The huffing moose slowly got so close to me that its breaths condensed on my eyelids.
Unsuccessful in my attempt to kill it, I jumped up and stepped behind.
This was the moment when I should have gone back to my original method. I should have tried to escape.
I had to run.
I had to run so that maybe it would eventually bleed to death. A couple of centimetres was enough to impale its lungs right?
It was only so long before it collapsed. I prepared myself mentally for another chase- I stepped back again and turned around.
"Huff." I was out of breath. The back of my throat was freezing.
At that moment, I had the advantage, it was my stamina against his bleeding. It was just a battle of endurance.
'Run, El." I extended my leg forward, but right then, my shivering legs got stuck in a root. At that very moment, in that construed angle, both of my legs cramped up.
"AAARGH!"
I slowly felt myself falling further and further forward until I landed right on my face.
SHIT!
I immediately turned around. Letting your predator out of your sight was instant death.
The moose lowered its face to my level. Its antlers rubbed against my shoulders. I couldn't run even if I wanted to.
One of its hooves stepped on my right thigh and as soon as its weight moved forward, the place under it got crushed to smithereens.
"GHRRR!" I growled right at its face. From agony.
The bones turned to mush, I lost all the feeling in that leg. All except pain. Extreme pain.
I was scared. So scared. The face that kept on getting closer to me struck a ghastly fear in me. Every part of my body wanted this nightmare to end.
That would never happen. Not until I did something myself!
I had to do something.
'A hunt shouldn't be this hard.' I threw my torso back until I was lying on the ground. The moose didn't mind. It already had its prey. I wasn't a threat.
'This bastard.'
I ran my hand across the forest bed looking for something to attack the moose with. Anything!
Mud. It wouldn't blind it. Spikes? I just found out how ineffective they were. I scavenged, feeling everything on the floor. No matter how disgusting it was.
And then my hands landed on a rock. No, it was too smooth. I tried to look at it... But I was blind at night. Then my hands reached into its sockets.
You didn't need to know what it looked like to know what it was.
A skull. A skull, shaped like a human's head.
There was no sugar-coating it. The one hope I had left was by desecrating the dead.
Screw this.
'The moose was a dumb being who would put its snout up right in front of someone who wanted to kill it.' Or was it just so confident?
I looked at the moose in its twisted detestable face. It was the one that made me do this.
Overcome your fear. Overcome your fear. Overcome your fear. Overcome your fear!!
My grip tightened around the skull's eye sockets-!
Without wasting a second, taking a full swing, I smashed the moose's left eye.
"HOOOOOOON!" The moose wailed as it fell back, crushing the remnant of my right foot.
BUT IT FELL BACK!
That wasn't enough. In a frenzy, its antlers dug under my shoulder blades as it flung me metres behind.
His push hurt nowhere near as much as the kick from that man.
'I can still go on! I MUST!'
Exclusively fueled by adrenaline, I started crawling again… And tried to fight once more. Just once more.
Deers had tiny brains and large skulls. Even a little damage to their head gave them a concussion. That's why they had antlers to protect themselves. But if you got past those and attacked it there, they lost their edge.
Evidently, the moose monster in front of me was no exception. It stumbled as it fell to its side. I was sure this advantage of mine wouldn't last long.
Dragging myself closer and closer, I grabbed hold of a rock this time. I crawled on the ground like a bug.
'ALMOST THERE!'
The fallen moose, having noticed my presence, went ballistic. Kicking any and everywhere. My left leg fell victim.
"GAHHH!"
I was completely crippled now. But I couldn't stop. Not now!
With my free hand, I grabbed its torso and mounted its side. The spike was sticking out right next to me.
I held the rock in both of my hands and lifted it well above my head. In one hard flow, I hammered the spike.
"HOOOOOON!" The moose yelped. I won't let it go.
I hammered the spike again. Then I did it again. And again. And again. And again. It slowly dug deeper and deeper into its lungs.
"DIE! DIE! DIE DIE DIE!" I won't lose to an oversized fucking deer.
With every hit, the moose let out a blood-curdling cry.
Every time it tried to get up I turned and smashed its head. Every time it tried to recover, I hit the spike. It dug deeper and deeper until the entire spike was all the way inside the moose.
This little stream of blood turned into a waterfall. The torso I was sitting on decreased in size, as its lungs collapsed.
'COME OOOOOOOON!!!'
I hit again and again and again!
"HOOOOOOON!!!" It shouted in a sound that almost blew my eardrums. "HOOOOOO-" But that was its last time. I smashed the rock in one last time, for good measure.
No reaction.
It died. It lost its breath. I won this hunt. I- I SURVIVED!
And then completely exhausted, and in disbelief and relief, I fell forward.
"I WON!" I shouted out louder than I thought I could.