My luck was getting worse by the second.

I was actually in serious danger.

I didn’t even have time to curse my missed opportunity to pick up the magic resistance enhancements. I was being carried away by a frigging bird.

Its beak was trying to crush me but failed. I had thanked my improved hardened exoskeleton more than once in the process.

I was grasping its beak with my legs so that it couldn’t swallow me. My only luck was that the legs that I could still use were quite powerful.

I was bashing away at the beast’s head and well, literally anything that I could hit. It moved me in its beak so that my fangs were barely outside its mouth. I didn’t have many ways of escaping but this was one of them.

With the utmost effort, I managed to get my fangs inside the beak as I held a tight grip on the bird’s mouth with my pedipalps. I then let almost all the venom that I had stored within me flow freely from my fangs, right into this monster’s gullet.

In the meantime, I continued using my legs to kick and stab this monster both in its mouth and outside, in its face.

I was desperate.

I didn’t want to die.

I created some thread as well, with which I bound myself to the outside of the bird as best I could. If I got swallowed, I was dead. 

I kicked and thrashed around, and I was certain I did at least some damage here and there. As a result of my actions, the bird started moving its head around, and I could feel its flying become unsteady.

I pumped out the last drops of venom that I had within me and started to use my sharp fangs to stab and tear at the beast’s tongue. My legs also did a number of it. 

I was not going to let this beast take me. Not while I could still fight. Even if I were to die, I was going to take this bird down with me. At least that way, those so-called gods might not interfere with Elysa’s work if I were to be sent to her again.

The bird opened its beak and screeched. I saw my chance and crawled out of it.

I crawled over its head onto its back, with difficulty considering I was still injured..

Now it was my time to be on the offensive. 

Screw those gods. I was going to kill this damn bird.

I raised my front two legs and my pedipalps and brought them down onto the beast. It didn’t do nearly as much as I had hoped for, but another idea sprung to mind.

I used my pedipalps to pluck out its feathers.

I removed the brown feathers from its back, one by one, causing the bird to screech several times as it was now trying to get rid of me.

No can do. You’re mine now.

I used all my available legs to hold on to the creature all while biting through the pain of my missing limb and partly missing limb. 

I wasn’t even sure how I was still able to do all this. I could see the stump of my leg, but also noticed it wasn’t bleeding at all.

I continued plucking the beast’s feathers and noticed it starting to fly in an uncoordinated fashion. 

I hoped it was my venom, but it could just be the pain that I had caused, and was still causing it.

Once I had plucked enough feathers to see its skin, I clenched my fangs in it and injected the last of my venom into the large bird. Once I was out, I used my legs and pedipalps to scratch and pierce its skin.

I managed to wound it once I had laid bare its skin. I managed to wound it quite badly, if I do say so myself. I used my sharp fangs to cut open its flesh more and did the same with my teeth. I ripped away the skin of the large creature as it struggled harder and harder to shake me off.

This bird asked for it.

My own pain was still going strong, and I feared losing consciousness because of it, but right now, my mind was fixated on payback.

I kept clenching my fangs as I used them to dig deeper and deeper into the beast. Blood started flowing as I worked on ripping and tearing away this beast’s flesh with my fangs and mouth. I then sank my fangs in again and kept them in the beast’s flesh as I pumped the tiny bits of venom in it that I had regenerated.

I kept my fangs in place as I continued almost literally eating away at this bird’s flesh until I felt the bird lose balance and descend rapidly.

Damn it.

The beast plunged over forward and I felt myself lose grip because of the far too sudden movement. The thread that connected me to the bird was too weak to keep me tied to it and broke, causing me to fall down right after the bird.

My mind was screaming as I saw the ground approach.

We were falling towards a clearing in the forest. I tried desperately to at least fall after the bird so that it would hopefully break my fall if I landed on its feathers.

A small wooden house entered my vision, but I didn’t have time to take in its details. I was still using my legs as if they were limbs to try to aim.

And I failed.

I prayed to the goddess that I would survive this fall.

I saw the bird impact the ground and messages appear, but they just as quickly disappeared as I smacked into the ground.

I landed on my legs, but the fall was too much.

My legs gave way and my body and abdomen hit the ground a fraction of a second later.