Run or Die!

"You fucking dwarf!" Krastinaff no longer fears the dwarf at this point, those creatures have updated his definition of fear. "My group will not die here because of your stubbornness! We're leaving with or without you, but if you know a place we can run to, point the way and follow us." Krastinaff's voice is laced with anger and fear.

Krastinaff summons his light shield with all his strength, the shield is bigger than usual and brighter, bright enough to reveal the full appearance of creatures many feet away, the light from Krastinaff's shield seems to bother the creatures, but this doesn't stop them from attacking, the dwarf picks up a burning stick and throws it.

"Over there!" screams the dwarf already a little hoarse, his armor is already reasonably damaged.

Krastinaff doesn't think twice, he goes out shoving everything in his path with his shield in front of him, it's almost as if his shield were forcing those creatures to let them pass, Ramon and the dwarf defend the flank and the rear, Amira and Susano follow closer to Kastinaff defending him from attacks coming from with his makeshift spears still blazing.

The dwarf's ax gets smashed with each of his blows on thosee creatures, he still manages to hurt them but not incapacitate them, Ramon can only throw the creatures against each other to buy more time, Ramon's action is instinctive, and the most efficient.

After leaving the siege of those creatures, Krastinaff moves to the rear to protect the group from the heavy attack of the creatures that chase them, Ramon and the dwarf go forward to clear the way forward against creatures that were strayed from the others, Amira and Susano continue close to Krastinaff to protect him from air attacks.

Ramon is in his full transformation now, and goes on slashing enemies ahead, he does it instinctively, even though he knows he won't kill any of those creatures with such attacks.

The dwarf screams from time to time for Krastinaff, Amira and Susano not to deviate from the path, because they have their attention to protect the rear, and sometimes also for Ramon not to go too far ahead of the group in his attacks.

Ramon has already broken two teeth and three claws in his fierceful attacks, but he's feeling a stupor in each of them, the creatures are really very resilient, the dwarf's ax becomes useless and he swaps his ax for a very strong branch lying on the ground in the first opportunity, the dwarf also uses stones that he picks up along the way to cover Ramon.

They're all exhausted, they're already on the run for more leagues than they could count, only the dwarf has a clue where they are, the slower creatures chasing them are already behind, only the faster ones persist to chase them, Krastinaff hears those whispers seem to hold a stable distance from his group, he remains unable to understand them.

Krastinaff's shield didn't take significant damage this time, but it's been slowly fading, and along with Krastinaff's shield goes the weariness of this insane escape, the party's hopes fade again.

The forest in front of them gets less dense, and the ground has more and more rocks, the trees almost disappear in a few leagues, the ground is now red sand and very gravel, there are big rocks all over the place, fewer and fewer creatures follow them on this ground.

Still they have to continue their flee, Krastinaff's shield is gone, now Ramon and the dwarf take turns defending the group against the bigger creatures, all they see comes from the spears that have become torches in Amira and Susano's hands.

Now the dwarf barely able to see is closer to Krastinaff, Amira and Susano. Ramon is also back to his partial transformation and maybe not for long, he's also pretty close to the rest of the group, as he protects himself more from the creatures than he protects his companions.

"There! In that cave!" the dwarf roars already hoarse and takes the lead towards the cave, Krastinaff is almost fainting, everyone enters through the cave's narrow entrance while Ramon tries to keep the creatures out.

"Very good mutt, just a little longer" the Dwarf walks to a large, rounded rock. "Come freaks! Let's close off the entrance!" the dwarf gives his last stormy scream, Krastinaff falls unconscious in a cold sweat, he barely keeps breathing.

Amira and Susano respond to the dwarf's call, regretting leaving their companion helpless, Ramon enters little by little. Ramon is seriously injured in the top of the head, back, legs and arms, not to mention the missing claws and teeth.

They manage to close and block the entrance with great effort, they hear the creatures outside, banging against the rock, the rock looks even more hard than those creatures, Ramon in his human form already struggles alongside the Dwarf and Amira to keep the rock instead, the creatures' attacks were pushing the rock aside.

"Hold on tight!" the dwarf speaks with little strength left, they moan as they struggle to keep the stone in place, Susano collects smaller stones and starts wedging the boulder so it can't be moved from the outside, the dwarf, Ramon and Amira muscles reach the limit with all the effort made so far and without Susano's help, little by little Susano's strategy take effect.

After a lot of shoving the rock, now they can stop holding it, they all fall exhausted to the ground, the sounds of the creatures' blows diminish. They fall asleep exhausted, the dwarf is the only one who does this without fear, because he knows that cave leads nowhere.

They wake up, many hours later still tired and very hungry, especially Ramon, Krastnaff is sleepy and in a cold sweat, he has a terrible headache. The only light in the cave comes from outside, entering through the gaps in the rock covering the entrance.

"Let's get out! Get moving!" the Dwarf is still hoarse, Susano and Amira fumble to find the stones and remove them, the dwarf and Ramon help push the stone far enough, just so they can pass, they stagger away from hunger and fatigue.

Outside the cave it's very hot, the light burns on their skin, the dry wind carries a lot of dust, they left what they were carrying in the camp to escapefaster, Ramon has already recovered a little from his injuries, he sees that Krastinaff walks with difficulty and he gives him a dry stick he finds between two huge rocks, they walk to an indentation not far from the cave they were in, and the dwarf pauses to catch his breath in the shadow of the indentation.

"You shit pile! Left it all behind, now we'll have to go back to get it all." The dwarf looks at Krastinaff and thinks about teaching him a lesson, but he won't be able to hit Krastinaff satisfactorily and leaves that for later.

"Hope it's all there! What's found missing or broken, I'll charge you in pain." The dwarf can't impose as much streak in his voice as he wants, Krastinaff is too downcast to pay attention to the dwarf.

"Sir, let's go back to the fort now" Susano is purposefully petulant to take the dwarf's focus away of Krastinaff, the dwarf realizes Susano's intention, he also leaves to reply this later.

"Of course not snake fart, we're going to lose most of the day because of this shit pile, if we lose the equipment we'll have to improvise when we get there, I can't go back empty-handed" the dwarf leaves the shadow and heads back to the camp as fast as he can, and yet they walk slower than the dwarf calculated.

The camp is destroyed, the fire has been out for quite some time, only a pickax and a machete are still usable, the creatures have trampled the rest, the dwarf is very angry.

"This will have to be enough" the dwarf kicks Krastinaff's shin who immediately drops to his knees, the dwarf steps on his head, Krasitnaff touches the shin helplessly. "Your fault! you useless worm" the dwarf is secretly pleased, finally he managed to scream.

The dwarf takes a few scraps of their food that the monsters haven't devoured or done who knows what, and eats it alone, Krastinaff and his group watch it drooling.

"Take your eyes off! you bums! Go get me some more food before this is over, or you guys get beaten up too, Ramon and Susano go looking around, Amira stays to protect Krastinaff in case the dwarf tries to keep his promise.

Susano comes back with a squirrel and Ramon can only fill his canteen, they pick up a broken flint and the crushed pot, they leave with the dwarf back to the cave, it's getting dark again, when they come out of the forest they hear the monsters doing noise from the direction they came, seems to come towards them.

"Shit! this time they came earlier!" the dwarf is already beginning to demonstrate that he is getting back to normal, he is complaining non-stop now for having lost his ax in the head of one those creatures.

They enter again and into the cave and cover the entrance with the rock, Krastinaff throws the firewood that the dwarf made him carry alone in the middle of the cave, the dwarf kicks Krastinaff's ass then some more, dwarf's metal boot he would have ripped Krastinaff's ass off, clothes and all, if he could kick with all his strength.

"Make my meal quickly snake fart, maybe this time I'll let you lick the leftovers!" the dwarf lies down waiting for the food, Susano takes all he can from the squirrel and uses Ramon's canteen to improve the squirrel stew.

The dwarf eats and goes to bed, less than half is left, Susano gives the first portion to Ramon, he's the only one who can defend them next time, Ramon tries to control himself, but he devours almost everything, only two squirrel legs are left, Amira and Susano take one each and give Krastinaff what little broth is left over. The dwarf laughs out loud watching this.

"That's right, you're finally getting it, this shit doesn't deserve anything!" The dwarf turns and sleeps peacefully again, Krastinaff and his group take turns watching so that the creatures can't push the boulder if they get there.

They wake up by the next cycle bell ringing, Amira and Susano are very hungry and thirsty, Krastinaff is hungry but there is nothing to eat or drink.

"We're only going to get water in the next cycle!" The dwarf warns and laughs looking at Krastinaff's face, Krastinaff's stomach is growling and he seems to have lost weight overnight.

Walking slower in the scorching heat of this arid area, Ramon manages to walk a little further, he notices a camouflaged chameleon and he attacks the animal with his bare hands, he strangles the animal and takes it to Susano, Susano keeps the animal to prepare it to the dinner.

Guided by the dwarf they reach another cave similar to the first one, there is also a rock so they can block the entrance, Susano prepares the food with some dry sticks they found on the way to make a fire.

Again the dwarf eats more than half, this time Ramon manages to be more restrained and leaves a little more for his friends, but he takes a rib from the chameleon and gives it to Krasinaff.

"No mutt, now that I was starting to think I might have hope for you." The dwarf takes off his armor, and nods to Amira. "Come bitch, lie down here so I can sleep on you, I'm tired of this hard ground" Amira obeys with her head down, Ramon holds Susano in a corner, Krastinaff watches it, injured and helpless.

They get up with the sound of a new cycle, they leave the cave and walk a few leagues, and they start to see trees in the distance, it's not like the forest, it's more like the extra layer, the ground becomes more covered with grass and bushes as the landscape changes.

Shortly after entering that greener area, they find a puddle of water, the dwarf stands in front of the puddle and fills his canteen, drinks it all and refills the canteen and offers it to Ramon, Ramon accepts and drinks half of it and passes on for Susano, Susano drinks the rest and gives it back to the dwarf.

The dwarf only takes half the canteen now and there is only muddy water left in the puddle, she gives the canteen to Amira, and when she makes a move to stop, he takes her hand so she had to drink it all.

Krastinaff drops to his knees beside the puddle, the dwarf looks at Krastinaff, and smiles widely.

"It really is you! Wait a moment" the dwarf takes Ramon's canteen, with difficulty the dwarf manages to urinate into Ramon's canteen. "Ready! Here's your part, we can't leave you without anything to drink for too long!" Krastinaff ignores the dwarf and makes a move to bend down to drink the muddy water.