Chapter 397 Sacrifice (1/2)

That crafty leather faced lizard! He'd let Garralosh regain control of her body a few seconds before me! Now I'm deep in brown town! My enhanced neural network fires at a speed beyond what would normally be possible and I'm dodging before my brain can fully process what has occurred.

Synapses spark, muscles fire and I fly to the right as mountain crus.h.i.+ng might of that tail falls down on me like a meteor. My eyes are filled with burning scales and all sound fades from my ears. Heat is all my antennae can sense and the brief glimpse into the future is giving me confusing signals. The tail is obviously my main concern but something is also coming from my left? I don't know! It does seem clear on one thing though.

I'm not going to make it.

Dammit, dammit, dammit! I can't fail here. Not now! That d.a.m.ned wizard lizard isn't going to get the best of me! Each of my four minds frantically spins to try and come up with something, anything that might get my oversized backside out of this predicament, but I come up empty.

BAM!

As the devastating tail of Garralosh is brus.h.i.+ng against my antennae and about to crush my face, something, or somethings, smash into me. I get pushed twice, once on the side, and once from below, almost simultaneously. My carapace cracks a little under the strain and pain radiates out from the injury and I lurch to one side.

BOOM!

Like a mountain collapsing, the tail of my enemy crushes the ground, sending dirt flying into the air. My left side is still caught by the strike and my carapace explodes in pain as part of my body squishes in a very unpleasant way. My organs! My precious organs! And my legs? Forget 'em! Stupid stick-like ant legs!

Before Garralosh can recover, I throw my dignity to the wind, tuck what's left of my legs and roll like a tumbleweed, scrabbling to put some distance between us. My health has been cut in half by that one strike, even the diamond carapace not able to withstand the devastating power of that strike.

Her mind may be weak but her body is OP. Way too OP!

As I frantically discharge my healing organ once more, desperate to fix my legs and injured body, I notice Vibrant is caught up with me, sprawled on the ground by my side.

”Vibrant?” I sputter. Talking hurts. Everything hurts.

For once, the hyper-active ant is quiet.

Not far away, Garralosh appears to be going mad. She raises her tail and repeatedly smashes it into the ground in an uncontrolled frenzy, causing the ground to shake with her rage.

”You weren't moving! Both of you went still and we weren't sure what was going on! We tried to make sure you were okay, and then the fat croc started moving, but you didn't! We had to get Senior out of the way!”

”We?”

”...”

Where's Grant?

That stupid soldier had been down from the wall during the entire battle. She'd been wanting to help, I could see it in every line of her body. I'd hoped she would see some sense and retreat. She was supposed to retreat!