Traveling companions. All searching for something.

Sometimes at a price.

Ju'unga took up his two-handed hammer and charged out from behind the rock shelf.

CRACK! CRACK!

Elishev peeked around the corner. A few dozen strides away, Ju'unga viciously assaulted the giant sulfur-slug.

Blow after heavy blow smashed into the same section of the carapace. Web-like cracks formed, widening with every hit.

Elishev saw the slug's skin through those cracks. It had been maroon and was now a definitive red. The slug was no longer moving forward. Ju'unga had its attention.

CRACK!

A hand-sized piece fell away. Ju'unga's next swing buried the hammer's head deep into the soft, exposed flesh.

Instantaneously, the skin gleamed the brightest of reds. Elishev heard Shevra yell Ju'unga's name from her position up on the hill where she and the Priest were safe. Ju'unga was supposed to run to the rock once the slug was upset. Elishev pulled back behind the protective barrier. He hunched down and hoped the runes were strong enough to keep the stone ledge intact. He really wanted to live.

An explosion consumed Elishev and the world around him, smashing him to the ground!

Dust filled his heaving lungs, and his ears rang. He fought dizziness as he stood, stumbling more than once in a desperate rush to the glowing slug visible through the dirt-filled air.

A huge form lay at the edge of the stone ledge, but Elishev did not stop. He hurdled Ju'unga's prone body, fleetingly noting the carapace chunks lodged in the Donkadur's back.

Elishev quickly covered the short distance to the unarmored slug and shoved a bladed tube into its bright red flesh. It flinched but otherwise showed no aggression, relying entirely on its explosion to have wiped out any threat.

He turned to see Shevra hunched over Ju'unga, shaking the warrior and yelling. She looked up towards Elishev, screaming and pointing menacingly. Elishev's ears still rang, but he did not need them to understand that Shevra blamed him for the downed Donkadur.

An epic fantasy adventure.

Sign up now to get the most out of Books2Read

Discover something great at Books2Read.

Thanks for signing up for Books2Read notifications!