“Naughty Dragons!” it shouted, slapping its hand behind it and flattening Ruby.
Cyn swung his tail in an arc and stabbed the tulpa’s stomach. It wailed in outrage and thrust its hand toward him, knocking a stack of flattened cars so hard that the stack started to fall. Ruby screamed as cars rained down on Cyn.
Before she could think to help him, a hand slammed down on her. The breath left her lungs as she fell to the ground, landing on her back. The tulpa lifted its foot and stomped down right over Ruby. She could do nothing but hold her talons as stiffly as possible, making herself into a big sandspur. The foot came down and jerked back up again, followed by a childlike scream.
Ruby had still suffered the brunt of the pounding, her body aching as she tried to get up. The tulpa clutched its foot and hopped over to a flattened car. Ruby saw the cars shake as Cyn tried to free himself. The tulpa smashed the pancake down on top of the moving piece.
“Bad tulpa!” Ruby shouted, pulling herself to her feet.
The tulpa scrunched its face up. “No, you’re bad!”
Ruby needed to keep the tulpa’s attention while Cyn tried to extract himself from the pile. In giving the tulpa her childhood look, Smith had also given it a child’s behavior.
Ruby countered with, “No, you’re bad.”
Was Cyn trying to extract himself? Or was he badly hurt? She flicked her gaze behind the tulpa, seeing a Dragon’s hand reach up and grab on to the edge of a car. When the tulpa followed her gaze, Ruby rushed forward and sank her teeth into its leg. Bad idea, though, as it kicked in an attempt to throw her off. She clutched the thick stalk with her talons until a big hand grabbed hold of her and plucked her away from its leg.
The tulpa lifted her to within inches of its face—Ruby’s face—and scowled. Then it spun as Cyn obviously did something to it. Suddenly Ruby found herself the battering ram as she rushed down and smashed into him. They both tumbled to the ground in a heap of arms and legs and tails.
“You all right?” they both asked.
After giving each other a quick nod, they got to their feet and faced the tulpa. It was picking through a huge pile of various parts, grabbing up a handful of fenders and throwing them at Ruby and Cyn. Like a child in a temper-tantrum frenzy, it kept scooping up headlights, rims, and pieces of jagged metal and hurling them.
Cyn pulled her behind a Corolla as a crumpled motorcycle came flying at them. The car shook with the impact. He popped up and tried to send a deadly trail of black smoke at the tulpa but had to duck again as a tire sailed toward them. “We need to split up and attack from two fronts. If you can distract it like you were doing earlier—”
“When I was being crushed and grabbed and stomped on, you mean?”
“Yes, that was perfect.”
“Really? That’s what you want me to do?” With a growl of indignation, she waited for the next deluge and then darted out as the tulpa grabbed more ammunition. She launched up, as high as she could go, swearing she felt her wings unfurl for a second. As the tulpa turned back for another throw, Ruby hit its neck and held on. The tulpa tossed the handfuls of junk at Cyn before it reached for her.
He sent a stream of smoke at its stomach, and she felt the blast vibrate right through the tulpa. “Ow, tummy ache!” it cried out. When it smashed into a stack of crushed cars, Ruby took the brunt, feeling the sharp metal scratch across her scales.
“You’re in the wrong place!” Cyn called. “I can’t hit the target with you wrapped around its neck.”
She tightened her grip as it took several loping steps toward the two-story metal warehouse. “I need to train. Just tell me how to kill this thing!”
It bashed her into the side of the building, and she had no choice but to let go. She slid to the ground with a hard thump.
“Not like that,” Cyn called.
She sneered at him. “Smart-ass.”
He sent a stream of black smoke that wrapped around the tulpa’s neck. While it grappled for the stream, she tore at its ankle, sending it off-balance and toppling to the ground. It made an even bigger thump as it hit. Cyn tussled with it, like a rodeo stud with a calf, working that stream of smoke as he pulled closer.
“Get back,” he said, his teeth gritted with effort.
He yanked and severed the tulpa’s head. What looked like black oil poured out of the gaping hole of its neck and down its body. Then the whole thing shuddered and disintegrated.
Ruby dropped to her knees, exhausted and aching, automatically Catalyzing back to human. “That was fun.” She looked at the mess the tulpa had left, and a laugh-hiccup sound came out of her.
“You okay?”