Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy: The Templar Chronicles: Book 2 Read Online Free

from us. Hard to spot from the balcony, it was clearly defined now, pulling fog up from the deck on one side and spitting it back out from the other.
    “Hold on,” Eva said. “This might get tricky.”
    She leveled her arm that was tipped with the spearhead and took aim at the vortex. Timing the sway of the antenna, she waited until we were closest to it. Then, in the split second before we went the opposite direction, she pressed a button on her wrist and the spear shot from her arm, a rope trailing behind it.
    Eva’s shot was right on the mark. and the spear disappeared into the vortex. Eva pulled on the rope  and it went taut, as if the spear had hit something solid just on the other side of the wall of fog.  Then, things got crazy.
    A terrific roar sounded, followed by an explosion of wind that blew out of the vortex, bending the antenna back from its sheer force. I lost my footing and clung to the metal girders with my arms as my legs flapped around in the hurricane force winds.
    I heard a cry from Eva and felt her fall past me. I reached out and grabbed her, catching just enough of her shirt to divert her fall and swing her back onto the antenna.
    I looked down and saw that her legs were wrapped around the antenna and she clung to the metal girders with her left arm.  Her other arm was still holding the taut rope, which seemed to be trying to tug her off the antenna and onto the hard surface below. I looked back at the vortex, where the rope disappeared into an incongruous black shape, no more than a few feet wide. .
    The hurricane blast turned into a twisting wind, bashing against us from all sides. The antenna swayed back and forth, Eva and the vortex locked in a deadly game of tug of war.
    I managed to hook my feet to the antenna while I unsheathed my sword. I twisted almost upside-down, trying to reach Eva.
    “What are you doing?” Eva yelled over the wind.
    “I have to cut the rope!” I yelled back. “It’s going to pull you off!”
    “Get the center!” she yelled. “It’s unprotected! That’ll finish it! Get the center!”
    I twisted back upright, sword in hand. The black mass in the center of the vortex was still a good twenty feet away, even after the antenna’s sway tipped us toward it. There was no way I’d reach it.
    I heard a cry from Eva. She still had herself braced against the pull of the rope, but I could tell she wouldn’t last much longer. I knew what I had to do.
    With my sword back at my side so I could climb with both hands, I worked my way up the antenna toward the blinking red light at the top. As if being buffeted by the wind howling around me wasn’t bad enough, torrents of slashing rain began to pelt me from every direction, making it hard to see and even harder to climb.
    Higher and higher I climbed, the antenna’s mast, narrowing as I approached its tip. By the time I reached the red blinking light, I could easily wrap my arms around the whole of the metal pole. Good thing too, because the antenna bent back and forth so wildly that it felt like I was on the back of a bucking horse.
    I followed the line of Eva’s rope and saw the point where it was attached. If I timed the sway of the antenna right, I might be able to come close. Just as I pulled out my sword to get ready, a burst of wind blew me to one side. I scrambled just to hold on. As I did, I felt the handle of my sword slip from my fingers.
    “No!” I yelled as it tumbled down and disappeared into the fog below. I felt a surge of panic. I lost my sword. There was no way I could stop the Aquamorph now. Everyone on the ship was going to die. And it was all my fault.
    I searched my pockets for a weapon… anything! But I came up empty-handed.
    “Hey!” A voice called from below. I looked down and saw Will standing on the roof of the bridge, my sword raised over his head. “You need this?” he yelled.
    I waved at him and threw my weight into the momentum of the antenna’s sway. As it dropped to its lowest