Dreamland

It looked like a giant boulder. It looked like one of the many huge boulders around.

Then suddenly, in a sneak attack, the monstrous beast descended from its perch with the speed and 'elegance' of a running train, engulfing Cala in one go and continuing straight towards the Lynx.

To the eye, it was as if a giant speeding truck had struck a jaywalker on the highway. One moment Cala was there; the next moment, the monster had passed, and there was no trace of her.

White Flower flew instantly in the air and shot a salvo of fire spells while the Lynx avoided in extremis the muscle mountain.

Tina was not yet awoken when the Lynx grabbed her in the air and pushed Spartacius away. Luckily he didn't use his claws when he grabbed her. A frightened scream escaped her lips as she found herself suddenly flying in the air.

“To the grotto!” - yelled the Lynx.

Alice, who was shooting fire arrows that only fizzled on the wolshi's gelatinous barrier, nodded. She took Tina's hand as the Lynx pushed her and ran with her towards the grotto.

The wolshi, a giant muscle pack covered in that gelatinous sticky substance that it secretes, turned around surprisingly fast for its mass and spat a green spray toward the fairy.

White Flower tried to block it with an air tornado while flying sidewards, but too slow, the small pebbles coated in acid flew through her barrage and hit her, tearing through her body like so many poisoned bullets. She fell with a faint scream; white healing light illuminated her.

“Take her to the grotto!” - screamed the Lynx towards Spartacius, who was near the fairy.

As the wolshi tried to gobble the fairy, the Lynx jumped at it from the side, tearing apart the thick, gelatinous skin and forcing the beast to turn towards him.

Alice, from the other side, shot a thundering arrow which shattered the beast with a blazing explosion. It turned to face her, giving the Lynx a small respite. Alice ran as fast as she could to avoid the next attack.

Spartacius picked the fragile fairy in his hands, surprised at how light she was. Waves of light passed through her body as the fairy healed against the progressing acid and venom of the corrosive spit. The Lynx screamed again:

"Run you, idiot!"

He hesitated for a fraction of a second, then ran with all his speed towards the grotto, overtaking Tina and Alice in his sprint.

The next second, Alice and Tina rolled inside with the Lynx pushing them while the wolshi hit the grotto's wall behind them with a thundering bang.

Even before they settled, the Lynx asked Alice:

“Do you have the harpoon skill?”

It was hard to understand him as the wolshi continued to hit against the grotto's entry in thundering blows, boulders falling all over. The angry beast was too big to fit inside, but it tried nevertheless to force its entry.

Alice nodded:

“Yes, I do!”

“Give the cord's end to Spartacius!” - said the Lynx, covering with his voice the alien-sounding roarings and the rumblings of falling stones - “when I free her, harpoon her and pull her, else we lose her!!”

Spartacius' eyes blinked as he tried to process the information. He understood only when the Lynx added:

“She is in the offspring's bag. Ready?”

Now he understood: 'They want to harpoon Cala!!'

He put the fairy down and jumped, taking the cord's end, then yelled to the Lynx: “Ready!”

The Lynx did not wait for his confirmation; he was already gone, only gusts of wind reminding of his former presence there. Alice raised her bow, getting closer to the entry. Tina was cowering in a corner where she had fallen as she had been pushed inside the cavern. She raised her head, saw them acting, opened her mouth to ask something, then she understood that nobody had time for her. She went to White Flower to see if she could help.

Spartacius watched them for a moment, asking himself if the fairy would survive, waves of healing spells passing over her while Tina was holding her hand with tears on her face. There was nothing he could do. He turned towards Alice.

He mumbled to himself:

“Focus, focus, idiot, focus!” - then he wondered if the arrow would pull the cord. The physics of the action seemed to be off.

He tried to best prepare for what he understood would be his part of the action and bound the end of the cord around his waist, then held the remaining rope in his hands, watching nervously the happening.

"Come closer!" said Alice, glancing at the rope.

The Lynx was outside fighting the wolshi. Well, not really fighting, everything happened so fast that Spartacius could not grasp most movements, but it looked more like a dance or a game of 'whack a mole' where the Lynx was the mole and the wolshi the whacking bar.

Thundering blows were shattering the earth each time the wolshi-whacking-bar hit the ground, the Lynx each time narrowly escaping. He realized that a certain routine had set in.

Then suddenly, the Lynx jumped at the wolshi the moment when it was raising for another whack, cutting deep at its underbelly. A rain of black tears of various sizes started falling down and between them was Cala's body. He did not even properly process the image when the sonic boom of Alice's arrow shattered the cave, the arrow-harpoon penetrating Cala's chest with a thud. The arrow almost completely passed through, between her right breast and her shoulder, the point sticking out in her back. Was the hit too hard? Too strong? He saw how the body swung in the air from it.

Alice yelled, dropping her bow and grasping for the cord herself:

“Pull!!”

He realized the cord had too much leeway, but it was too late now to take another grip, he triggered his running-attack skill, and his body surged with all the speed he could muster in the opposite direction pulling the cord with him. The running-attack skill to overrun and kill.

He practically flew towards the end of the cave. The giant wolshi was already reaching toward Cala when the cord tensed, propelling her towards the cave, but a little too late. The beast caught her in the air, re-absorbing her and some of the offspring before reaching the ground.

Spartacius' was swung heftily backward, missed his step, and fell into what seemed to be a bottomless pit. As the wolshi hit the ground again, Spartacius's free fall stopped suddenly as the cord tensed, and Cala's body erupted partially out from the beast's maw.

The wolshi pressed hard with his rubbery jaws, blocking her feet and keeping Spartacius hanging in the air. The Lynx jumped again, his jaws now closing over Cala's pelvis, his long canines penetrating her belly. His front claw cut her thighs through whilst his hind legs were hitting hard against the wolshi, and thus he propelled himself and the three-quarter Cala inside the cave. The angered wolshi protested with an alien screech hitting again the stone walls.

The Lynx continued running towards the insides of the cave leaving behind a line of blood with Spartacius screaming almost in free fall towards the dark bottoms of the pit.

The Lynx halted his run, with his claws digging deep trenches in the grotto's floor with Spartacius repeatedly hitting the pit's walls. He was almost completely knocked down by the violent shocks. Luckily the Lynx did not leave Cala fall from his jaws, realizing something was wrong.

White Flower, who finally managed to win her fight against the corrosion that was devouring her body, ran to help the Lynx, still healing herself.

Tina ran to pull Spartacius up, but she realized she was too weak to do it.

As White Flower was healing Cala as much as she could, she screamed to the Lynx:

“Put her down!! You're hurting her!!”

“Immmcannot, thatnidiotngg in theng pit!!” mumbled the Lynx, and Alice ran at the pit's edge to pull Spartacius up whilst the fairy continued to heal Cala and herself.