Aric ran.
The remnants of his scorched boots slapped against the sodden earth, each step a wager against the sucking mire below. The serpent thrashed behind him, shrieking through the bog, its blind rage crashing through trees and splintering roots. Aric weaved between gnarled trunks and slick stones, leaping from one patch of semi-stable ground to the next. Every movement was measured, every step chosen with care.
If he had still been wearing his blessed plate armor, such agile movements would've been impossible, and he'd have slipped and drowned long ago. But now, unburdened, stripped of both honor and armor, Aric moved like a viper through reeds. In a twisted way, he almost thanked the Tribunal for his destruction. Almost.
Around him, the swamp churned and groaned. The death and frenzy had awakened something deep in the mire, an older malice, something ancient and hateful. The bog seemed to breathe now, as if eager to swallow them both.
A tendril tongue snapped out beside him, powerful enough to sever both legs and too fast to jump over.
So Aric slid.
Slick with mud and desperation, he dove beneath the lashing strike, slipping through a knot of mangrove roots. He shot out the other side with more momentum than intended, skidding and smacking hard into a twisted tree trunk. His vision blurred, but the glint of sterling metal caught his eye. Just steps away lay the sword, half-buried in muck, clutched by bone fingers that clung with desperate devotion.
Aric's gaze locked on the gem-encrusted crest etched into the guard. He knew that symbol, it belonged to a heretical order of knights he had personally erased in holy fire and righteous steel some years ago.
He didn't hesitate.
Tearing the sword from the dead man's grip, Aric raised it just as the serpent reared its head above him. Not even pausing to shriek, another tendril shot toward him, slicing into the space he'd just vacated. In a fluid motion, sacred steel met sinew and bone.
And the blade held.
Aric's eyebrows lifted in surprise, but only for a breath. He flipped the hilt in his hand, adjusting to its weight. The grip was worn smooth, but it felt right.
A smirk lit his face.
The pieces had fallen into place.
Now, he could work.
Sacred sterling steel clashed with ancient immortal bone. Aric, weakened but still an incredibly skilled veteran, slashed at forked tongues and writhing tendrils. He parried, dodged, ducked, and spun. The serpent's movements were massive and unrefined. It had grown too used to feasting on prey that was too terrified to fight back.
But Aric was no stranger to monsters.
Now armed with steel worthy of the task, Aric dictated the flow of battle with silent precision. He moved deliberately, parrying the tendrils, dodging lunges, and guiding the serpent into each exchange on his terms. Fury built behind every parry, every evasive step, each skilled but ultimately futile strike that bounced off the serpents impenetrable scale.
Aric felt the heat of battle surge through him, a familiar, simmering rage reigniting his instincts. Baiting a strike, Aric slipped past a tendril's sweep, then raised his sword high. Summoning strength that defied his battered form, he brought the blade down in a brutal arc. Steel met sinew with a wet, sickening crunch, severing the tendril tongue clean through!
A heartbeat later, the sword shattered into glinting shards.
Black and gold blood, the blood of immortals, spewed everywhere! The torrent was so powerful it struck Aric like a flood.
But the serpent was unphased.
Blinded and battered, Aric stumbled and the flailing, wounded tendril found him, striking hard. Aric flew through the air, crashing into a mangrove's branches. His limbs refused to move, but his grin never wavered, blood thick on his teeth.
"Got ya." He sputtered.
The serpent loomed, hissing triumphantly before it lunged.
Aric twitched, barely moving, but just enough to slide down the mangrove's branches, not away, but down. The beast soared over him, crashing through the tree and into the churning bog behind it.
Mixed and stirred by their chaotic battle, Aric had carefully maneuvered the fight to just this spot, where the semi-fluidized swamp ground wobbled and then popped like a balloon! Thick, suffocating blankets of mud coated everything around the impact zone, and the serpent shrieked as a thick layer of glowing, supernatural quick-mud enveloped it!
When facing monsters, the only way to survive is to think like a man, with all the cunning and wile afforded to those always only one mistake from death. Aric had slain many horrors by matching their rage, but he'd slain twice as many by outmaneuvering them. It was a lesson he'd learned long ago, beneath banners bearing holy lies.
Carefully maneuvered into just the right spot, the bellowing serpent plunged into the nature-made trap, its bulk flailing as the swamp fought to swallow it whole. Aric watched it struggle, rising slowly so as not to aggravate his surely shattered ribs. With a curt wipe of his blooded nose, he spat once again, not to cleanse the swamp's rot from his mouth as he had before, but this time, to stain the mire with the last thing it would ever get from him:
Defiance.
And then, he ran.
Almost free. Almost to the light.
Until the hands returned.
Not hands of flesh, but those of ghosts. Grasping, jealous claws of those whose bodies had long since been devoured, but whose souls remained, writhing in the mire. They grabbed at him.
"Save us!" they cried. "SAVE US!"
Dozens. Then hundreds. Cold, lost, desperate.
Aric roared and broke free, only for another to grab him, then more.
The serpent thrashed in the distance, fighting for control against its own domain, and winning.
"Save us like you did them!" the voices pleaded, hands pointing toward the edge of the bog.
The light, there it was, just ahead, he could see it. Humans fleeing, the child among them, shouting and waving for more to follow.
Aric smiled, but the smile felt fake.
He'd saved them.
But no joy came with that truth, as the beast wriggled free and shook itself steady once again.
With one last, ragged roar, he faced the serpent as it descended.
And Aric Duskborne was swallowed whole.