Shiv ducked behind the boulder with a curse muttered under his breath. Aloud, he whispered, "Not another one…"
On the opposite side of the boulder came a loud sniffing sound followed by a choked giggle.
Shiv cursed again and threw himself into a run, ignoring the growling of his stomach as his feet pounded the dry red dirt as fast as he could make them. A quick glance of her shoulder revealed the ugly creature was gaining on him, so he poured even more speed into his steps.
He searched the ground ahead desperately for anything he could use as a safe haven to no avail.
Seeing no other choice, he chose the only option left to him: stand and fight.
The only issue with that was how certain he was of what the outcome would be.
Still, with his hand being forced, Shiv came to an abrupt halt and whipped around with earth climbing up his torso from his bare feet, molding into a spear. He faced the monster that was chasing him.
It was a monster of a beast, and reminded him of hyenas from his home planet. Hyenas and flamingos. It was the size of a buffalo with dark spots all over its pink, feathered quadruped body. It had the head of a hyena, but the bill of a flamingo that was open wide with a tongue lolling out and ugly cackles emanating from it.
But that's not what caught Shiv's attention.
No, he was more distracted by the shimmer of green on the horizon behind the monster before him. The split second in which he noticed it was enough to have him launch the spear, spin around, and start sprinting again with everything he had.
His sudden stop had caused his pursuer to slow down as well, but now it threw itself forward with a boost from its flightless wings.
'What to do, what to do, what to do…' The phrase repeated itself in Shiv's head as he searched for an answer to the question.
Suddenly, he found it. "Shiv! I'm so glad we found you before the church did!" Blaze and her fiery mount landed on the ground next to Shiv, and started running alongside him.
"Where's Duncan?" Shiv asked in between gasps. Even with his god-blessed body, he was running out of stamina. He'd been on the run from these hyena creatures as well as the church, plus the Duncan and Blaze team up, making sure he had less than enough time to rest.
"I… he asked me not to tell, but he's hiding behind a boulder over that way!" Blaze pointed to her left.
'Great. This time, I'll finally be able to lose everyone.' Shiv took a deep breath, and grimaced when his stomach rumbled again. "Give me all the food you have, and then distract this beast while I head to Duncan, OK?"
"Only if you promise not to run away again!" Blaze yelled back with a stubborn expression.
"I won't run!" Shiv eagerly dumped the food from Blaze into his inventory, then changed his trajectory to moving toward Duncan while Blaze wheeled around and sent fiery explosions at the pursuing monster.
He hesitated for a moment, not sure if his daughter-foster or not- would be able to handle herself with the monster he'd been struggling with so much, but grinned when Blaze yelled a battle cry and easily dodged a swipe of the unburned flamingo's claws.
'She's got this.' His thoughts then turned to his own predicament. 'I can't eat right now, so I'll just have to deal with a bit of pain.' Shiv grimaced. He didn't have enough energy to do what he was about to do, but he didn't see any other choice. With an unnecessary roar, he squeezed his eyes shut and punched the ground and manipulated the ground in a wide radius around him into sending up a dust cloud.
He sensed a presence barreling toward him from behind, and threw himself to the side just in time to avoid the monster, which had basically ignored Blaze in its focus charge at Shiv.
Knowing he didn't have too much time before the creature erased his smokescreen, Shiv manipulated the ground into absorbing him and pulling him deep underground.
When he felt like he was going to die, Shiv came to a stop and made a small hole for him to move around in, and laid back with a hacking cough. 'I've gotta eat something, or I won't just feel like I'm dead. I'll actually…' his thought faded away, just as his consciousness did.
***
Blaze howled in frustration. "This thing won't die!"
"Hahaha! Yeah, I can see why your dad looks like he's in such bad shape!" Duncan laughed and jumped over yet another earth spike the nasty beast had sent his way.
Blaze ignored the growl in her tummy and sent the biggest blast of fire yet at their assailant, finally seeming to staggering it a bit.
It let out a howl of its own and dodged a pair of air blades shot from above, then rolled back to the hole it was digging and scooped out another few massive pawfulls of dirt before jumping to the side to avoid yet another attack from Blaze.
"Next time it goes for the hole, put Destroyer in Big Mode and have him jump on the fowl beast." Duncan's words whispered past Blaze's ear as if he were right behind her insteads of jumping around on the monster's back.
"Destroyer's a girl, and I said not to make bad puns!" Blaze said in a yell that was accented by a growl from her mount. She did listen to Duncan, however. Infusing Destroyer with almost all of her remaining power and sliding off Destroyer's back to land lightly on her foot.
Duncan hits the creature with a blunt air projectile, knocking it to where the hole was again in its line of sight, so it threw itself back into the hole and began digging with a vengeance.
Destroyer began digging with a vengeance as well… using her claws to tear into the thick skin of the monster's muscular back. It rolled over to fight Destroyer off, but was unable to do more than expose its soft underbelly to the ferocious fiery construct.
Duncan landed beside Blaze, making sure he was in between the two tangled up beasts and the little girl, before he spoke again. "Why is the flyena so intent on digging right there?"
"Father disappeared somewhere around there." Blaze sniffed.
Duncan raised his eyebrows. "He must've kicked it in the…" He trailed off before quickly starting again. "Or that thing has a serious case of 'One Track Mind'."
"Is that really a thing?" Blaze smiled when a wave of fire expanded with the two canine creatures at its epicenter. Duncan used his wind magic to make a shield that parted the flames around them, though it wasn't necessary for Blaze, who was fire resistant, if not fireproof.
"What? One Track Mind? Of course it is. Your father has a very serious case of it." Duncan scratched his chin and floated forward when most of the flames had dispersed.
Blaze waited until Destroyer, now normal size, made its way back to her. She patted her pet's nose as it panted after the fierce battle she'd gone through.
"Remind me to make your little wolf mad." Duncan whistled as he looked into the hole that had now become the grave of the flyena. "I would love to look like that poor sucker."
Blaze waited a few more seconds before hopping on Destroyer's back and making her way over to the hole to see for herself what Duncan wanted to look like.
The flyena was a mess. What had once been a massive, majestic, pink creature was now all cut up and red. She glanced at Duncan with an incredulous expression that he returned.
"What, you didn't know? Today is opposite day." He frowned at the mess below. "I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever-"
"Ever?" Blaze giggled.
"Ever want to look like that." Duncan nodded.
"So you really do want to look like that, huh?" Blaze laughed again.
Duncan blinked. "Crap!" he glanced around, then changed the subject. "Do you still sense Shiv?"
Blaze immediately became serious and focused on her surroundings for several minutes before screaming in frustration and stomping. "He's gone again. I can't sense his life force anywhere. I lost track of it abruptly at some point during the fight." She rubbed her face. "Why does he keep running away? He just promised me he wouldn't do that." She continued rubbing her eyes, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to fall.
"I know you're frustrated, but that's no reason to kick the poor dirt." Duncan said reproachfully, causing Blaze to sniff. "And don't you remember what I was just saying? He's got a very serious case of One Track Mind, which means he's trying to do something and doesn't want to be distracted from it. Once he completes whatever it is he's trying to do, I'm certain he'll never come back for you and we'll never get back to destroying the world, OK?"
Blaze stopped to look at him with shock, and the tears she was holding back began to flow as she just stared at him with a mournful expression.
Duncan put his hands up and spoke quickly. "Hey, hey! Calm down, it's opposite day, remember?" His words only caused her to throw her head back and begin crying in earnest. "No! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it, OK? I promise he's coming back."
Duncan went on to try saying several more things to calm her down, and even tried to hug her, but none of it helped. Eventually he gave up and said that when she calmed down enough, they'd head back to the city.
That didn't help either.