The elf quickly nocked another arrow and fired at the beast. However, this time, it was prepared and knocked away the arrow with its bare hands. It leaped towards the elf but she dived out of the way before it could crush her. A thunderous boom erupted as the beast had produced a mini crater in the spot it had landed in. There was no way the elf could have survived if the attack had landed on her.

If she gets hit once, she is as good as dead. Then, that beast will move on to the villagers. I can’t let that happen, but what can I do here? How can I help?

As Damian struggled to think up a plan of any sorts, the elf continued to nimbly dodge the beast’s monstrous series of slow but powerful onslaughts as she fired arrows to counter. Most of them hit, but some were knocked away by it’s hulking arms. This clash would end in the ape’s favor if it were prolonged for too long. The elf was already starting to slow down after repeatedly dodging and firing while the beast continued its assault without even breaking a sweat.

What if I just go back in time? Maybe I really do have the Blessing of Time Travel. After all that "vision" was too real.

Damian closed his eyes and clenched his fist while concentrating on one singular thought: Go Back. Unfortunately for Damian, when he reopened his eyes he was still at the gates of the village.

Why isn't it working?

After failing to travel to the past, Damian turned his attention back to the battle to discover a different way to help.

She needs an opening to strike that ape’s vital point. Right now the ape is concentrated on her so it's able to deflect any arrows that would land a deadly hit…….So all I need to do is distract it!

Damian braced himself for the wild and dangerous plan he was about to initiate.

“I’m gonna need to borrow this for a sec.” Damian whispered to the unconscious Richard as he grabbed his spear.

Damian hurriedly crept towards the back of the rampaging beast, who was too preoccupied with the elf to notice him. The elf, however, spotted Damian making his way behind the beast and stayed closer to it, allowing Damian to catch up. Once he was a satisfactory distance away from the beast, he waited for it to strike again before running in to attack it. Damian charged and thrust at the beast’s feet. His thrust managed to stab it’s right achilles tendon, causing it to fall on it’s knee. The beast roared at Damian for interrupting it’s match with the elf. It attempted to grab him but Damian somehow willed his shaking legs to jump out of reach in the nick of time. The beast struggled to stand when suddenly it had noticed that an arrow had planted itself into its chest, directly piercing its heart.

We....We did it! There's no way it can survive an arrow to the heart.

However, to Damian’s dismay, the beast did not fall over, but instead grabbed the bloodied arrow and plucked it out of its chest. Dread crept up his throat as the beast endeavored to stand on its two legs.

That should have pierced its heart! How is it still alive?

“Dammit!” Damian cursed.

Now that he had lost his element of surprise, trying to get in another attack would be virtually impossible as the beast would now be on its guard. Damian could no longer contribute to the fight physically, leaving that burden completely in the hands of the elf who was heavily breathing. Damian glanced at the closed gates.

Those gates won’t do squat to keep this monster out. Since we failed to kill it, we have to get it as far as possible from here.

Damian hurriedly ran over to the worn out elf while the beast was still immobile.

“We need to lure it away from the village.”

“Understood.” She nodded. “But how will we keep him from just ignoring us?”

“Actually, I have an idea.”

Damian gulped as he unfastened his fanny pack.

“HEY UGLY!” Damian yelled as he waved the bag. “WHAT YOU WANT IS IN HERE! WHAT I THREW AT YOU BEFORE WAS A FAKE!”

There were many flaws with his plan. First of all, the beast could have a sense that tells it where the phone is, which would explain how the beast found him in the first place. Therefore, yelling that the phone was actually in the fanny pack wouldn’t work. Second of all, Damian didn’t even know if the beast understood what he was saying. Luckily, the bait seemed to work, conveyed by how the beast roared at Damian and struggled with even more effort to stand.

“By the looks of it, the ape will start running around in a minute or so. I’m gonna run into the forest and to the next town over. Please try to cover for me as long as you can. If we get to the town the adventurers staying there will give us a hand.”

“Alright.” The elf responded.

As soon as Damian heard the elf’s confirmation he dashed as fast as he could towards the town.

If I can maintain the speed that I’m running at, I should be able to reach the town in 20 minutes. Hopefully I can even last for that long.

Damian had only ever been in the town while once on a trading trip with Emilia. The town was called Jackson. It was an average sized town that had a traders market where Emilia traded goods from the village for various items that the chief told her to bring back. These trips were made once a month and in the month Damian had stayed in the village, he was allowed to accompany Emilia there. What struck Damian the coolest was that there was a guild in the town. When Damian excitedly took a look inside he saw people that had weapons fastened to their hips or back and wore cool looking armor. There were swordsmen, archers, and all other types of classes of heroes in there. Of course when they saw Damian they stared and gossiped at his unusual clothes but he didn’t mind as he was in awe at theirs. The stare downs ended when Emilia pulled him out of the building by his ear for not listening to her when she told him not to go anywhere by himself.

The trees cleared out, signaling that Damian had finally exited the forest. All that was in the way now was a long path that led to Jackson Town.

I’m almost there.

Instantaneously, Damian screamed as his back flared with excruciating pain as he was flung forward a few feet by a large, sturdy object. As he laid face first on the cold grass, his blood dyed it green to red. Damian weakly turned his head to look at what had crushed him. A tree.

The night was freezing, or was that just the feeling of death? Damian wasn’t sure. He could feel the footsteps of something coming towards him. He couldn’t see who it was but he had a pretty good idea. The weighty tree was then removed, freeing Damian, but he was still immobile nonetheless due to the number of broken bones in his body. Damian could feel the giant fingers wrap around his fragile body, wincing as it dug into his wounds. The beast ripped off Damian’s fanny pack with its other free hand and after pinching it, realized that it was empty. It roared in fury for being tricked like a fool. Its fingers tightened around Damian’s body. He screamed in response. The pain was intense, even worse than having a building collapsed on him. At least the pain would numb after a while but the beast would dig into the wounds. It was making sure to make him suffer as much it could before killing him off. Tears flooded down Damian’s cheeks as he howled in agony. With his vision rapidly declining and pain slowly numbing, he closed his eyes and prayed that his last option would save him.

If I really have the Blessing of Time Travel then please work. Please….

“GO BACK!”

Damian used up the last of his strength to cry out the two words before slipping into the darkness.