On the border...

The chimera continued to advance until only five meters remained between it and me. After that, the beast also stopped and began to scrutinize me. The air around me became colder than it was already, then, I began to perceive something strange, it was a new emotion, I realized that what I was feeling was the killing instinct of the beast in front of me. Its violent "aura" made me shiver.

I realized I had to put myself back together as soon as possible, and then study my opponent.

Its eyes were not completely white, nor could I see mushrooms attached to it, so I found that I was not dealing with an Errant.

'If it is not an errant ... what is it?!'

I stood still, but on guard, waiting for my opponent's move.

Its tail began to wrap, while the end of it soared upward, curving forward at the height of its external ax-shaped skeleton. The way the beast moved its tail vaguely reminded me of a cobra.

'That tail of its seems the most dangerous thing'

The beast began to take a few steps toward me, I tightened my grip with both hands on the sword.

*gulp

I realized that it was finally time to fight.

Arriving only 2 meters from me, the beast threw its tail at me. I was expecting such a move from it and so I prepared to parry the impact of its bone ax with "Chaos".

*Swin

"WHAT ?!" Its tail veered in flight, dodging my sword. Now the ax of the beast was directed, with nothing more to block it, towards my face.

Instinctively, I let myself fall backward, however, I did not make in time to completely dodge the blow of the beast, which superficially wounded my right ear.

Immediately after that, I crawled back from it. The beast, in response, jumped on me, so, I rolled to the right and then got up.

The beast gave me no time to regroup.

'I have to exploit the environment ...'

I turned and ran away from the beast. It started following me at full speed.

*TUM!

"AHK!"

I felt an excruciating pain coming from my right side, shortly after I found myself rolling ruinously to my left, until hitting a pine trunk with my back.

"Ahkh" This last blow completely broke my breath, I spat some blood.

What struck me was the tail of the beast, however, fortunately, that blow did not manage to cut my fur. It was thanks to that incredible magical fur coat that Tsinzia had given me.

Suddenly I felt powerless, yet I couldn't afford to pass out.  Luckily, during the impact, I had not lost my sword in hand.

The chimera started running towards me. Meanwhile, I tried to resume regular breathing as soon as possible.

With the strength that I had left, I got up and jumped to the left moments before the arrival of the beast, which just before had jumped with certainty towards me. The chimera could not stop its jump in time and, therefore, banged its head against the pine on which it itself had previously thrown me.

This mistake of its gave me some time to regroup. I looked around, seeing if there were things I could exploit in my favor, yet there was nothing.

'F*ck, has it already recovered?! ... but ... maybe this beast isn't that smart ...'. I realized that if I couldn't win in terms of strength, I had to win over inventiveness.

Due to the impact against the tree trunk the beast had sustained a wound, however, it did not seem to care much.

The beast approached me, I timidly took a few small steps back, holding my sword with both hands in front of me.

The beast began to wiggle its tail as it had done a few moments before.

'It wants to attack me like before, huh?'

'Mmh…'

"Heh …" for the absurd idea that came to my mind at that precise moment, I couldn't help but smile. However, in my head, that seemed like my only chance.

The beast launched a swipe of its tail, identical to the one that had injured my ear. History repeated itself, I tried to parry the blow with the sword, however, its tail veered and, exactly as before, it aimed at my face.

*Grin

I smiled like a madman.

Everything went according to my expectations, in fact, as soon as the tail of the beast veered in flight, I went down on all fours and then pushed myself forward with my legs, holding the sword in front of me with both hands. Like an arrow, I aimed at the chimera's "forehead". The beast did not try to dodge my blow, on the contrary, it stood there still.

My sword finally stabbed the target, piercing the space between its two eyes for a few inches.

'I did it-' unfortunately, I celebrated too soon, the tail of the beast, which I had lost sight of, hit me in the back making me crash to the ground.

"AHKH!" Upon impact, I could not hold back a vomit of blood.

…

I was lying on the ground. Slumped on my stomach on the bed of brown pine needles that formed the soil throughout the area's forest. My head became heavy, my eyes narrowed more and more, and my conscience seemed to slowly drift away from me.

How long did I stay in those conditions? I could not know, at that moment I was no longer aware of either the time or the environment around me. The only thing I was still vaguely aware of was the fact that I hadn't been devoured, and because of that, I knew I'd been able to defeat that cursed condor-headed beast.

'Ahh ... I did it ...' I felt a thread of pride in me, but above all, what I felt at that moment was an indescribable relief, combined with contentment. I had managed to save Marie, Tom, Leo, Lilya, and all those at the inn.

Unintentionally, a few tears fell from my eyes.

These first feelings slowly changed. There was still a hint of relief and contentment in me, which, however, slowly turned into pain, fear, cold, anger, and regret, and finally, perhaps the worst feeling came, an abnormal sense of relaxation.

…

..

.

"Not HERE!!" I screamed out loud. This caused severe pain in my chest but also rekindled a small fire in me.

I wanted to "live".

I gritted my teeth and with the last strength I had, I stretched my right arm forward, towards my sword, grabbed it, and with it helped me to get up. As I got up from the ground, I also saw a small pool of blood at the height of where my head was before.

With each breath, I felt a stabbing pain in my chest, and every moment standing up I felt more and more pain in my back.

During the time I had been on the ground, it had grown dark around me.

'How long did I stay on the ground ... ?!'

I asked my magic compass to show me the way to the "Brown Bear" inn, therefore, I walked towards it.

I walked staggering, carrying "Chaos" in weight while crawling with the tip on the ground, and my eyelids became heavy.

After a few minutes of walking, I saw a light in the distance, they were two men, one of them with a lantern in his hand.

I walked over to them and tried to get their attention, however, I was no longer able to speak.

Fortunately, one of them saw me in the darkness of the forest, pointed his finger at me, and both of them then ran to help me with faces that were both happy and worried.

I let out a smile, then, unwittingly, my eyes closed.

That would be my last memory of that day.

{TO BE CONTINUED}