“Urgh!”

  “Ow!”

  “Mrowf!”

  Chora, Reed and I bumped together in the middle of a monstrous chasm. The enormous jaws stratospherically high above us were beginning to clamp together. After that, I predicted those writhing vines just barely visible on the roof of its mouth—or toxic plant saliva—would claim us.

  Or not. As soon as we collided, Chora clamped her arms around us as best as she could, given the gale-force forces blowing in our faces as we skydove. Then she kicked powerfully below us, unleashing a gust to rival the gale. We didn’t shoot upwards, but we did slow.

  She kicked more and more, groaning with exertion. My heart broke at the sound. If I was exhausted, then these two had to be beyond wiped. Yet Chora had been prepared to keep fighting…and against what turned out to be this kaiju-level threat.

  But her blows were only desperate paddling. Even after several seconds of gust-bursts, we still hadn’t rounded that bend and gone from slowing our descent to upward movement. The two Attack Ups I had on me could double that. Doubling wouldn’t be enough. And what if her moves benefitted more from Intelligence than Attack? Too many unknowns.

  I didn’t even consider helping her out with Air Cutter. That wouldn’t do it either. Though I felt Reed shift and maneuver in Chora’s grip, and grab her sword and begin to charge hot energy, I was concentrating on my own plan, looking straight down.

  Here, too, we needed to think different. We simply didn’t have time to do anything else.

  …Yes! That’ll definitely work! Old Faithful! Old Reliable!

  The kernel of the idea hit me almost instantly. It was every step after Step One and Step Two that I left for later—again, no time!

  What had begun as an almost gentle glow of orange immensely far beneath us had a source, one that was growing in my vision. When I looked down, I now saw a distinct dot. One still too far and too faint for my human friends to see. One hard for me to see. Its sides enmeshed in flesh.

  I wriggled in Chora’s arms just enough to get a clear view. Then I cast it. Lightning!

  A bolt of the fastest magic we had cascaded down to the spot. There was no crackle, but the sight of it flashed me back to every stormy night. Thunder should’ve pealed, a clocktower should have struck midnight as the lightning lanced down and struck true.

  I tried to capture whatever faint sound the blow made. Plant flesh sizzled, ever so slightly, but I didn’t hear the dot shatter.

  “Huh,” you may be thinking. “Why would Taipha think the dot shattered? I mean, I, the reader, have my own guess, because I’ve been here taking notes, but I didn’t think Taipha was smart enough to make that kind of deduction. Plus, she hadn’t even mentioned that object in at least thirty chapters.”

  Well, you know, rude reader, I had been working on my deductive reasoning. Both inductive and conductive—er, deductive, but come on, we used lightning here, let me have that one! I could cogitate in the background! I could review info in post! And I could connect the shining lump in my Inventory to what I saw in that throat!!

  Without missing a beat, I cast a second Spell on that distant, unshattered dot. Good that I kept myself laser-focused and didn’t freeze up, because now the flytrap was angry.

  The monster—which was basically a dome around us—roiled. A gasping dry roar echoed from below, and with its every reverberation, vines curdled in a visual chorus. The weird brown light flickered.

  Reed stiffened, and Chora gripped tighter. Her kicks, plus energy blasts from Reed’s broadsword, were finally propelling us upward, but it was literally inch by inch. We bobbed in the air.

  Whatever those two were shouting to each other—to me—I tuned out as I cast Attract.

  Yep, I always knew I had to use this one!

  That shard of Cornutopia Topaz was no longer so enmeshed in flesh. That should mean that instead of me zooming toward an immovable object directly connected to a monumental beast, it would zoom up to me. And if I Inventorized a chunk of gemstone said to “foster plant growth,” well, it might just stop growing!

  A rock rolled through the air and into my face. I Inventorized it, but not before it clunked me in the jaw.

  “Mrow-w-w!”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Ow?!” Reed gasped.

  Darnit, Reed couldn’t be out here worrying about me! Not while the gigantic flytrap shook like the surface of the ocean!

  Then I realized it wasn’t just upset, it was…shriveling up?

  A deafening crack hit our ears. Our “ceiling” had caved in with a lurch. Instead of a band of sky blue, we were inching towards a triangle as one jaw knocked against another.

  Great, now instead of being eaten, we’d merely be crushed to death by tons of plant matter.

  Even more cracks sounded, the amplified cracks of brittle, dry leaves. Again, I did not consult Reed and Chora on my next move, but I did try to bark a little reassurance.

  “Meow!” I belted out, loading the word with all the confidence I could. At the same time, I shoved myself down, out of Chora’s arms, and clung to her feet.

  She stopped instantly. I sensed her fear—their fear—as if it were ice melting and trailing down my neck. Reed loosened in her surprised grip, but I hoped desperately that the two would stick together.

  First I secured my front claws as best I could to the undersides of Chora’s shoes. Then my paws became hands as I transformed.

  A nekomata hurtled through a shattering void beneath them, but only for a moment. Instantly I de-Meat Lockered a slab of meat that I somehow hadn’t gotten rid of: a big gackern.

  The scaly Capricorn appeared beneath my feet. I touched down…

  Threw my two Attack Ups into my legs…

  Threw my Low-Gravity Spell up at Chora just in case …

  Held back a sneeze from the cavalcade of smells these Spells and meats unleashed…

  And burned off a Leap.

  The sheer energy blasting through my legs as I bounced off that gackern, and the delirium of the past several frantic hours, combined with the speeding thrill of flinging myself higher and higher, towards the collapse and that mangled string of a sky—made me feel more powerful than I ever had before.

  I…I’m undefeatable!

  Time would tell, though—counted in seconds!

  As we soared ever higher, I heard some kind of gurgle. It turned out to be laughter, a sound as confused and tired as I was. Reed in Chora’s arms.

  What a beautiful moment. In a twisted way, I was happy to be here, doing my utmost to protect…

  We weren’t gonna make it.

  My momentum was slowing down! Sure, the ceiling-jaws were rupturing further as they heaped against each other, but they were still sealing our way out of here!

  Fire! I thought—pretty carelessly. One of my two Fire Spells was flung straight ahead into the distance, and it petered out long before it hit anything.

  Okay, next idea!

  The rocky chunk of an Earth Spell passed me. I tried to jump on it for more leverage, but it disappeared too quickly into the void. NO!

  The second and last Earth Spell, though, I didn’t let pass. With another Leap, I sprang through the next wall of air.

  Then, relentless, not willing to wait for those jaws above to collapse and crackle any further, I ejected the very last bony remains of the pit dragon toe I’d needed for the cantrip—another Leap—and even managed to step on the old grimy little hell marmot—another Leap. Well, it would’ve been, but I didn’t have enough SP.

  But we might just be high enough.

  The crack of blue light above us was tiny, but it grew in our vision, and now it came ridiculously fast. So fast that finally I had to aim—which was difficult when underneath two other people.

  And, holy crap, we were off-target! The closer we got, the more I knew it.

  A blast of heat from Reed’s broadsword shot into the ceiling. I saw it make an impact, but it didn’t quite burn. But maybe if I added a—

  Lightning!

  That peal of thunder I’d wanted to hear so badly struck above, searing a hole in the ceiling just beside the patch of sky. Not as strong against plant matter as a fireball, but not as slow as one, either. The hole was more of a pinprick, but even so, we burst through—

  No, we bumped our heads.

  I swore I heard a distinct poomf as Chora, Reed, or both hit what amounted to a crispy cavern ceiling. As their momentum halted, my head was bashed into Chora’s shoes.

  In an instant, all my hope failed. We were about to plunge.

  We would have, if Reed hadn’t managed to reach up through that hole with a single arm. Whatever she was grabbing—unless she was just using sheer bracing strength—kept us hovering for a heartstopping moment.

  The flytrap matter rocked with a shoonk. We lurched downward along with the rest of this chunk of ceiling, falling ten meters in a blink. Everyone yelped.

  Then I realized that it was dead silent.

  In the eerie mouth-cave, I changed back into cat form and slowly, carefully crawled up Chora’s leg, mentally thanking and praising her arm strength as well as Reed’s today. If anything had gone the extra mile…it was those.

  Sorry, I thought as I climbed onto her head. Guilty for not only smothering her just now, but also getting the first real breather and drink of sunlight.

  I delicately squeezed myself through, between Reed’s arm and the flaky-yet-tough surface of the flytrap.

  Then I was outside—and the first thing I noticed was the slow creak of the plant-terrain I was standing on.

  No time to examine, though, Using my claws, I scraped the edges of the hole that wouldn’t disturb Reed’s grip. She’d actually jabbed her fingers through the tough hide of the flytrap, creating her own handhold. I didn’t want her to lose it, so I didn’t work too fast. (Unlike just earlier.)

  Then, when the hole was big enough for shoulders, I Morphed, reached in, and yanked her up.

  SHOONK. The world rattled and the floor below sank another several meters, but I didn’t even slow down. The faster I heaved Reed and Chora out, the sooner it would stop mattering.

  Then, with a final groan, I pulled Chora to the surface.

  And we just ran.