The Butcher's Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #5)

by Matt Dinniman

There. Closer than I thought, about one and a half kilometers away, northeast of town. I couldn’t see them, but I could see exactly where they were. There was a break in the trees. A clearing. There were only two of them. They both had the glow indicating they had magical gear. They were probably already running. “Go get ‘em,” I said. I reached back and hurled, lobbing Samantha directly at them. She shot away, arcing through the air, moving ridiculously fast. I quickly lost sight of her. My eyes caught the twin flames of the rockets flaring up. She’d pulled the cord, almost perfectly over the clearing. Shit. I paused my descent. She didn’t veer off like I’d hoped, but continued her forward momentum, the rockets spinning in a circle like a flaming tire rolling across the sky. I’d tried not to throw her too hard, but it looked as if I had. But then she shot down at a right angle, just as something shot from the ground up at her. A fireball shot into the air, trying to knock her from the sky. The slow-moving projectile missed, and Samantha disappeared into the trees past the clearing just as I lowered myself fully to the ground. I could hear the distant detonation. “Yes!” I cried, pumping a fist into the air as the experience notification rolled in. “I got one of those fucksticks.” Samantha: BRING ME BACK. BRING ME BACK. FAST, FAST. BRING ME BACK.