The Lion vs. The Wolf (2)
***GGGRRRR -OOOwwooohhh***
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'Sh*t'
'Sh*t!'
'Sh*t!!'
'SH*T!!!'
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Alexander was running as fast as he could.
The thought of the Gods laughing at his struggle ran through his mind... Their wicked way of toying with him only served to infuriate him more...
He wasn't scared of the beast...
He wasn't frustrated over the fact that literally minutes after waking up in a strange world, a monstrosity was already after him...
He was actually angered at himself... For not being strong enough to dictate his fate...
He was at mercy of the Gods since before he was born... And even after death...
Yet, he still felt his own mortality weighing him down, as the last of his breath ran out...
And now, the cycle was renewed...
But not even that thought would stop him...
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'I won't allow that demon to do as it pleases... If it's the last thing I do...'
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Alexander wasn't running away from the battle.
He was betting all of the strength that had yet to leave his bloodied body.
His last chance to come out victorious.
It was a plan that had occurred to him when he was trying to figure out a way to take down the demon...
He remembered something about the battle at the Granicus...
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Right now, one could see a wounded young man running at great speed with what looked like the attire of a vagabond...
His body was covered in mud and blood... To determine if it was all his, would be impossible.
Behind him, a 2.3 m long and 2 m tall beast. It was heavily injured as well, but that didn't keep it from running slightly faster than a horse...
Alexander's headstart was disappearing by the second...
Fortunately, he was almost there...
He was running towards a temperate forest, that was divided from the green fields by a river.
Actually, one could even say that his destination -was- that river...
It was 23 m wide, and at least 15 m deep. Abundant and with a stringent current, it would normally be extremely dangerous to cross if not by bridge or barge...
And that was exactly what Alexander wanted...
Taking his body to the limit, with his dagger already on its sheath, he proceeded to dive into the water.
He swam as fast as possible and got the other bank relatively quickly...
The wolf was already making its way into the water...
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He was already at the other side of the river, squatting and controlling his breathing in an attempt to recover some of his stamina...
The body of Hella's greatest hero was giving in.
No matter how mighty... At the end of the day, he was still just a human, and his 'Battle Mode' always took a heavy toll on his body after a fight, and he had to rest for some time before being able to go back into combat...
Problem was, he had never fought such a creature before; thus he had already reached his limit. Added to the fact that he was heavily underequipped for a task such as slaying a demonic beast.
But Alexander didn't care what happened to his body, after all, he had already died once...
The only thing that matter in his mind right now, was to return this demon to whatever nether hole it had crawled out of...
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And so, his plan had worked, the wolf was now at his mercy... So to speak.
He remembered how the horses of his cavalry charge at Granicus had some trouble crossing the river, and many died in the initial hail of Persian javelins, arrows, and projectiles...
That time it was only a shallow river, but this time it was more similar to a Rapid. A deep rapid...
One could even say it would be suicide to try and swim across this deathtrap of water and sharp stones.
In fact, Alexander had suffered several small cuts and had to exert himself to the maximum in order not to be drowned by the current... His mud first-aid had been washed by the water and has bleeding like crazy once more...
He had to end it now or die on the spot.
Running away was never an option given how the wolf was -albeit with some trouble- making his way towards Alexander with renewed blood rage as before...
And now, how was going to end it...? The monster wasn't going to drown, it was actually adapting to the river quite fast... It would start swimming efficiently sooner rather than later...
What Alexander did, would've probably merited gasps from the audience -had there been one-.
As soon as he regained his breath... He threw himself back into the water with a sharp dive.
It took him 2 meters into the river, and instead of coming out, he stayed underwater. It was far harder and dangerous... But it was the only way of doing what he pretended...
He got to where the wolf was awkwardly staying afloat and took out his dagger with his left hand.
With the right hand, he introduced it through the hole his first attack had left.
Then he pushed as far as his forearm into the beast's insides...
'There it is!!'
He had found what he was looking for: the wolf's heart. As he suspected, the first organ he punctured wasn't vital or simply wasn't enough to kill him instantly.
What he did was explore as fast as he could, the inside of the beast. He couldn't allow his weapon to be lost a second time with a futile attack...
The wolf was using its paws to try and furiously reach Alexander, so he had to constantly evade its attempts at disrupting his surgical examination... Luckily for him, the wolf was also trying not to drown, so its movements were predictable and it wouldn't bring its head underwater, so the risk of a bite was minimal.
This was the moment of truth, Alexander with a swift movement, introduced the dagger using his left hand, this time using the correct grip, and struck at where his right hand was located.
In other circumstances, he would've tried to crush the beast's heart with his hand and be done with it, but the wolf's organ was too large for him to do that... So the dagger it was...
Once he was sure the heart was punctured, he viciously twisted and moved the dagger around, making sure not to let any tissue unscathed. He wanted to destroy it.
And so he did.
He was able to hear some muffled whining and growls, even with the sound of the rapid currents and the fact that he was submerged 1.5 m deep underwater.
His plan worked, but he wasn't done yet... He swam up to the surface, and then, as the wolf was drowning and whining out loud in pain...
He slit its throat, he punctured random parts of its back and finally, gorged out the left eye of the beast -the remaining healthy eye-.
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*Gasp*
*Gasp*
*Cough*
*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*
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Alexander managed to get himself miraculously to the river bank facing the forest...
The beast's body was dragged by the strong current down the river...
The eye he took out to keep as a trophy, as he knew he wouldn't be able to take its head...
But most importantly...
He had won...!
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"F*ck..."
"What a day..."
***Sigh***
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The satisfaction he got out of that victory exceeded the pain from his injuries...
In truth... he had never felt more alive...
And more tired... than he was now...
Not even when he was dying on his royal bed in Babylon...
Truly a testament to the amount of strain he had put himself under...
And as soon as he was letting out that sigh... his eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier...
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His consciousness... fading away as if dragged away by the river the same as the wolf's body...
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It was then, lying in a puddle of water and blood... that Alexander felt himself drifting away once more... into the land of dreams...
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