Hangman vented all his power on the Krakelow’s spinal column, shattered one of the vertebrae, and his next strike severed the column, but the creature didn’t weaken at all.

  The men around him fought just as hard. Viking fought with two huge axes. He chopped the creature’s body into pieces in multiple spots, but each piece kept lashing just as much and trying to grab and restrain the men.

  The spinal column gave way. Hangman hacked through the rest of the body easily after that and pulled his arm free, but not without a dozen dart scales embedded in his flesh.

  He couldn’t pay attention to that. Yells and bellows echoed through the camp with all the men fighting this one creature. The noise attracted others. Their night sounds pulsed louder beyond the trees.

  They would wait until the Krakalow brought down one or more of the men. Then all the other creatures would move in and fight over the spoils.

  The rest of the Krakalow’s body functioned just as well as ever even after Hangman cut it in half. It stretched out, elongated itself, and the remaining section tried again to lash itself around him.

  He spun to his right and heard Cross yelling in the distance. Cross’s higher voice drifted over his uncles’ and cousins’ deeper bellows.

  Hangman took a second to locate his brother in the confusion. The process took even longer because the Krakalow’s coils almost completely enveloped Cross.

  Only his head, his right shoulder, and his right arm remained visible above a solid pillar of coils wrapped around him in a crushing grip.

  Cross didn’t stop fighting even then. He raised his axe a dozen times and brought it down again and again on the coils binding him. His own efforts stopped the Krakelow from killing him.

  Hangman wheeled in that direction to help his brother. Hangman didn’t even get a chance to move before the severed end of the body he just hacked in half elongated again, whip-cracked sideways, and knocked him flat onto his face.

  He flinched as more darts stuck into his back. The fall dazed him for a second. That was the moment when he felt the coils creeping up his legs. The Krakelow was trying to bind him again.

  He pushed himself up on his arms to turn around and free himself before it was too late.

  He pried himself off the ground—and stiffened when he heard a different noise. It approached the camp from out in the darkness on the opposite side of the circle from where the Krakalow attacked.

  All the men fought the Krakelow on this side of the camp. They all had their backs to the new threat.

  They all yelled and roared in fury fighting the creature. None of them even realized the danger they were in. Hangman was the only man here who could do anything to stop it.

  He forced himself to freeze and lie still even as the Krakelow’s coils inched higher up his legs. The coils surrounded his waist, but he still didn’t move.

  He stayed where he was facing the other side of the camp. His mind blocked out all his cousins’ yells and even Cross’s cries for help.

  Hangman’s hearing zeroed in on that sound and nothing else. He tracked it getting closer…..and closer……

  The coils surrounded his ribs, but he didn’t care. At that moment, a colossal force shattered the trees on the opposite side of the camp.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  A massive creature taller than the canopy broke through into the camp and looked down on all the helpless men fighting the Krakalow. None of the men could break free to defend themselves against this new attacker.

  Thick black fur covered the monster below the neck and left its black, scaly head bald. The creature’s tiny forelimbs barely stuck out of its massive chest.

  The fur stopped at the hip joint. Powerful, scaly muscular, backward-jointed legs ended at clawed feet digging into the ground.

  The creature cracked open enormous jaws studded with fangs. Hangman counted down the seconds before the Crusher actually entered the camp itself.

  The creature kept tilting its head from one side to the other. Its black eyes glittered in the firelight when it spotted its helpless prey.

  Hangman waited until the Crusher took one more step into the ring of firelight. He could see every detail of the creature now.

  He summoned all his strength, but he didn’t try to loosen the Krakelow coils. He pushed himself up on his knees, arched back, and hurled his kukri at the Crusher.

  The weapon embedded itself in the creature’s neck right next to the windpipe. The Crusher bellowed in fury, raised one of its giant legs, and clawed at the weapon.

  The Crusher sealed its own fate by knocking the kukri out of position. The kukri fell onto the ground and blood poured from the wound.

  The Crusher didn’t notice. It took one more fateful step closer to the men still locked in battle against the Krakelow.

  Chaos, Shadow, and Boxer noticed the Crusher first, but they couldn’t turn around to confront it. Only Viking managed to work himself far enough out of the battle to face the monster.

  The Crusher didn’t understand where its injury came from. It didn’t pay any attention to Hangman.

  The Krakelow’s coils wrapped the rest of the way up his chest. He had to strike a blow against the Crusher before the Krakelow restricted his arm movements.

  He reared back and threw his second kukri. It was his only remaining weapon. If this didn’t work, he was done.

  The weapon tumbled end over end through the air. He timed his throw for one of the Crusher’s head movements. It turned aside at exactly that moment and the kukri buried its point in the soft place at the corner of the creature’s jaw where it met the skull.

  The Crusher reared on its legs, gave one bellow of hopeless protest, and toppled with a ground-shaking crash. It lay there twitching and shivering. It didn’t get up again.

  Hangman watched just long enough to make sure he brought the thing down. None of that helped his cousins, uncles, and brother against the Krakalow.

  Hangman flipped himself onto his back. He had to work fast before the coils took his arms, too.

  He didn’t get a chance to do anything before Alien stormed over to him. Alien fought with two kukris, too, but his were three times the size of Hangman’s.

  Alien roared in fury and hacked his weapon down full force onto Hangman’s legs.

  The blade severed the coils, split Hangman’s legs apart, and the stone blade embedded in the soft soil underneath him.

  The coils fell away. Hangman didn’t wait around to thank his big cousin. He wrenched off the rest of the coils and scrambled to his feet before they could capture him again.

  Alien tossed Hangman one of his huge kukris. The weapon took all the strength in both of Hangman’s arms just to raise the thing.

  Alien dove back into the battle. Hangman charged over to Cross.

  The coils had brought him down completely and wrapped him up to his neck. They surrounded his right arm. He couldn’t fight at all anymore.

  Hangman swung Alien’s giant kukri and hacked down onto the coils with all his might. They cleaved under the blow and started to fall away.

  He had to keep hacking and hacking without stopping to free Cross. Countless dart wounds soaked him in blood, but the rest of the men suffered the same injuries, too.

  Hangman turned back to face the battle, but it was already swinging in the men’s favor. The men cut the Krakelow into so many pieces that the pieces couldn’t bind anyone anymore.

  They whipped, snaked, and danced on the ground trying to find something to latch onto. The men backed away and pulled each other to a safe distance so no one got caught again.

  “We have to retreat,” Shadow panted. “The blood will attract every nightcrawler in the area—and that’s not counting the ants.”

  “Pack up,” Butcher ordered. “Get ready to move.”

  The men were all too out of breath and injured to argue. Hangman could barely lift his arms when he handed Alien his kukri back.

  Hangman retrieved his own weapons from the Crusher. No one wanted to waste all that good meat, but his father was right. The blood would bring out every dangerous monster living in the jungle.

  The men only took a few minutes to hang their bags across their shoulders and wipe as much of the blood off their weapons as they could before they filed out of camp.

  Hangman made sure to bring the leaf paste he made for Cross. He and his companions would need that tonight.

  End of Chapter 5.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

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