Orkazek grinded her teeth the entire time Aura insulted her. That last statement was the final offense. The killer whale demon backed toward the nearest water column glaring at Aura. “I’m going to chew your body slowly for that, stupid devil!”
Orkazek jumped into the water stream, leaving Aura to defend himself. The boy allowed a quick smirk, as his plan had succeeded. He’d purposely tried to anger the demon, to lure her into attacking first. The boy knew there was no way he could ever hope to chase and catch the demon. Not inside the Aquarium Cage, where Orkazek could move fast and freely through the water streams.
He turned to the nearest cage bar made of water and waited, his gauntlet already clipped to his waist. The rocky platforms were quickly becoming slicker as the demon splashed around the watery cage, adding another obstacle to the death toucher’s list of problems.
While Aura tested his footing and watched the streams around him for his enemy to appear, he was taken by surprise when Orkazek shot out of a stream like a projectile being shot from the opposite direction. Aura was lucky it made a sloshing water sound or he wouldn’t have turned around just in time to see an immense, open set of demon jaws flying at him. He dodged, hopping back just far enough to give the creature a little death tag.
But Orkazek’s gigantic jaws collided with the rock platform instead. Aura certainly wasn’t expecting the rock to break apart from the force, so when it did the boy had to make a surprise maneuver and abandon rock. It’s a good thing he did, because the demon’s jaws reduced the tall rock to a tiny stump, barely poking out of the ocean. Out of the devil’s sight, the demon returned to the water to attack again.
Okay, wasn’t expecting it to have that much power, thought Aura. There’s nothing I can do when it comes flying at me jaws-first like that. It’s too dangerous to get in a death touch. I’ll have to think of something else-
Orkazek launched herself out of the Aquarium Cage like a bullet leaving a barrel. She came from an angle above Aura again, less of a surprise this time. The death toucher used the seconds before the collision to detect a weakness, a blind spot, or anything that could help him make the best of the situation. There was nothing. He abandoned the tall rock he was standing on as once again Orkazek crashed. The tall rock platform was leveled like the last one to a small nub.
That’s when Aura made an alarming realization. It’s going to keep destroying my rocks until I have nothing to stand on! I’ll be forced into the water, one way or another, if I don’t figure out a way to beat her quick!
Aura desperately plotted his next move while dodging the next few demon whale attacks. Orkazek leveled another three rock platforms before Aura finally came up with something. As the demon ejected itself at high velocity toward Aura, the boy did something the whale did not expect it to do.
Aura leapt toward the demon’s open jaws.
The death toucher kept his wings tucked as he jumped forward. When he was just inches from being eaten he adjusted his wings to give him some lift. The boy rose the necessary height to avoid being eaten alive, grinning as he prepared to throw his famous death punch.
“Got you!”
A blast of funny-smelling water and vapor erupted from Orkazek’s blowhole. It hit Aura in the face, blinding him. Unable to death-punch the demon, he glided forward wiping the water from his eyes. Instead of chewing the next rock platform to pieces, Orkazek bounced off it and launched back at the blinded boy. The demon kicked the boy in the gut and sent him plummeting into the nearest stream.
Aura twisted and tumbled through the fast-flowing tube of water. The kick to the gut had left him with little air in his lungs to begin with. Now he had drowning to deal with. He could hear and feel a far-off splash in the water, and then Orkazek spoke, her voice vibrating clearly through the water.
“Stupid devil! You thought you were smart! You thought you could take me head on, but you forget I’m a genius! I seem to recall you weren’t a fan of the sensation of drowning, so I thought it would fun to let you experience that again before I eat you.”
Do I really have to drown and listen to this moron babble? thought Aura. He struggled against the current, tried to change his direction, to break free from the center of the water stream. Nothing worked. He swirled around the Aquarium Cage, a slave to the current. No! There must be something I can do! he thought, trying to remain confident in the face of death.
Up ahead in the stream Aura could see the black whale face appear, the white spots on its forehead looking like giant menacing eyes. She headed straight for him, jaws wide-open, teeth exposed. The creature was a perfect fit for the water tunnel. There’d be no way for Aura to avoid the demon without getting eaten. The current would take him straight into the demon’s mouth, and he had seconds to come up with something to save his life.
If I could just reach… he thought, sticking both his arms straight out as far as he could. He kept his eyes on the demon as he kicked his legs, which were floating up behind him. His little kicks gave him the small steady motion he needed. He moved forward just enough, and his hands broke the surface of the water. As soon as he felt the dry air on his palms, Aura released a massive blast of flames.
The force pushed him like a torpedo backward. He shot out of the water stream as the demon’s jaws clamped down on nothing but water. Aura hit the rocks hard, reinforcing his backside with soul power just a moment too late. He felt the birth of a bruise as he slammed into the solid slick stone below.
When his vision cleared, Aura found himself on top of a stone close to the edge of the tall rocks. The view he got looking between the water columns was of the East Hell beach that seemed so far away now. The group of concerned spectators had grown until it swallowed every inch of the beach. A squad of Royal Guard stood around twiddling their thumbs, unable to act intelligently without a Captain in sight.
Then on the surface of the water not a hundred yards away, he saw the bozo in a boat rowing toward the tall rocks. The man kept cranking his head around to watch where he was rowing. He spotted Aura and started calling out to him. Aura recognized the voice right away.
Oh no, he thought. Not him.
Aura’s new archenemy Bora row-row-rowed his boat straight for certain doom. Aura groaned. As if he didn’t have enough to deal with already. Now he’d probably end up having to save Bora, too. He considered for a moment simply allowing Bora to fall prey to the greater demon. It was his own fault he’d included himself needlessly in the situation. Aura was just on the verge of winning the fight, after all… The death toucher reconsidered this option however, deciding that devils should stick together against demons, regardless of personal feelings.
Before he could do anything to deter the helpful devil from entering the demon’s Aquarium Cage, Aura’s thought process was interrupted by a wet, smacking sound nearby. He directed his attention to one of the tall rocks next to him. A small, blue fish flopped around frantically on the flat section of stone. It was in the middle of the rocks, and Aura couldn’t understand how the fish got there. A big red fish fell only a few feet in front of his face, and Aura looked up.
The streams of water that made up the many bars of the Aquarium Cage were teeming with demonic ocean life. He saw demon fish of every color and size, eels, crustaceans, clams, and even a few sting squid. The ocean life got carried along by the strong water currents, sometimes accidentally spilling out of the water streams. Half a chunk of Aura’s rowboat climbed up a stream until it fell out near the top, crashing into a rock on the way to a watery grave below.
“Wasn’t that fun?” came the sadistic voice of Orkazek, amplified through all the water. “Let’s see how well you can run away now, stupid!”
Aura leapt to his feet and jumped to the closest rock. Before he even landed, the rock he’d just been standing on was obliterated. Orkazek accelerated through it teeth-first like it were a styrofoam surfboard. With no time to rest Aura powered on to the next rock platform, sticking to the outside edge of rocks as he kept moving. He dodged a few more swimming-
bullet attacks from his demon opponent that leveled even more rock platforms, until a certain man’s voice was heard calling from somewhere outside.
“Hello? Aura! Are you in there? I’m here to help you! How do I get in there?”
“Don’t!” Aura yelled, rolling off a tall rock platform onto a slightly lower rock and narrowly avoiding losing his head to the demon. “You don’t want to come in here! Trust me, we’re both better off if you leave!”
“But that would go against my Devil Scouts Senior Scoutmaster pledge to always help out a fellow devil in demonic distress!” Bora replied. He abandoned his boat and took to flying around the dome-like cage of water. “I wouldn’t ever be able to face my wife and nine children again!”
Aura let out a thunderous groan.
“Another stupid devil wants to join in our fun?” said Orkazek, hidden once again in the water. The streams all surged with demon laughter. “The more the meatier, I suppose!”
As Bora swooped around the outer perimeter of the tall rocks, trying to catch glimpses of the action happening inside the Aquarium Cage, Orkazek made his move. Though Aura tried to warn the man to get away, his voice was mostly drowned out by the rushing sound of water ringing throughout the cage. Bora had no idea what to expect from this bizarre situation, and so he fell victim to the demon’s Stream Queen ability.
A new channel of water burst out the side of the Aquarium Cage, ensnaring the clueless man before he even knew what had happened. The water current pulled him along unwillingly into the various water tunnels that made up the cage bars. This was on the opposite side of the battlefield as Aura and the nearby water column currently housing the demon whale.
“Who do you think will reach him first?” asked Orkazek. “You or I? I’ll even go easy on you and take it slow! This will be an excellent opportunity to show you what’s in store for you!”
The black blur of demon in the water crept forward, idling slowly. Aura ignored it. He had a lot to think about and not much time to do so. As Bora struggled to free himself from the water column, Aura had to take into account how long the man could hold his breath for. Two minutes, tops. A bigger problem was that the water streams did not carry the man in the directions that Aura expected them to.
He hopped along the remaining tall rocks with platforms still large enough to support him. At first he had almost caught up to the man, but the water’s current changed directions at a cross section between columns and swept Bora up toward the top of the cage instead. Chasing the man wasn’t really working out. The bigger problem was that even if he caught up to Bora he had no way of getting him out without plunging into the water stream himself.
Though Orkazek was just playing with her food, the massive demon closed in on the drowning devil. The killer whale swam to a point just downstream from where Bora was being pulled. Aura could tell it would take only seconds until Bora met his fate in the demon’s jaws. In a cold sweat, Aura looked around his surroundings for something, anything, that might help him.
He didn’t find much. There were some small rocks scattered around the platforms from all the demolishing going on, but they were too small to be of any help. More fish and ocean life swirled around the water column currents, sometimes spilling out of the cage. Most of the spilled contents found their way to the sea below since the tall rocks were shrinking. Some fell from the very top of the cage, splattering to pieces on the rocks below.
Aura’s eyes rested on something squirming on top of the rock in front of him, tangled in a wad of seaweed. In a split-second decision, he made the only choice he had if he wanted to save Bora’s life. The death toucher hauled ass, leaning down to grab the entangled sea creature as he hopped across the rocky platforms. His eyes worked like searchlights following a single current in the watery cage, while at the same time plotting a safe way to navigate across the remaining slick rocks.
The water current pulling a drowning Bora looked like it would converge with the demon’s water current somewhere near the base of the cage. If that happened, it would be game over for Bora. Aura saw the dark shadow in the water speed up as he glided to a new rock. A grin spread across his face. He was heading in the right direction.
Devil and demon raced, one by land and one by sea. With Orkazek’s monstrous jaws spread wide open and motoring through the water, Bora looked to be on a crash course with a painful, bloody death. But Aura reached the stream before the demon and leapt in without a second thought just as Bora floated by. Aura karate kicked his nemesis, and it felt so good. It also saved the man’s life by knocking him out of the water stream. Aura launched Bora into the sky outside the demon’s Aquarium Cage, and to safety.
Aura could only hope the man hadn’t already drowned, or was too weak to swim once he hit the sea again. He couldn’t think about Bora at the moment, as he found himself in a new, more life-threatening dilemma. The death toucher was now trapped in the water once again with a blood-thirsty whale speeding at him.
This is where the slimy aquatic demon Aura picked up on the rocks came in handy. The demon in question was a particularly plump sting squid. Aura had become familiar with the creature during one of his many jobs for Goddard, and knew all too well of the demon’s painful stinging embrace. That’s why he held onto a single tentacle that wrapped around his gauntlet. His hand struggled to release the stinging squid, and fast.
The current speed now worked in the boy’s favor, pulling the sting squid forward. The squid demon’s long rubbery tentacle stretched out several feet. Plenty of length to ensure it made it into the oncoming Orkazek’s mouth before the death toucher did. The killer whale felt something enter its mouth and instinctively clamped down, thinking she’d gotten one of the devils. Instead, she had just bitten down on one nasty little surprise.
The sting squid, besides inflicting an incredibly painful toxin via tiny barbs on its tentacles, had another trick up its many sleeves. A thick, inky black liquid is stored within the squid’s body, ejected as a self-defense mechanism for escaping predators. As soon as Orkazek bit down, all the ink inside that fat little squid POPPED like a zit in the whale’s mouth.
All these unexpected factors left the killer whale demon in a state of pain and confusion. To make matters worse for the creature, in the instant before the water became too clouded with ink to see through, the last thing Orkazek saw coming at her was the death toucher. He looked like he was poised to strike, and indeed that was Aura’s plan. With his gauntlet hand held forward, the only way to tell the boy was coming in all that ink was by the bolts of blue electricity shooting off his death touch hand, illuminating the surrounding water.
Orkazek panicked. The demon reacted in the only surefire way to save her life. She simply created a new water stream, directly in front of her. She sucked Aura out the new opening stream and blasted him out of the water cage, back onto the wet rocks.
“Urk! Ulp! So spicy!” said Orkazek, exiting the water stream. She landed on a rock that was only two rocks over from where Aura sat, gasping for air like he was chugging a soda. “What a cruel trick to play, death toucher! And that other stupid devil got away, too! What a pain! You could have killed me! It was almost a perfect plan, but you forgot how incredibly smart I am!”
Damn that stupid whale! thought Aura. He was soaked from head to toe and his ponytail had come undone, letting his long black hair flow like seaweed. I really thought that’d work. And apparently sting squid ink is spicy? Maybe if I get out of this alive I should start a new condiment business. He filed that idea away for later.
“You’re a nasty piece of work, death toucher! Fooling me like that! But you’re so stupid you forgot I could just kick you out of the water if I need to! Moron! Because of that you just lost your only shot at beating me! The same trick won’t work twice.”
“I’ll show you a nasty piece of work!” Aura roared, jumping to his feet losing his temper. He flung himself at the demon, groping madly through the air with his black cursed hand.
Orkazek didn’t even
move. She didn’t have to. From above, the water stream shot down like a waterfall barrier and consumed the demon. Orkazek was pulled up through the new column of water like a UFO abductee caught in an alien tractor beam. The water stream rose up with her, leaving the death toucher devil standing alone on his slippery rock jail.
“All I have to do is stay in the streams and you’ll never catch me!” said Orkazek, her confident voice radiating out of all the water streams at once. “And since you can’t come in after me, you’re as good as dead! Face it death toucher; this is where you die!”
Aura felt like giving up. This battle was just a big pain in his ass and he wanted it to end. He was a tired, sopping wet mess and all he really wanted was to see some bikini babes. With his life on the line, failure was unfortunately not an option for him. Even after scouring every inch of the battlefield looking for another sting squid or equally useful aquatic demon and coming up with nothing, Aura did not lose his determination.
She can eject me from the streams at any time, thought Aura. But she can also be fooled. There are things she won’t eat, as well. And I can predict her movements by following the flow of the currents. There’s got to be some useful way to take advantage of this information!
A flash of movement in a far off stream caught the boy’s eye. There was something large and brown trapped in the current of a rising water column. The blurry brown shape, which was bigger even than Aura but did not look alive, spiraled slowly through the water. A chill ran down Aura’s spine as he strained his eyes to understand what he was looking at.
It’s Bora’s boat! Aura thought. The fully intact (minus the paddles) wooden rowboat that Bora brought out to rescue him was completely submerged in the water stream, working up speed as it powered through the water like a ghost ship. That could be exactly what I need to get out of here! Now I just have to be in the right place at exactly the right time…
The current carried the boat up and then fed into a connected column of water that ran horizontally away from Aura. The boy took a giant breath and shook out his nerves. Once more, he decided he would need to plunge back into the water. Though he completely and utterly dreaded the thought of going back in.
Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) Page 29
