"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

In front of Damian, the beast's fist sat inches away from his torso in a crater where he stood seconds before.

[Holy crap!]

Scrambling away on all fours to get on his legs, Damian wasted no time in bringing as much distance between the beast and himself. Luckily the beast thrust its arm towards him a bit too vigorously which resulted in its arm being lodged into the mini crater it had created. Unluckily this only brought Damian an astounding four seconds before the beast freed itself from the hole it created. With the four seconds granted to him, Damian was able to amass thirty feet from his original position. The beast closed the gap with only two. A giant arm reached over Damian but right before it could grab him, an arrow whizzed past the leaves of a tree and pierced into its arm. The beast yelped from the sudden flare of pain and quickly retracted its arm on instinct. It furiously glanced around to find its assailant but the sniper had already changed its position and was hidden once again. While Damian continued to flee towards the trap the beast switched its target from Damian to Rose, who was hidden in the trees.

[That's not good. I need to keep it's attention on me so that I can lure it to the trap.]

"Yo ugly!"

The beast spun around towards the sound of the voice, enraged by the insult. What greeted it was Damian proudly waving his phone in the air.

"This is what you want right? Try to keep up with me and I might just hand this to you for free!"

The beast bared its teeth and roared at the flaunting Damian, provoked by his cocky attitude.

[Good. Looks like it worked.]

Shoving his phone back into the fanny pack slung around his shoulder, Damian darted towards the trap again. Due to the beast's arrogant nature, the perfect cycle was created. The beast followed in hot pursuit and would catch up easily but every time it got too close an arrow would find itself on the beast's body. Everytime the beast decided to change it's target to the one hidden in the trees, Damian would provoke the beast again in a childish manner causing it to refocus on him.

[Just a bit further!]

A few feet away was the trap laid by Damian and Timithus and a bit further was the clearing where Charles had killed the beast in the past timeline. Five feet away. Four feet. Three feet. Two feet. One feet.

[Jump!]

Leaping over the trap and landing on the other side, Damian stood in place, welcoming the beast to come and get him. The beast did just that and ran straight for him. Its arm extended to finally reach the annoying bug that was Damian.

Snap

Just before the beast could reach Damian, the enhanced rope tightened around its ankle. The logs on the other end of the rope came crashing down, dragging the beast off of its feet and leaving it helplessly dangling upside down above the ground.

"Now!" Damian cried.

Richard and Timithus jumped out from their hiding spots in the brush, Richard on the right and Timithus on the left of the beast. The two lunged towards its arms. Timithus was able to cleanly slice off the left arm but Richard's blade got stuck in its right arm halfway through the slice. Blood sprayed everywhere from its wounds, covering Richard and Timithus in its dark red fluids.

"Shit!" Richard cursed.

"Leave it! Timithus!" Damian called out.

Timithus leapt back and readied his sword for the final blow. He dashed forward and swung with all his might at its neck.

[This is checkmate!]

Seconds before the blade cut through its neck, the beast swung its head forward, dodging the incoming threat. Timithus swung his arm back in an attempt to slice the beast's head off on its way down but it maintained an upside down sit up position and ripped off the sword stuck in its right arm with its right arm. Using up the last of its strength in its remaining arm, it threw the sword at the rope keeping it suspended. The spinning blade cut through the rope like butter and the beast fell face first into the dirt below.

[You've gotta be kidding me!]

Wasting no time, Timithus thrust down at the beast's neck but was stopped by its feet. The beast used its legs to block the sword that was inches away from its neck from connecting. However, he continued to push down, activating his Blessing of strength to gain a slight boost over the beast. Slowly but surely, Timithus began to out muscle the beast. The blade scratched the surface of the beast's neck, causing a small cut to pour out a small amount of blood. However, before he could push any deeper, the beast directed its strength to its side rather than towards him. The sudden shift in force caused Timithus to be flung away from the beast and onto the grass besides it. An arrow pierced into the beast's head but it shrugged it off like it was nothing and got to its feet. It leapt out of the crowded woods and into the spacious clearing nearby. Getting low on its feet, it stood on guard, ready for any attack while slowly regenerating its lost limb and wounds.

"Timithus, are you alright?" Damian tended to the downed guard.

"Just a bit roughed up." He coughed in response.

"Darn, this is all ma fault. I messed up big time." Richard lowered his gaze in shame.

"Don't sweat it. Not everything goes according to plan. Things happen. Anyways, we have the clear advantage here. We just need to finish it off." Damian consoled Richard.

Rose jumped down from the trees and landed near the group.

"How are we going to do that? The beast is in the middle of a clearing and waiting for an attack. I don't even think I could hit it with an arrow if I tried right now." She worriedly asked. "To make things even worse, it looks like it has a Blessing of regeneration and a powerful one at that. If we don't do something quick it'll heal its wounds and grow its arm back."

"We could try an all out attack. All of us rush in at the same time." Damian suggested.

"That won't work. The beast will just jump away." Timithus growled.

"We could try provoking it?"

"I don't think so. Now that its life is on the line I doubt it'll fall for that." Rose debunked Damian's suggestion.

[Think Damian think! There has to be something we can do here. How can we finish it off? Think. Think. Think God Dammit!]

"I...I have a plan!"

******

The beast stood its ground in the clearing. Its wounds were almost completely healed and its left arm had grown back till the elbow. Suddenly from the bushes in front of it, Damian, Rose, and Richard charged in wielding their weapons. Richard with his sword, Rose with her bow and arrows, and Damian with his fists. As they got close, the beast decided that it should wait till its injuries were healed before fighting again and leapt back to maintain some distance between them.

"...!"

In the middle of its bound, Timithus emerged behind it to match it in the air, his arm equipped with his sword already in a swinging motion aimed at its neck.

(1 minute earlier)

"We can't do anything about it when it's on the ground. So that means we just have to fight it when it's in the air. If me, Rose, and Richard charge at it, it'll probably decide to leap back. When it does that Timithus will match it in the air from behind and swing at its neck." Damian explained to the group. "But this plan puts a lot of pressure on Timithus. Can you do it?"

(Now)

"Haaaaaah!"

With the lives of the villagers in his hands, Timithus swung his sword at the beast's back. The beast could only watch helplessly as the sword swung towards it…..and completely missed. A combination of growing fear and nervousness resulted in him miscalculating when the two would meet in the air which led to him swinging too early. The beast grinned at Timithus' failed attempt and back handed him with his right arm into the ground. He crash landed with a loud boom and didn't get back up.

"Damn ya!" Richard, blind with rage, charged at the beast for his fallen friend.

"Richard, don't!" Damian called out but Richard couldn't hear him through the blood pumping in his ears.

The beast, now fully healed and confident, accepted the challenge. The beast swiped its right arm at Richard in an attempt to grab him but he stepped back in the nick of time, barely avoiding his death. The beast's neck was now exposed to Richard so he took the opportunity and swung at it but the beast recovered and swung its arm back before the blade could connect. Richard was hit right in the torso and was sent flying into the direction of the swing. Down but not yet out, he continued struggling to get back on his feet, using his sword as a support. The beast walked up to Richard, ready to end his life but before it could reach him, Rose fired at it. The arrow sunk right into its left eye socket, destroying its vision on its left side. The beast roared in anger, remembering how annoying Rose was and lunged at her to repay her for the times she interfered with its hunt. She easily dodged the predictable attack but the beast didn't let up. As Rose evaded the attack, the beast grabbed hold of her retreating foot and threw her into a nearby tree. The tree came crashing down, leaving Rose unconscious and heavily injured at the foot of the trunk. Finally back on his feet, Richard unsteadily held the sword in front of him. He was covered from head to toe with the beast's blood and his own. The beast caught sight of the persevering guard and prepared to finish him off.

"Come at me!" Richard roared.

The beast thrust its arm at Richard, no doubt to squeeze the life out of him. Richard had barely any strength in his arms but stood his ground as the over looming death approached his feeble body. He weakly raised his arm to swing downward at the incoming beast but before the two could make contact, Damian pushed Richard away from the beast's grasp. However, this meant Damian was now in the beast's range. It grabbed Damian and held him by his torso above the ground. Slowly it began to squeeze. Waves of excruciating pain shocked his body as he felt his rib cage cracking under the pressure. Thinking quickly, Damian pulled out his phone to bring himself some time. Distracted by the electronic, it ceased its crushing grip on Damian but still kept him suspended in the air. Damian tried to say something but when he did, the pain would flare up again so he remained silent. With its free arm, the beast carefully reached towards the smartphone.

Slash

In an instant, the beast's hand was no longer attached to its arm. Blood spurted from the fresh wound, lightly covering Damian as he dropped into the arms of his savior.

"Looks like I got here just in time."

Damian's rescuer retreated into the woods, carrying him princess style. She set him down under a tree, allowing him to rest. Finally, Damian took a good look at his unknown savior.

"You're..!"

The lady from the back alley in Jackson Town had come to his rescue despite her denial during their confrontation. She no longer wore her hood so Damian was able to clearly see her. The lady was rather muscular for a female. She wore a white vest so her buff arms were out in the open for all to see. There was a hole in the front of the vest which revealed a bit of cleavage and she wore knee high boots over her black leggings. Equipped on her back was a gorgeous midnight colored spear that had a red cloth tied to the shaft near the blade.

"Sit tight. If you move too much you might actually die." She turned to enter the battle.

"Wait…..Go for the neck." Damian croaked.

"Got it."

With that the lady ran back into the clearing, leaving the barely conscious Damian by himself in the dark woods.