Chapter 60: No Escape
Up in the heights, a white silhouette moved like lightning through the pine canopy. Freyja, the small white cat moved with supernatural speed, almost invisible to the human eye, becoming a blur of light against the snow.
"Freyja, distract it from the right, don’t get close!" commanded Kellar from a distance.
Freyja reappeared out of nowhere on a stone ledge right next to the monster’s right eye. With blinding speed, she unleashed a swipe imbued with a compressed air blast that struck straight into the beast’s ocular membrane. The crocodile roared in pain and rage, jerking its head upward to snap at the small feline, but Freyja had already vanished into thin air, reappearing safely on a high branch.
The monster’s agonizing thrash left the lower joint of its trapped back leg exposed for a fraction of a second.
"Krag, forget the head!" shouted Kellar, pointing at the fold. "Destroy its leg joint now while it’s anchored!"
Krag bit his lip, channeled all the crimson light of his Bear Fury into his right fist, and lunged at the giant’s limb, determined to shatter the bone before the monster could regain control.
The impact echoed like muffled thunder. The crimson light from Krag’s fist exploded straight against the colossus’s joint, throwing up a curtain of frost and thick blood. However, the giant did not fall.
"Damn it, the bone didn’t break!" shouted Krag, taking a step back while shaking his hand in pain. "I could feel it in my fist, it’s way too hard!"
Despite not destroying the limb, the blow had dealt severe damage. The Great Crocodile’s back left leg dangled at an awkward angle, clearly dislocated. The beast let out a low, sharp bellow of agony that made the ice tremble. Seized by panic, the monster began dragging its body toward the shore, seeking the safety of the river’s dark waters.
"It’s going to make it back, we have to stop it!" shouted Kellar, pointing at the lizard’s useless limb. "Focus everything on the damaged leg! We have to tie it down and pin it to the ground so it can’t pull it free!"
"Bring the iron stakes!" shouted Krag.
Marty and Grok didn’t waste a second. They crossed the thick lines over the popped joint, applying leverage while the crocodile thrashed just a couple of meters from the water’s edge. Kellar sprinted toward them, driving one of the anchor spears deep between the cracks of the frozen rock and braiding the line around it to lock the knot in place.
The beast roared churning the snow with its other three legs, but the dislocated limb remained pinned against the rocky ground, trapping it just a short distance away from the current.
The colossal reptile thrashed with unrelenting fury. Feeling cornered near the riverbank, it began shaking its massive frame, making the iron stakes screech against the rocks.
"Watch the tail!" shouted Kellar, dodging a whip-like strike through the air. "We need to break another leg to subdue it!"
"We don’t have any more ropes or spears, Kellar!" shouted Krag, trying to hold his ground through grit teeth.
"Damn it!" shouted Kellar, assessing the chaos in a fraction of a second. "Then let’s use a wave tactic! Krag, throw a feint, don’t attack, just distract it! Lupar, Marty, dive in right after, but fake your strikes too! Grok, you’ll deliver the real hit. Make the crocodile drop its guard, now!"
The team executed the maneuver instantly. Krag charged forward bathed in his crimson aura, letting out a warrior’s roar. The crocodile snapped its jaws to swallow him whole, but Krag halted dead in his tracks on the ice and leapt backward. Right after, Lupar and Marty lunged from the flanks shouting fiercely, faking strikes at its eyes. The beast jerked its head erratically toward them leaving its opposite side unguarded.
Grok, taking full advantage of the lowered guard, channeled all his Red Bear Fury into his right arm and launched himself with an explosive spring.
"Aaaaaagh!" shouted Grok, bringing down a brutal fist onto the front leg’s joint.
The blow landed squarely. The impact echoed through the ravine and managed to bend the monster’s arm into an unnatural angle, but it wasn’t enough to shatter the bone entirely.
The crocodile, maddened by the pain, reacted before Grok could recover from the recoil. Using its own momentum, the giant spun on its belly and unleashed a devastating tail sweep. The blow struck Grok straight in the chest. The hunter was launched through the air like a projectile, slamming with a sickening crunch against the trunk of the giant pine before falling motionless onto the bloody snow, clinging to life.
Seeing Grok fall, rage consumed the hunters, but the beast was no longer invulnerable. With one front leg disabled and its back left leg dislocated, the monster had lost most of its mobility on the snow.
"It still has two legs left!" shouted Kellar, pointing desperately at the back right leg. "Krag, Marty, attack the back leg right now!"
"Die, you damn beast!" shouted Krag, leaping in unison with Marty.
Both veterans concentrated every last drop of their Red Bear Fury into a combined strike. The dual blast of crimson light struck the exposed joint square on. A sharp, deafening crunch echoed across the entire valley as the bone finally gave way, snapping under the joint force.
The back right leg buckled completely. The Great Crocodile let out an agonizing roar as its enormous body collapsed onto the ground.
With only one functional limb and its ropes anchored to the rocks, the colossus could no longer move forward or attempt to flee into the river. All the ferocious creature could do was awkwardly spin on its belly, roaring in helplessness as the ground was stained with its own blood.
In its desperation to break free and retaliate, the Great Crocodile kept violently spinning on its belly again and again. However, with every awkward roll it made across the bloody snow, the ropes anchored to the rocks wrapped tighter and tighter around its massive torso and snout, squeezing its scales with brutal force.
"Look at that, it’s trapping itself!" shouted Marty, tightening his grip.
The colossus made one last frantic roll before the ropes snapped taut to their limit pinning its body against the frozen ground. The beast let out a muffled huff, unable to move a single muscle or open its jaws. It was entirely helpless.