Hunted

Act-IX: Die Beast!!

'AHAAAA!' Roland's heart didn't seem to be working. He had fallen to the ground face down and had cranked his neck around to see what had happened. He wished he hadn't done that. Red eyes, fangs, claws. Roland's body turned, his legs kicked, his hands pulled at his sword, but the claws were already on him. 'NOOO!' there came a scream like no other, human, but no less than the god of thunder himself. Roland saw Commander Richard  tackle the beast to the ground. Roland's feet finally found the ground. The scene was really hard to process, his Commader was wrestling with what looked like a bigger version of the hell hounds they had encountered earlier. This one almost 10 times bigger, bigger even than Commander Richard and Roland combined. But this one seemed to be different somehow. Roland couldn't put his finger on it. It was only when the beast flung Commander Richard into the water, that Roland could see it. The beast apart from being big had human like features. It stood on its hind legs and had used its fore legs to throw the Commander into the reservoir. But like the others it still had an air of death about it.

By this time, Roland had his sword in his hands. He gripped it tight and swung it wild as he struggled to keep the beast at bay. This brilliant plan of his didn't work very well. The beast came at him without so much as flinching; Roland's sword cut deep through the centre of its chest. The beast screeched and lept at Roland. Roland, althought scared out of his wits, was a soldier. His body reacted instantly; he lept to his left and rolled on his back. The beast, seeing that it had missed the target landed, skid to the edge of the reservior in an attempt to stop. Roland was already on his feet, facing the creature, weapon ready, by the time the ridculously large dog was able to right itself. The hound first turned toward Roland on all fours and then rose to stand on its hind legs. Roland reared up and prepared to charge, he grunted and thrust his sword into the hound's torso. A spray of dark warm liquid hit Roland in the eye blinding him. He screamed as his eyes burned like the desert sun and frantically  tried to wipe his face. The beast also screamed and proceeded to try and remove the sword stuck in its gut. Roland Wipped just enough to see Commander Richard rising from the pool and thrusting his sword into the hound's spine; he then proceeded to tear through  the beast, upward, along its spine. Roland couldn't see the tip of Comander Richard sword but could make out his Commander moving the pommel. The beast, now screamed louder than ever, its blood shooting into to the Commander and the pool behind him.Comander Richard began chanting in swift latin. The hound, however, started to flail in the attemp to throw Commander Richard off balance. It didn't have to try much, on its second try it flung Commader Richard two yards to his right. Now with two swords sticking out of its body, the hound seemed more angrier, or at least Roland thought so seeing its eyes glow a deeper shade of red and hearing its growl grow louder. Commander Richard was on his feet almost instantly, he reached for the torch he had dropped earlier, it was still lit; with no proper weapons the templars knew that they stood no chance and Commander Richard's unsuccessful attempt to disspel the creature had left them with only one option 'RUN!' Commander Richard shouted at Roland as he threw the torch at the beast.

                                                                                                Roland was about to break for the entrance through which they had come just moments ago; he turned to run, the beast, as if it sensed their intent evaded the fire by leaping to the left and then with one big jump it blocked the entrance. The templars with no real avenue of escape, stood their ground staring into the beast's eyes. Roland was now trembling, unable to control his fear. He wanted to look toward the Knight Commander Richard, he wanted to assure himself that his Commander, the pride of the templars and a veteran duel master, would somehow get him out of this situation. But he couldn't turn to face his Commander, he couldn't tear his eyes from the beast's; he felt his legs go numb. His body seemed to be in some kind of trance, he waited and hoped that his Commander would call out to him, that his body would start moving once more.  None of these things happened. He then decided that his time would be best spent praying to the lord for mercy.

The hound growled and its mouth which was full of blood a moment ago had began to froth. Its saliva dripped down its blood soaked body and onto the ground. It was ready to attack. A person who had been close to death had once told Roland that his entire life flashed past him, the person had explained to him that this was the lord's way to make man repent for his sins. Nothing like that happened either. He could not think of anything else other than being torn like linen. The beast reared, pushed itself off the ground, took flight...

YAMUT YA HAYAWAAN...!!!