5

Sometime the dumb choice could be the one to save your life. The energy left my hand. Flowing into the bow easily. The bow started to glow, and then when it reached it's breaking point the material that made up the curve of the bow started to crack. I forced every ounce of mana I had left into that bow, and simply threw it into the crevasse where the ghouls were coming from. 

Now that I knew what was making the ghouls I knew where to strike. It was time for daddy dearest to die. I felt the absence of mana in my body way more acutely then I though I would. It hit me like a wave of exhaustion. I say like because it wasn't the same physical exhaustion that I had become thoroughly familiar with over the years. The resulting explosion cracked the ground, and made it tremble slightly. 

I'd only thrown about thirty mana into that bow. I was amazed at the power something so simple could unleash. I wondered briefly what would happen if you put hundreds of points of mana into something. If ten mana was equivalent of a giant firecracker, and thirty was a stick of dynamite then the world was going to change in more ways than I originally thought. The explosion wasn't loud, but the shockwave alone was enough to make my ears ring. 

It hurt. I was kind of surprised how much. It made no difference. I was done. I was completely spent. 

I was surprised I was still standing. I flinched as I collapsed. That horrible wail filling my ears once again. I had failed to kill it. I had done so much, and it still wasn't enough. 

I fell to my knees. I was no longer able to support my weight. Out of all the people here no one had expected me to just stop. I looked around me cautiously. No one had noticed I was down. 

Why would they? I'd been forcing myself to keep going long past what my body could handle for some time now. I didn't look like someone who was about to collapse. I was good at holding together when my body felt as if it were falling apart. I could feel my vitality stat working away at healing my cut fingers. 

One percent of my health an hour wasn't very much, but it was still something. I watched the others hurl attacks down into the abyss for some time before another much louder wail went out. Shaking the very air around us. Then the beast reached it's horrid arm out of the crevasse. Slamming it's massive hand into the ground not to far from where I was now, and lifting itself up onto level ground with us. 

I felt a myriad of emotions in the moment. Fear, self loathing, anger, and self pity among them. Even a few I couldn't name. I was about to die, and the thing I felt the most wasn't anger or sadness. It was complete, and total acceptance. 

I'd done all that I could, and it wasn't enough. My entire life had played out similar to this moment. I'd never been able to accept that I might not be able to work hard enough to get what I wanted eventually. Sometimes people simply didn't get what they wanted no matter how hard they worked for it. Another funny thought struck me in that moment. 

Maybe my life wasn't as bad as I'd thought it was. Sure my mom had spent most of my childhood completely tearing me down, but through it all she still did love me. I was certain of that now. I still wasn't willing to talk to her, but at least I knew that I wasn't as worthless as she'd made me feel. The beast stepped onto the ground with it's twisted mouth covered feet, and many of it's eyes looked right at me. 

I could feel my muscles twitching as they sluggishly responded to my will to live. Yes. I realized with my teeth gritted. I did want to live after all. It reached for me, and I moved. 

Jumping as far as I could in that moment. My sluggish muscles somehow managing to propel me just outside of the creature's reach. It's hand slamming into where I'd been a moment before. It was noticeably thinner then it had been before. This thing was on it's last legs. 

We only needed one more push. I grabbed for a rock about the size of my head as I forced myself to my feet as fast as I could manage about the time the creatures massive hand closed around my midsection. I was fucked, but I didn't care. I raised that rock up above my head as far as I could. Feeling teeth digging into my flesh as I did. 

Glad the adrenaline of the moment stopped me from feeling the pain. Then down came the rock. The next thing I knew I was falling. I knew that such a small wound wouldn't be enough for that thing to let go of me so how? I was snatched out of the air roughly like a damsel in distress, and yanked through space in such a quick motion that my senses failed to grasp what exactly had happened. 

It felt as if I was being slammed around in a fair ride's safety restraints. At least I didn't feel like anything was broken. I looked up in sort of a daze when I realized I was in a princess hold only to see the grizzled face of a man in armor. He looked tired. Maybe even a little irritated. 

He noticed I was looking up at him, and gave me a tired smile. Maybe it was supposed to be charming. I was just irritated. This asshole just grabbed me up, and slammed me around like cheap sack of laundry before setting me down in a way that was supposed to be sweet. He probably thought I'd be swooning after being rescued, but from the way the beast looked now he'd taken a little extra time to catch me after he sliced it's arm off.