The Warrior God (The Ares Trials #1) - Eliza Raine Page 0,58
touch that stuff,” said Bella. I glanced at the exposed parts of her arms, then down at my own solid armor. Even without my magic, my armor would withstand more than her human-made boots and leather. If the liquid was acid or lava, she was in trouble.
“Climb onto my shoulders. From up there you may be able to reach the heads, and you will not make contact with the liquid.
She stared at me. “Climb on your shoulders? Seriously?”
“Yes. Do it now.”
“But-” she started, then yelled and looked down, leaping sideways. The liquid had reached her boot, and as I had feared, instantly began burning through the material, acrid smoke sizzling from her shoe. I looked down at my own divinely created boots, relieved to see they were not reacting to the acid. “Get it off me!” Bella kicked and shook her leg, bending to untie the shoe fast, until a shriek from the Hydra made us both look up. It was charging.
With a fierce curse, Bella gave me a glare, then reached for my shoulder. I bent as she lifted the boot that wasn’t covered in the black liquid, cupped one hand beneath it and lifted. I heard her intake of breath as she clambered across my shoulders, then felt my own breath constrict as her thighs moved around my neck. But I had no time to deal with the new increase in pulse rate her thighs were causing. The Hydra had reached us.
I slashed with my sword, no longer caring if I severed a neck, as I raced to my left. Bella shouted, one of her hands gripping my helmet as I ran. The black acid splashed up around me as my gold boots pounded the earth, the Hydra stamping and shrieking behind me.
“We need to get under it!” shouted Bella. Her voice sounded strained.
“We need to go for the heads!” I roared back. I saw one of her boots, only half of it remaining and smoking, fly to the ground in my peripheral vision.
“No, this is a test of pain, and the burning acid is on the ground. We have to endure the acid to win, the answer is low, not high!”
I processed her words as I darted out of the way of a snapping jaw, trying to ignore the feel of her legs squeezing around my neck. She was right before, about the staffs, though I wouldn’t admit it. It made sense, I decided. I would do as she bid me.
“You can’t touch the ground, you’ll burn. Let me slide under, and you can stand on my armor.”
“You’re sure you can take the acid?” She gripped my helmet harder as I pivoted one-eighty and held my sword high. I felt her move on my shoulders, her feet coming up to where her thighs were.
“My armor is divine. It can withstand anything!” I roared, and ran full-pelt at the creature.
Excitement set my insides alight as the myriad horned snake heads snapped down toward us and I dropped, putting my trust in Bella to both stay off the acid and avoid the fangs. She jumped as I slid from my rear-end to my back, flying under the belly of the beast as scaled necks collided with each other, acid splashing up in waves either side of me.
Bella gave a true battle cry, raising her arms above her and grabbing onto the scaled underbelly of the creature. I jammed my sword into the ground to stop my movement, trying to maneuver myself underneath her as she hung from her fingertips, keeping her legs bent and feet from touching the acid below. Finding one of the gashes I had made earlier with my sword, she pushed one arm deep into the creature, holding on with a strength I hadn’t thought her small frame capable of.
Her body convulsed suddenly, in time with a shriek from the Hydra, and the four clawed feet around me began to stamp and jump in earnest. A scream, high and long ripped through my skull, and when I realized it was coming from her I shouted her name before I could stop myself.
“Bella!” She didn’t respond, her body convulsing again, but her arm moving further into the mechanical creature, then wrenching back hard. She dropped, slamming into my armored chest in an awkward crouch, and the brief glimpse I got of her agonized face, tears streaming down her cheeks, set a boiling swell of rage through me, before she began to slide on the gleaming metal.