“Krgh…! ” I put all my strength into stuffing the iron frame into the beast’s mouth. The inertia from its rush pushed me further into the floor, and I felt the bones of my arms creaking from the pressure, and I clenched my teeth in pain.

My desperate struggle managed to stop the beast. The frame managed to get stuck in its mouth, and it flailed its head around, trying to get it out. It turned and tried to use its claws to pry it out of its mouth. I didn’t have much time. I had to think of something else.

I then saw the exposed organs of its body. It had a massive gaping wound in its left side, and I could see its horrible beating heart. I found my target.

My head turned at a swivel, looking around desperately for something to stab the creature with.

I spotted a few leftover iron bars that were snapped. Although they were quite short, maybe a little longer than my own forearm, it looked sharp enough for my purposes. However, it was some distance away.

I glanced back at the struggling beast before rushing to the bar. I grabbed it from the floor and turned around while holding a stance. I was prepared to dodge and strike when it pounces.

The beast got tired of prying the structure from it’s mouth and instead decided to just break it with sheer force. I watched as it clenched its jaw and crunched the metal fixtures so much that they bent and snapped with a shrill noise.

‘What the f*ck’

I felt a cold sweat run down my back. I immediately realized that fighting it head on would not be a very smart idea. I moved towards the marketplace as fast as I could, hoping that I could maneuver around the stands and find something to stall it.

... 

The monster was momentarily stunned by the snapping noise made by the bars, but it recovered quickly. It sniffed around looking for the scent of its prey and it didn’t take long to find it. It started running in the direction where that prey went.

It entered the main area of the marketplace. When it turned to find its prey, it couldn’t see him. However, it could still smell him. The beast heightened its senses to locate the human boy.

As it differentiated between the varying smells in this place, it latched onto one scent. There were similar scents of humans around, but this one was the freshest. The beast slowly crept forward, following the trail of its prey.

It soon reached a group of stalls close to the center of the marketplace, and it approached with a low growl. It couldn’t see the human yet, but it was close. Slowly it moved around the stall...

Suddenly, the human it had been chasing sprung up from behind the stall. The beast immediately pounced toward him, but the human threw something at the beast. 

The small pouch flew toward the monster’s face with a straight trajectory, leaving a trail of dust behind it. The beast had already charged forward and its momentum wouldn’t allow it to stop. It didn’t want to even if it could. What could a puny human do to it anyway?

It would immediately regret its hubris as the object struck its face. The pouch burst open upon contact, releasing a cloud of colorful powder. The creature was blinded by the powder as its senses were overwhelmed.

The monstrous beast looked like an amalgamation of various animals, and it seems that it adapted their enhanced senses as well.

What the young man had thrown was a mixture of various spices found within the marketplace. The pain experienced by a human when they get hit by such a mixture would already be quite terrible. The pain felt by a creature with senses exponentially greater than a humans would probably be even more unbearable.

The monster crashed into the stands as it was carried by its momentum. It made loud grunts, growls, and various other unidentifiable noises as it thrashed around in pain. Shattered wood, sawdust, and various produce were tossed away by its sheer strength.

Oliver thought that this would be the best time to escape. He crawled away as fast as he could. However, as we was crawling away, he bumped into the one of the tables. suddenly he heard a swoosh behind him and he rolled to the side as fast as he could. He felt wind brush past his back and he saw the monster flying past him.

A cold sweat ran down his back as he realized the beast was still gunning for him, and it looked angrier than ever.

Although it’s sense of smell and sight were impaired, it could still hear him. Oliver realized this and he crouched low and tried to make as little noise as possible. 

‘I need to incapacitate it somehow...’

Of course, that wouldn’t be easy considering it’s strength. The marketplace had a variety of goods, but nothing heavy enough to knock down a creature of that size.

‘Unless...’

He looked toward the disoriented beast that was trying it’s hardest to hear where he was. He silently grabbed a metal pan from one of the stands before he inched slowly toward a certain direction. 

Oliver moved as fast as he could, but the monster was so much faster than him and it was coming closer. Oliver slid to a stop when he reached a corner and he tossed the metal pan as hard as he could in a different direction.

He held his breath and stood stock still as he watched the monster crash into some more stands as it tried to cancel its momentum, before rushing once more towards the noises it heard. Drool dripping from its panting face. 

Oliver moved toward his destination, while the beast looked like it was recovering from the blast of spices. It realized what is was chasing was nothing but a distraction and it howled in anger. It looked around for its prey with some difficulty and it saw the damned human turn a corner. It growled with fury and frustration.

Oliver was remembering the layout of the market, and he finally reached his destination. It was the fishermen’s area where they leave their catches. He had noted that the fishermen tended to catch some gigantic fishes every now and then, and very recently the fishermen bragged about hauling a massive one this time. They were not exaggerating.

What lay on an elevated display was a colossal tentacled creature. If a name were to be attached to it, a Kraken would not be inappropriate. Just the tentacles alone were enough to cover the entire stand. It had a massive round head, like that of an octopus, but with three wings on top, sort of like those found on squid. It almost looked alive with the slimy texture of its body, as if it was still moist from the water. 

‘... Right. Alternate dimension, different world.’ The surreal sight only served to remind him that he was in a different world. These ridiculous creatures existed. Although sea creatures were more varied and this massive creature wouldn’t be as farfetched as the monster following him was. 

He had a plan at least. He heard the beast’s low growl and he swiftly but silently hid behind a stack of crates nearby. This area of the market stunk strongly of fish and the sea, so it should be more difficult to find his scent in particular.

He watched the beast appear from the corner, sniffing and moving slowly. It was being more Cautious of the human this time. 

Oliver grabbed another pouch from his pockets and tossed it in an arc toward the beast. It sensed the object and it jerked backwards to dodge it. It had already been humiliated once by the human, and it wasn’t dumb enough to get hit by the same trick twice. It saw the small pouch strike the ground and explode with a puff.

It backed away from the dust cloud warily. It could already smell the terrible cloud and it could still feel the stinging pain on its snout and eyes. It managed to dodge the humans trick, and it’s prey was dead. 

Or so it thought before it was hit by another cloud of spices.

It let out hoarse barks and noises of pain as it started thrashing around in pain once again. Oliver ran out of the way of its rampage as fast as he could. 

One trick can be done over and over again, you just have to add some deception for it to work.

‘Always bring backups. Had to learn that the hard way.’ Oliver thought to himself. When he made those pouches of spices, he went further and made several. Only an idiot would put all their eggs in one basket after all. This was a lesson he learned when he lost several weeks worth of work and progress in one of his projects due to some circumstances. Though, you wouldn’t normally expect an arson in your workplace.

He crawled to the  fishermen’s stands and grabbed two knives. One was a meat cleaver and another was a very big filet knife. He positioned himself in front of the stand carrying the kraken. If he does this right, the beast would charge into the tall stand and break it, causing the kraken to collapse on it. 

Oliver struck the knives together as loudly as he could, making loud metal ringing noises. The struggling monster heard the noises and turned toward him, growling angrily.

“Come and get this, sh*t for breath! I’m sure you would love another dose of it huh?!” Oliver provoked the creature as loudly as he could. He then threw the gigantic meat cleaver at the monster as hard as he could.

The monster’s senses were incredibly dulled so it couldn’t dodge the knife, but Oliver froze slightly seeing the beast unfazed with a blade embedded in its face.

The beast charged at him as fast as it could. Oliver pushed his body away from the stand, even using his basically disabled legs to add even the slightest force, but the speed of the beast was out of his predictions as its claws scratched his chest and just narrowly missed his neck.

Oliver rolled across the ground in pain. His chest was now bleeding. The creature’s claws managed to dig in quite deep into the flesh, but he managed to tolerate the pain. This wasn’t the time to sit around as it was the most crucial moment.

The spice bomb still disoriented the monster as it kept going until it crashed into the stand, just as planned. Its strength and weight broke through the wood and the kraken fell on top of the monster. 

Suddenly, it came to life as its tentacles wrapped around the monster. A large flap opened on his bulbous head and it revealed a massive moist black eye the size of a basketball. It started constricting the beast, crushing it.

The beast wouldn’t just let that happen however. It struggled against the kraken and it managed to loosen itself enough to bite back!

Oliver planned to strike the beast when it was knocked down by the kraken, but he was shocked to see it still alive. He wondered why was it just sitting there, not moving at all. He was forced out of his thoughts by the two creatures. 

The battle of these colossi continued for several minutes. The wolf-bat hybrid monster thrashed around as it tried to remove the massive octopus-squid from itself, and the tentacle creature seemed hell-bent on hugging the monster as tightly as it could.

At first, the kraken looked like it had the advantage, but eventually the beast managed to pry it off. It was incredibly tired and injured, however, there wasn’t a moment of respite for it as the human it had been chasing suddenly went in for the kill!

*Shank!*

The fillet knife buried deeply into its heart, before its sharp edge slid downward and cut it in half. The beast howled in anger and threw Oliver off.

The young man flew and crashed into one of the crates. He could only groan in pain as fish fell all over him. The angered beast slowly crept toward him. Its sluggish steps betrayed the state of the beast. It was near death, but it seemed like it was determined to bring the human with it.

The beast trailed dark blood, and each step left a muddy, and bloody mark on the dirt covered floor. Oliver could no longer move. The adrenaline had worn off, and every single cell of his body was screaming in pain. He could only watch as the monster slowly moved towards its next, and probably final meal.

It had gotten close enough that he could feel the warm breath of the beast on his face. He gritted his teeth and mustered enough energy for one last strike.

He grabbed another spice pouch in his pocket and feebly tossed it at the beast. The monster didn’t even bother to dodge as it got hit. The powder rained down on the face of the beast and caused it to sneeze and grunt hoarsely, but it only paused momentarily before it continued moving toward Oliver.

Oliver watched as it came closer. He could only close his eyes as he awaited his fate.