The Sand Murks attacked.

Being the height of a duck when they stood on their hind legs, each swing killed at least one and injured at least two others. After about three swings, they seemed to all decide that just waiting there was not a good idea. As if they were a hive mind, all their large pointy ears flattened backward, then the ones who were standing dropped to the ground. I felt a shiver of fear as they all hissed loudly at the same time. Were they a hive mind?

I didn’t have time to contemplate the question as the first one rushed toward me. I swung at its head and connected, leaving a large wedge of flesh missing from its face. Two more rushed at me and I dispatched them with a single swing of my machete. A sharp pain stabbed into the back of my leg. I looked back and a Sand Murk was viciously clawing my leg. Blood was already beginning to soak into my jeans, but I was still able to stand. I stabbed it with my combat knife and it let out a squeal as it thrashed in pain. From the corner of my eye, I could see two more rushing in from the right and I slashed my machete at them, striking the one on the left, but the one on the right stopped before it was inside the path of my swing.

I stood back up as I brought the machete around, then I brought it back down on the head of the second creature. My arms were on fire already and I had barely started fighting. I still hadn’t even made a dent in the massive swarm of creatures, but I was already tired and injured. I didn’t have much of a choice though, so I just kept swinging and the Sand Murks just kept rushing in two or three at a time. I was lucky they didn’t decide to rush me all at once, but I knew that it could happen at any time. In my daze of swinging, I also noticed that I was completely surrounded.

If these monsters had decided to attack me all at once, I would have been quickly overwhelmed, so I needed to find somewhere that I could hold them off. I quickly noticed the shoreline of the lake and how the Sand Murks were not going into the water. If I could make my way over to the water, I would only have to deal with the monsters from a single angle and if I was overwhelmed, I could flee into the lake. They could probably swim but being taller than the Sand Murks meant that I could continue to attack while they were forced to swim.

I began to hack my way toward the water. I was continually screaming to keep the voices out of my head and every swing of the machete was powerful and tiring. I quickly began to close the distance to the shoreline of the lake. I took a powerful swing behind me and spun to make sure there were no more Sand Murks to attack after my swing, but I didn’t stop moving toward the lake. Off in the distance, leaving the tree line, I saw what could only be described as a giant Sand Murk slowly walking into view. I tried to focus on the creature, and as I did I could make out its name –

Sand Murk Queen, Level 5

It stood up on its hind legs, just like the smaller ones did, but even though it was much further away, I could tell that it was much larger. I quickly and silently hoped that this alpha creature would stay behind the pack and not attack me. Even if I made it to the water and was able to defend from one direction, I couldn’t rely on being the tallest creature and using the water line to my advantage. As I looked at the Queen, I could tell that it was looking at me. I knew then that this queen was much more intelligent than the regular Sand Murks and it didn’t seem to be happy with me killing so many of them.

I slashed and killed a few more Sand Murks that leaped at me and then took another step backward. My foot came into contact with something large and as my other foot tried to compensate by shooting back to stop my fall, it too came in contact with the same obstruction. I tumbled backward and gritted my teeth hoping that whatever I fell on wouldn’t be sharp. My butt impacted the obstruction earlier than I was expecting and as it did so, I immediately realized what it was. The obstruction was hard but covered in a soft cushiony material and all of that was covered in a thin layer of cloth. I tripped and fell on the dead body of my father. I couldn’t give it too much thought though since I was in a lot of danger. I looked forward to ensure that the Sand Murks didn’t capitalize on my stumble. I quickly rolled backward off the carcass of my dad and sprang to a fighting position. The Sand Murks parted before me like the Red Sea did for Moses, but instead of a path to salvation, oblivion was rushing toward me.

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I continued to walk backward, my boots slowing and sinking into the water and mud of the lake. Going into the water further wouldn’t help me any longer; I would need to be mobile for the coming challenge. I had an unhindered view as the Sand Murks had not only made a clear path directly toward me but were also lying flat on the ground in apparent supplication. With teeth bared and saliva dripping from her maw, the Queen of the Sand Murks was quickly running towards me. I grit my teeth, grasped the handles of my two weapons tighter and desperately tried to think of what to do.

My injured leg stung in the murky water but it was a secondary thought. It donned on me at that moment, that I was able to consider my injured leg because a pervasive silence hung over the area, much different than the area before. The Sand Murks no longer chittered as they flattened their bodies in supplication to the queen. With no chittering in the area, my mind was also free from the voices that bombarded my thoughts.

I focused on the enemy rushing toward me. It was about the size of a large dog, but other than that distinctive feature it was no different from its minions. As it splashed in the water, not slowing in its assault, I brought my machete down in an overhand swing. I was trying to end the fight quickly by cleaving its skull in two. But, just as my strike came down, the large beast stopped and tried to twist out of the way. This creature was leagues smarter than the small regular Sand Murks. Luckily, with its speed and size, it was unable to get fully out of the way of my strike. A large gash opened up on its shoulder, blood spilling into the water and it screeched in agony. Its acknowledgment of pain did not last long. It dropped to all four of its legs and hissed like a cornered rat, even though I was the one cornered.

Reminding me of a crowd doing the wave at a sports game, the sea of Sand Murks rose to their hind legs and started chittering once more. I was unprepared for the force of pressure that attacked my head. I physically staggered back as my eyes blurred and a headache blossomed in my forehead. The queen pounced, leaping through the air and landing on my chest. Her claws dug into my shoulders as I fell backward from the force of the leap and weight of the monster. The queen attempted to bite my neck, but I managed to get my machete up in time. My weapon, the sharp side digging into the fold, lodged into the queen’s mouth.

Somehow, I managed to hold my breath as I fell underwater. While I was not that far into the lake, my backwards fall was enough to cover my head under the waterline. I managed to hold my breath, but I was still beginning to panic. The Sand Murk Queen was too heavy for me to lift and it was thrashing wildly slashing my shoulders trying to get to my neck. With what little strength I had remaining, I applied pressure to the machete, giving myself enough space to use my smaller knife. I plunged it into the side of the queen as hard as I could. The monster thrashed even more wildly from the pain and my knife was ripped from my grasp. The queen didn’t move from on top of me and I began to panic in earnest. I could no longer hold my breath and I didn’t know what else to do. Just as I was about to take a breath and fill my lungs with muddy water, I felt a huge disturbance of water right next to my head and the pressure of the Sand Murk Queen lifted off my chest.

I quickly sat up and gulped in air. There was a huge splash a few meters away from me as the queen slammed into the shallower section of the lake. It quickly scrambled to its feet and hissed at its new attacker. In response to the hiss, a low guttural clicking came from the massive creature that was right next to me. I would have pissed my pants if fear hadn’t closed everything up for me. However, the fear kept me still, frozen where I sat in the water, and that alone probably saved my life. Only inches from my head was the rough, green skin of a giant reptilian monster.

At first, I thought it was a crocodile, or maybe an alligator, I didn’t know the difference, but whatever it was, I knew it was the steroid infused great-granddaddy of all of them. As I focused on it, the information label informed me that I was both wrong and right.

Crocolator – Level 12