Nick tossed his antidote into his pack after drawing his sword, leaving the bag in the dirt where it sat. He used the final heartbeats before the battle began to inventory the tools at his disposal. I have two charges in the wand, the sword in my hands, the dagger on my belt, three flashbangs in the pouches of my toolbelt, plus the fourth in the pocket of my jacket.

As Nick gripped the hilt of his blade and assumed a fighting stance, the Cruncher Alpha began a leisurely advance that revealed not a trace of fear, letting him take in the sight of his enemy. The alpha was a tough bastard, at least half as large as the other crunchers. Its hide was covered in a dusky patchwork of old scars, and its jaws looked strong enough to shatter logs, to say nothing of Nick’s bones.

He had learned through observation that the alpha was smarter than the other members of the pack. He hoped that its edge would be dulled when fighting alone, as the beast’s tactics were specialized for pack combat. It was likely wishful thinking. He knew that the cruncher wouldn’t have been able to rule over the others through violence and intimidation if it wasn’t able to fend off challengers in one-on-one duels.

That was all the time for preparation that Nick was granted. With a savage growl, the alpha exploded into motion, surging over the ground so fast that its form fuzzed before his eyes. He barely had time to raise his sword before the raging beast was upon him.

He thought that the alpha would go straight for his throat. Instead, the beast lithely wove its way around his blade, put two paws against his chest, and pushed while raking down with both limbs. Nick’s leather jacket prevented his torso from being shredded by its claws. But he was taken by surprise and knocked backwards, falling hard onto his ass with a jolt of pain lancing across his tailbone.

The alpha followed up by launching itself straight at his fallen form, using its ability to streak forward at incredible speed. Although he had anticipated the move, he had drastically underestimated the velocity of the alpha’s flight. It hit him with enough force to drive the air from his lungs and send him skidding across the dirt, riding his body like a wakeboard.

As he flew, Nick frantically tried to clock the cruncher with the hilt of his sword, but he was much too slow to prevent it from landing a blow to his vitals. He could only watch in horror as the alpha lowered its head, a savage glee gleaming in its eyes. The beast’s brutal jaws closed tight around Nick’s stomach, poised to rip out his entrails in a single motion, nearly shearing off his balls in the process.

In the heart of that dreadful moment, he knew he was dead. Both Nick and the alpha expected blood to come gushing out of his stomach when the beast closed its steel trap jaws and then ripped with incredible force. What happened next surprised them both.

Instead of carving deep into Nick’s tender flesh, the beast’s fangs closed around his toolbelt, preventing them from burrowing into his guts like a chainsaw. The thick leather of his belt, magically reinforced to enhance its resilience, tore like a fat strip of beef jerky, nearly severing the accessory in twain and causing the tools inside to come spilling out onto the forest floor with a musical tinkle.

Although it was clearly surprised by this turn of events, the alpha did not let go. It kept right on pulling and twisting, tightening the belt around his waist until he was certain that the pressure would cut him in two. Heartbeats before he suffered severe internal damage, Nick’s hand darted down and pulled the leather strip sticking out near the belt’s clasp, activating the emergency release mechanism. The belt came free in a single motion, causing the alpha to stumble back and granting him a moment to recover his balance and regain the initiative.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Knowing that the alpha would not fail a second time, Nick let go of the sword with his left hand and scooped up his wand, which had fallen free from its beltloop when the leather gave way. He pointed the business end at the alpha as the beast spit out the shredded toolbelt and reoriented on his position.

The alpha tensed, a tell which Nick now knew meant it was preparing to leap, just as his thumb came down on the trigger of the wand. In the same heartbeat, the beast activated its ability, streaking straight for his chest with the intention of sending him flying for a second time. As a result, the alpha was only a foot in front of his hand when the wand fired.

A wave of concussive force so intense that it warped the air around it erupted from the end of Nick’s wand, angled up so that it caught the alpha straight in the sternum. The kinetic energy tore into the flying beast, altering the angle of its ascent so that it was pointing up toward the treetops instead of straight at him. The alpha let loose a shriek of pain and confusion as it soared a good thirty feet into the air before crashing into a tree, toppling to the forest floor in a heap of spasming limbs.

Nick clenched the wand between his teeth and charged, raising his sword in a two-handed grip. Despite the odds, he had opened a window where the momentum of the battle was renegotiable. An opportunity that he intended to make the most of.

As his feet slapped against the needle-covered earth, Nick’s entire world narrowed. He shut out everything besides the sword in his hands and the enemy before him and ignored the frantic voice in his head screaming that this was his only chance of winning the fight—that the alpha would recover any second and his wand was no longer a surprise. Not to mention, he only had a single charge remaining. Nick arrived in front of the alpha just as the beast staggered back onto its feet, murderous rage glinting in its pitiless eyes.

He swung the sword with everything he had, praying that his aim was true as the battered blade soared toward the alpha’s chest. If he missed, he was dead. It was as simple as that. He wouldn’t have time to take a second swing. The alpha would tear out his throat in less than a heartbeat. But despite his inexperience with the weapon, Nick’s sword landed on target. With the next blink of his eyes, the jolt of impact reverberated through his arms.

He expected the blade to bite deep, slaying the alpha on the spot or at least critically wounding it. But matters were not fated to be resolved so simply.

Nick looked down, only to see his weapon clasped between the cruncher’s jaws. The brutish fucker had caught his sword out of the air, arresting its momentum and trapping the blade between its hulking fangs.

With a look of immense satisfaction, the alpha’s jaws bulged as it tried to snap the pockmarked weapon in two. Then it cocked its head and redoubled its efforts, the powerful muscles along its skull straining with effort. The alpha seemed shocked when the scarred metal refused to give way. In truth, Nick was nearly as astonished himself. Trell’s sword must be made of some incredibly tough material, far beyond the durability of mere steel.

With a growl conveying equal measures of confusion and irritation, the cruncher leapt back, yanking the sword from Nick’s grasp, then releasing the blade to free its jaws. The alpha immediately lunged back in, trying to disembowel him with the points of its tusks.

He was driven back across the clearing as the beast came for him. Nick barely managed to step out of the way in time, but the motion caused him to fumble and lose his grip on the wand clasped between his teeth.

As blade and wand came crashing to the ground, the alpha stopped to glare at him. Its expression revealed immense satisfaction with this turn of events, in spite of a momentary hiccup. While he was terrified, Nick didn’t hesitate. He was already fully committed and ready to bet it all on a final roll of the dice.

The moment he knew that his sword was out of play, his hands began to move. His left reached down to the tatters of his belt and pulled his dagger free from its sheath, the short blade laughable in the face of such a powerful foe.

But Nick had no intention of ending the fight with his dagger. Although it had cost him his sword, the last exchange had bought him enough time to slide the flashbang free from his jacket. He pressed the trigger and threw the device into the dirt by his feet, barely remembering to close his eyes in time.

The last thing he saw was the cruncher glancing down at the orb before resuming its advance, certain that Nick was at its mercy.