Legacy of the Blazers - Chapter Sixteen! (Patreon)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The snakes, who Lux had surrendered to immediately after her distraction, led her into Blowhole’s room. It resembled a twelve year old’s idea of a power trip and made her want to puke and punch him at the same damn time.

Though she already had plenty of reasons to want to punch him.

Spikes with Panty Mafia members’ heads jammed onto them were flanked by cauldrons where their stuffing burnt to a smoldering ash and ran a path of to the man of the hour, the whale who’d plunged her life down the shitter. He sat lopsidedly in his floating throne and wore coats too similar to the dolphin babes who had supported him before.

There’s no end to his depravity, Lux thought.

He swished wine around a glass as he ogled her like she was nothing more than a specimen for him to play with—a bug whose legs he was going to pick apart and crunch between his plaque-riddled teeth.

Behind him was an immense window you couldn’t see anything through except smoke. How fitting that, when they’d finally meet again, it would be back-dropped by another round of destruction caused by him. Lux clenched her fists to keep herself from charging at him immediately.

I need to be smart about this.

He toked his blunt, recalling the snakes to his side. She wasn’t free, though, and she knew that, if he wanted to sick them on her at any moment, he could. She took a deep breath and scoured the room for any signs of Cy.

“Your little boyfriend isn’t here, girl,” Blowhole said.

“And what happened to your partners? Those dolphin girls?”

This got him chuckling. “They were annoying me, so I cut them up. You shouldn’t be worrying about them, though. Or him. You should be worrying about me.”

I am, but the moment I show that is the moment he smells blood in the water.

“Oh, cat got your tongue?” he said. “I hope not—I wanted to talk with you before I picked your meat off the bone.”

“We don’t have anything to talk about.”

“Is that so? You don’t think that, maybe, there might be some way to buy yourself out of this situation? That if you beg nicely enough, I might spare your life for me in exchange for you doing my dirtiest work? Killing is, after all, a difficult thing. Such a burden on the soul!”

“I’d rather you boil me alive.”

“That can be arranged,” he said. “You humans love to boil fish so much, maybe it’s time I boil you and see what all the fuss is about, eh?”

As he took an obnoxious slurp of wine, gunshots rattled off across the ship, followed by screams. Kern had encountered Blowhole’s army, and that put a smile on his face. Lux wanted to knock it straight off. “What’s so funny about your own soldiers dying?” she asked. “Those stuffed animals are out there giving their lives for you!”

“That’s what’s so funny. You see, they think that, by serving me, they’re going to get promoted. That maybe one day they’ll even be by my side and get to be my right-hand man. Except they won’t. Nobody’s ever getting promoted because I don’t need anyone else. So these idiots, they’re dying for nothing.”

“Yet you claim to have a soul,” Lux said, taking a hit off her own blunt. The wolves appeared in front of her, bearing their teeth. “The only burden your soul carries is the burden of greed.”

“Heh. Maybe you’re onto something there, girlie.”

“It’s an honor to have people willing to die for you, and you’re just spitting in their faces.”

“They are spitting in their own faces. I didn’t ask anyone to leave with me. I didn’t try to swindle anyone into joining me. They did this willingly because they are stupid.” He polished off his wine as another round of gunshots echoed through the halls below them, and then let his glass fall, shattering across the floor. “Anyway, I suppose you’re right. Why waste time talking if we can’t agree on a single thing?”

Blowhole shifted in his throne, yawned, and waved her on. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come on, now. Give me your best and let’s get this over with.”

“Not until I know where Cy is,” she said. “Is he alive? He’d better be.”

“That’s what I like to see! Fire. Raw, passionate, fire. You hate me, and you want me deader than dirt, so don’t be afraid to show it! After all, I left a mess of that bitch Mess, didn’t I? Or was her name something else…? I don’t remember, or, honestly, care.”

He’s just trying to rile you up, Lux. You need to stay focused.

But she knew that, no matter how long they stood here, she wasn’t going to get an answer out of him. He was going to run her around in circles and waste her time just for the absolute hell of it. The only way out of here was through him, and so she activated the power of her panties and let it flow freely through her veins. Once her transformation was finished, Blowhole clapped like he’d just finished attending a play.

“Bravo!” he said. “Now you’re ready for a fight.”

If Cy wasn’t here, she guessed he was hidden in one of the lower cabins they hadn’t searched yet. Which meant, if Kern destroyed the engine and sent them plummeting to the ground, he would be smashed to bits. She had to find him, and fast, which meant no more wasting time.

Their battle, the battle he’d started long ago, when he’d killed Jess and displayed her head like a trophy, ended here.

I’m going to do this.

I’m going to save Cy.

I’m going to restore the Blazers.

I’m going to beat him, Jess, and get your Eternal Blunt back.

I have to.