Smack-dab, in the Middle of Nowhere (Waste Stories #1)

44. The Big Finale (Part 1)

Randolf the Conqueror, Ruiner of Worlds, Bringer of Shadows and Lord of Rabbit-Like Kind stared down the barrel of the female human's magical block and snarled. He saw the face of his father gazing at him from the distant past, remembering the days when he was just a young thing. His father, the Uniter of Rabbit-Like Kind, hated failure, and despised weakness even more so. His love was tougher than the meat of an aged human, but its fiery pressure moulded Randolf into a Conqueror, Ruiner of Worlds, Bringer of Shadows and Lord of Rabbit-Like Kind.

And so he stared into the shadowy hole of death and dared it to spit fire, to spew its magical orange streak, and to just try knock him from the side of the great beast.

But it never did.

From behind the female human arose Filder the Fast and Sly and Always Wise, drenched ears to tail in dust-coated blood, with a blazing fire dancing in her wild black eyes. She bounded onto the arm of the female human and bit deep, slashing down on her wrist with a clawed paw.

Next, Barolf, Wielder of Many Strengths, was beside Randolf the Conqueror, Ruiner of Worlds, Bringer of Shadows and Lord of Rabbit-Like Kind, nodding at him slowly to speak the thousand unneeded words that said the deed was done, and it was time to deed some more.

In perfect synchronicity, the two rabbit-like warriors forced themselves up the last remaining distance to the top of the great beast and dove for the male human and his hellfire stick, before he could turn it on them. He squealed pathetically, a high-pitched cowardly bawl, as tiny little fangs and tiny little claws dug into his skin, clawed at his clothes and bit into his eyeballs. In those same moments, the female human had dropped her magical block and was trying desperately to clamber from her scaled nest and flee down the side of the beast, but Filder the Fast and Sly and Always Wise was fast, sly and wise, not allowing her the opportunity. When the female human put her hand on the beast's hide to climb over, fangs were there to tear away her fingers. When she tried putting a foot over instead, claws were there to sneak up her trouser leg and slash at her calves. And, finally, when she tried to dive head-first off the side, she was allowed to - and she broke her neck by the beast's round, black feet.

Randolf the Conqueror, Ruiner of Worlds, Bringer of Shadows and Lord of Rabbit-Like Kind plunged his bloodied fist into the human's last remaining eyeball, feeling it burst around his claws. Meanwhile, Barolf, wielding many strengths, dragged a sharp claw along the wailing throat of the human, prying it open so that blood could flow freely. He dug into the crimson meat below until he felt windpipe, and that too he opened.

Soon the human was drowning in his own blood, gargling and spitting and coughing and spluttering, collapsing into his nest while his stick of death lay dormant. Randolf the Conqueror, Ruiner of Worlds, Bringer of Shadows and Lord of Rabbit-Like Kind rose his fist in triumph, his companions doing the same. He smiled wide, proud in their great victory, but the day was not through. The beast's humans had been eradicated, but the grentuputron monster itself remained.

But how to destroy such a mighty, armoured creature? Randolf the Conqueror, Ruiner of Worlds, Bringer of Shadows and Lord of Rabbit-Like Kind thought then, of the hollow skull this strange creature had. How its very brain seemed designed to be viewed by humans, to be touched and prodded and manipulated.

Maybe it wouldn't be so difficult after all...

* * *

The storm was losing enthusiasm, but the bad man hitting Meatsack wasn't. All around him, Stormy's winds slowed their ferocious energy, dulled their manic howling, and Windy's father seemed to be coming to the end of his untamed mad destruction. But Meatsack could take no joy in such simple pleasures, for the bad man wouldn't let him go.