Kraaaaaaawwgh!

After Hope had disentangled the ropes of thistles, he turned and ripped away two femur bones, broke off the heads, and placed them on each side of his right forearm.

He tightly secured them with the thistles, wrapping it up like a bundle of wires till he could see no more gaps in between. He did the same process to the rest top of his arm.

Boom!

The etchings on the sealed door pulsed with each impact from the beast. Almost like a ticking time bomb before it would eventually give in. The sound of stone cracking layered and stretched not just on the doors, but on the walls as well.

'Dammit is the whole cavern going to collapse at this point?'

Finally, Hope grabbed a cluster of bloodbane berries with his right hand and another broken femur in his left with its sharp broken tip.

Hope paused as he stood up and glanced down.

'This is a bad idea…'

The prickly stems were tightly twined around his arm down to his palm as if it were in a cast, and his right hand which held the bloodbane berries were stained red. Hope planned for the broken femur in his left hand to serve as a weapon against the beast, but would that be enough?

"..."

'A bone…against…a damned beast…"

Doubt filled his mind, but he couldn't back out now.

It was better for him to die trying rather than to accept fate.

He took a stance away from the door for about ten meters. The beast's roars reverberated through the walls and the cracks on the door grew bigger and bigger…

Hope felt his heart thumping loudly in his ears as he waited and…

CRASH!

The stone double-doors crumbled to the floor and there emerged a shadow at its chasm slowly advancing through the clouds of dust into the cavern's blue ambience. The beast snarled and shook off pieces of rubble on its back, its glowing eyes like two floating discs before the dust cleared.

This was the first time Hope properly laid eyes on it.

At first it looked like a wolf…and slightly young? He wasn't sure how he knew, but it looked like it hadn't fully matured yet. It was also about neck height level. It had burnished black skin with a scorched black, red mane around its neck. Embers kindled through its bristly strands and eyes lit like yellow flames as they both met each other's gaze. When it snarled, its teeth were like polished ebony with glints of blood dripping off its canines.

But despite its intimidating stature, the beast was brutally wounded.

Hope slightly stiffened as he counted the wounds on its back. Traces of hands grappling onto its skin and tearing off layers from it were visible even from this distance.

Did the stone statues really cause this? Just how vicious was the fight between them?

Oil-black blood trickled down its side, and small chunks of flesh were missing. Even its lower jaw seemed dislocated; the mandible awkwardly crooked to one side and half of its face was lopsided as well. Or was that just how ugly it looked?

Either way, it looked pissed off.

'Fast and big...'

Hope narrowed his eyes.

Had Hope fought dormant beasts up close before? Yes.

Awakened beasts? Also, yes.

Of course, with a team by his side and with formidable weapons at hand.

This however seemed anything but a normal beast. It obviously was an awakened beast, but its powers were different. Ones that were akin to almost an aspect's ability power that carried a fire attribute; either it created fire or was immune to it, or both.

But if Hope could simplify his situation, in which he really needed to in this dire situation, it was just one beast.

Some, but not all beasts, had the same attack pattern at their core. Which was having barely any gaps between two to five attacks and, for this beast's height and type of creature, always aimed for the head, neck, or belly.

So flashy tricks of flipping around or somersaulting were out of the question.

Hope just had to think of this like any other fight he had as a soldier. Minus the strength gap between him and the monster alone, the feeble weapons he was using instead, and no armor.

"Tsk…"

If there was one thing he had enough faith in during battle, it was instinct. From what he could recall, it had never failed him.

Hope took one step back and held up the bone like a dagger in front of his eyes.

"Come on then."

Grrrrrrrrrr….

The beast eyed him as it slowly circled around the room sniffing the air. Its nose probably being filled with the overwhelming smell of death from all the numerous bloods collected on the soil and the long-rotted bones scattered at their feet. An intoxicating smell for it.

It paused in its tracks and Hope got himself ready.

Hope noticed the slight bend in the beast's knees before it lunged towards him, its snapping jaws directed at Hope's head with such ferocity.

Hope quickly dove off to the side, rolled back to his feet and then leapt back again to avoid the second strike.

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Just as he predicted, the strike went high for his throat, but the beast missed.

The beast let out a throaty growl as it slashed its third attack next.

Hope ducked in time and pressed his advantage, driving the broken femur into the beast's flank as he moved past it.

Kraaaaaaaar!

Hope quickly distanced himself meters away and turned around to see the mark he made on the beast.

Well, he did leave a mark, but nothing that reached crucially underneath the skin.

'Just as I thought-'

The beast came at him again with another lunge, striking with a low, ankle-slicing blow. Hope quickly tried to jump back, but its claws caught onto the edge of his priest garment pulled Hope downwards and he slammed to the ground.

His whole side felt numb for an instant.

Hope quickly looked up and saw the beast rear its head back before diving it down towards his throat.

Hope rolled to the left then swung his arm behind him in a deliberate motion, the strike drawing blood from above the beast's eyes.

The beast roared and backed off, the spray of its black, red blood filling its vision.

Hope gasped for breath as he regained his stance, a stream of thoughts flooding his mind as he reassessed the situation.

It didn't seem possible that he could kill the beast with a piece of broken bone alone. Especially not deep enough on the surface. It was too thick. The stone statues were able to do some great damage but only because they attacked in numbers.

Realistically, he would definitely die, and the beast would inevitably win.

But maybe he should change his objective.

Putting aside the value of his life, what could he do that was guaranteed?

He could make it hurt.

No matter how and what the outcome may be, he wanted the beast to hurt by his hand long after he died.

The pain was just the annoying necessary factor to achieve that goal.

The beast growled as it glanced back at the scratch Hope made on its flank, then tried shaking off the blood on its face. Hope noticed the blood mixed in its eyes produced an orange glow like that of sunset.

It probably was annoyed that a mere human could land a finger on it.

The beast snarled and bared its fangs as it lunged forward again, only this time it moved from side to side in a zig-zag fashion before outstretching its black arm towards him.

Hope jumped back and dodged as the beast reached for his belly. Then he tried to twist himself in a different direction to avoid the second strike.

However, he lost his footing and felt his heel trip over a skull.

'Dammit!'

This whole terrain did not give him an advantage to serve as a proper battlefield. Not enough concrete ground to maneuver through.

The odds just seemed to be getting lower and lower as he continued this fight-

'Wait...Don't fucking tell me it's because of the [Black Sheep] Attribute-'

His thoughts were interrupted as the beast reached forward with open jaws during his midfall. However, his mistake from tripping over the skull helped him slightly.

Instead of reaching for his head, the beast's jaws clamped onto his shoulder.

That was where the luck ended though.

A tearing bite ripped into Hope's shoulder as teeth and skin made contact.

In the next moment, the beast started to shake its head violently like a predator would with its prey. Its disgusting hot foul slobber ran down Hope's neck in the process.

Hope hissed as it felt like acid was scorching his skin.

But now that he was finally in close-range, although he wished for it in a different way, he reached up and thrusted his left arm.

Shiiiik-!

The bone shard was shoved right into its eye.

The beast let out a shrill yelp, immediately dropping him as it writhed its head in agony.

Hope disoriented scrambled back to gain distance, barely avoiding the flying claws and thrashing arms as he rolled away clumsily over the field of bones.

Krrraaaaaaar! Kraaaaar!

As the beast tried to claw the bone shard out of its eye, Hope desperately crawled towards the furthest wall.

He was nauseous from all the shaking and grappled onto the wall as he climbed to his feet. He turned and met eyes with the beast.

Or eye…

Blood oozed out of the beast's right eye, filling the hole with gush of red and black torn flesh as it leaked down its snout. The beast snarled at him; its black lips pulled back in contempt. Its lower jaw hung awkwardly to the side as it let out a low guttural sound at him.

With ragged breathing, Hope pushed himself off the wall as he staggered forward.

"Had enough?"

Grrrrrrrrrrrr...

The beast growled in response.

The look of grim determination on the beast's face was illuminated by the water's brilliant blue.

For a moment, Hope thought he could also hear the faint screams echoing ominously in the air from all the dead who died in this cavern. But strangely to Hope, the dying screams reminded him of the sound of cheers. A raw cry that resembled a lot like the conquering of battlefields back in the waking world.

Hope never paid much mind to those cheers, but at the moment he felt a small spark stir within him, what one may call a motivating force.

It kindled, hot and cold, for one more desperate move to end this hellish nightmare.

The beast growled, its teeth red with Hope's blood.

In Hope's eyes, he might as well be dead. He may even join the owners of all those dying voices after this.

Hope grunted as he straightened himself.

"Tsk…Good…"

Kraaaaaaawwr!

The beast let out one loud final roar and charged towards Hope.

Its body rippled through the air with such raw power.

But instead of retreating, Hope surged forward.

Before they could meet in the middle, he forced his body to side-step at the last moment, his muscles screaming at the sudden transition as he moved to the left. However, it was not enough for him to avoid the beast's attack.

But it wasn't to dodge the beast either.

Hope then thrusted his whole right arm into the beast's hot gaping jaws.

With the beast's indisputable weight, Hope was knocked onto his back.

Pain ripped through him, but regardless, he grabbed onto the beast's mane and shoved his right arm deeper into its throat.

The beast tried to bite his arm off, but his arm was already far down its throat and its broken mandible couldn't properly close all way, especially not with the bones Hope armored his arm with.

The feeling of the beast's hot burning slobber was starting to soak through.

His arm felt like it was drowned in boiling water.

But Hope didn't mind. That would make things a lot easier actually because he had the bloodbane berries and its prickly thistles right where he needed them to be.

Rrrrrraaaaaaaaaq!

How many bloodbane berries did it take to kill a human? Three? Seven?

But how about for a beast?

And for how long?

Hope thought a thick cluster of berries would do the trick. As long as he kept them in the beast's throat long enough, they would have done some effective damage.

If not…well then, he tried his best.

Hope hugged the beast with his whole body just before the beast started to shake its head violently. Then it began to roll all over the ground. Hope felt his body squish and bones crack, or was that the skeleton's bones breaking beneath them? He couldn't tell anymore as he held on.

Maybe it was anger. Or pride. But if he was going to die, then he was not going to leave the beast unscathed from a fight with a mere human.

Rrraaaaaaq!?

At this point Hope didn't know how much time had passed.

Maybe it was ten seconds.

Maybe it was a minute.

Either way, he still refused to let go with every fiber of his being. He didn't want to give the beast a chance to throw up these poisonous berries just yet.

Raaaq! Raaq!

The beast let out another ghastly sound as it stubbornly refused to swallow.

'Just a little longer-'

Hope felt its mane start to heat up at that moment.

'Shit shit shit-'

Its elemental power was now finally revealing its true form.

Before its mane could be set completely on fire, Hope hugged the head tighter one last time and jammed his arm as far as he could till his shoulder was partially in the beast's jaws.

He felt the thistles scrape the inside of its throat and the mush of berries leaking from his hand, disappearing down its gullet and into its stomach.

Krraaaaaaaaaaar!

Its mane finally set ablaze, and the world had gone bright white. From his waist up, he felt his body become scorched, the flames eating through his garment then his skin. A thousand needles all stabbed him at once till he could he feel no more.

A stench of burning flesh vaguely touched his senses.

Krrrrraarr!

The beast gave one last violent shake and this time Hope let go.

His body flew across the cavern floor, and another wave of pain exploded inside of him. Somewhere in that same instance, he could hear the beast screeching and gagging as though it was being torn from the inside.

Hope's body rolled through the soil and the graveyard of bones like a broken doll.

And then…

SPLASH!

…into the water.