War Beast

Book Two: Chapter 17

"Hey! Wake up, you guys!" Krysta's voice shouted.

Jenny yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Where are we?"

"In the sewer! We have to get off now!"

Jenny glanced around while Huntar, Zena, and Torag woke up groggy.

The train stopped inside a dark tunnel with a musty stench. It sure smelled like a sewer.

"We have to get off now! They got scanners in every sub tunnel to scare vermin off trains. If they catch us, the authorities will find us. Come on!" Krysta jumped off the train first and landed in a puddle of green water below.

Jenny shrugged and jumped off next. She landed near Krysta and felt muck touched her toes in the water. "Gross!"

"Yes, this is the sewer," said Krysta. "Nobody ever kept this place clean."

"I can see that." Jenny pinched her nose to avoid the stench.

Huntar, Zena, and Torag landed behind her where the splash flew from.

Zena covered her nose. "Phee! This place smells worse than a rhino's turd!"

"Torag!" The rhino roared.

"Not you," Zena corrected.

"This way," Krysta strolled toward a tunnel with purple lights glowing over the green river.

Jenny and her friends followed her, moving slowly through the water. It was so mucky, they could barely take a single sprint.

"Do you know where you are going?" Jenny asked.

"Yes, see those lights above?" Krysta pointed up. "They direct workers and homeless to the nearest manhole. There should be one closeby."

"I hope we get there soon." Jenny sniffed her left arm. "I need a bath."

Huntar sniffed his right armpit. "I smell fine."

Zena sniffed his back and stepped away, snorting. "Uhhh! You need a bath too, Huntar. Your own odor will ruin your senses."

Huntar glared at her. "I can still fight though."

Zena rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, my secret headquarters has a shower room," Krysta explained.

"Torag?" The rhino asked.

"Excuse me?"

Zena shrugged with her palms out. "I think he doesn't know what a shower is."

Krysta squinted her green eyes at the zebra. "You don't have showers on your planet?"

"No, we bath in rivers and waterfalls," Jenny answered, shivering about the cold water she washed through. She missed taking a shower.

"Showers are like rainwater. They sprinkle water on your body and you can change their temperature." Krysta smiled. "I love showers."

Zena shrugged. "I preferred pools. They are calm and-"

Zena fell straight into the water before she finished her sentence.

"Zena!" Jenny ran to the spot, but she didn't find a sign of her.

Krysta pulled out her gun and pointed at the water. "Something grabbed her!"

Huntar turned to her. "Like what?"

Before their eyes, Zena emerged, coughing for air while splashing rapidly. A green long tentacle wrapped around her body to her neck. She struggled while trying to stay on the surface. "Help me!"

Huntar grabbed her hands while Torag pulled the tentacle. Whatever it was, it roared beneath her.

"Hold still!" Krysta fired her energy-based weapon, hitting the tentacle.

The long arm uncoiled from Zena and splashed back into the water. Zena caught her breath.

"What was that?" Jenny exclaimed.

Krysta aimed her gun around. "Move close together! Back to back!"

Jenny faced her back together with the others as they watched the water with their weapons out. Torag and Jenny held up their fists since they have no weapons.

"It's a Threth," Krysta explained. "A large sewer creature that feeds on anything. Usually meat!"

Huntar snarled at the water. "We are meat!"

Zena sent a glaring eye at him. "You speak in obvious words."

In front of Krysta, a large shadow emerged from the water.

Dark with wiggling long tentacles from its cucumber form. One giant eyeball above its round grotesque mouth full of pointy sharp teeth. It roared, ready to attack its prey.

"Look out!" Krysta raised her gun and fired. But the creature slapped her blasts away to protect its eye. Its arms must be immune to her particle beams.

Huntar rushed toward her side and swung his sword toward the arms. "This beast shall fall!"

He cut off one arm, but another one grew from its elongate form.

The lion gasped. "Kronos!"

"It can regenerate, no matter how many injuries it takes!" Krysta shot the new arm. It fell off and another grew. What a pain!

Jenny felt something wrapped around her ankle. Before she looked down, it pulled her into the water and dragged her through the surface past her friends.

Toward the monster, its tentacle yanked her up, holding her upside down.

"Help!" She screamed, staring closely at the creature's mouth.

"Hold on!" Krysta kept firing while Huntar, Zena, and Torag charged.

The rhino wrestled the arms while Zena knocked the other ones by her battle staff. Huntar reached the creature's slimy body, but it knocked him back.

It looked like her friends couldn't reach her while the tentacles kept them busy. She has to do something, or else the creature will devour her.

She gazed at the drooling mouth and aimed her hands at it. With her eyes closed, she thought about what she did to the Krawl mech soldiers in the alley.

Her arms grew warm until a shocking sensation escaped from her fingertips. She saw lightning zapping the creature's mouth from her hands. Whatever she did, it worked!

The Threth screamed in agony while smoke cooked its flesh, releasing a salty smoky odor that smelled like a roasted vegetable. It dropped Jenny and dived inti the water, drifting away.

Jenny got up, soaked in dirty water with a rotten egg smell. She really needed a shower.

"Wow! You have to teach me that!" Krysta exclaimed.

"Are you well?" Zena asked.

Jenny stroked the green much from her long hair. "I think so, except I need a shower really badly."

Krysta smiled. "I'll get you clean up soon."