Session 14: Chase

The roar echoes through the tunnel behind you, reverberating through your legs up to your fingertips. The ringing in your ears has dimmed just enough to make out the crashing footsteps.

*THRAK! Thrak! thrak.*

*THRAK! Thrak! thrak.*

Each stroke echoes off the cave walls, a momentary flash tells you his halberd is creating sparks as he chases after you. You turn a corner, desperate to lose him. You come to an intersection and take the second right, stopping just past the tunnel way. You press into the stone hard enough to make an indent. Making your body as small as possible as you kneel, hoping he’ll look right over you. The Boss enters the intersection, just as you’d hoped, and he doesn't immediately barrel down your tunnel. He stands in the center, looking down each tunnel. You stop breathing, silencing any sound save the thunderous beating of your heart. He looks down one tunnel and then another. As he switches, you grab a pebble from the ground and flick it down the tunnel he’d just looked down.

*Tick Tick Tick*

The sound is minute but still echoes, and the Boss peers down that tunnel again. His growls grow louder as he takes huge, deep breaths through his nose.

“Just wait for him to finish hyping up and then rush down this tunnel, it should lead to—”

*KLANK*

Rock falls on your head as more than wind rushes through your hair. Sparks fly and your legs move. You’re dashing down the tunnel, unaware how the Boss had swung his halberd down the tunnel. The sparks illuminated the scene perfectly. His tusks extended his wicked smile as he looked down with his one good eye. He’d swung too high to hit you but just low enough to give you a new haircut. You hear his footsteps crashing behind you as you desperately reason how he found you.

“Sound?” No, I was utterly silent. Couldn't be sight either, he’d have noticed me way sooner. So then how?” You rush further down the tunnel, encountering a sensation that offers you both a solution and a chance all at once. The sensation hits you like a truck, a thick, lingering sensation that still makes your stomach flip. “Scent, of course, he’d smelled me,” you realize as the smell of blood fills your nose. You realize you’re approaching the room your Father had refused you entry to. You don't have to think; dashing into the room, you’re greeted with a horrid sight. Goblins lying on the floor in rows, orange blood pooled and coagulated on the floor as their bodies remain under pelt blankets. You see weapons leaning against the wall behind them, clubs, blades, and bows, all unused, leaving no signs of struggle. You think back to the first encounter in the cave, the way the goblin had gotten behind your Father, and spring an idea. Getting a running start, you jump off a wall and grab onto a stalactite. Your grip nearly fails, but another roar from the Boss behind you gives you the adrenaline boost you need to hoist yourself up and then prop yourself up by your feet and head. The position is far from comfortable. The stone digs into your skull, making it impossible to move your head, but it leaves your arms free enough. You nock a goblin arrow and wait. Breathe silently as the stone around you, as the Boss comes crashing in. He takes two swings on either side of the entryway, both lower than the first one that’d given you a new haircut. “He’s learning,” you think, slowly realizing that this may be your only shot. After striking both sides, he feels the ground around them before sniffing the air. Your heart skips a beat when his head shoots up, but he doesn’t look at you; instead, he moves towards the line of goblins so still you could mistake them for sleeping if not for the blood pooled around them.

“Probudite se, imamo uljeze,” he yells as if expecting the goblins to rise. When none of them move, he stomps over to them, grabbing one by the face and rolling it into the others. “Šta je sa tobom? Nisi—” His words stop, as if the realization took a moment to dawn on him. He leaned over the goblins, shaking each and exposing his broad-shouldered back to you. You aim, planning to shoot him in the leg.

“That’ll slow him down, if not immobilize him.” You take your time aiming, thinking back to what Gideon had taught you. “Aim small, miss small,” you think, targeting the Boss’s knee.

*Thwak*

“AAUUUGH!” the Boss shouts as you arrow snks into the flesh of his left calf. Without delay, he's on his feet, swinging wildly across every surface of the room. Sparks fly, and with each tink, you can see him grow more and more furious. Nothing is spared. Every inch of stone is chipped, the weapons on the wall are knocked about, and even the goblin bodies are cut into three or four pieces each. All the while, it never occurs to him to look up.

“Guess he’s not that smart,” you think, nocking another arrow and waiting for the opportune moment. After another minute, his rage subsides, and he begins looking around the room.

*Thwak*

Another arrow buries itself in his right thigh, making him kneel before the enraged destruction resumes. “Just one more,” you think, putting up a hand to give your neck a much-needed break. By this time, your head is screaming, desperate to find release from the crushing pressure. You held up your hand just before your neck collapsed. You rotate your neck, enjoying the relief as the Boss rampages. You give him a moment to stop moving, but it takes longer than last time. It’s obvious you're in here somewhere; he just can't figure out where. You’re scent is covered by the goblin blood, you refuse to make a sound, and it’s obviously too dark for him to see. There’s no way for him to detect you. Suddenly, he moves to the exit, his movements lumbering and sluggish. You quickly replace your neck and reach for another arrow. Your fingers have pins and needles from holding yourself up so long, and they shake as you draw, fumbling as they find the stick among the feathers. By the time you’re ready to draw, he’s almost out of sight, giving you not a moment to spare.

*Tink*

The sound reverberates through the room as the Boss turns his head. You become still as a statue as you look where the sound had come from, arrow still nocked on your string. The Boss lumbers closer, stopping just below you. He bends over to pick something up, a cold sweat breaking out when you see what it is. There, fallen from your now-empty quiver is an arrow. Your hands move on their own, drawing back the string and loosing an arrow, but it’s too late. The arrow drives deep into the Boss’s shoulder, but not before the halberd flies up like a rocket.

*Crash*

The pointed end crushes stone right next to you, the ax head burying itself into your side. Adrenaline rushes through your veins, numbing the pain as you fall with the rocks. Your body angles itself, landing on your feet with the grace of a trained gymnast—air brushes against your skin, feeling the second blow about to come. You can’t dodge all; you can only block with your bow.

*KLACK*

The halberd swing ends with wood on wood as you use your bow to deflect the incoming attack. Your arms reverberate, and your feet leave the ground as he sends you flying like a baseball. The wind is nearly knocked from your lungs as you land against the far wall. Your eyes waste no time, scanning for the next threat, but instead of a lumbering beast towering over you, there’s just a fur pile sprawled out near the exit. You see the Boss yank arrows from his legs as he tries standing, only to flop down in a furry pile.

“So I did immobilize him,” you think, silently cheering at your success. He doesn't let you celebrate as long as he holds his halberd and uses it like a cane to stand. The Boss swivels his head from side to side as if searching for you. You see him heavily favoring his left side, so you draw another arrow. “Last chance,” you think, aiming for his left leg. You feel the wood of the bow warping as you draw the string back. Nothing short of a miracle kept it intact after the last strike. “Come on, God, just one more arrow,” you pray, pulling back with everything you have. Your prayer is answered, the arrow flies and digs itself deep into the Boss’s good leg.

“GAH!” he roars, collapsing face-first. The halberd clattered to the floor, leaving only the sound of his grunting as he lay near the doorway.

“Now to escape,” you think, rising to your feet. You wait a moment for him to move, but the Boss remains stubbornly in the only exit way. You know exactly what he’s thinking, hoping to grab you as you try sneaking past. You try waiting him out, growing more exhausted as the adrenaline dissolves in your blood, only to be replaced by fire. You finally have time to process what this creature, this monster, had done. The village he’d raided, the villagers he’d killed, the people he’d kidnapped and turned into piles of red mush. You stare him down, your eyes illuminated by the fire, as he reaches for the halberd. The same tool he’d been using, which still has a single piece of wooden shield wedged on the ax head. Reminding you of what he’d done to your Father.

You draw an arrow, gripping your bow so hard you feel the wood warping under your fingers. You knock and draw. Not aiming for his legs anymore, now you center your shot on the one good eye he has. You envision it, the furry back turned into a porcupine display as you run out of arrows. The thought entices you as you pull the string back with all your might.

*Snap!*

Your bow splits in two, the top half whipping back and brushing against your cheek. You drop the arrow and the collapsed bow, looking down at it. “What am I doing!” you think, shaking your hand at what you were about to do. “I’m not a killer, I only fought in self-defense… I’m… I can't…” Your breath heightens and shakes as you stare down at the snapped bow. It takes you a minute to regain control. All the while, you hear the Boss’s smug grunts, as if he's laughing at you. “I still need to get past…I got his right eye good earlier, so it's best to make a mad dash on that side.” You take a deep breath and analyze the path. He has his halberd on his left side, making dashing past his right all the more appealing. You slowly make your way closer, careful to remain absolutely silent. The Boss makes no sign of seeing you as you make your final approach. Taking in one last huge breath, you grab a pebble to finish your plan.

*Tink*

The pebble clatters off the wall on his left side, and you hoot off at the same time as the Boss swings his halberd, directly to his left side, just as planned. He leans into the swing, giving you plenty of room to leap through, shooting off with all the speed you can and jumping over his shoulder. You see him turn his head to the right just as you're passing. Collapsing into the wall behind him, you use your hands to bounce off the wall and make a mad dash down the tunnel and back to where your Father is.

*Smack*

Your face hits stone before you're aware of what’s happening. You feel a tug on your leg, and it drags you back towards the cave.

“Sada te imam!” The Boss cheers as his claws sink into your leg and pull you in closer. Your hands scurry and cling onto any grip you can find in the uneven cave floor as your free leg desperately kicks at his arm, hoping to loosen his grip, but neither works. You feel another massive cawed paw grab your belt, pulling you in closer as the claws in your leg retract.

“ESCAPE! ESCAPE ESCAPE!” Your mind is abuzz and grasping at anything you can; you try loosening your belt, hoping to free yourself, but the buckle is too tight. You try ripping it off, but that’s no help either. You tug and pull, desperate to find a weak spot in the leather, and your hand brushes against a wooden handle. “The knife!” you realize as claws sink into your shoulder, and by now you can feel hot, putrid breath blow across your face. You can see a faint glint off the massive tusks on either side of the Boss’s mouth, and even if you couldn't see it now, exactly where to strike.

“AH!” You scream, burying the knife in the Boss’s neck. You don’t wait for a scream or jerk to pull it out, and no sooner is the blade free than you sink it in again. You don't stop when he tries using his body weight to crush you. You don't stop when the blood flows and soaks your clothes. You keep stabbing, shifting from his neck to his chest, and then his back. Your frenzy on the Boss only stops when something new grabs your knife hand. Finding a new target, you pull your arms free, aided by the slick blood already coating it. You push the boss off and roll onto your feet, seeing that the new, shiny foe already has a crosshair for you to center your strike on. “YAH!” you scream, driving the knife directly into the center.

*Ching*

Your knife strikes metal and slips from your hand. You prepare for a crushing blow as the new target's arms spread out. They envelop you, but no pain follows. The arms are gentle and delicate, holding you like a parent’s soft embrace.

“That’s enough, son,” a voice says. The voice you've heard most since appearing in this disgusting fantasy world.