A near death experience

 His revolver's silver finish glistening in the moonlight as it was hit through the canopy cover of the forest. Zain's heart was beating like crazy as the wolf-like monster snarled at him seeming to be grinning. He had to still his mind, but his body was another story, it was as if it had been taken over by fear. Although he knew this was a do or die situation his body apparently thought both would end in death.

 As the creature bolted towards Zain he steadied his hand, rolled out of the way at the last second and then shot at it. It hit the monster right in the shoulder blade area, angrily this beast snarled at him and then bolted towards him again. This time the beast was moving its limbs faster compensating for the damaged shoulder and as it came up, Zain decided to try to move out of the way again but as he did, the monster hit him with the back side of its paw sending him flying backwards through the air. He managed to fire off an additional shot as the monster spun around and hit it in one of its hind quarters approximately where the joint would be. He hit a tree back first then his head slammed into it. His vision started narrowing as he saw the beast approaching. So, this is it huh? He thought to himself as his vision was about halfway to a point, he pulled up his gun and shot one bullet he had crafted with some specific alchemical compounds.

 The bullet was comprised of the normal black powder charge for firing. The difference was that it had some flammable aspects to it and the slug itself was packed with black powder and then coated in acid. This was normally done for aesthetics with his smithing work, but he wanted this bullet to look different.

Zain's vision now at about a quarter open still saw which bullet was fired and could feel his motor skills too sluggish to reload as that would have been his last bullet in his three-chamber revolver. As he noticed this, something marvelous happened. The monster was struck in the face and the bullet slug exploded bringing Zain to his full senses once again.

 With his vision and movements restored, Zain quickly moved from where he was as the beast ran headfirst into the tree shaking the whole thing viciously. The beast seeming dazed, Zain to the time to load three bullets into the revolver and shoot into the other hind quarter. The monster spun around revealing its face where the bullet had exposed the skin. There were metal shards that had been lodged into the face and the skin was turning a caustic green color.

 With a snarl, the monster went to lunge at Zain and fell to the ground. Feeling quite confident at this point, Zain approached it and pulled his gun at arms-length, took aim, and fired a bullet straight into its head. The monster fell limp and Zain unintentionally let out a sigh of relief.

 It was over and he was relieved, but he was exhausted. As he looked around, he saw the once peaceful meadow in the forest had turned into a blood-soaked battlefield and he was the only survivor. He took a small break and a well-deserved drink from his water skin. 

 Once the fatigue faded from the adrenaline rush, he just had, he stood himself up and proceeded over to the big beast. He then looked back in the direction they had come from. He backtracked and got the supplies he had gathered before making it back to the now dead wolf-like monster.

 Zain thought for a moment before he draped it over his shoulders, which with his sturdy build and young body he had no problem doing and started making his way back to town. 

 Once he made it back to town, he went straight to the adventurers guild and showed them the monster and explained what had happened. The receptionist smiled and then spoke, "Upon further investigation and verification of your statement we will see where it goes. This monster is a rare sight though usually a level five or higher boss in most dungeons. But we have no records of a dungeon around that area and with this much I can rank you up to C rank but that will be all I can do until the rest is completed."

 Zain smiled and accepted this offer and then retired to his shop and applied acid to a few daggers he had recently crafted. Huh, C rank not bad Zain, not bad at all seeing as you can't use magic.