A bestial roar, one what would put any monster to shame, caused the nearby raindrops to be thrown outwards as my two claw-like hands cut ten deep groves into the creature's neck as I used it's flesh to slow my rapid descent.

Thick, dark green blood sprayed from the vicious wounds, the agonised scream and sight making my lips curve in joy, only to be replaced with an evil laugh as my feet slammed into one of the creatures many spider-like legs generating a sickening crunch.

My sneak attack from above had, at least to the naked eye, been devastating and as I hit the ground and rolled out of the way of the many stamping legs, I had a brief respite to inspect the damage I had caused.

-’Oh yes~.’

-'... that actually worked!?!'

The bottom half of the leg I had landed on had snapped in half, confirming my suspicions that it was pretty brittle, causing the beast thrashed around in confusion and pain.

Within moments it managed to regain its senses, its beady, yellow eyes locking onto me, the pupils going wide in shock with a hint of fear.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I launched myself forward with my own roar.

Compared to the monster's, it was pretty pathetic, but it was enough to cause my chest to vibrate menacingly and cause water vapour evaporating from my skin to seemingly shake in the air.

When I was no more than two steps forward, a brown blur entered my peripheral, causing the now familiar tingling sensation to ripple across my body in warning.

Without a seconds hesitation, I kicked off the ground with my right foot, my body suddenly rotating in the air due to the unbalanced force, letting the appendage tear through the air harmlessly under me and smash into the ground.

Paying the attack no mind, I continued forward at an incredible speed and was soon upon my target. Weaving between the spindly legs, I worked my way towards what I hoped was the soft underbelly of the beast.

My goal was to eviscerate my opponent and then retreat, using hit and run tactics similar to wild dogs on Earth to wear it down slowly.

Somewhere, in the deep recesses of my mind, there was a small part of me that was concerned by my bloodthirsty, almost rabid ways but it was silenced the moment my ivory coloured claws, the hardened substance now so far up my arms that I couldn't see where it ended, sliced into the creature.

Before I could even do a fraction of the desired damage, the beast slightly lifted its body before slamming it down towards the ground, forcing me to throw myself to the side as it attempted to flatten me.

Rolling to my feet, I pounced on the creatures brown, furry side and used my claws as makeshift ice picks as I started to scrabble up, sensing that the beast was about to roll.

This fight was not going how I expected, and although so far it could be said I was winning, a chill ran down my spine.

The humanoid monsters or those similar to the creatures I had seen on earth were easy to deal with. They moved and, in most cases, acted in predictable ways.

This creature was something else. It was smart, fast and if it wasn't for my small size and speed, I doubt even if we were evenly matched, I would even have a chance.

As if summoned by my grim thoughts, I wasn't even halfway up the creature's side when my luck finally ran out.

While my earlier speculation that the creature's legs would not be a threat if I got close to the body was correct, that didn't anticipate that the monster's legs could reach from the other side of its body, effectively eliminating the weakness.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” I couldn't stop the scream that tore from my lips as a finger-like spike stabbed into my calf, pinning me to the monster's side.

Without giving me time to catch my breath another leg from further down the body swiped at me, tearing me away from its host, leaving a large chunk of my calf behind, and sending me spiralling away from my prey.

I cursed as I watched the ground rapidly approaching me. Everything had turned from excellent to fucked in a matter of seconds and I could tell that the injury I had just sustained was going to be a severe handicap.

-'Still, could be worse~.'

Oh, how I hate my optimistic side. Fates favourite bitch.

The ability of my new body had gone too my head slightly and so during my final flip, I extended my arm, intending to use it to continue my rotation and land on my feet like some sort of superhero or ninja.

My eyes widened in horror as my sharp, claw-like hands slid into the thick mud easily, stopping its sideways trajectory as my body continued onwards.

*CRACK*

Luckily, my momentum was mostly spent and so, instead of tearing off my arm, I pivoted and slammed onto the thankfully soft floor.

-'...' The voice didn't say anything. It didn't need to. I was royally fucked.

-'No. We are royally fucked,' huffed the voice with a resigned sigh.

Seems like the know it all bitch could read my thoughts, not that I had the time to think about that at the moment.

My vision pulsed as the world seemed to turn more monochrome. Pain wracked my body, but what was worse, I felt utter disappointment.

Not at the situation but at myself.

Not only did I let the creature hamstring me, I even broke my arm in a moment of apparent stupidity.

Staggering to my feet and pulling my mangled arm out of the mud, I wiped the mud from my eyes and was momentarily distracted by the white, snowflake-like shards falling from where it had broken in three places.

A white liquid was seeping through the large cracks at an alarming rate as the feeling of weakness joined the pain as it coursed along my arm.

"Impressive."

The creature's telepathic voice boomed in my head, my vision dimming as it spoke.

Looking up and seeing that it was just watching me, I realised how dazed I must be to just ignore my foe and took a step forward in an attempt to gather my wits.

The pain from my leg almost brought me to my knees as sucked in a deep breath through my teeth. It was only then that I realised that a warm liquid was steadily flowing from the gaping wound, muscle and bone visible.

-"Fuck."

In my mind, I was always prepared to retreat, however, with an injury like this, that was impossible.

Shaking my head, which was now feeling extremely sluggish, I focused on my foe, surprised that it had not attacked.

"You have fought well, human spawn. Unlike the rest of your species, you have fought like a true Jarknock."

What could only be interpreted as laughter caused me to wince as I struggled to remain standing.

"No. A Jarknock still knows fear and restraint. You remind me of the Falx. It is fortunate that I have met you while you are still young. Not only do I eliminate a future threat, but I will absorb your potential strength for my own."

Dark green blood seemed to erode the ground, pooling below the creature, as it cautiously approached, no longer displaying any contempt.

-'Tsk, couldn't you look down on me for a few more minutes.'

Swallowing back the blood vomit that tried to escape my mouth, revealing that the hit I had taken from the leg had done a lot more internal damage than it first appeared, I steadied myself as I wracked my brain for a solution.

-’My mobility has been destroyed, and offensive ability is halved. Shit. I am about to become bug chow…’

I felt my lips curl into the beginning of a smile. A crazy, no insane idea starting to take form.

*Bang*

My world once again spun before I slammed into the ground and skidded to a stop.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, I struggle to my knees and laugh. Or at least I attempt too as it seems that last hit had broken a few ribs.

I needed to come up with an insult. Something to enrage the creature enough that it wouldn't tenderise me first.

The monster circled, my laugh seemingly unsettling it enough to hesitate.

I shook my head. In the end, I knew nothing about this creature, bar the fact that he had an issue with humans.

Luckily, it didn’t seem I needed it as the beast seemed to decide that ending this as quickly as possible was in its best interests.

"You put up a valiant fight but it ends here. Meet your ancestors with dignity.”

Steam slowly rose from my skin as my heart thundered in my ears and I revealed what felt like a feral grin.

This was it.

The moment where my future is decided on one of two roads. Almost like flipping a coin. Heads I live, tails I die yet instead of fear, I felt excited.

I had never felt so alive.

A low crunching noise rose from my arm as, without conscious effort, it slowly ground back into place, the bone-coloured liquid seemingly pulling it into position before solidifying.

I chuckled. I was running out of time. I was almost sure now that I could regenerate pretty well and, like all things in life, it wasn't free. No, to heal at this advanced rate, I was rapidly consuming my own body from the inside.

With each moment that passed, I was noticeably weaker, my cheeks feeling hollow and gaunt and that was without the loss of muscle. What others would see as a cheat was, in fact, a huge weakness in prolonged fights. Especially if somebody wanted to take you alive.

-'Not that Mr ugly here wants to do that.'

Noticing I wasn't about to grace it with my final words, the creature coiled its body and lowered its head, similar to how a serpent prepares to strike.

-'The dice have been cast. Now I just have to sit here and wa-"

My thoughts ground two a halt as a white flash appeared behind the creature. The Alpha was about to launch its sneak attack.

-”NO!”

My smile faltered, and I did the only thing I could do. I launched myself towards the beast in an attempt to trigger its attack.

I needed it to attack as it had done at the start and if the Alpha got in the way, or made it any more cautious, I would lose my only chance at pull a victory from the jaws of defeat.

I could not fight this monster toe to toe. It was stronger, faster and most importantly, more resilient to attacks than I was. The injuries I had inflicted, although looking extremely painful, were not serious.

Much to my delight, my sudden movement caused the creature to shoot forward, opening its disgusting, tooth-filled mouth wide as a transparent membrane slide across its eyes.

Time seemed to slow as I leapt forward, imagining myself to be nothing more than a missile, my arms out to my front as if trying to tear the very air apart.

I took a final look at the creature's eyes as I passed out of sight, confusion and shock evident in them, and started my flight into the maw of the beast.

Now was the time for my biggest gamble. If the monster bit down too soon, it would be over.

Just as the jaws were starting to descend, they froze as a howl, followed by savage growling, tore through the air like a hot knife through butter.

It seemed the Alpha's attack had saved my skin or at least made it so I wouldn't be snapped in half.

Lightning struck nearby, illuminating my outstretched arms and seeing as I had nothing to do as I hurled towards my doom, and I was trying to distract myself so I didn't tempt fate again, I was able to take note of the changes.

Long, razor-sharp claws, attached to boney joints were at the tip while lines of jagged, curved, blade-like spikes ran down my arms which appeared to be covered in hexagon like plates. They seemed to allow movement while providing armour like protection.

-"I wonder how far it goes?"

All in all, they were terrifying, deadly and at the same time, beautiful.

I loved them.

The stench of death and decay brought me back to my senses and along with it, time seemingly returning to normal, I realised I was right where I wanted to be. I was inside the creature's enormous mouth.

Inwardly cursing I started to curl up, noticing that the jaw was descending in my peripheral but I was too late.

It seemed my damaged leg wasn’t as responsive as I had hoped and the sudden stabbing pain just below my ankle revealed that I had not been fast enough.

Instinctively, or at least that is how it felt, I knew I had lost the foot, but it didn’t matter, I had achieved the first objective.

If I were to die, I would drag this overgrown worm with me. Even if I had to choke it with my own corpse.

Using the rest of the momentum, that had only been slightly slowed due to my foot getting caught by the teeth, my arms shot out to the sides, tearing into the creature's mouth as I threw myself down its throat.

Pain from my injuries and a light-headedness threatened to overwhelm me, darkness whispering sweet words of release and comfort but I quickly shook them away as I continued my journey downwards, ignoring the deafening roars and thrashing of the beast.

-’Bit off more than you could chew did you Mr 'I am impressed'?’

I couldn’t help but chuckle as my body and mind started to numb, conscious thought becoming harder and harder as something far more primal started to take over.

-’Almost cost me an arm and a leg. Well, it did cost me a foot. Guess I could even say I have one foot in the grave. I... I... I~’

An irony taste fills my mouth as I start chewing, swallowing down the warm, exquisitely tasty item that somehow found its way into my mouth.

Screeches, of what my addled mind assumed to be terror and agony, assaulted my ears as my body jumped, flipped and sloshed in some sort of hissing liquid. Every time I hit one of the rough yet soft walls, my hands reached out and returned to my mouth with more of the delicious food before darkness enveloped me.

Every now and again, the shrieks roused me from my unconsciousness periodically, time losing all meaning as I continued to act on instinct. That is, I kept my eyes tightly closed as I shovelled anything I could get my hands on, into my mouth before swallowing.

After a while, feeling in my body started to return, bringing with it agonising pain, as if I was in a vat of acid yet I ignored it as I continued my relentless routine. It felt like my body was being destroyed and recreated at an alarming rate, a battle of life and death that I had no say in, yet all I could do was to continue eating.

Eat.

Fall unconscious.

Repeat.

At some point, the thrashing stopped, along with the screeching, enabling me to get a good grip on one of the sides as I started tunnelling into my food source. My life. The only thing that made sense to my mind. Eat to live, live to eat.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, I slept instead of falling unconscious, only waking to eat my fill.

Eventually, I hit something hard yet malleable and, as if it was waiting for this moment, the haze cleared from my mind and I was once again myself.

With the adrenaline gone, or whatever else was affecting my mind, and the realisation of what lead me to my current predicament a familiar panic seeped from my core.

I was in darkness, trapped on all sides by a cold, wet… sludge. Unable to move freely.

Claustrophobic panic set in as I started to frantically attack the barrier in front of me, ignoring the muffled sounds of a language I had not heard for what felt like an eternity. I needed out, and I need out now.