CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO—THE END OF A COOPERATION
Raz did a backflip, swinging his sword down as his feet touched the ground. He cut the thick tendril in half and it sprayed luminous green goo all over the place. It was very interesting.
He reached out to touch it.
“Do not do that!” snapped Samira.
He looked at her. “What—why not?”
The adventurer with the excellent hair turned his shoulder and casually missed one of the tendrils. It whumped harmlessly across the ground directly in front of him, making one of the lose strands of his hair wave with the sudden rush of air.
“Are you going to say?” he asked.
She came forward, and just as the tendril was about to move and strike, she cut into it with her sword. It looked a lot like…
“Hey—that’s Debaku’s sword.”
“Did I not tell you we traded?”
“Ah,” he said, nodding. “That is right.”
“Pay attention,” she said. “Or is this all just a big game for you?”
He laughed. Why is she getting so uptight? Squaring his shoulders, he said, “Of course it is!”
A green tendril came down over them. Samira jumped away quickly. Her agility and magic was interesting and impressive.
Raz took two steps back as the tendril slammed into the ground. “I have fought way worse than this. My last kill of a monster boss was in Azurbadan in the Urutai Steppe. It was a strong beast—many of my men were killed.”
“And you survived?”
He sidestepped another tendril that cut in to attack him and missed. He brought his mother-of-pearl blade down over it and it exploded forth with that luminous plant juice.
“Of course I did,” he said with a smile, and he didn’t feel like he was showing off. Well… maybe just a little. But she doesn’t know that. “I always survive.”
She rolled her eyes. “I suppose that must be so, since you are still standing here!”
He laughed.
Gods, this woman is beautiful, but I wonder if I shouldn’t put her out of my mind. Leilyin is waiting for me in the Sultanah’s Palace in Darshuun.
“That is that stupid smile about?”
Ah—Leilyn’s brests… and that’s nothing to say of her wonderful curvy—
“What out!”
He turned, missing the tendril that smashed into the ground. Just then a smaller, thinner tendril like the ones they had seen before snacked in and attempted to coil about him. He cut it, but it continued its ascent upon him.
With his wrist he did a figure-eight like pattern, cutting the tendril into little logs that fell. Then he frowned. “This is way too easy.” Stepping away, Raz considered the larger leaf tendril. “What do you call these big ones?”
“The Angor has no real studies that have been done concerning it,” she said as the tendril swept back and darted for Raz.
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He held out his large blade and it cut itself in half.
Some of the luminescent plant blood got on him. It burned a little, smoking and sizzling. Raz made a face as he looked down at it. But as it was a liquid, he used his sword to make it roll off his skin and jacket as if he were oil and the plant juice thin water.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
He smiled and raised his sword. “This. It is an item I picked up from the water boss in Azurbadan. I was trying to tell you.”
The thick tendril spurted more of the stinging sap.
“I call them tongues.”
“What?”
“These thick tendrils with the corrosive sap. Show me what you can do with it.”
He shrugged. “All right.”
Raz looked up at the retreating tongue and he lifted his sword, holding it by the hilt, but also by the back of his palm. For the most part the blade resembled the fin of a fish, iridescent and shiny like mother-of-pearl, though like a scimitar, the back was flat, though the sword did have a sharp swedge at the tip that ran nearly a third of the total blade’s length.
Using his magical powers in conjunction with his enchanted item, he pulled the sap out of the thick leaf and, then taking hold of it, he spun his sword about with one hand, swirling that sap into a large orb.
He then then flicked his blade toward the thick part where they still had yet to attack. The sap landed atop it and it sizzled and burned.
Raz watched intently for Samira’s reaction, and she nodded. “Very good, Tomb Robber.”
“Thank you.”
“Does that not bother you?”
“What?”
“Bing called a ‘tomb robber’?”
No, it does not at all. He shrugged. “I cannot be offended by something that is true.” He laughed.
She raised an eyebrow. “I suppose I will have to find something to call you that you find more aggravating, Abassir.”
“Indeed!”
He jumped, missing another tongue that swung languidly through the air toward Samira. It sounded heavy and large and ponderous, but Raz thought them incredibly slow.
“I do not understand,” she said, landing on her feet. “I have not done battle with monster, but I have tested its resolve in a manner of speaking on several occasions. Normally it is far stronger, faster and more aggressive.”
“Perhaps,” Raz said, pushing the loose strands of his hair back out of his eyes, “it simply realizes it is done for. Between you and me and Shiro—hey is Debaku attacking too?”
“I do not know.”
“I thought I felt his aura moments ago.”
“I do not know your individual auras, but if that was him, he must have been calling on an enormous amount of magic.”
“Hmm,” Raz noised thoughtfully. “It doesn’t seem like him.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” he said. “Debaku is deliberate. When he calls on his magic, he does so for a very good reason. He sees things through. I think.”
“Watch out.”
He shrugged. “It is nothing.” He moved again, like before, turning his shoulders as the sharp-tipped tongue shot past him.
It looped around and slammed into his chest.
Raz blinked as a sharp and dull pain flared inside his chest and his back.
“Raz!”
With a convulsion, he coughed something up. He glanced down at the tendril sticking his his chest.
Samira’s heart lurched inside her chest. “Raz!” He shook slightly and coughed up a copious amount of blood. When he looked down, he seemed to take pause.
“It hit me?” he asked in confusion.
“I…?” Samira began to say, but she trailed off, her mouth open. How is this possible? The Angor has never moved so quickly before!
“Raz—I am coming!”
She lunged forward and screamed.
When he looked up at her, the Angor tongue pulled him away.
“NO!” she screamed.
As she followed, Raz’s body was pulled into the air, his sword fallen from his grasp where it thumped into the grass where he had been standing.
He did not move as he was dragged through the air in a wide arc high above Samira’s head. She jumped to cut the tongue and save Raz, but the tongue whipped even faster, pulling him toward the Node.
It opened with a wood-like creak and a wet sound. Another part came out, shooting forth. The large sticky bulbous end took hold of him and pulled him into the node where it closed up.
She stopped, her heart punching against the inside her of her chest. With a gasp, she didn’t know what to do.
The tongues came in after her.
She moved.
They came in and almost hit her with incredible speed.
Samira jumped out of their path, nearly getting crushed, when another tongue swept in the moment she landed, giving her almost no time to escape.
She lunged for the ground and fell haphazardly over her stomach. Another came down to crush her from above and she rolled wildly, pushing with her magic to get out of there.
When she landed she rolled, stopping herself roughly with an outstretched palm.
That strange sword Raz used was next to her. She grasped it, shot to her feet and used her magic to bound away from the node as fast as she could.
Once she was out of reach, she turned and looked up at the silhouetted Node on the hill, at the tendrils waving in the air like some exultant ritual of dark magic and evil worship. What is the meaning of this? I thought I knew this creature, but something is wrong. I need to find, Shiro.