Eritance - Chapter 4

“Run you dolt!” yelled Ross as he pushed me to the side, “I’ll hold spiney here as long as possible so that you can get away”. Fear immediately paralyzed me though, as I thought about what would happen to Ross. Ross may be strong, but he is no match for a spine bear, they could easily defeat a squad of five armed guards or more alone. Let alone one unarmed field worker. I frantically looked around for a suitable weapon to try to attack the spine bear with, but all I had was my hunting knife. It would not be very effective against such a powerful beast. The wheels in my head spun at light-speed as I tried to think of a way to help Ross before it was too late. It was then that I remembered the storage shed. It was 400 meters from where we were currently standing. I quickly sprinted towards the storage shed to see if any tools were there that could be used to hold off the spine bear until help arrived.

I frantically ran and could feel my lungs burning as I put all my might into moving my legs forward so that I could make it in time. After a minute of running I finally burst through the shed door and hurriedly looked around for a tool that could be used as a suitable weapon. I briefly considered grabbing the sharp hoe in on the rack, but decided against it, the spines coming out from the spine bear would easily block the cutting power of the hoe.

Just as I started to panic I saw a heavy iron digging bar. It was quite thick, barely fitting in my hand and very sturdy. The tip was not particularly sharp, but it did have a point to it. “It will have to do” I thought to myself, besides with Ross’ strength, he may even be able to break a bone or stab through if gets the spine bear in the mouth. I frantically ran out of the shed lugging the iron digging bar with me when I saw Ross. He was bleeding heavily from his shoulder, and the spine bear was swiping its large paw at Ross again.

Ross was able to dodge the swipe, but as he jumped backwards he tripped on some of the freshly ploughed soil behind him and fell to the ground. The spine bear slowly approached, knowing that this was the end for Ross. “No!” I screamed drawing ever closer to Ross and the spine bear. I took out my hunting knife with one hand and desperately flung it towards the spine bear. I didn’t think it would do any damage, but I wanted to get its attention away from Ross. The knife twirled through the air and left a deep gash running across the snout of the spine bear. “Guuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” roared the bear in a mixture of pain and anger as it turned towards me.

“You idiot! I told you to run!” yelled Ross as he frantically stumbled to his feet and went in my direction. At the same time though, the spine bear recovered from its momentary distraction and ran towards me in a rage. It became a race for Ross to see who could reach me first, the spine bear or the him. As Ross had a head start he was closer to me, but the spine bear was a lot faster and stronger and was soon able to catch up to Ross. I froze inside, unsure of what to do. My brain screamed “run stupid!” at me, but my body was frozen in fear. Just as the bear was coming down on me to attack, Ross mustered up his strength and jumped at me, saving me, by pushing me out of the way. However, this put Ross directly under the pouncing spine bear. A sickening piercing sound could be heard as one of the spines from the spine bear pierced through Ross’ back and through his stomach. A strange gurgling noise could be heard from Ross as he tried to gasp for breath. “Guooooooooooooo!!!” screeched the spine bear as swung Ross’ body back and forth and bit into him with his sharp teeth. Watching all this from the ground my world went blank. The person that I had always looked up to as an older brother and mentor was being killed before my eyes. “You bastard!!!!” I screamed at the spine bear. “Guoooooooooo” the spine bear roared back, as if to say, “you’re next”. Tears burned in my eyes as I saw the light fading from Ross’ eyes.

What I felt next was rage. Pure rage burned throughout my body, and, unbeknownst to me, the long-forgotten box began to glow on the ground where it had been dropped. I grabbed the iron digging bar swung at the bear with all my might, but a glancing blow off the side of its head was all I could manage before it knocked me back with one powerful paw. I hit the ground hard and could taste blood in my mouth. As it turned towards me I struggled to get up. However, the force of the blow broke some of my ribs. I instantly slumped back to the ground. Realizing that I wouldn’t be able to continue the spine bear charged at me and jumped high in the air, thinking to crush me to death before feasting on my corpse.

For a moment, I thought to myself, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to die in this way, to leave the world I had struggled for 17 years behind in and find peace. Just as I was thinking this I saw Ross’ mangled corpse. The sight of him torn apart brought forth a new surge of rage. With a final defiant scream, I set the iron digging bear into the ground and pointed the sharp edge into the air and braced it with all my remaining strength. The long-forgotten box was glowing quite fiercely at this point, not that I could see anyways. As the bears weight crushed down on me, my consciousness faded to black. All that could be seen an iron digging bar sticking out of the back of the spine bear. Apparently, it had pierced through the heart and the lungs of the beast by the power of its own body weight.

Of course, I wouldn’t find any of this out until later. All I could feel was my consciousness slipping away under the weight of the spine bear, thinking that I had died. A warmth spread through my body, and I heard a voice that sounded almost like Ross speaking to me. It was saying something I couldn’t understand. “The power of the beast relic has been passed on. This is your inheritance. This tattoo will mark you as a proud beast warrior..” more words were said, but I couldn’t catch them anymore as I finally passed out with a burning sensation on my back.

The relic has finally been revealed. Sorry for the long build up you guys.