Page 14 of Monster Lover

“We’ll see,” Daemona said, as she vanished.

Daemona suddenly appeared before the huge creature. “Hello.”

It looked almost like a giant baby with fat pudgy rolls but there were three big faces looking back at Daemona, and all three mouths hung open with twisting, looking teeth. Its eyes went big at the sight of her and all three heads said simultaneously, “Yum!”

It dropped the torn carcass of who-knew-what and lunged for her with fingers that turned into suckered tentacles.

Daemona ported backward ten feet, and still the behemoth almost got her again. For something with such big flabby arms, it was incredibly fast. It was all Daemona could do to keep porting backward to keep ahead of the amorphous monster.

Behind them, Harlin and Ghul Lykos were running at a furious pace to catch up.

“I’m gonna eat you up!” cried the Ettin-thing.

Daemona started to panic; she had never had to port this many times to escape anything and her energy felt sapped. She could not keep this up. Soon she wouldn’t be able t run let alone port. She was starting to get tired, and the huge monster was still thundering toward her. She knew she couldn’t keep up this pace and needed the help of the others. She gritted her teeth, drew her daggers, and stood her ground.

The Ettin-thing reached for her, and she swung her blades in a fury. She cut one of its hands, but it simply morphed away the wounds, sealing in seconds the gashes that a normal creature would have taken weeks to recover from. But while Daemona pondered that, the other hand reached and took her about the shoulders in an icy, crushing grip.

“You look so yummy,” two of the three voices said. The other one just opened wide, and a tongue came snaking out and slapped her across her face.

Daemona ported away. She was free, and instantly the monster seized her again. She ported and was caught again. Why couldn’t she get far enough away? The monstrous grip knocked the air from her lungs.

Then the Ettin-thing cried out as Ghul Lykos and Harlin attacked its backside.

It swung about violently to face them. Daemona was free again to catch her breath. A light danced in front of her face and she knew she must be more hurt than she initially guessed. A massive flabby foot almost stepped on her. She had just rolled away when she was certain that a circle of light caught her eye.

“Daemona! Can you get up? We need your help,” called Harlin as he swung mightily at the monster.

She got to her knees and took a deep breath. The circle of light in front of her solidified and she could see green trees and water beyond them in a sunlit vista.

The monster roared a challenge, and Daemona ported to the back of the monster and plunged her daggers in to the hilt.

It slammed her against the etherium walls and she ported away before being crushed.

“I think we found the exit!” she shouted.

“I see it!” affirmed Ghul Lykos.

“We can’t get past this beast yet!” yelled Harlin, as Daemona slashed again at the mountainous flab.

Daemona tried her attack again, and this time the Ettin-thing went down and rolled across the tunnel floor. Ghul Lykos and Harlin raced over the monster and Daemona ported after them.

They raced to reach the shrinking doorway.

“Tish’s ritual must be wearing out—we have to hurry!”

The circular doorway was shrinking rapidly, and Daemona panicked, porting to catch the others as the Ettin-thing roared and raced behind her.

Harlin made it through, then Ghul Lykos, just barely. Daemona was halfway out when the Ettin-thing grasped her about the waist with its fleshy tentacles and pulled her back into the dark. Within seconds, the portal shrank from the size of a wagon wheel to a foxhole.

***

Harlin lunged back into the portal for her, but Ghul Lykos drew him back. “I can’t have you losing an arm,” he said as the hole shrank rapidly down to the size of a rabbit’s burrow.

Harlin shouted, “No! Daemona!” He pulled away from Ghul Lykos’s grip and tried again, but the portal was shrinking incredibly fast.

“She’s’ gone,” said Ghul Lykos. “I’m sorry.”

The monster inside bellowed and then was silent as the portal winked out of existence.

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