A heart stuttering boom erupted, followed by creature's footsteps as they connected with the ground with each gallop. Audrey ran faster. All the while her mind jumped between running for her life and pointing out every reason why this was a very bad idea. It had several advantages out here and the biggest was the dark. Why was it so dark anyway? She was sure the lamps were on a few minutes ago.
Out of nowhere the thing jumped out in front of her. Audrey tried to come to a stop but she slid and fell instead. And stopped within reach of the thing's maws.
Her hand came up and slashed it with the sword. It released a pained roared and reeled back giving her the chance to get back up and start running again. At this point, she did not know where she was or if she was even heading in the right direction. It was so damn dark.
She was about to go left when she saw it. The lights. She was very close to the lake, all she had to do was keep going. A shimmer of blue crossed her vision. Then she remembered. 'Oh gods! The barrier! How am I going to get past that?!' She thought, panicked.
She was still running towards it because there was nothing else she could do. Her ears picked up the sound of a breaking twig on her left side. She cast her eyes in its direction and they met with a large pair of familiar green eyes coming for her. She swerved to the right but not in time to miss some of the claws. They slashed across her arm and her back.
A scream ripped through her mouth at the pain. She fell and landed face first in the dirt, and the sword flew out of her hand and fell to the forest floor.
She got up hastily and paid the price for it. The pain in her back and in her arm erupted so fast that she doubled over and let out another scream. She could feel her blood run down her arm and her back, joining her sweat and doubling the effort in wetting her clothes.
In the little light, Audrey made out the monster and the blood that dripped down its jaws. Audrey could not tell if it was dark blue or just black. Another blue shimmer and she saw the blood was red. A sliver of confusion ran through her mind, created monsters did not have crimson blood. Then why did this one? The answer rang in her head, that was her blood. What had slashed her just less than a minute ago were not claws but teeth. While staring at its jaw, her eyes caught sight of the blue blood she had initially sought to see. It dripped down the beast's barreled chest in thick slimy glops.
Her eyes went back to the beast's face, as its tongue ran over its upper teeth, taking her blood with and it fixed its eyes on her with an even hungrier gaze and Audrey knew she was done for.
She did not have the sword with her anymore. She had no indication of where it landed. She was down and they both knew it.
The beast lunged and she was too slow to move out of the way. It sent her skidding across the littered and hard forest floor meters away from where she was standing mere seconds ago before it brought her down and pinned her to the forest floor.
Her face was bathed in the beast's hot breath and it stank to the high heavens. The weight of the thing was enormous. Her back and shoulders screamed under the weight.
She looked up at the thing that would bring her death. Then sound of something breaking distracted both of them, the creature looked up curiously. A couple of twigs and a squirrel landed on its snout. The beast snorted them away, the squirrel jumped off and scampered away into the bushes.
The creature turned its eyes back to her and prepared for the killing blow just before a thick branch fell on top of its head.
Using the unexpected distraction, Audrey grabbed the closest thing to her left hand and stabbed it into the side of the creature's foot. The beast yelped and let go.
She scrambled to her feet and searched the ground for the sword. Silently praying she would find it before this thing decided that it had had enough.
She found it laying against some roots of a rotting tree and just in time too. The beast reared up again, she tried to use the blade but her foot caught in one of the roots and she tripped the other way. The beast earned a mouthful of splinters and tree bark.
Through a faceful of dirt and the angle of her crash, she could make out a gap in the creature's defenses. A less armoured part on its left side, a place she remembered damaging on her bed in one of her temper tantrums a few years back. Her unprecedented evasion had provided her the basis of a plan and an opportunity and without hesitation, she took it.
She rose to her feet and plunged the blade deep into the creature's flank with all she had, jumped on its back and hung on for dear life. The beast howled in pain, it bucked, shook and snapped wildly at her in an attempt to get rid of both her and the sword, but like a tick she hung on.
Audrey prayed that this plan of hers would work. She held on tight and kicked the beast with the sharp end of her shoe. The beast let out an earsplitting howl and started running.
It ran straight for the barrier and Audrey braced herself for the pain that would follow.