The Raven

The Winner

Six pairs of huge eyes, twelve bottomless pits. They were trying to hypnotize me into submission, and they were so horrifyingly mesmerizing. 

"FEED ME!!" I heard the voice in my head growl. 

"I shall enjoy devouring you! Your blood! Mm, your blood tastes so good, so fresh and electrifying, it's like nothing I have ever tried. I can only imagine how deliciously wonderful would it be to slowly mutilate you, limb by limp. 

Don't worry I shall leave your juicy eyes for dessert so that you can see your whole body being slowly devoured, your horror shall season my meal just perfectly. " As it said that in my head I could see five heads licking their mouths, drooling over the thoughts it sent me. 

"Disgusting! I am no one's food! No one's slave! I shall break through the hypnosis! I am stronger than this! It is not my fate to end up in some thing's stomach!" I screamed in my head encouraging myself to take action.

As it approached and started opening its mouths to incapacitate and then devour me, I ducked and started sliding under its huge body. It didn't see it coming. That gave me a chance to strike it from behind. Cutting off one of its heads, and swinging again to cut another one. 

Unfortunately, although it screamed in agony, it was ready for me. It kicked me with its enormous leg. As I was falling down, the sword flew out of my hand and landed a few meters from me. 

I was on the ground, defenseless, as the terrible beast loomed over me dripping blood, saliva and who knows what other bodily fluids. 

Luckily for me, the span of the monster's legs was large enough for me to roll off to the side but I had to think of a plan quickly. My sword was far away from me and the beast was between me and the sword. So I decided to try out my newly discovered agility. 

I quickly put one of my hands on the monster's body shifting my weight forward, through my shoulder and down my arm then I pushed off my feet and lifted my opposite leg to place the ball of my foot on the beast's back. 

I was momentarily balanced on its back between one hand and the opposite leg, with both the palm and foot as flat as possible. After that, I stepped my inner leg through the plane of my body and reached forward to touch the ground. I shifted my weight completely to the ground, released my hand from the monster, and continued stepping forward. Finally, on the other side of my enemy, I picked up the sword and stood en garde.

It wasn't much of an advantage but it made me feel stronger, much more powerful. I felt as if I was able to proudly face my opponent. 

Suddenly, there seemed to be some light in this dark place, a light illuminating my soul, but I wasn't sure if I only imagined it or if it was real. Anyway, it gave me the strength and wisdom to defeat my enemy. It was the most brilliant light I had seen since the moment I died. 

So I took a firm grip on my sword, slid under the monster one more time and pierced its heart with my sword. I didn't fully understand how, but I knew exactly where its heart would be and I aimed perfectly at it. To be honest, these strange abilities were getting more and more creepy but very useful. 

The moment I pierced its heart, it let out a defeated but at the same time shocked scream. It couldn't understand how a mere human could be the winner of that battle. I started to suspect that I was never a mere human and I couldn't imagine what lurked inside me. 

Was Hell bigger mystery than myself? I wasn't so sure. 

As the monster's blood poured all over my body I was extremely grateful for its non-poisonous quality. It was just very sticky and the smell was simply nauseating, a combination of rot, decay, and something partly sweet that I couldn't identify. 

I tried to clean the liquid of my face, but I barely removed any of it, it seemed to be stuck there, so I decided to leave it. It was time to keep on going. I had already lost more time than I could afford to lose. 

As I went on, I saw that I was approaching a mountain although I couldn't understand how a mountain could be in a cave. I guess in Hell anything was possible. Evil laughter was bouncing off the sides of the mountain. "Here we go again." I thought tiredly.