick to get back to my feet and then whirled in the direction I’d last seen the two cat-women fighting back to back.
Despite being impressive warriors in their own right, they weren’t faring too well, mostly because they had three massive apes each to contend with. Lace narrowly avoided a swipe to the head but by dodging one ape she ended up within reach of another, which took full advantage, pummeling her in the back of the head. Her head snapped to the side viciously, blood spewing from her mouth.
Maybe it was because she was upgraded to Level 4 Seeker or simply because she was a badass cat-woman with attitude, but she didn’t go down, maintaining her feet enough to stumble away from her attacker.
Silk was less fortunate. She was only Level 2 Warrior and it showed as she took a forearm shiver to the sternum. She managed to land a slash with her knife to the gorilla’s arm, but it didn’t stop him from following through, pounding her so hard she went airborne, landing hard on her back and skidding to a stop, wheezing as the air had been punched out of her lungs.
As a human, I might’ve lost my mind, going berserk having watched my two friends and occasional lovers being hurt like that. But as a God, I had far more ability to maintain calm and collected, formulating my next attacks methodically. It was like I could see each potential move in advance, as well as my foes’ potential countermoves. My brain whirred like a supercomputer, analyzing and assigning probabilities of success to the thousands of options available. Locking in on the series of moves that would result in the greatest chance of victory. All that occurred in a millisecond.
I attacked.
As I moved, my brain continued to think dozens of steps ahead, modifying my decisions depending on what my enemies did. I spun and swung my hammer, light bursting forth as I slammed the metal head into one of their chests, sliding smoothly past to ram the butt end into another ape’s gut, doubling him over and allowing me to knee him in the face. His buddies tried to close in from the sides and behind, but I had foreseen it, diving forward and well out of harm’s way, coming out of the roll back onto my feet, twirling around and swinging my hammer once more, just in time to catch one of the apes in the jaw as it launched itself at me. Another blast of blinding light, the energy catching two other apes that were hot in pursuit, causing them to howl and back away in fear of this power, which was clearly foreign to them.
Still, in the wings I sensed more apes gathering to attack. Reinforcements. Worse, there was a sound like thunder in the distance. Somewhere through the gloom, I saw a tree shaking. Not just the branches moving, like before. No, the entire tree was shaking, bending, as if shoved by an immense force with the power to snap its ten-foot diameter trunk.
What the actual fuck?
“We need to get out of here!” I shouted to Lace, who looked groggy from the blow she’d absorbed, wincing and blinking away stars as she checked her bloody lips for damage.
“You think?” she said, which was some impressive sarcasm under the circumstances.
Silk wasn’t moving, so I ran to her, picking her up and tossing her over my shoulder, hoping I wouldn’t make her injuries worse if she’d hurt her neck or spine. It wasn’t like I had time to fashion a makeshift backboard and secure her head to keep it from moving too much.
“Can you run?” I asked Lace, whose eyes had cleared somewhat.
“Faster than you, Ryder,” she boasted, which was a great sign. The real Lace was back.
“Good. Go. That way!” I pointed to an area which seemed to have less of the howling, barking apes swinging from the trees.
She bounded ahead through the undergrowth with her usual feline quickness, apparently not hampered by her injuries. I was also pretty damn fast these days, and, even carrying Silk, was able to stay with her, using my hammer to shove obstacles like tree branches and gnarled bushes aside as I made tracks as fast as possible.
Behind me I heard the apes in hot pursuit and of course the thunderous trod and cracking tree trunks of whatever else was coming for us.
Despite our own impressive speed, our pursuers were gaining on us, unhindered by the ground foliage and fallen trees, swinging through empty air with reckless abandon. Soon they were overhead and then they were past, dropping down in front of us to block our retreat.
Shit.
Lace and I skidded to a stop, eyes searching for an alternative route. Gorillas thumped down to the right. We turned left. More gorillas landed heavily. Behind us, the ground shook harder as something massive approached, tearing a path through the forest.
Not good.
“Ryder!” someone who was not Lace shouted. I recognized the voice, the familiar twang music to my ears.
A week ago, I might’ve been taken by surprise, but now my God-brain simply readjusted the variables and assumptions as my eyes locked on the dark maw of a hollowed-out tree trunk that lay on its side, decomposing. It was one of the medium-sized ones, its mouth at least ten feet high and the same length wide. In the gloom, I could make out a lone figure waving us inside. A long figure who, apparently, knew me. Which, as far as I was concerned, was a better option than the dozens of killer apes blocking our other routes.
“C’mon!” I said, grabbing Lace’s arm and shoving her toward the hollowed-out trunk. The apes realized what was happening and charged, taking well-targeted angles in an attempt to cut us off before we could reach our goal.
I slashed my hammer to the left to ward off one would-be attacker and then immediately reversed course and swept it back to the right, catching another ape in the shoulder. The resulting bursts of light scared off the other several apes trailing behind. We raced into the darkness of the trunk, careful not to collide with the figure who’d called out to us, who had stepped aside to make room. “Help me, Ryder,” she drawled, pointing at a multi-spoked crank nearby. I dropped my hammer and grabbed one of the spokes while she grabbed another. Together, we cranked the machine, deftly handing off the spokes to each other as we moved them from left to right.
Chains moved from bottom to top, dragging a thick, wooden wall of sorts. The gorillas threw themselves at it, jaws snapping. The top of the wall was carved into spikes, and one of the apes was impaled on it, blood bursting from its chest. Unfortunately, this also created a wedge, leaving an ape-sized gap that his friends would be able to climb through.
