The beast is defeated

Acting carefully so as to not provoke the beast, which was standing about six yards away from her, Riolta moved her hands up to the sides of her chest and pressed down hard on the buckles holding her dress up, thereby causing the thin garment to come sliding off of her.

This brought another growl from the beast, who seemed confused by the fact that Riolta had yet to begin screaming and pleading for her life, but instead stood there in her transparent stripper heels and with an emerald dangling between her enormous breasts.

No longer contemplating sexually gratifying the beast in the hope of her doing so would enable her to stay alive until backup arrived, Riolta suddenly clutched hold of a vase which stood right next to her, and threw it at the beast.

The vase, which was made from either gold or copper, ended up hitting the beast right in the face, but that only succeeded in making it angry.

No longer growling, but roaring in a way which would have woken the dead, the beast came lunging towards Riolta, who stepped out of its way with a grace which belied the towering heels of her shoes, with Riolta feeling one of the beast’s arms cut through the air right behind her back as she hurried out of its way.

Picking up a marble statuette as she dashed away from the beast, Riolta spun round and threw it at him, once more striking him in the head, without him reacting to it apart from flinching a little.

The beast made another charge, his roar drowning out all other noises and his frothy saliva cascading through the air as he swung his arm through the air, once again failing to hit Riolta, who had ducked out of his way and tried to strike him in the back with her fist.

Realizing that the beast was most likely impervious to ordinary damage, Riolta hoped that she would be able to retrieve one of the silver arrows which she had placed into her quiver, but the way to it was blocked by the beast coming round in front of her.

Riolta was incapable of keeping track of time as she dodged more of the beast’s attacks, no longer bothering with trying to hurt him as she tried in vain to get to her quiver. She had at that point begun to understand that even though the beast was both ridiculously agile and astonishingly strong, his claws cutting through wood and stone with little difficulty, he wasn’t very much of a fighter, but seemed to have problems coping with someone like her, who could predict and avoid his attacks.

Still, all it would take for the beast to win was one lucky blow, and Riolta was all too aware of that.

As it turned out, when the beast finally did manage to hit Riolta, more by chance than intent, he did so with the back of his hand, not cutting her open but sending her flying towards a bookcase.

Spinning around and feeling her left side ache from the **** of the punch which she had received, Riolta recognized that she had no further chance of escape and whispered a short prayer as she saw the beast come up to her, its face a mask of primeval rage as it prepared to finish her off.

But just as the beast was about to tear her apart, Riolta saw another vase hit its head, this one being a porcelain one which shattered into a multitude of shards against his head.

Throwing his weight around, the beast now faced Alexia, who had apparently left her hiding place in order to help Riolta, which was a nice thing of her to do, just not very intelligent.

Backing away from the snorting creature, which had forgotten all about Riolta for now, Alexia came up against one of the divans and toppled over it just as the beast took a swing at her, its claws cutting through the air where her head had been just a moment earlier.

Jumping up onto the divan, the beast bowed forwards towards Alexia, who couldn’t rely on any help from Riolta, who could barely move at all thanks to the way in which her side ached, and was just getting ready to deliver the killing strike when Redmond suddenly came charging at it, his face looking even more crazed than the beast’s as he threw his weight against it.

A normal man would have been knocked over by Redmond’s charge, but the beast stood firm in the face of it and struck Redmond over the chest, sending him flying into the wall behind him.

Normally, the blow would have reduced Redmond’s chest to a bloody mess of slashed meat and shattered bones, but the sub-captain was protected by the effects of the potion which he had consumed earlier, and so stunned the beast, as well as Riolta, but getting back up on his feat, looking more like he had received a good punch rather than a mortal blow.
What's more, Redmond hadn’t shown up alone, but Harold was coming in after him.

Seeming to realize that he wouldn’t be able to defeat his two new opponents, the lupine beast leaped from the divan and rushed towards the balcony, smashing through the glass doors leading out onto it and flying up onto its ledge.

Just as the creature jumped off the balcony, Harold caught up with it, the towering watchman clinging on to the beast as the two of them fell down towards the yard below.

Striking the cobbled ground together, the two adversaries got up on their feet and faced each other, with neither of them appearing to have taken much damage from the fifteen-foot drop from the balcony.

It required a special kind of courage to, when faced with a snarling, monstrous beast, kick it between the legs, and the fact that Harold was in possession of it came as very nasty surprise to the beast, whose eyes bulged outwards and its normally fierce roar took on an almost comical tone when it felt Harold’s boot make contact with his balls.

“You pussy!” Harold screamed out triumphantly, acting with all the courage of a man who was born for that sort of nasty, close-quarters brawling as he punched the beast right on its snout.

The kick in the balls might have been effective, but the punch wasn’t, and Harold soon found out what it felt like when the beast hit him, one of its massive hands hitting him squarely across the face.

Stumbling back away from the beast, Harold sounded more than a little pissed when he turned back round and charged it again, latching on to its back to keep it from fleeing.

Punching the beast in its kidneys didn’t seem to do much either, Harold found out, but at least it was no longer trying to escape.

“Redmond!” Riolta cried out, slowly making her way over to Alexia.

Redmond looked over at Riolta from where he was standing just inside of the balcony.

“My arrows, one of the silver ones might work on the beast!” Riolta told him, her ribs hurting with every breath she took.

“Is she alright?” Redmond asked of Alexia as he hurried over to Riolta’s quiver and pulled out an arrow, his voice betraying his worst fears.

Holding what he hoped was a silver arrow in his hand, Redmond looked over at Riolta, a weight being lifted from his heart when he saw her nod her head as she glanced down at Alexia, who was petrified but unhurt.

Hurrying out onto the balcony, Redmond threw himself towards the tree right next to it, grabbing hold of one of its branches and swinging through the air before letting go and landing on his feet.

The beast had now truly entered its frenzy, and was pummelling Harold with a lengthy series of savage blows as he protected his head with his arms, the potion enabling him to withstand the fierce power of the beast’s attacks.
Running at it from behind, Redmond jumped up onto the beast’s back, latching hold round its neck as he brought the arrow forwards with his free hand.

Feeling Redmond get hold of him, the beast let out a terrible roar which was cut short when the silver arrow was rammed into his throat, with Redmond using all the strength that he could possibly muster to drive the arrow forwards until its broke through the skin on the other side of the beast’s throat.

As Redmond let go off the beast, Harold stepped forward and punched it in the face again, sending it flying over onto its back.

The two watchmen would then stand and watch as the beast reverted back into a man, with neither man much enjoying the sight of the different states of horrific transformation.

Looking down at the dead man at their feet, Redmond and Harold knew that the beast was dead.

[Contains plot notes]