The Cirilka was around the height of my shoulder, but it had much more volume than me due to its width and length.

When it started rushing towards me with all the speed and power of a raging bull, I realized that I was in deep shit.

I didn't even have time to think and just threw myself to the side as it tore past me like a freight train.

It halted its momentum in a cloud of dust and mechanically turned to face me.

Can I just, like, run away?

Apparently not, since before I could move one foot it charged me again.

The thing didn't even give me a breather!

I leaped to the side, hitting the ground hard but avoiding the crab.

The one thing I had going for me was even if it could run fast it couldn't turn fast.

It wasn't that much of an advantage, because it was still way too quick to counter but it was something.

But before tha-

It was charging towards me a third time before I could even finish my thought.

Fuck!

That time it had the second pair of claws out wide and managed to slightly catch me while rushing past.

It wasn't too deep, but a gash in my side was not going to help me at all.

What was I supposed to do! I couldn't grab it while it was running since it had too many legs in the way, and it ran too far for me to catch it while it turned around!

The next time it charged, I got hit again. This one was deeper.

I was pretty sure the Cirilka was getting faster.

This might actually be really dangerous.

I felt the blood start seeping down my side.

The demon charged.

The world seemed to slow down as it ran towards me. I had two slashes in my right side, and the Cirilka was running forward.

I could hear the crack of each claw on the rocky ground, see the dust flung upwards in every movement.

We were surrounded by large boulders, but we were in a flatter area. There weren't many obstacles between us.

The ground was covered in dust and rocks. The rocks were all somewhat small, a few were around the size of my fist but nothing bigger.

The rocks. No, the ground itself. That-

The demon got closer, and I prepared myself. Time seemed to slow even further until I could only feel that one moment.

My muscles clenched, and I bent my legs low, my shoulders set.

The eyes of the demon were shiny black and shone with some sort of excitement, an energy.

It was happy.

I surprised myself with how keenly I felt that emotion, looking into its eyes. It wasn't just happiness, it was a mad fervor. It was absolutely raving with the feeling of hunting me down. Asshole.

It had its claws spread out wide, predicting I would try and jump away again.

And as it drew so close I could feel its breath, I exhaled shortly and threw myself to the ground.

Time sped up once again as I crouched, drawing my limbs in and tucking my head, feeling a rush of air as the demon passed over me.

But before it fully passed by, I threw out my hand and crushed a rock into one of its back legs, hearing a crack.

It screeched, a horrible and grating sound much different than a Keilatrix's, and stumbled to the ground in a heap of limbs.

I leaped to my feet and rushed towards it.

The Cirilka began to right itself, staring up at me as it scrambled to stand.

I slammed the rock down on its head before it could do anything.

It raised one of the front legs and cut me deeply before I threw the rock against its head a second time.

The demon faltered and was too slow to retaliate before I crushed its head.

I did it again.

It cut me, this time much more shallow.

I did it again.

It stopped moving its legs.

I did it again.

I stood up, shaking.

The shell of the Cirilka had become a shredded mess, there were blood and guts pouring from the indentation I had created in the center of its head.

Looking at my hp, I saw I was on 7/14.

I slowly turned and started walking, not thinking clearly.

Only then did I realize I hadn't gotten a message notifying me I had slain the demon.

Crap-

Before I had barely begun to move, I felt a force crash into me from behind.

The pain blinded me, claws tearing into my lower back as I was blown into the ground.

Crying out, I slammed my legs into the bottom of the demon as it stood over me. I barely pushed it back and scrambled away, yelling like a madman.

It screeched in outrage and dashed towards me.

I was on the ground, defenseless, and the demon was nearly on top of me.

I rolled to the side, covering myself with blood and dust.

The demon ran over my arm, slashing up the limb.

I stumbled into a sitting position, not having the energy to do anything more. My knees were bent in front of me and I was barely holding myself up with my uninjured arm.

I saw as the demon turned and slowly walked near.

There was a triumph in its gaze now. It had won, and it was happy.

It meandered closer until it stood above me, and I was face to face with it.

Although the top of its head was dented and carved, the front was clean.

Its huge mandible-claws twitched, and its eyes gleamed with mania.

The demon saw a defeated human, exhausted, dazed from blood loss, and covered in wounds.

My good arm was behind me, holding my body up.

It slowly inched closer...

I whipped my hand around and slammed a rock into its eyes. It screamed into my face but I kept going.

I kept hitting it, as fast as I could.

I didn't let up, even when it stumbled backward and fell.

I crushed its head into a bloody mush, and then I was satisfied.

You Have Slain: Cirilka, Level 5

Standing, I glared down at the mutilated carcass.

"I still had 2 health left, you fell for your own trick, dumbass."

+45 XP acquired

Demon Killer: Level 3 Acquired

Slashing Resistance: Level 2 Acquired

Reflexes: Level 1 Acquired

Time Dilation: Level 1 Acquired

Deception: Level 1 Acquired

Blood Rush: Level 1 Acquired

That was easily my hardest fight yet.

Sure, the Keilatrix got me to 1 hp but I went into that fight with around 3 or 4.

That Cirilka surprised me and then continually kept me on the ropes with its speed. It didn't let me get a single good hit in while it cut me and charged past. It was just too fast.

I lost something like 9 hp in that one fight. I lost 3, at most, in the fight with the Keilatrix.

How the hell was I supposed to deal with an entire nest of Cirilka when a single one nearly killed me? I was almost at max health when that fight started!

I was calling BS on the difficulty of my new quest.

But hey, I did get a lot of nice new skills from the fight. That was pretty cool.

The one called "Time Dilation" really excited me, because basically the only reason I had thought of a plan while being charged at was because of what had happened.

I don't know why or how it worked, but time slowed down and I was able to think of a plan. It was a pretty bad one, just throwing myself under the demon, but it worked.

Hopefully, I would be able to do the time-slow thing in other fights. That would be great.

That would also need me to actually figure out how to use the skills, though.

Nah, I could worry about it later! I had a quest to complete, I needed to get into that Cirilka nest!

But hopefully without dying. It would most likely need to be a stealth mission since there was no way I could fight ten of those things at once.

While I was thinking, something on the dead Cirilka caught my eye.

The leg I had broken earlier in the fight had nearly been torn off. I wasn't sure if it was the rock, the force applied later in the fight, or the strain the demon put it through, but the claw was barely hanging on.

Shrugging to myself, I knelt down and disarmed the carcass with somewhat ease.

Scavenging: Level 1 Acquired

The leg had a wicked sharp edge on the inner side, and it gleamed like metal even though it was organic. The outer side was just red flesh, and the bottom of the claw was normal bone and some more flesh. The bone segment was the perfect size to hold with my hand.

Overall, the whole blade was about as long as the distance from my wrist to my shoulder.

It was also incredibly light- surprisingly so. It felt about as light as a wooden stick of the same length.

Trying to bend it, I was able to get a small amount of curve but it was very hard to do so.

I lightly punched the shell of the dead demon and saw that it was hard on my knuckles. It was a smart move to have used a rock to hurt it instead of my bare hands.

Then I tried swinging the severed claw at the shell.

It wasn't very difficult to cut through to the inside.

My tests done, I grinned at my new sword.

Finally, I had a weapon.