Godfrey yawned. “I’ll take half and you can have the other half. Unless that’s too much for you?”
“Don’t make me laugh, I was about to say the same thing,” Rainbow snorted.
The lizards took another step, tightening the circle and leaving even less space for Rainbow Dash and Godfrey. They held their spears out far, not presenting an easy target, and coordinating with each other so there weren’t any holes. If they kept inching forward they might just suddenly stab Rainbow and Godfrey all at once and not even leave things up to a real fight at all.
Rainbow and Godfrey noticed this and the griffon pirate glanced down at his temporary comrade. “You ready?”
“I hate that I have to let you do this,” Rainbow frowned.
“I know. And I love it,” Godfrey grinned.
In the next instant Godfrey hunkered down and then just as quickly jumped up. The lizards tried to spear him and Rainbow Dash but they were too slow, their spears only impaling empty space. He had leaped like a tiger onto one of the nearby trees, digging his claws into it and climbing up the trunk, both escaping the circle of death and also going straight for one of the surrounding lizards who now found himself very alone on his tree. And meanwhile Rainbow Dash… Rainbow Dash flailed about like a rag doll as she let Godfrey move completely of his own volition, knowing that’s what was necessary at the moment. With his strength he easily carried her up the tree. The extra weight chained to his right arm might as well have been nothing.
The lone lizard on this tree that Godfrey had jumped to finally reacted in a panic and attempted a jump away while stabbing his spear towards Godfrey. Godfrey jumped with him and grabbed the spear with one of his massive talons while landing a hard punch into the lizard’s stomach with the other. The lizard’s eyes bugged out as he wheezed in pain and was practically launched to the other side of the clearing.
“Rainbow!” Godfrey said as he tossed the spear to her while they landed back on the ground.
“Yeah!” Rainbow called as she grabbed it.
The two came to a heavy landing still in the clearing but well away from the circle of lizards on the ground. Rainbow twirled her spear around and pointed it at the lizards who were already forming a line while the ones in the trees behind them got ready to pounce.
She glanced up at Godfrey. “Still no killing.”
“That’s fine, I’ll treat it as a handicap.”
One of the lizards before them screeched and the whole line started running at Rainbow and Godfrey while the lizards in the jungle ran around to flank them and the ones in the trees jumped down to attack.
Rainbow jumped up onto Godfrey’s back and turned around, swinging her spear in a wide arc and smacking away all the ones that were coming down towards him. Godfrey then jumped forward so the tree lizards landed behind him and kicked out with his back legs to take out two of them. Several thrown spears came at them from the sides but Rainbow swatted them all out of the air and jumped down from Godfrey’s back as another lizard came leaping at her. He sailed over Godfrey’s back instead and got the butt of Rainbow’s spear jabbed into his gut.
The rest of the hunting party reached them but instead of attacking head on they formed two lines around Rainbow Dash and Godfrey. One to the left and one to the right. Because of the chain connecting them, Rainbow and Godfrey couldn’t exactly turn to face them directly if the other one wasn’t following perfectly. And of course each time they tried to move a little to escape the vise, the lizards moved in unison to keep them trapped.
A dozen lizards now on either side of them. But it’s not like they could complain, they just had to keep fighting. Godfrey picked up a spear of his own that had been thrown earlier to use as a weapon and keep the lizards at bay. The lizards were perhaps even more wary than before, but they still had the numbers advantage and were confident they could take these two strange creatures down.
It began in a flash—five lizards stabbed forward at Rainbow Dash who blocked and parried all the strikes while on the other side the same happened with Godfrey. Immediately after, more stabs and swings came in and the two were constantly forced to block or swat away every attack the lizards were throwing at them. It was a storm of spear strikes and thrusts, from above, from below, aimed at their vitals and non-vitals, anything to give the lizards the edge to kill their prey. Rainbow couldn’t call herself an expert with any weapon but she was glad she was already a little experienced with fighting like this. The extra training she had put in at Black Sand Island was also helping as well since she couldn’t rely on her wings. Godfrey seemed to simply be having a blast, grinning the whole time as he knocked spears away and even let a few he could afford to go through just so they bounced off the chains around his body. Both of them when they could were trying to completely knock the spears out of the grasp of the lizards to make the barrage ease up, but these hunters held firmly onto their weapons, it wasn’t that easy.
“I feel like changing things up!” Godfrey shouted as he knocked away a few more attacks.
“What’d you have in mind?” Rainbow shouted back.
“Just get ready, and flip that spear around,” Godfrey said and pushed away the latest thrusts. He then stabbed his own spear into the ground and took a step towards the line of lizards facing him while pulling Rainbow Dash, yanking her away from the lizards attacking her and swinging her out towards his line. They didn’t expect this kind of attack and they were all standing well in range of the pony being used as a flail.
Rainbow got what he wanted to do immediately and as she reached the apex of his swing she turned her spear around so the blunt end was facing the lizards. Holding it out, the wooden shaft smacked into the heads of all the lizards in the line as Godfrey swung her around.
Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!
Being hit in the head with solid wood at high speed like that was too much for the spindly lizards and every last one in the line fell to the ground unconscious. Of course after it was over Rainbow noticed her spear had snapped in half, but that was a small price to pay for taking out nearly half the remaining lizards.
“Nice call,” Rainbow said as she came to a stop on the ground, she and Godfrey backing up against the other line and keeping them directly in front of them so they couldn’t get surrounded anymore.
“Nice reflexes,” he said and glanced up at the trees where a few more lizards were swinging about to get over to them. “Not over yet though.”
“Ignore those ones, they’re just watching to make sure we don’t try and run off,” Rainbow said.
The remaining lizards in the jungle clearing were coming at the two of them again and now neither Rainbow or Godfrey had a spear. That didn’t mean they couldn’t keep fighting though and Rainbow Dash was already getting a few good ideas. She couldn’t let Godfrey keep taking the lead when it came to dealing with these lizards after all, it wasn’t a good look for her. So why not come up with something that also used his big body in as beneficial a way as possible.
“Hey, Godfrey? Up for doing something really aggressive?” She asked him.
“Always,” he answered as he looked down at her.
She grinned. “Here’s what I’ve got in mind...”
A second later the lizards were stunned as Rainbow Dash and Godfrey both started running directly at them. They recovered from their surprise and confusion though and kept their spears leveled towards their adversaries—it looked like Rainbow and Godfrey were charging straight into the wall of blades without any concern. They didn’t notice the smirks on their faces at all. This wasn’t a suicide charge. Only a few feet away from the spears did Rainbow Dash shout to her partner.
“Now!”
Godfrey laughed as he grabbed Rainbow Dash and hugged her close to his chest while ducking his head low and tucking his whole body in. With his free front left arm he slammed his talon into the ground and put all the strength in his body into his one limb. Godfrey launched himself forward while flipping over, tucking his whole body into a ball and rolling end over end towards the line of lizards and spears while safely carrying Rainbow Dash along with him. It was very uncomfortable and actually pretty embarrassing for her now that she thought about it, but it was still her calling the shots and that was good enough.
With the chains wrapped around his body, Godfrey was like a boulder rolling towards the lizards, fast enough where it was almost like he was wearing a full set of armor. The few lizards directly in front of the rolling griffon thrust their spears out to stop him but they all got blocked or caught in the chains and snapped. Rainbow honestly thought that even if they had flesh that Godfrey was probably tough enough to power on through that anyways.
Either way those lizards now had no time to get out of the way. Godfrey smashed into three of them, knocking two to the sides and flat out steamrolling over the one in the middle. Once he felt that happen, he came out of his roll and let Rainbow go so the two of them could stand side by side once more.
The remaining lizards were shocked. What insanity had they just witnessed? Already more than half their entire hunting party was on the ground out cold and these two… things had fought them fearlessly and continued to do crazy moves that they couldn’t predict. Those chains should be their death sentence but it was like they had turned them into their most valuable weapon.
Despite being able to attack from two sides now, the lizards decided it would be better to stay together and they ran out into the middle of the clearing to create two staggered lines so every lizard could still hold their spear out at their enemy. To back up their comrades, the lizards that had been in the trees came down and formed a united front with them. It was clear to them that the pony and griffon weren’t going to just try and run away anyways. But there was a different air in the jungle now.
The elite hunting party was afraid.
It couldn’t be helped after what they had just witnessed. This was unlike any hunt they had ever been on before. They were facing off against a quarry they had never faced before. And despite still being drastically outnumbered—that quarry was confidently smiling at them.
“I don’t think they’re going to be coming at us anymore,” Godfrey said as he cracked his neck.
“Yeah, me neither,” Rainbow said as she picked up two nearby spears. She jammed them into the ground one at a time and then snapped off the spear-tips to create two staffs and tossed one to Godfrey. “Here.”
“Why thank you,” Godfrey grinned and spun the staff around. “I prefer bladed weapons though.”
“Deal with it.”
The two then ran towards their opponents once more, this time planning on fighting like normal. No risky moves, just two chained prisoners planning to beat on their pursuers. They held their staffs out as the lizards ran to meet them this time. There was no more taking things calmly and slowly. The first spear thrusts were batted away but before Rainbow or Godfrey could try hitting any lizards, the ones in the back row vaulted over the ones in front and came with their spears bearing down on the pony and griffon. Rainbow and Godfrey barely jumped back in time to avoid the spears—which instead only impaled the ground.
Both of them now swung their staffs in a pair of powerful swings and broke all the stuck spears in half, making that line of lizards retreat as the first group came forward again. It turned into a similar fight to when there were two groups to either side of them, with Rainbow and Godfrey having to parry multiple blows at once with lightning speed and precision. It seemed like a dozen different thrusts and cuts were coming every second. The lizards who had lost their spears now also ran to the sides of Rainbow and Godfrey to attack them while they were occupied with the spears.
Rainbow Dash though stepped back and then slid underneath Godfrey, pulling on the chain connecting them as much as she could, and coming up the other side with her staff. She surprised the lizards who were coming at Godfrey and with one swing bashed them all across their heads. Godfrey then pulled her back out to deal with the remaining ones that were first coming at her. Those lizards jumped at Rainbow Dash with their claws open and ready to rend her to pieces.
Rainbow raised her staff and blocked them before throwing them off. The lizards were knocked to the ground and she followed up with several quick jabs into their stomachs to knock the wind out of them. Then she was able to return to fighting off the ones who still had the spears along with Godfrey.
“You wanna try helping me out with the real threat now?” Godfrey chuckled.
“I figured you would’ve beaten them all by now,” Rainbow said as they crossed staffs and forced one spear coming at them down to the ground. They both then ran their staffs up the shaft of the spear and smashed them into the throat of the lizard holding it, putting him down for the count.
The jungle continued to be filled by the sounds of clashing weapons with the occasional grunt of pain and sounds of lizards being thrown to the ground. Despite the fight until now only lasting a few minutes—this final standoff was taking much longer. It was so simple, just a back and forth “duel” between the two groups. Though the lizards were outmatched, and they probably knew that, they weren’t giving up and still aimed to skewer and slice open the pony and griffon.
Whack!
Bash!
Slam!
Swoosh!
Crack!
Rainbow Dash ducked under the thrust of a spear and jabbed her staff forward, striking the chest of the offending lizard and causing him to drop his weapon. Just as quickly she lifted her staff back up and smashed it down onto the top of his skull.
The lizard’s bleary eyes rolled in different directions and he collapsed in a heap to the messy jungle floor.
Rainbow let out a tired breath and dropped her staff. “Done. Finally. Seriously wish I could use my wings right now.”
“They’re getting a little sore for sure,” Godfrey said as he tried to shift them around under the chains.
“Well anyways, let’s get out of here. I’m sick of fighting these lizards.”
Godfrey grinned. “I bet you this won’t be the last time.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “I’m… not taking that bet.”