The wind blew at Dominic's face as the creature carried him higher.
Pain throbbed through his leg with every beat of its wings. Its beak was locked tight around his calf, crushing bone and flesh together. Warm blood soaked through his trousers, streaming downward and vanishing into the night air.
"AAARRGHHH!!! DAMNATION!" Dominic screamed again, the sound ripped from his throat.
He clawed at the creature's beak with shaking hands, fingers slipping against slick black ichor and his own blood.
It did not loosen its grip. The pressure only increased, sending waves of pain through his body.
He was going to die like this.
"No!"
The thought snapped something inside him.
Alaric vanished from his mind. The caravan vanished. Everything vanished except the pain, the cold air, and the brutal fact that if he did nothing, this was the end of him.
He must survive!
Dominic forced his breathing to steady, even as tears burned at the corners of his eyes. Panic tried to drown him again but he shoved it down with everything he had.
"Think!"
His hand brushed against his belt. The knife. It was just a small knife that was barely more than a utility blade he carried out of habit. Not a weapon meant for something like this.
But it was all he had.
Dominic fumbled for it with numb fingers that were slick with blood.
"KHIIEEEKH!"
The creature shrieked as he moved, its grip tightening, pain flaring so hard that Dominic's vision went white.
He nearly dropped the knife. But he screamed and held on.
The blade came free and he was able to hold it.
The creature's weak point was close. Feathers parted where its neck met its body, dark flesh visible beneath.
Dominic raised the knife with shaking hands and stabbed.
The blade sank in shallowly, not deep enough.
The creature screeched in fury, wings beating harder as it jerked violently in the air.
Dominic almost lost his grip on the knife.
He stabbed again. And again.
Each strike was clumsy, weak, driven by desperation rather than skill. Black ichor splashed across his hands and face.
The creature's shrieks grew sharper and angrier, but its grip did not release.
Dominic's arms burned. His vision blurred.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to keep going.
So he stabbed again, screaming through clenched teeth as pain and terror mixed into raw and desperate effort.
Eventually, the knife finally went in deeper.
Dominic felt it. The resistance gave way. He felt flesh tearing instead of sliding the blade aside.
He screamed as he drove the knife in with everything he had left, twisting it blindly at the base of the creature's neck.
The shriek that followed was different. Not fury, but pain.
The creature's wings flapped recklessly. Its beak grip kept loosening every second. Air lurched around them as its flight turned erratic, its body spasming violently.
"Yes," Dominic gasped through blood and tears. "Yes—"
The creature plunged.
The world flipped. Wind howled louder than his own scream as the ground rushed up to meet him.
The beak finally released his leg, and Dominic dropped.
He hit the ground hard.
The impact drove the air from his lungs in a brutal burst. Pain detonated through his body as he rolled across the dirt, his left arm twisting beneath him at a wrong angle. Something popped. White-hot agony shot up his shoulder and he screamed again.
He came to a stop on his back, choking, vision swimming.
His ribs screamed with every breath. He was sure that it must be broken. He could feel that much. It hurt to breathe, but he was still able to.
The creature slammed into the ground nearby with a thunderous crash, tearing up earth and splintering wood as it skidded across the dirt.
It shrieked again. Its wings beating unevenly as black ichor spilled from the wounds Dominic had carved into its neck.
Dominic lay there for half a heartbeat longer. Then the instinct screamed again.
He had to move. If he stayed down, he would die.
Dominic rolled onto his side and pushed himself up with his good arm. His left arm hung uselessly, dislocated.
He groaned and forced himself upright anyway.
His legs trembled. His injured calf screamed with every ounce of weight he put on it. But it was just one of his injuries.
He stood.
Across from him, the creature dragged itself upright. Its eyes locked onto him with renewed bloodlust.
Dominic bared his teeth and his face twisted into a snarl.
Dominic was not sure how he could fight in a condition like this. His body was wrecked at every angle. But giving up never crossed his mind.
His ether was still full. The realization steadied him. Ether was more than fuel for movement. It was world energy. If it could reinforce bodies and sharpen senses, then maybe, just maybe, he could use it to hold himself together long enough to survive.
He did not try to heal. That was beyond his ability. Instead, he focused his ether inward, bracing his body, dulling the worst of the pain, forcing his muscles to respond even as they protested.
And he still had his Signatures. Both of them. That mattered.
The creature lunged.
Dominic moved on instinct. He rolled hard to the side and vanished into the undergrowth beneath a cluster of bushes and low trees.
He uses "Cloak."
Ether wrapped around him, bending light and his presence. His body faded into nothing.
The creature slammed down where he had stood, shrieking in frustration.
Its head snapped left and right, eyes scanning wildly. It paced and searched for him.
Dominic lay perfectly still beneath the foliage.
Even when the creature stepped close and its shadow passed over him, it did not see him.
His eyes locked onto the knife buried in its neck.
Luckily, he already knew its weakness. If he had not learned it earlier, this fight would have ended differently. He might not even be alive.
The creature moved again, circling and searching. Each step brought its wounded neck closer to him. Black ichor dripped steadily, soaking into the soil.
Closer.
Closer.
Dominic gathered ether into his legs.
"Blitz."
The world snapped.
He launched upward in a violent blur, the power of "Cloak" dropping the instant he moved.
Dominic drove himself straight into the creature's exposed neck and slammed the knife in as hard as he could with his functional right hand, using his whole body and momentum behind the strike.
The blade sank deep.
The creature shrieked in shock and agony, a sound so sharp it cut through the night.
Its body convulsed. Its wings flailed as it crashed back down to the ground.
Dominic did not let go.
He landed on top of it, snarling, face twisted with pain and fury as he ripped the knife free and plunged it down again, and again, and again.
Black ichor sprayed across him as the creature thrashed violently beneath his weight.
Dominic screamed with every strike, pouring everything he had left into the motion.
The thrashing slowed then weakened, then stopped.
The creature shuddered and went still.
Dominic remained on top of his body for a moment longer, knife buried to the hilt in the creature's neck. His chest heaving and his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Then he slumped forward.
"I'll be damned…" a familiar voice could be heard through the haze of his mind. "You are actually alive, and manage to kill this creature."
—