and malicious.
It was easy to hate Elders. Especially when one ate your friend.
The toad creature, with its gorilla body and amphibian head, leaped from tree to tree. The sac beneath its chin was swollen with Andel and the safe containing the Emperor’s crown, and the Captain trusted Urzaia to get them both back.
He’d already smashed the Elder’s right side into a mash of blue gore, but that barely slowed it down.
Which didn’t seem fair to Urzaia, but he had expected as much. Elders did not fight fair.
He slammed one hatchet into the tree holding the creature, caving it in two, but his enemy had already leapt away.
He was trying to corral it back toward the beach where the others were, but it was hard to pin down an Elderspawn that could jump from one branch to another with ease.
Fortunately, Urzaia had more tools at his disposal than just his hatchets.
When the frog behemoth jumped to a new tree, he called on the power of his Soulbound Vessel.
The predatory fury of the Sandborn Hydra filled him, and he could feel himself growing heavier. The Hydra’s power wasn’t as simple as merely changing his weight; he couldn’t explain exactly what the difference was, but he knew he grew tougher even as he grew heavier.
His bones didn’t snap under his own weight, for one thing, and his skin shrugged off musket-balls when he was drawing on his power.
Once, when he had pushed his Vessel to the limit, he had managed to catch a cannonball.
That had been a good day.
But more relevant to his current situation: with great concentration, he could affect the weight of other things.
He focused his power into the tree. Not giving it weight but taking weight away.
Then, before the Elder creature could reorient and jump to a new perch, Urzaia tore the tree from the ground.
It gave easily, its roots snapping off as he heaved the massive trunk upward in both arms. The amphibian elder squawked and clung to the bark with its three remaining muscular limbs.
Urzaia returned the tree to its original weight…and slammed it into the ground.
As satisfying as it would be to splatter the Elder like a blood-filled mosquito, he was still concerned with Andel’s safety. So he twisted the trunk to one side, crushing the lower half of the behemoth into a blue pulp.
Its scream was a deep croak that felt almost as good as hearing its flesh break.
At the sound of their leader’s cry, the Slithers crawled from nearby bushes, threatening him with their stingers.
Urzaia was still filled with the power of the Sandborn Hydra, so he doubted such small creatures could break his skin. Even if they did, his Champion augmentation meant that most poisons did less to him than a mug of beer.
If their venom could get through his skin and his bloodstream both, then the Slithers had earned their kill.
He allowed the small creatures to slide all over him, trying to find purchase with their teeth and stingers. As they did, he advanced on their leader, which scrambled with its one remaining limb to escape.
The tree rolled off, but by that time, Urzaia stood over its froglike head.
The creature gave a pathetic croak and its mouth opened, disgorging Andel and the safe.
Andel was covered in blood and fluid as though he’d just been born. His hat and gun were gone, and he emerged with an explosive cough, gasping in air like it was the first breath he’d ever drawn.
He blinked at the gunk covering his eyes, trying to see, but fainted instead.
Urzaia’s relief hit him all at once, and he staggered to a seat on the collapsed tree. He had allowed himself to hope for Andel’s survival, but deep down, he had given up on his friend’s life.
This was a new ray of hope, and it brought back his smile. A Slither crawled closer to Andel, but with a single flip of his toe, Urzaia punted it deep into the forest.
The huge frog-headed monster gave him a deep, pathetic croak, gesturing to the chest with the crown inside. Urzaia didn’t need to be a Reader to understand its intentions; it was trying to bargain for its life.
Urzaia leaned closer to the Elder, and its yellow eyes went wide with fear. Even with most of its body a mangled mess, it tried to crawl away on its one remaining hand.
The Champion chuckled and rubbed its slimy head. He would have ruffled its hair, if it had any.
He didn’t like Elders, but bargaining for