"You're….you're here…".
Rusty was taken aback at the sight of the SandWing Beast.
"No, it's a beast right? Then why does it look so much like…like a dragon, a SandWing?".
It's in the name, but Rusty thought that it somewhat had a resemblance to a SandWing, not looking exactly like one. He took a step back, his grip on the axe tightening, as he was waiting for the Beast to make a move. But it did not move. He stared at its eyes, those large black eyes.
"SandWing eyes…".
The SandWing Beast stared at Rusty with a gaze as hard as steel. The height of the SandWing Beast was appalling to Rusty as it was easily 8 times his height, maybe more. He was so focused on the Beast's eyes that he didn't notice what it had in its claws, the corpse of an unfortunate SandWing or at least what was left of him. The Beast swallowed the remains of the corpse without looking away from Rusty, keeping his eyes on him as Rusty was keeping his eyes on the Beast. Rusty felt doubt for a second, it would take too long for him to get a good swing with the axe, it might leave him vulnerable to a counterattack.
"The sword! Of course!".
But he couldn't exactly just switch weapons in front of the Beast, right?
"Please don't do anything".
Rusty quickly dropped his axe and pulled out his sword, holding it with one talon. The Beast then made a small grunt noise.
"Was it surprised by me switching weapons?"
Rusty noticed that the Beast's eyes were no longer looking at him but at his sword. He moved the sword back and forth watching the Beast's eye follow its movement.
"Why? Why would it- Wait, it attacked the palace to get-".
Then he came to a realization, the Beast wasn't looking at the sword itself, it was looking at the jewels encrusted into it.
Rusty took another step, seeing if the Beast would follow. To his surprise, the Beast took a step forward. Rusty waved his sword again to see if it would follow. The Beast followed the sword, but then stopped. It ignored the sword as its eyes stared directly at Rusty again. But instead with a cold stare, it gazed at Rusty with anger in its eyes, baring his teeth to him and spreading his wings making him look even larger. A mighty roar then filled the air and Rusty saw smoke coming from the Beast's mouth.
He didn't have to think as a jet of flames flew into his direction.
He immediately dodged and ran for cover. Finding a spot behind the remains of a building, Rusty had his back to the wall as he seemed to lose the Beast. He then felt a terrible pain on his left side. He touched his side and felt burn marks.
"I didn't dodge quickly enough".
The pain was awful, he couldn't move without feeling as if his scales would crack open. He could smell his own burnt scales, a horrible smoky smell.
"But if I can smell it then-".
Suddenly the rubble of the building went flying as the Beast charged through it. Rusty got up, his sword ready, but felt a sharp sting on his right shoulder. Immediately he dropped his sword on the ground as his shoulder felt numb.
"I was stung..by its...tail".
The Beast smashed its talons onto the ground, as Rusty leapt backwards dodging its attack. Rusty charged forward, ducking a swipe from the Beast, grabbed his sword and tried to find new cover. He could hear the loud footsteps of the Beast as it was chasing him.
An idea struck Rusty as he leapt over a pile of rubble.
"If I burn the buildings, then maybe I can blend in with its smell"
Rusty ran into the village, burning what he could as he ran. After burning at least 11 buildings he then ran for one of the few buildings still standing. When he came inside, he attempted to get a quick rest as he felt the venom of the Beast spread through his body, but the Beast smashed through the building leaving a cloud of dust around the area as the building collapsed.
"Now's my chance!"
Using the cover of the dust Rusty fled and hid behind a burnt building. He heard the Beast follow the noise of his steps but quickly lost him. Another angry roar filled the air, as Rusty could hear the Beast destroying buildings in an effort to find him.
Another idea struck Rusty. If he could come up with a distraction, he might be able to do a surprise attack on the Beast. He opened his brown pouch which was burnt from the Beast's flames. The gold coins were welded together from the flame, the bottle of water was boiling inside, the roasted lizards were charred beyond consumption and almost all the bottles of brightstring cactus were destroyed leaving only 3.
"Which means I have 2 tries, remember to save one for the venom."
He placed the charred lizards on the ground and poured the brightstring cactus juice onto it.
"It should be able to smell this".
He heard the Beast's rampage come to a halt.
"It worked!".
He quickly left to find another hiding spot as he heard the Beast charge into the distractions direction.
"I just need my axe now", Rusty whispered to himself.
But it would take too long for him to grab the axe and expect the Beast to still be distracted enough by the lizard pile. Rusty grabbed the axe as it was in the same location where he dropped when the Beast first attacked. He felt his heart thumping fast as the venom was coursing through his entire body now.
"I have to do it now!".
He poured the other bottle of brightstring cactus on the ground and smashed the bottle of water onto the floor. The noise of the Beast's footsteps became louder as Rusty quickly hid behind a wall. The Beast looked down on the floor, smelling the juice
"NOW!"
With all his remaining strength Rusty leapt from his cover and smashed his axe onto the Beast's tail, slicing it off.
The Beast let out a roar of pain as he backed away from Rusty.
For once, Rusty saw something different in the Beast's eyes, fear.
The Beast jumped into the air, flying northeast off balance, away from the village. Rusty laid down in exhaustion.
"I did it! Well at least wounded it."
But there was no time for fanfare, as the venom in Rusty's body was causing severe pain. He got out the last bottle and being exhausted, he poured the juice onto his shoulder and drank the rest. The pain, slowly but surely left his body.
"Now to deal with these burns."
He got out the black pouch, which was lucky not burnt. He opened the chest inside, revealing the 6 carefully placed potions. He grabbed the potion with a blue and red label and poured it onto his burnt marks. Closing the chest, he felt the pain of the burns go away. He got up, with the axe in his talons. He looked to his left, seeing the severed tail of the Beast squirming around but it finally stopped when he poked it with the axe. Despite doing its job, Rusty felt he should keep the axe in case he needed to deal another heavy blow to the Beast, as well as the Beast's tail for a trophy. He placed the tail into the black pouch and walked towards the direction the Beast flew. On the sand dunes, Rusty could see blood left behind from the Beast's severed tail.
"Now I know where you're heading".
"Know this Beast!"
"Your end is near!"
A/N: Hey everyone, CrystalDynamite here. Apologies for taking longer than usual to update, I'm quite busy with other things but hopefully I'll still be able to finish the story. Speaking of which this is the longest chapter so far, 1.4K words! Never thought I'd be able to write so much in a a chapter. Thanks for waiting and reading this chapter!
