Monster Hunter Legion-eARC Read Online Free Page A

PT guy hit Z!” Green shouted as he shoved his way through the people. The man that had attacked me was wearing a black shirt… Green sprinted across the restaurant yelling, “Fight! Fight!” Then he dove and tackled a random PT employee who was getting a piece of pie from the desert bar.
    “No! It’s not them.” I got up, but the giant was already coming my way again, and then I was too busy protecting my vital organs from his sledgehammer fists to communicate.
    The occupants of the MHI table had all stood up to see what was going on, and so had the Paranormal Tactical crew. The two sides looked at each other for just a moment…and then it was on . The last thing I saw was one of the Haight brothers clubbing a PT Hunter in the jaw, because then I had to concentrate on my own problems.
    The giant was coming my way, hands up and loose, protecting his face. Even enraged, he was moving like a pro. The last time we’d squared off had been a close one. This was the toughest human being I’d ever fought, at least now that I knew Franks didn’t count as human.
    “I don’t want to fight you,” I warned.
    “Should’a thought of that before you tried to murder me.”
    He came in quick, but this wasn’t a ring, and I wasn’t fighting fair. I kicked a chunk of ice and he instinctively flinched aside as it zipped past him. I yanked a cloth off a table and threw it over his head like a net. I’d like to say that I did it dramatically and all the plates and pitchers stayed in place, but they didn’t, and most of them shattered on the ground. Temporarily entangled in the tablecloth, he couldn’t defend himself very well, so I charged in swinging. I slugged him twice in the stomach, and when his hands went down, I reached up and tagged him with a shot to the mouth.
    But then he threw the tablecloth back over me, and I think it was an elbow that got me in the side of the head. I was seeing stars when he slung me around and put me into the meat area. Ham broke my fall. The meat-slicing buffet employees ran for their lives. Getting up, I hurled a pot roast at the giant and he smacked it across the room.
    We clashed. There wasn’t any finesse at all; it was just a slug fest. We went back and forth, trading blows. Too busy trying to protect my face, I got hit in the ribs, which sucked, and then he nailed me in the stomach, which really sucked, and suddenly I was regretting the several pounds of food I’d just consumed. His shoe landed on a piece of ice, and as he slid off balance, I snap kicked him hard in the thigh of his grounded leg.
    He went to his hands and knees. “Stay down!” I ordered.
    The restaurant patrons were evacuating. Green had someone in a choke hold and another PT man on his back. I’d forgotten that VanZant had used to be a champion welterweight, and he was knocking the snot out of a PT man twice his size. The Haights seemed to be having a jolly time, until one of them got hit with a chair. Gregorius was wrestling a PT Hunter next to the soda machines. Ultimate Fighter had Cooper in an arm bar. Albert, despite the cane and leg brace, was a shockingly tenacious fighter, and he was facing two PT Hunters at once, which apparently Trip didn’t think was very sporting, because he slammed one of them through a corner booth. Even Holly had gotten into it. A PT man hesitated, not wanting to strike a girl, until she groin-kicked him like she was punting a football.
    Turning back to the giant, I didn’t see that my opponent’s hands had landed on another serving tray, which he promptly swung and clipped me in the temple. That one rocked my world. I landed flat on my back. The giant came over to stomp me, but Nate body-checked him into the soft-serve ice-cream machine. Too bad the Shacklefords were from Alabama, because the kid showed a lot of promise as a hockey player.
    The vanilla spigot had broken off, and soft serve came spooling out. “Got no problem with you,” the giant said through gritted teeth.