Darcy watched the scene and felt the corners of her lips tug upward. It was a macabre humor, but the nursery rhyme suddenly seemed very funny. Not to mention useful. But Charlie’s call from the top of the peak interrupted her thoughts.
“Darcy!”
She looked and saw he was pointing to something. It was the aggregation of monsters who had not been hit by the light. They came marching, crawling, flying, skittering, slithering their way toward her at that very moment.
“Use the necklace!” Charlie was calling. “Hit them with it.”
Darcy quickly raised her necklace, halfway between panic and exhilaration. Take that, monsters. She repeated the coded series, thumbing the gems just as easily as texting on her phone…
…but nothing happened. There was no sound. No light.
She tried it again, then a third time. Nothing.
Darcy’s courage bottomed out. She ran up to where the others stood at the top of the hill, tripping and scrambling up the loose rocks with hands and feet. Liev covered for her, shooting off a couple of grenades. There were two or three sounds of distant explosions and angry howls as Lisa and Dräng pulled Darcy up the rest of the way.
“Why won’t it work?” Lisa asked frantically.
“I don’t know!” Darcy cried.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Charlie said. “We just need to take out as many as possible before they get here!”
Accordingly, there were two more explosions from Liev, as monsters, arms, legs, and other items flew from two new points of impact.
“Hey Dink!” Liev said with his mischievous grin. “Better get ready to use that fishing pole!”
Nash stomped as hard as he could, sending relentless crackles of energy over the front line of monsters, buying as much time as he could. He loaded several canisters into S.M.U.G.G., the salt grapeshot blowing away whole clusters of monsters.
Darcy and Lisa swung their crossbows forward and watched for the closest threats to emerge before firing. Fish stood tall, using his excellent hunting skills to remove some of the bigger, more threatening monsters. Charlie saw one of Fish’s bullets hit a troll in the neck before the troll’s head and shoulders began to dissolve. He wondered what exactly Fish used for ammunition.
Dink had positioned himself a short distance down the hill, where his weapon was more effective. His silver buckshot did not quite dissolve the monsters like Fish’s, but it did send a few smaller monsters flying through the air…oftentimes in pieces. He took down one of the terrifying six armed giants with a nice shot between its three eyes.
Even Dräng helped. He would pick up small stones, muttering over them before throwing. Charlie could see the magic that would gather, swirling, around each stone. The small monster’s makeshift projectiles would hit their targets like a boulder—not a stone—sending entire ranks of monsters crashing down.
Charlie, the only one without a far-range weapon, brought his spear down and forward, walking deliberately next to Dink. He stood there, waiting.
Dink smiled at him between shooting a goblin-looking creature and a screeching harpy down from the sky. “Hey there, Charlie. How ya doin’?”
The five Monster Hunters and their friends kept the monsters at bay, but they couldn’t stall forever. The Dark Prince’s army was too big. Sooner than later, they would be overrun.
A stilt-legged monster with a tiny body and bulbous head made it through the barrage. It fixed two large eyes at Charlie and thrust a long stinger toward him. He ducked, turned to the side, and returned the attack with a swipe of his spear, hitting the creature in the legs. It fell over, long legs scrambling to get off its back. Dink placed silver buckshot in its sideways head, and then they found themselves fighting off a lumbering giant.
“Charlie, Dink! Get your heads down!”
They hardly needed the warning, having just dived out of the way of a massive war hammer. Still, they did not try to get up.
One of Nash’s volleys of lightning thundered its way over their heads. It struck the giant, body shuddering before toppling back onto several smaller monsters. A second volley came, doing little more.
A banshee flew over the disarrayed beasts and opened its black hole of a mouth, revealing circular jaws full of jagged teeth. She wailed loudly, shaking the Hunters to their bones. They held hands over their ears, trying to block out the noise. In their moment of weakness the monster army moved in to kill the bothersome humans.
A familiar shriek filled the air, rivaling the banshee’s own cry, which was abruptly cut short. Monster and human alike looked up to see the banshee being ripped limb from limb by a dragon-like gargoyle. Each piece it ripped off the banshee became wisps of smoke and dirt, until there was nothing left of the ghostly spirit.
The gargoyle flew up toward the purple clouds, screaming victoriously—a scream both terrifying and invigorating. Then it twisted in the air, plummeting in a nose dive for the monsters on the side of Wyvern’s Peak. Claws extended, wicked beak wide open, rock hard tail thrashing, the gargoyle decimated a whole lane of the monster army before swerving back toward the sky.
Charlie stood up with a gasp for air. He looked around, eyes wild, killing a furry monster rushing toward him. They had lost their advantage on Wyvern’s Peak. He knew what they had to do now.
Inspired by the gargoyle’s arrival, Charlie raised his spear and ran forward with the first word that came to mind.
“CHARGE!”
The others fell behind him in a wedge shape, and the eight ran down the hill, drawing their swords, daggers, and rapiers—and fishing poles. Any monster Charlie failed to kill with his spear, the others would finish off in his wake. For a boy who was clumsy in training, Charlie cut an impressive, bloody swath on the battlefield. The gargoyle helped, taking care of banshees, harpies, and other aerial threats like a skyward assassin.
They ran fast and hard, making a bloody bee line for Blood Castle. But Charlie knew they were only cutting themselves a path. The monsters they had not killed would soon be behind them, and his team would be surrounded.
Finally, they reached the foot of the hill. The battlefield was a mess; the teens now understood why war was like Hell. They passed charred bodies, presumably the work of Nash Stormstepper, and monsters with Dräng’s stones still sticking halfway out of them. Under Wyvern’s Peak, hundreds of monsters lay on the ground with their heads stomped in, groups of survivors still fighting to stomp on one another.
Charlie angled for those monsters still under Darcy’s spell, seeing an opportunity. “Don’t kill them!” he huffed over his shoulder.
The others didn’t ask why, but they soon saw his reasoning. The monsters chasing them from behind got caught up with the monsters under Darcy’s spell, causing a blockage.
Charlie looked back and smiled, but grimaced as the movement caused his chest to burn. He was getting tired, even here with the Otherworld’s atmosphere. He looked back at the others and saw their faces—weary, pained, in need of rest.
“Keep going!” he yelled. “We’re almost done!”
They nodded at him, ready to survive, persevere, win no matter the cost.
Charlie saw a large force of monsters closing in from the left. He saw red manticores lingering there—their human faces sneering—and remembered seeing Manticore Den on the map in the same location of this same field. Something about the lion-like monsters gave him the beginnings of a headache.
Liev saw them too, and shot two grenades at the manticores, sending up torrents of salt, silver, and dirt.
On the other side, Nash copied Liev. He stomped, trying to stop an incoming force on their right. A group of charred monsters were flung into the waters near Banshee’s Stay. Pale arms eagerly wrapped around the bodies and dragged them deep under the splashing water.
Nash also turned around and decimated the closest of the monsters chasing them. Dink clapped him on the back before shooting down another harpy from the sky. He shot it a second time
, after it had fallen to the ground with a crash.
“Dang things,” he muttered. “Ugly as all heck, too.”
“Not as ugly as that,” Fish said, pointing to something that looked like the offspring of a scorpion and a centaur. He raised his rifle and fired, but the shot only bounced off its raised claw.
Fish fired into the monster’s armored abdomen, its chest, and its neck. The bullets wounded it, but did not kill it as easily as he had killed the other monsters with his special ammunition. Dink’s buckshot, however, broke one of its claws in half and cleared the space between its ears rather nicely.
Dink nudged it with the tip of his fishing pole.
“Darn things just don’t die, do they Fish?”
“Not so easily, Dink.” He turned, and, seeing an oncoming goblin riding a giant spider, held up one of his cloves of garlic, marching forward. “Be gone, evil rider of evil household pests!”
The battle raged on, and the Hunters continued their march of destruction. For the moment, they had the upper hand in destructive, forward momentum. But they were still grossly outnumbered. It was just a matter of time before the monsters broke through their defenses—or before everyone ran out of ammo.
And yet, they were close. So very close.
Ahead of the group, Charlie speared a lone goblin before coming to a dead-halt, nearly causing Darcy to topple over him. The castle stood in front of Charlie, like an angry black fragment of Hell. He stared at the line of werewolves standing before Blood Castle, glaring at the approaching Hunters with glowing eyes. Suddenly, he felt ill, his eyesight blurring. Charlie felt he had been here before.
Something was horribly wrong.
Before he could do anything about it, Dräng grabbed Charlie’s hand and pulled the boy toward the back of the castle, right to where the river ended, and where Demon’s Gorge began.
“What are you doing?” cried Charlie, seeing they were heading to where a thicker line of wolves stood, their hackles raised. The biggest, blackest wolf, with the reddest eyes was also there. The alpha wolf.
“Secret way,” puffed Dräng. “I’ve been trying to warn you, you cannot enter front door, silly human! But here, we may enter.”
The others followed, hesitant. They were leaving the line of monsters Darcy’s necklace had murderously enchanted, and they weren’t feeling easy about it. Now they were heading to the edge of the Otherworld, where many of their enemies—stronger enemies—still stood. These monsters had been waiting for them, guarding the secret entrance that Dräng led the Hunters to.
“Nash!” Charlie yelled. He pointed at the wolves and other monsters waiting there. “Little help here?”
Nash complied and peppered the line with S.M.U.G.G., helped by Liev’s grenade launcher. Bodies flew away, clearing space for them to get through.
“That was easy,” said Liev, doubling over to catch his breath.
Lisa nudged her brother, swinging her crossbow around to face the monsters coming in after them. “It’s not over yet.”
Hiding among his fallen brethren, the alpha wolf snarled. He had survived the barrage, foreleg charred but already starting to heal. He would not be killed so easily.
“It is here,” Dräng said, clapping happily. He rushed forward and pushed back a mat of vines and moss, revealing a stone trapdoor. “Here! Come, silly human, help me.”
The Hunters and their friends gathered in a semicircle, giddy, tasting victory. They held off as many monsters as they could while Charlie and Dräng tried to lift the stone door. Charlie faltered, seeing glimpses of his visions become clear. All too clear.
A splash sounded from the moat as the wodnik heaved his great, fish-like body onto the battlefield, croaking threateningly. Dink was the first to see him.
“Bless me! Fish, do you see that?”
“I do indeed, Dink.”
“How many filets you reckon I could get out of that thing?”
“Not sure I want to find out, Dink.”
The wodnik reared back his slimy arm and clawed at Dink’s shin, ripping the pant leg to shreds. Dink yelped, slamming the butt of his fishing rod into the wodnik’s squishy face. Grandfather Bilibin fell back into the moat, unconscious.
“Dang.” Dink inspected the waters miserably. “There goes that catch.”
“I’m sure you’ll find another, Dink.”
Darcy and Lisa’s supply of crossbow bolts dwindled, as did Nash’s salt grapeshot. They became picky with their targets, leaving Fish and Dink to do the most shooting. Still, it was easier here, on the edge of the Otherworld. All of their enemies came from one direction, which made it easy to guard Charlie and Dräng.
Of course, they were unaware of the alpha wolf, waiting under the dead bodies of his pack members.
“Almost done?” Nash yelled over the gun fire and exploding grenades.
The Hunters had clawed their way, tooth and nail, to get to this point, and with the endless march of monsters pouring in, they were clawing their way to stay there.
“Almost! Almost!” Dräng answered. This escape passage was hardly ever used, and it ground open with the greatest reluctance. Now the hole was large enough for him to fit through, but not large enough for the humans.
Nash finished off the last of his grapeshot on a screaming banshee. Reluctantly, he threw S.M.U.G.G. as hard as he could into an approaching wolf, buying time to draw his silver foil. He dueled against the wolf for a moment, long enough to stomp and send the wolf out with a shock. Liev had also taken his blade out. Too many monsters had become uncomfortably close, rendering the grenade launcher dangerous to the Hunters.
Darcy gave the rest of her arrows to Lisa, so she could instead use her gift to slip through monsters, confusing them. She used her dagger and foil to slice into startled wolves, trolls, and goblins before they could retaliate.
A manticore broke through the wall of monsters, its red lion body bounding forward, mane and hackles pulsing, scorpion tail slicing the air. It leaped—claws narrowly missing Charlie and Dräng—and landed in front of Liev. The manticore clawed once, then—its human face stretching open wider and wider—tried to bite at him with three rows of fangs.
Unperturbed, Liev stabbed at it twice successfully, laughing. He didn’t see the poisonous barb that shot from its tail—not until the barb landed in his thigh.
Four shots came from Fish and Dink in succession, mortally wounding the manticore. Together, they drove the dying creature into the moat while Lisa ran to her brother’s side. She knew what the poison of a manticore would do to a human being.
“Liev,” she said, panic rising in her voice. “We’ve got to get that out now. It will kill you!”
Liev broke the end of the barb off and waved her away, bringing his grenade launcher up. His face was paler than usual, and he was no longer laughing. He could already feel the poison spreading from the wound; a hot, itching pain that crept up his leg and through his torso. Grimacing, he tried to ignore it.
The Hunters reached their limit. After Liev’s injury, the battle went downhill from there. The Hunters became desperate, as monsters swarmed them with a vengeance. It seemed they had lost.
A chunk of earth grazed Charlie, causing him to drop the trapdoor a few precious inches. A troll had thrown the compacted piece of dirt and clay, and was now advancing on him, ready for the kill.
To Charlie’s relief, Darcy intervened, stabbing the monster’s leg with her foil and then, when the troll bent down in pain, piercing its soft skull.
A few feet away, a banshee bit into Fish’s shoulder. While he struggled with the ghastly spirit, a wolf slipped past the gap in their defenses, tackling Nash. It bared razor sharp fangs, and Nash barely had time to hit the beast with a volley of lightning before it could bite into his shoulder. He could only imagine what would have happened if those razor-sharp fangs had pierced his flesh.
Just as it seemed they had taken too long, that too many monsters were getting through, Charl
ie and Dräng threw the trap door the last final inches. It fell over backwards with a loud thud.
“Everyone, get in!” barked Charlie.
He didn’t have to ask twice. The Hunters ran to the tunnel, ready to hop in, guarding one another as they staggered in.
It was Lisa who first realized something was wrong, looking up for her constant companion. Charlie saw it too, right before she screamed.
“Liev!”
Liev was fiercely engaged with a great wolf. The alpha wolf.
The beast had picked Liev out as the weak link in the group, springing from his hiding place to attack. Now Liev was using his silver blade to keep the monster at bay, but it was a losing fight.
The gargoyle came down like heaven’s fury, crushing several monsters under its heavy body, but those monsters were of less concern. It rose up behind the wolf, intending to protect Liev with every piece of stone in its body. The gargoyle slashed the wolf’s back with its talons, giving Liev just enough time to back away and catch a breath.
The wolf roared in agony. It spun around, viciously sighting on its attacker. For a moment, they all thought the gargoyle would simply crush the wolf—but the scales of Destiny tilted a different way.
The gargoyle snapped at the alpha wolf with its beak, missing just by inches. The wolf crushed a heavy paw against the gargoyle’s side, then leapt onto its shoulder and, to Liev’s dismay, ripped one of the gargoyle’s stone arms off its body. The wolf used the gargoyle’s own arm as a weapon, beating their statuesque protector until its body began to crack.
“Stop it!” said Liev, with all the authority he could gather. He flung his dagger into the wolf’s shoulder, turning the attention back on himself. It was a noble mistake.
The enraged werewolf launched off the gargoyle’s back, as an arrow zipped through the air, landing with a THUD in the wolf’s side. The wolf stopped and clutched at the wound when another shaft flew into its clawed hand.
Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters: The Varcolac's Diary Page 19
