Duel 3

-------FINALLY!!!!---------

The storm was reaching its peak now. From far above the clouds crackled and trembled and split with ferocious intensity, bellows so loud it seemed the sky was falling apart. The rain had become a monsoon, hurling down without cease, drowning every rock, every plant, every blot of mud. With its usual forlorn howl the wind had begun to join in, changing the downpour as it pleased


Yet none of that appeared to bother Grendel, or the pack of strangers that now stood in his path. No matter how awful the weather revealed itself neither side would budge, dark shapes ready for the attack. The water would drum on their hoods and their heads and their tails, and drip down in patterns strange and cold, and still they wouldn’t care. Or perhaps Grendel just wasn’t paying attention anymore.

They couldn’t be serious, couldn’t they?

“Outlaw…..” He finally said, a cloud of vapour exploding from his maw as he spoke “All you twerps really like giving me that name. And I don’t like it either, it just sounds dumb.”

There were a few muffled laughs, and the look of annoyance in his face became all the more obvious. He looked again at the younger squamataur “More importantly. Who the hell are YOU?”

The rival lizard-blood showed a wide toothy grin, as if he had been waiting for Grendel to make that question. With surprising energy he stood on his rear legs and began waving his arms, sloshing water with every motion. “Lo and behold! Before you this day, the great Enkedu! The famous Jungle Razor, the Slicin’ Whirlwind! Ass-kicker extraordinaire!!” He swung his great spear in the air, an all too obvious show off, before plunging it on the mud as he lowered down again “And gotta say, it is reeeeeeally an honour to meet you at last, Outlaw…”

Grendel crossed his arms, increasingly ticked off. “Stop calling me that. What do you want from me?”

“Hahah, you’re a blunt one ain’tcha?” Enkedu added with a mocking tone, pushing back the wet hair before his eyes. He started to pace around, splashing the drowned terrain as he went “Ya see, Grendel….I like fightin’. I reeeeeeally like fightin’. Y’know how this world plays. I knoooow you do! Everything aaaaaaaaalways tries to KILL you! But ya see, ya see…I was born a naaaatural survivor! I took charge of my destiny! I pushed to the limits! Smashed eeeeeevery danger in my life!” Once again he had started to swing his spear, but this time there was an ever growing excitement in him “And ya know what else I found out? That what I like, what I reeeeeeallly reeeeallly like, is being STRONG! Breaking the proud and mighty that challenge me! Showing the weaklings wheeeere it’s at! It’s eeeeeeeexhilarating!! You can understand that, right?”

A loud snort, far from what one would consider amazement. This time Enkedu didn’t pay mind to it

“So I went a liiiiittle beyond that. I travelled far and wide, from this corner to the next! And wherever I went, I conquered! The beasts ran away with their tails between their legs! The tough guys and knuckleheads bleeeeeeed before me! The smart ‘uns follow me! ‘Cause I’m the boss ya see! I’m at the top of the wooooooorld!”

With those words he raised his spear high in the air, and the gang behind him unleashed a chorus of praises and laughs and yells and clapping of hands, followed by the groaning thunder. They sure were proud of their leader, and he likewise admired the praise, looking at them with that crazed grin as if encouraging them.

And still Grendel wasn’t the least bit impressed. Just another clown with his brain in his waste hole that though he was the next big thing. There was nothing more.

Then the cheering stopped. Enkedu had turned his head to Grendel in a heartbeat, and was slowly approaching. For a while there was no sound but the ever present flood.

“Yeh, I got pretty famous quick” He continued talking, and at this point his voice had gotten softer, more…serious, so to speak “But ya know what happened next? I juuuuuust happened to learn I wasn’t the stroooooongest around here….and this is where YOU enter, Outlaw…”

Enkedu’s long and thin tail cracked in the air and then pointed at Grendel, spikes gleaming in the half-dark along with the untrustworthy yellow eyes. The great squamataur cracked his knuckles, ready for the assault, but his smaller rival limited himself to crawl in a circle around him. Neither of them took their eyes off the other.

“I’ve heard maaaaaany stories about you. Your strength, your power, your fuuuuury….First it was the Rumble Bandits in the plains –Grendel’s fangs gritted tightly at these words- and then what? The Ravenous Demon, the Lone Black Wolf, the deeeeevil that ravages whateeever he sees, the world’s haaaatred given flesh!! You’ve destroyed sooooo many villages! Obliterated alllll the armies the humies send after ya! Torn to shreds eeeeverything that looked at ya funny! Hunters speak of you in whiiiispers. Children think on yoooou when they look at the jungle at night. You are the veeeery image of FEAR!!.....And ya know, that ain’t fair at all.”

The scarred giant didn’t say a word either. His eyes squinted from the rain dripping down his drenched hair, but still he’d keep the piercing watch. A faint, unpleasant sound when his teeth scraped against each other. And of course there was the restlessness growing within him, clawing to get out. His patience was running low.

“This world don’t need twooooooooo strong folks runnin’ around!” Enkedu now kept changing his tone at every turn, between annoyed and incredulous “It’s just not how it works, yanno? It’s heh, stuuuuuupid!!”

Once again he stared at Grendel with a grin, only this time it seemed really forced, the muscles of his face all tense. Then it was back to a dull expression. And just as fast as that came a quick twirl of his body, a spin of muddy water and green scales and ragged red hair.

That enormous spear was now aimed at Grendel’s face, flapping and wobbling, mere inches away from him

“So! I’ll be veeeeeeeery fair! You can joooin me group, and follow the steps of the terrible and great Enkedu for the stuff of legends!!!.....Or….I can kill you now.”

It was like a very sudden jolt of electricity had struck Grendel. His human half went straight and stiff like a plank, his head cocked, his pupils shrunk. For a moment he looked dumbfounded, and then there was the tiniest smirk

“…Really now?”

“Why yah, of coooourse! It’s the logical thing to do! So whaddya say, big bo—“


It was like the lightning from above had gone down. Grendel had leaped forward with all his weight, a juggernaut of shearing claw and festering tooth and knotted muscle that struck down with terrifying power. The very bog around them burst in a mighty shockwave that churned the waters and shattered rock. Enkedu, however, was quick of feet. He jumped backwards, just as fast as Grendel had done on the opposite direction, and landed face first on the scummy mud, in the middle of his now shocked and alarmed gang. And he thrashed and flopped like a wounded animal when his lackeys helped him stand up.

Smeared with muck, he pushed them to the side to clear his way. Grendel was staring back, similarly splattered with filth. But while there was nothing short of wrath flowing through his veins, Enkedu was all too different. Crazed, bewildered, thrilled.

“Haaah! Ah hahahahaha!!! Woah!” He guffawed out, loud and oh so clear “That’s some temper!”

“I AM NO ONE’S PUPPET!!” Grendel bellowed, a curtain of thick frothy drool-venom seeping from his jaws like a little putrid waterfall “AND MUCH LESS OF A PUS WAD LIKE YOU!!!

“Waaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha!!!!! Is that so???? Maybe!! Or maybe you’re just AFRAID of being second to a bad ass like me!! Come on lads, soften ‘im up!!!!”

As the iguana-taur scrambled to the top of the highest rock, his followers stormed towards Grendel. Squamataurs and nagas and dridders, screaming and hollering, hissing and screeching in excited bloodlust. Flesh would be pierced, blood would be spilled. Not just with spears. With fangs. With claws. The boss always demanded a fine show.

And the furious titan roared with a voice to rival the splitting skies before charging at these challengers, answering in kind

They needed to know their place.