Chapter 181: 181-The Monster Called Wendigo
Ian:
As I reached the road, that thing sped up, getting so close that she opened her mouth wide, but I pulled the sword from my back and swung it.
The blade cut across the lower part of her face, slicing the space between her nose and lip. She was huge, her face four times the size of ours. It was creepy as hell, and I knew what it was.
She screamed, black blood spilling out, then retreated only to lunge again. She jumped at me, and I dodged to the side, grabbed a metal rod, and swung myself down to the road. Because I moved, she landed hard, rolled, and came right back at me.
She stayed low on all fours, hissing, her body wrapped in black flesh that looked like clothes. I couldn’t tell where her skin ended and the covering began. She was just a mess of something ugly.
Joshua had Jack’s arm slung over his shoulder, trying to get him out. Suki and Yash had already run away.
I didn’t get why Joshua had put those two on lookout duty. First sign of trouble, and they were the first ones to run. I couldn’t even blame them. Nobody knew how to fight this thing.
Jack was slowing Joshua down, and now the monster’s attention shifted toward them. I had to pull her focus.
"Hey, come here!" I yelled, swinging my sword through the air.
She turned to me, grinned, then kept moving toward Joshua. She knew what she was doing. She wasn’t some dumb monster.
"Joshua, fucking let Jack go and transition!" I screamed at him, reminding that the idiot had a wolf he could use against this thing.
When I yelled, the creature let out a furious groan, turning her head to glare at me with rage-filled eyes.
That was when Joshua shoved Jack toward the shop’s entrance and turned back around.
He began his transition, finally realizing we weren’t as weak as we had pretended to be in the North.
Joshua grew claws, his canines lengthened, and fur spread across his body.
I saw his wolf, dark grey, massive, with eyes glowing full red. It hit me hard. His appearance wasn’t what I expected, and the way he transitioned without hesitation made me think he didn’t know the consequences of revealing himself. Something about his wolf felt wrong.
He turned, then lunged at the creature. His claws tore into her, but she wrapped her huge arms around him and hurled him into a building. His scream echoed, a loud, agonizing groan.
I rushed onto her from behind, jumped onto her back, and drove my sword down. She was huge, taller than an elephant, and her skin was thick, nothing like the flesh on her face. No wonder when I struck her there earlier with full force, it barely sliced.
She wailed, flailing her arms until one reached back, grabbed me, and ripped me off her. She threw me onto the road, my body rolling across the hard surface.
Before she could recover, Joshua came at her again. This time he stabbed deep into the spot between her neck and shoulder, making her screech and slam herself backward, crushing him beneath her weight.
"Guys!" I heard Suki scream from one of the houses. "There’s more!" She pointed to the side.
I turned and saw more of those things coming toward us. "Joshua, retreat!" I yelled, letting him know we couldn’t fight them like this. Then I pointed at Suki. "Come out, it’s not safe in there."
"What? We’ll lock the doors!" she shouted back.
"No, it doesn’t matter! They can break doors. We need an underground space!" I yelled, watching her eyes widen as she realized we weren’t safe.
She rushed back, probably to warn Yash, and the two of them came running onto the road.
"Where are we gonna go? Where are we gonna find an underground space?" Suki panicked so much it made me grunt.
By then, Joshua had returned to his human form. Our transitions didn’t tear our clothes, it was a magical thing. So if these things expected a naked Joshua running around, they were dead wrong.
"Let’s go," I said, running with my hand pressed to my chest. I was holding the bag strap tight, the same bag where I’d stuffed the cloth I had snatched from Jack. As Joshua caught up, we pushed forward.
"I’ve seen an underground subway," I told them. "That’s where we’re heading."
We weren’t moving fast enough, but once we reached the place, I knew it was safe. Big metal doors sealed the subway station, and it made me wonder if people had already known something disastrous was coming to the North, or if these doors were built afterward.
Either way, the carvings were the same as the mansion in Fleshmingo village. That told me it was safe.
We rushed downstairs. I let them go first. One of the things lunged at us, but I slammed the door shut.
Its neck snapped in the frame, and it wailed. Then we kept running until we finally stopped, standing there awkwardly, staring at each other.
"What are those things?" Suki asked, pointing up.
I still didn’t feel safe. The subway was massive. If other monsters were here, we were screwed. We had to stay ready.
"That is called a Wendigo," I said, watching her eyes widen.
"Oh yes, that is a Wendigo," Yash added. Everyone in the mainland knew of them. They were always discussed among pack members.
I guessed it was because one had escaped many years ago to the borders of the mainland and was chased out with much fight and struggle. That was when the towers were built.
"How are we going to defeat her?" Jack asked.
"You mean them. There’s not just one, it’s like the fleshmingos, but deadlier," I said, pulling a water bottle from my bag and chugging.
"So you don’t know how we’re going to fight one?" Suki pressed, hands on her hips.
I shot her a side-eye while drinking, then capped the bottle and faced them.
"Fire. We need to burn them. They’re afraid of heat, extreme heat. And they only come out when it’s dark or so cloudy the sun can’t hit them. As you can tell, they’re afraid of the sun." I finished.
"So if the sun comes out, we’re safe to go?" Jack asked.
I shook my head.
"We can’t wait for that." As soon as I said it, Joshua narrowed his eyes.
"It’s not like we have somewhere else to be. We can make sure everything’s safe and then leave," he said. I shook my head again and wagged my finger no.
"Why? Why are you so stubborn about going out?" Suki asked.
I didn’t answer. I just looked at her while strolling around, scanning the subway, ears open for any sound underground.
"Tell them. Tell them you’re worried someone out there doesn’t know about the Wendigo," my wolf teased, more like instigating me about the fact that I was worried about Clem.