Pain dragged him back from passing out due to intense stress and pain .
Shad Darc's eyes snapped open to the sickening sound of tearing flesh and a low roar that vibrated straight through his bones.
"Damn it all" he curse out his situation
He was still on the ground, lying in the crushed dirt. Still bleeding heavily from his shattered elbow. His vision swam with white spots, but what he saw instantly cleared his mind.
Fray was losing. And with that he. Knew he had to do something if Fray lost then it is a sure guarantee of his own death. And so he need to come up with something real quick
The white crocodile had Fray pinned to the earth. One massive, chalky foot pressed down on the oversized cat-beast's chest, its wide jaws snapped shut dangerously close to Fray's throat. Fray kicked frantically, its claws scrabbing against the pale scales, but it couldn't get proper leverage on the slippery, petal-covered ground. Which was enough to keep it alive even if it is for a few seconds.
Because at this moment Fray strongly believe that Shad would somehow save it, it doesn't know how but it belive it to be so.
The thrown fruit had only pissed it off. The rocks had done nothing. Shad was out of tools, out of weapons, and out of strength.
All this he thought as he was thinking of what to do next.
He had nothing left. Except his mind and his mind at this moment is his greatest tool.
Shad's eyes darted frantically across the chaos. The lake. The calm water. The crushed blue-purple flowers. The snapped tree trunk. He looked at them all.
And then he saw it—the crocodile's tail. A sharp, light-absorbing obsidian fragment had snapped off during the brutal collision, lying twitching in the flower thicket ten feet away.
A reckless, stupid, and completely desperate idea formed instantly in his head.
And there was no time to consider whether it will work or not all he to do was try it as a final result.
"FRAY! ROLL!" Shad screamed with every last shred of breath in his lungs.
Fray heard him. Driven by the pure trust it suddenly developed for Shad, it gathered its remaining energy and twisted its lower body violently. The crocodile's massive jaws snapped shut on thin air instead of throat.
In that split second of distraction, Shad moved.
Using his one good right arm, he lunged forward, crawling through the dirt and dragging his ruined body toward the severed obsidian tail. His hand clamped around the black glass-like tip.
It was far heavier than he expected, and impossibly cold—colder than ice, so dark that the ambient light around it seemed to warp.
He couldn't throw it. He couldn't swing it.
So he ran. Or rather, he dragged his blood-soaked body straight toward the edge of the lake.
The crocodile saw him. It immediately abandoned Fray, turned its eagle eyes on Shad, and charged. Water was its home territory, and moving in a straight line across the dirt, it was terrifyingly fast for it size.
"Get away you bastard creature" Shad growled, reaching the water's edge and plunging the obsidian tail deep into the lake.
The second the obsidian touched the pristine water, the lake reacted.
It didn't ripple normally. It boiled without heat, sending a high-pitched sound like cracking glass vibrating across the surface. Black, ink-like veins spread rapidly out from the tail, fracturing the reflection of the sky. The water hissed violently—not from heat, but from a deep, unnatural wrongness.
A wrongness Shad had no right to know about but he did not care about such things at this critical time of life or death situation.
Almost immediately the crocodile skidded to a dead halt right at the bank.
It thrashed its head, hissing in sheer aversion as it stared at its own reflection in the corrupted water. It backed away from its own lake as if the water itself were on fire.
It locked its pale, avian eyes on Shad. Then at the broken piece of its tail in his hand. Then at Fray, who was bleeding heavily but pushing itself back up to its feet.
A sound came out of the crocodile's throat—not a roar, but a sharp click, like heavy bones grinding together.
It was severely hurt and angry.
Shad could see it clearly now through his hazy vision. Deep claw marks dragged down the side of its neck where Fray's fangs had sunk in. One of its back legs dragged awkwardly, dark blood staining the chalky white scales. The sticky blue fruit juice was still smeared across its face, forcing it to squint in discomfort.
It was furious, and it was losing blood fast. But it wasn't dead.
With one last hateful, menacingly glance, the monster turned away and left . Its massive white body disappeared into the dark-blue trees, moving surprisingly fast despite the heavy limp. Each step it took left a trail of white scales and dark blood smeared across the flowers.
And just like that It was gone. This greatly confused Shad as he expect one last attack from the white monster but instead it choose to leave just like that.
No amount of reason Shad Darc could think of that could possibly explain why it suddenly left. Well it is not like he cares as what now the most is that he manage to somehow survive.
The valley went dead silent. The suffocating pressure in the air dissipated into the breeze.
Shad's right hand loosened, and he dropped the heavy obsidian tail. His body gave out entirely, and he collapsed back onto the cold dirt. As he pants heavily.
"Fray..." Shad gasped out, his chest heaving.
Fray was already limping toward him. The oversized cat like -beast collapsed right beside him with a heavy thud, its chest rising and falling rapidly. Both of them lay there trembling not from fear, but from the brutal crash of adrenaline leaving their systems. It wasn't easy but they survived.
Shad let out a weak, breathy laugh. It hurt his broken ribs, but he couldn't stop it. "We scared off an elephant-sized demon croc... with a rock and a fruit isn't that hilarious." he said feeling a bit scarstic.
Fray huffed softly through its nose. It sounded distinctly like barely.
Shad turned his head toward the lake. The black veins were already fading from the surface, the dark corruption dispersing until the water went back to being calm, clear, and pristine—as if it hadn't just rejected its own apex predator.
Like it was hiding what it had just done.
Shad looked over at the treeline where the beast had vanished into the woods. The blood trail, the broken scales, and the lingering threat were still fresh.
"It's not dead," Shad muttered, his voice raspy. "It'll remember us."
Fray growled low in its throat. Not at Shad, but toward the trees.
Good, Shad thought, closing his eyes for a brief moment to fight off the dizziness trying to take over him. Let it remember.
He was severely injured, completely unarmed, and had just made an enemy out of a monster twice his size. But against all odds, he was still breathing. And for the first time in this nightmare forest, he felt truly alive
He reached out with his right hand and picked the obsidian tail fragment back up. It was still freezing cold, still drinking in the light around it.
His first real tool or maybe the best so far considering the horns and fang which were destroyed during his battle with fray.
Shad leaned his back against Fray's warm, fur-covered side, breathing in the cold air filled with the sweet, sharp scent of crushed blue flowers. The dark-blue leaves above them swayed gently in the wind.
"Alright," Shad said quietly, looking down at his blood-stained hands and ruined elbow. "First, we wash up. Then we eat those fruits. And then... we figure out how to make sure that thing doesn't come back."
Fray slowly closed its eyes, letting out a soft sigh of agreement.
Afterwards Shad feel into a deep sleep.
The valley was theirs. At least for now.