“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home oh god please I want to go home AAAAA!!!!” blubbered Lucia as she broke out into a mad dash.

  “I’ll kill you!” screamed the giant red monster chasing after her. “I’ll kill you, sow!”

  “I’m sorry! You don’t have to suck your own dick! Just leave me alone!” she shouted back, not bothering to look behind her.

  The fourteen feet the creature had on her let it close the distance between them in little time. Once in range, it slammed its foot right where Lucia would’ve been.

  If she hadn’t turned at a right angle just then, she would’ve been turned to jelly. Instinctually, she pulled out her kitchen knife, and slashed at the monster’s other foot as it too landed right next to her.

  “Argh!” the creature wailed again. It was however undeterred by the gash, which looked more like a papercut on its half-inch thick skin.

  The dance between the two continued for several minutes, the constant aerobics beginning to tire Lucia out. Her cuts continued to add up, but did little more than wet the very edge of her blade in deep crimson.

  “Stop running and let me eat you!” the monster screamed, barely out of breath itself. “You will not survive, you were meant to suffer, just give up and make your end quick!”

  That last line pulled at something within Lucia. She’d heard those words many times throughout her life, mostly from herself. But every time, she defied the odds and pulled through. With being forced to leave those she called family, taking care of her son by herself, and now face-to-face against a giant monster that wanted to eat her.

  Lucia stopped and turned around. She did as the creature said, only in how she stopped running. But she would defy this thing to her last breath, she would survive. A spark ignited within her, a sudden burning rage flowed through her veins, and out her knife. The blood along its blade began to bubble. As crimson liquid evaporated and its clotted remnants began to fall away, a glowing orange was left in its place.

  “How about if you survive this, asshole!” Lucia shouted as she grabbed the plastic handle with both hands and slashed at the monster’s heel.

  The burning blade sunk past its skin and slashed right through its achilles tendon, severing sinew and muscle alike. A rush of pink ichor hemorrhaged from the wound as the creature lost its balance and fell to the floor.

  Seeing an opportunity to finish the creature off, Lucia stabbed her knife into its skin at the base of its leg, and began to run up the length of its body. She stopped when she realized her kitchen knife, now back to its old dull gray, hadn’t even gone far enough to draw blood.

  “Forget eating you,” the monster mumbled. “I just want to see you dead.”

  “No thanks,” Lucia squeaked as she turned around and ran once more.

  With her wrath fully expended, she was able to properly focus on getting away. The monster would keep chasing her, even with its injury, until it killed her. Lucia somehow doubted that its injury would get in the way of its superhuman stamina. She quickly glanced around and spotted a dense thicket of trees, and immediately ran towards it. She might not be able to run for much longer, but she could definitely hide.

  “You die now!” the creature shouted through a pained grunt.

  Lucia heard a terrible ripping noise behind her and turned her head to see what it was. To her absolute horror, the monster had ripped a massive tree out of the ground, and with all of its might, launched it at her.

  She kept running, she had no other option. The tree was flying too low to duck underneath and was too large to jump out of the way of. Besides, the inner spark that had turned her kitchen knife into a fiery fleshripper had run out. Her only hope was to make it to the thicket and hope that the trees there would be able to block the one barreling towards her.

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  Slam, slam slam. The sound of bark hitting the dirt grew closer and closer, but Lucia’s salvation was still another fifty feet away. She wasn’t fast enough, not strong enough. It truly looked like the end, yet her feet kept working.

  They did not stop even when a terrible shattering sound reverberated from behind her. The force accompanying it partially threw her off balance, but she kept going. Only when she was behind cover did she turn over to see what had happened.

  The tree had exploded at its center, split into an explosion of bark and two large pieces that rolled to either side of her.

  Lucia stared at the arboreal carnage and then at the monster, her mouth frozen in a gasp.

  A lone man slowly made his way towards the creature. He wore a long, white robe around his waist that went down to his feet. His chest was completely bare, save for a light amount of hair over his brown skin, coupled with a six-pack and rippling pecs. He held a bow in his left hand while his right reached for an arrow on the quiver strapped to his back.

  “Shame on you, trying to harm a harmless old woman,” the man said with a tsk.

  “Harmless?!” the monster roared, grabbing at its heel.

  “Old?!” Lucia roared, grabbing at her face.

  “Foul creature, I shall put an end to the carnage you have brought to this forest and those who travel through it!” He nocked the arrow and began making barely audible mutterings. The arrow’s tip began to glow bright red, then orange, before finally turning white hot.

  The monster stared him down, and doing its best to ignore its slashed heel, rose up and charged at the man.

  He simply kept walking towards it with a single eye open as he aimed his arrow.

  As the creature was about to pounce on the mystery man, he did the inconceivable. The archer jumped in the air, a full twenty feet, and landed on the monster’s head on a single soft foot. As the pair of bulging eyes turned upwards, he let go of the arrow. The glowing missile impaled the monster’s head with a brilliant flash of light. The man jumped off the creature’s head and landed gently on the ground in a graceful kneel.

  Behind him, the creature’s head began to noticeably swell as it stood still. Without warning, its eyes and ears ruptured in an instant, every single open orifice spewing an explosion of red hot blood, viscera, and all-engulfing flames. Screams of rage, rather than agony, could be barely heard above the sounds of its head turning to blackened ash.

  The air was tense for several seconds. The man slowly turned around and stared at the hemorrhaged corpse with creased brows, as if he was worried that the headless thing might suddenly spring back to life. As steam began to rise from the remaining wounds on its body, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

  “You’re safe now!” he shouted, turning over towards Lucia. “I hope it didn’t say or do anything to you that was untowards.”

  “Holy shit, that was awesome!” Lucia shouted as she walked over to him. “I mean, it did make some rude remarks, but a monster that ugly was probably just desperate, heh.”

  “You aren’t injured, are you? I hope it wasn’t able to lay its hands on you.”

  “Nope, perfectly fine here! Though if someone were to lay a hand on me, I wouldn’t mind it being you! Haha!” Lucia awkwardly chuckled, riding the high off her unexpected rescue.

  The man immediately nocked another arrow and aimed it at Lucia. “Foul rakshasi, you shall not tempt me!”

  Lucia froze in place, her smile quickly turning into a fearful frown. “Woah, woah, woah! I’m not tempting anyone here! And what the hell’s a raksh- rakish- that?”

  “Rakshasi, a demoness. A female rakshasa,” replied the man without moving a muscle. “And I’m already married, so your attempts at seduction are useless!”

  Lucia’s eyes were locked on the arrowhead, which was beginning to take on a deep red shade. “Hold on, I think we got off on the wrong foot here. I was still excited after mouthing off to that asshole behind you for what he said to me, and I guess I forgot to clean out my mouth afterwards. Sorry about that.”

  The man continued to stare at her with his weapon trained.

  “I’m no demon and I’m definitely not trying to seduce you, especially if you’re already married! I just want to get out of here alive and save my son…”

  The last word Lucia uttered acted as a key that opened a floodgate of emotion. Her eyes began to mist over and she fell to her knees, the harsh reality of the past two days finally catching up to her. Tears streamed down her face as she let loose all of her pain as a series of sobs.

  The man quickly un-nocked his arrow and ran towards Lucia. He went down to his own knee when he reached her, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder while handing over a hollowed out gourd filled with water. “What’s wrong, what happened? This isn’t the rakshasa’s doing.”

  Lucia took a deep gulp of water to calm herself and looked up at the man. “You’re the only decent person I’ve met so far, so let me start from the beginning.”