Bloody Arrival

The monster came lunging toward me with brute force and impossible speed. I would have performed a barrel roll forward to avoid the attack, but since there was a lake in front of me, I was momentarily at a loss on what to do.

Big mistake.

The colossal beast crashed into me an instant later, knocking me back from the impact and pinning me to the ground. It stood over me as it let out a deafening shriek, a haunting noise that threatened to burst my eardrums.

The monster lunged forward once more, this time in an attempt to snap its jaws around my head. I immediately thrust my hands in front of my face, catching the creature by the sides of its teeth and trying to push its head back.

“Hunter! You have fifteen seconds to get out from underneath the creature!” Rachel warned, her voice packed with concern and worry. “It’s too strong! It will overpower you!”

“Yeah, no shit!” I replied, gritting my teeth and using all of my might to hold back the beast from biting off my head.

It continued pressing down its weight on me while also trying to strike my head with its massive stinger. But because I was directly underneath the thing, it couldn’t get a good angle.

“Any ideas?” I asked Rachel while I continued struggling with the creature. My arms were starting to tire, and the monster’s very ugly face was drawing closer to my head by the second.

I was sure the effects of the healing potion I had drunk were about to wear off, and many of the aches and injuries I had sustained from my fight with the blood bats were about to return. Then, just as I thought, a SNAP suddenly echoed from the left side of my chest, and I instantly knew I had broken a rib. The potion had worn off.

“Shit,” I said through clenched teeth, just as pain radiated throughout the left side of my chest. Several snaps soon followed as more of my ribs broke, and I found myself in immense agony unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

My injuries had returned tenfold, and the massive creature still pressing all of its weight down on me really wasn’t helping with the matter. My head throbbed, and my internal bleeding had resumed. I was about to die. I was sure of it. But then I had an idea.

“Rachel,” I grunted. “How much bite force does this thing have?”

“20,000 PSI!” Rachel shouted. “I know what you’re thinking, Hunter, but even your reinforced bones aren’t strong enough to withstand a bite force capable of putting a dent in an armored vehicle. This is a terrible idea!” she exclaimed. “Find another way.”

But there was no other way.

Getting the confirmation I needed from Rachel, I prepared myself to execute the plan. Still struggling to push the creature’s head back, I suddenly swapped tactics and allowed its head to draw an inch closer, its shark-like teeth getting nearer to my face. Then, at the very last second, I bent my left arm and shoved my elbow into the creature’s mouth, fully allowing the thing to bite hold of my hand and sink its teeth deep into my flesh. And holy shit, 20,000 PSI was not a walk in the park. The pain was unimaginable.

Blood spurted onto my face and swiftly began rolling down my arm. My blood. An icon appeared in the corner of my vision, and I watched as my health steadily dropped below fifty-seven percent.

56

55

54

53

I was rapidly losing health, but I had created my opening. It was now or never.

I freed my right hand from pushing back the creature’s face, then stretched it out to the side. “Dagger!” I called, and a small glow enveloped my right hand before quickly dissipating, leaving behind a small black dagger.

Gripping the handle of my weapon tightly, I reached up and began stabbing the monster in its neck. The creature continued biting down on the back of my arm, but that did not stop me from repeatedly knifing it in the side of its throat. My health was now below forty percent, and it was still dropping rapidly. Hot green liquid began spewing out of the creature, but it did not relent in its assault on my arm. I had lost a shit-ton of blood, and my vision was starting to blur. But I wasn’t out of the game just yet.

Sensing I was trying to grab an advantage, the monster then turned me into its personal chew toy. It lifted me off the ground and began shaking me about like a ragdoll. I could feel its teeth sinking deeper into my flesh, its incisors slowly crushing my bones into fine powder. I was really about to die, wasn’t I?

When it slammed me back against the earth, I utilized the opportunity and quickly switched over to stabbing its eyes instead. If I couldn’t kill the thing, maybe I could blind it so it wouldn’t be able to find the little girl when it was done with me.

The creature yelped in pain as the tip of my short blade sank repeatedly into its exposed corneas. “Jackpot,” I said. Finally, I was hurting it.

The six black eyes began leaking blood as they took serious damage from my assault with the dagger. Eventually, the creature let go of my arm, wanting to avoid more hurt to its eyes.

The monster hopped off me an instant later before bounding out of the place, away from the cabin. A wave of relief washed over me at the sight of the creature leaving, but my health was now at thirty-two percent, and my entire body was bruised, battered, and bleeding. My left arm resembled shredded meat on a stick, with the bone inside completely broken. I could no longer move it. Or feel it.

It took a little while to fight through the pain and gather enough strength, but I got to my feet and found the little girl hiding in the cabin with Slick.

She reappeared as soon as I staggered in, with the water lizard clutched in both of her hands and held up at chest level. I patiently explained to her that we needed to head into town before the creature recovered and came back. She agreed to leave, and without wasting another moment, we were out of the cabin and on the main road.

Twenty minutes later, we were approaching the outskirts of a town. I was a mess at this point. My breathing was ragged, standing up straight was becoming a challenge, and I kept throwing up blood and vomit on the side of the road. I imagined the little girl wasn’t having fun watching me either.

Soon enough, we came up to a small farm with a few people tending to the crops. The second they saw me, they all had shocked expressions on their faces, and some of them began to slowly come closer. I tried explaining to them that the little girl needed to find her family, and I needed to find a healer to help fix my injuries. But as soon as I finished speaking, I suddenly lost all power to stand, and I collapsed on the ground an instant later.

My blood. There was just so much of it everywhere. I had lost a lot already. I couldn’t… I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I just… I just wanted to sleep.