Staring in the three eyes of the left socket that were bulging like they were about to fall out and twitching like something was pushing them even further than they were now, I felt like letting go of his throat and taking my distance, but I had to finish this now. Or so I thought till the point I realized that my grip was forcefully torn from Ollie's throat, by either Ollie himself, or the owl-spirit. It was my turn to be trapped by as he holds on to my wrist with his right hand. As I was trying to pry myself free, I felt Ollie's hand to swell bigger and to my surprise the grip loosening. It was as I pulled my hand free that I realized why, as a shred of skin, from his elbow to fingertips, came with it. Under the now molted part of skin was a new skin similar to that of a bird's legs. The shedding spread all the way up to the shoulder as did the swelling. The arm kept swelling till it was definitely bigger than its left counterpart, reaching all the way down to the knee, with thicker built and the wrinkled, coarse and leathery skin covering all of it. At the end of the fingertips protruded long, twisted inwards talons. The face also contorted to fit the change, as the left socket had grown and turned more circular, causing the three eyeballs to appear almost like stacked on the socket. Now having shape of a tear, two of the eyes would take the upper and lower part, with their thicker ends meeting on the left side of the socked and the one in the middle having its rounder end facing right.

The thing now left of Ollie seemed to be confused by the change, so I took a step backwards and as it didn't react, I started retreating without letting my sight stray from it. But as I was retreating towards my horse, the owl-demon shrieked an ear splitting scream, causing my horse to go wild and start running full gallop, forcing me to turn around and run after it. That seemed to invite the attention of the owl-demon as it run after me and my horse, probably seeing both of as a viable source of meat. Reaching my horse wasn't a problem as I do seem to be faster when it comes to short burst, but that means the owl-demon would reach us in no time too. Taking hold of the horse's reins and making it to listen to my orders wasn't hard either, but it did give the owl-demon time to reach us.

Parrying the owl-demons right arm to the side as it came towards us didn't go as planned, as the demon grabbed my left arm that I used to parry and pulled me down from the horse and causing it to stumble over. As the horse laid there motionless, I was trying to get myself free from the owl's grip for a second time, but my pulling and trashing seemed useless and ineffective. The grip grew stronger as the time passed with my attempts, as did my stress, and with both of those the pain of my wrist. Frantically pulling my hand and prying the owl's fingers did nothing, and the owl rose standing from its slump on the ground. Now standing little taller than I, two of its eyes focused on me and one on my wrist, as it did the neck twist. And squeezed. With the first loud crack my body lost all of its sense of feeling, almost like paralyzed, but the second crack send burning shards of glass running through my veins. My hand now hanging limp on the other side of the owl's grip and pain radiating from the wrist, slowly overriding all my other senses I went with a instinct once more and kicked the owl, loosening the grip enough for me to run towards my horse, now half-upright.

Getting on the horse and getting it to gallop again took me time, but the owl had taken its time too, seemingly to grow small deformed wings on its back. The golden-brown feathers on the wings looked like the hair on his head, which could actually at this point be actual feathers too. But I had made some distance which allowed me to take a small detour and grab a thickest branch of nearby trees and pull it of on full speed. Holding the branch from its thinner end, I was ready as the owl leaped towards me. Using the branch like a bat, I struck the owl hundred or so feet backwards, but it simply got up again and resumed the chase. This time I used the time to locate the thinnest and the frailest tree in the nearby area. Having found my target of the hunt I leaped of my horse as I got close enough and used my only good arm left to rip the half foot thick tree from the ground, snapping roots and causing the bark to split open across the tree.

The owl had reached me before the tree was fully uprooted, but I managed to slam it down on the owl, causing the end of the tree to splinter in pieces. I made my way towards the slowly rising opponent and kicked it with full strength, but got my foot caught instead. Instead of letting the owl to break my foot too, I used the owl's hand as a foothold and delivered a knee to its face. As I feel my foot being freed, I grab the owl's neck and push it further from me and the end of the splintered tree, only for it to strike me on my back with a familiar headbutt. So Ollie is in control in there? Didn't matter as he tried to grab my neck, but I interrupted with my good arm. A mistake I realized, as he begin his already tested arm breaker tactic, forcing me to hit him with the only thing I got right now, my broken left arm. The punch came a surprise to Ollie, as did the jolt of pain for me, but I gained back my bearings faster, and moved my legs so that I could do a two leg push to get him a distance away from me.

Having been pushed few feet backwards and me having retreated another few, Ollie returned to his leaping tactic that he has been using this far, as I hoped. With my plan going as I wanted I lifted the trunk of the fallen tree on my armpit. Ollie leaped right into the splintered, and with that sharpened end of the trunk, sinking an inch or two on each of the sharp wooden stakes poking from the end of the trunk. And with that the finisher, lifting the tree upright once more, causing Ollie's additional weight and struggling to make him sink and half-an-inch more. But the deformed wings started to grow in size as had his arm earlier, sending shreds of skin and clumps of feathers raining down as they beat, and lifted him upwards. Ollie stared at me for second, but with some of the wooden splinters still sticking out of him and him bleeding fast, he decided to retreat with his newly gained ability to fly. Leaving me on the ground with no horse, food and enjoying the now constantly increasing pain as adrenaline wore off.

I slumped at the feet of a close by tree, with my back against the bark, slowly sliding downwards from standing position, and looked my left wrist. The broken bones were pushed through the skin by my punch and the wrist was bent on an angle not possible for human, nor for a wolf, so that's no saving grace now. Open fracture on my left wrist, probably a hairline fracture on my right wrist, crushed left eyeball, scratched and itchy right eyeball, broken and bleeding nose, lost a tooth somewhere too and bruising all over my body. Not good situation and I feel my fever rising as my consciousness slowly slithers away. With the burning of my fever and the stinging of my injuries being the only thing I can sense at this point, I let myself fall asleep for the first time in forever.