Malik had just enough presence of mind to fill his lungs with a desperate breath before he struck the water below with a clumsy splash. Warm water enveloped him like the embrace of a jealous lover, suffocating in its undeniable caress. Mal didn’t fight the water because to wage war against a force of nature was a fool’s game. Instead, he relaxed, allowing his body to grow limp as air bubbles rushed past him on their way to the shining surface above. His eyes opened once he felt the water stabilize around him. The ocean water burned slightly, like fine sandpaper dragging against his eyeballs. Malik clenched his jaw and ignored it, instead focusing his attention on the pistol in his right hand. Only once he’d reassured himself that the weapon was secure in his grip did his legs scissor through the hazy water to propel him toward the surface.

I’m gonna kill that…, Malik fumed as he broke the surface. He didn’t have time to complete his thought or finish sucking in a ragged breath before he pushed himself back under the waves to avoid a strike of the coatl’s wickedly curved talons as it skimmed the water.

A moment later, after a firm kick and a powerful stroke of his arms, Malik’s head broke the surface again. The dark-haired man spluttered as a rattling cough exploded from his lips. The violent shaking of his chest threatened to send him back underwater even as he wheezed desperately to fill his empty lungs.

Oh, you little bastard. I’m going to eat you myself. Malik cursed as he spun to scan the sky for the winged snake. Luckily he didn’t have to look long before his blue eyes narrowed on the coatl. While he watched, the beast banked hard to quickly bring it back around to face the floundering human. The creature shrieked a shrill war cry that sounded like nails dragging against a dusty chalkboard. With a mighty flap of its wings, the creature launched itself forward in another deadly dive.

That was when Malik lifted his pistol from the water and fired.

The weapon chuffed like an overweight pit bull when a network of overcharged capacitors activated the magnetic coil. The resulting polar dissonance sent a shard of tritanium hurtling forward at hypersonic speed. The coatl had no chance of reacting even if it had known the danger it was in. Fortunately for the winged serpent, water was a poor platform to support anti-aircraft fire. The rolling waves coupled with the coatl’s naturally sinuous approach caused Malik’s first shot to go wide. He hurriedly peeled off another round that also missed the mark.

Dive, dive! Malik mentally shouted as he sucked in a deep breath before plunging into the water. He’d barely submerged when the coatl’s talons struck the surface with explosive force. Pain like the searing bite of a branding iron erupted across his brow when one of the coatl’s razor-sharp claws drug across his skull in a glancing blow. His head rocked back beneath the water as a string of bubbles erupted from his mouth to accompany his silent scream of visceral pain.

If this damn thing kills me, Oscar better avenge me. Wait. Where is that lazy glutton anyway? When Malik resurfaced he rapidly took stock of the battlefield again. The coatl was gaining altitude, surely planning to bank back toward the human for another attack run. Of Oscar, there was no sign. That would have set off alarm bells in his mind if they weren't ringing already. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do if the resident crocogator decided to nosh on the funny human before the coatl could claim him.

Malik allowed himself a moment of bitter self-pity that his newfound friend happened to be of the fair-weather variety. For one fluttering heartbeat, Malik let himself rail against the unfairness of an uncaring universe. He deserved better.

Deserve is a word the entitled use to lay claim to riches they haven’t earned. Malik lifted his pistol with one hand while the other wiped at a steady stream of blood leaking into his right eye. His feet kicked furiously, trying to keep him above the waves spoiling his aim. I don’t need any charity. Either I’m going to kill that bastard or I’m going to die trying.

With an air of grim acceptance, like a man climbing the stairs of a well-used gallows, Malik closed his right eye and went back to work.

His pistol’s bass notes sang a low, mournful dirge of death. Like an old farmer with a mouthful of tobacco, the EM pistol spat hypervelocity shards of tritanium toward the soaring coatl. Malik’s first two shots went awry as the water around him surged unexpectedly. A third shot punched through the flyer’s wing, blowing a hole through its leathery webbing. The coatl listed heavily to the side and careened toward the waiting water.

Got you, asshole. Malik thought as the winged snake cut loose another ear-shattering shriek of pain. As the creature lurched through the air to gain height, Malik fired off two more shots, both misses. With a grunt of frustration, Malik lowered his gun and ducked his face into the water to clear some of the blood clinging to his skin.

Ammo is going to be a problem, he thought as he wiped the water from his eyes. The burn of the saltwater in his wound was nothing compared to the frustration he felt as he watched the coatl laboriously circle for another pass. Malik considered the distance to the hatch of the lifepod and immediately dismissed it. The moving battle had carried them far enough from his pod that there was no way he could cross the open water before the flying serpent struck. His only choice was to use his last rounds to knock it out of the sky.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Looks like it's you or me, Malik thought as the coatl finished its turn and began to gather speed as it approached him. He lifted his pistol again, carefully lining up another shot. This time he was rewarded with a spray of blood as the round nicked the coatl’s serpentine body. The creature wobbled in its approach, clumsily breaking off a strafing run. After a determined beat of its wings, the coatl's maw split open to expose jagged, shark-like teeth as it screamed in rage.

Malik was so caught up in the intensity of the battle that he didn’t notice the changing current around him until he felt his feet strike something large, heavy, and covered in coarse scales.

“What the fu…,” Mal hissed in surprise as he tore his gaze from the descending coatl to look into the water. That was when he saw the dark, shadowy shape rising from underneath him like Atlantis rising toward a forgotten sun. Acting solely on reflex, his knees stiffened to hold himself upright as he rose from the water. Salty droplets, some mixed with blood, ran down his body in uncountable rivulets that traced the contours of his muscular frame. As the water rushed down his body, it spatted against the broad back of an enormous alligator that looked as if it had swam out of some paleontologist's wet dream.

“About damn time you showed up, Oscar,” Malik said, embarrassed by the upwelling of emotion that gave a hitch to his voice. Unwilling to get swept up in the myriad of feelings churning through him, Mal turned his blue eyes back toward the sky.

The coatl was still there, its eyeless face glaring down at Malik with primal fury. For a moment it looked like the beast might cut its losses and return to wherever it called home. But it had come too far. It had invested too much in this fight to turn away now. It didn’t scream or wail as its wings folded inward to launch itself into a dive toward Malik. It simply made the silent choice that it would kill this unwelcome human or die trying.

Malik could respect that.

With solid ground underneath his feet, thanks to Oscar, Malik lowered his hips and brought his pistol up to assume a classic Weaver stance. Anxiety and pain faded away as he leaned into years of experience and training. As he lined up his shot, the barrel of his gun grew still as an executioner's axe before the fall. A slow breath whispered past his lips and for a moment it seemed all the world stood still in sublime anticipation.

Mal squeezed the trigger. His pistol gave one last, deep-throated woof as a chunk of tritanium crashed into the coatl’s temple and exploded out of the back of its skull.

With more satisfaction than he would ever admit to, Malik watched the doom noodle fall limply from the sky to splash into the waiting waves.

“Thanks, Oscar,” Mal began as he surreptitiously wiped at the blood beginning to mat his eyebrow. “I had things mostly under control. Mostly."

Though his favorite sea monster was an excellent listener, Oscar was a glutton at heart. It should have come as no surprise that the leviathan would lose interest in Mal’s babbling as soon as snacks began to rain from the sky. In the blink of an eye, his wide tail flexed hard to send him shooting through the water toward the rapidly vanishing coatl.

Mal, unaccustomed to hitching a ride on a prehistoric sea monster, pinwheeled his arms as he lurched to the side. He almost managed to keep his balance. Almost.

“Whoa!... Shit!,” Malik Rosen, erstwhile Chief of the Starlight Journey, screamed as he tumbled, head-over-heel, into the ocean. After a brief moment of thrashing to right himself once again, Mal broke the surface with a sputtering cough.

“Next time…Next time you can shoot the damn coatl," Malik grumbled with a shake of his fist. "I’m taking the rest of the day off.”

Suiting words to action, Malik spread his arms and legs until he found the perfect equilibrium to float among the rolling waves. His blue eyes slipped shut as he let the waves carry him wherever they wished. He thumbed the safety back on his pistol and powered the weapon down. He knew he should see to the cut over his eye. It might even need stitches. But it didn’t feel like a mortal wound. Right now he didn’t want to do anything except lie on his back and feel the warm rays of the sun shining down on him.

Even when he felt coarse scales pressing against his back to lift him from the water, Malik didn’t deign to move. He simply lay there and enjoyed the sensation of sunbathing on his best friend’s back. For the first time since he’d landed a genuine smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Maybe it was the adrenaline still coursing through his veins, or maybe it was the blood loss, but something pulled a laugh from Mailk’s lips as he affectionately patted the thick hide underneath him.

“Hey, Oscar,” Mal said in a casual tone as he rolled over onto his stomach. "I'm sorry I doubted you, buddy." The sea monster replied by slapping the water with its gargantuan tail. Water exploded into the air with a sound like cannon fire. The deluge that followed left Mal soaking wet, from head to toe.

Malik knew Oscar well enough to recognize a moment of pique when he saw it.

"You're right. I totally deserved that. But hey, I've got a question."

As he spoke, Mal couldn't erase the grin from his lips as he stared past Oscar's wide, toothy snout. There was something quite novel about watching the sea monster approach his lifepod like some sort of aquatic taxi service.

“How do you feel about helping me move to a new neighborhood?”