THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

him, and I took advantage of the shock on his face. Moving fast and hard, I hooked an arm around his neck, slamming him to the ground.
    The small box dropped from his fingertips.
    I punted the strange weapon further away and spun to meet the second scout who’d abandoned the child to jump in.
    Then the battle really started.
    The second guy attacked me. A child’s terror-filled cries clawed the air.
    Hurt a child? Pay the price.
    I drove jabs at him over and over, not sure how I knew to fight this way but going on instinct. Connected with soft flesh a few times, hard bone more. Callan had joined the fray with Etoi standing back, her spear pointed at all of us.
    I lost my balance. The ground had shifted beneath me. One too many hits to my head maybe?
    My gaze strayed to the child just as Zilya snatched him up and rushed away from the battle.
    The distraction cost me a rock-hard fist in my ribs. I sucked air at the blow, the only pause I took before immediately returning the favor with a brutal right cut to the scout’s face.
    Cartilage shattered. Blood geysered from a broken nose.
    That was worth the ache in my knuckles.
    But the tek scouts were well trained. They didn’t back down. Continued to rain hammering blows just as punishing and with vicious precision.
    Staggering back, I stumbled, then caught my balance in time to see that the scout I’d been fighting now stared past me, toward the trees.
    Where Zilya held the child.
    The scout sneered at me and moved toward Zilya.
    Protect the child .
    A blazing haze of fury clouded my vision. Hot energy started building inside me.
    I yanked the scout back around. The tek-nah-tee only laughed, fists up and moving like lightning, raining hits over me again and again, the strikes pummeling my shoulders and head.
    Anger so molten it threatened to sear my insides whipped through me. Strong enough that I wouldn’t back down either. Instead I fought the scout harder, forcing him away from Zilya and the boy.
    Over the grunts of the attackers, I heard Callan shouting at Zilya and Etoi to run.
    With one last surge, I knocked the scout backwards ten feet, rolling over and over, with me right after him.
    The scout landed on his feet, spotted the gray box and scooped it up. He swung around, pointing it at Zilya.
    I ignored everything except charging forward and knocking the scout’s hand away just as the box buzzed.
    The gray box went flying another thirty feet away from the tek-nah-tee. My next punch landed under his jaw, snapping his head back and causing him to stumble around, arms flailing to keep his balance.
    But then I stumbled sideways, too, trying to keep my own feet stable again.
    That’s when I realized the ground really was shifting back and forth beneath me. My feet flew out from under me. I hit hard at the same time the scout went down.
    Callan and the other grappling scout hit the ground as the earthquake erupted.
    Not an earthquake, but a violent tremor. One I recognized. If I was right, that shaking announced a greater threat. 
    Croggle.
    Rolling to my knees, then my feet, breathing hard, I glanced around. Callan and both of the scouts had snapped to their feet, shuffling with their arms stretched out to keep upright. Dirt and rocks exploded into the air when the croggle burst from beneath the ground.
    Callan hadn’t been joking about this beast being larger than the one I’d killed earlier.
    This one could kill all of us with the swipe of one claw.
    Struggling to keep Etoi on her feet and moving the child deeper toward the tree line, Zilya looked back first at me then at Callan who yelled, “Protect him,” then turned back to face the croggle. 
    Zilya stared at me as if she couldn’t believe I would stand next to Callan and fight the croggle.
    Callan glanced at me and shouted, “ Go! ”
    I shook my head. Seeing Callan’s eyes warm, even for a fleeting second, sent my heartbeat thudding at a crazy speed.
    The trembling stopped. Everything went deathly silent.
    Callan raised his spear toward the monster, as if one weapon was going to stop that thing.
    A toothpick against a mountain. 
    With the scouts stunned, watching the greater threat, I inched slowly over to stand within a few steps of Callan, my voice soft. “Got a plan?”
    “Stay alive?”
    “Good as anything I’ve got.”
    He spared me a quick glance, but in that moment I saw something I wanted to call respect in his gaze. Probably my imagination, but it gave me a warm feeling I needed