Doomed to Die in 3 Minutes

Ray of Hope

Hold on for dear life and don’t let go. He reacts as expected. He swings his entire body in frustration trying to throw me off. This is probably what riding a bull in a rodeo feels like! One wrong move and I’ll be thrown and quickly trampled into mush underfoot. I have to shift and contain my balance to match his momentum. I’ve never done anything like this before. Saying it’s similar to say riding a horse is only true in a very thin layer of meaning. Having to hold your grip on something that does not want you there and will absolutely brutalise you given the chance is a type of fear I’ve never had before…

Shit. His jaws open and close rapidly, spilling drool everywhere and getting dangerously close to my hands. I would really like to keep them if possible but trying to muzzle him and hold on is near impossible. I can probably heal the damage to my body if those huge teeth do get to me, it’d suck though. It’d also probably be expensive. An alligator. I need to apply pressure in just the right places to make sure his mouth jams shut in a way that I’m safe.

I can feel sweat dripping from every pore of my body and into my clothes. I’ve often said my flames don’t make heat. This isn’t exactly true, strictly speaking, it’s just very minor. Not enough that’d it hurt anything, but just enough that you can feel something changed in the humidity and temperature around you, even if it was minuscule. Tiny things add up and together make a formidable force. In this case, it’s the dome. The dome is blocking out the rest of the world and it’s made of tightly compiled stone. Oxygen is being devoured by the fire spreading across it.

The heat was slowly but surely rising. My desperate attempts to stay alive and his rampaging to get me off of him is eating up the air around us and the area intensifies. It’s getting harder to breathe… his flailing becomes far more frantic and I can’t hold on much longer. I pull on his fur with every ounce of strength I can muster but it’s not going to last.

I can feel it slipping away. This fleeting safety will soon end. Time seems to slow down. Not because of me this time but because of the shift is strength. I expected this but I didn’t think it would be this fast. His power has now reached a physical level where I can’t resist him in a struggle. I’m thrown off of him and straight into the air above and for a moment I feel completely weightless. Then gravity decides to remember to do its job. I fall. The beast grins as it sees its food fall towards its open jaw. He licks his lips and snickers like a child getting a new toy.

Well, if he wants to chew on something…! I kick forward with my left leg while pulling the right back and aim as best as I can in the darkness. It goes down his throat. There’s a surprise from both of us. His mouth obviously wanted to close down and chomp on me but it can’t. I hear a choking sound, followed by coughing and rage, in response I then feel my leg be set free. I fall to the floor yet again.

I hear him hurl. Gag reflex. Aahaha… urgh. I really wish I could stop fighting dirty. Literally. It’s so annoying to have to dance around them like this. I bought myself maybe a few seconds as he recovers from that disgusting sensation. Something falls from above. Trickling down onto my body. Something a bit soft yet coarse at the same time. Powder like… no, this is sand? Why is sand falling from the top of the dome…?

Wait. If he’s going berserk and all his stats but the physical combat ones are tanking then… his magic stat is lowering too right, which is why I’m betting on kicking his ass at the last second, but if his magic stat is also affecting the maintenance of the cage then… it’ll break when he’s near the limit. That means I can escape at that moment… or I could… the gears begin to turn in my head. I’m frozen as I see a small crack in the prison I’ve been thrown into.

Light. The light of the dawn puts its hand over my face for but an instant. It’s warm. An open way to the skies above and a foe who will have no magical resistance in but a few minutes at worst. I crack a very weak smile. A way to end this guy without the Doom spell… I think I’ve figured it out. It’s a trick I really quite like when I’ve seen it pulled off by others. Maybe it’ll work out for me too.

Clank. A rattling of metal rolling on the ground. He’s dropped his halberd. I ball my fists. I get up just in time to see his razor-sharp claws glimmer like silver in the dark as they s***h forth to tear me to ribbons. I do the unthinkable yet again, just like against the terror. I leap forward towards Yarul instead of away from him. This prompts his mouth to open wide and go for a large bite.

I throw my hands at his face. My left towards his open mouth and swing right into the space between his eyes. “Ghrakkksshhhhuuggaa!” Pocket sand to the back of the throat, the tongue, the eyes, and the nose. Attacking the sense of smell, sight, and taste all at once.

He reels from it. Who needs damage when you can just screw with someone’s most basic feelings and instincts? If Yarul had chosen to keep his sanity, I’d lose without a doubt. He’s cunning, cold, and calculating. I would have been nothing but livestock running circles in a house made of straw. He could have finished me at any time if he wanted to truly hunt me tactically.

Yet, his violent and sadistic nature made him choose to give up his intellect for the thrill and adrenaline of making all before him a victim. He would now pay for this folly. More and ore sand falls from the roof of the cage as it slowly begins to crumble. More light descends upon me. Blessing me with victory in this fight. I cough in pain but I force a smile. I think I’ve got this.

He makes one last attempt. A jumping attack looking to pounce on me, mount me, and then just cut me into little pieces from above where all I could do would be to guard. I’m not going to let that happen. I jump up to meet him while using my left arm as a shield. It gets punctured almost immediately, his nails running right through it, it’ll leave behind huge holes for sure but if that’s all I have to pay to stay alive then fine… it’s a deal!

I slam my right palm against his adam’s apple. 

“Float and Accel!”

He flies. Through the crack in the cage. Into the blue skies. Through the white clouds. Until I can no longer see even the smallest trace of him. Thud.

I collapse. I can see properly now. It wasn’t just sweat coating my body in liquid. It was a lot of blood too. f**k. I think I’m passing out. It’s taking everything I have to stay… conscious…