The creature was almost three times Maggie’s size. It had dark grey skin, but most of its body was covered in moss and some kind of vine, like some strange equivalent of fur. Its head was disproportionately big and it had a large bulky torso, followed by shorter, but sturdy legs. Its arms were thick, like tree trunks, and while its skin strongly resembled stone, it was still malleable and didn’t seem to hinder its movement. Maggie couldn’t tell if it was male or female. In truth, it barely looked like a living creature at all. She would think it was some kind of construct if it didn’t have some exaggerated, but still human-looking facial features. Its eyes were small and expressionless, beady like those of a shark. Its nose was very large, but human-like and covered most of its face, and its maw was large and looked like it could fit Maggie’s entire head in, which only made her even more terrified of it.

She thought the monster would attack her immediately, but as soon as it laid its eyes on her and announced its arrival with a loud roar, it stopped. It seemed curious, sniffing around and making strange noises. It reminded her of a bear inspecting a new meal.

The creature behaved weirdly robotically, with some slow, staggering movements, but maybe that was just due to its size and weight; the thing was so bulky that its movements were jerky and very predictable. It didn’t matter though. Maggie was already at her limit, and her movements were so slow that she might as well be moving in slow motion. She couldn’t see an outcome where she would survive fighting it directly.

“That thing is big Belinda, very big!” She hissed, trying and failing to keep her voice low, to not draw the monster’s attention. She watched in horror as the creature seemed to study her, crouched at the end of the corridor, like a predator waiting for its prey to move before pouncing. It was slowly raking at the stone floor with its massive fingers, leaving gauges behind and muttering something in a slow rumbling voice, like stones scraping against each other. Maggie wasn’t sure what it was doing, but if the goal was to intimidate her, it was working.

How big?

“I… I don’t know, three meters?”

What!? Can you still move? Fight?

“I… I think I can.” she answered, trying to get her body straight and grimacing in pain as her injuries flared up with the movement, “it just… Hurts. Everything still works, I think. But I am starting to feel a little lighter, tipsy.” She wasn't sure how much blood she lost, but she was clearly still bleeding. A small puddle was forming underneath her, where blood dripped from her arms, and there was already a red print on the wall behind her from it. Her coat was soaked with blood and glued to her skin, which might be the only thing slowing her bleeding. She thought about repositioning her haversack on her back and pulling its strings tighter, to try to pressure against her wounds, but she didn't want to trigger the creature with any unnecessary movements.

You need to get out of there, Maggie!

Belinda was right. She couldn't be in this stalemate for long; sooner than later she would bleed to death or the creature would just lose its curiosity and go after her.

So forcing her body the rest of the way up, she got to a standing position. The creature reacted to her movement, getting its back straight and letting a deep inquisitive huff in her direction, but still not moving. Extending her arms forward, as if to assure the monster she wouldn't attack, Maggie started to move back slowly, still trying not to trigger the creature. But as soon as she took a few steps backwards, it noticed her and let out a loud roar as if signaling the hunt was on. It suddenly pushed forward with a jump, charging towards her like a silver-back gorilla going after its enemy, loudly scraping its massive hand against the wall.

Watching the creature quickly approaching, Maggie turned around, forgetting subtlety to bolt out of there as fast as she could, but she didn’t react fast enough. In only a few seconds the monster matched their distance. Like a massive hammer, it brought its arm down towards her, trying to smash her to the ground.

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Wide-eyed, Maggie watched in horror as the giant’s hand approached her head, but at the last moment, she managed to throw her body forward, more out of panic than anything, tumbling away from the attack. The floor cracked under the creature’s fist and it let out a deep guttural roar, making the walls rumble; its putrid breath and saliva flying on Maggie’s face. She was thankful that she only had eaten some biscuits, or she would have emptied her stomach right there. But she had bigger problems to worry about right now than puking. Before she could move away from the creature, it followed its last attack with a second punch. Taking a step back, Maggie just barely managed to dodge the attack, the wind of its fist caressing her face. With a loud bang, the creature's arm hit the wall close to her head and exploded the stone surface; its arm getting stuck inside a hollow pocket of air inside the stone wall.

Before the creature could pull its arm out, seeing an opportunity to attack, Maggie lashed at it, trying to bury her knife deep into the inside of its elbow and hopefully leave some damage before running away. As soon as her knife hit the creature's skin, though, to her dismay, it bounced back. It did barely any damage, only leaving a small indentation in its wake. She was in shock. That bloody skin could be real stone for all she knew!

The creature seemed to have gotten annoyed by her attack, though. With its other free arm, it tried to lash at her again, swinging it aimlessly in Maggie's direction. But she was already moving away from its reach. She thought about trying to draw her crossbow and shoot at it; considering its size, there was no way she could miss the thing at short range and the extra punch from the crossbow would probably deliver more damage than her with a knife, but she quickly gave up on the idea. Considering the time she would take to arm the thing and shoot, especially with all her injuries slowing her, the creature would probably be back moving again. No, she needed to get out of there, fast.

Run!

She didn't stop this time. Turning back she ran at full speed.

“Where?” She asked, looking back to see the monster finally pulling its arm out of the hole.

Just run!

“That thing has legs bigger than me, Belinda! I think they will catch on to me sooner or later if I just keep running”

Try to get some distance from it while I think of something!

With the few seconds she gained while the monster had its arm stuck in the wall, Maggie ran, hoping that now that she managed to hit full speed, she would be fast enough to keep ahead of the creature long enough to miss it and that maybe, just maybe, she could lose the creature in the cave's curves.

***

She was getting tired. Her body hurt like hell and she felt like she would just collapse if she ever stopped moving. She was running for a full minute when Belinda suddenly called her attention.

Okay, I think I have something.

“Ye-Yeah?”

So far this trial has always presented us with a way to solve our problems.

You said there was something in the room with the automatized fire contraptions?

“Yes… In the middle of the fire,” She answered between breaths.

Perhaps we will find a way to defeat our new foe there. That's all I can think of.

“Belinda, I… I can barely run. You want me to do some parkour in a room filled with fire?”

You will have to. We need at least a full minute or two to use the Healing Salve. Can you realistically say you can outrun it to the point where you will have enough time to heal and find whatever is in that room?

Maggie considered it for a moment, but Belinda was right. She would probably have to face it before she could heal herself and go through the fire course.

“…Dang it.”

She continued running towards their new objective.

The sound of the creature’s step was getting ever so quieter, but it never ceased for more than a few seconds. Despite her wounds, Maggie was still faster than the bulky creature, and the sinuous format of the corridor was helping her. But she wouldn't be able to run for much longer, and considering there weren’t a lot of places to go in this cave, sooner or later the creature would find her.

She quickly turned around and started running towards the other path that led to the burning room. She was praying that the two options of path would confuse the creature, but somehow, she doubted she would be so lucky.

Before she knew it, she arrived at their destiny. The now familiar warmth of the room hit her skin as she approached its cursed entrance. It was now or never.

She untied her haversack from her back and threw it at the side, not wanting it and the crossbow’s weight to slow her down, and did the same to the crossbow bolts’ bag.

She stopped for a few seconds, to get her breathing a bit more controlled, and closing her eyes, tried her best to get to the right state of mind to face her new challenge. Well, the best as she could, considering her circumstances.

With one last deep breath, she opened her eyes and bolted forward.

“Alright. Here I go!”