CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED
The Keuja moved forward, its tentacles flailing madly at the air. Abe did not waste time firing at it; instead, he turned and ran as fast as he could, away from the monster.
“Everybody get away from it!” he screamed. “Run and shoot at its eyes as you do!”
Following his own advice, he whirled and yanked the trigger, aiming his gun up at the Keuja’s unarmored eyes. His lasers pinged off the monster’s armor and ricocheted into the sky. The huge creature moved slowly, stretching out its legs to follow Abe as if it had not walked in a century – which, Abe surmised, might be the truth.
None of his shots made it to the eyes; the tentacles blurred into the way much faster than its legs could move, and to his surprise swatted away the lasers as if they were nothing but pestering flies. Abe kept running backwards, still holding down the trigger. More lasers flew at the Keuja from the sides, but they all bounced off its thick plate armor.
“YOU ARE ALL FOOLS TO RESIST THE KEUJA!” it thundered at them, and half-turned to regard a band of Sligs that were firing at it. “WHY DO YOU INSIST ON DEATH AND NOT SLAVERY?”
Abe stumbled on something; he glanced at it and recognized it as a Slig hand grenade. As he picked it up and thumbed the switch to Explode-On-Impact, he shouted, “Keuja, we all know what slavery is like, and we don’t want to go back!”
He flicked his wrist and chucked the grenade.
The Keuja started to turn and look at him –
The grenade struck the immense monster on the snout and exploded in its face with a satisfying conflagration.
For a moment, the Keuja leaned back, staggered by the sheer force of the blast – but then it recovered quickly. Abe was shocked to see that its armor was not even scorched from the explosion.
The Keuja waved one of its forearms, and a triple bolt of lightning flashed out to disintegrate three Mudokons next to Abe. “I AM THE KEUJA! NOTHING CAN STOP ME!”
Abe was not inclined to disagree at the moment.
The Keuja bent low to the ground and swept out its tentacles. Mudokons and Sligs alike screamed in fear as the writhing growths knocked them to the ground, then grabbed them around their waists and pulled them into the air.
Abe had to averted his eyes, as the Keuja swallowed them all whole.
“YOUR FLESH FEEDS ME!” The Keuja let out a beastly roar. “BUT YOU CAN AVERT ALL THIS – SURRENDER NOW, AND I WILL LET YOU SERVE AS MY SLAVES!”
Abe stared at the monster in horrified awe. This thing had just eaten a host of his army, and it still expected him to surrender? It took him a moment to find his voice, but when it came out, it was strong and unflinching in the face of the Dark.
“Never, monster. We will never bow to the Dark!”
He flicked up his weapon and fired a laser that made it through to the Keuja’s eye.
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