Belly of the Beast
As the water level once again subsided, Frear’s Squadron was in dire straits. The Salt Kings were of course completely unaffected, pursuing their prey in the wake of the wave they created. Arasaka, being the farthest frontliner standing, was in their cross hairs.
The Salt Kings were sliding forward, using the low tide as a lubricant to slip over the sands. Closing in on Arasaka, the front croc snapped its teeth at her, trying to cleave the woman in half.
Somehow, Arasaka managed to dive out of the way. She was still in range of the Salt King, and it was quick to follow up again. Then Amar stepped forwards, smacking the Beast with a Bear Claw. It didn’t seem to injure it, but the Salt King was knocked off target.
Logan was unsure how they were going to even scare these Beasts away when Lexie reappeared over the Salt King that was in back. Standing on its back, she drove a dagger through the croc's milky eye until her elbow was deep in the socket, before disappearing again.
The blinded Salt King let out a roar that dwarfed their previous cries. All the humans on the shore had to cover their ears in response, but still the cries caused blood to leak out of eardrums.
For a few seconds, no one could hear, but that didn’t stop them from responding to the now rampaging Salt Kings. The Squadron all backed up as much as they could, but the thirty foot lizards ate up ground at a prodigious rate. It was all they could do to dodge out of the way frantically at the two Beasts snapped and chomped at them.
As their big teeth flashed again and again, Logan started to think of a plan. He had heard of crocodiles letting other animals clean out their mouths before. Logan didn’t think the Salt Kings would be too open to the idea at the moment, but it inspired him to think beyond the ordinary.
As Logan’s hearing started coming back he shouted to the rest of the Squadron.
“I got something, just stay alive!”
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Amar barely heard Logan over the humming in her ears. Moreover, she didn’t really care what he said, as she was more concerned with staying alive as the twin giant crocodiles came at her and the other front liners.
As she dodged out of the way of the latest snapping of giant jaws, Amar managed to back out of range for a quick second. Looking around, Amar didn’t see Logan, but she did make out both Lucius and Sophia getting back to their feet. Jerry must have managed to help heal them with some concoction.
Larry was still dancing in front of the Salt Kings, the big man surprisingly nimble and adroit at maneuvering his body. All the while he was laughing maniacally and slashing periodically with his enormous battle axe, but he couldn’t hold forever against the Beasts.
Casting Root, Amar flung herself with some seaweed back into the fray. Unfortunately her arc trajectory wasn’t the best. Instead of sending her on to the back of the half blinded Salt King, she was flying straight towards the open gullet of the uninjured one.
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“Aaaahhhh!” Amar screamed as she flailed through the sky.
Unable to correct her trajectory, Amar sailed straight into the giant jaws of the Salt King, landing on its tongue. Most definitely not a place she expected to be, and an even stranger place to find Logan. Actually, on second thought in the mouth of an oversized crocodile is exactly where she expected Logan to be.
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Logan was pleasantly surprised to find Amar sail into the Salt Kings mouth to join him.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I… are you here on purpose?”
“Yeah, I thought you had the same idea. If we can’t get through their skin, we could try cutting the Salt Kings from the inside out.” At least, that’s what Logan's plan had been.
He had teleported into the uninjured Beast’s jaws, already past its enormous teeth. Logan hadn’t counted on the smell being quite so rank, which had stalled him until he saw Amar fall down in here with him.
“Well, since you’re here… do you wanna kill this thing with me?” Logan asked.
“It would be my pleasure Mr. Brewer.”
The two of them began to make their way over the tumultuous surface of the Salt King’s tongue to the back of his mouth where the brain would be. The smell only worsened as they progressed further towards the digestive tract, but they had no choice but to continue on.
Then they reached a swell where Logan thought he might be able to jump and slash the roof of the Salt King’s mouth. Just as they were about to cut into the flesh, the ground suddenly tilted almost 90 degrees clockwise, leaving Logan and Amar tumbling towards terrifying teeth.
Just as suddenly, the mouth was righted. Amar and Logan were able to stagger back to their feet in time for the mouth to tilt in the other direction and steal their balance once again. The Beast must be trying to eat more of their Squadmates.
Determined not to let that happen, Logan stood once again. Amar was quick to join him, and together they made their way back to the danger zone. Suddenly, the floor wasn’t perpendicular once again, but this time Logan was ready.
Stabbing his sword down into the soft flesh of the tongue, Logan managed to secure a hold for both him and Amar, who was grabbing onto his shoulders.
“Logan, I can get you up there!”
Realizing what Amar meant to do by the readied Bear Claws on both arms. This wasn’t the time to second guess anything.
“Send me!” Logan shouted above the strange noises the Salt King’s innards were making.
Then Amar smashed Logan with both blunted Bear Claws, launching him like a missile towards the roof of the mouth.
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Logan smashed through the Salt King’s brain matter like a sledgehammer through drywall. Namely, he sent bits and pieces raining through the sky in some sort of twisted horror version of a firework. The sound of Logan’s Spark Kindling rang out in his ears. He clenched his fist and felt physically stronger suddenly.
Then Logan realized that he was now rushing through the air at least 30 feet above the water. Waiting until his upwards momentum arrested, Logan teleported back down to the shore. Although he was still tumbling along the sands for ten feet or so, it was without the bone shattering force that such a large drop would have generated.
Dazed, Logan looked up to admire his handiwork. The Salt King he had rammed through was clearly dead, unmoving with its head angled to the side. That was the good news.
The bad news was that the other Salt King was in a frenzy. It had stopped snapping out at its attackers and begun just rolling around and lashing out. In the process it was kicking up huge waves that, although they didn’t match the initial flow of water, were still disrupting the Squadron effectively.
The Beast would be unapproachable in this state, and Logan didn’t even want to consider going in its mouth while it was rolling so violently. Then Logan realized he might not have to.
The mission only called for the Squadron to drive the Salt Kings off, and Logan had something perfectly tailored for that. Calling up Bond, Logan readied his tentacles. Then he teleported in, and made his play.
Questing out, Logan’s tentacles made contact with the beast soul, and for a glorious second, reality slowed down. Logan could now feel everything running through the Beasts mind, its anger, pain, and most importantly, what Logan was looking for, good old fashioned primal fear.
At Logan’s metaphysical touch, the Salt King stilled. For the first time, even after its mate’s death, it had finally recognized that it was not the predator here.
That was Logan’s job.