Page 77 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“He’ll be fine. We’ve got plenty of Skal to keep both him and you fueled and alive,” Tamora assured me. “Now, have I introduced you properly to Titus yet?”
Her bodyguard stepped forward. He’d been standing too far back for me to see him, but now I had an unimpeded view of all six and a half feet of him. He stared down at me from over harsh cheekbones, and his muscles rippled beneath tattoos and chest armor as he vaulted over the railing to drop to my deck level.
He landed with a heavy thud that shook the wooden planks beneath me, and I stumbled back.
“Hi, Titus,” I gulped.
“Don’t worry, Blue,” Tamora sang. “It’s just a play-match. No Skal-weapons, and while Titus does play rough, if the worst happens, you’ll wake up back at home unharmed.”
The scars on the palm of my hand itched, and I glared over Titus’s shoulder at Galahad. I didnotwant to waste one of my dwindling lives on a demonstration match against the human embodiment of protein shakes and creatine.
Unfortunately, like nearly everything else that had happened in Skalterra, it didn’t seem like I was going to be given much of a choice. Titus lurched forward, and I stumbled away.
“But what if I hurt him?” I called up to Tamora, dancing out of the way of Titus’s massive fists. He chased after me with lumbering steps.
“This is what I pay him for. He’ll be fine. Now show me your tricks, Nightmare! This voyage has been boring. Entertain us!”
Titus already had me cornered against the railing. Water rushed behind me, split by the bow of the steamboat, and my blue hair twisted in the wind as Titus grinned.
He fell forward in a fresh attack with his hands outstretched, and I let my bone shards burst free of my forearms. I gritted my teeth against the hot, slicing pain as sharp bone shot through muscle and skin.
The boney razors glinted red with my own blood as I raised them in defense, and Titus howled as they dug through the meat of his arms.
“Boring!” Tamora called. “You already showed me that one! I want something new!”
Titus grabbed a bone spike in each of his massive hands and snapped them like twigs. I willed more muscle mass into my legs and launched at him, tackling him around his middle.
Heavy, I thought to myself.Be heavy.
I found the same warm trickle of Skal in my chest that I’d felt the other night. I drew on it and felt my limbs turn heavy with muscle. I landed with Titus pinned under me, but his arms were free. He reached out to grab at me, so I willed talon-like claws into my hands and forced both of his arms back to the deck.
His hands glowed red, and a javelin spear materialized in his grip, growing outwards with the pointed-tip towards my face.
“You said no weapons!” I yelled at Tamora, rolling off of Titus to dodge his attack.
“Oops,” she called back. Titus hurled the javelin, and I ducked to the side. It splintered into shards of light against the cliff face behind me.
Titus procured two new javelins, hurling them one after the other. I dodged the first one, but the second one followed too quickly. Without time to dodge, I pulled more Skal from that trickling stream in my chest and focused on my leather armor, feeling it grow heavier as it hardened into thick kevlar.
The force of the javelin blow sent me stumbling backwards against the rail, and I looked over my shoulder at the dark river water that swirled below.
“Galahad!” I called. “Make her stop this!”
He knew I had limited lives. If he really did need me to protect Fana, then it was in his best interest to make Tamora call off her bodyguard.
There was a heavy thud up above, and I looked up to see Galahad slumped against the upper railing.
“Galahad?”
Titus bore down on me, and I ducked away, leaving him to slam into the railing. He lunged again. I was too slow this time. He caught me around the throat, and I clawed at his calloused hands. His fingers tightened until lights burst in my vision.
“That’s enough, Titus,” a cool voice warned.
Titus let go, and I dropped to the deck, massaging my neck and forcing air back into my lungs as I gathered my bearings.
The clicking of Tamora’s boots descending the staircase brought my attention back upwards. Her red orbs of light followed her through the air, and I braced myself as she approached.
She leaned down to inspect my chest armor in the glow of her Skal-lights.
