Skylands Legends

11.1 Shifting Shadows

The seconds leading up to Knight Light's arrival had felt like hours to Jet Vac. His mind had begun looking for explanations for the delay, most of which were not happy thoughts. So when the armored angel appeared soaring up over the island, it was an immense relief.

A relief that was quickly quelled as a dark streak suddenly crashed into the white knight, sending him flying higher into the air as he and the beast grappled about, fighting for dominance.

Jet Vac stepped forward to help and Bushwhack lowered his ax in front of him. "He's got this," he said calmly. He held up his hand to keep all the reinforcements where they were.

Jet Vac took a step back and continued to watch the fight in the sky. The two had reached the apex of their arc and were now careening back towards the town square. Jet Vac glanced at Bushwhack who repeated, "He's got this."

He ground his beak in anticipation, his finger itched to pull the trigger on his vac gun.

He watched as Knight Light thrust his blade into the beast's throat. Jet Vac immediately tensed. The blade burst through the back of the neck, almost taking the beast's head off.

"I told you," Bushwhack said triumphantly with a smile.

Anger and jealousy immediately rushed to the forefront of Jet Vac's mind. He was Eruptor's closest friend, he was supposed to be the one that avenged him.

"He's not pulling up," Bushwhack said, taking him out of his thoughts.

He looked to the two falling shapes and watched as Knight Light struggled to get his wings out.

"Shit," Bushwhack muttered and began running towards the outside of the square.

Knight Light's wings suddenly extended, but there wasn't enough time to change the outcome. Both he and the beast crashed heavily into the brick street hard enough to send rubble and debris up into the air, creating a short cloud of smoke and dust around the fountain.

Bushwhack was there in an instant pushing the beast off of Knight Light and pulling him out of the rubble. Jet Vac hurried after and helped drag the armored angel off to the side where they rested him against the side of the tunnel.

Jet Vac pointed to Terrafin and Stealth Elf. "Keep an eye on him," he said. "Come on," he said this time to Bushwhack and began running to the middle of the square.

He came to a stop when he realized the hunter wasn't following. He turned back. "Bushwhack! He'll be fine, hurry!"

Stealth Elf was already removing some of Knight Light's armor. "Go," she said, and Bushwhack turned around. Surprise suddenly crossed his face as he yelled, "Look out!"

Jet Vac turned to find the furious beast rushing him. He reached for his gun, but knew it was too late as the beast's long dark claws came slashing for his head.

A sudden bolt of blue light cutting through the beast's forearm saved Jet Vac's life. The beast reeled back and looked for where the shot had come from, buying Jet Vac enough time to activate his jet pack and launch himself into the air, out of the beast's reach.

He then flipped his gun on and switched it to the blade setting and began to unleash hell. Silver plated blades launched out of his vac gun at a rapid pace with enough force to cut completely through the beast.

Seemingly unfazed, the beast let out another roar before readying a leap at Jet Vac. That's when an acorn exploded into his back, knocking him farther towards the fountain.

Before the beast could get up, Bushwhack came down with his traptanium ax for its back. It quickly rolled out of the way and the ax buried itself in the bricks. The beast swung its claws for Bushwhack and he quickly deflected with the horns on his helmet before dislodging the ax and swinging it in a wide arc.