Jeb's company lifted off in their awkward group hug, aiming for the distant wings. From several hundred feet in the air, it was easier to tell what was happening on the mountain.
Ridges that had previously lain dormant were now showing themselves to be the arms and legs of the Mother of All Fire Golems
MOAFG? Doesn’t really roll off the tongue. I think I’ll call her Felicia.
Felicia was waking up, and man, Felicia looked like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Jeb put serious speed on when he saw the legs drawing in under the enormous mountain. They were still over Felicia and they couldn’t afford to –
The sheer mass of Felicia’s movement created a tailwind that catapulted them forward, barely hanging onto each other.
Casey was coming into view, Mike’s arms wrapped around her waist, his wings struggling to keep them aloft. Now that he was bigger, it was easier to see that her guardian angel was ripped.
“Casey!” Jeb shouted, waving.
“Oh thank gawd,” Casey said, her accent slipping out as Smartass dived out of the teen’s hair and latched onto Jeb’s ear.
“I saved her life, pay up,” Smartass said, holding a tiny hand in front of his nose.
“Can it wait until after we get away from the magic mountain?” Jeb asked.
“Hmmm… Okay, but I’m going to charge fairy interest.”
Jeb was about to ask what ‘fairy interest’ was, when an explosion rattled all thoughts out of his head, forcing him to glance over his shoulder.
Felicia…was standing up.
The enormous mountain rose from the ground, centuries of dirt sloughing off the rock face to reveal a menacing visage covered with veins of glowing magma.
Felicia ugly.
I pray to god and whatever demons of hell are willing to make a bargain for my soul, Jeb thought as he saw the creature continue rising into the sky, above the tortoise, above them.
Please let that thing be on our side.
The mountainous creature paid no attention to the gnats buzzing around, its gaze fixing on something to the west.
The World Tortoise.
With a bellow that they could feel in their ribs, Felicia the Flame Mountain charged the tortoise, which was about the size of an extra-large dog in comparison.
“Holy shit,” Jeb muttered.
“Oh yeah, The Flame Titan and the Word Tortoise do not get along.” Smartass shouted over the ruckus, nodding sagely.
“When were you going to volunteer that information!?” Jeb demanded.
“What information?” Smartass asked curiously,
It didn’t take a genius to see that waking Felicia and getting her to kill the World Tortoise was the easy way to solve the Impossible tutorial.
Felicia charged forward with a roar, forest spraying out of her way like water as she charged the massive creature. The tortoise saw her coming and deployed its air-force, thousands upon thousands of vicious monsters of various shape and size.
Bugs on a windshield.
“GRAAA!” Felicia brought her fist down on top of the World Tortoise’s shell like a hammerblow, and the creature’s hind legs buckled. Another strike and the shell popped, the rear legs giving out completely.
Jebs other passengers were getting into it now, cheering Felicia on.
“Get us out of here, you gigantic bitch!” Amanda shouted over the others.
Felicia’ gigantic fists turned toward the tortoise’s skull. The World Tortoise hissed and snapped at the oversized fists coming down on it, but the bites did nothing, the fiery fist smashing the tortoise’s skull into the forest floor.
“Fuck yeah!” Jeb shouted, almost losing control over the telekinesis that kept them aloft.
Felicia didn’t stop there, she kept pounding that overgrown tortoise skull into the ground like a mad thing, creating a massive crater and drenching the nearby forest in blood and brains.
This is it! Jeb thought, hope fluttering to the surface in his chest for the first time in nearly a month. We’re out of here!
The body of the tortoise began to…glow a pale blue.
“Uh oh, what is that?” Ron muttered.
Jeb saw it too, as the light began to warp around the creature like spandex, being reeled in from every direction, while giving off that increasingly bright blue.
“What is what?” Brett asked, glancing at them.
If Brett can’t see it, it’s gotta be Myst. Jeb thought.
Power continued to gather in the Tortoise’s body even as Felicia continued diligently turning the tortoise’s head into a fine paste.
“Whatever that is, I don’t like it,” Jeb muttered.
Obviously it didn’t care if Jeb didn’t like it or not, because it kept growing until the light was blinding.
Jeb covered his eyes and looked away moments before there was a sudden spike in the light that he could see through his hand, before it died away to nothing.
When Jeb took his hands away, the World Tortoise was gone, disappearing from beneath the crushing blows of Felicia.
“Did we kill it?” Ron asked.
“If it was dead, we wouldn’t be here,” Jeb murmured. Felicia seemed to know what was going on, as the mountain stood up and charged further west, toward…
“Oh, there it is.” Casey said.
“All that Myst and it moved half a mile?” Ron wondered.
“And it’s not wounded anymore,” Jeb said, his jaw clenching. Something about this situation was striking a bad chord, sending goosebumps up the nape of his neck.
“Oh. Shit. You think it can do it again?” Ron asked.
“We’re about to find out.” Jeb replied as the mountain tackled the tortoise into the ground, got into a mount position and started pummeling it into the dirt.
A few minutes later, the light flashed again, and there was the tortoise, in the exact same spot, unharmed.
Again it happened.
And again.
Each time the tortoise came back, their hopes sank just a little bit.
Jeb forced his way through the despair, watching closely for any hint on how to defeat the damn thing,
