Chapter 12: Molve Bait (part 4/4)
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Look who FINALLY updated!
On a side note: I'm currently attempting a challenge in the form of pumping out a complete novella in a month (and it ain't looking too hot, but I'm trying), so that's the second reason Cobs has been so slow on the updates. The first reason? I'm hella lazy.
However, dear readers, you have my word that this entire novel will be posted eventually. I'll not leave my little boat of fans hanging ;)
~Spooky XOXO
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Cinder chirped happily at the sight of her friend, swooping down onto Puff's head and massaging the scruff of his neck.
"Oh, whaddya know, Mudbrain is back," Phantom growled.
"Quiet," Káel ordered, looking around the corner cautiously. "Is it coming this way?"
"No, it took a right," Phantom quickly replied, pretending to lean against the wall with a heavy sigh. "It's going to the explosion site, but there's another one that might come this way so we'll have to get out of here."
"Got it."
Káel lifted his butt, preparing to bolt into another patch of shadows when a shrill call tacked the first nail in his coffin.
"Káel!"
Káel shot his head around at the sound of his name, his snarling glare hardly masked fast enough when he saw his teammates running loudly towards him. He leapt to his feet and shushed them, but it was already too late.
Phantom sighed, smacking the back of his head against the wall in defeat. "The Molve changed paths. It's coming for us."
A roar echoed through the halls, its pounding song closing Káel's eyes with a pained wince. Talli clasped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with fear, as everyone else flinched in synchronization.
Káel paid his teammates a dead glare, the words running from his mouth directed at Phantom above anyone else. "We've gotta get out of here. Now."
A chain of hollowed barks circled the group like a coil of rope, distant ones, but it was a matter of seconds before the noose would tighten.
They didn't even waste a second in their escape, tumbling down unfamiliar halls as Káel spearheaded the herd with Phantom's instructions. Janiel had taken the rear, and was shooting small sheets of ice on the ground behind them, which proved to have its uses when they heard the tumbling and scratching claws of a Molve losing its balance and kissing the hard floor.
Káel dared a glance over his shoulder, the burning orange eyes still failing to pierce the veil of black. He was far enough ahead of the group to talk to Phantom without raising suspicion, shooting his friend an urgent stare. "Can you disappear before they see you?"
"I mean, I can do this." Phantom replied, crisply snapping his fingers as every inch of his body sprouted a thick coat of tendrilly black shadows. When the writhing coat had lingered for a handful of disturbing seconds, they dissipated in the passing air, revealing a masked boy with reddish brown hair running beside him in an identical combat suit to the one he was wearing.
The boy gave a thumbs up. "How's this?"
"You could lose the mask, it looks even creepier now." Káel panted, gasping for air as his stamina wore out.
"How rude. That is my face I'll have you know." Phantom nudged his head to the side. "Make a left."
Káel turned left to face a staircase, grinding his heels into the ground to slow as he closed the small stretch of a corridor. There was a large window leaking the light of day at the top, it's halo transfixing his desperate gaze.
Hope.
He stopped to look back at his team, the two Molves were almost upon them. "Hurry!" He panted, pointing to the staircase.
Xavier nodded, then looked behind him and shot a blue orb into one of the Molve's faces, making it stumble and trip the the other Molve that had been running beside it. Puff and Cinder were the first to get up the staircase, followed by Vera and Xavier, then Janiel and Talli.
The Molves had recovered, and were inches from catching Alestra, she wasn't going to make it. Káel grabbed Phantoms rock from his pocket and held his free hand out towards the Molve. "Rastasnatch!"
Alestra widened her eyes and ducked, the large fireball that went whizzing through the air just missing her face and colliding with the Molve's, making it trip head over heels.
Alestra couldn't slow her momentum in the panicked run, using Káel as a soft landing by tackling him against a wall.
"Sorry," she quickly panted, ripping him back onto his feet and shoving him at the stairs to keep moving.
"Quit dawdling!" Janiel yelled, palms on the ground as the staircase filled with a thick sheet of ice.
Alestra pulled Káel up the staircase while he gawked, barely slipping past a Molves that leap to snatch him, slipping and flailing as it landed on the smooth ice. The second Molve tried to use its fallen comrade as a boost, and readied itself to jump off its friends face, but Alestra muttered a quick spell and a large vine broke through the wall, whipping it in the face mid jump and sending it tumbling down the stairs.
The Molves scrambled to get to their feet again, angrily watching their prey escape through the window. Vera waited until almost everyone had made their escape, muttering under her breath and forming a small orb of blinding light in her hands. When Káel and Phantom were the last to make their escape, she threw the ball at the Molves and jumped through out to freedom, landing on a slanted shingled roof with a loud sigh.
A light brighter than day flashed through the opening, then as quickly as it had come it vanished. "That should blind them for a bit." Vera smiled with satisfaction. "We should start heading back now, we only have twenty minutes."
Alestra nodded, wiping the dirt off her combat suit, but when she reached her chest level, disgust flashed across her face, and she flicked drips of muddy water off her hand. Looking to Káel she found her answer. "Wow, you're as burnt as you are wet."
Káel remained expressionless, giving off an irritated aura as he took the battered medallion off and held it out to his team. Upon realizing what he was holding, his entire team acted like he was holding a fistful of candy, showering him with hugs and emptied praise, despite the fact he was still sopping wet.
By using the jutting stones and gaping cracks as handholds, they safely made it down the side of the cathedral, sat on the lush grass counting their points. Vera and Xavier had snagged five, blaming the dark for their lack of a decent haul, while Alestra counted eight that her team had acquired, also putting the medallion onto their pile.
"Forty six in total," Alestra said with a smile. "Bet you none of the other teams have that much, great work Káel."
Káel nodded and slowly got to his feet with a wince. The exhaustion was getting to him.
"Excluding the two Molves in the building there's another one coming this way, but it's moving pretty slow, so I'm not sure if it knows we're here," Phantom warned, stretching his legs on the grass. Káel was still getting used to the familiar voice coming out of such an unfamiliar person. Sure the hair was the same, and the creepy mask, but whenever he looked over to Phantom the first thought that would come to his head is what the heck a random classmate was doing following them.
"We should head back now," Káel said, retracing his steps to the dangerous path they had taken to get to the cathedral.
Everyone jumped up to follow him, only with a cheery and victorious atmosphere, to contrast how much of a zombie he was. Xavier took the lead yet again, followed by Janiel, then Talli, Cinder and Vera, and lastly Alestra, Puff and Káel, with Phantom cheating by walking through the wall.
Xavier was a little more careful when stepping on stone slabs this time around, and instead, kept on getting caught in puddles of thick mud. They had made it to what they deemed a halfway mark, where the narrow path fattened to a bedroom sized area full of dangerous cracks and weak stone slabs, made apparent by the large hole Xavier had made on the way to the cathedral, with his saving grace still standing tall and green.
"Wait," Phantom whispered, as the group made their way across the broken scape. "There's a Molve on the other side of that wall," he whispered, pointing to his right.
Káel tiresomely shushed the group, and explained the situation. His teammates didn't even question his statement, and stealthily started their escape, jumping over any stone slabs they saw, and trying their hardest to land on the soft dirt.
Talli almost finished making her way across, and landed on a pile of dirt like everyone else had, unaware of the weak stone it was concealing. With a loud crack the ground gave away, and Janiel grabbed Talli by the shoulder, pulling her to safety with Xavier's assistance.
Vera froze where she was, halfway across the path while she dish eyed the wall, then back at Alestra and Káel. They could hear the muffled growling coming from inside the building.
"Keep going," Phantom cooed. "It's in the building, not like the ghoul faced chalk sniffer can do anything from in there."
The Molve barked, the ferocious twang showing it had heard Phantom's comment. With a scraping thud, everyone froze.
It was attacking the wall.
"Nice one," Káel muttered, watching as Vera bolted across the clearing, followed by Alestra who was having troubles navigating around the broken ground.
"Whoopsy," Phantom chimed. "Didn't think the beast was capable of coming up with such brilliant ideas."
The wall was filled with large cracks, and the Molve's dark grey snout was peeking through, getting further and further as its massive claws pulled away at the broken chunks of wall blocking its path. Alestra was halfway across, with Puff perched on her shoulders motioning at good spots to step with his head. Unfortunately his good senses wore out when, just like Talli, she jumped onto a mound of dirt and the ground broke beneath her.
Káel didn't have time to think out a good plan and leapt for her, catching her arm as she dangled in the air. "Go!" he yelled to his teammates, the small group frozen as they watched him.
Vera nodded, and they turned to squeeze down the rest of the path.
He reached down to grab Alestra's other arm, while Phantom ran up to the digging Molve to taunt it. After getting a firm hold, he lifted, slowly and painfully hoisting Alestra out of her predicament.
The Molve roared at Phantom, who was coming up with every insult he could for the beast, and with one last shove the wall shattered, sending a hurling clawed mass of stone at him. Jumping out of the way, the Molve landed a couple feet from Káel, with a loud, and worrisome sounding crack.
Alestra, who had just gotten to her feet, cursed as the rest of the ground gave way under Káel, sending everyone into an adrenaline inducing free fall. Káel's vision blurred as he fell, his chest burning, and eyes clenched shut in fear.
But before he knew it, everything stopped, and he remembered. He slowly opened his eyes, hovering above the ground like the time Ray had kicked him off the cliff. But Alestra was still falling, and landed directly on top of him, breaking whatever was holding him up, and making his face plant itself into the hard stone ground.
Káel let off a pained groan as Alestra rolled off him and pushed herself up into a sitting position, with Puff still firmly attached to her shoulders. "Hey! Are you okay?" She said, lightly slapping Káel's face and attempting to push him over onto his back.
Káel stirred, groaning again in response while he pushed himself into a sitting position.
They were in an empty room, excluding the stone debris they recently created, with the Molve a few feet in front of them, slowly getting up.
Full of fatigue, Káel reached out to the Molve with an open palm. "Rastasnatch." A large fireball shot out and hit the Molve, throwing it back onto its side where it sat motionlessly.
Káel could feel the exhaustion taking over him, as his arm dropped and he sat on the ground unable to move.
Phantom stood oblivious to this detail, running up to Káel and loudly clapping in his ear. "Get up! It won't be stunned for much longer!"
Another roar echoed from somewhere outside, the heavy thudding of paws getting louder as it ran through the building they were in, approaching them at a quick pace.
Everything was slow and tiresome to Káel, he barely responded as Alestra tried to pull him to his feet, and he felt a strangely strong urge to rip off his necklace, which had become bothersomely hot.
So, without thinking, he did just that, pulling it off and dropping it at his feet. The Molve in front of them stirred, and he simply stared at it, vision blurred and out of his senses. He didn't want to deal with it right now.
He didn't want to deal with any of this.
Ice snaked through his throat, fueling a venemous and dried whisper that sapped the last of his energy.
"Go away."
He could see black. The only thing he noticed.
Black taking over the orange glow in the Molve's eyes, and creeping into his corner vision.
Black as he tried to fight closing his eyes while the Molve got to it's feet.
And black as he felt it hug him for some decent rest.
Alestra watched in confusion, as the Molve Káel had walked up to did anything but take his ribbon. The orange fire in its eyes had turned pitch black, and it looked worrisomely at Káel, who had face planted on the hard floor. Another roar echoed through the building, and the Molve perked up, turning its pointed snout to growl at the doorway.
Puff whimpered, and jumped off Alestra's shoulders, running to his fallen friend. "No Puff," Alestra whispered, trying to catch the dragon before he took off.
The second Molve peeked its head through the doorway, growling at the students, only to be met with a ferocious bark from the black Molve.
Puff reached Káel, and nudged at his face with his snout, whimpering and licking his cheeks frantically when he didn't respond. The black Molve let off a howling roar, and black flames sprang up, engulfing its entire body. The other Molve was taken by surprise, but did the same, leaping at its odd foe, and commencing in a violent brawl.
Alestra ran up to Káel and knelt beside him, her eyes widening with fear as he failed to respond to her every attempt at waking him. Putting two fingers against his neck, she was relieved to feel a heartbeat, but how would they escape now?
The Molves continued to violently bash one another, sending chunks of stone flying in all directions. While Phantom hovered over the necklace Káel had dropped, inspecting it with intrigued. "Perhaps that's it..."
Alestra ran back to where they had fallen, and looked to the sky. "Nim!" She yelled, patiently waiting for a response; but none came. "Nim help!"
Nim swooped down through the hole, and perched on a sharp rock, staring at Alestra and the fighting Molves quizzically. She pointed to Káel, and the bird immediately flew over to him, poking at his face with its beak. When it had assessed the situation, giving the fighting Molves a confused look, it nodded and flew out of the room, soaring off into the distance.
"Mudbrain," Phantom said, waiting for the fluffy creature to stare at him. He nudged at the nicklace with the tip of his boot. "I want to test something. Put that on him."
Puff perked up, and ran to the necklace, snatching it up in his jaws and running back to Káel.
It was hard to tell which Molve was winning, the two of them battered husks of scraped stone while the ferocity of their battle had cooled down to exhausted swipes and half hearted gnawing.
Puff hovered over Káel, trying every angle he could to get the necklace around his neck, but it wasn't working. He didn't have hands, or thumbs even, so he was mostly relying on his mouth to do the work. Using Káel's nose as a hold, Puff finally managed to pull the string over his head.
The black flames faded away, and the Molves eyes went back to a burning orange. Shaking it's head, it looked around in confusion, then at the other Molve with a soft and confused bark.
The other Molve scoffed, clearly not buying it at this point.
With a roar it tackled the confused Molve, bashing and clawing at it to force on another fight.
Alestra grabbed Káel by his feet, and dragged him over to the opening they had fallen through, trying her best to avoid any large chunks of debris as he slid across the floor. But he still ended up with a couple good bumps and scrapes.
It wasn't long until Nim returned, swooping into the hole and screeching at the brawling Molves, until they obediently bowed their heads in shame and left the scene.
Mrs. Vienta popped into view seconds later, peering cautiously over the edge of the hole and into the room. Her worried expression dropped when she saw Káel and Alestra, a soft sigh escaping her lips. "You two. Again. Why am I not surprised?"
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Quality Quip #1:
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~ E. V. Lucas
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