Page 63 of Taken to Heimo
I round his form and kick his gruesomely large hand away from her. I grab the sword in her hand and stab through his wrist…
…blood wets my entire right side as I transfer my sword to my left hand. The Oosa won’t die and the Niahhorru won’t give up. He comes at me again, but the Oosa blocks his path and engages him, leaving me to deal with the Oosa to my left.
It comes at me in a gelatinous blue mass, its lust for Svera radiating through it in sharp colors as it squeals its delight. The tip of my sword does little against its flesh as I cut into it again and again and again, exhausting myself.That’s what they want. Their strategy…I jump back, revolving around the thing and forcing it to give chase.
To my right, the Niahhorru screams and I look over just as the Oosa slides on top of him, muffling his cries, suffocating him as it slides its amorphous shape into his nostrils, mouth and eye-sockets, aiming for his brain.Nox, this will not be my end and it xoking won’t be Svera’s.
A flash of pain lights up my spine and I spin and kick out at the Avmar, whose long, sharp forearm is steeped in my blood. A lot of it. I feel nothing of pain. All I feel is the terrified pounding of Svera’s heart underneath my sternum. Her fragrant smoke, that woodsy euphoria, is all I can taste…
…the Avmar rears up onto its four hind-legs and I stab upward, catching the thing in between two joints. I have him…but I’m too focused that I don’t notice the Oosa until he slings into me, knocking me off of my feet.
The Avmar takes that to its advantage and brings its foreleg down sharply to pierce my shoulder. A scream sets my entire world on fire because I know that it’s Svera’s and it’s gettinglouder.
“Nox!” I roar as the sight of Svera’s glowing hair flames into view over the sight of the Oosa’s body. Though they have no eyes, I can sense its delight as it starts to shift its attention towards her and I can’t move. And she’s coming closer. And she has no xoking weapon — she’s holding her carpet!
It’s rolled up in her hands and she uses it like a bat, swatting at the Oosa. The thing rears up and squeals in confusion, but when Svera swats at it again, shouting obscenities I didn’t even know she knew, it backs away.
I would have laughed if the Avmar hadn’t taken my distraction to its advantage. It comes down again, piercing me in the stomach. I roar and see my sword’s hilt still protruding from its leg. I force myself up, through the agony, and grab hold of it. When I wrench back, I tear the Avmar’s front leg apart at the joint. It screeches its terrible screech and rears back, pulling its leg free of my gut and giving me the space I need to switch around onto one knee and use both hands to stab up into its belly where the carapace does not reach.
The scream that tears out of it is enough to make me stagger. It rips its second limb out of my shoulder, taking my body with it and I’m flying over the sand as it falls. I can’t stay down and am up again, though my vision is starting to blur and darkness is beginning to encroach.
On my feet, two holes decorate my body that are so wide I can feel the hot air pass straight through me. And still, I see the Oosa reflected blue in Svera’s eyes as she throws her carpet over its gelatinous form. It screeches its frustration as it tries to pull her into its body and I waver as I start towards it…
…Svera has her carpet in her hands again and is swatting at the Oosa, but it’s backed her against the arena wall and that same xoking tentacled spectator has reached down from the stands and grabbed her by the hair.
She flails, drops her carpet — her only defense — and kicks with her legs. I try to tell Svera to run, but my jaw isn’t working.
Suddenly, one of the thin creatures I discounted slices through the tentacle, spilling bright orange blood everywhere. While the tentacle flails and the owner it belongs to shrieks its agony, Svera’s savior shoves her back so hard it knocks her off her feet. The creature is hardly larger than she is, cloaked from head to toe in black. I can’t see what species it is, but I’m surprised when it calls out to me in Meero.
“Throw me your grenade!”
The voice is rough and the sword arm rougher as it stabs into the Oosa with a thin, whetted blade. It pierces the gelatinous husk of the creature, but does little damage…then I understand. I free the grenade from the grip on my wrist and toss it. The hooded figure snatches it from the air, then shoves it deep into the Oosa’s core next to its small glowing heart.
The explosion sends blue matter flying. It slashes over me, tasting like the ocean…
…there is only this. Only blue. Svera’s behind me, shouting my name. I’m afraid for her, but the cloaked figure that has remained largely out of the fray up to now has shown itself…capable…and seems to be fighting for her, too.
The two of us revolve around the remaining Oosa, striking, cutting it down…but it’s smart. It won’t let us get close enough after it saw what happened to the other one…
…I spin and slash. The Oosa hurtles towards me, but I jump out of its path…the cloaked figure is limping worse than it was, but it, too, narrowly manages to avoid the Oosa’s strike.
And then I realize with horror that it wasn’t aiming for us.
Svera stands near the edge of the arena wall holding her carpet in one hand, her thin sword in the other. She’s staring at me, but I can’t get to her fast enough.
“Run,” I start to say, but the voice of the hooded warrior is louder than mine is.
“Oosa,” comes the rugged shout. “You want a female?”
The figure rips away its hood and yanks down on its black mask, revealing a face as brown as many of the human faces I have seen on Svera’s colony. It contrasts violently against hair as white as any Drakesh’s — as white as mine. Cut short against her head, the white cloud forms rings and rings of curls.
When the female turns and looks at me, I see that her eyes aren’t like Svera’s, but they aren’t like mine. Those eyes are just as white as that hair until all at once, they shift, becoming black. Unsettling, this creature. Thishybrid.
She is female.
She is human.
She is Drakesh.
