The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride by Trevor H. Cooley

his swords. But before leaving, he had to try an attack. He had to see what would happen. Hilt called to the magic within his swords, then darted forward around the edge of the bubbling pool and unleashed a powerful double slash, extending the blades of air out past his swords as far as he could. Two very deep slits appeared in its glistening back.
     
    The wounds split open and a dozen clawed arms and torsos reached out, screeching and clawing. Then pushing past them came a large set of curved teeth that opened into a mouth wide enough to swallow him whole. A long tongue uncoiled from within and began reaching and searching for him.
     
    “Hilt if you don’t come out of there this instant, I am coming in after you!” came Beth’s voice. “I am counting to five!”
     
    Long clawed barbs burst from the end of the tongue and it whipped about wildly, smacking against the floor and ceiling of the cavern, but not coming close to reaching him.
     
    A half dozen small spherical bulges appeared around the gaping mouth, then spit open to reveal large lidless eyes. It saw him now. The tongue stopped its blind searching, and the bulk of the behemoth surged forward, filling the cavern. Hilt smiled. Now this was a beast of legend.
     
    “One!” Beth shouted. Yntri’s clicks were getting more plaintive now.
     
    Hilt fumed. Why couldn’t she leave him be? Hilt took a half step back and calculated how much damage he could inflict upon the beast before she came in after him.
     
    “Two!”
     
    He took several more steps back, staying just out of its reach. Of course he couldn’t cause any significant damage to it without attempting some truly devastating attacks. There were things he might be able to do, but . . . the truth was that he didn’t know if he could attempt it without pulling the cave walls down on top of him.
     
    “Three! Hilt, you better-! Hey! Don’t you dare touch me again, elf!”
     
    Hilt bit his lip again. But what an opportunity! When would he get the chance to try his skill against such a beast again? He twirled his swords and called to the magic, but hesitated. Would Beth truly be so crazy as to follow through with her threat? Surely she was bluffing.
     
    “Four!” There was no hesitation in her voice and Yntri had stopped trying to convince her. The stubborn woman was going to barge in and Hilt knew there was no way he could protect her against this beast, not in close quarters like this. Then he remembered the half-troll he had left in the outer chamber. She would be forced to face it and the only weapon he had given her was the fire stick.
     
    “Stop your count, I’m coming!” he shouted.
     
    “You’d better! I am going to count to three, and if you aren’t out here-!”
     
    “Shut up, woman! I’m coming!” The behemoth surged forward again and its tongue whipped at him again. One quick slice of Northwind lopped off the barbed tip and Hilt backed up to the passageway that lead back to the entrance.
     
    The behemoth slid to the right and shivered as it pulled an enormous tentacle out of one of the side passages. It swung the tentacle towards him and Hilt’s eyes widened. This wasn’t a tentacle; it was an arm. An arm made of hundreds of troll arms fused together, all of them reaching and grasping.
     
    He backed into the passageway, sliding and nearly stumbling, but he didn’t dare turn around. The behemoth’s arm followed him into the passageway and he could see that between each set of grasping arms was a toothy mouth opening and closing. This was how it fed. Hilt could imagine the behemoth’s hungry arm clearing passageways of screeching rodents. He worked his swords with a blur, sending tiny blades of air magic into the passageway, lopping off hands and arms and cutting mouths in two.  
     
    The slimy bulk of the behemoth’s arm stopped its pursuit, wedged in the narrow space of the passage. He backed into the outer chamber and almost stumbled over the troll torso he had