The thing circled Kael warily, it had never attacked a two legged being like this one before, was it dangerous, and more importantly was it tasty. The two legged being turned around so it faced the beast as it circled him, it showed no intention of running. Not a good sign but not reason enough to back off.

The beast attacked first, it charged straight at Kael intending to use its horn to impale him and for a moment it seemed it would work. Kael stood there unflinching and then just when the beast was just upon him, he leapt out of the way and let the beast fly past. It struck a tree, jamming its horn in the trunk. His ploy worked, he seized the chance and initiated a charge of his own. He ran at the beast and rammed his black tentacle into its side. The beast managed to twist itself so that the blow struck one its hind legs, not the best of moves.

Enraged by the pain, the yowling beast tore free of the tree and lashed out. Its claws ripped through Kael’s left thigh, shallow cuts, it barely stung with all the adrenaline coursing through him. Overflowing with bloodlust it leapt at Kael who fell backwards in response. Thwack a stone struck the beast in the head with frightening power.

The beast crumpled, Kael went for vengeance and delivered the most powerful right hook his brown frame had ever thrown. The blow struck the rising beast right in the head, robbing it of the little balance it had managed to recover.

Another stone sailed through the air, this one however missed its mark entirely and gave the beast the chance to distance itself from Kael. It looked up at Gerald with rage and then back at Kael.

“I thought you made a run for it?”

“I did”

No more words were needed, they were still on the same team at least for now. Both sides sized each other again, the air was choking with tension. Gerald tossed the stone in his hand lightly, trying to get a feel of its weight. Again the beast rushed forwards first, this time was different though, instead of going straight for the kill it leapt from side to side, performing feints, obvious feints yes, but feints none the less.

Gerald and Kael were shown just what exactly its powerful legs could do. All the time the thought running through Kael’s head was, how is it moving like that, didn’t I get a clean hit on its legs? Finally the beast went for Kael’s right leg, somehow he managed to shift the leg out of the way by throwing himself to the ground. Gerald didn’t throw, he wanted a definite hit. The beast jumped at Kael who used his arms to shift the creature’s momentum and in effect toss it of him. Gerald’s stone hurtled at the beast with more power than any of its predecessor’s, the beast raised its head but far too late.

The stone buried itself into the creature’s ribs where it seemed to explode in a burst of blood. The beast let out a blood curdling cry and then made a mad dash for Gerald that defied logic, wasn’t the damned thing injured? Confused for a moment, Gerald stumbled backwards, when he stopped his face was set in what can only be described as grim determination.

As crazy as it sounds Gerald began to run towards the feral beast. Kael looked on, shocked out of his wits, the soft thuds their feet made seemed to be the only thing he could hear. As the two neared the insanity in Gerald’s scarlet eyes rivaled that of the beast.

Deviant and beast leapt at each other but it was clear that the deviant was no match for the beast in terms of raw power. Gerald didn’t blink even as the beast came flying towards him, his foot connected with the top of the beast’s head and with a brutish roar, he launched himself into the air and sent the beast into the ground. Gerald landed on both feet but was forced to his knees by the momentum, the beast sprang up again but this time something was different.

The beast seemed to have aged tremendously in a matter of seconds. Gerald placed his foot on its head and all of a sudden it had a pronounced limp and was bleeding all over. That is when Kael finally connected the dots. He still wasn't sure about the specifics but the beast obviously had an ability or perk that allowed it to ignore damage, perhaps for an amount or so long as it maintained a mental state. If it left that state or the time expired the beast would instantly bear the brunt of all the injuries it had sustained at once.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The formally dangerous predator was now in danger of being hunted. Kael approached Gerald whilst keeping his eyes on the beast. Hopefully it would take the chance and flee, although Kael wanted to kill it, he knew doing so would only open them to unnecessary danger, the woods weren’t a place to get injured.

The beast seemed to get the idea and hobbled away as fast as it could. Even before Kael could get to Gerald, the mark on his chest lurched, once he noticed it Kael pushed all his senses aside and concentrated on his sense of smell.

"Why are so many creatures gathered in one place?"

He took another deep breath.

"They are getting closer, they are running from something"

“The beast wasn’t running from us!”

“Gerald, we have to run… get up already this is serious!”

“I can’t run you pansy! I cut my leg on the damned things horn”

“Get on my back then!”

"What am I saying? Why am I not leaving him behind? I can't survive for long out here without him but if I take him I'll probably die soon!"

Yet his body appeared determined to help Gerald survive. With Gerald on his back, Kael ran as fast as he could. If they didn’t come across some shelter soon he would be a fool to think they would last till the evening.

Gerald on the other hand seemed pretty unconcerned for someone whose life was in mortal peril. He busied himself by looking around for dangerous creatures, occasionally glancing over his shoulder for signs of his doom bringer. That wasn’t much help though seeing as he heard them long before he saw them. At first he dismissed their calls as the sounds of the woods but their growing intensity finally impressed upon him that they were fleeing not from a doom bringer but doombringers, many, many doom bringers.

He reminded himself that he didn’t fear death, life was pointless anyways but the growing panic in his chest didn’t believe

him.

“Kael, if you leave me behind I’ll kill you, you hear me!”

At another time Kael would have laughed but at that very moment he couldn’t spare the effort. Eventually Gerald either overcame or was overcome by panic enough to look back. A storm of death, any other definition would not capture the black swirling mass of feathers and claws that had swallowed the woods behind him. He saw a few black strays darting ahead of the flock, no the storm, shrieking and cawing as they searched for opportune targets.

They weren’t going to make it, the storm was closing in on them and they still had no idea where they were going, other than it was in the general direction of a settlement that was a week away at best. Gerald smiled weakly, coming to terms with his imminent death, he had lost his reason for living a long time ago. Kael didn’t give up though, he kept at it, running and running, never looking back, and never loosing hope. For whatever reason Gerald didn’t dispel the illusion, he let Kael run, he let Kael hope. The first stray to come after them slashed across Gerald back.

Gerald opened his mouth but no cry came out, he was detached from everything he knew he had been cut but how did that matter to him. Death was coming, it had always been coming but soon it would be here, he would be free and so he stared at the beasts glimmering black eye, and ignored the scratch of the second stray. The frequency of attacks had increased quite suddenly, first a couple of scratches and then he was surrounded, moments after that the storm had swallowed him and there was no escaping it.

Kael was running blind, the only sense he could make any sense of was pain, pain and fear. Apparently those two are all a person needs to keep running, Kael couldn’t stop if he wanted to. The pain and fear spoke to something deep in his mind, instinct perhaps and it demanded he ran.

So Kael’s feet beat the ground and crushed twigs in a rapid unsteady manner, running in what may very well have been a circle. His body was covered in cuts and soaked in blood but he run from, away, into, he ran and the pain followed him everywhere he went. He run until the gods saw his plight and the ground fell away from his feet and let him through only to snap back in place and keep the storm out or at least that is how Kael would have described it had he retained consciousness but he had lost even that when his head hit the walls of the pit.