The first thing that gave it away was the posture of the creature : its entire body was tense, every muscle drawn tight beneath its skin.
There was none of the carefree abandon of an animal completely absorbed in its meal. It was the stance of a predator ready to pounce on its prey.
Then came the unmistakable proof : its eyes.
They were not on the corpse, they were on the side mirror.
The creature had been using it to track Lazar's movements, watching his approach while pretending otherwise.
And in that same reflection, Lazar caught a detail that made the scene truly grotesque : the creature had a human face.
Not just human-like features, but an actual man's face grafted onto that monstrous body, which made its little act feel far too calculated to belong to a simple animal.
Lazar's first reflex was to take a step back.
But that retreat also told the beast that its trap had just been noticed.
It abandoned the corpse at once and sprang backward with disorienting speed.
The shift was so abrupt that, for a split second, Lazar almost felt he had misjudged its size.
Nothing that heavy should have moved like that. Then again, he had thought the same thing about the Damned, so by now he really should have known better.
All of a sudden, the features of the creature's face tightened and began to warp, slowly giving way to something bestial, as though an animal was trying to tear its way out through badly fitted human skin.
"AAAOOORRHH!" The next instant, it let out a howl.
The sound was revolting, somewhere between a human scream and a canine cry, close enough to both to become far worse than either.
For a brief instant, Lazar was paralyzed.
Not because fear had pinned him in place, he knew fear too well to mistake this for it.
No, it was something else, something subtler and trickier, as though the howl had slipped past his will and gone straight for his body.
In that brief moment of stillness, Lazar understood that the howl was not natural.
The beast had just used a skill on him.
Something meant to lock him in place, or at least rob him of control long enough to tear him apart.
And yet he regained command of his muscles almost immediately.
'Calm Mind.' He concluded.
His passive skill had definitely weakened the effect of whatever that creature did enough to keep it from properly taking hold.
Even so, Lazar stayed perfectly still.
In front of him, the monster was already lowering itself onto its limbs, ready to pounce, convinced it still had a frozen prey before it.
And Lazar had no intention of correcting that impression.
At last, the beast lunged.
And in the middle of its leap, its features broke apart. The savage confidence that had animated them a moment earlier was swept away by sudden fear when it saw Lazar move again without the slightest visible hindrance.
In the same instant, Lazar sidestepped and brought his blade down in the same motion, aiming to end the fight in one strike.
A wet slicing sound answered.
But the moment the creature hit the ground, Lazar turned at once, already certain he had failed to finish it in one blow.
One glance confirmed it.
Instead of decapitating it, which had been his original plan, he had only managed to sever one of its hind legs and carve a deep gash across its rear.
A frustrating result, but an understandable one.
The monster's leap had been so fast that crippling it at all was already an achievement.
"URRRRGHH." The creature growled through the pain and lifted its eyes to Lazar.
What stared at him was not simple aggression.
It was hatred, as overflowing as the blood spraying from the stump of what had been its leg and pulsing from the wound across its rear.
Despite the leg it had just lost, Lazar had no doubt that a creature that fast was still perfectly capable of fleeing without difficulty.
Yet judging by the almost blind fury driving it, and by the fact that its eyes were fixed entirely on Lazar instead of searching for a way out, that idea did not seem to exist for it at all.
Its hatred left room for nothing else.
And in a way, that was almost reassuring for Lazar : this beast was less intelligent and less calculating than he had initially assumed.
Without taking his eyes off it, he temporarily retreated with caution. Only a few slow steps, but necessary ones. Against something that fast, he needed space.
He backed up until he reached the passenger side of the vehicle, where the mutilated body the beast had been devouring only moments earlier lay abandoned in a slurry of blood and viscera.
The beast understood his intention immediately and refused to give him that advantage. Limping, it edged toward him with equal caution, matching the pace of his retreat.
The door behind him left Lazar no room to retreat any farther without going around it, yet he stayed exactly where he was as the beast continued to advance.
Glancing at the remains of the unfortunate man the monster had killed, an idea came to him.
For the sole purpose of baiting the creature, Lazar curled his mouth into an insulting smile and pretended to limp.
The reaction was immediate : the beast's eyes widened, showing that it had understood the mockery, then it flew into a rage and dropped into position to spring at him.
The moment it did, Lazar plunged a hand toward the passenger seat, tore a fistful of bloody entrails from the corpse, and, with the precision of a zoo monkey flinging shit at a visitor, hurled them straight into the face of the leaping monster, before rolling across the ground to get out of its path.
During the roll, Lazar heard the heavy crash of the creature slamming into the car door.
When he looked back, the sight almost drew a sneer from him : the beast was thrashing across the asphalt, its face smeared in blood and guts, clearly blinded.
Seeing an opportunity too valuable to waste, Lazar decided to strike before it could recover.
He closed in, but not recklessly.
A stray hit from that thing could still rip him apart, so he searched for a clean line of attack as he moved.
At the same time, he activated Sharpness.
The sensation was still invasive and deeply unpleasant, yet noticeably more bearable than during his first attempt.
His body seemed to be slowly getting used to essence.
After a small sidestep to avoid a blind hit from the beast's remaining hind leg, as well as a spray of blood bursting from its stump, he finally felt his weapon become fully saturated with essence.
Then, when he felt the timing was right, Lazar lunged forward and brought his blade down.
[Level 8 - Eeqidi (F ★★★★☆) eliminated]
[You have earned 1920 experience points]
[Level Up : 2 ⟶ 3]
[Level Up : 3 ⟶ 4]