Introduction

The chill made him twitch as he looked down at his hands. He was holding a sword that he didn't recognize. It resembled a Samurai Sword, only the blade was much thicker, with a handle built to hold with two hands. He stopped to admire the beauty of the blade; the tribal markings etched into the polished metal, the jewels encrusted in the quillon sticking out as a hand guard just above the handle. The sword looked very valuable, with all of the diamond cut stones, fine, smooth blade and significant weightlessness. As if he was testing that balance, he brought the sword up in front of him.

A fiery explosion in his forearms and loud scream of metal on metal told Alex that if he didn't raise his arms at just that moment, he'd likely be looking at his torso from the ground. Who was this attacker? Fear pumped hot breath from him. The misty darkness surrounding him revealed nothing, though he didn't realize how bad his visibility was because he had been focusing on the sword. In that split second of thought, he extended the sword out into a more defensive position.

He still couldn't see much past the tip of the sword in front of him, and he had no idea how to use this foreign weapon, so he called upon his strength. He spent many years training in martial arts and he mastered sensory adjustment. Like turning knobs on a radio dial, he lowered his vision perception and increased his hearing control and sense of touch and smell. Very similar to a person who is blind, it has been said that the other senses are honed to perfection to make up for the shortfall, and he had mastered the ability to control it. He could hear his predator breathing...wow, this thing sounded big! Recognizing the location of the sounds, he positioned himself for the next attack. He wondered how he would hold up in battle using a weapon that he held for the first time. This worried him.

He smelled the pungent odor of the enemy...its adrenaline...and Alex liked being downwind. As disgusting as the acrid aroma was, it helped him to determine the distance and location of his foe.

The breathing pattern changed, footsteps and "whoosh" like the swing of a heavy weapon carried him back to reality, and he was able to see again just in time to see the thick black axe cutting through the misty air, sideswiping him from his left. He crouched and thrust the sword into the swing, using every ounce of his muscle strength pushing back and to prevent getting launched and thrown to the floor. He locked the sword just under the curved blade of the great axe taking the beast by surprise. He looked at the size of the axe, and of the arm that was attached to it. The big, black tree trunk of a forearm locked into a solid grip on the weapon. Alex had to act fast. He needed to capitalize on this element of surprise, so he surmised an estimated size of his attacker. In one move, with both hands gripping the sword tightly, he fell backward, drawing his opponent into full view and out of the shadows just long enough so that Alex ccould follow his motion back with two horizontal leg thrusts to the midsection; a move designed to disarm larger opponents. It worked. Alex kicked the the black beast so hard that he heard the air expel from the creature like a blast, and the axe was pried free and flew across the room with a series of definitive clangs.

Alex had to readjust quickly, because the main flaw in the move was that it left the defender extremely prone to attack. If it didn't work, Alex would've been sprawled out on the floor like a Thanksgiving Day buffet for his enemy.

He threw himself effortlessly back to his feet in a second and took a breath. He was hit so sudden and so fast by the charging beast, he didn't have any time to react. The next thing that he knew, the creature was on top of him, crushing him with massive weight. His sword in his right hand was extended and pinned down. He took his first good look at his opponent.

The beast's head was about three times the size of a human's head, and the shape of it's snout-extended face resembled that of a wild bull. Two ramming horns crossed over the top of its black face. Its snout expelled the most horrid of breaths, literally like death. It's deep onyx eyes stared unemotionally at him.

The bull-beast did not try to speak, though it opened its mouth a few times as if about to, revealing a row of large and tremendously sharp teeth. The animal continued to glare at him as Alex tried to figure out how he was going to survive this. The bull's breathing changed again, into short little puffs of air, as if her were laughing silently at him. It shifted its weight to the left, crushing Alex's sword arm, but he tried his best to hide the agony. the beast lifted its right arm to reveal a claw with 4 inch talons extending from the end of each digit. Alex tried to rationalize how bulls have hooves and not claws as the cluster of nails came down hard and fast onto Alex's chest, ripping into him like jagged knives dulled from many cuts, and raked down to his lower abdomen, spilling intestine out both sides.

Alex shrilled uselessly.