The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (e reader txt) 📕

violently from side to side. Jackal clung to his knife for dear life, not daring to look down at the near thirty foot drop. He used his other hand to brace himself, holding onto a spike protruding from its cheek. Knife out, he stabbed it again. It was a small hunting knife and would only serve to annoy and pester the giant.

It was working. Its attention turned to Jackal where it tried to swipe him off its face. Fenris used its larger arms to grab the bottom jaw and the upper jaw and pushed.

Unlike the skaginvar, the skuladr had no real bite strength. Its jaws were designed to eat piscine, not hold onto prey. No matter how hard it tried to close its mouth, Fenris had the upper hand. It pried its jaws open and better positioned itself to stand against its lower jaw. With a cry of pain, the beast picked at its teeth and shook its head, stumbling out of the water and back onto dry land.

“Are you ready, Yaara?” Reaper called into the radio.

“Yes, sir!” She answered.

Reaper and Vactubstein backed out from under the stomping feet.

Finally, the creature grabbed hold of Jackal from the side of its face. With a holler, Jackal slammed his fists into its hand. It only made the creature squeeze tighter. Gasping, he hit harder.

Fenris’ goal was to snap its jaws, but seeing Jackal in its grasp changed its priority. If it let go, it would get chomped on. Jackal was going to pop like a balloon. With clattering jaws, the desperate wolf snarled. It needed something. Anything to get it out of its jaws.

The two trucks accelerated towards the stomping skuladr, who was still shaking its body to get rid of the valkyrie between its teeth. The trucks separated to go around either side of its feet with Mjolnir and Yaaranam holding tight to the makeshift rope of vines. Once around to its rear, the trucks turned towards one another, skirting right by to wrap around the front. This wrapped the vines around the beast’s ankles. As they came around to the other side, the vines would tighten.

Fenris’ right hand began to twitch and tremble. Bits of the metal and flesh popped upwards and sprouted new veins and tendrils throughout. The metal blades on its arm bent and contorted with new layers growing from the old. Within a few blinks, its entire arm changed into something entirely different. From the elbow down, the limb spread outward, and thinned into a razor sharp edge. Thickest at the elbow, the metal, coated in flesh and veins, curved forward and well beyond where the hand used to be. It came to a bold point, spikes lining the dull side. Black blood oozed out over the surface of the newfound blade. Fenris gave a roar of both pain and a second wind.

It stabbed its transformed arm down into the bottom jaw and ripped it sideways.

The skuladr shrieked. Jackal was dropped to the ground so it could focus on its face with both hands. Its mouth opened up as wide as it could. Its steps forced to shorten from the vines wrapping around its ankles. This was no creature of grace.

Now Fenris held onto its upper jaw to stay where it wanted to be and slashed at the lower jaw a second time. Right into the back of its mouth. It slashed again, and again, until the jaw fell, held to its face by a single tendon. What remained attached at the cheeks raised and lowered repeatedly as it gave a blood curdling screech. The vines finally pulled tight. Its feet forced together.

The beast came down. Jackal barely got out of the way, tripping over the shaking ground right between its webbed claws.

It kicked, tail slapping against the ground. Several trees had toppled under its weight and more were knocked over by its tail.

“Where is it?!” Fenris roared, standing on its cheek to look it directly in the eye.

“You will never find it!” The skuladr wheezed. Its tongue flapped uncontrollably, hanging in the open.

Fenris jabbed the end of its blade into its eyelid.

“Where is artifact, sniveling whelp?!”

It cried, shutting its eye for a moment.

“Let me live.” It said.

“Better dead.” Fenris’ jaws snapped.

“We are much alike. Power is all you want. Strength. I will tell you. Let me go.”

“Artifact.”

“To the north. A cave.” The skuladr clawed at the ground.

Fenris lifted the blade. The beast winced. The wolf jumped down from its face. The skuladr wasted no time in kicking itself free from its bindings. It hurried to its feet and limped back towards its cavern.

Fenris howled its victory song, its otherworldly voice echoing through the fjord.

To its surprise, the remaining soldiers joined in, each one howling as loud as they could. Some shoved their fists and rifles into the air, others cupped their hands around either side of their mouths.

Mjolnir was even howling with them all, and Vactubstein joined. Jackal even felt pressured to do it and gave his best rendition of a wolf’s song.

FORTY-EIGHT

Fenris dropped down to its knee, stabbing its sword arm into the ground. Now that it was no longer in the heat of battle, the pain was prevalent; blackness poured out from its wounds, some well blended into the armor. On a closer inspection, the valkyrie was missing entire chunks of its armor. Some teeth were missing, a claw here and there. Some of the blades that layered its armor were broken and chipped, some missing completely. Even a couple of its horns had cracked and a tip was cut away. The lights upon its armor flowed unevenly, moving upward in quick succession.

The others watched it momentarily with Jackal and Reaper approaching it from behind. A few of the other soldiers whispered among themselves and slipped away from the group.

Yaaranam sat herself down on the ground, elbows upon her knees. She pulled her helmet off and took a deep breath. Everyone was hurt. Some more than others. Her armor held