Soon the sound of crushing rocks stilled as the beast lunged at hope. Its fangs were bared open as its scythe was flung at her, fully prepared to be stained with pure crimson.
Hope felt the instinctive gut feeling again as she helplessly stood there, leaning on her makeshift blade.
However, under the surface of her appearance she was analyzing every movement of its stained limbs with a surgeons focus.
'Every swing depends on a specific hind leg and he can't swing both at the same time. But he's purposely making it unpredictable!?'
As the cleavers flew towards her torso, eventually closing the distance and barely grazing her clothing, Hope made the only possible move she could and fell backwards on her butt, resulting in an accidental looking dodge as the lethal edge of the beast only skimmed the far edge of her nose.
Although the pain would cause most to cry out or flinch she remained cool and composed, actively deciding her next move.
Just before she fell straight on her head, her body spun in a perfect circle and landed with minimal damage.
'Wait my shoulder doesn't hurt anymore!?'
Before she could celebrate, she had to get out of the abomination's range. Dashing straight at the shoulder that had carried the scythe towards her, she jumped onto the beasts chromelike limb and used it as leverage to propel herself at the only opening on the beasts body. Soon she reached its surface and spun around, violently ravaging its flesh like a cutter.
"Ah! Damn that hurts!"
She growled as her legs failed to find proper ground to land on, for the beast had left nothing but broken earth and dust in its charge.
Sparing no time she decided that another risky move was the choice and dove between its legs yet again, aiming to confuses the creature. Fortunately, it seemed that luck had finally decided to favor her, as the beast was panicking, trying to find her location frantically.
'It's going to guard it's damaged arm I hope.'
She bolted to the right arm, expecting some hindrance or variable to interrupt her. However, there were none. Instead the beast had turned left ever so slightly and offered Hope the perfect chance to slice into yet another limb. Wasting no time she jumped, narrowly missing the underbelly of the beast and delivered a vicious downward slash.
'Why… why does my sword feel sharper, why is it glowing?!'
The blade dug into the skin and unexpectedly cleaved it, separating it from the rest of its body.
'How the…What!?"'
Using the momentum from her leap she ran straight, aiming to gain some distance.
The beast bellowed, sending showckwaves around it, further cracking the earth. However, Hope was not in its range, but several meters ahead looking into the beasts eyes.
"Can't get a damn break can I?!"
Promptly after the roar ended and the beast noticed its prey staring it down, it slowly realized that it had swapped roles with the very thing it was hunting, now glaring at it with pure malice. Normally, such a look would do nothing but anger it further, but the killing intent behind those eyes was felt physically and deep within, the beast's instinct were on full panic, telling it flee.
The beast shivered, maybe for the first time in its life, and took a timid step back, hoping to turn around into a full throttle in a few moments.
"Stop."
A simple word, yet the weight of those words crashed into the beast, freezing its leg and preventing any movement backwards. The abomination wailed in panic, fully confused by its own body.