"Ah! Stop it!"
I grinned and splashed her again, "What, this?"
She splashed back with a grin and them swam up, sticking her tongue out at me, "You are horrible."
"So why are you still here?" I asked as I threaded water, "If I'm that horrible."
"I don't know. I'm trying to figure you out, I guess." Aiko answered with a frown up at me, "You're a bit of a mystery. You don't act like a trust fundy but you are here on your own and you clearly have money."
I smiled at that, "So what's your take on it so far?"
"...I'm not sure I should say."
"I'm not a drug dealer."
She let out a breath, "You know, I know you meant that as comforting, but that's one of the less scary ones, mister assassin."
She was actually closer with that one than I liked.
I grinned, "Not assassin. I'm an investment banker." I said as I shifted us a bit closer to the beach until my feet touched the sand, allowing my hands free to rest on her waist.
"Banker!? Really?"
"No, not really."
She smacked my chest at that with a snort, "Stop that!" before she narrowed her eyes at me, "I'll figure you out, spy."
"Not even close." I chuckled before I pulled her closer, "So... if you think I'm so dangerous... why are you still here?"
"Maybe I like dangerous." Aiko murmured before she kissed me.
This was life.
There was a massive roar, loud enough to shake the water all around us and Aiko pulled away with a gasp, looking around with wide eyes, "What was that?"
"...Vulcano?" I suggested hopefully as I looked around. I really, really hope that's a vulcano.
"Yeah. Yeah must be it." She answered and bit her lower lip, looking unsure before she grinned, "You know... that have to be the first time the earth moved when AHH!!"
I span around to look at what she was staring at and I was not happy with what I saw. A giant reptilian head and some sort of fin broke the water for a second maybe thirty meters out and heading inwards at a scary rate.
"Aiko... run." I ordered and pushed her backwards, "RUN!"
The problem with water is that humans are not made to move quickly in it. This thing was. I yelled at it and headed towards the beach, following Aiko.
I guess I could count myself lucky, she was a faster swimmer than me. Even luckier was that we were pretty close to the beach, it was a pretty sharp incline in the seabed. I followed her out of the water.
"W-what..." she gasped and I gave her a push as she stopped.
"Don't stop, keep running!" I commanded her and chanced a glance back before throwing myself to the side, just avoiding a pair of big jaws.
Shitshitshit!
I came into a roll back onto my feet, spinning around before instantly diving to the side again to avoid another set of snapping jaws.
Good news. The big dinosaur demon monster thing were focused on me and not Aiko.
Bad news. The big dinosaur demon monster thing were focused on me, had a bunch of very, very big teeth and even worse, it had legs.
Getting in among the trees, I finally got a look at the thing. Some kind of big crocodile creature, like a massive iguana lizard with several fins on it's four legs, one big one on it's back and shark teeth as big as my hands.
Oh, and it was the better part of the size of a T-Rex. The head smashed into one of the trees and stopped, snarling at me, it's six eyes glowing a blue color before it lunged again. Ducking benhind another tree, I snatched a sharp branch up and ran again.
"Taziel, this would be a very good time to stop playing possum!" I snarled and barely avoided another lunge, it's snout sending me rolling on the jungle floor, my breath knocked out of my lungs.
Nothing.
Barely avoiding the next snap of the jaws, I screamed, rolled onto my feet and threw myself at the side of it's massive head, slamming the stick as deep into the closest eye as I could. The monster roared and trashed and suddenly I was airborne. Everything was a blur and then I hit something solid and came to a halt in a surge of pain.
Ow.
I gasped for breath and struggled up again, flexing what little magic I had in a motion I remembered well.
Nothing.
No coin.
No hellfire.
No annoying little attractive voice in my head.
Taziel really did tell the truth. She was gone. I could just about see the monster trash around in the jungle with the sound of snapping branches and trees as it roared.
What in the fuck was that thing!? Some kind of dragon?
Because I'm all out of knights. Or even swords. I'll take swords. But nothing said I had to slay the fucking thing, I just needed to get away and it seemed busy from the stick in it's eye.
Even though Doomslayer had all kinds of ideas how to fight that thing, none of the ideas seemed to be something I was strong or fast enough to pull off. For one thing, I can't jump five meters.
All weapons and more importantly explosives are back with Lazarus still. One week. One week of peace and quiet and looking and at women was all I asked for. That wasn't too much, was it?
Ducking down, I started to slowly back away through the jungle.
The.... dragon... stopped trashing and snarled, it's massive head turning before it started to shift back through the forest.
Oh that can't be good.
AN// Big thanks to Alayn for betaing this section.
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