“Merl! – w-what is what?!”

Hesitant, Serina sat in the water, staring at the creature before her. Its quick glance in her direction made her freeze solid. The murderous intent purely aimed at Merl, the sheer size of it and the marks it left in its wake, perfectly showed the gap in their strength. It’s leagues above both in every way except agility but on land, it’s barely even between the two.

Shit, the one time I decide not to eat someone, someone else tries to steal it from me!

The creature ignored Serina and slowly approached Merl with curiosity as she bled.

Crawling out of the pool Serina lunged forth, fangs and claws bared. As thick as their hide was it wasn’t enough as she dug in making small deep cuts. Either it was taken by surprise or a reaction to the intense pain, its body contorted throwing Serina against a boulder. It had made the attack worse, by throwing her off it had caused Serina to tear multiple long holes in its shoulder. Purple-blue spore-like powder floated out the wounds giving birth to new life on the ceiling above as its shoulder slowly decayed causing it to limp.

Turning its complete attention to Serina, it sees her as a threat.

Thank God it’s a monster like the rest of us, now it’s just a waiting game.

Shit, I’m already drying out!

Noticing that her tail was drying out faster than expected she quickly turned away and crawled towards the pool before she started decaying herself. Some monsters decay by damage while it starts for others by being out of their environment.

“Gahhh!” her caudal fin had been punctured by more teeth than she can count. The pain took a backseat as the feeling of weightlessness preoccupied her mind, hoisted into the air by her tail. As a creature that’s spent its entire life submerged in the depths of the ocean, being surrounded by nothing but air and no land to stand on made her nauseous.

Ahh! O-ohh… God, I-it’s sickening.

Flailing about and attacking aimlessly hoping to dislodge herself before it bit of her off tail. Desperation kicked in as her time slowly ticked down, powder rushed out the wounds in her tail filling its mouth and seeping out its jaw.

A roar shook the cave as Serina managed to get hold of its eye and rip it. An opaque stream flooded out the eye socket, withering in pain it stumbled back against the wall. Losing all motor function on its right side, Serina had managed to free herself from its weakened grip, dropping headfirst.

“Ah!” Thud. Bleurgh! Cough, gasp! cough.

Nauseous and disorientated, she stumbled her way towards the pool covered in vomit. The creatures’ wounds have widened as it slumps on the ground barely moving, an opaque cloud forming on the ceiling.

Splash. Exhausted, nauseous and in pain she struggles to keep her eyes open.

Serina could hear the subtle sound of rocks being moved across each other as Merl slowly crawls her way over

"Serina!" 

ahh not so loud, please... My head is spinning...

"Uoy, uoy now!. hha, ruoy derujni..." To Serina, her words carry no weight, her emotion, however, that says more than enough; she's worried about the wounds. 

"I'll be fine in a few minutes, but we should try and leave as soon as possible." 

there are three exits in this cave, the waterfall, the pool Serina used to get food and the ecosystem further in. chances are they'd be hunted if they went into the cave again, even then they don't know if there's an exit there. the pool was also not possible, Merl would pop under the water pressure once fully submerged leaving only the waterfall behind Merl. Now the only issue was getting up. Serina had no legs to help her climb, meaning Merl would have to drag Serina up but her back would most likely giveaway under the weight. leaving a dangerous but somewhat easy answer; drag the decaying monster over and use it as a ladder before its completely gone.

GoldenDodo

so, uhh, it's been a month (and a half?) huh? opps, apologies.

Oh, for clarification, when monsters are badly wounded or killed, they don't leave a corpse or magic stone, instead, they start to decay (colour depends on environment) and will either give sustenance to others or birth new life. Depending on the species they may decay for other reasons, such as being a sea creature on land for extended periods. This also makes them hard to research as they need to be kept healthy.