Circle of Death

Circle of Death

The water ripples gently around my waist as I wade through the swamp.
I can see my target ahead. The blue wobbly flesh of the Wooper with its back turned to me.
My fist tightens on the stick in my hand. The cool mud dries on my face. I am invisible. I am a killer. I will slay every single beast in the swamp if I have to.
The head of the Wooper bobs above the water as it scans the bushes ahead. Stop, letting the water ripples die well before they reach it.
I move closer.
It does not turn.
I aim the deadly sharp end of the stick forwards.
I lunge.
The beast turns around at the last moment. Instead of piercing the back of the creature’s head, the stick smashes through its eye.
That thick black slime pulses out of the gaping hole in its face, pouring out of its skull, merging with the dark water below.
It opens its mouth to scream its last but this time I’m ready. I shove my fist down its throat and its final cry dies against my wet, muddy knuckles.
It falls back into the water and bobs to the surface. I yank the stick out of its eye socket and push the corpse underneath a tree that hangs over the water. Satisfied that nobody will accidentally find the body of the beast, I move on.

I move closer to the centre of the waterlogged maze, drawing ever nearer to the frail, fallen figure of Dawn as she lies upon an embankment, a trickle of blood still seeping from her head wound.
Something shakes the bushes nearby. I stop, ducking as low into the mud as I dare without submerging completely.
The thick brown hide of a Kangaskhan rumbles past me again, the infant still sleeping in its mother’s pouch. It scans the surrounding foliage, determined to find the cause of trouble, unaware that a mud-splattered face just two feet away is what has been murdering its fellow beasts.
The rumbling footsteps of the beast churn the water as it moves on, getting further away. I wait until I can no longer see the ripples before I move again.
I head to a clump of branches that hang over the dark and murky water.
I part the branches-
I fall backwards, losing my footing, my head slipping under the water, the stick falling from my hand, my face on fire and my senses screaming.
A hand pushes down on my head, forcing me deeper into the black depths.
I regain my footing, get a firm hold on the floor beneath and push back up.
The Croagunk lets go of my head as I surface and ducks around my wild punch. Its yellow eyes are burning with a fiery hate as the red poison sacs on its cheek begin to swell. It adopts a fighting stance, bringing its hard fists up, reminding my rapidly swelling face how hard this bastard hits.
It spits a glob of black gunk out at me. I manage to step to one side to avoid it. I hear it sizzle slightly as it hits the water, but by then I’ve stepped too far and I’m reeling again, clutching at my broken nose, blood flowing down me and I’m wondering how much more fucking blood I can lose before I just fall down and stop moving.
It moves in again, aiming another blow for my face and this time I’m there, shoving this fist to one side but I’m exposed and another two cracks to my side and my insides are screaming out to just stop all this, just stop all the fighting but I can’t and it lunges in again, spitting poisonous gunk and swinging its fist in expertly thrown punches and if I don’t get hit then I’ll be blinded by all the horrible crap it’s shooting at me and it hits me again and this time I go down-
Down into the darkness of the water-
Unable to see-
To breath-
Live-
Its foot comes down on my chest, holding me under the water.
It pins me there.
I feel all its weight crushing me, keeping me held to the floor and I know it’s got me beat. I can’t take it, not in a fair fight.
A fair fight.
I spin around, managing to slip out from under its foot and I grab the foot and I dive into it with all the breath I have left in me and I feel the leg give and the body above it tumble.
I break the surface and take a deep breath, oxygen filling my lungs, filling my being and the creature before me is in pain and it’s growling and it’s lunging for me and I let it get as close as it needs and when it’s close enough I grab it and I take a deep breath and I go under the water, pulling it with me and I know that it doesn’t have lungs as big as mine and this time I’m going to come out on top.
I can feel its poison seeping through the water as it releases everything its got left to try and hurt me but the water takes most of it away, save for a little that merely heats up my skin.
I hold it there under the water. I focus on holding my breath. I begin to count in my head. I wait.

I wade through the mud again, my breath ragged in my chest, my head spinning. I can see Dawn ahead of me. She looks so peaceful, like she’s sleeping. I move slowly towards her, the world beginning to blur and spin before my eyes. I place my hands on the bank and start hauling my broken body up-
A icicle of pain sears through my hand-
The tail of the Skorupi raises again for another strike-
I roll out of the way, onto the bank-
The deadly scorpion-like Pokémon snaps its pincers and strikes a battle pose before me, getting its body between myself and Dawn.
I can feel my arm going numb.
I’ve been poisoned.

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