A Salamander, but Mighty

POV: Tamara

The monster closed its jaws, growling and studying Tamara and Luchael as if it could smell their weakness and fear through its dark, black nose; it almost looked like a troglodyte, with a club gripped in both hands.

Luchael let out a high-pitched and very feminine cry and tried to move towards the part of the dungeon from which he and Tamara had come, this attracted the attention of the hynarl, who clicked its jaws and approached with a rather swaying gait on its stubby legs and raised the club above its head.

"Watch out!" Tamara exclaimed instinctively, even though she was aware that she couldn't be understood. She advanced quickly on her short legs, almost dragging her abdomen as she landed a hit, opening her small triangular mouth to give a vigorous bite to the hynarl's left ankle.

The monster didn't seem particularly bothered by the little salmadrer's bite and simply swung one leg until it came off, offering Luchael the opportunity to execute one of the lunging attacks typical of his race: the rapier flashed in a quick motion. like that of an arrow and the large humanoid hynarl did not have time to avoid being hit but only to limit the damage by being wounded in a shoulder instead of a lung.

Tamara fell three feet farther, barely feeling any pain thanks to her tough scaly skin, but still distraught enough that she couldn't quickly return to help Luchael. In the seconds it took Tamara to get to her feet, leporan and hynarl had tried to hit each other a few times, one more brutally, the other continuing to spend much more time trying to avoid the blows and move away rather than trying to kill the monster.

Tamara quickly ran, trying to climb onto the hynarl's body just as it hit Luchael in the stomach with its club, throwing him with extreme force against a wall. Luchael didn't even make a sound beyond the unpleasant sound of bones breaking and then he fell onto his side, maybe unconscious, maybe dead.

“Luchael!” Tamara exclaimed as she stopped biting the monster's ear to dodge one of its large hand-like paws. The salamander monster returned with its paws to the ground and peered insistently at the monster again.

[Hynarl – lv: 12]

Hold on… it's a hynarl, it's not some new type of monster, Tamara thought, trying to think about her own survival rather than Luchael. The hynarl clenched its sharp teeth and tried to hit her with its club, but Tamara managed to dodge in time, maybe I understand. This is a hynarl like any other, it must have chosen all its Feats to grow in size and obtain a humanoid form.

Now that she had concentrated, the girl reincarnated as a monster had managed to gain some sort of control over her terror, fear is less petrifying if you can rationalize it. The monster wasn't really as powerful as it seemed, its blows were more forceful than precise, its movements more crude than measured, the hynarl must have spent all its Feats on its size alone.

This meant that everything would be fine as long as she managed to avoid its club, she could kill it with a thousand cuts by putting her human thinking capacity against the enemy's instinctual rudimentality.

Salmadrer and hynarl came into club-and-claw range again. The hyena/dog-shaped monster tried to crush its opponent as if she were a fly, but she was smaller, faster, the problem was that her bites and claws could not reach any height higher than the enemy's knee without climbing or performing a jumping attack.

And no matter how much she focused on him, there was no way to know how low its health bar was except through visual cues like the blood dripping from its knees down and its heavy breathing. It was at that point that Tamara dared too much: in an attempt to bite the hynarl's ankle more firmly, the monster managed to grab her and lift her from the ground.

“Let me go! No!" She lashed out with all fours, but to no avail.

The hynarl seemed to enjoy the fact that it had managed to capture her; the grip of its clawed hand around her neck was powerful, Tamara felt the claws pierce her hard, scaly, black skin... she couldn't breathe.

SYSTEM: ATTENTION, SUFFOCATING.

Somebody help… please…

As Tamara's consciousness started fading away, her mind began to dream: she saw her school again on one of her typical days; she wasn't a pretty girl, some said she was cute, but when she looked in the mirror she couldn't see anything other than the flaws the bullies pointed out to her over and over again. That day, the most beautiful girl in school had cornered her again and thrown her into a fountain. When she got home, she was still dripping water and her hair was glued to her shoulders, back and forehead.

Then the front door opened and a young, smiling face welcomed her... big brother...

Tamara opened her eyes abruptly, the hynarl was still squeezing her neck and had lifted her above its head, her consciousness had not fully returned and she didn't have much time before she could have fell unconscious again, this time, forever.

The tail? She wondered, trying to move it and use it as a weapon, but it was too far away. Arm? Legs? There was no need to wonder: too short.

There was only one thing she could do: if she could be killed even without depleting her health bar, that meant she could do localized damage, and that meant…

She concentrated all her mana in the acid gland in her throat, then tried to aim as best as she could given the beastly hand that gripped her neck and her blurred vision, then, she opened her mouth and sprayed the most powerful [Acid Spit] she had ever produced up to that point. A spray of acid lasting a few seconds went straight into the eyes of the hynarl, who let out a blood-curdling cry of pain, abandoning its grip on both Tamara's neck and the club it was still holding in its right hand.

Now or never! She thought, shaking her head and squinting in an attempt to regain full control of her body and senses.

The hyena monster was staggering, holding its hands over its eyes and continuing to scream, Tamara had to do the reverse operation and try not to think too much about what she was about to do, the taste of the hynarl's blood and fur was already in her mouth and any moment of hesitation would have cost her her life. She lunged at it, climbing, reaching the monster's neck and began to bite ferociously, grabbing skin and tearing in an attempt to do lethal damage as quickly as possible.

The hynarl had no intention of giving up and even though it was blinded, it didn't need to see to know where its enemy was: it began throwing violent punches against Tamara's back and head.

SYSTEM: ATTENTION, CRITICAL HEALTH!

Come on! Come on! Come on!

Tamara received one last devastating blow before her mouth managed to reach what must have been an important vein of the monster: the hynarl let out one last dog-like whine before falling to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

SYSTEM: DING! You went up [1] level! [+2] Traits points to place.

SYSTEM: DING! You went up [1] level! [+2] Traits points to place, [+1] Feat available.

SYSTEM: DING! You went up [1] level! [+2] Traits points to place.

SYSTEM: DING! You went up [1] level! [+2] Traits points to place, [+1] Feat available.

The system notifications informing her that she had managed to survive the battle did not help her in any way with the pain: there was not a part of her body that did not hurt, except perhaps her tail. She didn't have the courage to look at how little of her health bar she had left, it was better that she dedicated herself to Luchael: the leporan hadn't moved since he had slammed violently against one of the dungeon walls and now that she had the time to think about it and put order in her brain, she was starting to fear that he was dead.

She hadn't had time to move all four of her stubby paws before a bright glint reached a corner of her field of vision; if it was another hynarl like the one she had defeated, it was better for her to pretend to be dead, but the noise that came from the same direction as the light had something metallic about it and which reminded her of the clanking of armor... it was better for her to pretend to be dead even if they were adventurers.

Tamara closed her eyes and held her breath.

"Look! There's an adventurer down!” A delicate, feminine voice exclaimed.

An accelerating clanking noise from one of the suits of armor made Tamara tense, “He?..." A moment of pause, "he, is breathing! He is still alive, but needs urgent care!” A rough, masculine voice answered, perhaps that of a dwarf?

“I'll make him drink a stabilizing potion,” said the first voice. “Bellenor, help me take him to the temple.”

A third noise accompanied by a stick came closer to Tamara and the humanoid hynarl's body, she tried not to think that the adventurer was about to give her and the hynarl's corpse a final blow just to be sure. “A hynarl and a salmadrer, what strange combination of monsters did this leporan fight? I didn't even know there were salmadrers in this dungeon.” The third person had a calm, rather analytical tone. “Okay, I don't like heavy work, but leporans tend to be lighter than you humans, so...”

“It is indeed strange to see a salmadrer here,” said the supposed dwarf, “in any case, we will meet again at the temple by dawn. This area has already been mined today and it will not regenerate until next week.”

"Perfect. Please, be careful.”

Tamara remained still, breathing little so as not to notice the movement of her lungs, she was in a delicate situation: if she had remained still they would have separated her from Luchael and she would have found herself alone in the dungeon and unable to get out, if she had moved, one of the three would probably attack her immediately… once again, her position was between a rock and a hard place.

Oh Velen… thought Tamara, what can I do now?

No response, the lights and the noise of the armor became further away to the point of no longer being perceptible even if one strained one's hearing to the maximum. For the first time since being reincarnated, Tamara was truly alone.