Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.21 Skinwalkers

Luca looked out over the sprawling plains just after the exited the Wilds and considered how they could safely make camp. People needed a rest; it was late afternoon and Luca was probably the only one to get any real sleep the previous night. Still they couldn’t camp to close to the wilds that was just asking for trouble. However their tents would stick out like a neon sign anywhere else in the wide empty plains.

“I’m done, we should just camp here.” One of the sorcerers yelled as Ghost and Tails set them down. The pair stomped in place with their backs to the wilds. Ghost and Tails moved away from them while shaking their heads. They clearly couldn’t believe the attitude when they hadn’t even had to walk the last leg out of the Wilds.

“Gallant, can you be a bit more practical?” Declan responded before Luca even managed to put him down. Luca blinked at the name used for the sorcerer. It was familiar and when Luca pulled up the mental file to match the face matched the sorcerer who had spoken and yet the idiosyncrasies and attitude presented didn’t match. Luca tended to get suspicious when that happened.

“Oh give over. As soon as we met up you went belly up, show a bit of spine will you. I ain’t crossing centaur country like this.” Luca froze in place at that next sentence. Unless Declan had mentioned something from the mini map on the glasses the sorcerer shouldn’t know where they were, or what was here. They couldn’t see the map that was being used and it was possible for them to exit the Wilds into several different areas, Luca had chosen the plains because it was a more direct route, but he didn’t think the specifics of the route had been discussed.

“Why are you worried about centaurs?” Rӓv asked the leading question her eyes wide and innocent. Luca once again gave her acting full marks. Since she was staring at a map.

“These plains are well known for the centaur tribes wandering them, how would you think they won’t find us?” Luca looked at Declan’s profile as ‘Gallant’ spoke. He noticed the exact moment Luca realised that the speaker probably wasn’t his friend. Declan closed his eyes and then drew in a deep breathe. ‘Gallant’ didn’t seem to realise he’d just outed himself. After all even Luca, Tails and Ghost only knew what they’d seen from the crystals map display. The only way to have well known information about an area was to be a local.

Rather than watch ‘Gallant’ who had well a truly outed himself Luca instead looked at the other sorcerer and the rest of the group. The impassive faces of his friends showed that they’d reached the same conclusion Luca had. The other sorcerer looked smug. Shade wore a narrow-eyed expression as he looked from one person to another. On the basis that the crystals did the translation Shade shouldn’t have been able to understand the conversation. However the atmosphere would have been easy to pick up on. Rather than just grabbing them Luca decided to leave the approach to Declan for the start they had been his friends after all.

“So was learning the language a perk of stealing the appearance? Or did you take a special class?” Declan’s tone was completely flat as he stared at what should have been his friend. ‘Gallant’s’ expression shifted. It looked like it was trying to settle on confused but the contempt in the eyes made it impossible.

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“You shouldn’t have known where we are or what is here,” Declan returned. Almost immediate an ugly expression warmed ‘Gallant’s’ expression and he laughed.

“Heh, you lost your friends to us and only notice now how pathetic they must be crying in hell.” The two imposters moved closer together as the words were spoken. Luca reached for one of his swords but stopped as he noticed movement behind the pair. ‘Gallant’ let out a weird cackling screech that the other mirrored.

“Filthy skinwalkers” Shade snarled as a pitch-black blade formed in his hand. While Luca noticed that from his peripherals and was interested to know where the weapons Shade had been using came from it was secondary to his primary concern. While Luca’s friends had shifted to crouches that showed they had noticed the bigger problem Holly, Declan and Shade were too focused on the sorcerers or skinwalkers as Shade called them. It made Luca’s suspicions about Holly fade since that was a more beginner mistake.

“What nothing to say? Useless flesh bags only fit to be prey.” As Declan shifted to lunge forward Luca grabbed his shoulder. The giant wasp that had landed on the trees at the edge of the Wilds shifted its head to stare at the skinwalker as he laughed and waved a hand.

“I guess we should be really suspicious of what should be our people if Luca can’t place them from now on,” Tails commented idly as the wasp spread its wings. Luca shifted his weight prepared to toss Declan and himself to the floor at a moment’s notice. Luca noticed that Ghost had shifted towards Holly with the same intent. While Räv took a similar posture near Shade, Luca reached out and gently pulled Help from the air beside him and put them on his shoulder. When Räv approached Shade took his attention of ‘Gallant’ for a second and when he turned back, he flinched ever so slightly.

Luca didn’t blame him for that flinch as the wasp lifted off. It swooped forward and Luca tossed Declan hard into the dirt. He gave a pained oomph with the sound being mirrored by several others.

Any other noise was cut off by the horrified shriek ‘Gallant’ made. It reached a pitch and tone that no human could or should ever reach.

Luca risked a glance up to see ‘Gallant’ grasped in the front feet of the wasp. Sans head. As Luca watched the body shape shifted taking on a more amorphous blob like shape. It somewhat resembled common video game depictions of a slime. When the blob attempted to slip front the wasp’s grasp the wasp curled its body up and drove its stinger through the centre of the blob piercing a dark red core in the process. At a rate visible to the eye the blob hardened like jelly.

At the same time the other skinwalker shrieked and took off running into the planes. A different screech sounded in the air and the wasp turned in pace and raced back into the wilds.

“That sounded like a bird,” Declan muttered.

Luca looked up at the sky as he responded, “Yeah, a crow.” The crow swooped down and picked the skinwalker up before winging off into the sky. Luca moved cautiously to a crouch as he scanned the sky in every direction.

“I can now understand why everyone here thinks immigrating to another world or plane would be better.” Tails dusted his knees as he shifted with a similarly wary eye on the sky.

“Wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t actually an invasion with intent to make extinct.” Luca considered the empty sky for a long moment.

“Is good point.” Ghost nodded as he pulled holly to his feet. Luca gave a last look around and then gestured for people to get moving.