Yo, hi and howdy and welcome to another chapter of TOADAR. This will be the last one for about a week, as I'm going away, so I'll make sure this one has a real cliffhanger ending so you'll have to wait til next week to find out what happens. I'm so evil *grin*
Chapter 39
No sooner than Joe had hit the ground than he had realised the error in his ways.
"Mesh, Joe's pendant, quick!" Mesh started running as fast as his little sloggy legs could take him back to where the Gimmakons were.
"Hey! Over here! I captured this runaway Slig! Thinks he's free!" Spade yelled.
For a split second I thought Spade had turned on me. But he was trying to help Joe.
The Big Bros were distracted long enough for Joe to slip out of their way.
Spade picked me up by the throat easily, he was very strong.
"Air mode." He whispered, and hurled me off the cliff.
"Air mode." I said once I was airborne. I heard the familiar whirring and then remembered. One of the propellers was broken. Spade had fallen before I was shot at, he didn't know.
"Oh $hit!" I heard Spade say as he realised his mistake. I was falling into the group of sligs. Suddenly I was caught, and back on the cliff. It was Joe.
"That was close..." he said.
"Way close," said Spade.
"Let's get 'em!" cried out Kripac.
I searched desperately in my pants as I ran for anything that could be used as a weapon. I had my blades, but they were close range and while I may have been able to take one down, the other 8 would kill me in no time.
We leapt off the other side of the cliff, no quite as high, and landed in a stream. We heard thumps and groans and whirrs behind us as the sligs gave chase. Bullets whizzed past my head as I ran. Spade couldn't go as fast as Joe and I could, and tripped over. We struggled to lift him, as the pants were so heavy. Suddenly we heard a cross between a hoot and a high shrill and watched in wonderment as the Elum the sligs had poked ran to our aid and helped push Spade back up.
It ran alongside us, hooting and shrieking. We came to a huge log. The Elum leapt over it with ease, as did myself and Joe.
Spade instead picked the log up, and hurled it at the sligs. I couldn't believe it. The log was absolutely huge, but he'd lifted it like a twig. From the loud thump and the moans coming behind us, I assumed he'd taken at least one of them out. I glanced behind me, counting only 8, the ninth one trapped under the log behind them.
"Guys!!!! Like, help me!! Guys!!!"
"One down," I yelled as we came out of the creek and started climbing uphill amongst rocks and moss, trees hanging down overhead. The Sligs wouldn't have such an easy time with this one. I was about to drive my blades into the rock for support, and had a brilliant idea. I slid back down the hill just as the sligs were about to start climbing it.
"Shred, what the hell are you doing?!" yelled Joe.
"Don't worry!"
I ran around the confused sligs, ending behind them, standing alongside the stream. They were standing in it.
"Hi guys." I said as my blades crackled.
Three of them realised.
Kripac, Guntha and Dorzen leapt out of the stream, fear wild in their eyes.
"Get out you idiots! Get out!" Before the not-too-bright 5 remaining Sligs could get out, I had put my blades in the stream. If it wasn't such a serious moment it would've been hilarious. The five sligs started vibrating rapidly, sparks shooting from their pants and mask, and started flashing different colours. One second they were green, the next they were a fluorescent blue, then they went see through, blood pulsing and heart pumping rapidly. They started smoking then, screaming, then they each dropped, one by one into the river, dead. Wild cheers erupted from the hill from Joe and Spade. But Dorzen, Kripac and Guntha were snapped back to reality and charged at me furiously. I heard a clicking noise. For a moment I'd thought he'd run out of ammo. Before I had time to finish the thought I could no longer see Dorzens head, as it was engulfed in the tentacle of a Gimmakon, the rows of teeth crushing Dorzens mask. He screamed as using its two powerfully muscled arms, the Gimmakon took Dorzens arms and snapped them. Guntha and Kripac's eyes grew wide with fear as the Gimmakon released Dorzen, dead, and started moving towards them. As the Gimmakon walked he swung the tentacle beneath him like a club, lifting a leg whenever the tentacle came past to go underneath. Guntha and Kripac started running towards the stream, but then turned back as soon as I held up my still crackling blades. When they turned around, there were three Gimmakons instead of one.
"Go! Back to the village!" one of the Gimmakons barked. It was Raker.
I didn't ask any questions. I ran back up the hill, hearing the now distant screams of the sligs as they were attacked by the Gimmakons.
"Where... is the village?" I panted.
I heard an excited squeak and looked down. Mesh was running around in circles, chasing a moth. He caught the moth and ate it, then started running deeper into the jungle.
"Follow him I guess." I said. We started chasing Mesh, Elum still alongside us.
Suddenly I tripped and fell face first into the dirt.
"Owww." I think I broke a tentacle.
Then I felt huge pressure and pain on my back. I looked up, but a huge hand was pressing my head into the ground. I could only see the dirt. I could hear nothing, except the breathing of whatever was on me. I couldn't hear Mesh's squeaks, excited he had saved the day. I couldn't hear Joe complaining about how Mesh's sense of navigation was probably very unreliable and was he was probably just taking us to a dead Fuzzle or something. I couldn't hear Spade's pants whirring. I couldn't hear the Elums shrieks.
What I did hear, however, was a very familiar voice.
"Hello, Shred."
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