We all woke up to Mindplay’s screaming. Raya and Beth were already on their feet as I struggled to find support to stand. To our surprise, A Dilophosaurus was hissing at Mindplay with its frills on full blast. The thing was the size of a medium dog standing inches away from Mindplay's face. Beth managed to scare it off while Raya checked up on Mindplay.
"Are you hurt?" she asked the hyperventilating investigator.
"I woke up, and the damn thing was hovering over me," said Mindplay, scrambling to get his glasses on. To Beth, he said, "I thought you said this place was secured."
"It wasn't going to hurt you," said Beth. "It was just curious."
"Like hell it was! Are there any other living fossils I should be looking out for?"
"I'll just stick close to you instead of giving you the list."
“You don’t see something like that every day,” I said in awe, looking toward where the frilled lizard went. “I wish I got a closer look.”
"Easy for you to say," said Mindplay, "They can't hurt you. Where did it come from?"
"Yeah, I didn't notice any until now," said Raya.
"It might have been the dryad. Maybe she was keeping them at bay when she dealt with us," said Beth.
"So, we have to deal with more giant lizards?" asked Mindplay.
"Seems like it,” Beth explained, “but if she held everything back, what else would be coming?"
Beth retook the lead. I couldn't stay behind her because I wanted to see another living fossil running around. BD helped me find them hidden in the trees and the brushes. Being reminded that none of them could hurt me gave me the confidence to get as close to one as possible. There was a jaguar with keratin thorns growing out of its body so it didn't get caught by the fast-striking boa. There was a sleeping ten-foot lizard with a foul-smelling breath. I even climbed up a tree to find a micro raptor. None of them attacked me or tried to run away.
Beth used her whip to meet me in the trees. "You're pretty good with animals," she said, smiling.
"I guess I am," I replied. The micro raptor tried to get on my shoulder, but BD scared it off by snapping her teeth together. It was followed by more of its kind, all differing colors that the sun reflected off their feathers.
From below, Raya called out to us with Mindplay close to her. "Stop sightseeing, you two. We need to get to Shadow Fang before-"
My eyes were cut away from the canopy when I heard Mindplay's abrupt scream. I turned to see where I last listened to their voices to see Raya's hand sink into the ground. I first thought they fell into quicksand only for bones of varying sizes to rise from that spot. The tree that Beth and I were on began to shift along with other trees around us, forcing us to jump in different directions. BD crawled onto my back, morphing her limbs to strap around my shoulders. I heard wing beats behind me and was hovering in the air.
I got you, said BD in my head. Reassured that the morphing dragon had my back, I looked around to see if Beth was okay. Eventually, I found her hanging on one of the undisturbed trees looking at the ground.
The ground in question had taken on a form covered in bones. They acted as an exoskeleton for the soft mud body still connected to the ground from the waist part. From what I could tell, each bone had glowing runes on them. A Golem?
The thing reached out its hand towards me as bones formed claws. BD easily dodged them and flew me in to attack. Claws out, I used the momentum to slam into the body, but bones grew out where I thought I would hit the mud, and I was shocked at the bones' resistance. The rest of my body hit the mud, and I sank into it. BD flapped wildly to get me out, but that alone didn't work. A rib cage popped up around us to trap us, only for BD to flamethrower the mud I was stuck to.
At first, I thought she was crazy, but the fire didn’t harm me. The mud dried up, making it easy to break out and get away. The worst part about the experience was that it felt like touching a boiling pot.
I should have given you a warning; BD apologized.
Now's not the time to ask for permission, I said, watching the dried mud from BD's fire replaced by new mud.
My mind was rushing to figure out how to get Mindplay and Raya out of the creature. My breathing felt heavy in my lungs, and my finger ached. An idea started to form in the back of my head, but I couldn't visualize it. It was a scary thought that reminded me of how I felt before. Something needed to be done soon, or everyone would die again. Again?
Silver, look. At the sound of BD's voice, I focused back on the creature around where I hit it. The mud was rippling, and bones were trying to cover it. Shockingly, the bones shattered, and I could see a hand reach out of the mud body. The hand grabbed one of the broken bones to pull the rest of Raya's body out. When her head was freed, she screamed and rattled the air and trees. It was somehow enough to stun the mud creature. BD and I swooped down to help her. I grabbed her free arm and placed a foot on one of the broken bones, which started sinking into the mud. BD flapped her wings as hard as she could to drag Raya out. Raya was using her other hand to hold on to Mindplay. BD created a second pair of wings to get them out faster.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
As we struggled to get Mindplay out, something slammed into me, knocking me to the left. I tried holding on to Raya as long as possible, but I let go when I hit the ground. I skipped across the ground until a tree stopped me with a crash. As I got up, I looked down at my body to see what damage I suffered; ripped pants, clean hood, dirty hand, but no cuts or bruises. Looked around and saw Raya getting off the ground, but I started to panic when I didn’t see Mindplay.
"Silver, Raya! This Mindplay. Beth has me in a safe place," I jumped at Mindplay's voice suddenly in my ear. I had forgotten about the earpiece he gave me. Looking up, the fossil beast towered over me and turned its head toward me. "Someone else is here, so I'm taking Beth to deal with them. You guys distract that thing."
Said "thing" swiped at me with its bone claws, and I jumped over it. BD flew me out of the way of the second swipe. With both arms out of the way, I took a chance and went for the main body again, but this time an open mouth in the creature's chest was ready to swallow me, and I was too late to change direction. Luckily, Raya jumped in and got us away from the fossil beast.
"Thanks for that," I said after we had stopped rolling.
The creature used its arms to try and pull its lower half out of the ground, assuming it had a lower half.
Raya grabbed me by the shoulders and said, "I don't know what that thing is, but I know those glyphs on the bones. They're part of a protection spell, invulnerable to most attacks."
"So, how do we fight it?" I asked as the fossil beast started forming hind legs.
"I think Mindplay and Beth are looking for the person casting the glyphs." The creature had disconnected itself from the ground, standing on four legs. "Just remember: the glyphs work one way, and there is a core."
The fossil beast charged at us, and we were able to dodge out of the way. Trees were getting knocked down as the creature chased me down. BD was about to take off, but the beast bit down on us. With my claws extended and my arms covered in fur, I grabbed the creature's jaw by the teeth. Though the bones were still tough, they didn't feel as unbreakable as the other bones with the glyphs. BD shot fire into its mouth, causing it to throw me into the air.
While hovering in the air, I could see where Mindplay and Beth had gone. When I heard gunshots, I saw a giant lizard that looked saddled and armored with a rider. Explosions came from the side of the fossil beast, making it stumble over itself. In retaliation, it created a tail with bone spikes to whip around to try and hit Raya. While it failed to hit her, it took time to heal while staying stationary.
There, I saw a chance to strike at the core Raya mentioned. The only problem was that I didn't see the core or know where it could be. On top of that, my claws wouldn't be able to dig through the mud in time before I would get covered, and Raya wouldn't be able to save me.
Suddenly, BD sent me an idea of a flaming sword cutting through the mud. The fire would make digging through easier and can't heal those areas quickly. I didn't know where the sword would come from, but I had to trust my dragon.
So down we went using gravity to pull us toward the creature, and BD used her wings to guide us. She lined us up towards the massive opening in the creature's side, and I pulled my arm back, ready to swing something. Once we were moving fast enough so that nothing could stop us, I could feel BD move from my back and onto my arm. I was almost at the body of the fossil beast when I swung with everything I had, and I watched black flames cut through the body of the fossil beast. I did not stop slashing until a large part of the mud had dried up. I plunged my free claw into the dirt to keep myself steady and then continued to dig, using the sword to find the core.
The mud was slow to heal the dry spot, but that did not stop the beast from trying to slap me with its tail. I ignored the attacks that were doing a better job at removing dirt than they were at removing me. BD retracted herself as we saw something inside the creature. I plunged my hand inside, and we pulled against the mud that tried to keep its core inside. The beast roared in defiance, but it was for not as we finally ripped the core out, falling to the ground. What remained of the fossil beast fell to the ground, motionless, but I was focused on what I pulled out.
The core was a girl covered in mud and smelled of overturned dirt. Her skin was gray, her hair was burnet and messy, and her nails were unkempt. She rose from the ground as I did. Raya went to attack her from behind but was blocked by a bone tail that sprouted from the girl's back. Raya flipped over her, avoiding the bone claws the girl swiped at her. Raya and I were now standing side by side.
"A monster hunter and a monster fighting side by side. Master Shadow Fang must be quite a threat for this to happen," said the girl. She sounded sickly, like someone getting over a cold.
Afterward, more bones burst from the ground beneath the girl’s feet, forming armor around her. Just like before, all of the bones had glowing runes on them.
"This is like the red-haired vampire,” said Raya. “But how does this ghoul have more power than a wight?"
The ground began to shift again. Mud copies of the ghoul surround me, Raya, and BD, with more bones sticking out of them with glowing runes. The copies were easy to deal with using BD’s fire but would be replaced and never increased past four. The main ghoul was impervious to all attacks making her a threat to Raya and BD.
BD, get Raya to a safe place.
You’ll get overwhelmed.
But they can’t hurt me.
The little wyvern didn’t want to leave my side, but Raya was losing stamina. She was doing her best to control her breathing, but her pace was becoming uneven. In a blink of an eye, Raya was lifted off the ground with a giant gust of wind created by BD’s wings. I was left alone with the image of Raya, enraged by my decision.
The ghoul didn’t go after Raya and BD. Instead, she got rid of her mud copies and started bringing back the mud beast.
“Even you can’t stand against this power, Silver,” mocked the ghoul. “Before this is done, could you rate our fight so far? I personally would like to know how I fared against two legendary fighters."
The mud beast was fully formed. It towered over both of us with various teeth as the deceased creatures of the rainforest. Without BD, I was powerless. I was smiling.
Every rune on the bones started to fade in an instant. Mindplay was dealing with a spellcaster with Beth and just defeated him. I wondered if he found out the spell caster was connected to the runes during his fight. Didn’t matter.
Smugly, I gave the ghoul my rating of the fight. “This was the first time I’ve seen Raya struggle. I liked how you pushed us, so for that, I thank you.”
The ghoul sent the mud beast after me, but I ducted under its maw and sprinted after the ghoul. She tried to sink into the ground, but I was faster. I plunged my claws into her chest, breaking the bone armor. She wasn’t warm, and her insides felt like mud. I tried to pull my hand out to no avail.
Then, the body of the mud beast fell on us both.