Behind My Shadow - Book Three

57. The Night Goes Dark

I continue this dastardly climb up the neck of the Jabberwocky's middle head, gruelingly channeling every ounce of courage I can as I reach the top of its head.

It still doesn't know I'm here! I realize with relief. Okay, I take a deep breath. Here we go...

I hold out my arms to either side as I suddenly let myself fall from the top of its head. I twist over in air once before I land on my feet on the snout of the enormous monster. It rears back with a hiss of alarm.

But I don't even pause for breath before I plunge my sword through the scales right between the Jabberwocky's eyes with a scream.

Black blood explodes from underneath the scales and sprays over me.

This head doesn't even scream unlike the other two and now the middle head suddenly pitches forward.

I'm thrown from my position, dragging my sword free with me as I plummet.

Wind rushes around me from all sides, sending my hair waving in every direction. I flail my arms through the air as I rapidly approach the rocky shore. I summon earth to rise up to greet me and I summon air to slow myself down before impact -

I still brutally crash into the ground more violently than I would've liked, but fortunately my Amulet absorbs the crippling pain and dispels the impact throughout my body. I numbly roll over to my side with a breathless gasp of pain, my vision doubles but now the Amulet returns my strength to my bones.

I'm tossed up into the air from another jarring collision and frantically look around to see that the middle head of the Jabberwocky is laying limply on its neck on the ground between the other two roaring with fury and agony.

I killed one head! I scramble up to my feet, tightly gripping my bloody Vorpal blade in my hand as the Jabberwocky whirls around to bear down on me with an ear-splitting roar.

The middle head is dragged under the trampling feet of the rest of the monster as it lurches towards me.

I throw myself to the side as a bolt of purple lightning flies at me, the ground I was just at explodes with a crackle.

Both of the heads breathe even more lightning now from either direction, hoping to catch me in the crosshairs, I realize as I frantically take in my shrinking surroundings. Everything is exploding on either side of me under the lethal arms of burning lightning.

I don't have anywhere left to run!

Except right towards the Jabberwocky.

And I do, but I summon fire as I run towards it.

Like any other Dark creature, the Jabberwocky recoils at the sight of an inferno and briefly springs off the ground to be above my cloud of flames. I desperately run beneath the hovering monster, running as fast as I've ever ran in my entire life for the edge of the shoreline. I just...gotta...get to the water...

The Jabberwocky lands behind me with a quaking rumble, sending such a violent ripple through the ground that I'm flung off my feet. I direly crawl towards the ocean; I just manage to reach the water when I hear the Jabberwocky exhale again with a lightning-infused roar.

I whip around, clutching my sword and my shield one last time, only this time I don't plan on using either of them. I summon water with a cry of effort and thrust my arms forward to direct the tsunami I've risen from the ocean.

Everything suddenly seems to slow down, as if this one moment is actually taking a lifetime to complete...

I watch with tears running down my face as the bands of burning purple lightning slowly crawl through the air for me, like grim fingers of death waiting to strangle the life out of me the second they touch me. And I watch with the hollow sound of my heart echoing in my helmet as the walls of water I command slowly barrel forward on either side of me, casting an arching spray of droplets overhead like fallen stars.

One heartbeat...two heartbeats...

Each breath sounds like it echos for an eternity in my helmet as it passes my lips.

Suddenly everything snaps back into high speed with a deafening roar of motion and noise.

I hurl the tsunami right into the reaching arms of lightning. The wave slams into the lightning with a quaking bang and the tsunami lights up blinding as the web of purple energy spreads across it and now the wave crashes right into the Jabberwocky.

The Jabberwocky suddenly roars in pain as its own lightning -laced through the water like a net- engulfs the Dark creature. It shakes violently and I widen my eyes in shock as all of its bones light up under its muscles. The creature abruptly ceases it roars but its body still shakes uncontrollably.

The fires of its eyes are suddenly drenched, and its tattoos stop glowing. My tsunami wave swiftly retreats, leaving the ground soaked and the air heavy with moisture. 

The enormous Jabberwocky sways once on it pillar-like legs before it topples to the side and impacts with the rocky ground with a thunderous boom that shakes the ground and knocks me to my knees.

Tears bite at my lashes as I watch the lightning fizzle and flicker and now it evaporates into steam and lazily drifts from the body of the terrible demon.

The Jabberwocky is dead.