Bonds and Fate

by Al Capony

(2) The first of many

Chapter 2 – The first of many

As adrenaline began flowing and my heart went into overdrive pumping blood through my veins, I realised that what I was doing, was utterly crazy. Crazy didn’t begin to describe it, it was more like completely and utterly mental beyond compare, mainly because no other human in existence had ever gone toe to toe with manticore without any weapons, armour or, evidently, common sense.

The wind whistled through my ears and I altered my trajectory to land on the manticore’s back. The monster had other plans, and it reared up on its hind legs to swat me out of the air, raking its retractable claws across my chest.

The pain wreaked havoc amongst my other senses as I collided with the ground, rolling into a heap. The manticore had only broken the skin having timed the extension of his claws badly and that was probably the only reason I was still in one piece.

The same thing couldn’t be said for my shirt though and I tore it off my body, not wanting to have any of my movement restricted by what was now just surplus navy-blue cotton and assorted fibres. Never really liked that shirt much anyway, too colourful.

Getting back to my feet I took a low stance, arms out to the side. Trying to intimidate the beast wouldn’t get me anywhere, so I decided to make it think I was more vulnerable than I actually was.

“Aren’t you a lovely puddy cat, yes you are.”

It obviously had some form of intelligence as it caught on to the fact I was taunting it and it didn’t like that. Not. One. Bit.

Charging at me with surprising speed and ferocity, the manticore flew forwards. As it opened its jaws as wide as it could and I realised it was trying to eat the entirety of me in one bite I knew I had no time to dodge. So I made another crazy decision. I dived straight into the mouth (not belly) of the beast and curled myself up in a ball.

Obviously it didn’t expect this as it immediately bit down, the *CLACK* of its teeth a sound I was thankful for – I had missed its teeth. Thus, I was faced with a new enemy – its tongue. As it flapped and writhed beneath from me, I unfurled myself somewhat struck the creatures uvula as hard as I could (considering I was laying on my side) with my fist.

The satisfying *THWACK* as the hit connected we followed by a gurgle and the opening of the manticore’s jaws. The beast must’ve gone quite a while without food, as I was met with only a litre or so of bile as I threw myself out of its mouth.
With the manticore gagging and hacking I decided to press my advantage. First I ran up, superman-punching it in the nose with my left hand followed by a heavy cross to its right eye. The creature roared out in pain so I knew I was doing something right.

Not holding anything back, I grabbed a hold of its ear and thrust my knee as hard as I could into the creatures jaw. As it reeled back, still coughing and slightly stunned, I continued my relentless barrage, punching the same point over and over in its jaws, throwing my entire body weight behind each punch. The martial arts I had learned throughout my life meant nothing right now – I was fighting a monster, and to do that when you have no experience fighting monsters, you need to become one.

I stopped pummelling the jaw of the beast only for a second, and for the sake of variety, moved on to striking its temple. The monster was no longer that dazed and that would be a problem so I aimed to change it.

I only managed to get a couple of heavy blows in before my plans were cut short by the manticore’s tail planting itself in the ground next to me. As it tried to remove the tail from where it was embedded in the earth I decided to move on to striking the new appendage instead. If I could damage its jaw and tail, the only ways it could kill me are with its claws or by crushing me.

Immediately, I grabbed the tail at my head-height, raised my legs and spun my leg as hard as I could. My roundhouse kick propelled my shin into the solid exoskeleton with a sickening *CRUNCH*.

The desired effect was for the manticore to retreat in pain for long enough for me to figure out a way to deal with his claws, but instead it got really angry. Really angry.

I see the paw coming as it flung me across the clearing, our little makeshift arena. I felt a sense of déjà vu as I rolled over onto my side, my back exploding in pain. I looked around and figured that the manticore had has the same idea I had and was now just standing there, trying to think about how to deal with me without sustaining further injuries.

I decided to do the same and had a spark of genius. There laid my frayed shirt, left with one use before I discarded it permanently. Placing a large, fairly average stone in the middle of the shirt, I made a makeshift sling around the rock. Standing up for the second time in our bout, signifying round two, I decided to make an ultimatum.

“Leave this place and I will not follow you. If not, you will die.”

The beast roared in response and began preparations for charging. I on the other hand, stood fast and began twirling the slingshot above my head.

The beast charged. I swung.

The echoing sound of rock striking skull bounced and bounded through the forest. The momentum of the corpse kept it flying quite a distance behind me until meeting a tree, at which point it slumped down, covered in sticky tree sap. The monster was not just unconscious, but true to my statement, it was dead.

Well what do you know? I thought. I guess some biblical teachings ARE still relevant in the present world we live in. The present, manticore inhabited world…

I walked over and collected my bag, stumbling slightly as I walked. As I placed the strap over my shoulder, I looked upon numerous animals – squirrels, badgers, assorted birds and many others gazing slack jawed at me and the events that just occurred.

I thought about what I had just done, taking me a few moments to process as my brain tuned out of ‘combat mode’.
Beep, beep, beep… BING!

Daayyuum! I had just killed a manticore with just my body and wits! No weapons, no armour and, evidently, no common sense and I WON! Only one thing could possibly add to the badassery of the moment, so I decided to go along with it.

I called out, “are you not entertained!?,” my words ringing throughout the forest and meeting the
ears of its inhabitants. My pride swelled and yet it was overcome by only two other feelings, both flooding throughout my body as the effects of the adrenaline receded. Pain, and fatigue.

I began feeling as if my consciousness was about to leave me when I heard a voice near me.

“Oh… My.”

The squeaky noise was plain to hear amongst the deafening silence of the other animals. The wind now seemed to be afraid of me.

“Wut is it Sweetie Belle, ya find somethin’?”

I couldn’t believe my ears and turned over in the direction of these phantom voices to find a white-coated filly sticking out next to a shrubbery, wide eyed, absorbing the spectacle before her. She also had a pink and lavender mane, along with a horn on her head. But of course, none of this registered - my brain told me just that it was alive, and that it could help me.

“Quick, c’mon Applebloom and Fluttershy! She went this way!”

“Hi there. Could you help me at all? That dead manticore kind of just tried to kill me,” was all I could get out in my semi-delirious state before collapsing forwards in exhaustion, still looking forwards.

As the remaining three members of the party met up with their astonished companion they quickly mirrored her expressions when they caught sight of myself. They looked at me, then the manticore corpse, then the animals, then me again.

I only heard a distorted, “Quick girls we need to help it, whatever it is, it’s losin’ a whole lot of blood,” before the whole world faded to black.

Comments

[JBL]

Riiiiiight...... he just killed a manticore..... you're walking a very tight line there, be careful you don't end up creating a Marty Stu.