4.7

Kalter’s eyes cleared, and then the world flipped upside down—August rolled to a stop on the dirt, folded over and gasping for breath.

“Wait—“ Rittan shouted, and August caught sight of the massive guy crashing into the shorter figure that was standing over him.

He tried to say something, but he couldn’t breathe, the single hit he’d taken enough to render him prone and wheezing. August couldn’t remember ever being hit as hard as this, not even the infrequent times when Eric convinced him to go train with him. He struggled to get his knees under him and lifted his head. Only seconds had passed during the movement, and Rittan was already on the backfoot, desperately trying to guard against an onslaught of punches and kicks that landed hard enough to send him stumbling back.

August couldn’t make sense of the attacks even from his distance, too many arms moving at one and far too quickly. Rittan tried to latch onto the attacker, perhaps to use his greater build to keep her from assaulting him—Kalter kicked out his leg, dropping him to one knee, snuck a knee upwards to crash into his jaw and then bore down on him when he fell back.

“Ladybug—” August tried, gasping. “Ladybug!”

Dirt exploded next to him, and for a moment, a chainlink was pulled taut beside his face, and then the red and black monster spun in the air, landing feet first on the ground. August managed to draw in a breath and spoke.

“Get her off of him,” August managed.

Ladybug is no longer guarding the Lakeside Hovel.

August twisted as Ladybug vanished from beside him, chain sinking into the dirt on either side of the pair of Voithos and then reeling itself in. Kalter turned her head as Ladybug crashed feet first into her back, sending her stumbling forward and over Rittan’s head. Rittan scrambled to his feet, bleeding from his right cheek and with a cut across his forehead. Kalter looked untouched except for the two circles of dirt on her back where Ladybug had kicked her.

“Ladybug, start aiming for her—” August coughed, still trying to get to his feet.

“Wait!” Rittan tried again, holding a hand up at both of them. “August, please wait.”

August gritted his teeth; the adrenaline, pain and anger coursing through him made it awfully hard to listen. He painfully pushed himself the rest of the way up. A moment hung between the three before he called for Ladybug to return to him. The red and black blur whipped its chain out and sank it into the dirt in front of him. It reeled itself in with a blur, adding a complicated little snap at the end that bled of its momentum and tossed it up at head level.

Ladybug has reached Level 4.

You have levelled up.

August bent forward to catch his balance Ladybug landed on his shoulder.

“If she attacks again, that’s it,” August said tightly, wrapping an arm around his stomach. “I’m not here to be a fucking punching bag.”

Kalter stood up from her crouch, eyes on Ladybug or himself; he wasn’t sure.

“Where am I?” Kalter said, turning sideways slightly but making no further move to engage. “How did you pull me from Limbo?”

“Kalter,” Rittan said, wiping at his face. “This current situation is complicated; please allow me to explain—without further violence. Neither of us seeks to harm you, I assure you.”

August wasn’t sure he agreed with that—his chest was starting to burn, and the skin stung around where she had hit him. It didn’t feel like she had broken any ribs, but that was probably only because she’d hit him too low, any higher, and she would have gotten at least a few of them.

“Why are you protecting a Gaian after what they did to us?” Kalter said, not moving from her ready stance.

“He is not a child of Gaia,” Rittan said, raising his hands to show he meant no harm. “His name is August, and he is the only hope of bringing our kind back.”

August felt his lips tighten at that; it had gone from summoning four to reviving the entire species pretty quickly. Even if Rittan was just saying that to get her to calm down, it was something they should have spoken about first.

Kalter frowned, turning to study him once more.

“Don’t call them that,” Kalter said after a long pause. “They aren’t children of anything; they’re monsters—and he is Gaian, it is obvious.”

“I’m not a Gaian,” August said in his own defence, “I’m a human.”

Kalter muttered the unfamiliar word under her breath but didn’t look like she believed either of them—not that it shocked him, she didn’t seem like the trusting type.

“He looks like one,” Kalter said.

“And you look like a giant asshole,” August shot back, “You don’t hear me bringing it up every five minutes.”

Kalter curled her lip at that but didn’t comment any further.

“Kalter, August isn’t from our planet at all,” Rittan said, voice tight. “He comes from another world, and he woke up on this island only days ago, bereft of any of his possessions—this place is called Devil’s Nest.”

Kalter took a moment to actually do a check of her immediate surroundings, eyes staying on the lake for a long moment.

“Devil’s Nest?” Kalter said, showing no familiarity with the name. “Where is Hekaton?”

“We do not know,” Rittan said gently, “Our immediate situation is more pressing; however, this island is filled with monsters.”

“Like that thing,” Kalter said, jerking her head towards Ladybug.

“That is one of the species present, but there are others, and this island is all the more dangerous for it,” Rittan said, wiping his face again. “August brought me here, as he brought you—he is a good person.”

The cut above Rittan’s eyebrow seemed to be drying up, leaving a red streak down the side of his face and making him look more vicious than he knew the guy to be.

“How is he pulling Voithos from Limbo?” Kalter said, not touching any of the other stuff.

It was annoying having someone who just kicked your ass start talking about you like you weren’t even there.

“I’m not wasting any more daylight on this,” August said, doing his best to straighten up. “I’m going back to camp; you can talk it out amongst yourselves.”

“August,” Rittan said, hesitating.

August didn’t answer; instead, he began the short walk back to the camp, reaching up to scratch Ladybug’s fur. He could hear the edges of the discussion, even from the camp, as Rittan went over pretty much his enter time here.

“You really saved our asses back there,” August said quietly. “Thanks, Ladybug.”

Ladybug trilled, nuzzling into his hand, and he rewarded the creature with a burst of [Tame].

“I’m going to need you to watch my back, okay?” August said, “You’re on August guard duty from now on. I don’t want to have little blue back there trying to put her fist through me again.”

Ladybug is now guarding August Marlow.