The flood of water pushed Stormbristle across the field, leaving Akun dangling and mountless.

  “Akun!” Stormbristle cried out.

  “Pig whose name I forgot!” Yelled Akun as he held onto his hook. The rushing water whipped him backward, but he held onto the hook. He conjured more slack in his chain and slinked under the stream of water.

  Akun saw the spider falling. It launched its web from its abdomen and swung up. Gal did not let go. Instead, the spider let gravity take it back to the water tower. Its legs stuck to the metal stilts and climbed upward.

  “Well,” Gal said, “Looks like you don’t have a mount. As soon as you touch the ground, I’ve won!” He threw shurikens, and they pierced directly into Akun’s bones.

  Akun grimaced as the blades stabbed him. He looked downward, he was very high up. He might have luck throwing his chain hook, but if he missed or threw too hard or too soft it would mean the game and likely his life.

  His only options were to hang until Storm returned or attempt to dismount Gal. He knew which choice sounded more fun.

  As the spider approached him, he unhooked himself and dropped. His foot landed on one of the spider’s eyes. Then he attempted to kick Gal in the chest. Gal stumbled backward, but took out a knife and stabbed that Akun right in his foot.

  “Ouch,” Said Akun, as he took his chain hook and stabbed it into Gal’s shoulder.

  Gal grabbed Akun’s hand and stabbed it with the knife. Akun and he were locked in, each with a blade in the other.

  “I heard what you said,” Gal said, “You got it wrong. I’m ranged alright. But I’m not a fighter. I’m a rogue. Quick escape!” Said Gal, and suddenly, he flittered back an inch, freeing himself from the vice grip of the chain hook.

  “No fair.” Whispered Akun.

  Gal jumped from the spider, he threw a kunai blade. It sank into the metal of the water tower, and he ran along the sides of the struts. Before Akun could get his bearings, the spider bit down on his foot with its mandible. Akun kicked at the spider’s other seven eyes. Gal had run around the water tower and was back on Akun. Akun could only kick under him and use one hand to swat away at Gal, but it was no use.

  Just then, a cloud blotted the sun, covering Akun, the spider, and Gal in shadows.

  It was Storm, now the size of a small boat, “You better run.”

  “What are you going ot do?” Gal asked, “Fry me while I’m right next to your partner?”

  There was a twinkle in Storm’s eye. Akun saw this and gulped.

  “Yeah, I think he’s going to do exactly that.” Said Akun.

  Akun conjured more length in his chain as quickly as he could. He was essentially in freefall. Storm launched a lightning attack at the water tower. The lightning traveled down the hook and surged through Akun’s body with electricity.

  Stormbristle looked at the charred spot his blast had hit. The spider and Gal were not there.

  In a deep voice that echoed across the cheering crowd, Storm asked, “Where’d he go?”

  The spider had retracted its web and launched itself and its rider across the way to the other tower. Storm looked at their new position on a lower deck.

  “You idiot!” Akun said, “That could have killed me!”

  Storm turned to Akun, “That was exactly what you did to me.”

  “I didn’t attack you! I just used you to get away! We’re nothing alike!”

  “Akun… we’re more alike than you think.”

  Kip and the crew watched on from the sky box. The king stared down with his binoculars

  “Wonderous. Just wondrous. I love these guys. This is easily the most exciting game of mounted combat we’ve had.”

  Kip turned to Jasssper, “They’re not getting it together.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “No. Seems Storm wasss getting tired of being the bigger pig.”

  Lala looked onward, silently hoping for Akun and Storm’s safety.

  Stormbristle turned back, but the spider and Gal were missing.

  “Where’d they go? Could you find them?”

  Akun still dangled from the water tower, his grip losing strength as he had just been shot and mangled.

  “I don’t know. You gotta come get me. I’m about to fall.”

  “That’s all I needed to hear,” Said Gal as he tossed shuriken in Akun’s direction. The blades sank into Akun’s hips. He fell further down on his chain.

  “Pig,” Said Akun, “Please pig.”

  Akun dropped downward.

  Stormbristle shifted his body and cast a powerful Zip Zap Slop. He bolted toward Akun, crashing against the obstacle towers that had been set up. Storm reared his tusks out, and Akun fell onto them. Akun opened his eyes and noticed that he was on Storm’s tusks. He turned his skull and looked at Storm in his expanded eye.

  “Of course. Tusk is bone. We really do have something in common.”

  There was another twinkle in Storm’s eye, “That’s what I was trying to tell you. That tusk is bone, and you’re made of bones.”

  “I should have listened. Hey, Storm?”

  “You remembered my name.”

  “Let’s show these two jerks what guys made of bones can do.”

  Storm smiled, “I say we do.”

  Just then, Storm’s eyes rolled back behind him. He let out a powerful squeal. Akun could see Gal below.

  “You idiots!” Gal said from his spider, “Making him bigger just gave us more to stab!”

  Gal tossed everything in his arsenal at Stormbristle. He whinnied in pain as they continued.

  “We have to do something!” Akun said.

  “I can’t! My size! I’m pinned between two towers!”

  Akun looked up from his position on the tusk, “Release it. Release all of it. “

  “We’ve got to do something!” Akun said.

  Stormbristle had the realization.

  “Since I fought you… I gained a new power. HOG FOG!”

  Storm activated his spell, and his pores erupted with mist. The heavy mist sank into the ground and filled up the obstacle course. Gal attempted to throw his shuriken at the storm boar, but Storm was small enough to slip through.

  Akun jumped on Storm’s back. They landed on a tower’s rooftop. Akun grabbed the tufts of Storm’s back.

  “Can you see in this? Akun said,

  “No,” Said Storm, “But now they can’t use their ranged weapons on us. The fog is so thick they likely can’t even see your fire until they’re up close.”

  “Right. Let’s stick together.”

  “Hey, dumb monsters!!” Said Gal, “Are you forgetting? Spiders are nocturnal.”

  They looked up, on a balcony above them, where seven incandescent eyes shone through the heavy fog. The eyes jumped toward their platform.

  “Chain hook! Fly catcher!” The hook separated into a hoop and chains came out, weaving themselves into a net.

  “You said you wanted to work together, right?” Akun asked.

  “More than anything.”

  “Once I chuck this, light this puppy up.”

  The glowing eyes landed on the platform and approached. Shuriken escaped from the fog, attacking both of them. Akun chucked his impromptu fly swatter into the air and slammed his chain so the fly swatter dropped on the spider.

  “Light her up!”

  The electricity surged through Storm, into Akun, shocking him, and then riding down the metal of this chain. The electric flyswatter connected with the spider, shocking one of its legs, causing it to jerk out of the way.

  “We got them!” Said Storm. He could feel Akun’s labored breathing on top of him, “Are you okay?”

  Through those breaths, Akun went, “Shut up about me, pig. We got a human to crush.”:

  He pulled his fly swatter back and looked around at a few more eyes. They shone once more in the fog. Akun threw his swatter and repeated, “Light her up!”

  Storm surged with storm energy through akun and the chain. The fly swatter hit the spider’s leg again, and once again an arachnid squeak rang out as the spider jumped.

  “Akun, you do not sound okay.”

  “We can either kill the mount or dismount them,” Said Akun as he rested against the pig. “What are the chances we can dismount them?”

  Just then, Akun felt a brazen sting in his head. He felt the top of his skull. It was a kunai blade. He pulled it out of his skull, “They’ve already dismounted.”

  Three more knives pierced him from the top. Akun’s marrow leaked from his bones onto Stormbristle.

  “Akun!” Storm said, “Are you okay?”

  “No. I’m pretty far from okay. But you know what?”

  He retracted his blade and scanned the fog, “Let’s find this guy.”

  “Even with dark vision, you can’t see! He’s finding you because he’s tracing our lightning back to us!”

  “Nah, that little pest gave me something. Something that should help.” He took out the peeker’s monocle and looked through it. Gal was alit in red, jumping from one building wall to another.

  “Hey, when I give the signal, you light her up again.”

  “The chain?”

  “All of it.” Akun twirled the weapon above his head, “Default!” The hook turned back to normal. Akun looked through the monocle and threw the chain. The hook entered Gal’s calf.

  “Light him up!”

  “It’ll hurt you!”

  “JUST DO IT! Give it everything!”

  Storm lit himself with lightning. It once again traveled through Akun into the chain and ran along, shocking Gal. Gal’s body lit up in the dense fog, as well as Akun’s.

  Storm did what he was told.

  He surged lightning with as much as he had, but Gal was still holding on.

  “HARDER!” Akun yelled.

  “But you’ll…”

  “For… the… team.”

  It renewed Storm’s sense of duty. He released all his lightning. To the outside, all the people in the crowd could see was a heavy white cloud obstructing the view.

  Kip and Lala looked deeply inside, “I wonder what’s going on in there?” Lala asked.

  The king looked through his binoculars but could not see anything, “What the bloody hell could be going on!? This is supposed to be a good show! I want to see the walloping!”

  Just then, the cloud darkened. It turned an angry gray, and lightning burst throughout the cloud like a fungal network.

  The crowd could see brief flashes within the cloud as the lightning showed Akun holding onto Gal. And the spider being struck by lightning. Then, the smoke cleared.

  The fog dissipated from the heat of the lightning. And the crowd could gaze upon the scene.

  Gal was on the floor, the hook in his calf connected to Akun… who was also passed out on the floor.

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