The Forest Guardian struck out again, a wide swing from its claws whiffing as they missed their target by less than an inch. Another blow was struck against it as it moved, with Lyrhea drawing her knives across the boss monster’s fur-covered arm.

The blades did not find purchase due to the beast’s thick coat of fur, not to mention its leather-like hide and tightly-wound musculature, but the fact that the knives even managed to land on the Guardian was a blow in and of itself. Each time the two traded blows, it always resulted in Lyrhea being missed ad the Forest Guardian being hit, and this gradually angered the beastly boss monster more and more.

Lyrhea could tell that this was the case, as well. The already wide and slow swings were becoming faster, sure, but they were also becoming more erratic and more predictable. It had only been five minutes since they both made contact, and already the tank of a Guardian was losing its cool.

“What’s the matter?” she asked mockingly. “You couldn’t hit a brick wall with those strikes! At least try to hit me whoa!!”

The beast suddenly lost a great deal of its muscle mass in one section of its body, and that art sped up like crazy and managed to catch Lyrhea off guard. She had gotten used to it being slow and plodding, but that attack was faster than normal, though the creature’s body returned to the same bulk it had previously almost mere seconds after the strike was launched.

“Hmm…”

Lyrhea backed off as she heard a deep, elderly-sounding voice coming from the Guardian.

“You are… not what I remember.” the Forest Guardian spoke in a voice that seemed fit for an ancient druid from a fantasy game mixed with some aged master of martial arts. “Perhaps you were not as much of a fool as I thought you to be….”

“A fool?” Lyrhea asked. “You thought me to be a fool? Why?!”

The Forest Guardian did not move forward and attack her, instead merely standing in place, though Lyrhea could tell that it was up to something despite its stationary position.

“I could not grasp why you would heat sticks and put them in your mouth, nor could I figure out why you planted them within the ground in such a haphazard way.” the beast paused and lowered itself to the ground, still buff as fuck but now on all fours. “I still cannot, but you will be dead soon, so I can ponder such things later. Do not try and strike me again, by the way. The bites of a single mosquito cannot fell an elephant.”

Lyrhea saw the Forest Guardian lower its posture and knew what was coming. It was something she expected to come a whole hell of a lot sooner, but she was glad it came at all to begin with. She scooted over to one side, and the Forest Guardian repositioned itself accordingly, shifting its focus to wherever Lyrhea chose to stand.

“Then come at me, bro.” Lyrhea taunted. “Unless you’re unable to bear the defeat you'll soon face!”

“A terrible pun, but I will not mock your last words too much.” the Guardian muttered before using a metric fuckton of its power to launch itself at Lyrhea. Lyrhea, for her part, did not stand still, and rolled out of the way, leaving the Forest Guardian to partially skewer itself on a sharpened stake.

The wooden spike did not end up going too deep, barely penetrating anywhere around a half-inch into the Guardian’s flesh, but the fact that something had, for the first time, actually breached its defenses, was enough to cause the beast to roar in pain and anger. The wolf-bear reared back up again and smashed the already heavily fractured stake, sending shards everywhere.

“A cheap trick, and one that will amount to nothing in the end.” the Guardian grumbled. “To use a trap… a cowardly move, from an equally cowardly monster.”

“Me?” Lyrhea asked, pointing at herself and looking around. “A monster? Well, if it isn’t the pot calling the kettle ‘black’!”

“I am a sacred being, charged with protecting this forest and those that live in and around it!” the Guardian said angrily as it lumbered after Lyrhea at a faster pace than normal. “I am no mere monster, unlike you!”

“Bitch, please,” Lyrhea replied as she picked up a bowl full of liquid in one hand. “If I am a monster, so too are you. Besides, we’re all whatever we want to be, and whatever anyone else says we are. That aside….”

She swung the bowl and the liquid inside the container flew out and splashed against the face of the Guardian as it moved towards her.

“Can you not embrace honor and civility in our duel of death?!” The beast roared in annoyance. “Is it just something your wicked kind cannot do?!”

“Honor and civility are things claimed by he who survives, not the victor or the defeated.” Lyrhea spat philosophy back as she sped around behind the Guardian, who was currently wiping the liquid from its face. “And I intend to survive, thank you very much!”

“You truly are wicked, then!” the Guardian swung back behind itself, but Lyrhea wasn’t there any longer. The Guardian continued to swing around with one paw while the other rubbed its face, and eventually the liquid was cleared away and the beast began to look around.

“So, you’ve run away?” it asked. It sniffed the air and quickly found Lyrhea's trail. “You cannot hide. My nose knows.”

Lumbering off towards a section of the forest that bordered the makeshift battleground, the Guardian stopped right before it stepped down.

“Clever, but not clever enough.” It reached down and brushed the ground, revealing a massive pitfall trap filled with stakes. “I can merely go around.”

“Surprise, Motherfucker!”

“WHAT?!”

Despite what its nose had told it, Lyrhea was once again behind it, and this time she was rocketing towards its back through the air at a speed it could not react to. Lyreha impacted it, and the force of the impact was enough to shift the ground under the Guardian’s feet, causing it to topple forwards and into the pitfall. The stakes dug into its body, though for the most part they only managed to breach a little bit beneath the skin and draw some small amounts of blood.

Still, this had been a direct insult, and it was one that could not stand.

“ENOUGH GAMES! I WILL KILL YOU NOW!” the Forest Guardian roared, and it rose from the now destroyed punji trap and smashed it to pieces. “PREPARE TO DIE!”

“No U.” Lyrhea said calmly as she flung more and more looted containers full of liquid at the front of the wounded creature. She smiled as the last bit of liquid finally fully drenched the Forest Guardian, and then she ran off deeper into the forest.

The Guardian snarled and decreased its muscle mass and sped after her, heedless to the fact that it had been outplayed form the start of the battle and that a silent, secret killer had been planted since the first strike had been dealt to it.