Chapter (Seconds)
The Groothcope, if that was what it was, tipped its snout and sampled the air tasting something new. Something sweeter than the Chiral blood that ran down its chin in heavy spit filled strings. Unsatisfied with its first meal, the monster checked the scent again, zeroing in on its source.
The huge creature lumbered toward the three semi-hidden Vicari with surprising speed, clearing over a meter with every step. Its clawed hands stretched out in front of it. Its snout twisted into equal parts snarl and grin.
It was go time. Do or die, once again. Cade gave a shifty eyed glance at his brothers, cracked a smile, and broke cover.
Springing to his feet Cade caught the attention of the gigantic beast as soon as he did so. Drawing his sword he charged straight on against the beast. He would not be the first of the Vicari to live through such a suicidal maneuver, but he wouldn’t be the first to have been killed trying either.
Still on his stomach Roland dropped his head into his folded arms in front of him.
“Aaarrggghhh,” he groaned, sighing deeply. Then he too launched forward from the cover of the underbrush and into the onslaught.
Sanis, was only a split second quicker. He led the secondary charge form the trees by only half a stride, his katana hissing up from its scabbard at his hip as he charged. In the time it took them to close the gap Cade’s jump-start had given him, the battle was already underway.
The brute seemed even bigger close up, dwarfing the combined mass of its three attackers. Roaring, the mighty hunter squared itself for an attack.
The Groothcope made its first mistake when it reached out for Cade. Lunging forward as its instincts commanded, it attempted to seize and crush its prey in a massive clawed paw. The Vicari met the beast's aggression in kind.
Cade's blade seared through one of the monster's four clawed digits. A smooth stroke delivered just above the middle joint removed the thick finger from the hand that had carried it. Cade danced past leaving only a blood spouting stump, which soaked his left side in its warm sticky wake.
The Groothcope roared in pain and rage, rearing back it readied a sweeping blow from its other massive hand. A loud pop split the air. Roland’s whip, as expected, found its mark wrapping around the thick wrist of a fist already in motion.
The whip barley slowed the blow and sent Roland, who refused to relinquish the weapon, soaring in the direction of the swing. The split second that the hold did slow the beast was just enough for Cade to evade the damage such a massive impact would have incurred. Twisting into a back handspring, the Vicari was able to land clear of the impact zone, coming to his feet amidst the leaves and debris the mighty blow had sent cascading into the air around him.
With Roland in midair and Cade in the middle of some skilled acrobatics it was up to Sanis to deal the next blow. While Cade sprung backwards close to the ground, Sanis took the high road. Jumping up and over his flipping brother Sanis reached into the current for some added lift. His timing was pure perfection.
Planting a foot on the swinging arm of the Groothcope, Sanis again took to the air. Timing his jumps as he had practiced on the plumb blossoms in the Temple training grounds, he moved ever skywards with a simple beautiful grace.
The blade of his katana glimmered silver in the moonlight as he brought the sword to bare. But the flash only lasted for a fraction of a second before being extinguished in a wave of scarlet. Sanis drove the blade deep into the muscular shoulder of the giant. Gripping the hilt firmly in both hands he used his own momentum to swing himself onto the Groothcope's wide scaly back.
Reaching back for the pest with its wounded hand the Groothcope probed for the evasive Vicari, forgetting entirely about the two other assailants for the time being. The air popped again, and as before Roland’s whip found its mark. This time however; it stopped the Groothcope cold.
Strong as the beast might have been it was no match for the standing power of the ancient forest. Roland had slip knotted the end of his whip around the trunk of a tree. The giant groaned and strained under the power of the colossal Groothcope, but in the end the arbor held firm.
Not to be left out on the charge he had led, Cade pulled another throwing knife from his belt. He snapped the blade airborne and although the steel was still sticky with tree sap and matted with grime his throw struck true. With the flick of his wrist he had taken the beast's left eye.
Screaming loud enough to alert any troops for kilometers the Groothcope raised both hands to protect its wounded face. The anguished roar persisted as the beast stood to its full height, raising Sanis an additional three meters from the comforts of solid ground.
With his whip already in full use, Roland resorted to his axe. Cocking his arm back as far as he could possibly strain he let the blade fly. The axe whistled the short distance across the clearing tumbling end over end until the two sides blurred together, creating a single silver disk in the moonlight.
The axe's flight ended as abruptly as it had begun terminating with the blood gushing clop of bone meeting tempered steel. Another scream, and the tree strained even more as the massive Groothcope struggled to free itself. The axe had lodged deep in the thick sinewy muscle of the behemoth's shoulder, and the whip groaned with the creature's rage.
Realizing what Roland was trying to accomplish Cade sent his sword airborne in the same direction, hurling the thick blade like a spear. In the time it took for the sword to hit it's mark, he had once again been forced into taking evasive action, diving away from the path of another sweeping blow.
The fist intended for the Vicari tore through the underbrush like a thresher, snapping anything in its path including the half eaten hind quarters of the horse, which still littered the ground. The Groothcope gave another frustrated snarl which quickly evolved into a third howling roar.
The sword had hit its mark. Though lacking the accuracy of Roland’s throw it still hit close enough to accomplish the greater goal. As one clawed arm ripped through the thick bark of an ancient giant the second dropped from its joint atop the massive torso, severed clean by the coupling Vicari weapons.
Free from the tension of the struggling Groothcope, the huge old tree snapped back into position with enough force to swing the severed arm around the clearing like a snapping tension cable. Watching the events unfold Roland was able to easily avoid the backlash. For Cade, who had been distracted by the heat of battle, it was much closer. Leaning backward to dodge the swing, the severed arm nearly wiped the sweat from his brow.
Trying to catch its balance the creature stumbled forward. Planting its remaining hand on the ground the Groothcope broadened its back, giving Sanis just the foothold he needed. Drawing his weapon back to his hip he again powered his blade deep into the flesh of the weaken beast, this time biting into the nerves along the right side of the spinal column.
The paralysis was quick to set in and the mighty beast dropped almost immediately. Landing hard face first in the middle of the small clearing it produced a cloud of dust and debris that rose into the air like a mist. The earth shook with the thud of the fall.
