Something long and serrated sliced into a tree just above her had before hooking around her leg and dragging her out of the undergrowth and into a more open area. On closer inspection, the smooth claw with a serrated tip was a mottled brown green, like the forest’s surroundings. Victoria followed the arm attached to the claw until she was staring the creature in its bulging brown eyes. It was insectile, armoured in the same colour as the claw had been. It had two long scythe-claw arms like a praying mantis but only 2 legs. Its face was almost snout like, it looked more like a mammal plated in an insect’s exoskeleton with the same segmented eyes.

The creatures head tilted to the side, quizzically before bringing the claw down and slamming her against the ground. Her feathers puffed out, softening the impact but a lance of pain shot up her broken arm, dulled by the chemicals flooding her brain the pain felt nothing like the fractured limb it should, and she could already see blood leaking from between the feathers.

One of the monster’s claws swiped beneath her, aiming to remove her legs at the knee, she jumped to counter the attack, arcing until she landed on the creatures back, arm cradled in a half-formed wing to minimise the pain she felt. With her good arm she struck one of its eyes with her talons.

Her fingers stabbed into the eye but only her claws penetrated the surface, leaving a superficial wound that she had no time to enlarge. The bug slammed itself against a nearby tree, the brittle snapping sound of the tree harmonising with the crunching sound of Victoria’s back.

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Victoria collapsed to the soggy ground, panting heavily. she struggled to her feet, trying desperately not to move her right arm even as it cascaded blood onto the forest floor. The creature began to advance on her, and although she hated to admit it, she couldn’t fight this thing in her state. She would have to run.

As the beast raised one of its claws ready to strike downward to finish her off, Victoria slid through its legs. The creature wasn’t as fast as her and by the time it had turned, she was already far away from it. However, it wasn’t going to give up its prey without a fight.

Springing over logs and between trees she could hear the armoured monster getting closer, trees being destroyed and crushed underfoot instead of any form of subtlety. The pain had come back, and her arm was in agonising pain and every step sent an increasingly painful spike of pain through her body. She wanted to crawl up into a ball, she wanted to go home, she wanted to tear Mitchell’s balls off and make him eat them. But right now, she was running for her life. She looked bang to see the creature behind her. It was gaining fast. She looked back Infront of her to see her vision filled by gold.

The sound reverberated was immense. Victoria’s skull rang the great bell and she collapsed on the ground. The last thing she saw over her was the creature before it looked up suddenly and darted away.