by Frank Morin
He was not the first one to realize that.
Pudgy Declan stood alone behind the retreating armies, turned to face the onrushing monster. He lifted hands high and a fist of earth erupted out of the ground in front of the elfonnel and slugged it in the jaw.
It didn't even slow.
The fist of earth shattered and sprayed dirt back all the way over Declan.
"Run you fool!" Connor screamed, and broke into a run.
Instead of retreating, Declan rose into the air on the best Sentry tower he'd ever raised. At twenty feet high, he barely reached the monster's lower jaw, his shoulders bowed with strain, hands embedded in the rails of his pitiful fortification.
Connor connected with soapstone and reached for the waters of the underground lake. It took a moment to work his elemental senses past the ever-present shielding, but he finally seized them and heaved with all his might.
The elfonnel had nearly reached Declan, who drew out thirty spears of earth from the ground. They struck under the monster's legs and in front of its face, impaling it simultaneously in dozens of places.
It crashed off its feet, its momentum driving it forward like a plow with wakes of earth erupting away from it as it scoured a deep gouge across ground. It groaned to a halt right in front of the Sentry.
Connor struck as it opened that gigantic mouth wide. Water erupted out of the ground on both sides of Declan's tower and blasted the elfonnel's face like twin tidal waves. The impact threw up a wall of water so thick that Connor lost sight of both the elfonnel and Declan. He could still feel it through his water senses, though. It reeled back from his onslaught, then lunged straight forward.
The monster burst through the water like a breaching whale and its gaping mouth swallowed Declan and his tower in a single gulp.
Connor stared, horrified at the sudden disaster, not quite believing it.
"He's gone," Ivor breathed beside Connor, his expression shocked.
The elfonnel lifted its head and roared, louder than ever. The blast of air from its mouth smelled like deep earth, with a hint of smoke and the scent of recently shattered rock. That strangely pleasant breath knocked Connor back a couple of steps even though he stood more than a hundred yards away.
The monster sniffed the air again and its head tilted down toward Connor. It opened its deadly maw and charged.
Rage burned away the horror in Connor's heart and he embraced it and sucked deep from marble until the spicy insanity of fire burned in his eyes and living flames sprayed out his open mouth.
"Tell me you have a plan?" Ivor asked.
"See if it bleeds." Connor charged.
Chapter 70
As the elfonnel thundered down upon Connor, seven long, snakelike tongues whipped out of its mouth and snapped at the air in anticipation of eating him just like it had Declan.
He hoped it liked its meals hot.
Connor sucked everything out of the small stone in his mouth until it cracked to dust under his tongue. Driven by marble insanity, he charged the monstrosity and, with less than a hundred yards separating him from abrupt death, he unleashed it all.
White-hot fire blasted out of him in a ten-foot sheet of destruction. His scream of vengeful rage for Declan's sacrifice melded with the roar of the fire as it slammed into the open maw of the giant. The impact snapped the monster's head back and launched its front legs off the ground.
Its shriek of pain dug at Connor's ears and echoed back from the distant castle in a satisfying wave. It sounded like someone had kicked every man in the kingdom between the legs at the same time.
His fire burned out in a sudden rush that left him feeling hollow. The post-marble burnout settled over his heart and nearly pulled him to the ground. Burning through marble that abruptly often left Firetongues depressed or even suicidal. Although he was prepared for it, he still sagged under the emotional drain.
The elfonnel returned to all eight feet with a thud that shook the ground. Its wide head was blackened and its tongues lolled listlessly from its charred mouth. But if anything, the damage only looked to have enraged it.
"You've got to be kidding me," Connor muttered as he fished in his pouch for another piece of marble. He paused with it halfway to his mouth. Aonghus had warned him not to walk with fire while suffering burnout effects, or the flames could rebound against him. So instead he tapped quartzite and with his next breath connected with the air.
The elfonnel lunged, moving incredibly fast. Sheets of water whipped past Connor and enveloped its head, hardening to ice and interrupting its charge.
Connor glanced back at Ivor and waved his thanks. Ivor gestured mightily for him to run, but why waste a near-death encounter with a giant monster? Seizing the turbulent currents of air that still churned from the super heating of his recent flames, Connor drove himself off the ground with a blast of wind.
The monster bashed its head to the ground, shattering the ice and clearing its silver eyes. It caught sight of him and leaped, pulling its front half right off the ground and snapping at him as he soared out of control past its head. Jaws that could swallow small buildings narrowly missed. Had its tongues not just been charred, they might have caught him. One came close and he punched it in the beak before rising out of range.
He cleared the head and got a close-up look at the elfonnel's full, terrifying length. Its huge, segmented back was armored and large enough to hold all four armies. Fear again undercut his courage. His fire had barely slowed it. How could they fight such a monster?
Connor glanced toward the Sculpture House and cringed to see the armies had gathered there and formed ranks. His captains stood at the front. When he tapped a little quartzite to sharpen his sight and hearing, he found them encouraging the troops to follow the general's lead and stand strong.
The fools. They were going to get killed.
He found Papil in the press, standing close to Fearghas and when she met his gaze he said, "Tell them to retreat and form up at the Carraig."
She saluted.
And the monster whipped him right out of the air with its long tail. The brutal blow knocked the wind out of him as the world spun crazily. He'd been knocked out of the air often enough to know what was coming next, and max-tapped granite just before crashing into the top of a nearby hill. Earth exploded out in every direction, and the shock of the landing rattled him, despite the protection of granite.
Connor shook dirt from his face and decided he needed a new name for the monster. Elfonnel failed to convey the proper sense of elemental terror it inspired. Maybe better to call it "My Army Is Doomed". Then again, Maid was kind of pessimistic and didn't quite fit the nightmare that had crashed what had been a pretty straight-forward battle.
He staggered to his feet and checked to make sure his body was numb due to granite and not because the monster had broken him into pieces. He tasted dirt and snorted out a clump of dried grass that had lodged up his nose when he plowed into the hilltop. Even with it gone, everything smelled like weeds.
None of that mattered when he looked up and found that the elfonnel had turned after him. It snapped its jaws repeatedly, and the sound was like the smashing of boulders. He half expected to see it spit out broken chunks of teeth.
It was coming for him. Looked like the monster held grudges.
"You still don't know how to pick your battles, lad."
Connor turned to find Captain Rory approaching at a run from the far side of the hill, flanked by Ivor, Tomas, and Cameron. A pair of Striders trailed him, as did Redmund.
"Glad you're here, Captain."
Tomas turned to Cameron. "I told you. He does want to kill us."
"Earth bound," Rory said, his eyes locked on the fast-turning giant. "Wish I'd studied harder in school."
"Didn't know you could read, sir," Cameron said.
"Nah," Tomas responded. "Just the pictures for him."
"Fire barely slowed it," Connor said, "And Declan. . ."
Rory nodded. "I saw it, lad. Brave yo
ung man, but you can't stop an earth-bound with slate."
"Gotta bash their heads in," Tomas said.
"I'll throw you up there," Cameron offered, "and you tell us how well that goes."
"We don't have much time," Ivor noted, encircling the monster's head with white-hot flames. That distracted it a moment as it bashed its head against the ground to scatter the flames. The impact reverberated up through Connor's shoes. "Let's decide what to do quick."
"It looks like it wants to chase me. I'll keep it distracted," Connor said. "Rally the troops and figure out how to hurt it."
Rory clasped hands with him, and Ivor grinned. "I hope you've got some clever ideas today, Connor. We're going to need them."
"Working on it," he said, turning back to the fast-approaching elfonnel. "So far I've just decided I can't call it a Maid."
"What are you talking about?"
"Tell you later."
The others retreated down the southwest side of the hill to circle the monster. All of the other armies were assembled together. Against any other enemy, that much concentrated Petralist power would have seemed unstoppable.
Facing the elfonnel, they looked like close-packed ranks of snack foods.
Connor waited atop the hill another moment until the monster focused those dead eyes on him again. Sure enough, it wanted to stomp him first. He purged granite and switched to basalt. The invigorating freedom of the stone helped buttress his courage.
He still had no idea how to stop it, but he needed to buy his army some time. So Connor popped another piece of marble into his mouth as he raced off the north side of the slope just before the monster arrived.
Ringing himself with crimson flames, he crossed its path and shouted, "Come on, slate-face! See if you can catch me!"
It growled, sounding like an avalanche, and altered course after him, accelerating with remarkable speed. Its eight gigantic legs propelled it forward in an odd, rolling gallop that consumed the distance. Connor drew deeper from basalt and fracked. That hurt, but not as much as getting trampled would.
He flew across the open plain, slowly leaving the angry monster behind. It moved remarkably fast, but no earthbound elfonnel was going to catch him in a fully fracked sprint. It seemed to realize that face and bellowed with rage.
The plan was working! Grinning, Connor looked back to tease the monster again, but gaped. Ripples of earth were pulsing in front of it, rolling across the ground after him and closing the distance fast.
It was an elemental monster, but he hadn't expected it to actually use the elements against him. That seemed unfair. Connor turned hard, but the pulsing feelers of its earth influence turned to follow him.
His confidence cracked under renewed fear. It was smarter than he'd hoped. No matter how fast he ran, its earth powers could move faster. He didn't bother tapping slate. He was running too fast, and that little glimpse he'd gotten into the magnitude of its earth powers made it clear he'd never stand a chance fighting for control of the ground.
As the ground buckled around him, Connor tapped marble and shot himself into the air on a gout of flame. The earth directly below him collapsed into a trench, with cresting waves on either side that smashed together with terrifying force.
Connor landed already fracked and ran in shifting arcs, trying to stay ahead of the monster, but not make himself too easy a target. His mind raced as he grasped for any ideas how to stop the thing. Fighting it would just get him eaten like Declan, but he couldn't keep running from it either.
The ground in front of him exploded upward, and Connor leaped, tapping quartzite and using air to boost himself farther. The wind tumbled him wildly, but he'd clear the wall.
Or maybe not. It morphed into grasping fingers of earth to catch him. Shouting with fear and frustration, Connor tapped soapstone, forming a spinning sphere of water that severed the earthen fingers.
"Can't you kill me like a normal monster, you Tallan-cursed mud-for-brain?" Connor shouted back at the charging elfonnel. In response, the ground erupted around him as he landed, forming impassable walls blocking his escape.
"Such a cheater," Connor muttered. The walls didn't smash him flat, which meant the monster wanted to finish him personally.
That thing was really starting to make him mad.
It also terrified him more than anything he'd ever seen. Connor tapped marble and erupted off the ground, hoping to soar out of danger, but slender spears or rock-hard earth shot out of the surrounding walls, forming a latticed cage. He crashed into it and rebounded.
He stood and faced the monster as the cage melted back into the ground. He needed an idea, some way to delay it and escape, but fear chilled his thoughts like frozen soup as the monster bore down on him, mere seconds away.
He was alone on the plain, and he could not stop it.
Chapter 71
Verena soared toward the stunning castle and pulled off her flying goggles for a better look. She had heard about the magnificent Carraig, but the tales didn't do the glittering, basalt-sheathed towers justice. She angled her approach in that direction for a better look.
"Elfonnel!" Hamish cried, flying close beside her and pointing to the east, to a wide plain with a lake in the center.
Verena hadn't noticed much beyond the castle complex. She followed Hamish's pointing finger and noticed for the first time the massed troops, and gasped at the sight of the huge monster charging across the distant plain.
"I didn't think anyone at the Carraig could raise an elfonnel," she breathed, feeling a shiver of fear. She affixed her long view goggles and focused on the distant monster. At first she wondered why it was leaving the soldiers alone, but an explosion of earth in front of it drew her gaze.
"Someone clearly can," Hamish said, pulling a biscuit out of a satchel strapped to his stomach and shoving it under his face mask for a big bite.
He offered to share, but she waved it away. They needed to know what was going on, but then she saw a figure explode through an earthen wall in a glittering globe of fast-spinning water. Her heart raced as she focused on the figure, who landed and raced away from the monster.
"That's Connor!" she shouted, pivoting the Swift in his direction.
"He's got that thing pretty angry," Hamish said, sounding concerned. "But look at that."
She glanced to the right at the little lake, surrounded by a wall, with a small island in the center. Four figures stood there, while soldiers were advancing across one of the bridges.
"That's Ilse's team," Hamish exclaimed. "Looks like they're surrounded."
"But where's Ilse?" She hoped the wily captain hadn't fallen in battle, and the thought only made her more worried. The conflict had escalated far beyond what they'd expected. She couldn't accept that they had arrived too late.
"Hamish," she said, making a decision. "Get down there and help them on the island. I'm going for Connor."
"He's my best friend," Hamish objected.
He was right, but no force on earth could turn her from helping Connor in the face of an elfonnel. The monster looked to be earthbound, and its staggering size terrified her.
"I have to help him," she said, facing Hamish, who hovered nearby. "Besides, you've always wanted to test that suit against Petralists."
"You owe me," Hamish grunted, then rolled away and dove toward the island.
"Good luck," she said, then accelerated over the plain after Connor.
He was running wild arcs, dodging explosions of earth and grasping, deadly fingers that erupted out of the ground. He'd never outrun an earthbound elfonnel. Verena wasn't sure what they'd do to stop it, but first she had to get Connor out of there.
Even though she poured on every bit of available speed, she was still long seconds away when walls of earth rose around Connor, hemming in the way. She cried out in terror when his attempt at escape on a fiery column was blocked. The monster would devour him before she could arrive.
"Tallan grant him a way to escape," she breathed, hating to watch th
at giant monster bearing down on him, but unable to look away. She'd traveled too far only to witness him die only seconds before she could rescue him.
* * *
As the elfonnel closed on Connor, its freakish silver gaze locked on him, its pounding gait shaking the ground underfoot, Connor purged basalt and absorbed some enhanced granite. The magnified curse poured through him, filling him with unmatched strength and stretching his muscles, even though he hadn't tapped it yet. His skin darkened to ebony and hardened like living stone.
He still couldn't fight that monstrosity, but he wouldn't just let it eat him. He prepared to unleash all of his elemental powers in one explosive strike. Maybe that would create an opportunity to escape again. Escape would be short lived unless he found a place to hide, but he couldn't think of anywhere it couldn't find him or a shield strong enough to even give him a chance.
Then he did.
As the monster filled his vision and leaped the last hundred feet, giant maw gaping wide to swallow him and half an acre of ground in one bite, Connor tapped slate and opened a hole directly under his feet. He pulled the ground aside like a blanket and fell a dozen feet. Tapping granite, Connor curse-punched the thick, stone block that formed that part of the hidden roof of the secret underground ruin.
Connor's arm swelled so big, it nearly burst the flexible plates of his battle leathers, and his enhanced fist punched through the stone. He burst through the false ground just as the elfonnel crashed into the earth above, two of its snakelike tongues snapping down the hole after him.
Connor blasted fire back up the hole, crisping the tongues and searing the inside of the elfonnel's gaping mouth as its stalactite-like teeth gouged eight feet into the earth. Then he plunged into darkness of the ruined city.
Ringing his limbs with flames, he glimpsed row after row of benches on every side, encircling an open, oval field of dead grass. The benches rose all the way up to merge with the false ceiling, the remnants of a gigantic arena of centuries ago.
