Kit readied himself to sprint in the direction Mars had directed him to run. He could feel his adrenaline spiking. A fine tremor was shaking his body. His ears rang with a fast-thumping pulse. He could feel his senses becoming heightened to noise and movement.

As the monstrous crocodile approached Kit could feel the menacing threat from the monster assault his senses, he almost lost the strength from his legs. He pushed through the mental assault and started to run on his shaking legs.

‘If that thing gets a hold of me, it will be instant death.’

That thought spurred Kit on to a faster pace. He reached the trees and almost fell over an exposed root. He stumbled, but was able to keep his balance, he headed further inside the forest.

He was too scared to look behind him, but he could tell from the sounds that the crocodile was following him. He could hear the thuds from its legs and hear its heavy breathing. Kit almost felt like he could feel the hot breath of the monster against his neck.

Kit stumbled once again from the uneven ground he was crossing, at a breakneck pace.

‘I need to lose this creature, but I don’t think I can outrun it. I need to think of a plan, but there are too many things distracting me. Should I climb a tree?’

Kit decided to take a chance and scrambled up the closest tree he could find with a branch low enough for him to pull himself up onto. Luckily most of the trees were thick with branches so he found one straight away. He leapt up to grasp the branch, he could feel the rough bark scrape against his palm from the force he grabbed with.

He ignored the slight pain and pulled himself up. He continued up until he was well out of reach of the crocodile’s attack range. Once he was safe, he let out a sigh and got his breathing under control. The large crocodile sat on the ground staring at him through the branches.

‘What now, I’m safe for the moment.’

Kit started to study the crocodile while he was thinking. The most dangerous part of the crocodile was its large teeth. If he could neutralise that he might even have a chance of killing the monster. Kit was feeling braver than normal due to the adrenalin clouding his judgment.

“If you were a gummy crocodile, I could probably take you on. I bet you are the Spectral Nile Reptile Iris is having trouble with.”

Kit looked at the crocodile as if it would answer him. The monster just continued to stare at him with his creepy black eyes. He pondered what to do next.

‘It’s a pity I don’t have any rope or else I could tie its mouth like they do in the crocodile farms.’

“Wait there is some rope at the wagon. Pint is there though, maybe…”

Kit’s speech was stopped by a loud thud and accompanied by almost being dislodged from the tree. The tree was shaking from a large impact, Kit gripped the tree in a panic.

“What the flying pickles was that.”

Kit looked down at the crocodile right as it hit the tree with its tail. The violent lash shook the tree once again.

‘Holy chicken! Is he trying to shake me out of the tree? If I fall, I’m dead meat.’

Kit decided he would have more of a chance on the ground running away, than sitting in a tree waiting to fall out. He slowly descended the tree and waited for the crocodile to turn its back to swing his tail once again. Once the crocodile started to turn, Kit lept from the tree and started to run for his life once again.

This time he headed in the direction Mars had headed.

“MARS, I THINK I HAVE A PLAN! WHERE ARE YOU?”

From a distance Kit heard a faint reply. “I’M OVER THIS WAY, HANG ON I’LL HEAD TOWARDS YOU! I HOPE IT’S A GOOD PLAN, THESE THINGS ARE HARD TO SHAKE.”

Kit sprinted towards the direction of Mars’ voice, he could still hear the crocodile close on his heels. Kit finally saw Mars with a large blue streak close behind.

“Mars, I need you to distract both of them for a moment.”

“What are you insane, they will eat me in no time.”

Mars and Kit ran next to each other with the monsters close behind.

“If we can tie their mouths closed, we might be able to kill them.”

“What sort of bull shit plan is that? How are we going to get close enough to get a rope over their mouths?”

“Well, it’s worth a shot, right?”

“Crap! Ok, I’ll try your plan. Do you have some rope?”

“It’s at the wagon, that’s why I need you to distract both.”

“Fine. Climb a tree when I tell you to.”

“Ok”

Mars pulled something out of his pouch that was hanging from his side. He then glanced around, he pointed to a tree not far away from them.

“That one.”

Mars then turned and threw something at the crocodiles. Kit had no time to see what it was because he was jumping to catch a lower branch. His palms stung once again from his rough contact with the bark on the tree, he pulled himself up as fast as he could.

The crocodiles were roaring from whatever Mars had done and a menacing feeling invaded Kit as they streaked past. ‘Damn, I hope he will be alright.’

Kit shook the feeling away. Kit waited a moment once he determined they would be far enough away, he made a move. He scrambled down the tree and headed back towards Pint and the wagon. As he cleared the trees, he saw Pint grazing the grass without a care in the world.

“Pint, we are trying to save your backside and you don’t even notice.”

Kit huffed, he picked up the discarded rope off the ground then cut it in to two pieces with his rusty knife. He then made a loop on the ends of both pieces, he slung the rope over his shoulder and headed back towards where he had last seen Mars.

“MARS!”

“COMING!”

Kit saw Mars heading his way, he could see the perspiration on his face. He was red from his exertion, he looked like he would collapse any moment.

“Let’s get up a tree Mars.”

Kit climbed the nearest tree. Mars followed his lead. They both took a moment to catch their breath. Below the crocodiles were circling the tree. Kit didn’t think it would be long before they attacked the tree.

“Here, take this we can try to get it over their mouths.”

“Kit, did you think this through at all? They will just snap the rope, we would have to circle it around multiple times for it to have any effect.”

Kits face instantly fell, he had just put Mars in danger for no reason. Mars glanced at Kits face and frowned.

“Well, no harm in trying right. We can hook it on, then jump on their backs and see if we can pull it off.”

“What? You really want to try?”

Kit looked at Mars confused, it would be like suicide. He was disappointed with his ill-thought-out plan.

“Well why not, we are just sitting ducks anyway.”

Mars took a piece of rope from Kits shoulders and assessed the crocodiles movements. As he was watching they decided to strike the tree. Mars and Kit held on tight.

“Well look at that Kit, they even leave us an opening as they turn their backs on us. Ready to give it a try?”

At least his plan was better than giving up. Kit rubbed his bracelet for good luck, ‘I hope the blessing you got on this works Kat.’

“Ok, let’s do this.”

Kit held onto his rope ready to jump to his death. He waited for the crocodile just below him to turn its back once again. As it started to swing its tail, Kit leapt down and landed on the back of the giant head. He gripped his knees tightly on the ridge below the start of the crocodile’s mouth.

Kit’s heart was hammering in his mouth. He could hear a tinny thumping in his ears. There was a slight trembling in his hand. He didn’t stay still though. He quickly put the loop over its mouth and started frantically wrapping the rope around its giant mouth. The crocodile started to shake its head trying to dislodge Kit.

‘Please don’t fail! Please don’t fail!’

Kit squeezed more tightly than he thought possible with his thighs. All he could think about was if he let go, he would end up in the stomach of the crocodile. First having to pass the row of sharp teeth, thinking of the pain he would feel if that happened, made him shudder. He held on for his life while continuing to wrap the crocodile’s mouth with rope.

Once his rope came to an end, he tied it off and pulled out his rusty knife. By some miracle the rope did not snap.

“Carrot sticks! I think my knife will break if I try to stab his skin.”

“Go for his eyes, Kit.”

Kit didn’t hesitate to follow Mars words. He stabbed his knife down hard into the eye of the monster. He almost dropped the knife, his palms were so sweaty. The eye exploded with the force. Black eye gunk spurted to cover Kit’s face and clothes. A foul stench filled his nose causing him to dry reach.

- 500 damage [critical hit]

“My god, the smell will kill me before the crocodile has a chance.”

The crocodiles head started to swing wildly. Kit almost fell from the crocodile’s head due to the wild thrashing and his lapse in concentration from dry reaching. He held his breath to avoid the foul stench and wrapped his hands around its head so he wouldn’t fall.

Kit started to feel nauseous from the wild swinging, he felt like he was currently a rodeo rider clinging on for dear life to a raging angry bull. ‘This is so horrible, who in their right mind would want to be a rodeo rider.’

Kit started to feel dizzy from lack of oxygen, he sucked in a deep breath and almost vomited for real. ‘Keep it together Kit, there is still one more eye to go.’

Kit slowly inched his way back into his original position sinking his knees behind the ridge of the crocodile’s mouth. His sweaty hands slipped twice. His fear reached new heights each time he slid. Once he regained his balance, he lined up the other eye and stabbed down hard once again before the crocodile could dislodge him.

- 500 damage [critical hit]

“YES, you overgrown crocodile. Take that. Who cares if you have large muscles.”

Ding!

[Skill learnt: beginner incapacitating stab]

Player stabs target to prevent it from functioning in a normal way. Congratulations player learnt a new skill that he can probably never implement again due to his poor talent.

+ 5 attack to every attack with a blade.

+ 5 Intelligence

+ 3 Agility

‘Seriously what is going on with these descriptions, I must remember to ask Mars about his skills.’

Ding!

[Spectral Nile Reptile Killed]

1000 experience, 100 bronze crowns.

10 x Spectral Nile Reptile meat.

20 x Spectral Nile Reptile teeth.

1 x Spectral Nile Reptile hide.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 2]

Ding!

[Congratulations, you are now Level 3]

‘Holy fiery peppers! How is that even possible.’

Kit realised he had killed the Spectral Nile Reptile. He felt that killing the crocodiles was a fluke.

“How did it die with only two hits?”

“The eyes were their weak spot. That’s also why it caused so much damage each time an eye exploded.”

A surge of joy washed through Kits body from Killing the Spectral Nile Reptile. He didn’t care even if it was a fluke. He was sure when he first saw them, Mars and he were going to die. A large smile spread across his face, and he started to giggle like an idiot. He could feel the left over adrenalin making him giddy.

Kit glanced over towards Mars to see how he was doing. He was in the same position as Kit. He was sitting on top of the crocodile’s head covered in thick black gunk, with a huge grin on his face. Kit’s giggles turned in to laugh at the sight in front of him. Mars turned towards him, when he caught sight of Kit he started to laugh as well.

He was sure they both looked a sight covered in repulsive black eye gunk.

“This game is the best.” Kit started to do a little happy dance with his arms on top of the crocodile he was so overjoyed.

“I never thought this would feel so good. I’m glad I can share my moment of triumph with someone. But Kit, what are you doing right now?” Mars had a sly grin on his face.

Kit started to laugh harder he didn’t care that he looked like a fool. He was just so happy to not have died. He could tell from Mars’ smirk he was going to be teased about this later. Once his elation started to calm down, he remembered he had gotten a new skill and wanted to ask Mars about his.

“Hey Mars, can you show me one of your skills?”

“Sure, I can. Have you not got a skill yet?”

[Novice Arterial stab: Player can accurately find the arteries causing greater damage to target, adds 30 attack to any weapon.]

“Sun of a rooster! How did you get such a good one? Is it only me with bad skills, is CAL mocking me?”

“It can’t be that bad right?”

“I’ll show you one of mine, but don’t laugh.”

[Beginner incapacitating stab: Player slashes target to prevent it from functioning in a normal way. Congratulations player learnt a new skill that he can probably never implement again due to his poor talent.]

“Haha, that’s fantastic. It really feels like it mocks the player. Did you offend CAL? WAIT, are all your skills like that. OMG look at your face. They are, bahaha!” Mars started laughing uncontrollably.

“…..” Kit had a sour look on his face.

‘I’m definitely putting pepper in his bed tonight.’

Once Mars got himself under control he apologised.

“Sorry Kit that was gold, I really could not help but laugh.”

Kit looked at him and sighed, he really could not blame him, it really did look like he was being mocked by CAL.

“We better head back and find Pint to see if he is ok. Though I think he had no clue about the danger he could have been in. But first I think we should take a dip in the water to wash this gunk off our clothes.”

“Good plan.”

They collected the rewards from the crocodile. Then headed to the water to wash off the black, foul smelling gunk. Once clean, they made their way back to the stubborn horse. He was still happily grazing the grass where he had been left.

“Seriously, he is the worst horse. I’m glad we can give him back after we finished delivering the wagon to Iris.”

“When I get a mount, I’m going to make sure he doesn’t even like the smell of alcohol.” Mars was giving the horse an unimpressed look.

They proceeded to finish reloading the wagon with the last of the water barrels. Kit fed Pint some beer and they made their way back to The Waddling Duck.