The entire stadium shook violently. Rat people from started running and screaming, trying to get away from the west gate as something came through the gate. But not just the gate, the entirety of the western wall for the arena. The wall itself started to cave in, breaking apart as something absolutely gigantic pushed through it, obliterating all of the seats, as well as anything else in its way. Finally, it all blasted apart, caving into itself as a rock the size of a building pushed through. But it wasn't any rock... it wasn't any rock at all.
How was this happening? How could this even be possible? How in the world could La Lo's entire tavern be pushing through the wall like it had a mind of its own. Then something lifted its head from the massive smoke and dust cloud. It had a slimy head and two antenna eyes. Seeing as it was carrying the entire tavern on its back, it was clear what it was. A massive snail that used the tavern as its shell.
Now I understood why the king needed his help so bad. Now I get what he meant by "his baby." And most importantly, not I know that Rosie was telling the truth about a snail that could save us all. Hawkmus was absolutely dumbfounded, staring at the snail as it invaded. Even the Igneadon was too busy staring into the eyes of the giant snail that was ramming through the arena.
I took advantage of the diversion and turned to sprint towards Hawkmus, reaching for my sword before they snapped out of their state of memorization and flew out of my reach.
The other five hawks took flight with their leader, and they started flying around me like they had done when we first met.
Focusing on six hawks flying around me, with one of them holding a sword, was already hard. But I also had the sound of destruction mixed with the screaming of thousands. I still had to focus. I planted my feet into the rubble and stared down any hawk that looked as if they'd sweep in. I grabbed two hefty rocks and held onto them tightly, ready to chuck them at any hawk that got ready to attack me.
Finally, one swooped in and passed me with a scratch to the face. Then another came down and scratched my side. Then another. They were fast. Way too fast. If I kept waiting for them to attack, I'd be too late to defend myself. I had to think ahead of time. I had to focus.
My mind raced to something my dad taught me when we were out hunting, but nothing came to mind, nothing but an old saying he used to say.
"Don't aim for where they are. Aim for where they will be."
Me and dad were out hunting squirrels one day, and I couldn't hit one of them for the life of me. My arrow always hit where they were seconds before, rather than hitting them. The squirrels were fast and pesky, always stealing from the village rather than sticking to their land. So we had to take care of a few before they became a problem. I had great still accuracy, but that type of accuracy didn't matter when it came to moving targets.
I thought it was impossible, but like dad does, he got one without even trying. He said the trick was to shoot my arrow in their path rather than right at them. If I timed the shot just right at just the right place, I'd be good. So I aimed at where they were going and shot my arrow right when I thought they'd be there. Sure enough, it missed, but it was a lot closer than last time. I trained more and more until I finally understood how to do it just right.
Soon, I was taking out squirrels left and right. I got so good at the math of it that I started coming home with a dozen squirrels every day I went out hunting. So I applied what I learned here and prayed I could hit that grey hawk that had my sword.
I tightly gripped the rock in my hand and focused on that grey hawk as it flew around me. I studied his pattern and memorized where he would go and when, then I pulled my hand back and chucked as hard and fast as I could at him. Right before it hit, he swerved around it, and it hit a different hawk instead, sending them tumbling downhill.
Before I knew it, I had taken down another hawk and was reaching down to grab two more rocks. The Hawks could see that I was learning, so they switched up their paths, becoming more erratic. It was much harder to aim at the birds. I chucked another rock and just barely missed one of the hawks. Before I knew it, one flew down and gave me a nasty scratch across my back. One more came swooping down, cutting a deep gash through my thigh. Finally, Hawkmus turned towards me and dove down to try and slice my head off with my sword, but he was much bigger than the other Hawks, and much easier to dodge with a sword in their talons.
It was a frenzy of talons now. Just hawks flying down to try and scratch me. But just like before, I learned their erratic pattern and began dodging their attacks. Hawks from the stands began to fly towards me with rat people in their talons, ready to drop them down on me and knock me down the hill. The first one flew down to me, just barely missing me and tumbling down the hill. I felt bad, but if I lost focus, I was dead.
I dodged more talons and flying rat people as they all came down in an unorganized frenzy, which became their downfall as more hawks flew in to join. Hawks were flying into each other, or grabbing hold of each other, trying to rip eachothers head off by accident. Right as it was getting good, it got better and worse. The Igneadon jumped up and started snapping up hawks from the sky before spewing lava on any hawk that gets close to him, but it was also aimed at me, so I don't think we were really on the same side just yet.
Finally, he stepped up to me with an enraged look in his eyes. His rocky skin was starting to turn orange, and he was steaming like a smoking ham. Lava drool fell from his bubbling mouth as he got ready to spew it all out on me. But thankfully, one of the Hawks wasn't so bright and tried to dive bomb me. I moved out of the way just in time for the Igneadon to spray them down with molten magma.
I ran behind the lizard to avoid getting sprayed down as he aimed his erupting mouth at any hawk that got too close. With a pep in my step, I grabbed onto the pipe planted into the rubble and tried prying it free as the animals fought at the top of the mountain, but it was stuck in there pretty good. I tried to pry it free, but without the support of the rat people, it was useless. I felt someone's hot breath on my shoulder and dared to look back and find myself face to face with the lava lizard. They looked about ready to pounce on me and crush me to a pulp as we rolled down the mountain.
Then I got an idea.
I tried backing away slowly, planting my foot on the pipe for leverage as they looked down at me with eyes of pure rage.
"Easy now, little lizard."
They growled loudly as I proposed that they were little, and quickly fixed my mistake, calling them "Big lizard." Instead. But that wasn't good enough. They stomped their foot and got ready to charge. I was as good as dead. Any second now, I'd be a Harlen panini.
Then, they leaped at me. Putting all of their weight into crushing me to a pulp. But right before they got me, I jumped to the side. They would have stopped and turned around to chase after me again, but as they leaped at me, they pushed the pipe with enough force to dislodge the boulder it was in. The entire pile of rubble came apart and quickly slid down, taking him with it as he was crushed by boulder after boulder until he was fully covered in a pile of rocks.
He didn't get back up, so I could safely say that he wasn't a problem anymore.
By the time I made it back up the mountain, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Rat people were holding down hawks as Lanti chased them down and pummeled them with rocks. Hawkmus couldn't help but watch as his army got beaten by spirits that were meant to heal, and anthropomorphic rats that had it out for them.
"Imbeciles! Complete morons! If you let... rats... and ghosts beat you... you never deserved to be here... in the first place!"
Finally, he looked me dead in the eyes and saw red. In the blink of an eye, he flew into me with all the force in his little bird body. As he launched into me, I grabbed hold of his feathers and pulled him down the mountain with me.
As we tumbled down the hill, I slammed him into as many rocks as I could, and he did the same to me. He held me with one talon and had my sword in the other. He would've stabbed me if he had the time to when not succumbing to being slammed into rocks as we tumbled downhill. I felt my brain flying around inside my head, hitting all the walls of my skull as I flew downhill, slamming into rocks with nothing to cushion me but a bird.
I would have died if that hawk hadn't decided death wasn't worth it as he started trying to fly. The first time, he got a few flaps before slamming into the ground again. The second time, he got a little air before skydiving us back into the mountain again. He could have just been trying to kill us quicker so the pain wouldn't hurt for any longer than it had to, but on his third try, he finally got up into the air.
I tried grabbing for my sword, but I was too busy hanging on for dear life as he tried doing barrel rolls to knock me off.
"Get your own... ride... you wingless... human!"
I tried hanging on as tight as I could, mainly because letting go meant I'd become a hole in the ground far beneath me. We were about to leave the area of the arena when he finally shook me off, doing a barrel roll and cutting my arm with the sword as he finally got the power to. Which meant I was hundreds of feet in the air, flying into the ground with nothing to save me from the fall.
Maybe this really was the end of my adventure. Maybe I would die in the coolest way possible to wrap up my end of the journey. But of course, I didn't notice the most important thing that led to my survival, which was right in front of me. The shell of the giant snail. The tavern had a hammock on top that anyone could use to relax in, but nobody would be relaxing in it now because I just used it as a crash pad and completely destroyed it.
I hit my head pretty hard. I hit it so hard in fact that I couldn't get back up. I was sure the brain damage would catch up to me sooner or later after all I've been through since I got here. I'm just glad it happened in a hammock, so I had a little cushion for my back as the world got darker, and my eyelids shut. For the first time in this entire adventure, I realized how tired I truly was and decided that after all I've done, I deserved a nap.
So I shut my eyes and went nighty night time because I deserved it just as much as any other hero that was destined to save the entire world and whatnot.
I cuddled up in my hammock blanket and let the nice snail rock me to sleep as it played a highly destructive lullaby.