Bastian had some kind of an idea about the beast that was waiting for him.
It couldn't be anything mammalian. He feared he would have to fight a basilisk, which could very well end up in him being dead. In this world, basilisks had deadly venom and a gaze that could momentarily stun an opponent, and when it came to their fangs and quick reflexes, a moment was all they needed.
But he didn't turn back. He turned to face the sea wind instead, stepping up into the sunlight and covering his eyes partially and then he saw it. The beast.
It wasn't a basilisk. It looked more like a sea serpent, with a head that vaguely resembled a bulldog covered in scales. The beast hissed viciously, its bulging eyes rolling wildly and glaring at Bastian.
Now he knew how the large beast was able to catch small and agile spiders.
It had some tentacles near its mouth and each one of them was flailing, trying to grab Bastian. It was a serpentine thing with no legs and a long, slender body that was packed full of muscle. Its scales had a muddy greenish color, but in places where the moisture of the sea wind had hit its skin, the beast displayed its true, bright green color.
Before the animal could coil itself up into a position suitable for an attack, Bastian sliced two tentacles with a quick slash of his sword. The beast howled and pulled back from the mouth of the tunnel.
Bastian knew that this was not a good moment to attack, as the beast was enraged and in a dead end. The rocks behind its scaly back prevented it from retreating further.
Bastian had read ancient texts about not pushing a desperate opponent too hard. He felt the reality of those words as he stepped into a more favorable position and dodged the next strike of the tentacles. He moved as swiftly as he could, but the serpent was quick as well. He got a slap from the slimy appendages. Slicing through the scales, Bastian was barely even able to keep the serpent at bay so that it would not get its fangs into his arm.
As the beast raised its ugly head high above him, Bastian grabbed it by the tentacles and let the animal lift his body up. The monster did not expect that to happen, that much was clear already as it panicked and tried to shake him away.
Bastian stabbed it in the eye, so deep and hard that his sword got stuck. The serpent let out a nauseating howl. It shook itself and Bastian had no choice but to hang from his sword and tentacles.
Finally, in its death throes, the bleeding monster managed to dislodge the sword - along with its eyeball. In a pool of blood that was much darker than any human life force liquids, the serpent groaned and perished.
Thrown onto the sand and having injured his back, Bastian watched in fascination and horror as the underside of the monster began to quiver.
For a moment he thought he had killed a pregnant she-beast, but no. Like an exploding whale, the serpent was ripped apart from the inside and a huge mass of those black spiders crawled out.
"Oh hell no," Bastian whistled. "That was something indeed."
Incredibly glad that he had caught the right monster on the first try, he got up, rubbing his back. He wanted a hunting trophy of some kind, and a fang would do just fine. It would be much more difficult to be proud of a severed, rotting tentacle - a fang would be nicer. He stepped near the dark red sand and tried to avoid getting his boots all dirty from the blood.
Without any further troubles, he was able to sever a fang from the head of the beast.
He decided to rest for a moment, even though the shore was probably quite a dangerous place at the moment. All sorts of scavengers would come soon. His back demanded attention, though. He didn't feel comfortable going back to Anasta and whining about such a stupid and small issue, but a short rest could probably help the issue a bit. He didn't know what had happened - whether he had sprained something or not, but red hot arrows of pain shot up from his lower back and made moving bothersome.
He found a rock of suitable height and sat down for a minute. Thankfully, he had his corn cob pipe with him, along with some tobacco. He had started to crave smoking after certain things. Lovemaking called for a post-coital pipe session, as did monster slaying, apparently.
He was breathing long puffs of the aromatic smoke, releasing it as the best approximation of smoke rings he could muster. They turned out to be U shapes, and he watched absent-mindedly as they dissolved into the wind that was blowing harder and harder every second. His attention was scattered all over the shoreline as he tried to stay aware of any potential monsters. It would have been rather disheartening to find himself in the belly of a hydra right after his victory with the serpent.
But none of his horrible imagined scenarios came true. The sand wasn't moving, no shadows blocked the shore, and his back felt a bit better already. He decided to smoke the rest of the tobacco in his pipe and go back the same way.
Anasta would be glad and pleasantly surprised, unless the spiders had already told her what had happened. Bastian would not have been amazed by that. She might as well have the ability to talk with animals for all he knew.
Bastian cleaned his pipe swiftly and got up. By now, the arrows of pain had calmed down to a small prick of a needle.
He went down to the mouth of the tunnel.
As swiftly as his eyes could see, someone moved inside the tunnel and jumped up to block his way back in.
Gorgo's hateful eyes stared at him with a vicious grin.
"Hello, Bastian," Captain Roy Gorgo growled. "You thought I had forgotten about you."