One beast in front of him and another to his back left, both circling him. Dan was terrified. Sure, he had hunted before, back in his last life as a human; he had even been surrounded by a pack of wolves once when he went deer hunting as a teen, but wolves were a lot easier to stand, especially since the loud boom of a gun was enough to scare them off back then. This time around, Dan had no gun, and these things were far more horrifying than any wolf could ever be.
Yet he still had one advantage in that situation. 'I've got the reach you newt bastards!' he thought to himself as he thrusted his warclub forward at the beast in front of him, which jumped back while the one behind him charged forward, trying to take advantage of his supposed exposed blind side. All it ended up doing was having its throat pierced by the end of Dan's bone club that had a pointed end just for such an occasion.
Alas, even that was only a silver lining as the weight of its charge and collapse snapped the warclub in half, heavily reducing the reach of Dan's weapon. "Gruh." was all he let out as the other beast didn't just stand there waiting while he had killed its companion and was already in the middle of charging at him before the other fell.
Dan quickly swiveled on his left foot and held his now much smaller and brittle club with both hands, bracing for impact with the monster's upturned horn, trying to penetrate through his chest cavity into his heart. Using the creature's momentum against it, he clashed the club against its head and made it swerve at an angle into the ground, getting its head stuck. Yet at the same time, it sent Dan flying against the wall and his club all the way to the other side of the cave.
CRACK.
Dan wasn't sure if it was his or his warclub's bones that had cracked, but what he did know was that he was in the second-most-pain he had ever felt in his two lives. It still could not compare to the torment of being crushed, basically squeezed and pulped to death like he was fruit in a grapepress, or cremated while still somehow being alive despite all of his internal organs being basically nothing more than a liquid.
Needless to say, he quickly got up, not wanting to die again, as the painful memory of his first death ignited more than just his survival instinct or desperation, but mainly his absolute desire to never face death again and annihilate all that tries to make him feel its gruesome grip even slightly.
As soon as he stood up, he rushed to the corpse of the beast he had just slain before being sent on this world's version of the giant's space program and grabbed the now very short bone spear that was barely held together. For once in his few hours of life, he finally got lucky with the living beast still having its head lodged in the ground like a scared ostrich or hungry flamingo.
Dan wouldn't take such a golden opportunity for granted, as he stabbed the exposed neck of the creature so hard he lodged his spear all the way through it. Then, he instantly regretted his choice as it was now lodged into the nape of its neck's scales, making it completely stuck, even with his monstrous strength, unable to get his spear out.
'Crud, I'm not some king author figure! I can't pull the spear from the scales.' He complained in his mind as he swiftly scanned around the area to look for his warclub, which was actually helpful, only to notice that it was halfway across the cave in the hands of one of his kin—the one who had used the entire corpse of one of their brethren as a flail.
The battle had only lasted two minutes, but already five of the beasts were dead, three killed by him only because he had the club and was informed of their weakness beforehand, one by the hand, litterally, of the kinsmen that had lost one of their arms somehow, and the last one by the other kinsmen that was using the corpse as a sheild now and Dan's already almost broken club.
The one-armed kinsmen had bled out to death despite winning their fight. The injuries they sustained were too severe; the one with his club was fighting one of the last monsters, and finally, Dan was being charged by the only remaining beast. 'Oh, I'm going to die now,' he thought as his left leg wouldn't move properly. He had either sprained or broken his ankle from the last hit he took and wasn't able to avoid the trajectory of the monster's assault.
Since he couldn't avoid the hit, he leaned back with the blow to try to lessen the damage to the best of his abilities, which were poor to begin with. Sure, he was a hunter in his previous life, but that didn't mean he was fighting his game with a damn club. He was a naturalist, not an idiot. He didn't get into any fights with other people back on Earth either, so his combat experience before today, especially in this body, was null and void.
With that said, he was launched into the air, smacking against a stalactite that would have pierced his back and passed through his stomach if it wasn't for his armor that took the blow for him. Yet it also had him hanging from it because it had punctured the toga-like armor, which was his only saving grace in that moment.
Since the armor was more like a robe than a suit of armor, it was loose enough from his body to be able to handle piercing blows with him, at most receiving a scratch or a minor injury. It also let him hang from the stalactite, which was surprisingly sturdy enough to hold his weight.
'I'm alive?!?' he questioned in his mind while at the same time letting out both a panicked and excited "Gruh!". Yet that went right back to a fearful "Grah!" as the monster looked up at him with its maw open, revealing very sharp teeth and a tongue that looked like a mass of thorns. Dan was sure it would flay him alive if it fell. Which only made him panic more since his shoddy craftsmanship was starting to bear its fangs at him as well, with his toga-like scalemail armor reaping at the seams.
'I think dying to the stalactite would have been my preference,' he cried in his mind as all he could think about was his second, just as painful, impending death. Then his armor's hide base was entirely ripped in half, but did so as soon as the stalactite stopped being able to support his weight, so now he was falling with the mouth to hell below him and heaven's sharp meteor of judgment above him.
He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for an undoubtedly horrific and just as agonizing end. If he could change his trajectory at all, he would. Still, none of his limbs responded to his brain's commands, and unlike an actual fantasy world where emotions would be more than enough to push him beyond his limits, wherever he was was very much real and didn't give a damn how strong Dan's emotions were. He was going to die.
Then, without a 'Gruh' of warning, something hard and fast hit Dan in the face that forcefully changed his trajectory to hit a wall, which, while also painful broke his momentum and made him slide down instead of plumpting to his death like he would of even if he had avoided the spike behind him and the teeth in front of him before. Regardless of what, why, when, or wear, only one thing was sure to Dan: he could see the stars and was seconds away from being knocked out cold.
Despite his struggle, it was futile; his eyes closed, and his mind went blank after one last thought. 'Conclusions suck.'
_____
Corpse wielders' POV.
I was the third of my kin to awaken from the slumber of new life. The first and second scents went deeper into our nest, though the smell of life had left one of the older siblings. It was to be expected; some of us were always going to die. It's not that I was told this, but I knew it in my bones, like I knew how odd it was that the two eldest had not awakened the rest of us, as my instincts had guided me to do so.
What felt even more wrong was the others treating me as if I were the oldest, yet I could smell him deeper in the nest. My instincts screamed at me to find them and follow their guidance, after all, they had the most experience being the first to awaken —at least that was what my body told my mind. Still, it's not like I could leave them alone; their instincts pestered them about following my guidance as much as mine did for the eldest.
I could only grunt my annoyance and bear with it for the moment, so I sent a little over half of us to go and scout where I felt some wind entering the nest since my instincts told me it was the exit or entrance, whatever I'd want to use it for. Then I took the remaining eleven with me, who seemed to be the strongest of us, and headed down the pathway leading downwards, since I smelled none of our kin's scent that way.
My instincts told me enough to know that the eldest hadn't bothered to go this way yet, making where he was at probably a safe zone we could flee to, and if anything went wrong, it was probably best to head there, away from the rest of our kind. I wouldn't question it, thinking as much as I already do hurts my mind, and I can tell that even my younger siblings had about as much brains as the rocks around us.
While lost in my annoyingly far too big thoughts, I wish I didn't have a blur pass me by, and with the sound of flesh and bone tearing, all I saw was an arm flying before my instincts flared, and I bellowed out the order to follow my already thought up plan, my instincts drove me towards.
The males of our group moved more slowly than the females, like me, either because they were too stupid to process my cry fast enough or were too distracted trying to impress us by standing their ground against one of our prey. However, I felt more like the hunted at the moment. I hope all our males aren't this incompetent, or I fear for our kin's future.
As soon as they realized facing those beasts head-on meant certain death, they rushed past us faster than well, I guess the beasts are the only thing I know how to compare their quick, cowardly feet to. Luckily, we made it to the right passage where the eldest was at dawn, dressed in something weird, but at least he had a weapon. Maybe there's a slight chance our species won't fall to natural selection.
Still, I had to worry about something like that for much later; right now, I need to make sure I live long enough, actually, to continue our species. Luckily for me, the weakest of our males died close by, and while he was deadweight alive at the very least, his corpse made for a good weapon. That was what my intuition told me.
Still, I really didn't want to get stabbed or chewed, and a corpse was only as good as long as the flesh and bone stayed attached, something which the prey, trying to be predator, took glee in tearing apart. Then it got its head slammed down upon by a white blur that made it bite its tongue off, to which I then chucked what was left of the corpse in my hand right into the throat of the monster, making it choke to death on its blood and the body of my deceased kin.
I looked around to find that my savior was about to be either pierced from behind by Mother Earth or chewed up and shat out by our prey, so I quickly grabbed whatever I could, grasping the thing that the eldest had used before, though it was in pretty bad shape. I killed another one of the beasts since it was blocking my line of sight, and then I tossed the damn piece of leftovers at my stupid elder brother's face. What idiot almost get's eaten by their own prey after all?