I'm out. My thoughts were weak. I need to get away from this thing. Everything hurts. The creature was barely visible in front of me, since a bunch of leaves blocked my view. I could see the top of its head as it shook it back and forth, crying in agony. Thin tendrils of violet blood ran from the cut I’d managed to make. I stared down at my bruised body, which refused to budge as I tried to move without startling the creature.
"Roxy, get moving!" Kane said urgently. A flare of anger, the kind that used to come from our grappling sessions, rose inside me, along with a rush of motivation. With Kane in my mind, I was like a firework going off again. The adrenaline from said emotion put some spark into my struggling body.
You try being in a monster's maw for the last ten minutes as it bangs you against every tree in the forest. My heart raced as the monster's frantic movements slowed. Its body glitched for a moment, going invisible. A gust of air struck my face. The creature couldn’t seem to touch me while invisible. I threw a punch out, but my fist flew into the open air. The creature must’ve pulled back. Abruptly, its body changed back to show the leathery white scales and unnerving red eyes.
Its next strike might hit me. I said as much to Kane and added, I need to move. Using every drop of willpower in my body, I tore myself free from the bushes.
“Maybe it needs to be visible to strike you,” Kane suggested.
Well, it’s visible now. My knees buckled, and I rolled over. The creature reared on me, its beady eyes watching me. The blood on its nose had stopped running. It was healing. I said a series of foul words, which Kane seemed to pick up on easily enough. I scrambled backward, and my back hit a tree.
The monster dove toward me. My butt felt rooted to the dirt beneath me. There were plenty of trees around me and shrubbery to dive into, but its three red eyes looked… mesmerizing, for a moment. It was like the monster was trying to tell me something. What?
"Roxy, keep moving!" Kane commanded. At the last second, I picked myself up and rolled to the side, diving beneath the bush the beast had originally thrown me in. I heard it collide with the tree, its teeth scraping as it grabbed for a body that was no longer there.
It's powerful, and fast. I still had my knife and the useless pistol, but I would've preferred more firepower. This creature wouldn't go down easily.
"Look around you," Kane said, coaching me like an unseen fairy godmother. "Use anything you can. Evade it if you can't tangle with it."
Under the shrubbery, I had enough space to crawl. I ignored my complaining limbs and army crawled as fast I could to the next bush. The creature clawed at the branches. Its weight compressed the plants, and a gust of hot breath warmed the back of my neck.
I'm currently crawling under bushes to get away from this thing. I made it to a thick collection of trees. They were tall and narrow but bunched tightly together. I wormed my way through them as the beast caught up with me. It clawed at the bark, taking out the first tree in its path by mowing over it with brutal strength. I pushed myself back as far as I could and desperately looked around to see what I could use to help me.
Across a thin trail behind me, I spotted a familiar-looking shrub. It was similar to the foul-smelling bush Inkarri had once used to cover our location and hide our presence from Immortal hunters. The sound of splintering bark made me look back, to see the creature a third of the way through my defensive line of trees.
I'm about to make a mad dash for a bush that might help with the nostril situation.
"Might?" Kane snapped. I knew he was angry that he couldn't do anything, but I found our back-and-forth reassuring. It had been so long since we’d done this, and I enjoyed it, even while holding our conversation in my mind and being chased by a monster at the same time.
The beast's claws went invisible for a moment. All that was left was its terrifying face. It broke out of the trees just as I slipped through the other side, catching my face on a spindly branch. I pushed past the pain and dove for the bush. Immediately, a heavy scent of musk hit my face. I had to commit. If this thing was using my scent to track me—and clearly it was determined to get me for some reason—then stuffing up its big nostrils was the only thing I could do.
I threw myself through the sap-covered leaves. The creature clambered behind me, flailing, and I saw a blur of white. Its claw, going milky and visible for the moment, swiped my leg, but then the plant’s stench registered. The creature roared furiously. In the confusion, I turned and used my knife to slice at the beast's one visible claw. Its claw mark had left fine trails of cuts on my shin as it tore through the thick fabric of my pants, but now the monster fell back against the destroyed section of trees we had come through. A rush of energy swept through me. Heat surged through my body alongside the sensation, making my brow prick with sweat. The monster let out a howl, and, abruptly, its body completely blinked out. My stomach dropped with fearful anticipation, and a surge of hot air suddenly filled our small forest area. The creature’s hot breath bloomed outward into the cold winter environment.
I pulled myself out of the bush after thirty seconds of nothing. The creature was gone. It had just… vanished.
"What's happening?" Kane asked, his voice
