Engraved - The Hunted Warrior

Chapter 18.2 - Challenge

"Come on!" Alam shouted to Frost. Her feet scrambled to get a hold on the gravely wall of the pit.

Tajar loosed an arrow. The hellcat hissed as it sunk deep into its shoulder. The beast bounded forward roaring. Prall broke out laughing as he launched himself towards it. His sword flashed in the sun. 

Frost got her second hand to the handle. Alam bellowed as he pulled with all his might. 

The beast opened its mouth to catch Prall. The big man avoided the jaws by swerving to the left. He swung his blade with both hands. It sunk deep into its side. The hellcat screamed. Tajar's second arrow struck its arm. The beast swiped at Prall with a clawed paw the size of a wagon wheel. The paw hit him in the chest. He was smashed him into a column and collapsed to the dirt.

Alam gave a final heave and Frost scrambled to the surface. They turned towards the hellcat only twenty paces away.

In front of it Prall was dazed. The beast had no trouble. It snapped up Prall in its jaws and shook him savagely.

"Prall!" Frost screamed.

Tajar's third arrow took the beast in the chest.

It bit down. Bones cracked. Blood spilled from its mouth. Prall's sword fell. A fourth arrow struck. It continued to shake Prall while biting down. Prall's torso separated from his legs with a spray of red and fell from the beast's mouth. It thudded sickeningly on the ground.

"No," Alam gasped.

Fury flooded into him. Somehow he controlled it, contained it. Frost was motionless with shock, staring at the beast with Prall's leg's in it's mouth. Alam grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards opening they had come from.

"Run! Come on Tajar!"

With superhuman calmness Tajar fired at the beast as he walked backwards towards Alam and Frost. The beast flinched as arrow after arrow found its mark. It growled, turned and retreated with Prall's legs still in its mouth.

Somehow the training that Chief Urlock had drilled into him overrode Alam's emotions.

Win the day. Then we grieve.

Tajar's face was stern but controlled. "What next?" Tajar asked.

"We kill it," replied Alam. "Frost, are you alright?"

She was shaking and breathing fast. Her face was pale.

"I'm fine," she said.

"You don't look fine," Alam replied.

"Half my arrows are gone," said Tajar. "And it didn't seem to feel the ones that hit."

"If it bleeds it can be killed, and Prall got a good blow in before his end. Let's move." Alam started pulling Frost along. She pulled her arm from his grasp.

"You two are too loud! It will have no problem finding and killing us all," she spat and set off in front at speed.

Alam spared a moment to look up at the spectators for a clue of the beast's location. All were watching the prisoners.

Strange. I had completely blocked them and the drums out.

Frost reached an intersection. She looked both ways and then quickly back at Alam and Tajar. Her eyes were wide and dilated. She was breathing fast. Before they caught up with her she shot around the corner and was gone from sight. Alam and Tajar reached the corner. She was sprinting away. Alam just barely saw her duck into an opening some fifteen  paces away.

"Frost!" he hissed. "Slow down!"

"She's going to get herself killed," muttered Tajar.

The two friends ran after her as quietly as they could, but Alam was again aware of the metallic shaking his chain shirt made with each step. Alam poked his head around the corner while Tajar made sure they were safe behind.