The Monster no longer had a look of disdain, more one of anger and annoyance.
It walked slowly, eyeing the three people standing in its way.
'We either make it run away or hinder him from chasing after us. Problem is how to accomplish it.'
"I saw something sticking out from the neck! I guess it is the weapon our deceased hunter was missing."
"And what do you want to do with that? We can't get on its back, heck, we didn't manage to hurt it yet." Sophia replied.
They were cut of from discussing a strategy, the monster suddenly speeding up, rushing towards Leon.
"Grudge for my failed attack?" he joked desperate.
A weakness they detected was its charge. When it ran straight, it had a long way until it stopped.
Leon dodged to the side, but the bear thing was faster than he anticipated.
He felt a strong push on his abdomen, thrown onto the ground after being graced only by the clawed paw.
"Are you okay?! " Mikael asked, rushing towards Leon who leaned over, coughing heavily.
"Not really." came the answer, spitting out some blood.
"And I could not even slice him. My sword bounced just of his skin. He is incredible tough."
He held in hand his sword, it broken a few centimeters from the top.
'He countered in this situation. Madman.'
Mikael helped Leon up, him being now hurt making their protection more difficult.
He held his side, crouching a bit forwards, his hand being dyed red.
Sophia joined them, having also tried to damage the flank when the beast passed by, but to no avail.
She waved her swordhand, it having to endure the recoil.
They looked at the now stopped beast, it turning the big body around, ready for the next action.
"Here, take this" Mikael hastily took out the tube with the powder, pressing it onto Sophia.
"Bjorn gave it to me, what I understood it can momentarily blind the creature. My accuracy is nothing to yours, and with the slingshot you have the best chance of landing a hit."
"At least something, but what should we do then? Run away or strike it until it flees?"
"I don't know either." Mikael followed how this giant looked at them. It seemed to notice itself that charging would barely work on his enemys, so it began walking towards them, the muscles under the skin moving visibly by each step.
"Can't show it our backs, nor split up, and damaging it requires either stabbing it or breaking its bones." Leon's mind had Mikael's hammer pictured.
"Mikael, your weapon has the best chance of hurting it. Blunt force seemed to work best against it till now."
Leon readied his damaged sword, stepping forward with the words:" Try to strike something you reach, arms, legs or ribs. We will aim for is soft parts, drawing its attention. But to what extent I can't tell you."
Sophia also stood next to Mikael, saying to him:" The shard on its neck may work for us. With enough force you may insert it further. The area is quite sensible, like for humans. When I call, run up to me."
The time for explanation was over.
She walked to the front, ready to receive the beast that let them talk, waiting for his prey to make its final struggle.
It build itself up, standing on its hind legs, making him even taller.
From the debts of its being it then send out a roar, making the saliva and hot air spitting out its snout.
This simple action had but a massive effect, making them back up, lower their weapons. Even Sophia refrained from making a comment, this intimidating roar sending doubts down their mind.
Leon, maybe due his pain recovered earlier, thus seeing how this massive monster lifted its paw, using it mass to fall back to earth, sending it downwards.
He wanted to dodge, but his muscles didn't react like he wanted them to, so he shielded himself with what was left of his sword, directing it diagonal towards the ground. But the sheer force coupled with its strength ripped the weapon out his grasp, sending him also falling as he got dragged with it.
"Shit! Dammit!" Sophia said as she rushed towards him, trying to get its attention, but the beast send simply another swing in her direction.
She anticipated that, holding her sword slightly vertically to block that, lifting her right foot a bit. Due the force of the impact, her hand and arm hurt a lot and the shortsword bend protesting. But she also used this momentum, spinning on the spot, straightening her sword and stabbing towards the head that was only half a meter away.
It got surprised by that tactic, no monster or hunter ever used his moves to their advantage. So it got hit, its cheek enduring the attack, and for the first time ever tasted its own blood.
The weapon was inserted between the teeth used to break bones and grind meat, so biting down on a piece of metal wasn't much different. In the process it lost bits of his choppers, but she lost a third of her sword, the leftover now mostly useless in her hand.
But Sophia distracted it enough for Leon to crawl away, under its belly and attempting to stab it from there.
He tried to insert his broken weapon, it penetrating only few centimeters, immediately after rolling away as the beast wanted to crush him beneath his weight.
A deep growl of pain followed as the beast hurt itself more, the sword embedding further till the hilt.
Mikael wasn't confident he could dodge or redirect its attacks, so he chose to circle it, and when the creature nearly squashed Leon, he thought his time came, hurling his hammer downwards with his full force on the left hind paw.
Delirious from the unknown pain the creature didn't evade, feeling the complex struktur break and howling more intense.
"Nice one!" Sophia said, Keon also getting back on his feet as he smiled, seeing the creature bleeding and in pain.
Euphoric from his success, Mikael lifted his hammer anew, only to feel his body getting pushed away, him feeling his shoulder hot and cold at the same time.
Sophia had jumped to his rescue.
The monster was of course searching for the assailant, and retaliated instantly. If not for her, his head would now be missing instead of clothes and a bit of flesh.
He fell in his back, Sophia on his chest. They didn't linger long, her dragging him up with herself and using a tree to evade another strike the monster made, ripping of big chunks of wood.
"Strike, then back up!" she said quickly, leaving the cover, holding her slingshot in hand, one of its metal sticks slightly bend.
"Get ready, we won't get another chance like now!" she called for Mikael and Leon, the tube in her hand and ready to shoot.
The toothed face was not far away, making the shot easier, but it instinct was great. Should it recover its momentarily confusion, their chances of surviving decreaseing instantaneous.
Leon took out his puny knife used to collect proofs of subjugation, his hand already shaking from using a lot of blood.
The bear stroke annoyed again the tree, it falling slowly to the side revealing the two pests that injured it.
The red eyes glistening in hatred, it saw a small object hurling towards it. Before it could react, it shattered in its face, and upon contact with so much air it created a blinding flash of white pared with small hot sparks landing in its eyes.
"Mikael!" Sophia called, rushing dangerously close to the big body that used on of its paws to rub its snout, head down in pain.
He only knew part of their plan, on how to get on the back he was clueless. So he simply obeyed, running up to her.
She made with her hands a improvised ladder, and it clicked. He put his foot on it, bend his leg and got catapulted upwards using all her momentum and his jumping power.
The creature recovered, seeing the red haired creature that used weird techniques, but had lost the pub crushing his paw.
But as he wanted to look, he felt again a stinging pain from his rectum.
Leon had succeeded this time, his dagger inserted in the soft flesh.
But he was now too weak to evade the retaliation. The hind leg kicked out, sharp claws and the full force impacting with his chest, making him fly backwards, spitting out more blood.
The next instant the beast felt a pain like never before. It felt like its head would be separated, spine crushed and flesh burned.
Mikael used his fall, the weight of his hammer and gravity, hurling his weapon on the shard sticking out next to the spine. It felt like he had to hit in a wooden nail into stone, but the result was obvious.
Another mark harrowing roar containing pain and even fear escaped.
The creatures mind was now filled by the instinct of survival. Thinking about attacking came second. Using its massive size and unbelievable acceleration, it ploughed through the forest towards the north, felling trees and rocks on its path.
It nearly ran over Sophia, but she managed to avoid the assault, only getting hurt by a sharp stick that missed her neck as she landed.
Mikael was thrown to the ground as he got shaken of, rolling along the ground, breathing fast and heavily.
"Are we still alive?" he asked pumped with adrenalin.
In the air he didn't saw how Leon got kicked, nor if the Monster ran in Bjorn's direction.
He got pulled up ungently, Sophia saying:" Get Bjorn, let us help Leon and we piss off!"
He nodded, but barely walking towards the direction he left Bjorn, the boy came already crossing his path.
"This part looked different when I left." he said dry, pulling Mikael into a hug.
"Glad you are still alive. How are the other two?"
"Alive I guess, but not sure either." he answered as confused as now Bjorn was.
"We have to flee! We managed to drive the beast away, but only barely, and a second time it won't work."
He led him back towards Sophia and Leon. When Mikael saw Leon's condition, his breath faltered, and he could only imagine what will he had to still breath, to still smile.
"Nice finish, to bad you couldn't rip off his head." he weakly joked, his lower body bloody from the claws, his mail torn in so many places it was scrab.
Sophia had cut open his clothes, revealing many open wounds on his stomach, even a long stick that punctured through his arm.
"You look like a corpse already." Sophia began her diagnosis. "But with some medicine and stitching we might get you outta here."