Larry stalked the beast. The thing had most likely given up on finding Larry, and was just going to enjoy the snack it had already caught. Namely, Jorg. Larry wondered if the reason it had stopped searching for him was the green potion he had poured over his head earlier.

It wasn’t hard to follow the gorilla, since it was massive, and constantly ravaged its surroundings. Instead of going around trees and bushes that were in its way, it simple smashed them, abusing its insane strenght. It was basically a bulldozer in fur. Larry had observed the beast for while now, and one thing was painfully clear: He won’t be able to beat it in a fair fight. The problem was, he hadn't discovered any exploitable weaknesses, yet. It was bigger than him, and stronger. Its skin was pretty tough too, since it didn't seem to take any visible damage from punching trees with all its might. Larry tried to remember how the early humans of Earth fought mammoths. There must have been a trick to fighting these kind of behemoths that wasn’t just: Get a group and throw spears at it! Larry didn’t have the luxury of a group right now.

The thing continued to waltz through the woods. Larry didn’t know where it was heading, but he knew he had to hurry. It looked like the thing knew where it was going, which meant there was a good chance it had its nest there. And nests meant family. If he wanted to save Jorg, he would need a plan, and he needed it fast. He touched his head, and the world around him grew blurry. Status opened.

Welcome to Status.

He looked through his inventory, trying to find something that would help him. He had a short sword, that Jorg had given him before they entered the forest, but that won’t do any good here. To that thing it was more like a toothpick than an actual threat. He also had the stuff he took from the dead mage woman. Mostly, she had had potions on her, but there were also some crystals, a wooden staff and what looked like a metal pipe. The crystals were walnut shaped, barely varying in size and color. The wand has some symbols carved into it. Magic. Regrettably, since he didn’t know what any of this stuff did, he was reluctant to use it. Last thing he’d need is to cast a healing spell or something similar on that monster.

He tried to use Status to analyze the items, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. Maybe Status wasn’t even able to analyze things. Or maybe he needed to learn a new gesture? Usually in these kind of stories, the ability to get information about something from just looking at it, was the first thing the hero got. The fact that he didn’t have that advantage made him feel exposed. What did he have, now that the thought about it? As far as he could tell, his body was basically the same as before he died. He looked through his Status, but couldn’t find any spells and abilities either. He was basically a normal human. A shiver rocked Larry's body. He still had his fingers on his head, so he was able to see the notification that popped up.

Potion of the Hunter has expired.

The second the message appeared, the beast stopped moving. Larry left Status, to get a better view of what was going on. The beast was sniffing the air, angry growls escaping its mouth. It scanned its surroundings, and when its gaze wandered to Larry’s hiding spot, its entire body shook in excitement.

It saw me, didn’t it? So much for a plan.

The beast charged at Larry with a warcry. It was fast enough for him to know he had no chance of running away. It jumped instead of running the last few steps,landing right in front of him. It raise the hand Jorg was in, and with a wide swing, it lashed out. The fist only scratched Larry, but it still threw him backwards. He hit a tree, and the world exploded into darkness and stars.

Larry gasped for air, when he awoke. He saw the beast was walking towards him, slow enough for Larry to recover from his short blackout. It was toying with him. If it wanted him dead, he already would be. Larry noticed that Jorg was lying next to him, his armor scattered around him, broken into pieces like it was some fragile vase. The beast must have let go of Jorg when it tried to hit Larry.

“Wake up, Jorg!” Larry shouted, shaking the man. No reaction. Larry tabbed his fingers on Jorg head, testing if Status would empty his inventory. It did not, which meant Jorg wasn’t dead yet. The beast approached. Desperate, Larry drew the most toxic looking potion out of his inventory, a small vial with black liquid inside. He threw it at the beast. With unnatural speed, the monster slap the projectile out of the air, shattering the glass while doing so, and spilling the black sludge over its fur. It sniffed the liquid, but when nothing happened, it simply growled in satisfaction and continued its stroll towards Jorg and Larry.

It stopped in front of them, eyeing the two men. Larry looked at the unconscious Jorg. This guy wouldn’t wake up in a while, from the look of it.

Fucking hell, he thought, Fuck it. He stood up and punched at the beast. He felt its soft fur cushioning his hit. The monster snorted, as if it was amused by his try.

It grabbed Larry’s foot, and pulled him upwards. With his body upside down, it let Larry hang in front of it, their gazes meeting each other. Its eyes were pure black, with tiny white dots inside of them. All of its three eyeballs moved separately, observing different parts of its prey. Larry smiled, nervously. Maybe it just wanted a friend?

The beast howled, and smells which had surely originated from the deepest part of its bowels hit Larry like a tornado. Tentacle like tongues licked its countless rows of teeth. Larry almost threw up.

“You just keep getting uglier,” Larry said to its face. Luckily, it didn’t seem to understand. It moved its head closer to Larry, their faces practically touching now, and opened its mouth wide, preparing to bite Larry’s head of. In that moment, Larry touched his head, accessing his inventory, and dumped all potions he had into its mouth. Instinctively, the beast bit down. Larry could hear the sound of breaking bottles from its mouth, and a sizzling. He grabbed his short sword out of the inventory and slashed at the beast's face. Before his could do any real damage, though, the beast flung him away. He landed on a bush, which cushioned his fall somewhat. His sword was gone. He had let go of it. The beast threw up on itself, the different potions colouring its fur like a modern art painting. The potions had at least done something. Larry ran.

The beast roared. In a blind rage, it flung its arms around mindlessly, destroying trees left and right. It stumbled towards Larry, catching up even though it was barely able to walk in a straight line. The size of the beast made its steps gigantic. Its eyes were all focused on him now, and he knew, it would not try to toy with him again. This time it would kill. While running, Larry looked at the rest of his inventory, the crystals, the wooden staff and the metal pipe.

How does this shit work? he thought, as he grabbed a crystal and shook it. Maybe it was a magical hand grenade. He flung it at the beast, and it bounced of the monster harmlessly. He grabbed another crystal and licked it. Salty. He threw it.

Come on, activate through water or something.

Again nothing happened.

Time to try something different.

Larry took the wooden staff into his right hand. It nearly slipped out of his sweaty hands. While running, he pointed it at the beast, hoping it would do something. Anything.

“Fire!” he screamed. “Magic. Uhm, shoot. Boom. Exploooosion! Fucking do something you piece of garbage.”

The monster was catching up. It was only a few moments away from grabbing Larry and ripping him apart, when Larry noticed a hole in the side of the staff.

Just big enough for one of the crystals, he thought.

He chose the biggest crystal he had left and put it into the hole. It splintered, and turned liquid, flowing into the staff. The carvings of the staff began to give of an orange glow, and the wood became warm to the touch.

This ought to do.

Larry stopped running, and twisted around. The clawed hand of the monster was already in front of him, and without thinking, he swung the staff. When the staff hit the hand of the beast, an explosion of hot light shot forward and engulfed the beast’s arm and one side of its head. The staff’s power backfired, ripping the wooden staff apart and hitting Larry. The shockwave flung him backwards. He felt a sharp pain in his right arm. His head hit the ground hard.

He simply lay on the grass for while, listening to the beasts cries. When he stood up, he saw that the black liquid from the vial he had thrown at the beast earlier had ignited, and green flames were covering the beast's arm. The fire was eating through the beast flesh like acid, while it regrew and mended, elongating its suffering. Looks like he had thrown some healing potions into its mouth earlier. It wouldn’t heal fast enough. Larry watched it die.

“Cunt,” Larry said, spitting into the monster’s direction.

Larry walked away from the beast, towards Jorg. At some point during the whole situation, Jorg had awoken, and downed a few healing potions, as indicated by the empty bottles that were cluttering the ground besides him.

“You look like shit,” Jorg said.

Larry laughed, his hand on the bleeding stump that once was his right arm.