//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five: Rocking Croc and Magical Dumbbell 
// Story: Of Blood, Skulls, and Friendship 
// by The Harvester 
//------------------------------//

	There's a unique thing about crocodiles; they can't chew their food, so they have to swallow chunks of it. Doesn't sound that scary, but when a group of my friends and I watched a zookeeper feed one once, it was horrifying just to see it thrash around and tear that meat apart.

To be on the receiving end, however, is utterly terrifying. Or it would be if I felt less anger and more fear, or if I wasn't wrestling with it with my bare hands.

"JUST STAY STILL YOU FUCKING LIZARD!" I roared as I kept a firm grip on the damn thing, holding the jaw shut so it wouldn't bite me. Damn thing was as smart as it was big, since it kept rolling to throw me off balance or to smack me against things. It didn't hurt at first, but after getting slammed into the ground at least a dozen times, it was starting to seriously piss me off.

I was on it's jaw, struggling to keep my balance on it since I had no idea if my skin could withstand it's bite, and doing my best to not lose my grip. It kept thrashing from side to side, trying to shake me off, but I kept my arms around it's jaw and made sure that my claws were deep in so I wouldn't be thrown off so easily. I knew that the moment I lost my grip on it, it would have the advantage in this fight, so I was hoping to wear it down and kill it once it stopped.

That was about an hour ago, and we were still in this damn position; it didn't help that my thoughts were messing with my actions. More than once, I almost let go so I could fight this thing face to face, but I managed to prevent myself from doing so.

Suddenly it stopped and, honest to god, threw itself up front first and fell backwards. No easy feat since it had a ten foot daemon on it's jaw ,and before I could realize it's plan, my head slammed into the ground and into the swamp water. My grip slackened for a second, but it was all that it needed as it shot back out of my grip, feeling my claws leave bloody marks on it as it did. I felt something very strong bite my left forearm and watched as my world spun.

The good news: it bit my armor, which could hopefully withstand it's assault. The bad news: it got a grip on me.

My world spun to one side before it violently stopped when my head met the ground, then it spun to the other side and smashed me again against the ground.

'I'm too big for it to rip apart like normal prey, so it's going to wear me down and go for the kill,' I thought, using the brief seconds I had when it spun to the side again. 'Like fucking hell I'm going to allow that! But how do I get out of this thing's grip?'

The moment I finished that thought, my body reacted on it's own, twisting itself as the crocodile spun once more so that my feet landed in a way that gave me some leverage. Then I pushed myself up, the damn thing still hanging onto my arm, and just swung my arm hard and fast enough for the thing to let go, losing a few teeth as it did. It crashed through a couple trees but got right back up, blood dripping from his mouth and the claw marks I left on it.

The crocodile's eyes told me that it was far from over, and a part of my mind roared with approval.

"BRING IT ON YOU OUTDATED DINOSAUR!" I roared, punching my fist into my open palm. "I ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW WHAT CROCODILE TASTED LIKE!"

Like a train, it charged forward, turning it's body into a powerful ram. The moment it got to me, it jumped with it's jaws wide open. Then I did something unexpected

I lowered my head and impaled my horns right below it's jaws.

I pulled myself back to my full height with the crocodile struggling to get free of my horns, it's body hanging right in front of me. But before it did, my arms wrapped around it's thrashing midsection and I squeezed as hard as I could.

The spine broke, ribs gave away, and organs were crushed as I gave it a hug of death, and soon, after fighting for a minute, it stilled. I pushed it away, blood dripping down from my horns, and watched as blood flowed out of it's mouth and mixed itself with the water.

I looked toward the sky and roared. 

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"

Saber and Mane Six. Everfree Forest

"Did you hear that?" Saber asked, pausing in following the tracks. The group paused as well, then Dash just shrugged.

"Meh, its probably just some animals fighting."

Fluttershy gulped at that. "Oh, I hope not. I know that this is the Everfree Forest, but I hope that at least the animals can settle their arguments without getting violent."

Saber merely returned her attention to the tracks, noting that the daemon might have kept at a contest pace, judging from the lack of breaks from the trail. This gave her information that the demon possessed high amounts of stamina, meaning that wearing the demon down wouldn't work. Of course, this only applied if they needed to fight it.

"Alright, let's make camp here and continue in the morning." She turned to the ponies behind her, eyes looking at the surroundings for anything dangerous. "It'll be better if we set up the camp now instead of doing it at the last minute and risk getting attacked. Rainbow Dash and Applejack. We're going to need a constant source of light and warmth, so find some firewood. But don't stray too far from us." Both ponies gave a mock salute and ran off into the trees. "Fluttershy, can you ask some of the animals if any predators usually come this way? If so, ask what kind so we'll know what we're dealing with." The shy pegasus gave a meek nod and flew up to a nest of birds. "Princess Twilight, Rarity, we're going to set up the camp along with some sensors around it. That way we have an early warning system." They quickly began to do so, each one doing their duties to the best of their abilities.

Nick. Swamp

"Stupid crocodile completely fucked up my sense of direction," I muttered, standing on a large rock to see if I could spot the castle. After that nasty incident with the tree, I'm going to avoid going downstairs as much as I possibly could, because I did not want to fly airline Magical Fucking Tree again. The wisest course of action would be to find another hideout nearest to the castle so I wouldn't run that risk again. 

Of course, I have to FIND the castle first.

I jumped off my rock and landed near the corpse of my latest kill, glancing at it with weary eyes. Like the first time I fought something on this world, I felt completely energized and ready to fight once more, but I had to find Gizmo and the castle first. It would be a waste to leave a corpse with enough meat to last us several days, but it'd only slow me down. Still wish that I hadn't killed the thing via bear hug because a) thats kind of an embarrassing way to go and b) it was a very painful way to go. 

"Too bad big guy, but it's survival of the fittest." I gave the thing a pat on the stomach as a sign of respect and moved to head in the direction I hoped was right. I had to wonder why I yelled out those words after the fight. Was this Chaos Star influencing me somehow? Or was I truly becoming the Skulltaker in both mind and body? Either way, I had to keep a firm grip on my humanity, because it was the only thing I had left from my home world.

I glared at anything that moved, making countless animals run in fear of me. Good for them, because I was not in the mood to deal with any more surprises.

Gizmo. Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters

Gizmo was confused. First there was a huge wave of something that swept through the castle and did absolutely nothing. Second was that U'Zuhl was missing, which just had to be impossible. Big castle or not, there weren't many places a ten foot tall daemon could hide in. Finally, third was this odd dumbbell that crashed into his table from out of nowhere. It made him nearly jump out of his skin and utterly ruin all the organized stacks he made.

It glowed with a dark blue energy and something told Gizmo that he wasn't suppose to touch it unless he wanted something very bad to happen to him. So he did the most logical thing possible.

Gizmo fixed all the books and returned to his search for his demonic friend. Maybe he was downstairs and found that beautiful tree that made Gizmo feel all safe and warm?