She was hurting Napalm, but not fast enough, and this time the liquid fire was a flood, a fire hose spreading smoking destruction, Napalm turning his head from side to side. The magma rolled into and over Dekka’s feet and she screamed, an eerie part-feline howl of pain and terror and rage.

  The fire spread toward Drake as well, on his back beneath Armo’s berserker onslaught. Drake dug in his heels and tried to scoot himself away, but like a tsunami the fire swept around him, frying him like a piece of pork fat in a barbecue. Drake felt no pain, but the fire did damage, eating into the sinews of his newly regrown back, melting the meager flesh of his buttocks.

  The face on Drake’s chest howled in shrill hysteria.

  Armo’s knees were in the flames, and if anything could penetrate his berserker madness, that was it. He jumped back, balanced atop Drake, and used him as a launchpad to leap free.

  Dekka was beyond pain. Her feet were melting. Flame ran up the fur that covered her. She screamed in pure panic, screamed, and ran as flame engulfed her, ran as flame rose to blind her, straight for the water, straight toward the Okeanos.

  Water! Water!

Monster, Chapter 23