The Cinders of Dezu

18th: Moss Linga (5)

Cairo whipped his head over to look at him.

"She IS hot! By definition, the girl is literally on fire right now! Look!"

A feinted battle cry rang up to them as a flaming Talia increased the size of the rings and force of her swings. Julian put his arm out and started flying her around the monster so she could hit him at different angles.

"You're just into her because she saved your butt and she acts like she knows everything."

"She saved your butt too! Like a lot already!"

"Yeah, but I don't have the whole dude bro in distress thing that you've got. You like a girl in shining armor."

Cairo frowned.

"I like capable women, and I'm not ashamed of that!"

"Yeah, like your ex? Miss Cuddly-as-barbed-wire?"

"Dude," Cairo said with his hand up, "we are not getting into that right now."

Julian laughed as he watched Moss Linga flail at Talia like a fly with a flamethrower.

"This right here? This is better than video games."

Cairo's nostrils flared as he looked down at the chaotic scene.

"K, well, don't forget that's a real girl, not an avatar. You've only got one actual life against this boss."

"No, I don't," said Julian.

Cairo looked him with a raised eyebrow. Julian took his eyes away from the fight for a split second to give him a smirk.

"I've got two."

Cairo felt himself rotating horizontally like a missile being loaded for a shot.

"Jules, no! Come on, man!"

"Anti-up, Ice Boy!"

Cairo didn't know what it was like to be shot from a cannon. He used to think about how the inside of a human cannon couldn't have had gunpowder, right? Was it spring loaded? Surely, a human couldn't withstand that kind of speed or an explosion under their feet. But the sheer sudden velocity at which Julian had shot him made Cairo reconsider how this mechanism probably could have worked and whether or not he should still have a relationship with his best friend if he survived this. The laughing he had heard the split second before his launch hadn't helped either.

As he approached, the monsters eyes shifted from a fire swirling Talia to an already terrified Cairo. His toothy trap of a mouth snapped open and a heavy stream of boiling water went straight up in his direction. Cairo put his arms out. The boiling water almost immediately started to solidify. Cairo kept his hands out as he was now careening toward a solid cylinder of ice. As if it were listening to his thoughts, a hole formed down the center turning the solid shape into a tube. Cairo tumbled into the tube and found himself sliding perilously into the monsters open throat.

From outside, Talia watched as the beast gnawed at the protuberance coming from his mouth like a crazed dog. He was beginning to choke. As Cairo tumbled, displaced ice created sharp protrusions that followed him on the outside of the icy straw. Talia watched Moss Linga's crazed eyes widen as the icicle prying open his jaws grew spikes that advanced closer and closer to his face. He grabbed at it with his claws only to have them relentlessly driven through. A fleshy squelch signaled Cairo had reached the back of the throat.