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

“That’s why I’m not giving up on him. Get the fucking defibs!” Reaper shot a glare at the medic.

Jumping back to work with a hard swallow, the medic grabbed the receptors of the defib kit and placed them on either side of Jackal’s chest. Battery turned on, he left his finger over the button to activate the charge.

“Three. Two. One. Clear!” The medic said.

Reaper pulled his hands from Jackal’s chest. His back arched from the electricity, the soft whirring sound of white noise flowing from the defibrillators. With no luck, Reaper continued to pump his chest. The medic tried to again.

“Guys!” Yaaranam called. “Guys!”

“What is it, Yaara?” Vactubstein looked over to her.

“We have a problem!” She pointed up towards the sky.

The serpents had risen from the waves. They towered over the basalt, hissing and snapping their bloodied teeth. They had been maimed severely by Fenris, wounds still fresh and bleeding.

“We should be fine, right?” Ianisse asked. “They’re stuck in the water.”

Fenris slowly picked itself back up. Exhausted and weakened, it could not stand straight. Its wingarms supported most of its weight.

With a snap of its jaws, one of the serpents came forth, slithering right up the basalt and onto the land. Its serpentine body was still mostly in the water, but its head towered over them a hundred feet.

“They aren’t restricted to the water!” Yaaranam shouted.

Mjolnir hurried to Fenris’ side, pulling his hammer from his back.

“Come, friend!” Mjolnir said with a grin. “Bring me its head so we can smash it in!”

Fenris gave a nod.

Then it roared out as loud as it could muster. Its own voice made the earth tremble and crack.

The spines on its back and sides sparked with electricity. Its mouth opened to show the same electricity jumping from tooth to tooth as it charged up. Before anyone could react, a beam of lightning thundered from its maw. It shot it straight towards the ground where Fenris and Mjolnir were, its head rearing up to send the beam through the trucks and into the sky. It did not seem to have the strength to control its own recoil.

Fenris leaped towards the beast. Mjolnir hurried away from the blast. The others could only pray that they weren’t hit as the beam made its way around the ground. Reaper did not leave Jackal. He kept trying to resuscitate him.

Fenris grabbed one of the spines nearest to the belly of the beast and pulled. It clawed at the flesh it connected to and yanked as hard as it could until the spine ripped free. The serpent writhed and flopped its body around as blood sprayed out from the open space. Its tail whipped up, smacking its partner in the back of the head before crashing into one of the trucks.

Yaaranam and Ianisse charged in, both equipped with flamethrowers, to hit the beast in the face as it came down low enough. Vactubstein picked up the only gun with ammunition left and fired upon the same beast.

The other serpent slithered up to solid ground, its back sparking with lightning. It crackled and thundered until the serpent could no longer control it. The electricity burst out all around it. Struck the ground a dozen times and chained further from it. The bolts of lightning branched and moved, bouncing from place to place.

The grass and dirt ripped up from each impact zone, short lasting fires combusting and dissipating. It swung its tail, smacking Mjolnir several meters away.

Fenris scaled the injured beast, making quick work up its neck. It held onto a horn to get up to the top of its skull and braced for the swinging as it tried to shake it off.

With its arm morphing into a giant blade once more, Fenris stabbed into the top of the serpent’s skull. Over and over again until it could pierce through.

“Look out!” Yaaranam called. “Fenris, move!”

The valkyrie must not have heard her, or was too determined to kill the serpent it was on.

The other serpent came closer, sending out a ball of lightning from its maw. It hit its partner in the side of the head, but struck Fenris as well. With its body locked up from the electricity, Fenris collapsed, first onto the head of the beast. Then it was shaken off and fell to the ground. Its impact with the dirt made a shallow crater that flooded with both its blood and khexide.

The other beast, hit by the lightning, dropped its head low. Low enough for Mjolnir to reach with his hammer. One good swing to the temple sent the serpent’s head crashing into the ground. Mjolnir bashed it repeatedly in its scarred eye. Seeing an opening, he spun his hammer around and stabbed the pommel right through the socket.

The beast cried out in pain, pulling its head back. It didn’t make it very far before it no longer had the strength to lift its head. Its body writhed and curled in on itself, coiling to protect it from further injury.

Vactubstein helped Fenris back up to its feet.

“Keep moving, wolf.” He said.

The serpent swung its tail down towards the pair. Fenris shoved Vactubstein out of the way and took the tail at full force with both of its wingarms. It took hold of the tail and pulled to swing the beast around. Its weight was too great for Fenris’ current strength to actually throw as intended, but the serpent writhed in the valkyrie’s grasp and coiled around to take a bite out of it.

It grabbed hold of the fangs and pulled it down. Jaw against the ground and its upper jaw pulled down, the serpent could only throw itself around. Its tail whipped about as the rest of its body scrunched up.

Mjolnir hurried over with his hammer and swung it down against the serpent’s head. It cried out. He swung again. He kept swinging for as long as Fenris could hold it in place. Blood soon splattered with each hit and swing of the mighty hammer. Before too long, the serpent