the monster’s voice spoke in a raspy tone. “There will be no mercy this time.“Are you alone? Are there others here who will be able to witness the pain you’re about to suffer?” she asked as she lashed her tail free from the hardened rock that surrounded it.Marco stared in shock and consternation. He was hundreds if not thousands of miles from the location of the Echidna’s cave in northern Arima, and it seemed impossible to imagine that he faced the monster in an unknown cavern far, far to the south. And with his weakness from over-use of his energies already, he knew he could be no match for the monster that held a grudge against him.He took a breath, or started to, until the pain in his ribs stopped him. He shook his head as some fog seemed to clear, and he remembered the spring water of Diotima, available to heal him in his left hand. If only he had a day to drink and heal before facing an unwinnable challenge, he thought to himself as he hurriedly sucked the water and swallowed it.The sweet taste of the water calmed him slightly. He dimmed his hand’s light and watched as Echidna finished freeing herself from the encasement that Marco had thought would last for decades.The monster herself seemed to glow with a ruddy color. Marco extinguished the light from his hand, and saw her visibly moving about in the darkness. He gingerly moved away from his location, wondering if there was a way to hide and then escape; he had no illusions about the possibility of winning a battle.The Echidna began to move towards Marco, and as it approached its glow increased, adding an unworldly element to its already disturbing appearance. “Are you going to be soft Marco, or stringy? I’m hungry after such a long time entombed in the stonework, so I’m ready to eat you in either case, one bite of living flesh at a time.”She pounced suddenly as she spoke the last word. Her extraordinarily quick movement caught Marco off-guard, as she seemed too far away from him to be able to reach him, but as she threw her torso towards him and stretched her arms out to grasp him in her claws, he shouted in fright and swung his sword wildly.She had misjudged her attack. Too vengefully eager to reach him after her long captivity, she had launched herself while still just a few inches too far away. Marco’s sword came down, and the keen edge of his blade sliced through the knuckles of two fingers on one hand, spurting droplets of her burning black blood across the front of his chest and his face.Marco shouted in pain and grabbed a handful of soil that he smeared upon his face and his chest as he backpedaled away from her. He then sucked on his finger and spit into the palm of his hand, and spread the moisture further around on his wounds.The Echidna in the meantime also screamed in agony and pulled her injured fingers away from him. She reared up and back, gripping the one hand in the other as she stared up at the ceiling and howled in pain, a terrible keening sound that pierced Marco’s ears painfully.“How dare you?”
What do You think about The Southern Trail (Book 4)?
