Page 2419

~~((The National Chocolate Pudding Day Special -- page 5 of 10))~~
Chort's whole body heaved more violently than ever, and the Beast of Lorent rolled over, iron chains yanking up dirt and rocks and even entire trees in the process.

Salvador and Matteo toppled off its back and landed hard on Hector's iron pathway. A surprising amount of Chort's blood splattered off of Salvador's still-burning hand, which left a sizzling imprint in Hector's metal as the man pushed himself back onto his feet.

Chort just kept rolling, though, having apparently decided that it was a good strategy. It kept growing in size, too, and Hector was reminded of those satellite photos that had shown a creature as big as a building. He didn't get long to dwell on it, though.

And that was when the lightning began to arrive.

It was so fast, bright, and loud that Hector didn't even realize what had happened at first. It wasn't until he turned and saw a smoldering iron pylon, still trembling after the strike.

Ah, so those lightnings rods did actually get materialized after all. There were four of them, and they were about three times as tall as the trees around--which was important, because the height mattered much more than the fact that they were metal. The lightning would go for whatever the tallest structure was.

Hector could only hear ringing now, but he was fairly certain that his eardrums hadn't ruptured. He'd felt that before. Hopefully, the civilians were okay.

He sensed, however, that one of his allies was not.

Pauline Gaolanet was falling out of the air. Her wings limp, arching upward. She wasn't moving at all.

Fuck!

He feared the worst as he blasted away from the ground to go catch her. Through all the chaos of the fight, he'd completely lost track of where she'd been. He told her he'd keep her safe. And now she was--

He caught her with an iron cradle and pulled her close. He had to widen the orbit of the cubes in order to make space for her huge body, but he didn't really give a shit about the added difficulty, right now. He had to set her down somewhere.