Okay, that was stupid. Really stupid.

I took a hasty step backwards, facing the monster in front of me. It snarled, baring me it's pointed yellow teeth.

I raised my dagger, which I had yet picked from the ground after breaking that window. The laistrygon swung it's mallet at my head. I hunched under the strike, stabbing the monster in the stomach.

Still cursing myself for being such an idiot and running straight into these filthy monsters, I took another step backwards, scanning the situation.

There were about fifteen of them. Eight feet tall, red skinned monsters with huge tattooed arms and pointed yellow teeth, armed with nasty looking spike covered metal mallets.

I gave Nico a quick look, taking a good position. Then the monsters rushed at us like enraged bulls. It was like they were going to town this time, decided to finally catch us. Or then their boss, whoever he was, had gotten enough of just playing with us.

I tried to remain my concentration, but to be honest, I was starting to lose my cool. I hatedit when I screwed up. It was something I just couldn't swallow. I, Jayda Sparks, child of victory, had screwed up.

I somersaulted over another laistrygon's lashing mallet, stabbing it in the back at full tilt while landing on my feet. Suddenly two laistrygons attacked me from both side, and I hunched under the first strike, barely managing to reject the other. The blow was so hard, I almost reeled back, and I heard a scraping sound as the spikes of the mallet met my dagger. I quickly dodged the laistrygon's next hit, stepping back as another laistrygon attacked me from the left.

The monsters kept pushing on. I hunched under a hit that came for my face, quickly stabbing the laistrygon in the side. Instantly, another monster came from the right, trying to surprise me. It swung it's mallet in a wide arch, leaving me no other options than backing out again.

It seemed that that was their new strategy. They didn't try to circle us anymore, but they separated us, attacking two-or-three against one.

I expected the monster to come after me, but it didn't. It stayed with the group, attacking Nico. There was something strange in it... Laistrygons weren't supposed to be that smart.

I realized my mistake. I had left Nico alone with all those monsters, and that was what they had wanted. Now it was they all versus Nico alone. And he didn't seem to be doing any better than I had. The laistrygons had now circled him, and he was losing. Now I could see just how exhausted he was.

I rushed back into the fight, managing to stab one monster in the back before it even noticed me. I tried to draw the others' attention to me instead of Nico, and soon half of the monsters were on my case again. These are just lousy laistrygons, a piece of cake! I told myself, even I wasn't so sure about that. These were much smarter and quicker than laistrygons usually were.

Suddenly, when I was just about to stab one of the monsters, it just... Disappeared. Wherever my dagger would've hit the monster just less than a second ago, it now only hit the air, causing me to reel back. I looked around, trying to understand what had happened.

"What the...?" I turned at Nico, who was sitting on the ground like he had stumbled.

"Jayda..." He muttered, looking past me, eyes widened in dismay.

I quickly turned around, seeing a human figure coming from... Oh no, this is bad... He was coming from the monsters' boat hire. The guy was still pretty far, but I could already tell he was huge, and he was clearly coming toward us.

I took a step forward, raising my dagger. Whoever he was, I was pretty sure he wasn't on our side, which again meant he needed killing.

"Hold it, Jayda!" Nico said in a low voice, sounding alarmed.

I turned to give him a questioning look. "Who is he?"

Nico didn't answer, but quickly stood up, looking terrified.

I turned back at the comer. He had come closer, and... well, I can just say that it wasn't a pleasure to get to see him more specifically. He looked something between an ugly old sea captain and a walrus. And not in a human way, but in a monstrous way.

"So!" The walrus guy exclaimed, and he really sounded like a walrus. "Decided to run straight into our trap, didn't you, little champion?" He laughed, approaching us leisurely.

My jaws tightened. "You shouldn't have said that", I muttered between gritted teeth.

"Jayda..." Nico warned.

But I had had enough. I surged towards the walrus guy, letting out a furious battle cry.

But before I had even made it half-way to him, something strange happened. The guy raised his fist, and I saw some kind of blue flicker in it... a ring? Then a lightning struck from the cloudless blue sky, connecting with the walrus guy's fist.

I was too enraged to realize to dodge in time. The guy pointed his fist at me, releasing the lightning. It shot me straight in the chest, slamming me up in the air. The blow of electricity knocked me out before I even hit the ground.