Everything stopped in the forest clearing for a moment that felt all too long. Nora was moaning in pain, holding her shoulder, Frank stood in place, his gun held before him invisible as he was. And then there was the beast called Gerald. Blood poured from his wounds and stuck in his fur. He was hurt, badly. But he wasn't dead, and he took a few deep gulps of air, ragged breath came as his nose twitched.

"I thought I smelled you, a while back. But I lost you. How'd you find us?" The beast got up, trying to keep his composure as he stood on his knees... no, he wasn't kneeling, he was ready to pounce!

With a howl Gerald sprung straight at Frank, having found his scent, and missed. Frank didn't have to think twice and teleported straight ahead behind the beast's starting position. Without a word, Frank pumped two more rounds into the hideous thing, both rounds hit. One in the werewolf's back, the other in his massive shoulder.

"Grrrr, fast. But not strong. She's mine!" another charge, this time a higher leap over Nora's shuddering, huddled form. Frank didn't have his skill for another few seconds and dove to the side, firing off a few more shots when he hit the ground. Gerald already knew where Frank had landed, he heard the impact his body made. Luckily for Frank, the two bullets that hit the bloodthirsty canine in this last barrage stunned him, leaving him wincing in pain. His hide was thick, but at point blank it was still no match for the full strength of a hot round.

The beast charged once more, making a mad dash with his mouth wide to take a bite of his prey. But as soon as he caught the scent and snapped his jaws shut, Frank was gone. Had he got back to his feet? Impossible, he didn't even hear the interloper running!

Frank had barely teleported away to the tree line in time. He mentally gathered himself as best he could, the adrenaline still pumping so hard in his veins that his heart was practically punching up into his skull. How many shots did he fire? Eight, of his total fifteen that he had loaded. This monster was no fucking joke. Even while invisible Frank only had a slight advantage in that the beast was confused when Frank teleported away by the skin of his teeth, or more accurately the skin of its teeth.

Then the fight took a turn for the worse, [Total Invisibility] went on cooldown. Nora looked over, a sudden shadow having appeared in the clearing as the moonlight stopped shining through Frank. Gerald noticed this too, and bared his fangs in a nightmare facsimile of a smile.

Frank started to shake, his nerves having finally caught up to his reality now that 2 pairs of eyes were on him. One pleading for help, the other shining like a predator in the darkness, confident and ready to tear him limb from limb.

'What was I thinking? I can't fight this thing head-on. Can I even rely on it bleeding out before he catches me?' Frank froze, his mind empty and anticipating pain, agony, failure. His legs buckled beneath him as the beast staggered towards him, ready to deliver a killing blow.

"No more games, die!" The beast seemed to lumber over in slow motion, Frank suddenly remembered how much more happy he was at home being a fat, lazy slob. He didn't have to deal with werewolves, goblins, orcs, dinosaurs, or the end of the world. He wouldn't even need to leave his house except to get money, he could work a shitty retail job and then go live in his bedroom for the rest of his life if it meant he never had to deal with horror like this again. What the hell did he think he could do against monsters?

Then he remembered how scared his family were when he broke the news to them, how Lauren broke down and needed him there to reassure her. How good he felt when he realized he had been given a second chance, how much more confident his training in the dream realm and in real life made him feel. He remembered the first dream the system showed him, how easily he dealt with monsters far scarier and more coordinated than this overgrown mutt. His potential was revealed to him and he knew then this wasn't the end for him. Frank knew his fate was on the battlefield, written in blood, the truth etched into his heart. He was meant for more, he could handle this!

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Frank stood up, the shaking in his hands and legs still present but much less intense.

"You've got a big mouth for an overgrown puppy" Frank spoke the first thing that came to his mind, "And I think your breath is a lot deadlier than whatever else you're working with" Frank started to back off and slowly circle around the clearing. The beast was watching intently, his explosive strength seemed to have left along with much of his blood. Nora's screaming and moaning had quieted down quite a bit, to Frank's worry. He pushed it out of his mind, one problem at a time.

With a few more meters of distance between him and the shambling wall of fur and muscle, Frank decided it was time for one more Hail Mary. All or nothing, and he had to execute his plan perfectly if he didn't want to be the one on the chopping block.

"What's the matter, Cujo? Run out of steam? Seems like you're all bark and no bite!" Frank kept his sights trained on the growling monster, moving in a circle until he had a tree with a thick branch just inside his peripheral vision, right in range of his [teleport] skill. Having run out of easy dog puns, the cornered scout whistled loudly at the beast, calling him over like a master would his hound.

Gerald charged directly at Frank on all fours, barking and yelling like something straight out of a horror movie. Frank quickly dumped his mag into the beast, not bothering to account for accuracy. When Gerald finally leaped, Frank was once again nothing but air between his jaws and claws. The beast roared and spewed blood from its mouth and now well ventilated chest.

From high above, Frank quickly cursed at the unbelievable endurance his opponent had. He was fairly certain most of his rounds hit, and deeply too! At the last second, when the beast leaped, Frank made a leap of his own. He teleported against the tree beside him, just above a sturdy branch. While the monster looked around for him, Frank took the time to reload one of his spare mags. When he finally pulled back the slide, he let loose a sigh of relief as he awaited the twelve second cooldown of his only other active skill. In doing so, he fumbled his empty mag and it dropped toward the ground, only to hit the werewolf in the head.

The beast roared again, and made a soaring leap towards the tree that would make a pro basketball player envious. Frank saw it with his own eyes and couldn't believe it, the monster was actually going to make it to his hiding spot and [Teleport] still had a cooldown!

"Fuck it!" Frank leapt out from the tree, aiming right for the rising terror before him and put his knee right into its bleeding chest. He felt claws grasp his arms and cut deeply, his only option was to press his gun to the head of his opponent and fire! Four rounds escaped his gun before Frank realized they were dangerously close to the ground.

He yelled and spammed his mental reflex to teleport at the nearest tree, failing repeatedly until he felt the familiar tug and grabbed onto the nearest branch with his free hand. He ignored the searing pain in his shoulders and arms, glad to have stopped moving. Until he heard a snap from the branch giving way and felt gravity's pull once again. He hit the ground on his back, luckily he only had the wind knocked out of him as he landed on something firm and soft. It was also very sticky.

Frank screamed as he realized he landed on top of the beast, Gerald. He rolled off and set his sights on the crumpled form before him, but found the werewolf unresponsive. Was it finally over? Was he dead? Frank didn't want to take any chances. He found a large rock bigger than both his hands combined, hauled it over to the beast and ignored every pain signal in his body as he caved in the canine skull, complete with the jaws that had been trying to make a meal of him since they clashed. When he was certain Gerald wouldn't recover he turned his attention to the huddled mass laying beside a large boulder in the center of the clearing.

"Hey" Frank called out in a weak, hoarse voice, "Excuse me? Nora, was it? Are you... alive?"

Frank quickly found and recovered his empty mag that had fallen, putting it in his pocket before stumbling over to the woman he watched the massive beast take a bite out of earlier. She was probably dead, or unconscious. But he had to at least check to see if she was alive, if she had a pulse.

He knelt down beside her, his arms throbbing with pain and dripping a steady pool of blood to the ground from where the claws had raked across them. He quickly took his fingers and felt for a pulse against her neck. Worryingly, there didn't seem to be much blood dripping from the ugly wound on her shoulder. In fact, even if she were stone dead, wouldn't there still be a lot of blood leaking out? What was...?

"OH GOD, get away from me!" the abducted woman woke with a start and began screaming.

Frank held up his arms, gasping himself. By the look of the chunk taken from her shoulder, he thought she was dead for sure but here she was, alive and kicking, literally.

"Hey, hey, hey! Settle down, he's dead, I got him! That overgrown mutt won't be bothering you anymore" Frank started, holding his palms flat and trying to lower his voice a little.

"W-what? Gerald? He's... dead?"