207 A Wild Ride

"WHAT THE HELL?"

"SHUT UP. YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE, HANG ON TIGHT" Laz yelled as he started running. He had first intended to run back to the farm house but quickly changed his mind. He had no idea if Onacona had weapons to fight these things and even if he did, the kids could be harmed in the process. So a much better plan was to lose them somewhere away from here and have Onacona contact the town's hunting teams.

Of course this entire plan was based on thinking that he could outrun these cow sized coyotes. Had Laz been able to use his energy like normal, he might of had a chance. At the same time, had he been able to use his energy, he wouldn't have needed to run either. Sadly, that wasn't the case.

It took less than two minutes for the coyotes to catch up to Laz and Sarah as they started taking bites at them. Laz was lucky enough to dodge away from the corn field and get into some trees, giving him some cover, but even then the four legged animals had a huge advantage over Laz and his baggage.

"RUN FASTER. RUN FASTER. I DON'T WANT TO DIE...." Sarah screamed while wrapping her body around Laz.

"WOULD YOU SHUT UP PLEASE?"

:WEEEEEEEEEEEE: Tyr had hopped aboard for a ride at some point as well, hanging on to Laz shoulder while lifting his front legs like he was riding on a roller coaster.

"Not WEEEEEE. This isn't a time for fun Tyr. Those things want to eat us." Laz, who had been yelling right back as Sarah, relaxed his voice enough to talk to Tyr calmly. As far as Laz was concerned, Tyr was still a child. As such, he didn't want to make him feel bad for yelling at him for something he didn't understand. Laz was constantly changing direction to avoid the jaws snapping at him from behind.

"OH. SO YOU'RE NICE TO THE DAMN SPIDER BUT YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE TO ME?" Sarah yelled.

"AT LEAST HE IS USEFUL AND NOT SOME ANNOYING BITCH WHO'S TRYING TO GET US KILLED," Laz was losing his temper with this girl. Had she not come, this wouldn't have happened. On top of that, she was just being extra baggage that was slowing Laz down. He also was feeling rather powerless at the moment. He had Last Rites in his hip pouch still, but he had no time to direct his attention into the bag to find it. And ever if he did, the coyotes would be on him and Sarah before he could even kill a few of them. He was certain he would live while he was also certain that she would not.

"Damn it..." Laz was sort of running out of ideas.

:Faster?: Tyr asked, figuring out that Laz was in danger.

:Yes. We need to go faster,: Laz responded in his head, trying his best to save his breath for running.

Hearing Laz's reply, Tyr jumped off of Laz's shoulder right in front of him and started dropping back until he was running right in front of Laz's legs then, Tyr suddenly started growing while his body was covered in a white light.

:Hop on: Tyr said while his body was expanding. Laz, a bit confused, decided to trust the little guy anyway and leapt forward. Just as he felt like he was going to crush Tyr, Tyr's body explosively grew until it was the size of a box truck. Laz just happened to land right on the area behind his neck. Feeling Laz's hands grip on the the hairs on his neck while his legs clenched, Tyr suddenly increased his speed like a rocket, blasting its way forward. Before the coyotes could even launch another attack, Tyr was already putting distance between them.

"Tyr, this is amazing."

:WEEEEEEEEEEE:

"Ha Ha. Yes. WEEEEEEEEEEE"

:HA: Hearing little Tyr laugh in Laz's head with his child like voice just made Laz laugh harder. For Tyr, this was a fun game. He had almost no sense of danger from the beasts chasing them.

Laz had put Sarah behind him on Tyr's neck and she was grabbing on to his waist as hard as she could while burying her head in his back. It was clear that she was not having fun.

Now that Laz had his hands slightly free since Tyr's running on eight legs was rather smooth, he finally had time to go searching in his space pouch and pulling out Last Rites. He had honestly not expected to have to use his again since his strength and speed made his body a much more effective weapon. Yet now, seeing as how most of his strength was sealed, Laz was going to have to rely on it again. The worst part was that his was severely low on ammo, since it took a special caliber that Bill had designed and made himself. He wasn't even sure if he could buy something usable from some other gunsmith. To top it all off, he hadn't taken the time or energy to collect additional weapons with which he could use. The only other thing he had which could be considered a weapon was the slightly rusted, curved sword he had obtained back from the cave that he had almost completely forgotten about.

"Fuck..." Laz still held Last Rites in his hand and checked the barrel.

'Four shots... seven targets... well we are fucked. I guess it's better than nothing. Besides, even if I chase them off now, they will just come back to the pond at some other point. Since this area is within their hunting zone, they will end up way to close to the house. I've got to think of something else.' Not being able to tell how strong or weak a target was caused Laz a headache. When he stopped on this thought for a moment, he couldn't help but laugh at the fact that this was his biggest problem currently.

Just then, he felt some squirming coming from behind him as a couple of firm yet squishy tomatoes pressed into his back even harder. He had been ignoring it, but with the little bit of bumping that was caused by Tyr's running, Laz could now tell that Sarah had obviously been 'stimulated' by the rubbing. Her squirming was due to her trying to push herself away from Laz while also not letting go.

"You ok?" Laz asked, tilting his head back slightly.

"NO... No... I'm not ok. What is this shit? Seriously? We are riding a giant spider while being chased by fucking cow sized dogs? Is this what happens when people hang out around you?"

"Well. Kinda. Yeah." Laz nodded his head. This kind of trouble always seemed to happen to him, in one form or another. He was used to it. She was not.

"Well what the fuck are we going to do, eh?"

"Yeah. That. Well, just hang on to Tyr and he will keep you safe ok?"

:Keep close little buddy, but keep circling around if any of them follow you and keep leading them back my way,: Laz advised Tyr.

:OK.:

While Sarah was trying to figure out what Laz was talking about, Laz suddenly pushed up on Tyr's head, throwing himself into the air slightly. Using Tyr's neck as a springboard, he ended up catapulting himself up and backwards, doing a backflip over Tyr's back and landing between the fleeing spider and the chasing coyotes. Before they could register what happened, Laz raised his gun and took aim.

BANG.

The first shot hit the lead coyote in the head, causing its head to blow up as it's body fell and skid along the ground.

BANG

This shot hit the next coyote in the flank as tried to pass Laz and continue the chase after Tyr. It's body launched sideways from the force of the impact as it's internal organs shattered.

These two shots scared the rest of the pack that was following in the back, causing them to either slid to a stop or change direction away from Laz.

'Stronger than a stage one but not too strong... so maybe a low level, stage two?' Laz thought to himself after seeing the amount of damage the shots had caused.

The other coyotes in the pack were startled, but they hadn't given up either. Four of them quickly circled Laz while the fifth one tried to go around to attack Tyr and Sarah who had stopped not to far from them. Although Tyr was faster than the coyotes, it really wasn't by much. And most of that was due to them being in a wooded area with uneven terrain. This gave Tyr a huge advantage. Had they been on open, flat ground, Tyr wouldn't have been able to outrun this cow sized, mini wolves.

Laz took aim at the one that was trying to get around him and the pack and fired.

BANG

The shot hit the coyote square in the flank and sent it flying, a mess of blood and bone exploded out from it's side as it went air born for a few seconds before hitting the ground and rolling, never to get up again.

The four that had surrounded Laz started growling and backing away, seeing that this prey of theirs wasn't as easy as they had assumed. Although they had gotten bigger, their intelligence hadn't kept up with their size. It took the death of three of their companions before they saw Laz as a threat. Laz wanted to eliminate all of them to bring an end to eventual danger, but seeing the pack start to back up, Laz was worried that they would get away since he could at most kill one more with the same ease that he had the first three.

After thinking for a moment, Laz could only accept the fact that he could kill four of them at most before they bolted. He could then only pray that they would leave this hunting ground and look for another.

Taking a deep breath, Laz took aim with Last Rites, preparing to fire the final shot. Seeing this the coyotes were obviously panicked and looked like they were about to flee at any moment. Sighting out the largest one from the remaining pack, Laz pulled the trigger.

But nothing happened.

'WHAT?' Laz screamed in his head and tried pulling the trigger again.

Still nothing.

'FUCK.'

Laz released the clip, only to find that it didn't eject. He tried his best to pull it loose but found that it was lodged in there.

The gun had jammed.

Seeing the weapon that was raining death on them not do anything, the coyotes got a bit of their courage back and started approaching Laz with slow, measured steps.

Laz could only helplessly stash the gun back in his pouch and pull out the old, slightly rusted civil war sword and hold it before him.

This was not how he had planned to spend his day.