The monster came lunging towards me with brute force and an impossible speed. I would have performed a barrel role forward to avoid the attack but since there was a lake in front of me, I was momentarily at a loss on what to do. Big mistake. The monster came crashing into me an instant later and I was knocked back from the impact and thrown on the ground, with the massive six-legged creature now pinning me to the ground. However, as soon as it lunged forward in an attempt to bite off my head, I immediately thrust my hands in front of my face, catching the creature by the sides of its teeth and trying to push its head back.
“Hunter! You have 15 seconds to get out from underneath the creature!” Rachel said. “It’s too strong! It will over power you!”
“Yeah no shit!” I replied, gritting my teeth and using all of my might to keep the beast from biting off my head. The creature continued pressing down its wait on me while it also kept trying to strike my head with its massive stinger. But because I was directly underneath the thing, it couldn’t get a good angle.
“Any ideas?” I asked Rachel while I continued to struggle with the creature. My arms were starting to get tired and the monster’s very ugly face was drawing closer to my head. At some point I was sure the effects of the healing potion I had drank were about to ware off and many of the aches and injuries I had sustained from my fight with the blood bats were about to return. Then, just as I thought, a SNAP suddenly echoed from the left side of my chest and I instantly knew I had broken a rib. The potion had worn off.
“Shit.” I said through gritted teeth. Several more snaps soon followed as more of my ribs continued to break and I suddenly found myself in immense pain. My injuries had returned and the massive creature pressing all of its weight down on me really wasn’t helping with the matter. My head had started to throb and my internal bleeding had resumed. I was about to die. I was sure of it. but then, I had an idea.
“Rachel.” I called out. “How much bite force this thing got?”
“I know what you’re thinking and it’s a terrible idea.” Rachel said. “But it just might work.”
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Getting the confirmation I needed from Rachel, I prepared myself to execute the plan. Still struggling to push the creature’s head back, I suddenly swapped tactics and allowed its head to draw an inch closer, its shark like teeth getting nearer to my face. Then, at the very last second, I bent my left arm and shoved my elbow into the creature’s mouth, fully allowing the thing to bite hold of my arm and sink its teeth deep into my flesh.
The pain was unbearable.
Blood spurted onto my face and swiftly began rolling down my arm. My blood. An icon appeared in the corner of my vision and I watched as my health steadily dropped below 57%.
56.
55.
54.
53.
52.
It was now or never.
I freed my right hand from pushing back the creature’s face then stretched it out to the side. “Dagger!” I screamed, and a small glow enveloped my right hand before quickly dissipating, leaving behind a small black dagger. Gripping the handle of my weapon tightly, I reached up and began stabbing the monster by its neck repeatedly. The creature continued biting down on the back of my arm but that did not stop me from continuously knifing it in the side of the neck. My health was now below 40% and it was still dropping rapidly. Hot green blood began spewing out of the creature’s neck but it did not relent from its assault on my arm. I had lost a shit tun of blood and my vision was starting to blur. But I wasn’t out of the game just yet.
At the very last second, I switched over to stabbing its eyes instead. The creature immediately began growling in pain as the tip of my short blade sunk repeatedly down its exposed corneas. The six black eyes soon began leaking blood as they took serious damage from my assault with the dagger. Eventually the creature let go of my left arm and decided it couldn’t take any more damage to its eyes. The monster hopped off me an instant later before bounding out of the place, away from the cabin.
A wave of relief washed over me at the sight of the creature leaving. My health was now at 39% and my entire body was bruised, battered, and bleeding. My left arm resembled shredded meat on a stick with the bone inside completely broken. I could no longer move it. or feel it.
It took a little while but I eventually found the little girl hiding in the cabin with Slick. She reappeared as soon as I walked in with the water lizard clutched in both of her hands and held up at chest level. I patiently explained to her that we needed to head into town before the creature recovered and came back. She agreed to leave, and without wasting another moment we were out of the cabin and on the main road.
40 minutes later and we were approaching the out skirts of the town. I was a mess at this point. My breathing was ragged, standing up straight was becoming a challenge, and I kept throwing up blood and vomit on the side of the road. I imagined the little girl wasn’t having fun watching me either.
Soon enough we came up to a small farm with a few people tending to the crops. The second they saw me they all had shocked expressions on their faces and some of them began to slowly come close. I tried explaining to them that the little girl with me needed to find her family, and I needed to find a healer to help fix my injuries. But as soon as I finished speaking, I suddenly lost all power to stand and I collapsed on the ground an instant later.
And just like that, I was out cold.