Running through a forest with a giant ogre throwing trees at you was one thing. Running through dark tunnels, however, was something else entirely and much, much worse.

Kass would have chosen a thousand times over to be back in the forest rather than deep underground. Sight alone was the biggest reason. The thing chasing behind her was a close second, but what was the difference between a big evil cat thing and a giant man eating ogre? To her, basically nothing.

In reality, the thing chasing her was much, much more dangerous. Either way she was terrified. At first she ran through the tunnels with reckless abandon, trying to get as much distance between herself and the cat as possible, but the tunnel wasn’t straight. It twisted and turned constantly, and more often than not she was running into things and stumbling over unseen objects. Now bleeding, exhausted, terrified, bruised, blind and helpless she tried to calm herself down a bit.

She paused for a split second, listening for sounds in either direction, trying to rely on her other senses to get her through this. She heard nothing, save for her own ragged breathing. The lack of sound scaring her more than if she had heard something in the tunnels behind her.

She was almost certain that the cat was after her, but she had no way of really knowing. An image of a stalking panther flashed through her mind and she instantly began moving again, putting her sword arm out in front of her and the other touching the rough wall of the tunnel.

She could feel warm blood rushing down her leg from a gash she gained in the first minutes of running in the dark with a sharp sword in her hand, not to mention the dozen or more bruises all over her body. Shit. That’s a lot of blood.

She felt queasy thinking about it, knowing that she was probably just leaving a thick aromatic trail for the cat to hunt her at its leisure. It didn’t matter how far she went or how fast she was, it would be able to follow the scent easily.

A choking despair crept up her throat rising like bile, suffocating her, eroding away at her resolve. The walls she’d built to hold back the panic felt paper thin. She had nothing to bind the wound. No band-aid, no gauze wrap, no way to tie it off. Her only option was to run, to keep running, and then to run some more. To get the hell out of this cave. That or wake up from whatever hellish dream she was trapped in with giants and swords and way more blood than she was comfortable with coming out of her body.

Several minutes passed as she made her way through the maze-like corridors. She did her best to move as quick as possible without injuring herself further. After what seemed like five or six quick switchback turns, Kass made out a small bit of light in the distance. Finally!

With renewed hope for survival she rushed forward, closing the distance between her and the light. A quick glance behind her revealed nothing and she thought that maybe, just maybe the beast had given up.

Bursting from the tunnel Kass found herself in what she would describe as a deep crevice. Far above her the sky was visible, bordering the jagged lines of the earth that snaked away from her. Tall walls of dirt rose to either side of her, less than ten feet apart. Ahead she could see that the passage widened a bit before narrowing considerably.

Still very unfamiliar with her surrounding Kass decided to slow down a bit. For all she knew there would be more of those cats around here, or considering her luck it would be something much worse. Like a giant spider or something…

She shuddered at the thought as she carefully picked her way through the new terrain. There wasn’t much plant life this far down, only the occasional spiky thing that looked deadly enough. Probably poisonous too...better not touch them.

After skirting past one such plant, Kass heard a slight sound behind her. Whipping her head back the way she'd come, she watched with horror as the cat slowly stalked out of the dark tunnel, barbed tail lifted above its head and pointing directly at her. Less than fifty feet separated the two.

From the closer distance it was easier to make out certain details, like the two rows of sharp teeth and the wet matted fur that covered its lithe body. None of these things helped rid her of the paralysis that rooted her in place. Her body seemingly unwilling to move as she stared at the predator. A hiss emanated from the beast, its tail moving back and forth slightly as it paused, as if sizing her up.

A moment passed, predator looking at prey, neither moving for what seemed like forever to Kass. She screamed at her body to move, but it remained rooted, knowing that as soon as she moved, the monster would move too.

It was the beast that broke the standoff first, probably realizing she was no more of a threat than a fattened pig. In one quick movement the cat lunged at the wall of the crevice, landing sideways and running across it, slamming its tail into it to add momentum and keep it from falling. It’s running on the wall. Of course it is. You have got to be kidding me.

The cat had already hit the wall by the time Kass reacted. She pivoted her feet and took off, not caring to dodge the spiky plants anymore as she barreled towards the narrow section of the passage. Even running at full speed it only took a few seconds for the beast to catch up to her, still wallrunning and coming up on her right flank.

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The crevice began to narrow as Kass glanced back at the beast that was hot on her tail. There was nothing she could do though, it was much faster than she was and there was nowhere for her to go. Even the narrow section ahead of her was still plenty wide for this beast to move through. Without any other options she kept running, jumping as best she could over the deadly looking plants while still making sure she maintained her footing.

A quick movement to her right and before she knew it, the cat was soaring through the air above her. At the last second Kass saw the spiked tail rushing down to skewer her. She pivoted off her left foot and lunged right, narrowly avoiding the strike as it sailed past her left shoulder. To her surprise the cat landed on the opposite wall, not slowing in the slightest as it easily kept pace with her.

Three strides later and it lunged again, using the same method as last time. Kass was more ready for it this time and positioned herself to dodge at the last second again, once it was fully committed and unable to redirect the tail.

The plan made it sound easy enough, but the moment the tail moved in to strike, Kass knew she wouldn’t be able to dodge it fully. It came from an awkward angle, mostly out of her line of sight while running forward. She let instinct take over as her body twisted to avoid the strike. The sharp spear-like tip missed her right hip by half an inch, sailing past her and digging deep into the ground. However as it passed, the sharp barbs that surrounded the spear tip nicked her skin, drawing deep lines into her flesh.

She cried in pain as she fought to regain balance, ultimately failing and crashing to the ground. She tucked and rolled, losing her grip of the sword as she fell.

Pain seeped into her and Kass knew something was wrong. The cuts on her hip flared sharply and a quick glance showed a white foam collecting on the outside of the wound. “Aghh…” she groaned, picking herself up to her knees as quick as she could and glancing around.

She found the cat a few yards away, pacing back and forth, cutting off her escape. Its teeth were bared and its tail flicked side to side. “Stop playing with your food and get it over with already!” she yelled through gritted teeth, pain racking her entire body.

She fought hard to stay on her knees, still not wanting to give up. She knew it was hopeless though. Whatever poison or venom was coursing through her body would probably finish her off soon enough.

The cat just watched her as it paced, even moving backwards a few feet when she yelled. Confused, Kass looked around her, expecting to find another terrifying beast behind.

Instead, she found the sword. It was a little off to the right, and it was glowing. It wasn’t a bright glow, but Kass knew it contained power of some sort. At first she hadn’t noticed it, but all around her something pulsed. It was almost tangible, so much so that she could almost taste it, and it created a feeling in the air that Kass had never felt before. Almost like the air felt before a lightning storm. The air...is electrified.

The venom cut through her again, tensing up all of her muscles at once, like a body wide muscle spasm. She planted both hands on the ground and tried her hardest not to pass out. It felt like her brain was being compressed along with the rest of her. Each muscle flexed uncontrollably and the pain was almost unbearable.

After a few seconds it passed and Kass retched onto the ground, unable to control herself. She slowly moved back up, to sit slightly on her heels. She glanced at the sword again, judging to see if she could get to it in time before she would be skewered. The cat growled deeply as she did, as if reading her thoughts. The beast had moved slightly closer to her after her last episode with the venom, and Kass could tell that the electric air was growing weaker. It was less noticeable and the glow from the weapon had dimmed considerably.

Aware that her time was coming to an end Kass became desperate. She gripped a handful of dirt and threw it at the cat while at the same time rolling sideways towards the blade. She reached it and slammed her hand around the grip, power instantly surged through her, numbing her pain and clearing her senses. The sensation surprised her and she almost lost concentration, but something pulled her along and she found herself rolling once more to the side.

Her arm whipped and the blade slashed out as she came back around and she watched as it tore through the tail of the beast that had smashed into the ground right where she had been a split second before. The beast roared and leapt away, distancing itself from her. Half of its tail remained, twitching in the dirt, yellow blood seeping into the dirt. Fighting another seizure from the venom with the help of the sword, Kass stood and faced the cat. It continued to back slowly away from her, but after a lunge and a yell from Kass the beast scampered off, leaping from wall to wall until it reached a hole above and disappeared inside.

I really hope it’s not just waiting up there to pounce on me again… She sighed and fell back to her knees, unable to stay on her feet because of the pain.

She looked at the tail next to her that had finally stopped twitching, slightly proud of herself that she had been able to do that. What the hell have I turned into? And what the hell is this thing? She stared at the dark sword in her hand and then pulled it in close to her in silent gratitude.

After a brief moment of consideration and then another moment of intense agony, Kass decided she needed to move. She also decided to take the tail with her, avoiding the barbed end of course, and prayed to whoever was listening that the wet fur wouldn’t be poisonous as well. It wasn’t, to her relief. She figured that either she could use the thing in self defense or at the very least maybe the thing would ward off other predators.

She looked around her and then down at herself. Her legs were a bloody mess, both of them covered in red grime. Her knees were scuffed to hell as well as her elbows, having caught her falls more than a few times. She was covered in dirt from head to toe, the blood not at all helping by collecting dirt, especially in her wounds.

Her clothes fared just as bad. Her shirt was now fully torn from her back to her left armpit, hanging loosely around her body. Her shorts had been cut through from the attack of the cat, as well as her spandex underneath. Luckily both were still functional as well as her sports bra that didn’t seem to have any damage to it other than the dirt that clung to it.

Kass inspected the wound on her hip and wasn’t pleased to see it was oozing a yellow pus that slowly dripped down her shorts and leg. Shit. Shit shit shit. What am I supposed to do about this? Despair gripped her and after another sharp pain from the venom, she doubted she would survive another day if not another couple hours. Without anything else to do, she slowly walked to a small alcove she spotted in the crevice wall, holding the still glowing sword in her right hand and dragging the tail behind her in her left. When she reached the small opening she ducked inside and sat down hard on her butt. She closed her eyes briefly and they soon filled with tears. After all that and I’m still going to die…

Trying to distract herself Kass looked at the thing’s tail a bit closer. She wasn’t sure why, but for some reason it wasn’t disgusting to her. Maybe it was because of everything she had to go through just to do that much to the beast. Or maybe she had just snapped and become a crazy person in just over a day since arriving here.

Whatever the reason be, she was instead slightly fascinated with what she held in her hands. She had cut off around four feet of it, and for the most part it was just the matted fur that was covered in a thin slime. The barbed tail was only around six inches long from start to finish. The skin underneath the fur was tough though, she could tell. Just running a finger over it felt like there was some sort of metal underneath. As she was staring at it, suddenly a blue text hovered above the tail, startling her.

Balmorhea Tail

Balmor...What the…