Terra Natus

IV

It leapt through the tree line then paused, growling, its front crouched low and ready; taking in the scene. It snapped and snarled there, foaming at the mouth, its backside, where he could still see his three arrows from earlier, prancing back and forth.

It was the most hideous, distorted, unnatural creature he had ever seen. In the early dark of the morning, he had thought it to be some unfortunate, mutilated wolf, with that same type of back legs and hair. But now he saw that it was far more difficult to categorize.

It had a bald head, and an upper body shape that looked as though it could stand upright like a man, yet it seemed perfectly comfortable in the four legged position it was in as well.

Its three fingers and thumb were more claws than muscle, and it had no ears, just holes.

The thick dark hair from its legs became scarce once it reached the torso, revealing the skin, which was more the color he would attribute to a cold blooded creature; transparent, and tinged with blues and greens.

The jaw was unnaturally long, the mouth unnaturally wide, the sharp angled teeth exposed. A thick steady stream of drool pooling at the base of them before spilling out.

He looked down at the girl's crouched form below him, and glared.

Had she been setting him up for this attack? All of it nothing more than an elaborate trap?

Hot anger filled him. But unfortunately, he didn't have time to do anything to her at the moment, as the beast lunged then, charging straight for him.

He shot the arrow that should have been for her, and three others besides, before it reached him. All of them landed in the creature's face, even one in the eye, though it did nothing to slow the thing down. In fact, the creature didn't even seem to register that it had been hit before leaping to take him out at the shoulders, using its momentum to force him all the way down to his back.

He hit the ground hard, but had no time to catch his breath, as the creature began clawing at his chest, arms, and face. Thankfully, the protruding arrows kept it from biting him. Unfortunately, they didn't keep it from trying. Its efforts, managing to knock them free in the process, until eventually only the one in its eye remained.

The arrows should have gone deeper than they had, which meant that this beast must have a really strong skull.

Sensations of pain burned across his face where the flesh was torn.

He hated pain.

Too much feeling. Too much all at once.

White stars took over his sight as he was jostled and ripped this way and that. Still, he managed to retrieve his knife from his side without having to look towards it.

Stabbing deep into the beast's side, he pulled the blade down through its flesh and muscle mercilessly. Yet still it did not stop in its attack, or even really react to the injury at all!

Desperate now, he tried moving, flipping, shoving, anything to get out of the way of those claws! But to no avail.

His kind were amazing warriors, but that was from a distance. Theoretically, an enemy wasn't supposed to live long enough to get this close. Though, he'd obviously never faced an enemy quite like this before.

This creature didn't seem to have regular weaknesses, such as pain and a sense of self-preservation...or simply dying from multiple arrow wounds!

Then suddenly, something changed.

He wasn't sure why, but the beast stalled in its attack, retreating off of him.

He rolled over, hearing the noises of a scuffle, but it was a moment before he was able to blink in enough sight to peer over and see...the human girl!