A twig snapped somewhere on our right and our heads whipped around to see who – or rather, what – it was. A black wolf-like beast with plates like an armadillo’s covering its body slunk out of vegetation, growling threateningly. It was staring straight at us with a menacing glint in its narrowed red eyes.
I put a reassuring hand on my brother’s shoulder and got up slowly, not breaking eye contact with the creature.
“Mitsuko?” he whispered, trembling.
“It’s alright, Mitsuo. I’ll handle this,” I told him confidently.
Hahaahahahaha, ‘I’ll handle this’? Fuck me, it’s a fucking wolf with armour, how the fuck is anyone supposed to handle something like this unarmed? I slid a hand to my pockets. Nope, I don’t even have my fucking pocketknife. Fuck me.
It took a few wary steps forwards, lips curled back and extremely sharp teeth bared. I had a brief vision of those teeth tearing through my brother’s flesh, and felt myself doing the same. Adrenaline coursed through my system and I slammed down on the urge to attack first. I was at least smart enough know that this was one fight I definitely couldn’t win. During the stare down, it got closer, and I carefully manoeuvred myself so I was directly between my brother and the beast.
Let’s see, weak points, weak points, its whole body is covered in armour, what fucking weak points? Wait, I squinted slightly, oh good, its nose isn’t armoured, and I’ve heard that dog noses are particularly sensitive. It has the same shape as a wolf, so its weak points should be the same as well, right? Its eyes aren’t armoured either, but they’re pretty difficult targets. Problem with the nose, though, is that it’s too close to the teeth for comfort, so… Argh, how am I supposed to beat this thing? Should I just try to make it back down?
I narrowed my eyes further and increased the intensity of my glare, projecting through my eyes the desire to rip it apart for all I was worth. This move had never failed to make the delinquents who came to fight the strongest ‘Mad Dog’ back down before. Unfortunately, I was dealing with an actual ‘mad dog’ here, and it only aggravated the creature more.
Its growling grew louder, and spittle dripped down from its maw. The grass it soiled withered up and died, releasing a wisp of dark gas. Not good. If that thing managed to sink its teeth into any part of me, I’d – well, it wouldn’t kill me, but I’d most likely be left unable to fight and then Mitsuo would be left defenceless.
It was a canine creature, so turning tail and running was out of the question. The armour it had probably weighed a bit, and I had no doubt I’d beat it in long-distance, but it didn’t need stamina to quickly cross the few metres between us and tear out my throat.
Shit…!
I brought my left arm up just in time to prevent it from doing just that. Faster than something that heavily armoured had a right to be, it had bolted across the space between us and leapt straight for the jugular.
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The bite hurt ten times worse than the time some asshole had broken my arm in three places with a metal pipe. The spit seeping into it burned twenty times worse than the time I’d skinned the entire side of my arm and then accidentally spilled half a bottle of antiseptic on it, and was way less beneficial.
Motherfucking-
I bit back a scream of pain and used my uninjured arm to wail on its head, hoping to get lucky and hit its nose. It stubbornly hung onto my arm and bit down harder. The smell of burnt flesh – my burnt flesh – reached my nose.
Aren’t wolves supposed to take a chunk out of you and then retreat?! Or was that sharks?
My brother lurched forward, wanting to help me. “Sis!”
“I’m fine, Mitsuo! Stay back!”
That’s a complete lie! I am not fine at all! Fuck, this really hurts! And this son of a bitch (literally lmao) is heavy!
I finally got lucky and managed to hit it directly on the nose. It released my arm with a yelp and I wasted no time in taking advantage of its shock, heavily swinging my foot into its ribs. What a shame I was only wearing a pair of slippers. Well, we’d been playing uno at home and I wasn’t psychic; there was no way I could have known I’d end up fighting an armadillo wolf hybrid. There was a satisfying crack, felt more than heard, and the wolf-armadillo howled.
Looks like the armour protecting your underside isn’t so tough! I felt a momentary sense of triumph. Ow, my foot.
It retreated, cautiously circling us again, but I could tell it was only a matter of time before it forgot its fear and tried to tear out my throat again. My injured arm throbbed in time with the pounding of my heart. Blood slowly trickled down to dot the grass with spots of bright crimson. I spared the mangled, blackened and bloody flesh a glance and grimaced. I couldn’t move it. Unless I wanted only my legs to be functioning, I had to think of something, fast.
I desperately scanned our surroundings for something that might have had even the slightest chance of saving us.
Grass, grass, trees, brother, grass, lake, grass, tree-
Lake! The lake! How did I not think of it before?
Judging from how it had almost dislocated my arm when it was using as a chew toy earlier, as soon as it hit the water it would sink like my classmate’s motorcycle had when he taped two rocks and fourteen feathers to it then let it run off a cliff into the sea. (Long story. Goddamn rich bastard.)
Mitsuo couldn’t swim; he’d never learnt – rather, he was forbidden from going to the pool or any other public place that required showing more skin than usual for obvious reasons – but I had, and I was a rather strong swimmer too. Problem was, I was injured and missing the use of one limb.
I looked between the water and the wolf-armadillo.
“Mitsuo,” I said.
“Yes?”
“Take a deep breath and hold it.”
“Huh? Why?” he asked, even as he did so.
“We’re going for a swim.”
I grabbed Mitsuo with my good arm and jumped into the water, just as the beast leapt into the air and its jaws snapped closed around space my throat had been just a few moments before. If nothing else, it had good aim.
We hit the water.