Chapter 44 - Chapter 44: The Predators - Part 2

Chapter 44: The Predators – Part As Olivia turned to face the one that had taken a large bite of her leg, she was greeted by its paws and claws heading right for her face. It all happened so fast, and with a block that was more akin to scared flailing, Olivia managed to hit it with the pole of her spear.

She managed to knock it off course, sending it at her shoulder, keeping her face intact. But this did mean that the weight of it hitting her shoulder caused her to fall with it.

With her hitting the ground, the beast landed just ahead of her and rolled along the ground into a tree. It would have been funny had she not needed to defend herself almost instantly as she saw the other tiger-like thing closing in and heading straight towards her.

It ran at full pelt, its wound be dammed, and Olivia only had the option to roll out of the way as it pounced.

Barely getting out of the way by the skin of her teeth, she brought her spear up, holding it in both hands to block, which thankfully saved her life.

The massive monster having missed its first pounce was back on her very quickly, jumping at her again. With Olivia’s spear in the way, it ended with its front legs over the spear, stuck in mid-air as it tried with all its might to scratch at her face. Olivia on the other hand was stuck having to push with all her strength to keep the thing from being close enough to reach her face.

While it did still flail about to try and reach her face, it still had plenty of other weapons at its disposal. It used its hind legs to dig deep into the flesh of her legs, scratching and clawing away, causing cries to arise from her throat. This though was outdone by how the horrible thing used its tail. Still stuck in the same position, it swished the tail high into the air, tilted the spike on the end downwards, and plunged it into the lower portion of her leg, digging deep into her, practically scraping against the bone. It was excruciating and she knew she had to get out of this fast.

With every attack it did elsewhere on her body, it only made her weaker and weaker, and little by little the spear she was holding got nearer and near to her face. Which meant so did its claws.

Sweat rolled down her face, the situation only growing worse as she noticed the other beast in the corner of her eye, managing to get up and start making its way over to her. It did however limp as it moved, likely due to the lump of wood stuck through its leg, causing blood to gush out with every step.

Lyrika was still terrified of the scene and didn’t know what to do, but upon hearing Olivia cry out, she knew she face these creatures and fight back against the fear she was feeling. She was however out of arrows, but given how her shooting had been under the stress of it all, she may have ended up hitting Olivia anyway if she had some left. So, she worked up her courage, stood up, and dashed towards Olivia with her knife in hand, making it to her before the limping tiger thing did. Once there, she hefted it up high in the air, and lunged it down into the beast, stabbing just above the base of its tail.

The beast roared out in pain and anger as it felt the metal dig into its body. The damage was minor against the animal as a whole, but upon inspection, it would seem that where she hit, had done something to the tail, it now lay limply at its side, not moving at all.

Lyrika pulled the knife out, it squelching as it did and blood slatting against her face, and went to give it another blow. But the animal in its fury kicked its legs out, hitting Lyrika in the chest knowing her to the ground.

The attack was also a very good distraction. As it felt the knife, it stopped what it had been doing to focus on what had caused it pain, which meant it stopped clawing away at Olivia, as it tried to figure out what had happened. This gave Olivia a good opportunity to get this thing off of her. Which is what she did.

No longer being put through the constant pain of claws embedded in her, she was able to push her spear up and to the side, turning the tables on the beast, allowing her to topple it and force it on its back.

With the tables turned, the beast frantically kicked its paws out trying to latch onto something, which in a few cases it did, but Olivia grinned and bared it as more skin was ripped from her body. With her on top now, she used all her weight and strength to push the shaft of the spear downwards, into its neck, hoping to crush it and cut off its airwaves.

Blood was pouring out of all her wounds and the pain was unbearable, but she had to take this thing down. With a scream of anger, she gave a final push and was rewarded by the sound of bones breaking. With a few more pants, the beast slowed down its movements and finally lay still.

Olivia just wanted to rest at this point as she rolled off onto the floor. She had won. But as she heard a quick yelp from behind her, her mind cleared and she remembered the other one and Lyrika being knocked down.

Looking over to where yelp came from, she found her target. But she also saw Lyrika facing off against it. She had managed to recover from the blow the beast gave her, but now she was stuck facing one on her own. It probably fought Olivia was down for the count, its partner having taken care of her, and so went for Lyrika instead.

Not going to stand for that, Olivia moved to get up, only to find that the damage the bites, stabs and scratches had done was more damage than she realised, making it practically impossible to walk. So, she had to do the next best thing and used all her strength to crawl over to Lyrika and the other one.

She dug her nails into the dirt trying to find purchase and pulled herself along. Scraping her body and fresh wounds along the rocks and ground only added to the pain, but she did not let that stop her. Looking up at where she was going, she saw that even though it was limping it still managed to move and defend itself and was getting closer to its target.

Lyrika kept moving backwards and looked over at Olivia. She was tempted to just run, as with its limp, it would not be able to catch up. But, it did still have all of its weapons, so to speak, so she knew that if she left, it would just turn to Olivia. And with her crawling along the floor, a quick stab of its tail could be the end of her. So, for that reason, she tried to keep its attention on her, while trying to fight it.

As Olivia hurried, crawling as fast as she could, she watched as Lyrika swung the knife in her hand at it, forcing it to recoil, growling in pain as it moved. The next time Lyrika went for another swipe though, the thing had managed to back away again, but also extended its tail out in order to stab at her hand. Unable to react in time, given the speed of the thing, the spike on its tail scratched along the surface of her skin and penetrated the edge, slicing the skin between her thumb and first finger. She cried out from the pain and ended up dropping the knife as the damage it did, messed with her grip on her weapon.

Now weaponless, all she could do was back away, looking for something else to use as she did. The beast though, managed to somehow gain a burst of energy and forced itself to move faster even with its broken leg.

But, before it could reach Lyrika, Olivia hefted her spear up and swung down as hard as she could, hoping that either the edge of the spear would cut it deeply or that the weight of the staff and force of her strike would break some bones.

*crunch*

“…”

Olivia thought to be happy hearing that sound, but she soon realised that was not the be. The little terror must have had a sixth sense or something as it got out of the way so that only the tip of the spear scraped down its side. The crunch came as it landed on its bad foot, and all but collapsed, shattering the bone that was broken. It roared out in pain, blood now dripping from all the cuts and damage it had gained.

The attack Olivia had made had exhausted her quite a lot, and so she ended up gasping for breath as she lay face down on the floor, with the spear rolling out of her hand.

The problem was that where she lay was not far from where the beast was, making her easy prey for it.

As Lyrika tried to move, she was assaulted by its tail again, as it turned, and headed over to the now weaker prey. It moved to Olivia’s side and lunged for Olivia’s arm biting into it hard, causing more screams of pain to rise from her. It pulled back and went again, this time changing its angle and heading to her neck instead.

But before did, Lyrika had managed to grab the spear and lunged with all her might at the horrible creature, gouging a hole into its side and forcing it off of her.

She did not get off scot-free however, her screams of pain showed that. The monster having tried to keep her back with its tail had continued to do so, but Lyrika knew she had to just go for it to save Olivia. So, she had charged in to grab the spear, receiving a punction wound to the side of her body from its tail.

As Olivia’s vision grew blurry and her arms grew tired she saw Lyrika with tears in her eyes, yet standing tall, stabbing over and over again with all her might in the creature, where it yelped and cried out on the ground.

It tried to pull its tail back and go for another swipe at her, but the damage she had done to it, made it impossible for the thing to move it. It also tried to get up, moving its legs back and forth, but Lyrika in her frustration and anger kept it pinned to the ground as she kept stabbing it.

Over.

And over.

And over again.

Which she kept on doing until the spear broke. Splinters of wood flew off and embedded themselves in both the beast’s and Lyrika’s legs.

The sound of her crying and then screeching in pain, managed to shock Olivia out of her daze and fight back against the pain. She then called for Lyrika, who finally stopped attacking the now thoroughly dead creature before crawling over to her and pulling her into a hug.