Quin’s entire body was filled with horrible pain, but that was nothing to him as he knew that it would not take too long for his body to be restored. What made him worry though, was the fight ahead of him.

He discarded any plans of attacking it and decided to focus purely on his defense. It would do no good to get in a punch just to die right away from the creature’s attacks afterward. His movements were quick as he leaped backward, but this Shrieker was a fearsome enemy.

Before long, it had already got itself out of the crater and this time it did not catapult itself up in the air, but instead charged wildly at Quin. Countless tongues emerged from its mouth with a speed so fast that Quin could only see them in a blur. They’re definitely faster than me, but let’s hope that my maneuverability is better?

He tried to evade them by quickly changing directions and it did slow them down, but more importantly he was not left with the need to block all of them at once. There were still a couple of them coming at him simultaneously, but he had a lot more confidence in this way.

This time it was three of them and the first one targeted the center of his head. He managed to barely turn his head in the last moment and the tongue flew past just next to his ears. Hearing the sound it generated so close would have normally filled him with dread, but this fight was totally different than the previous ones where he could let his mind to be distracted. Currently, Quin needed all of his concentration just to successfully evade these attacks.

Two other tongues came in almost the same moment and while he turned his head slightly he had also lifted up his right leg, away from the second attack.

The last one was aimed at the side of his chest and he countered it by slapping on the tongue hard to divert its direction. Despite using so much of his strength he was not able to succeed at it entirely and in the end, he lost another smaller chunk from his left side.

Quin did not have any time to rest and quickly leaped backward again from the attacks. This went on for a couple of exchanges and although his body was covered in gashes and wounds, his ability to evade them and to simultaneously move various parts of his body started to improve.

Another five tongues came and two out of the first three was targeting his head again while the third one his neck. Quin bent his entire body back almost to the point it was horizontal and then put his hands on the ground behind him. With his momentum and his hands as a base, he flipped back to his legs again.

By that time the other two tongues were already at him attacking him from both sides. Quin managed to dodge one by turning to one side and tried to divert the other one with a slap. However, his body was not able to cleanse the poison he got infected with after every hit out of his body and thus some of his movements became a bit sluggish over time. His slap was just a bit too late and the tongue pierced through the left side of his chest.

Fuck it!

Quin let out a growl as he decided that he had enough of being only at the receiving end of things and even if it was risky, he would do something to hurt his enemy. He grabbed with his other hand on the tongue that was still inside of him and jumped away with all of his strength after turning around.

He got wildly pulled back after a few meters and his right hand was severely bleeding. It was just like with the Tailed Shrieker, and trying to rip out its tongue was not something that would be so easy. The only thing that still left him with a good feeling was seeing that the tongue’s movement became visible slower afterward.

Maybe that’s my plan? With that, he decided that no matter how much pain this kind of counterattack caused him, he would continue doing it.

There were only a few things going on his mind, but the strongest was not even his desire to survive anymore, but the hate he felt toward this vile and disgusting race. He wanted nothing more than to completely eradicate them and he knew that even if it cost his life he would be satisfied with being able to do that. Thus his main priority had changed from defending to causing as much harm as he could.

Although his way of thinking sounded foolish, his mind was not quite clear anymore and his judgment was a bit clouded by his utter hatred toward the Shriekers. Besides, his plan was not entirely stupid and there were two reasons for it. It was true that he was bombarded by constant attacks and the number of his injuries only grew, but he did have his regeneration. Quin hoped that he would gradually be able to whittle away the Shrieker’s body -- especially its tongues -- and then he would also have less trouble with its attacks. The other reason was that right from the beginning of the fight he had been luring the creature in the direction of the lake and though they were still some distance away they were steadily closing in. That meant that the wild energy got denser and denser, increasing his ability to regenerate as well as making him feel less worried about running out of reserves.

Even if his plan did not turn out the most optimal way, he was certain that he would last long enough to get to the lake and there he would have the high ground.

When the following series of attacks came he did not evade or block the last ones on purpose and let it pierce through him. Then he did the same as before, grabbed on it strongly and jumped away, repeating this cycle a couple of times. Quin’s entire body was in a horrible state and even the bones were visible on his hands, but on the bright side he did manage to significantly slow down at least half of the creature’s tongues. This made things easier for him, but unsurprisingly the Shrieker was not without other tricks.

When its next attacks came it was not just the usual ones, and as Quin was about to grab its tongue the Shrieker’s arms started to move lightning fast. It looked like the creature tried to squeeze him between its two spiky hands.

Quin noticed and managed to leap backward just in time, or at least that was what he thought, but his opponent had other plans for him. The spikes in the center opened up and started to emit a purple colored gas while the other spikes around them opened up as well revealing something similar to its tongues.

He would have definitely wondered what was the matter with Shriekers and their unending amount of tongues, but he was too busy trying to get away from his position that looked completely hopeless.

From the front, the creature attacked him with its tongues just like before and to top it off his path was also closed from his back by the tongue-like things that shot out of its spikes on its hand. If this was not enough, the area between these places was quickly filled with the purple gas that was obviously rather toxic and he did not even dare to breathe it in.

Hit came after hit and he felt like he was enclosed in a prison of tongues without having anywhere to go. Though barely, he did manage to hold out for a bit more time and now he could feel that they were really close to the lake. Still, he was not sure he would last that long as he would not even dare to imagine what kind of condition he was currently in.

After a couple of exchanges later -- or maybe it would be more appropriate to call it simply beatings -- he was truly wondering whether this would be his last day as he could barely evade the incoming attacks and more and more managed to hit him.

Then, however, during what he thought would be his last moment an opportunity appeared before him as if he had been in some sort of a miracle.