[Dave]

I decide to do something completely unexpected and post two chapters on the same day! Who would've guessed?

Chapter 18

First things first: I had to pick out the totem. In a frantic effort, I rampaged through the sheets of hail, ignoring the screaming and tearing sounds of the scrabs and the sounds of the dead thunder above me, and groped out for the nearest totem pole.
My hands touched something cold, wet, and wooden—a totem! I quickly removed my earring and looked for an opening, as I had found on the paramite pole. I figured that it would be around the middle, since that was where the spot was when I gained the paramite power. But, no such luck. The only openings were in the statue-scrab’s open jaws, but those were pointing in opposite directions.
Eighty seconds to live.
I turned and followed the gaze of one of the statue scrabs. It was looking directly toward (what I thought might have been) another totem. I chased my way over to it, and inspected the middle of it. No opening! I followed the gaze of another statue scrab and took off for the next pole.
Seventy seconds to live.
I passed a pole that caught my interest on the way to the pole the second one had been looking at. This pole had two scrab heads looking off in different directions, just like all the others. But the heads seemed closer together than the others had. Then the answer came to me: the wrong totems all looked at each other, but not the right one!
Sixty seconds to live.
I jammed my earring out, and held it in the space between the two heads, hoping I was right (and also stubbing m fist into the wooden pole, but I ignored that). And thankfully, there was a brief, faint light illuminating and warming my hand. A grin stretched across my tired face. But, as I put the earring back on, my thoughts quickly turned to my next Flash-empowering. There were no mudokons around here, that was for sure.
Fifty seconds to live.
I had to try something, so I called on Patch again. ⌠Hey, dude. Make a bird portal and send me the first mudokon you can find. My life is at stake, do it now, ask me no questions.⌡
I heard a simple ⌠Yup⌡ in response, and had to wait.
Forty seconds to live.
I heard a quiet sound, almost like a quire of angels through the rain, coming from my right. I turned in time to see a rip in space, and a frail green mudokon stumbled through. He was instantly soaked. The rip stayed open, and I could see the town center of Oblim beyond, and a worried Patch chanting to keep the gate open.
Thirty-five seconds to live.
In a flood of speech, I hissed at this mudokon. “Alright, guy, I need you to stick your hand in between the two scrab-shaped heads on this totem pole. It’ll probably hurt a bit, but that’s not important now. Then I need you to give me scrab power. Then jump through that gate and pray for me. Do it or we are both toast.”
Twenty-five seconds to live.
Obviously terrified (and failing miserably at hiding it), he lurched forward and held out his hand, face down, right where I had told him to. Another dull flash, and he grunted. I pulled on his hand and looked at it. A large letter C was scarred on his hand, and a crude scrab drawing surrounded it.
Fifteen seconds to live. (It occurred to me now how long a couple seconds really is, and how much you could accomplish in such a short time.)
“Okay, now I need that scrab power!” I practically screamed at him. “Please!”
And he said, in a comically high voice, “Okay, dude, chill. Anything for Mister Dante!”
I didn’t see him do anything, but something definitely did happen.
Ten seconds to live.
“Alright, guy, if I live, I promise to get to know you a bit better. Now get out of here!”
He turned and jumped back through the portal, and Patch stopped chanting. I saw him look up and flash a quick “You can do it!” thumbs-up.
Five seconds to live.
I pressed my hands together and chanted.
The bones in my legs split in two, so that I had two full sets of leg bones inside each one. Then they pulled away from each other, splitting my legs vertically. My feet shriveled and came to deadly points. My skin was already becoming a bright reddish-orange.
Four seconds to live.
The muscles in my chest began to bulk up, to toughen. My arms, in answer, shriveled and wasted down to nothing. Eventually they simply shortened into stubs, then into lumps on my shoulders, and then into nothing. My spine stretched out, elongating my torso. My pelvic bone suddenly jutted out to the left and right, and my four legs quickly adjusted,
Three seconds to live.
My neck, with my spine, began to stretch up and out, and my face elongated. My jaw, as with the paramite morph, elongated a ridiculous amount, coming to a point—the part scrabs used to shish kebob mudokon meat. My eyes forced themselves closed, and they flattened into my skull, finally disappearing entirely.
Two seconds to live.
My already poor teeth become choppy and serrated, and my tongue disappeared entirely. Meanwhile, the scrab brain was starting up, and initiating all the basic instincts: PROTECT MY TERRITORY, EAT, and DANTE. As with the scrab, I was an overriding instinct that instructed the body what to do.
One second to live.
I heard the fierce cry of the last scrab standing. My scrab instinct kicked in.
A CHALLENGER? But this was MY TERRITORY. None shall CHALLENGE me on my own TERRITORY.
I raised my head into the storm (my scrab mind thought little of it, like “Oh, look, it’s raining … who cares?”) and screamed. This unlocked a fierce energy from somewhere below my stomach. It quickly spread into my legs, my chest, and especially in my mouth parts. THE SHREDDING POWER had been charged.
Zero seconds to live. Go time.
After a sudden burst of psychic clicking (scrab sonar), my brain had mapped out the entire area. Everything within a twenty yard radius was recorded into my mind. I saw every detail, but especially the forward progression of my CHALLENGER.
I launched myself at this foolish CHALLENGER, and the scrab in my mind suddenly knew all it needed to know to win. It could determine my/it’s opponent’s age, experience, speed, and stamina. I knew I was quicker, and could stab my jaw harder, but this guy had more fighting experience.
He was one me and I was on him. Legs stabbed out and tripped. Jaws struck out and stabbed. We danced around in a furor that separated us from everything. There could’ve been two thousand sligs pointing guns at us, and we wouldn’t have noticed. There could’ve been ten million slow, weak, and dying animals crawling about (and in a scrab’s mind, anything slow, weak, and/or dying may as well have had a big neon sign that read Come eat me! hanging over it’s head), and we wouldn’t have seen.
It was all him and me. I know that you might be thinking I’m going a bit overboard in describing this feeling of just me and my CHALLENGER, but I don’t think I’ve emphasized it enough. Hell, we could’ve been under water, in a desert, or in outer space for all we could tell.
We had been fighting off each other’s attacks for about three seconds when I saw an opening for a death-blow. Naturally, I took it. My jaw streamed forward into the chest of my foolish CHALLENGER, right where I knew his heart was. He wailed in agony, and it was a cry of DEFEAT. That sound was pure ecstasy to my scrab mind, and I relished it. With a cry of TRIUMPH, I began to dance on the carcass, ripping it apart and pulverizing it, preparing it for my scrab mouth.
It was time for me to EAT. And I had earned this meal.


I hope you enjoyed this chapter. More coming soon!