Toka-Ace #1: The Re-Emergence
Chapter 27

Katherine and I shared a glance of awe and horror. Now that it was out of the water, I could see how big this monster really was. It was the size of an eighteen-wheeler.

It had a head like a komodo dragon with yellow teeth five inches long. The head was held high at the end of a thick neck corded with muscle. The monster had four long powerful legs that ended in webbed feet. At the end of each toe was a hooked black claw. The creature’s back was covered in wicked looking black spikes. A long tail dragged behind it.

The creature roared and it thrashed its’ tail on the sand. It took a step forward and Katherine and I stepped back.

I had to consciously force myself to be brave and fight the urge to run. I will not give up this time. I will not give up this time, I told myself.

“I’ve seen one of these things before. That thing is a genetically altered monster. It’s most likely being remote controlled,” Katherine said with forced calm.

“How much of a chance do I stand against it?” I asked.

“The answer isn’t encouraging,” Katherine responded. I could hear the note of fear in her voice and I w as determined to protect her.

Superbeast, I privately nicknamed the creature. Superbeast meet Toka-Ace. Come on, you bastard.

Superbeast drew its head back and whipped it forward, firing dark ooze from its mouth.

“Look out!” Katherine yelled. She dove aside and I leapt into the branch of a nearby tree. The sludge hit where Katherine and I had been standing seconds before.

I was about to ask what the stuff was but the answer was soon strikingly clear. I heard a hiss as the base of the tree began to dissolve. The puddle of sludge hissed and wisps of smoke slithered upward as the ground sank to become a crater.

“It’s acid,” Katherine yelled up to me. “Avoid touching it or breathing the fumes at all costs!”

“You don’t say,” I retorted.

I looked down at Superbeast. It smiled its cold reptilian smile as residual ooze dripped from its mouth. My eyes met the cold, yet intelligent eyes of the monster.

I leapt from the tree as it came down. I landed beside Katherine. “Any ideas on how do I beat this thing?” I asked.

Before she could answer, Superbeast charged. The ground shook as it barreled at us. Its speed was shocking, and it would be on us in a second.

I fired my shockwave at it. Hazy purple cylinders fired from my palms and hit Superbeast dead on. To my horror, the monster did not slow.

“What?” I exclaimed.

Katherine and I dove aside to avoid being trampled.

“Katherine!” I cried.

“I’m okay!” she assured me.

Superbeast turned back towards us. Its tail came over its head and straight down at me. I rolled aside. The tail smacked the ground with a loud thud and sand was thrown up around me.

Blam! Blam! Gunshots rang out. Puny bullets hit Superbeast’s armor-like flesh.

I looked and saw Katherine with a gun. The monster turned with its jaws open and snapped at Katherine.

She darted behind a tree and the jaws closed around the trunk. The trunk cracked and splinters fell away. Superbeast drew back again. Katherine moved around the tree trying to keep it between her and the monster. I saw my opening. I leapt and used my mind to conjure a sword.

Superbeast was so focused on Katherine that it didn’t see me coming. I drew the sword back and plunged it into the flesh beneath the eye.

RRRrrroooaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!!! Superbeast roared in terrible pain. Its cry made my head hurt and the birds who called the woods home took flight in a mass exodus. Leaves fell from the trees.

Superbeast thrashed its head about trying to shake me.

It was like being in an earthquake. I was being flung like a rag doll, but managed to hold on to the sword handle.

Superbeast roared again and I was blindsided by one of the massive claws of the creature.

“Aaaahhh!!” I cried in pain as I hit the ground. Before I could get up, the foot came down on me.

I cried in pain again. It was so heavy; it was like having a bank safe dropped on me. My legs were trapped.

I looked up at Superbeast, helpless. It looked down at me snarling. I fired a bolt of electricity at its face to no effect. I fired a shockwave. Nothing.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Katherine fired her gun. From my perspective she was upside down. She bravely fired, her eyes narrowed, her jaw clenched.

Superbeast looked at her. It opened its mouth and spewed its acid. Katherine turned to run. The acid stream was only inches behind her.

“NO!” I struggled to free myself but Superbeast’s foot had me pinned.

Then there was no sound except the hiss of the acid melting the spots where it touched. I knew some of those spots were Katherine. She hadn’t even had time to scream.

Superbeast roared with a note of triumph in its voice. It directed its awful gaze at me. It drooled the acid sludge from its mouth. A strand hung down and dripped burning the ground mere inches from my head.

I twisted and tried to pull myself from underneath the massive foot. But it had me pinned tightly. I looked up at the creature that seemed, from my terrified perspective, to fill the sky.

It drew its head back preparing to melt me with the foul sludge. I closed my eyes and concentrated. The acid came down, eating and melting what it touched.

The spot around me was now a bubbling, hissing, putrid black pool. Superbeast stepped back slightly. It sniffed at the pool, trying to satisfy itself that I was dead.

I would have been if not for my power to bind with shadows. I fused with the shadow cast by the creature and travelled along the connected shadows until I was safely behind a nearby tree.

I was alone. I could survive against this thing but that was it. With Katherine dead I had no idea what to do next.

I was terrified. The next time I would not get so lucky. My fear grew and grew. I recognized what was happening in my mind. It was my anxiety taking over like a boulder dislodged from a hilltop gaining momentum as it rolled.

I tried to get a grip. Focus, Troy, think. There has to be a solution, I told myself. When I tried to focus on the situation at hand all I could picture was being covered in acid, my flesh melting.

“Snap out of it Troy,” I commanded myself. “There has to be a way to win.”

This time I pictured being ripped apart on the monster’s killer teeth.

I gripped my head in my hands. “Fear will not help me, worry will not help me, come on Troy, you need a way to win, so COME ON!” My heart was pounding and I was breathing hard.

A hand landed on my shoulder. A jolt went through my body and I jumped a foot.

“Yaahhh!!” I cried in surprise. I turned.

“Troy,” Katherine was standing before me. “You’re alright.”

“Oh my God,” I said breathing heavily. “I thought you were a goner.”

It was a huge relief for Katherine to be alive. I almost felt the urge to laugh.

I realized my mistake when I heard the roar.

Superbeast was now staring at me. It roared. “It’s preparing to charge!” I warned. Superbeast bent its front legs and the spikes on its back shifted and were now aimed at us.

The spikes shot out at us, dozens of them at a time like a barrage of arrows being fired from a high-powered crossbow. Katherine and I hit the dirt.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The spears hit with enough force to penetrate the tree. Katherine and I looked up and back. I cringed at how close we’d come to being skewered.

I got to my feet and helped Katherine up. I could see Superbeast preparing to fire the next onslaught on spikes. “We’ve got to move,” I yelled. I picked Katherine up in my arms and willed for my wings to appear. I turned and flapped to get airborne.

“Get to the beach!” Katherine ordered.

Superbeast fired his spikes again.

I flew as fast as I could. In my way was a maze of trees; behind me was a battery of spears. I banked hard to my right to avoid hitting a tree. A high-speed spike pierced the tree and got stuck coming out the other side. I kept going. More trees. I made a sharp left and a sharp right, I split two trees. My wing tips brushed bark and branches whipped my face.

The flying spears made tree trunks explode behind me! I made a sharp right as a spear went flying by. It grazed my shoulder. I ignored the pain.

Katherine held on tightly and shut her eyes so that she wouldn’t succumb to the temptation to scream.

Then I flew up and onto a tree that had a branch wide enough to support Katherine and me. I set her down. Katherine gasped. “Troy that wound looks pretty serious.”

I looked at my right arm and was horrified to see muscle sinew exposed. The flesh was gone, snatched away by the spike as it grazed me. Horror filled me and then I recognized the pain. It was searing and intense.

“This is bad,” Katherine said examining my wound.

I looked away. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Your powers will heal the wound in half a day, but that thing will replace us very quickly,” Katherine said.

“How will it replace us?” I asked.

“It can pinpoint blood by smell,” Katherine explained.

“How do we beat something so powerful? All of my attacks have had no effect,” I complained. “Except when I stabbed it in the eye.”

“We need to hit a vital point,” Katherine said.

“I have a plan but it’s a long shot and we need to time it right.” Katherine said. She took the back pack and began to open it. “I’m going to prepare an explosive.”

WHAM! The tree was hit very hard. Katherine and I lurched and lost our balance.

“Whoa!” I cried. I grabbed a branch above me to hold on.

Katherine wind-milled and began to fall.

My hand shot out and I caught her by the wrist while I still held my branch. I pulled her back up as Superbeast prepared to charge again.

“Lure that thing to the beach and buy me some time,” Katherine said, gripping the branch.

“Okay.” I opened my wings and fired bolts of electricity at the monster.

The blast hit Superbeast in the face and it looked at me snarling. I was dripping blood.

“Hey!” I called. “Over here!” I flew away.

I could hear the ground rumble and trees crack and fall as Superbeast chased me. I swerved and avoided the trees. Superbeast ran right through them. It was gaining on me.

Your plan better be a good one Katherine, I thought.

I made it to the beach.

The reptilian head emerged from the tree line. Then Superbeast came lumbering out, leaving a wake of bent and broken trees

Any tree that was in its way was knocked aside. Each one of its footsteps struck the ground like a pile driver.

Katherine wanted me to buy time. I would buy time. I conjured a sword and Superbeast and I charged at one another. We circled each other. He snapped his jaws at me.

We circled each other, an electric cyclone of slashing and biting.

Superbeast whipped its tail over its head and straight down at me. I dodged. There was an explosion of sand where I had been blinding both me and the creature. I fired a shockwave blast at the monster.

Ffffwwweeeewww!! I fired with all my might, the purple, hazy-looking cylinders colliding with the monster, not doing much except keeping it from biting. It dug in its feet and stubbornly held its ground.

Now it made sense to me. In the water it had no traction so my shockwaves could affect it. On land it was able to dig in against my attacks.

I leapt above the snapping jaws leaving Superbeast with a mouthful of sand. I landed on its head. The rest of this monster might be armored, but the eyes were without a doubt, a weak point.

I raised my sword and prepared to jab the beast. Before I could it jerked its head suddenly throwing me from its head. Superbeast turned its body and swung its tail. The next thing I remember is the feeling of being hit with something very hard like a sledgehammer blow.

I was sent careening across the beach. Everything seemed to speed by me. I jabbed my sword into the ground to slow myself. It did no good, I was going so fast that the sword was snatched away by the ground. Then there was another sudden shocking blow as I hit a tree.

I fell to the ground and landed on the arm that had been torn open by the spear. I groaned in pain and tried to push myself up. It was not easy. My whole body was in pain. My body quivered in fatigue as I strained to rise.

I felt the dreaded feeling of the ground rumbling as Superbeast came barreling at me.

I reached deep down and tried to summon some strength. But I didn’t have it in me. “Troy! Troy! Look out!” Katherine shrieked. I looked up and saw Superbeast terrifyingly close and coming fast.

I jumped to the side. Superbeast demolished the tree with its amazing locomotive power.

Superbeast was gagging on what was left of the tree trunk.

That was close, I thought. I ran towards Katherine. She recognized my effort and ran towards me. She was holding up her backpack as she came at me. “We’re a go.” Superbeast was still regurgitating the bark.

Katherine showed me what was in the backpack. It looked like a thermos except it was transparent and the inside was filled with some kind of blue liquid. “All you have to do is shove this in its throat and ignite it with an electrical charge,” Katherine said. She zipped the backpack and handed it to me. “Good luck, Troy.”

At that moment Superbeast had finished spitting out the wood bark it lodged in its throat.

I threw the backpack over my shoulder and ran at Superbeast. This was the last move I had in my bank.

It was all or nothing.