Heroes to Hunted

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Unfortunately, as I expected, we failed to gain enough speed to evade the predator's charge.

I watched helplessly as our friendly neighborhood grizzly recklessly collided with our carriage's protective magic barrier.

'Maybe it'll hold out,' thought my last shred of optimism. 'Maybe we're due for a bit of good fortune...'

Upon getting smashed into, the barrier emitted a high-pitched whine as it valiantly attempted to repel the attack. Sadly, the force of the grizzly bear was too great.

'Nope, I figured as much.'

With a thunderous shockwave, the magical barrier shattered into a symphony of sound akin to a chorus of breaking glass and explosive energy. The sounds reverberated through the forest, drowning out any other sound within.

In that moment, time seemed to stand still, allowing my fear to swell with each passing second.

The carriage jolted forward with immense force, launching into the air and tilting at an increasingly steep angle. The wheels lost grip as the left side lifted skyward, and the horses buckled under the weight.

In a sudden, violent motion, the carriage squealed and flipped onto its side, pulling the leftmost horse down with it. Though the creature shrieked nonstop, a distinct snap could be heard and following it was an eerie silence.

Meanwhile, the passengers inside the carriage were screaming bloody murder at the force.

'Oh, shut up,' I growled to myself.

They were screaming, yet they were the lucky ones; it looked like they'd be protected by the barrier's usual aura. While in the air, I caught a glimpse of its bluish tint lining the window. Pressing onto it was a terrified Agawa. She looked at me with eyes widened to capacity in panic and a gaping mouth.

'Yeah, I'm talking to you,' I snarked in my mind. 'Be grateful you aren't flying through the air like I am.'

While tumbling and twirling, I turned my head to see the lemming. He was in the same boat as me, left to gravity's mercy as we rag-dolled. At about the same time, we eventually crashed onto the unforgiving earth below.

My body repeatedly collided with the rough terrain, my skin tearing with each impact. The only reason I came to a stop was because of a sturdy pine tree blocking my path.

I slammed into it, back first, knocking the wind out of me. As I lay there, dazed and injured, I couldn't help but feel grateful that my spine wasn't shattered.

Gasping for air, I tried to speak. I tried to shout at the ones still in the carriage. "hu... e... hu..." but I couldn't. I couldn't even manage a syllable. Talking, grunting, and even breathing seemed impossible.

Each breath of air felt like it suffocated me further. However, through sheer force of will, I shakily lifted my head from the mud and took stock of the wreckage around me.

I struggled to make out any details since the darkness of unconsciousness pressed in from all sides. Even the parts that weren't shrouded in black were blurred and unfocused.

As the weight of the day pressed down on me, I found myself wishing for the sweet release of unconsciousness. But then, the thoughts that had occupied my mind before the impact resurfaced. 'I can't die, not here, not like this.'

There's no way I survived everything I had just to become a meal for some furry monster.

"Le-Lemming! You… You alive?!" I glanced in his direction to see his unresponsive and unmoving body, with his face firmly planted into the mud.

'Did he bite it?' I couldn't tell; my vision was too unreliable. Looking past him, I saw our upturned carriage. Next to it was our assailant, a beast that gloated in victory as it explored the crash site.

It stepped over the left horse, which had already perished. Its neck was bent irregularly forward, with a bone jutting out in a gross display of blood and muscle in the back.

Despite its desperate cries for help and fierce struggles against its restraints, the other horse was equally fated. The very ropes that once propelled it forward now held it captive, rendering it immobile. The mare could only look on and shriek in terror while knowingly living its last moments.

Once upon the horse, the grizzly rose on its hind legs, towering higher than the carriage. The beast cleaved its claws down, delivering a swift and lethal blow to the horse, rending its flesh into pieces.

The horse's skin ruptured like butter, and a burst of crimson fluid showered the air in a mist. After being struck by the jets of blood, the bear's deep brown fur became slick and dyed with a red hue.

Upon reducing its prey to mere hunks of flesh, the bear lowered its head and filled the forest with the wet smacking of its lips. It ate ravenously, practically inhaling the meat it tore out.

From cracked bone to ripped muscle, the beast gorged on everything it could bite and claw out from the horse's chest cavity.

Turns out, the beast was a picky eater and recklessly discarded the pieces it hadn't wanted, from variously shaped pinkish-red organs to the elongated lower intestines to even a strange and pulsating violet heart. It threw all of it away in disgust and in various directions. One of which was mine.

'Oh great,' I closed my eyes, expecting the flesh to land atop me. 'That'd add to my streak of luck...'

However, it didn't.

After a wet splat, the torn remnants of an animal's bright innards piled up before me. Though I'd seen plenty of gore at the mansion, I never knew how much a creature's insides could glisten with just a few rays of sunlight.

'So that's what insides look like up close,' I gazed nonchalantly at the mound of flesh. I guess I was too desensitized to gore at this point, or maybe I was just too tired to react. Either way, I luckily didn't feel the urge for nausea.

Seeing the beast so preoccupied with its meal, I thought I had a chance. I thought it would be too busy with its meal to notice me. That would've held true if it weren't for the loud knock of the carriage door opening. Because of that, the beast pulled itself from the meal ahead of it.

"Idiots!!!" I rasped beneath my breath.

Once the beast lifted its head, it revealed a blood and gut-marinated snout and loudly snorted while searching for the noise's source. It locked eyes with me, paralyzing me with fear. My legs, arms, everything; it was all too petrified to shake, let alone move.

A terrifying thought entered my mind. 'Am I next?'