Monster Girl Island 12 Chapter 2

“Ohhhhh,” Nadir declared as she stood from her spot at the fire and ripped off the last piece of meat from her skewer. “The six-armed big guy wants to fight? I’m gonna smash him!”

“Don’t get too cocky, Nadir,” I warned in a whisper. “We don’t know what this thing can do.”

“We have the Mighty Bungal on our side--” the Coonag began.

Bungal the Mighty, Bungal corrected his bondmate.

“Bungal the Mighty on our side,” Nadir said. “I don’t care what this thing is capable of, because Bungal is way stronger.”

Meanwhile, the Oshware continued to just stare at us with its beady black eyes until eventually its lips twisted into a soft snarl. The creature’s bulky, human-like hands tightened around its two spears, and I got the feeling it sensed just how hostile Nadir was being at the moment.

“Bungal’s great for crowd control and heavy hitters,” I tried to explain. “He’s the one we go to when we’re facing down entire armies of orcs or giant creatures that tower over us. I don’t know how much good he’s gonna do against this thing here.”

“Nonsense,” Nadir scoffed. “Bungal? Turn this thing to ashes!”

Um… I must admit, Nadir, Bungal chuckled. I have never quite been a fan of violence in any manner. Particularly not against creatures who have done nothing to deserve my wrath.

“Are you serious?” The Coonag woman shot her dragon daggers. “You’re the mightiest dragon of them all. You should be the terror of the skies!”

The ‘mighty’ in my name comes from my ability to lead my clan, the fat dragon explained. I am mostly mighty in terms of negotiation and compromise techniques during council debates. Or sometimes, when the stakes are high and I get truly hard-nosed, I utilize the most powerful weapon of all… The filibuster!

The fat dragon struck a proud pose as the words left his mind, but Nadir wasn’t having any of it.

“You literally tried to burn us all alive just a few hours ago,” the Coonag leader protested. “I know what you’re capable of.”

I will not lay a hand on the beast until he gives me reason to, Bungal protested. I am no brute.

“Maybe you should have taken this one, Lezan,” Nadir grumbled to the woman with the multicolored hair. “He seems to fit your temperament much better than he does mine.”

“Wow,” Lezan gasped. “That is quite the compliment, coming from you.”

“Sure, sure,” Nadir sighed with a knowing smirk.

“If the dragon won’t attack,” Avlee proclaimed. “Then I will. Too dangerous to be left alive.”

“Don’t be foolish,” Pae warned. “That’s exactly what the Oshware wants. He wants us to attack first, so he can get a glimpse of our fighting styles.”

“What?” I mused. “Is he the fucking Taskmasker or something?”

“It’s an Oshware,” Valea declared. “They have a better memory than any other creature on this island, if not this entire world.”

“What she’s saying is it might look like a big, dumb knuckle-dragger,” Shala interjected as she pulled her double-sided spear from its holster. “But don’t let his appearance fool you.”

The Oshware lowered its weapons slowly, and for a split second I pondered having one of our dragons take it out with a swift blast of flames or gust of wind. However, I was starting to second-guess myself. If what Valea said was true, then we’d have given away our greatest trump card right off the bat.

Nadir and I, however, were not on the same page.

One of you make the strike, Nadir declared telepathically to all of the dragons. If you hit him now, he’ll be dead before he even knows what’s coming.

One toasted ugly sucker, coming right up, Tirian declared as he slowly began to inhale and ignite his fire breath.

The Oshware’s eyes flitted toward the glowing maw of Tirian for a brief second, and then the creature let out a low, deep bellow. The sound echoed across the landscape from deep within his gut, to the point where even the neon leaves around him trembled from its vibration.

I’d heard this sound one too many times, from many different creatures.

It was a warning.

“Tirian,” I commanded the silver dragon. “Hold.”

I can’t just “hold,” Ben, Tirian warned. That’d completely mess up my insides!

Shit. It looked like this battle was about to get underway, whether we were ready or not.

I held my sword tightly as my jaw clenched, and I then watched as Tirian blasted a shot of white-hot fire at the Oshware.

The flames rocketed out of the dragon’s mouth like a firehose of deadly red ember and headed straight toward the human-esque seal creature below.

Seconds before the fire overtook his body, the Oshware let out a frustrated grunt as he jumped to the right, did a full-body barrel roll as he moved, and then landed in a superhero stance just a few feet away from the attack.

Tirian’s flames engulfed several of the luminos plants that made up the forest behind the creature, but the attack missed its original target completely.

“The luminos!” Valea cried out. “Please be careful! We’ve lost so many of them already.”

Before Tirian could respond, the Oshware let out a long, deep snarl and dug his flippers into the dirt at his feet.

“Fuck,” I growled. “Incoming!”

The six-armed gray beast flung himself forward through the air and hauled back with both of his large spears. He covered the entirety of the battlefield in seconds, and all we could do was roll out of the way as two deadly spearheads stabbed into the ground where we had just stood.

I came up swinging with my seaglass sword, but the Oshware twisted his body out of the way of my blade and then came at me with one of his free arms.

The world turned white for a brief second as the creature’s meaty fist slammed into my face and sent me tumbling backward. A jolt of pain shot through my nose as I fell onto my ass, and bits of warm blood trickled down my upper lip.

Damn. This thing packed a fucking wallop.

As my vision returned, I saw how freaking agile this Oshware was. He ducked, spun, and twisted out of the way of cut after cut and blow after blow, usually moments before the deadly attacks would have landed. He parried the axes of Lezan and Nadir as if they were toddlers attacking Andre the Giant, all before he lashed out with a combination of his fists and his spears.

“Gah!” Shala snarled as she just barely missed the Oshware’s haymaker.

“Come on, ladies!” Mira growled. “We outnumber this thing literally twenty to one. Surely one of us can land a hit.”

The Oshware suddenly dropped down into a crouch, held out both of his spears to the side, and spun around in a large circle.

My crewmates sprang up into the air to dodge the attack, and several of them seemed to think this was a perfect opportunity to retaliate.

They were dead wrong.

“Ayeayeayeayeaye!” Nadir screamed as she pulled her axe over her head.

Lezan was on the other side of the Oshware, so she mirrored her leader’s actions. Both of the Coonag women brought their stone axes down as hard as they possibly could, and both of them let out a gasp of surprise when the Oshware’s hands caught their weapons by the hilt.

Our opponent stood to his feet before he tossed both the racoon women like ragdolls and returned his focus to the rest of the crew.

I say! Bungal gasped as he watched the scene unfold.

The fat brown dragon swooped down, unfurled his mighty claws, and snatched Lezan and Nadir out of the sky. His giant wings caused a small gust of wind as he passed by, which was just enough of a breeze to throw off the Oshware’s balance.

“Eat stick, you spineless worm!” Kehlaan snarled as he lunged at the Oshware.

The hedgehog boy’s spear slammed into the creature’s left shoulder with a dull shluck and pierced deep into his flesh.

The Oshware let out a yelp of pain as he stumbled backward, but he couldn’t afford the luxury of acknowledging his agony further, so without missing a beat, the creature parried another Spindrel weapon, tossed out one of his flippers, and slammed it into Kehlaan’s stomach.

The hedgehog boy hissed as he was thrown to the ground, and he only had seconds to roll away before the flipper stomped down on his head.

The Oshware’s dual spears twirled in his hands like a color guard’s baton as he blocked my friends’ attacks, until he must have decided to take matters into his own hands. He increased his pace until both the spears spun like wooden propellers, and he created a defense that was impenetrable to any weapons that came his way. The Oshware let out a satisfied snort as he began to spin around, and he turned his entire body into a gray blur.

“Fucker of mothers!” Mira spat out as her spear was caught in the flurry and tossed backward across the battlefield.

The golden-scaled warrior instantly backflipped away from the Oshware as he continued to dispel the attacks of my crew.

One-by-one, the scene repeated with the rest of the warrior women. Spindrel spear and Cero sword alike were thrown back into the dirt, and their respective owners fled from the scene as they were exposed.

Soon, all of my crewmates had fallen back, and the Oshware was completely disengaged.

Or so he thought.

Hi there! Swaer declared as his little red body slithered in front of the creature. Ready to go for a ride?

The infant wind dragon inhaled deeply as he reared back his head and prepared to literally blow the Oshware away. Then Swaer unleashed a powerful blast of wind at his opponent, and the gray seal-beast let out a grunt as he was blown off his feet and tossed around like a paper airplane in a hurricane.

The Oshware disappeared into the forest of neon-colored plants with a rustle and a loud crash, far away from the battlefield.

“Should we retreat?” Pae questioned with a twinge of fear in her voice. “You saw what that creature is capable of. Now that he’s had time to study all of our fighting styles, this battle could easily start to slip away from us.”

“Not as long as we have the dragons on our side,” Batari declared. “Did you see how easily Swaer dispelled the creature? Another attack or two like that, and the battle is all over.”

“Or if I could get a clear shot,” Ashanti grumbled. “You guys really like to be in the way. And even though I could probably get an arrow off between all your twirling, I’d rather not take the risk.”

“Only have a few seconds,” Alvee noted. “We need a decision now.”

“We’re standing our ground,” I announced. “Even if we tried to run, we would just have that thing tailing us all through this forest until we got back to your home. And even then, it probably wouldn’t let up. Scary as it might be, we need to finish this fight here.”

Pae’s eyes were wide and full of terror, but she held back her emotions as she nodded and twirled her double-sided weapon.

“You heard the Draco Rex,” the silver-haired beauty commanded. “Defensive formation!”

The hedgehog women and Kehlaan quickly circled up back-to-back, with their pointed weapons held out in front of them. The formation honestly reminded me of a Roman phalanx, only without the shields.

“Defense?” Nadir scoffed as Bungal dropped her and Lezan back on the battlefield. “More like ‘nonsense.’ We Coonag have always found the best way to defend is to kill the attacker before he can attack.”

“Let me know how that works out for you,” Ura chuckled. “Because from what I just saw, it didn’t seem to work too well.”

Nadir shot Ura a glare that could strip paint, but she didn’t acknowledge the comment. Instead, the Coonag woman gripped her axe with two hands, dug her feet into the dirt, and began to scan the horizon for any sign of the Oshware.

“Cerin?” I asked our water dragon telepathically. “You know what your job is, right?”

Protect Marella at all costs, Cerin confirmed. And Jonas, too, I guess. But mostly Marella.

“Glad to hear,” I said. “Keep your eyes peeled. I don’t like how quiet it is right now.”

Even though I couldn’t see the six-armed bastard, I knew he was out there watching and waiting for his opportunity to strike. The leaves waved in the soft wind to create a sea of neon before us, and all I could hear was the rustling of the luminos plants as they brushed against each other.

I wished we could just have Bungal and Tiran firebomb this whole place. That would take out our problem really fucking quickly, and this Machamp-looking fucker wouldn’t have anywhere to hide.

But I knew better. In his crazed, unbonded state, Bungal had already destroyed much of this part of the island. If we just unleashed him on it again, I feared the luminos would never recover, and all the different life forms would die out for good.

Even if I never intended on returning to this island, I wasn’t going to let that happen, so instead, we waited for the Oshware to show himself.

I could feel myself growing more impatient and paranoid with every little snap and rustle we heard from the forest, but I didn’t dare make a move. If this creature was truly as intelligent as Pae claimed he was, that would be suicide.

Finally, from deep within the neon forest, there came the sound of harsh rustling leaves, followed by a guttural grunt. Seconds later, one of the creature’s giant-ass spears came flying out of the foliage like a charging cheetah.

I’ve got you, friends! Bungal declared as his massive paw came down and caught the spear mid-air.

There was another woosh as the Oshware’s second spear shot through the foliage, though this time it was aimed at Bungal himself.

The fat brown dragon let out an amused chuff as he caught the second projectile, but that was apparently what the Oshware wanted because the gray-skinned monstrosity sprang into the clearing, ducked down, and then launched himself straight up into the air.

“Take him out!” I commanded my archers.

He twirled out of the path of Theora and Ashanti’s arrows as they zipped past him harmlessly. Then, in one swift action, the Oshware grabbed onto the spears in Bungal’s hands, flipped his entire body around, and put all of his weight behind his blow as he slammed his feet into Bungal’s stomach.

The dragon let out a wheeze as he doubled over in pain and released his grip on the Oshware’s spears.

The six-armed beast used his momentum to swing himself up onto Bungal’s back, where he then proceeded to slam his fists into our dragon’s neck repeatedly.

Oof! Bungal gasped. You boorish brute! Unhand me immediately!

“Bungal needs to stop moving,” Ashanti growled as she pointed her bow in the direction of the chaos. “I can’t get a clear shot.”

Hold on, Bungal! Tirian announced as he zipped toward the Oshware on his friend’s back.

Instead of trying to blast the Oshware with his fire breath, the adolescent dragon used his body like a battering ram as he curled himself up into a ball and allowed his momentum to carry him into his opponent.

The Oshware must have been taken off-guard by the maneuver, because all he could do was lash out wildly as he was knocked from Bungal’s back and plummeted to the earth below.

“Gotcha,” Ashanti breathed as she let her arrow go.

The seaglass-tipped projectile shot through the air and struck the Oshware square in the chest, but it must not have been a killing blow since the creature simply let out a wail and continued to flail.

The Oshware slammed into the ground with a harsh thud, but he was back on his feet in seconds flat. Ashanti’s arrow stuck from his chest as he stood up, and he simply snapped it off like it was little more than a splinter.

“How in Cacoo’s name are we going to kill this beast?” Ahwara growled. “He just shrugged off two lethal hits.”

“I’m starting to think we can’t,” Pae admitted.

“Sure we can,” I promised. “We just need to get a little more… creative with our attacks.”

The Oshware’s eyes narrowed as he dashed forward. This time, he used two of his muscular arms to propel himself forward like a gorilla, and he charged us at an even faster speed than before.

How many times do I have to blow you away? Swaer huffed as he slithered into the path of the creature.

The furry wind dragon let loose a breath of powerful wind, but this time the Oshware was prepared.

The seal-like beast halted immediately, slammed the tips of his spears into the ground with enough force to knock out an elephant, and held on for dear life. His lower half was lifted off the ground as Swaer attempted to send him into orbit, but his grip was true.

“Hold him there, Swaer!” Theora ordered. “Ashanti? The second he releases his wind breath--”

“We release our arrows.” Ashanti nodded. “Way ahead of you.”

“Swaer!” I called out to the wind dragon telepathically. “On the count of three, let up your attack.”

Got it, the little guy confirmed.

“One… Two… Three!” I commanded, and Swaer halted his gusty blast.

Both of our archers let loose their arrows in unison, and the deadly projectiles shot toward the Oshware like two bats out of hell.

The creature was just able to dodge Ashanti’s arrow, but Theora’s projectile struck him in the back of his torso. He grunted as the seaglass-tipped missile stabbed into his flesh, but then the gray-skinned beast pulled his spears from the ground and snarled as he lashed out at Swaer.

Yikes! the red noodle of a dragon gasped as he contorted his body into an “S” shape so the spearheads zipped past him harmlessly.

“Enough of this,” Lezan declared. “I’m not going to sit back and let the dragons have all the fun.”

Before anyone could protest, the Coonag woman dashed forward with her stone axe at the ready, and Nadir gave a quick shrug before she charged after her friend.

“Wait!” Mira warned, but it was far too late.

We watched as the Coonag women shot past Swaer, lurched at their opponent and…

Were promptly taken down.

The Oshware flipped his spears around, struck the Coonag axes at the part where the hilt met the blade, and disarmed both his opponents. Then his bottom arms flew forward in a flash and grabbed Lezan and Nadir by the wrist, and he hurled them back behind his body with a smug chortle.

The Coonag women disappeared into the neon brush, and my vision ran red with rage.

This fucker was hurting the mothers of my children, and he was fucking laughing about it. Sure, I may have thought he was just an innocent animal at the beginning of all this, but now I saw the truth. I saw it in his eyes. In his body language.

He was actually enjoying inflicting pain on us.

Well, I could very easily return the favor.

“Flank him,” Batari suggested as she ran forward and motioned for her crewmates to follow.

Ahwara, Shala, Valea and Erel joined in on the offensive rush, though it didn’t do them much good.

The Oshware rolled to his side before he used his three right arms to launch himself into the air. He stabbed his right spear into the ground firmly, used his momentum to spin around like a fucking stripper, and smashed his feet into the incoming women.

All six of them, Swaer included, tumbled to the ground and rolled like a ball down a hillside before they came to a halt at our feet.

We didn’t even have time to help them up, though, since the Oshware began to charge us once again.

“Stand your ground,” I reminded my allies. “Jonas? Marella? Please tell me one of you has had a vision about this fight?”

“No such thing, Draco Rex,” Jonas sighed.

“Sorry, Dad,” Marella agreed. “I think this one’s up to fate to decide.”

Well… Cerin trailed off. Fate and a little bit of dragon breath.

Suddenly, a blast of salty seawater shot past our position like a geyser.

The Oshware crouched down into a ball, rolled to the left, and came up without missing a single stride. His eyes narrowed in Cerin’s direction before he hauled back and launched his right spear at the purple dragon.

“Get down!” Marella cried out as she practically tackled her bondmate to the ground.

Both of the girls hit the deck seconds before the spear would have impaled Cerin through the skull, and the deadly weapon swished past harmlessly.

Holy shit, Cerin had just done something nobody else had been able to so far. She disarmed the Oshware.

Now, we just needed to make sure to keep him disarmed.

“This is our chance!” I declared. “While he only has one spear.”

Still, even in a state that should have been a disadvantage, this bastard was tough.

Pae, Alvee, Ura, and Kelhaan all flanked the Oshware while Mira and I tried to take him on from the front.

The Oshware used the spear in his left hand to parry the wooden sticks of the Spindrel on that side, while he used the free hands on his right to lash out at his attackers. At the same time, the fucker was somehow able to dodge the thrusts and slashes that came from Mira and me.

That’s when the Oshwara grabbed onto Ura’s weapon and took her for a ride. He lifted the hedgehog woman into the air and then proceeded to spin in a wide circle, and as he did so, Ura’s frail body slammed into all of us and knocked us away from our attacker.

I pressed my feet into the dirt and forced myself backward seconds before the Oshware’s spear stabbed between my legs.

Fucking hell. Half a second later, and I would have been a eunuch.

I lashed out with my sword and slammed the seaglass blade into the hilt of the spear. Much to my surprise, my opponent’s weapon answered by splintering into a thousand pieces at the site of impact, and the Oshware’s eyes went wide as his only remaining weapon was taken from him.

“That’s right, fucker of mothers.” Mira smirked as she sprang to her feet. “Try fighting without a weapon.”

Apparently, the Oshware saw this as a challenge because when .

Mira ran at the beast, he Oshware clasped his hands onto her spear before it could run him through. He then grabbed onto its hilt with a third hand, lifted Mira by her weapon, and jerked his arm to the right.

Mira let out a cry of pain as she slammed into the ground and was then tossed into our crewmates who had just been taken out. The dragonkin warrior rolled to a stop against the groggy bodies of Shala, Swaer, Erel, Batari, and Ahwara, and then she groaned as she tried to pull herself back to her feet.

The Oshware ducked out of the way of two more incoming arrows before he took a swing at Pea and Kehlaan.

Thankfully, the two Spindrels were nimble on their feet, and Pae and Kehlaan both twirled in opposite directions before they stabbed at the monstrosity before them.

To the surprise of nobody, the Oshware dodged the attacks.

Fucking hell. If we were going to actually stand a chance at killing this thing, we needed to fight smarter, not harder.

The Oshware had the obvious advantage over us in terms of agility, so that was what I needed to take away.

But how? As I watched the seal-like creature dodge the swift, fleeting strikes of the Spindrel people, I realized just how hopeless that was going to be. Sure, we could try and cut off his appendages, but how the hell were we supposed to even land a blow?

Then it hit me. If this creature had memorized our fighting styles, then we simply needed to adjust the way we did things.

“Alvee?” I hissed as quietly as I could to the hedgehog woman beside me. “You said those luminos leaves are sturdy, right?”

“Strongest thing on island,” the brunette confirmed. “Why?”

“We can use them to take away his greatest weapon,” I explained. “His speed.”

Alvee still didn’t seem to register what I was getting at, though she didn’t protest as the two of us dashed over to the nearest luminos plant and sliced off a couple of the long, slender leaves. A bit of the glow drained from the leaves as they were cut away, but it didn’t matter.

All that mattered was they held up against the strength of the Oshware.

“What shall I do?” Alvee questioned once we had the leaves gathered.

“Use these on his arms,” I explained. “When he lashes out at you, try to get one of these around his wrist. If we can do that, and these leaves actually hold--”

“We can trap him.” The Spindrel woman nodded. “Good plan.”

As Alvee and I began to rush back into the fight, I noticed rustling leaves out of the corner of my eye.

The Coonag women.

“Hold on, Nadir,” I commanded the woman via dragonbond. “I love where your mind is at, but don’t come out just yet. Wait until Alvee and I have him in the snare.”

You want us to wait to attack? Nadir’s voice echoed in my mind. You do realize what you’re asking, right?

“I know,” I reassured the Coonag leader. “Trust me, it’ll be worth it.”

The Oshware must have heard us coming, because he instantly dropped down onto his knees and attempted a donkey-kick in our direction.

Alvee and I were able to split apart and dodge the attack, but the Oshware was back on his feet before either of us could catch him with the luminos leaf.

The gray-skinned fucker proceeded to do a hand-spin like a breakdancer, and I had to leap into the air to avoid getting swept off my feet.

Pae and her son attempted to stab the beast, but he was too fast.

As he sprang back to his feet, he slammed two of his fists into Kehlaan’s stomach and launched the boy back into the forest, and he lashed out at Pae at the same time.

Alvee and I quickly wrapped the glowing leaves around the Oshware’s wrists and yanked as hard as we could. The sudden motion changed the directory of the monster’s attack, and he let out a gasp of surprise.

“Got him!” Alvee declared.

“Now, Nadir!” I commanded the hidden Coonag women.

Right on cue, Nadir and Lezan sprang forth with their axes at the ready.

“Ayeayeayeaye!” both of the berserker raccoon women screamed as she charged.

Nadir went high, and Lezan went low. Nadir’s axe struck the Oshware’s bound right hand and lopped it off as if it were the head of a dandelion.

Meanwhile, the sharp edge of Lezan’s axe slammed into the Oshware’s left ankle and severed it away with a gory schluck.

The Oshware screamed as geysers of blood sprayed from his fresh stumps, and I used the opportunity to strike once more.

I drew my pink stone dagger from its sheath, took aim at the monster’s right leg, and slashed his fucking tendon. There was a sickly snapping noise as my blade cut through his flesh and muscle like a hot knife through butter, and he went down onto his knees in agony.

In a flash, I jumped up onto the Oshware’s back, pressed my blade against his jugular, and then dragged the razor-sharp weapon across his gray flesh.

Dark red blood sprayed out by the gallon as the creature began to flail and shriek, but I held on for dear life as the shrieks began to fade into sickly gurgles and then into silence.

I felt the Oshware’s life as it drained from his body beneath me.

The monster fumbled at the slit in its throat, but it was way too late. Its blood eventually slowed to an ooze as it got weaker by the second, until the Oshware collapsed into its own viscera. Half a minute later, and the creature went limp.

Once I truly realized the beast was dead, I stood to my feet and wiped off my dagger.

“So, this was the second most dangerous creature on your island?” I asked Alvee.

“‘Was’ is the key word,” Lezan snickered as she poked the corpse with her foot.

“Second strongest.” Alvee nodded. “Yes.”

As I stared down at the beast’s lifeless body, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride.

We’d already eliminated the top two threats on this island, and I was starting to wonder if we’d get a shot at the third.

In all honestly, I kinda hoped we did.

If we could kill the Oshware, we were ready for anything this crazy place could throw our way.