Burning; TST ➵ Thomas

T W E N T Y - S I X

Teresa ran towards Thomas and handed him a really long knife, almost like a sword. He wondered how and where she'd been hiding these types of weapons. Amelia appeared beside him. A machete was in her hand.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked. 

"Sonya," she replied.

As the lighted giants stepped closer and closer, Minho and Harriet spoke to their respective groups, moving them around and positioning them. Their shouts and commands were torn away by the wind before Thomas could hear anything.

Minho and Harriet had been able to get the groups to stand together in an almost perfect circle, facing outwards. Amelia was standing next to Thomas, looking as ever-ready as always.

"Now! Charge them!" their leader yelled, a bare and distant bark because of the storm's sounds.

Left and right, everyone charged for their own foe. Thomas closed in. The creature had stopped walking, bracing its legs in a fighting stance, hands outstretched. Its blades pointing directly at Thomas.

Right before he reached the beast, he dropped to slide on his knees and shins and swung the sword-like weapon in an arc behind and around him. He slammed the blade into the monster's left leg with a full and powerful two-handed thrust. The knife cut a couple of centimetres into its skin but then clanked against something hard enough to send a jolt shivering up both of Thomas' arms.

The creature didn't do anything - move, retract, make a sound. It swiped downwards with both blade-studded hands where Thomas now knelt before it, his sword embedded in the monster's flesh. Thomas jerked it free and lunged backwards just as those blades clattered against each other where his head had been. He fell on his back and scooted away from the creature as it took two steps forwards, kicking out with the knives on its feet, barely missing Thomas.

Thomas sucked in huge gulps of air and could see the others battling in his peripheral vision.

Minho was jabbing and stabbing with knives in both hands, the monster was actually stepping backwards and away from the Runner. Newt was scrambling across the ground, the creature he fought lumbering after him, obviously injured. Slowing. Teresa was jumping, dodging and poking her enemy with the butt of her spear.

Then there was Amelia, who was the closest to him. She was stabbing her foe like Minho. Her enemy looked way worse than Newt's and Teresa's.

Thomas pulled his attention back to his own battle. A blur of silver movement made him duck. A wisp of wind in his hair from the swipe of the beast's arm. Thomas spun, crouched close to the ground. He was stabbing at everything he could as the monster pursued him, barely missing him with several more growths.

"THOMAS!" Amelia yelled at him. He jerked his head towards her. "DESTROY THE BULBS!"

He looked back at his enemy. All he had to do next was just destroy the bulbs. Somehow they were linked to the creature's power or life or strength.

A quick glance around showed that most had gotten the same idea. Others hadn't. A couple of people had already laid on the ground, lifeless.

Thomas changed his method. He jumped in and took a jab at one of the bulbs on the monster's chest. Every small victory sapped the creature's strength and gradually began to visibly slump.