Page 55 of A Sky of Storms
I bolted into the trees again, my side screaming with the movement, the monster once again hot on my tail. Suddenly I was tugged to the right and almost fell on my ass. I swiped my sword through the air, my eyes going wide as Ace ducked to avoid losing his head.
“Easy, Merman!” Ace exclaimed, jumping back. “This way!”
He turned, not waiting to see if I would follow. Lucky for him, I was a good boy, so I ran after him. Behind me, the monster was growing more agitated, its growls rumbling through the forest. It didn’t come after me and Ace, so I assumed Noah was providing some sort of distraction again. Ace led me to where the monster’s thorny tail was slashing around, smashing into trees and causing them to topple. I dodged a falling branch as Ace leapt onto its tail and started to climb, using its spikes for purchase.
The dude didn’t baulk at anything, I’d give him that. I was no coward either, so I waited for the tail to come back down from its latest swipe and jumped up, grabbing the monster’s stone flesh with one hand and keeping my sword in my other. It was going to be hard to climb it with only one hand and a bleeding side, but I had nowhere to sheath my sword, so I’d have to make do. Luckily, I was the future king of Terrulia and nothing was going to get in my way.
I followed Ace up, slipping a couple of times because no one was perfect—not even kings. The monster continued to roar and moved around like he had ants in his stony pants. Noah was doing an excellent job at distracting the thing, but I just wished he’d not make it move around so much. When I got past the rocky skin, it became much easier to climb as the root-like veins were easier to grasp. Ahead of me, Ace was leaning against one of the larger back spines, having a little break like climbing a monster was no big deal.
“Throw me the sword!” he called, holding his hand out.
I hesitated only a second. Friendships were built on trust and I had a feeling Ace was going to be a bestie one of these days. You didn’t slay monsters with just anyone. I threw it to him and he caught it in his bionic hand, the metal clanking loudly. The monster must have heard it because it roared loudly and reared back. I quickly grabbed hold of the black vein before me, my fingers breaking the fibrous material, causing purple blood to rush out and coat me from head to toe. It must have hurt because the monster started shaking like a dog just after a bath. I held on for dear life, my fingers barely able to keep my grip through all the blood. I couldn’t stay where I was, so I tried to climb through the tossing and turning, scaling the monster like he was a mountain.
Ace must have had the same idea as he too was pushing on, using the sword to stay on the monster’s back by digging it into its flesh with each move upwards. Below, I could hear Noah shouting and the monster stopped shaking as it began running through the trees. Branches and leaves flew around me as it sped away, the latter sticking to me thanks to all the blood that was coating my skin.
“Hold on tight!” Ace shouted as he made his way onto the base of the monster’s head where it met the creature’s neck.
The skin there was soft and a giant vein pulsed rapidly. I quickly gripped whatever I could before he lifted the sword and slammed it into that vein. Blood burst everywhere and the monster let out a strangled roar. It bucked and Ace slipped, but I reached out and caught his ankle before he could go flying to the ground. Every part of my body howled, the cuts on my side burning, but I held onto Ace in my bloody grip. Couldn’t let my saviour die, could I?
To say the monster was unimpressed would have been the understatement of the millennia. It tossed and growled, its claws slicing in our direction as it fought to find what had punctured it. I started to worry that Ace’s attack had done nothing until I noticed its yellow eyes starting to roll around. The monster’s steps became clumsy and the next thing I knew we were falling to the forest floor.
I tumbled from the monster’s back and landed on top of Ace, knocking him into the ground.
“Sorry,” I groaned, rolling off him. I lay on my back, panting and trying to catch my breath as the monster took its last beside me. I ignored the fact that I was still coated in blood because if I thought too much about the purple stuff and how it was probably in my gills or mixing with my own blood in the cuts on my side, I think I’d be sick and now was not the time to throw up.
“Guys?” Noah shouted for us, his voice getting louder with each call. “Guys!”
He appeared at my side, completely in the nude. The guy was a unit that’s for sure. No wonder I’d spotted Fallon fucking him with her eyes when she thought no one was looking.
“Are you both okay?”
“Not my best,” I replied, gripping my side with sticky fingers. “Maybe give me a minute to fix my hair?”
Noah huffed a laugh then frowned at Ace. “How’d you know to stab it there?”
“A hunch,” Ace said as he sat up and shrugged. “Things like that always have a weakness in video games and movies and shit. I just figured that looked like the least armoured area and went for it.”
“You climbed that thing on a hunch from a video game?” Noah baulked. “Course you did.”
“Fucking paid off though, didn’t it?”
“Genius,” I said, grinning, though it was pained. “You’re one clever kelp cookie.”
Ace rolled his eyes and glared in my direction, but I could tell that deep down it was all a façade. He liked me, I knew it.
“Are you alone?” Noah asked, glancing around as though expecting someone to be hiding in the trees.
Something clenched in my chest because Fallon had been trying to lure the monster away, but if it had come back then where was she?
“Get dressed,” I told him, rising to my feet and rubbing blood from my face. I ignored how my body hurt. Starfish needed me and I wouldn’t let her down. “We have to find Fallon.”
Ace folded his arms over his chest and stood his ground. “Why should I help her?”
“Because she’s my Starfish!” I stared at him with my mouth as wide as a whale’s at his bogus question.
Ace levelled a glare at me. “So?”
“Safety in numbers?” Noah suggested with a shrug. “Come on, we need to keep moving.”
