Page 31 of Unleashed

“Treeclaws!” she yelled. She rolled onto her back as the creature swung itself to the underside of the tree limb overhead, using its numerous upper arms to haul itself toward her. She reached for the dagger on her belt.

“Nina!” Balir shouted.

The shaft of a spear appeared in the corner of her vision, held up from below. She wrapped her fingers around it and thrust it upward with all her strength as the treeclaw dropped.

The sharpened point hit the beast in its exposed throat. She grasped the spear with her other hand as hot blood flowed down the shaft and over her fingers. Wincing against the exertion, she shifted the treeclaw’s momentum past her. Its weight tugged the blood-slick weapon from her hands.

The beast’s thrashing, impaled body tumbled into the water with a splash.

Warbling calls sounded in the branches all around as Balir and Aduun pulled themselves up beside Nina. Aduun’s quills were raised in agitation, and he held his claws at the ready.

“Have you been harmed?” he asked, glancing at her bloody hands.

“No.” She wiped her sticky fingers on her skirt.

Balir offered her the remaining spear. She gripped the shaft, and he held it firm as she pulled herself to her feet. “I should have noticed them sooner,” he growled.

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Nina said as Balir released the spear. She watched as spindly, many-limbed treeclaws swung from branch to branch, closing in from all sides. “Can you get up in time, Vortok?”

“No,” he called from below, “but the water is not rising as quickly. I can hold here.”

A pair of the treeclaws dropped onto Nina’s branch, landing to either side of her and her two valos. Despite its thickness, the branch stuttered and swayed under the weight of the beasts, causing Nina’s stomach to lurch. More creatures moved over them, rustling leaves and snapping twigs. She’d never heard of so many treeclaws gathering to hunt the same prey.

The things were terrifying enough when they were alone.

Balir smoothly swapped positions with Nina, placing himself between her and one of the treeclaws.

“Take the spear,” she said.

“Watch above,” he replied before the creature in front of him attacked.

Balir moved with surreal speed and control, faster than any man — or shrieker — she’d ever seen. His bursts of movement stopped with mind-boggling immediacy as he dodged the flailing, thrashing limbs of the attacking creature. He lashed out with his own claws, severing one of those spindly limbs as he released a piercing shriek.

Aduun snarled behind Nina. She chanced a glance over her shoulder to see him with two of the treeclaw’s legs caught in each hand. He wrenched the long, thin limbs apart, snapping bone, and sank his teeth into the creature’s throat.

The blood seemed to send the other treeclaws into a frenzy. Several leapt from adjacent branches to join the attack on the valos, and Vortok grunted and roared below as more attempted to swarm him.

Watch above.

Nina shook off the crimson haze threatening to overwhelm her — the combined bloodlust of the treeclaws and her valos — and turned her attention upward. Adjusting her hold on her spear, she jabbed the point several times in quick succession at an approaching beast. It snapped at her with a mouthful of sharp teeth, but her weapon met its flesh again and again, opening numerous minor wounds, keeping it at bay. Finally, the creature screeched in pain and retreated.

Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t block the numerous mental projections, so she embraced some of that fury. She bared her teeth and growled when another treeclaw took the wounded creature’s place. Her spear thrust buried the tip of her weapon in the treeclaw’s ribs. Blood dripped onto her cheek, but she didn’t flinch away from it.

Before she could tug her weapon free, the beast twisted, tearing the shaft out of her hands.

Nina stumbled forward, thrusting her arms to the sides to regain her balance. The pounding of her racing heart drowned out all other sound as fear coiled in her gut.

But this was survival. This was what Quinn and Orishok had prepared her for. Fear would not be her master.

Dropping a hand to her belt, she tugged her dagger free and turned to face the injured treeclaw as it lowered itself onto her branch.

Driven purely by instinct, she stepped into the only open space — between the beast’s long arms — and swung her arm in an upward arc. The point of the dagger plunged into the underside of the creature’s jaw, burying the blade to the hilt. The fleshy, violet frill around the treeclaw’s neck quivered, and fresh blood pumped over Nina’s hand.

The creature sagged forward. Before it fell atop her, Aduun roared, dragging the twitching carcass backward. The dagger’s handle slipped out of her gore-slickened palm, and the weapon fell with the body as Aduun heaved it off the branch to tumble into the water below. She met his gaze for an instant.

He sported several fresh wounds, and his eyes were wild and bright, but she knew somehow that he sawherthrough it all. His thoughts flowed into her; he was excited, impressed,aroused.

Then another treeclaw crashed into Nina from the side, enwrapping her in its gangly legs. She saw Aduun’s eyes flare before her feet left the branch and she was falling, rushing to meet the angry, debris-filled water below. She cut off her blossoming scream, sucked in a breath, and squeezed her eyes shut.

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