Chapter 8 The fight

Chapter 8 The fight
Scyll reached into a small satchel that she was now carrying and withdrew a map made from some sort of leathery material. “Sector 32 is about two miles to our north.” She said as always speaking in her small timid voice.
I almost stopped to ask which way north was, but I realized that I could feel “north”. It was unexplainably weird, but I guessed that the symbiote, like many animals could sense magnetic poles, and it appeared that the symbiote relayed that information on to me. I shuddered a little. Having something else in my head like that was kind of uncomfortable. Though at the same time I began to wonder what else this symbiote could do.
Caulin and Gohn lead us into the forest. As we walked I saw small creatures scurrying here and there. Some resembled oversized insects, often having too many arms or abnormally large jaws. Though if I had seen most of these things back in my time I would have simply assumed I was in some remote South American rain forest. Up until that moment I had yet to see any “mutants” that really seemed too dangerous or disturbing. Like I said up until that moment. Because at that moment I found myself looking at something that did sort of freak me out. Caulin and Gohn had already started to square off with it
“Looks like this trip is going to be exciting after all.” Caulin said a cocky air in his voice, “ I got this one. David, just stand back and watch a pro.” The creature sort of reminded me of an oversized warthog… if it had mated with a bulldog. It’s body was devoid of any visible hair and it was covered in a putrid smelling mud. It skin was a brownish gray and it was full of fat. The jaw protruded from the otherwise flat face and two very long, in fact completely oversized tusks stuck out. The legs, and stance were what reminded me of a bulldog. They were short and bent inward, but also they appeared to be rippling with muscle.
The beast was clearly perturbed at our mere presence, and didn’t seem to want to let us just leave it alone. Caulin reached for his symbiote from around his waist. It straightened into his staff and he gripped if firmly in his right hand. The creature lunged forward in an attempt to gore Caulin with it large tusks. Caulin dodged to the left and smacked the creature on the back. Sparks flew and the mutant let out a terrible howl.
“Caulin!” Terry yelled “You have to keep it quiet, that’s a pack animal!” Caulin’s cocky expression faded from his face as he seemed to remember. At that moment I heard the responding howls that sounded identical to the beast’s.
Gohn sighed in a mixture of annoyance and frustration. “ Nice job.. Pro” He said, poising himself for an attack.
Caulin got defensive “ Hey, come one we can take a few of these things” he said.
“Easy,” of course as he said that the hog beast who had just recovered from the stun of the shock decided it was time to charge again. Not paying attention Caulin realized just in time to thrust his symbiote up in defense. The huge animal plowed into him. The creature leapt up and knocked Caulin down. Caulin’s staff was the only thing that kept the beasts mouth away from his face. Gohn leveled his arms at the thing, but before he had a chance to fire, Caulin’s symbiote lit up with an enormous charge of electricity. For a second the creature seemed to glow. Caulin bench pressed it off of him using his legs to kick its enormous girth back. Caulin jumped up and spun his staff thrusting it down, end first into the beasts stomach. He let loose another jolt of electricity on the thing until smoke started to come from the things mouth.
“Nice, now lets take his friends” Gohn said pointing to the six other monsters that had just approached from behind us. “ You want to solo these too?” He laughed.
Caulin scowled “ Will you just come one” He said clearly still embarrassed at the mistake he had made earlier. Scyll and Terry seemed to just laugh and appeared not to be overly interested in helping .
“There are six of them don’t you think we should help them out.” I asked them.
Terry just laughed. “O they can handle this. Those two are just being dramatic.” She responded with a giggle. “ I wouldn’t doubt that they could kill twenty of those things each without too much of a struggle. If they need help we’ll step in. Till then I tend to let them have their fun.”
As Caulin ran head first in to the group, Gohn hung back. He put on his mask and took aim. The two seem to fit together like a well oiled machine. Caulin stood in the middle of the beasts drawing their attention. As they took turns charging him. He would simply dodge then shock them. While he danced with them like some kind of Spanish matador, Gohn shot them. A few seconds after each creature had been shot it would stumble a moment and then fall over in convulsion. Caulin would then finish it off with a blast from his staff. They did this one at a time, until there was only one left. By this time the beast had noticed Gohn picking them off. He turned from Caulin and charged instead at Gohn. Gohn stood perfectly calm and took careful aim with only his right arm using his left arm to steady the other. The creature was no more than ten feet from him when he finally shot. The dart flew directly into the charging animal’s left eye and proceed immediately into it’s brain. This one dropped instantly and slid from its momentum stopping only inches in front of Gohn’s feet.
Terry applauded sarcastically. Then she stopped and looked down to her caudal who was standing next to her. All she did was make a small jerk of her head, and her caudal bent forward and it’s tail shot out in the direction of Caulin and Gohn who were now walking back. The tail flew by them. They spun around to see what was going on just in time to see that one of the pig beasts hadn’t had quite enough yet. It had gotten back to its feet and was preparing to charge them while they weren’t looking. The caudal’s tail wrapped around the neck of the beast and then jerked it backward like a dog on a leash. The beast struggle to get free but the caudal’s tail displayed surprising strength. The tail forced the monster down to its side and then squeezed. The beast flailed chocking for a moment then the tail spun around snapping it’s prey’s neck and turning the head completely around. After that the animal stopped squirming. The caudal’s tail quickly retracted and then the caudal jumped back onto its perch on Terry’s shoulder.
Caulin looked back to the now dead creature, then to Terry “ thanks” He said casually not as if she had saved his life, but more as if she had saved him some work.
“ No problem” She replied. “ Lets get moving again we wasted too much time already and we haven’t even made it to the sector we are suppose to be in yet.” We started to walk again my mind still reeling from the battle I had just watched. It was impressive I had to admit these guys seemed to have this down to an art.
Scyll matched pace with Caulin and said softly, “ You did a really good job back there. Even if you did lure the other six.” She smiled Caulin scratched his head apparently recovered now from his prior embarrassment.
“ Yea well you know I did that on purpose, I have to keep ole Gohn there on his toes.” Caulin said in his once again usual cockiness. “I mean if I take everything myself then Gohn will never get any practice, and then I’ll never get a real challenge in the sparring room.” Gohn laughed at the remark.
“yep, so getting mauled by that first one was just all part of your plan” He said mockingly.
Caulin nodded smiling. “ Of coarse what did you think I was actually caught off guard.” He said with a swagger in his step. “ I am never caught off gua-” Terry’s caudal shot its tail down tripping Caulin and almost making him fall down face first in to the ground.
“ What was that last part I didn’t quite catch it.” Terry said laughing
“ Dang it, will you stop doing that.” Caulin retorted. We all laughed as we continued down through the dense undergrowth. There wasn’t a path to follow. So we spent a lot of time pushing through vines and bushes and climbing over house sized roots. I extended a small claw from my symbiote and used it to cut through the foliage like a machete. The thick air filled my lungs with each breath, it was so wet I felt like I was in a sauna. Other than the first fight with the warthog mutant the rest of the trip to the area was rather uneventful.