It had been four hours since Tina fell asleep, and I had let the fire die down to a somewhat fiery smolder so it wouldn't be so bright. With the mana I had recovered, I had made about forty 45-70 rounds. With attachments for the new firearm, putting a white light on it, and a Trijicon RMR 3.25 MOA LED dot with a cartridge holder to put on the handrail. For the sight, making all the mana I had gotten back go up in smoke once more.
I had five loaded and six rounds in the cartridge holder. Feeling more confident with my loadout, even though I need more items. I wanted to replace the buttstock with one with more cartridge holders, a Sling, and a Foregrip of some sort. This will have to do for now.
As I stared across the lake, the moon emerged from behind the clouds, and I noticed movement. I quickly got lower to the ground as a single word came out of my mouth.
"Fuck." I witnessed a group of animals emerge from the forest, two of which were taller than 9 feet. They looked like saber-tooth tigers, but with a government pumping them full of steroids. The other eight ranged from five to seven feet tall, give or take.
I slowly crawled over to the campfire and opened the camel pack, pouring water on it to kill the smolder. They would still smell it, but they shouldn't be able to see us from this distance if they had the same eyesight as tigers from our world. But odds are they have stronger ones. I moved over to Tina and covered her mouth as I spoke quietly.
"Don't make a sound, a group of giant tiger-like animals is on the other side of the lake. Stay low to the ground and get dressed. I will give you the shotgun. If they start heading towards this area before you are dressed, I want you to go into the woods behind this tree and run." I said, making her shake her head no.
"It will be impossible to outrun them. Someone needs to stay here and buy you time to find another place to hide till morning. To use the shotgun, pull back the hammers first before firing. The safety is right here. Do you understand?" I said, showing her how to do it, and she nodded.
"Good girl, now you will only have three shots, so make them count," I said, handing the shotgun as I slowly moved to the edge of the roots, as she started to put her clothes on.
Looking up at the sky, more clouds were moving in to cover the moon. Shit, I cursed under my breath as she still hadn't finished getting dressed. The two larger ones started drinking as the other tiger-like animals spread out to do the same.
Please, don't come this way. I thought to myself as Tina crawled over to me, and she finally noticed, making her yelp. I froze as the big one looked up and straight over to us. I could see their glowing eyes; they locked onto mine. SHIT!
"RUN TINA!" I yelled, standing up as I lifted the lever-action, firing a round at the closest Tiger. It fell with a thud as the bigger ones roared, fire and lightning bursting from their bodies. What the fuck was that?! My mind screamed as Tina ran into the woods.
Pulling down the lever and loading another round as the Tigers started to run around the lake. I downed three more by the time they made it around, quickly reloading and aiming at the head of the closest big one, and firing. The top of its head let out a loud thump, and it slid onto the ground dead.
A shotgun blast rang out from behind me, making me hesitate for a moment as I quickly downed the two smaller ones getting closer. Aiming at the last big one, it jumped to the side as the final two smaller ones sprinted towards me. Making me aim at pulling the trigger as their bodies fell to the ground, as I switched back to the big one.
Its mouth had flames sipping out of it as I pulled the trigger. I was empty. "Shit," I said as I reached for another round. The last one roared as flames shot out of its mouth, making me jump over the root as a wall of fire burned the pounchs.
Loading my last two rounds, I had them in the holder. Before rushing out from the other side of the root to see the Tiger coming down from the air onto me, making me roll out of the way as it crashed into the tree next to where we had been staying, quickly aiming. An pulled the trigger, it moved slightly, making the round hit its jaw as it roared out in pain, staggering.
I aimed, waiting for it to stop shaking its head, and it looked at me as I pulled the trigger one last time. The Tiger fell to the ground with a thud, but this wasn't the time to dwell on it as I pulled eleven rounds out and reloaded my lever-action as I ran into the woods.
"TINA!" I yelled while running through the woods with moonlight coming in through the branches as I cleared a set of bushes and stopped.
Frozen by what my eyes had landed on, a bear standing on its hind legs holding half of Tina's body in its mouth. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I didn't care that it was almost twenty feet tall on its hind legs as I started to open fire.
Hitting it in the gut, the bear dropped Tina and roared. It started to charge me as I fired again, blowing part of its head off as it slid on the ground and began to stand back up. But I didn't stop firing until I was empty and reloaded, firing some more before throwing down the rifle and pulling out the revolvers as I shot at it while walking towards it.
I felt hot liquid running from my eyes as my vision blurred while firing into the mangled head of the bear. When the revolvers became empty, I rushed the body, not caring if it was dead or not, as I sent fist after fist into the destroyed skull.
I lost track of time as I screamed out in rage, my hands passed the point of hurting; only rage and hate filled me at this point. I didn't stop until the sun started to come up. I looked around at the body of Tina, and a strong sense of failure washed over me.
Could I have done something better? Did I get her killed? These thoughts flooded my mind as I sat on my knees next to her. Hating this day as now I was alone once more. Finally standing up after a few hours, as I made up my mind, I am going to hunt every fucking bear in these woods and butcher them for the love of it.
Retrieving my weapons, along with the shotgun, Tina was only able to get one shot off, meaning she must have run into it and didn't have much time. If only those fucking tigers didn't show up.
The bear's body had dissolved like the goblins', telling me this was some sort of monster. Since the fish didn't do that, there must be a ranking of animals and monsters. I quickly stored the bones, silver coins this time, and a bigger crystal. I picked up Tina's body—or what was left of it—and started walking back to the lake.
I would bury her where we made love; that place had a special meaning for us. It was better than some random part of the woods, and I would be able to find it once more. Tears ran down my face as I walked through the forest, my heart aching with each step.
"I won't ever fail like this again," I said with every fiber of my being. As I made it back to the campsite, the tigers' bones lay around. I will collect them afterwards. I created a silk wrap as I wrapped Tina's body. Before making a shovel and starting to dig, where we spent the first and only happy moment we had together since both of us came here.
I struck the ground, every shovel of dirt replied last night. I was trying to see if there was something I could have done better, some way I could have kept Tina alive. But with every passing moment, it dug into my heart, and I finally reached the conclusion that nothing I could have done would have changed her fate, and I hated it.
My hands gripped the shovel, trying to break the wooden handle.