There I stood, opposing the bodugii as it had just tried to excavate another morsel, a morsel I had to rescue. I felt naked and defeated, but still, a voice in the back of my head spurred me on. I took the bodugii’s very own spike it had pierced my leg with from my belt. Combined with my staff, it was the only weapon I had. I knew little of the enemy before me, but I did not let that deter me.

The monster took a step towards me, putting its head lower to the ground and raising its tail up, displaying its spikes with a threatening hiss. The rows of teeth in his mouth were glistening in the light of my moonlight stone. Another step forward, it kept its head low. Then I realized something: I could see scratches and bruises on top of the monster’s head where the massive stone pillar had hit so heavily yet slid off so ineffectually; meanwhile, the scales on its throat had a much lighter colouration. It was well possible that this act of keeping its head low to the ground was a defensive measure, to prevent its opponent from attacking it while giving itself a better position from which to strike at the throat of the enemy.

I raised the spike in my left hand in a gesture to mirror its own raising of its tail. “I am not afraid of you!”

It answered me with another hiss and another step forward. There were maybe twenty feet between the two of us, enough for it to close the distance in a single leap, but still, it kept its head low and its tail up high. It knew it had reason to fear me should it expose its throat.

I knew I would lose any frontal assault that mirrored its own. I would not be able to pierce its defences like this. I went into myself, just aware enough of the world to dodge any advance by the bodugii, and searched my mind for the spells I could use. A primitive spell I could use to accelerate a projectile came to mind. The spike was my only projectile and certainly useful as one to the bodugii, but it had many of those, more experience with flinging them and a better understanding of them. I did not know how it would behave in flight or how well it could penetrate the skin at the throat. I would have to get close and ram it in with my own hands first; then, I could use magic to drive it in deeper into the monster’s flesh. There was however a use I could find for the projectile spell yet: myself.

I would never be able to dash or jump or run fast enough to close the entire distance before the monster could react and swallow me whole. But if I were to push myself forward, I could give myself the speed and range to get close to its throat. From that moment on, it would all have to happen within the blink of an eye. I had to make sure how the monster would react.

To test myself and the monster, I hopped in the air. The bodugii hissed and shifted its head in reaction, but not much else. My injured leg pulsed with pain but I gritted my teeth. The distance was still dangerous for me but safe for it. I hopped again and the same reaction came. I did it a few more times, each time lessening the bodugii’s reaction. I hoped to feint it so it would let its guard down.

I finally decided to act. With a simple formula in my head, I went down into my knees. The bodugii shifted its head ever so slightly, but did not react. Then I pushed myself off forward to the monster’s left and release that simplest of formulae.

Force equals mass times acceleration.

I felt the push from behind, my trunk accelerated, my limbs trying to keep up, a rush went through me. The bodugii lifted its head slightly, shifted it to its right in anticipation of snapping me out of the air, but my speed surprised not just me. I arrived far before it could even open its mouth all the way. My legs caught my speed but ached and strained. I was there, right next to the monster’s throat. My legs buckled under the pain, I fell on the cold stone floor.

The monster’s head above me, staring down in hunger and hate, its maw open, its throat bright and thin-skinned. I rolled over, underneath the throat, raised the spike in my hand. The bodugii’s many feet reared up in defence, sought to trample me.

I rolled away in time. The feet hit the ground, slamming down on the rock with half a dozen feet. Its throat was out of my reach again, i was in the reach of its maw.

A metallic sound, iron slamming on rock, a loud cry was heard.

“AEEEEEAAAA!!” A human figure appeared behind the creature, wielding a long rod of sorts. “HEEEEREEEE!” the person cried and slammed the iron rod against one of the monster’s ankles.

The monster whipped its head around to the morsel, its tail raised up high and ready to swing around. Then I saw the neck: bent away from me, throat exposed, all that was needed was a step’s reach. It jumped from the ground and again, pushed myself forward, spike held high. The bodugii’s own weapon sank into the bright skin, between two large scales. Just an inch or two, but enough, the muscles contracted in pain, the reflexes of the monster brought the head back around, but I threw my body against the neck. This close to its body and behind its head, it could not reach me. Again, with the same formula, holding the spike like a chisel, I raised my staff above my head like a hammer.

Force equals mass times acceleration.

I yelled with all my might, forcing all the life force from my centre through my veins and out of my mind. I brought the staff’s crystal ball down on the butt end of the spike. A grating sound was heard, then a soft cracking and blood and splinters of broken bone and spike sprayed out the other end of the monster’s neck.

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It tried to muster a roar, but sank down, away from me, dead. A torrent of blood shot from its wounds, turned into a stream as all life faded from the body. It was dead, on the naked cavern floor lied the monstrosity’s massive form now little more than limp flesh.

I felt a strange feeling. It was similar to relief, but rather than letting go of the tension, a new one built inside me. It gathered in my lungs as I inhaled and then begged to be released; I had to give in.

I roared in victorious elation, sending my voice through the cavern and even into the city above. I laughed. I laughed as heartily as I had seldom before. I looked up and down the cavern. The trickle on its floor had become considerably stronger, more blood than water flowed down the ancient riverbed. The monster was dead. For good, it was dead! It felt like getting revenge for all the hardships this world had inflicted upon my companions and me, a fateful justice had finally been delivered.

I calmed down from the elation of victory. Leaning on the rod of iron, the man who had jumped out at the exact right moment came closer and looked me in the eyes, with hope and desperation. “Please tell me you have food with you.” Was all he said.

Once I had handed him a few of my biscuit rations, he began devouring them greedily, without water, completely dry, until I shoved my waterskins into his hands. He did not speak much so I introduced myself and told him of the situation we had found ourselves in and of the events. When he finally was done with three whole vrata biscuits, he told me his name. He was Sturri, a sort of scribe tasked with writing down and possibly interpreting every single symbol, sign and glyph he could find. He was roughly my age I concluded and he wished to be a scholar later on, right now only receiving menial tasks, but happily fulfilling them. When the bodugii had first attacked, he grabbed a nearby frame for putting a pot above a fire and whacked the monster with one of the legs, but was shoved down a well along with another member named Jalle, landing him here. While he himself was uninjured, Jalle had broken a leg. He helped his comrade to the crevice but on the way, they were attacked by the bodugii and Jalle was too slow. When Sturri told me this, he started to tear up. I gave him time to find his composure, then he told me of finding the crevice, where the small trickle of water sustained him. Food was a problem and the few times he had ventured out to find a spot to escape, he had returned hastily whenever a sound was heard in the cavern.

He sat on the ground of the cavern for a while and looked up and down freely while I refilled the waterskins at the trickle further upstream from the carcass. I retrieved Brad’s knife that still stuck in the bodugii’s left eye, then prepared to set out back to the tunnels beneath the city. Sturri was weak, his limbs having grown thin from starvation, but with the help of his iron walking stick, we managed to get back to the tunnels. I looked back one last time at the bodugii. It would have made our Urshog friend very proud to see this kill. I remembered the point of this excursion: to prove to the Seekers of Fregna that we were a valuable asset. To that end, a trophy of the monstrosity would be most useful. I used some amplified strikes from my staff and the knife to pry three of the bodugii’s teeth from gum and bone.

Most of the paths back up from the tunnels were crumbled or otherwise blocked, some even shut with brick and mortar. It took a while, but the two of us finally returned to the city streets above. From my limited time in the city, I did not recognize any of them, but Sturri seemed to know the way. We sought the courtyard near the entrance where we had found the first tent. It was inaccessible to the bodugii, therefore it would be where the rest of the group would be waiting, at least such was my own guess. During the entire time walking, my leg wound became worse and I could see just how much blood had been pressed through the bandages and my trousers.

As we approached the hallway to the courtyard, I could already hear the voices of the others hotly debating.

“I know what I heard and what I heard was him being eaten by the monster.” was clearly audible in Brad’s voice way all the way down the corridor. “We need to cut our losses. I really hope those Seekers help us out for doing this!”

Sarita’s voice disagreed. “We owe it to him to at least check. He sacrificed himself so we could escape. He made this all possible.”

“His plan didn’t work out and he got injured for it. Stop making him some poetic legend!”

I finally saw Kasp on the once green lawn ahead. We saw each other at the same time. He rose and pointed to the two of us. “HE’S HERE, HE’S HERE!”

The two crolachans stopped their quarrelling and ran into the hallway.

I could see the shocked expression on Brad’s face. “CURSE MY CLAWS! There he is!” The two came running closer and as they did, I saw the joy on their faces, especially Sarita’s. A warm feeling rose from my exhausted heart, spread through my body like the knowledge that a soft bed and plentiful meal waited for me at home. Sarita leapt around my neck and laughed heartily.

“I KNEW YOU’D MAKE IT!”

I wanted to return her joy, but my leg gave out. I fell to the floor, her above me, compressing my ribcage and forcing the air out of my lungs. My trousers were entirely drenched in blood and the bandages were basically useless due to coming loose. Sarita got off me with repeated “Sorry! Sorry! Are you well?”

While Kasp was renewing my bandages, the rest gathered all they could carry. With the risk of the bodugii gone, Sturri even ventured back to their camp to gather his writings, by far the lightest of their findings to carry.

Even with new bandages, I could not muster the strength to stand on that leg. I tried to use my staff as a crutch, but even my other leg seemed to protest. Kasp gathered some wood to fashion a brace and a crutch, Sarita was offering me her help to stem my weight – utterly impossible considering the size and weight difference – and Brad stood in a corner, looking embarrassed and ashamed. Sturri was observing all of this with a sombre smile.

I was finally fitted with parts of salvaged scaffolding, all of the gear was packed up, all of us were ready. As we were making our way upwards, I was constantly pushed as the second in line, Brad ahead to help me up every possible hindrance. Until we were finally up the tower, across the bridge and out the hole behind the loggers’ camp. We breathed the fresh air the draft brought and saw the soft light of the mist in the distance. Sighs of elation, cheers and laughter came from all of us as a few loggers looked on confused. We could finally move on back to civilization.