Without hesitation .
A blur of dark gray fur and muscle shot past Shad's hanging body. Fray hit the crocodile's front leg with the brutal momentum of a falling boulder. The sheer impact cracked something deep inside. A sickening sound, like wet wood breaking under heavy pressure, echoed across the quiet valley.
At some point Shad joined in the fight
The crocodile roared. It wasn't the sound of a reptile; it was deeper, older, vibrating straight through Shad's chest and making his teeth ache.
It swung.
Shad instantly became a human weapon.
His body was sent through the air as the tail used him like a club, slamming his torso hard into Fray's side. Pain exploded through his ribs, and the tasted his blood more than he wanted to as it flooded his mouth. For a single terrifying second he saw the sky, the dark blue trees, and the strange field of purple flowers—then the ground came rushing up.
"Booom"
He hit the dirt hard, tumbling about twenty or so feet away.
"Ghk—"
The crocodile turned its full, angry attention to Fray now. Good. That meant it had let go of him at least for now.
Fray was already back on its feet. No hesitation. No fear. Only that this hatred towards the white monster was far too much of what Shad had seen or felt before at least compared to the hatered that he felt when he first fought Fray. This wasn't just a hunt; it was intensely personal so personal in fact that Shad could swear he was also feeling it even though he wasn't.
So that's why you didn't want to stop here, Shad thought bitterly, as he spat a mouthful of blood onto the grass.
He tried to move his left arm. Useless. The black stinger had punched clean through the elbow joint. If he didn't do something to stop the bleeding in the next few minutes, he'd either bleed out or get crushed underfoot.
His eyes darted frantically across the clearing, his observational skills working over time despite the white-hot pain.
The flowers. The sky-blue and purple blooms. They grew thickest to the east and west of the water source, but as Shad looked closely, he realized something odd. The crocodile hadn't stepped near them once. It kept its massive weight strictly on the bare dirt and stone close to the lake edge.
It avoids them.
"Fray!" Shad's voice came out hoarse and strained as he tried to shout out. "East! Drive it east!"
Fray's ear flicked but the oversized house cat-beast didn't look back.
The the crocodile lunged forward, its wide jaws snapping shut right where Fray's neck had been a second earlier. Fray was bit faster than it barely surviving the attack, circling continuously, while also forcing the giant monster to turn its heavy body. With every strike and retreat, Fray was herding it. Step by step. Closer to the flowers. Closer to the blue-leafed trees.
The temperature plummeted again. The crocodile's obsidian tail rose high, the light-absorbing stinger drinking in the midday sun.
Shad dragged himself upright against a tree trunk using his good right arm. He needed something. A weapon, a rock, a distraction. His eyes landed on a fallen, dark-blue fruit resting near the roots of the tree he'd been resting under earlier.
He grabbed it with his right hand. It was heavy, cold to the touch, and smelled faintly sweet—like frost mixed with iron.
The crocodile was almost at the edge of the flower patch. 'Five more steps' he thought .
Fray feinted left making the crocodile move hard to the right—stepping straight into the thick bed of blue and purple blooms.
The moment its heavy foot crushed the petals, the beast hissed. Not in real pain, but in deep annoyance. Like the contact burned or irritated its skin.
That was the opening Shad needed.
With his remaining good arm, he threw the cold fruit with everything he had.
SMACK!
It hit the crocodile dead center between its eagle eyes. The fruit burst on impact, showering cold, sharp-smelling juice down the monster's face and straight into its pupils.
It didn't blind the beast nor did it poison it either.
It just pissed it off instead.
The roar that burst from its throat shook the blue leaves loose from the surrounding trees. It wasn't a roar of rage, but pure irritation—like a giant swatting at a fly that irritates it.
Its tail lashed out blindly, catching an innocent tree close by. The heavy ironwood trunk snapped like a dry twig, sending a shower of foliage raining down.
"Shit!"
Shad rolled frantically, using his right arm to drag his dead weight behind the fallen trunk. He was bleeding faster now, the edges of his vision beginning to turn a dangerous, milky white.
Fray didn't give the crocodile the leisure of clearing its eyes.
It hit the monster like a dark tempest.
Claws raked violently across the white scales near its neck. Fray's fangs found the soft joint where the neck met the shoulder and pulled. Dark gray fur and white scales tore together in a chaotic mess of blood.
The crocodile twisted, using its sheer weight to throw Fray off. It slammed heavily onto the ground, rolling its body to crush the oversized cat-beast beneath it.
But Fray was already moving. It moved constantly, circling back around, driving the crocodile even deeper into the flower field.
With every step the crocodile took on the crushed blooms, its massive feet slipped. Not by much, but just enough to throw off its balance. As the petals were crushed under its weight, they released a faint, sweet, freezing scent.
The crocodile clearly hated it. Shad could see its nostrils flaring in disgust. It kept awkwardly lifting its feet, acting as if the ground itself was filthy.
That's it, Shad realized through the fog of blood loss creeping into his mind. It's not just the fruit. It's the flowers. The texture, the scent... something about them throws and irritates it.
He coughed again , blood staining his lips.
At that instant Fray took a heavy strike to its ribs from the crocodile's flank, but didn't even flinch as if nothing happened . It was willingly trading damage for positional advantage, herding the traitorous beast exactly where they needed it—away from its safe water, onto dry ground slick with crushed flowers.
The crocodile soon realized the trap but it was a second too late.
It thrusted its massive body, trying to turn back toward the lake. Toward its home ground.
Fray slammed straight into its back legs, sending the massive white creature stumbling heavily.
For a single second, the white crocodile was completely off-balance. Exposed. Standing on slippery petals and dirt, its back turned entirely to the tree line.
That was Shad's moment to act.
With shaking hands, he reached out and grabbed two jagged stones from the dirt. He couldn't throw them with any real force now. But he didn't need to deal damage.
He just needed to make noise.
Using every bit of energy left in his body, he slammed the stones together.
CLACK! CLACK!
The crocodile's head snapped toward the sound. Those pale eagle eyes, still wet with blue fruit juice, locked onto Shad once more. Clearly it has now taken full notice on the annoying little thing
And it charged straight through the flower field.
Fray was already waiting.
The two massive creatures collided with a sound like two mountains well not exactly real mountains but with enough force to shake the ground a little as they collapse into each other.
Dust, torn petals, and dark blood erupted into the air.
Shad's fingers loosened, dropping the rocks into the dirt. His vision tunneled rapidly, darkness closing in from the edges.
The last thing his fading sight caught was Fray's jaws clamped deep into the crocodile's throat... and the white, scorpion tail, still twitching uselessly, trapped tight in a thicket of crushed blue flowers.
Then, the cold darkness took him completely.