THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

right then.
    If I ran now, I’d have no chance to prove I was not tek-nah-tee. If I fought alongside him and convinced him I wasn’t his enemy, I had a chance to save myself and my friends.
    The scout who’d zapped the little boy turned to run toward a spot where the transender pod had beaten down the grass.
    The second guy held his ground. No, he stood locked in fear, his face pale beneath blood dripping from where I’d damaged skin and bone. Callan had pummeled the other guy worse.
    So three against one giant beast. Not favorable odds.
    Didn’t matter. We’d never make the woods before the thing reached us. Facing the beast gave us a better chance than being caught from behind.
    The fleeing scout stopped before he reached the transender landing spot, searching the ground for something.
    The box.
    He dove for it, grasping in a smooth somersault move that landed him back on his feet in position to aim the device at the monster.
    Callan and the second scout both shouted, “ Nooo! ”
    The tek-nah-tee with the metal box paid no heed to their warning yells. He hit the button.
    Must have been a stronger charge than what he’d used on the child. Blue bolts of electricity arced all over the croggle’s head, lighting up his skin where it shocked him. But whatever zap that little box had spewed out meant nothing more than spitting in the eye of a wild beast.
    The croggle stood up on its two hind legs, tall as a five-level building, and roared so loud I thought my eardrums would burst. It lunged forward, pounding the ground when it hit, tossing all of us off our feet again.
    Enraging the croggle with an electric charge had accomplished only one thing–to zero the monster in on the person who’d zapped him. The idiot scout had no chance to move before the croggle swung its massive jaws at him.
    The first bite cut him in half at the waist, leaving two legs standing. The rest of him disappeared between churning earth, spewing blood and severed body parts.
    With the croggle distracted, Callan shouted, “ Runnn! ”
    Sounded good to me. I scrambled to my feet, ready to sprint toward the forest cover.
    I caught sight of the other scout, paralyzed with fear.
    “Get out of here,” I called, but the guy either couldn’t hear me, or was so petrified nothing registered. If the fool stayed where he was he’d be dead in moments. The croggle was already shifting his ungainly size around, seeking new prey.
    Leave the guy? He’d die for sure.
    “Let the croggle have him,” Callan yelled at me as he dashed toward safety.
    At that moment, the croggle’s bulging black eyes streaked with yellow veins flared wildly in the direction of the tek-nah-tee and roared, ready to kill.
     

CHAPTER 20
     
    Rearing up again, the croggle prepared to lunge in another attack.
    I screamed again at the scout. “ Run! ”
    He stayed frozen in place between me and the croggle. 
    As the monster arched forward then plunged down, I ran full out, smashing into the scout, my body throttling us both forward. The monster’s hot breath rushed past us ahead of its jaws slamming the empty space where the scout had stood seconds ago.
    The scout rolled twice with the momentum from my blow, which must have shaken him out of his stupor. Jumping up, he yelled something at me that I couldn’t hear over a loud whine.
    I was too busy scrambling away from the monster now that the scout could save himself. When I turned to see the beast’s position, a massive claw swung toward me with hyper-speed.
    I twisted to dive away, but didn’t move fast enough to dodge the sharp tip of a claw the size of my forearm. It raked a burning slash across my stomach and side. Arching in pain, I forced myself to keep scrambling, barely avoiding the solid thump of a foot pummeling the ground where my head had just been.
    “ Ayeeee! Here! Here! ” I heard Callan shouting somewhere nearby. “Croggle. This way.”
    Smart guy. Taunt the monster away. Then what?
    Rolling my head to the side, I saw the scout sprawled on the ground with Etoi on top of him, a spear at his chest.
    The tek-nah-tee yelled up at her, veins in his throat standing out.
    I couldn’t make out anything he said.
    Etoi pushed the tip of the spear into the scout’s chest and yelled right back. That shut him down.
    Scary girl.
    Further away, Callan kept distracting the monster as he shot back and forth so fast in front of the creature that I could barely see Callan’s legs move. But a person could only do