With his eyes pressed shut, Nick began stabbing at the air in front of him, trying to distract the alpha for a heartbeat longer while he waited for the flashbang to detonate.

In that sightless moment, he was filled with a fierce and rising terror, deathly afraid that the orb had misfired; that he had bungled pressing the trigger, and before he had time to recover from his blunder, the alpha’s jaws would close around his neck and tear out his throat. He desperately wanted to open his eyes, but he knew that he would blind himself if he did so before the flashbang detonated.

That was when Nick heard the alpha lunge. He leapt back, avoiding a thrust that came so close that he could feel the tip of a tusk brush against his cheekbone. Something is wrong, the orb isn’t working. Just before he opened his eyes to assess the situation, the world turned white as the flashbang activated from point-blank range.

The pulse was blinding, and the roar was deafening, nearly disabling Nick even though he had covered his eyes and braced himself for the impact. But it was even worse for the cruncher, who had been looking right at him and had hearing many times more sensitive than his own.

Nick opened his eyelids, shutting out the roaring in his ears and peering past the fat purple blobs floating in his vision. What he saw made him shudder in relief. The alpha appeared completely disoriented, striking blindly at the air around it. Crude lunges that lacked the agility the beast normally displayed.

He had scant seconds to take advantage of the opening he had created. At any moment, the alpha might recover. Even while blind, its attacks would end his life if the beast landed a lucky blow.

Tuning out the ringing in his ears, barely able to see past the electric afterimages left in the wake of the flash, he raised his dagger while scooping up his wand with his free hand. Issuing the first battle cry of his life, Nick locked his gaze upon his flailing foe and charged, ready to end the fight or die in the attempt.

Arriving before his bestial adversary, he threw himself to one side, narrowly avoiding being eviscerated by the alpha’s tusks. He rose into a battle stance, ducking beneath a wild swipe of its claws. He came to a stop in front of the beast, searching for a vital spot to lunge with his dagger and land a crucial blow.

That was when the alpha’s eyes snapped back into focus, looking straight into his own with a murderous glare. Shrugging off the effects of the flashbang through sheer effort of will, its muscles tensed up and poised to strike. Nick knew with absolute certainty that before his heart beat again, the furious beast would lunge and end his life.

However, he had already realized that his dagger was insufficient and had begun bringing the wand to bear. By now, it was pointing straight at the alpha’s face, the end hovering between its slavering jaws. Just as the alpha leapt, Nick pressed the trigger, sending an avalanche of kinetic energy surging into the cruncher’s face, most of which went straight into its mouth and down the dark tunnel of its throat.

The force of its ability-enhanced leap met the energy released by the wand, like two speeding cars colliding head-on. Nick watched in morbid fascination as the shockwave rebounded throughout the alpha’s torso, causing its stomach to stretch and bend.

The beast’s jaws snapped shut, closing half an inch in front of his nose before its body was thrown back, skidding across the dirt before colliding with the trunk of a nearby tree. Blood was leaking from the alpha’s ears and nose, dripping down its fangs from where the impact had caused the beast to bite off the tip of its own tongue. It stood stock-still with a glassy look in its eyes. Nick knew that he had to follow up before it recovered.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He wasn’t sure if he had landed a critical blow or if the blast had merely stunned the nightmarishly resilient beast. Either way, the alpha was still alive, and Nick knew deep in his bones that this was his last chance. His sword was out of reach, his wand out of charges, and the tools in his belt would take too long to retrieve. Everything came down to one final attack with his dagger—an all-or-nothing strike that would determine who lived and who died.

Filled with a crystalline clarity that hesitation was death, Nick took aim, gripped his dagger in both hands, and lunged with everything he had.

It was a desperate, clumsy thrust. But with the alpha looming directly in front of him, it was hard to miss. As Nick watched, waiting to discover if this would be his final moment, the tip of his dagger penetrated the alpha’s eye, then kept right on going to punch a hole into its brain. A spray of hot blood washed over his hands, but he didn’t stop to see how much damage he had managed to inflict. The instant the hilt of his dagger hit the front of the beast’s skull, he let go of the weapon and went darting for the nearest tree.

In his haste, Nick faltered his grip and nearly came tumbling back down to the ground below. Through sheer will alone, his fingertips caught a rough protrusion on the bark. He felt it shift beneath the weight of his body, then begin to crumble. Praying that the bark would hold, he pulled hard, launching himself high enough to grab ahold of the lowest branches.

He looked down, hoping to see the alpha lying dead in the dirt. But the battle was not destined to end so simply. The beast had vanished, leaving only the lingering scent of blood in the breeze.

Although it was mortally wounded, the alpha wasn’t finished yet. Nick desperately scanned the shadow-ridden forest floor, seeking his errant foe. Just then, he felt its jaws brush against the back of his calf. He frantically pulled himself higher into the canopy before looking down once more. There, with the dagger sticking out of its ruined face, stood the alpha.

While the beast was clearly in the process of dying, its remaining eye looked straight into Nick’s own, promising that it would return the favor in kind before death took it. Heedless of its wounds, the alpha launched itself straight at Nick, who barely managed to scramble out of the way in time. Fortunately, the beast’s movements lacked the coordination it had displayed before. But even a glancing blow would be sufficient to pluck him free from the branches like a piece of overripe fruit.

As soon as the alpha landed, it leapt again. Then a dozen times more. Trying its best to snatch him off his perch and drag him down to hell with it. Nick climbed as high as he could without snapping off the top of the tree, and even that was barely enough to save him.

The alpha launched itself into the air with furious growls, flying nearly twenty feet straight up. In that moment, Nick was sure that he was done for. He had overplayed his hand, and now he would pay the ultimate price. He had come so close, but in the end, his best simply hadn’t been good enough.

But despite its fury and remarkable tenacity, the alpha was living on borrowed time. Five utterly terrifying minutes later, its incredible reserves began to falter at last. After one final attempt that nearly shattered the branch Nick was standing on, the alpha let out a whimper, then collapsed like a rag doll.

The beast began spasming as the cumulative effects of its wounds began shutting down its organs. It convulsed in the torn earth before eventually going still. The light in its eyes faded, glazing over as the furious frenzy that had animated the alpha evaporated, leaving him alone in the tree beneath a storm-wracked sky.

Nick sat frozen in place, shivering with delayed terror. But he had no time to rest, for the storm was directly overhead. As he fought to slow the wild hammering of his heart, a veil of stinging mist descended, heralding the boiling rain that would break over the island at any second.

Nick frantically scrambled back down to the ground. He scooped up his scattered weapons and tools and threw them into his pack along with his shredded toolbelt. He was utterly exhausted and overwhelmed by his showdown with the alpha, but he pushed past his limits and began staggering away, heading north toward the safety of the crunchers’ den.

As fey bolts of lightning danced amid the roiling heavens, Nick picked out his path and began running for his life.