The warm sun broke through the canopy, its greenish-red light illuminating Kevin’s eyelids, forcing him awake. ‘Wait. Green?’. As he opened his eyes, he observed a maw of flesh inches away from his face. The mouth was dominated by 4 large teeth that sat at the corners. A green glow resonated from deep within the throat of the beast. Its fiery fury threatened to engulf Kevin.

  He rolled out of the way as a cascade of fire consumed his resting position. “Wake up now.” Shouted Kevin. Oswin shot up immediately. He cast several panicked glances around before focusing on the beast before them.

  In the wee hours of the morning, they had been descended upon by a jungle hippo. The top of the food chain just about anywhere. May it be through trampling, biting or just sitting, the beast was one of the deadliest creatures on the planet. Highly territorial, it was not known for forgiveness, or mercy. As opposed to a normal hippo, its skin was a dark green. Beyond that, it was also about twice the size of a common hippo.

  Kevin dove to avoid a charge. Fire breath chased him as he sprinted away. “Do they usually breathe fire?” he said.

  “I don’t think so,” said Oswin.

  They ran with each other, confident in their ability to outpace something the size of a large truck. Undaunted by the challenge, the hippo chased after them. With each step the ground shuddered, and dust flew in all directions. If a tree was in the way, no matter how thick, the hippo crashed into it. The trunks shattered into splinters.

  Oswin glanced over his shoulder, he could see the outline of the hippo, but the rest of the details were blurred. The two men crossed a stream, they climbed and ran down a small hill, then crossed another small mountain stream.

  Once again Oswin looked back at the hippo. He could see the whites of its eyes. Now that it was closer, he could see it gaining with every step it took. Somehow tireless, its mouth began to drip a green bright liquid, from which flames emitted.

  “I don’t think we can outrun this,” said Oswin.

  ‘I don’t think you can outrun this’ Thought Kevin. He was consciously slowing himself down to keep pace with his friend, but he kept that thought to himself. He spoke. “Then we have to fight it.”

  Kevin summoned his bow and scrambled up a tree. Oswin did similar, only with a different tree. The hippo wasted no time, not slowing his charge even for a moment. It connected with Kevin’s tree first, exploding the trunk, then redirected itself into Oswin’s tree. Kevin leaped to another tree, while Oswin fell to the ground. He landed on a large flat rock, directly on his back. The wind was completely knocked out of him. Momentarily stunned, he watched helplessly as the hippo approached.

  Several arrows bounced off the thick hide of the hippo. “Why don’t you chase after me you tub of lard?” shouted Kevin.

  The taunt was entirely ineffective. The hippo continued its charge undeterred, aiming to pulverise Oswin into red paste. He tried his best to dodge by wriggling around on the ground like a worm, but was not successful enough.

  The hind leg of the beast came down hard on Oswin’s thighbone, shattering it. Oswin shouted in pain. The momentum of the charge carried the hippo away, at least for the moment.

  Kevin jumped between the hippo and Oswin. He had no plan, it just simply had to be done. As his mind raced for ways to buckle the oncoming charge, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Oswin.

  He stood with one pant leg morphed into a split. Both hands held a quarter sock with the quarters aligned into a rod, making them quarter swords. Electric arcs bounded across his figure. It reminded Kevin of how Oswin acted during the Stalkton race. Oswin commanded. “Don’t count me out yet.” in a voice that resonated with authority.

  Oswin sprinted full tilt at the hippo, an incredible accomplishment given his leg. The hippo was more than happy to respond in kind. At their meeting point, Oswin deftly darted to the side of the hippo. The hippo proved itself to be agile as well, redirecting its attack back to the intended target.

  Oswin flew into a tree, which bent and cracked upon his impact. Kevin noted the unnatural way Oswin’s arm bent and winced. He was not done yet. As he was sliding down the length of the tree he threw one of his quarter swords at the hippo. The weapon bounced then rolled underneath its prey. He summoned an arc of lightning from the quarter sword he held to the weapon under the hippo. The beast fried. It roared in pain and responded with a plume of fire that made Oswin halt his attack so he could dodge.

  Oswin’s vision was obscured by the flames and smoke. He assumed that this would give him a moment to rest, but he was incorrect. The hippo broke through the visual screen and bucked Oswin into the sky.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHAAA.” Oswin broke through the ceiling of leaves, flying out of sight.

  The hippo turned about to face Kevin, which caused it to turn into Kevin’s right hook. The punch connected, knocking the hippo off balance. The feeling reminded Kevin of the time he tried to fistfight his grandfather’s farming equipment. In two deft steps he repositioned and kicked the hippo once more to keep it reeling. He attempted another move in his combo, but the hippo had already recovered.

  Kevin jumped back to consider his options. While he was still in the air, the hippo switched to a flame attack. In desperation Kevin squirmed in the air similar to how Oswin squired on the ground only moments ago. The breath of green fire went wide, not due to any interference on the side of Kevin, the hippo simply missed as an unforced error. Kevin was painfully aware of this fact.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.” Oswin crashed back to earth, landing nearby to Kevin. The blue glow left Oswin’s eyes. “This isn’t going to work.” He stated. “But I have a new plan.”

  “I’m all ears,” said Kevin.

  “Theres a cliff about 400 meters that way. I think–”

  “I got it,” interrupted Kevin. “I see the vision.”

  Oswin nodded. “Now we just have to get there,” he said.

  “I’ll lead the hippo, you just focus on running straight there. I’ll follow around you,” said Kevin.

  “And this time you will actually succeed? If my other leg breaks I’ll be crawling around.” said Oswin.

  “I will be in its face.”

  Oswin took off. Kevin approached the hippo cautiously. He dodged out of the way of the first charge, leveraging his superior stamina to jump away far before contact. The hippo roared and moved to attack Kevin once more. ‘Good’ thought Kevin. ‘Just stay on me.’

  Kevin ran in a zig-zag pattern, following behind the straight-lined path that Oswin was taking. At the end of every zig or zag, he avoided another headbutt from the hippo, then changed direction. The hippo attempted to catch Kevin off guard with a sudden spit of fire, but Kevin remained elusive.

  He could see the clearing ahead. Oswin stood at the edge of it, leaning on a small tree and staring at his leg painfully.

  “I hope you are ready to make this convincing.” Shouted Kevin. With a wide stance he postured next to his friend and faced the oncoming beast head on. The hippo sprinted into them, while each of them dove in a different direction.

  The hippo roared as it sailed off the cliff, plummeting into the valley below.

  “Hurray,” said Oswin half-heartidly. He panted heavily. “We have managed to fend off a single hippo in visible pain.”

  “In pain?” asked Kevin.

  “Yea, I could tell from the way it was running. It was a strange gait where the hippo seemed to want to favor every limp. Now that isn’t possible, which was why it looked strange.”

  “It looked normal to me.”

  “Any idea why it might be suffering?”

  Kevin huffed. “It clearly was not anything I did.”

  “I don’t think it was me either. Frankly I know hippos are supposed to be strong, jungle hippos more so, but that was far beyond anything I expected. Thus, I don’t think that was a normal hippo. Triscant is known for being a haven for illegal experimentation of all sorts. Perhaps that animal was a part of it. By tracking its path we can go to the facility. Then in civilization we can find a way home.”

  “Ok, but you think we can track the hippo trail all the way back.”

  “Dude.” Oswin gestured at the path the hippo took here. Splotches of green burning liquid littered the area. Every fern was crushed, and every tree was bent or shattered. The steps of the hippo left massive impressions in mud and soil alike. Even rocks cracked under its weight.

  “Point taken.” Said Kevin.

  They followed the path back to their sleeping spots, taking a moment to retrieve their bikes. Even before the hippo attacked the two of them, it was sprinting haphazardly through the jungle, lighting up random trees with flames along the way.

  “Maybe it just hates birds.” theorized Kevin.

  After hours of walking, they arrived at a facility deep in the mountains. A paved road led here once, but it was overgrown and cracked from decades of neglect. A chainlink fence with barbed wire at the top surrounded two brick buildings which flanked an impressive series of massive pipes. The pipes led to tanks, which were all rusted through. They entered easily through a gaping hole in the rusty perimeter fence.

  They entered the buildings first, the buildings contained collapsed floors, and ancient electronic technology.

  “You think this might predate the unification wars?” asked Oswin as he picked up a floppy disk. “In that case this place is holding up well for being more than a century old.”

  Keivn found the kitchen and tore the doors off all the cabinets, more accurately, he opened them and the doors fell off. No food was found. His stomach growled. ‘I wonder if I could eat the moss?’ he thought.

  Within the kitchen was one of many standing rusted tanks. It had several hazard labels on it which were now unrecognizable. Kevin kicked the side of it, creating a hole. He peered inside and witnessed a small puddle of burning green juice. ‘Strange to put one of these in the kitchen’

  The rest of the brick building contained only office space. Kevin shattered a window, then cleared it of broken glass so he could hop outside.

  “You could have just taken a door,” said Oswin.

  The pipes outside were connected to rusted tanks on one end, and ran into the mountain on the other. Oswin followed them until he arrived at a tunnel which led deep into the mountain. Both the doors of the entrance were bent and torn from their hinges. A green glow emitted from deeper in the tunnel.

  “Hey Kevin, I think the hippo started rampaging here.” called out Oswin.

  His friend ran up to observe himself. The entrance was large enough to drive a truck into, or large enough to allow a hippo to charge in and out. It was paved, and since it was shielded from the weather, the road remained in a far more acceptable state. Without further lighting, nothing else could be observed within.

  “I bet Axel meant for us to find this,” said Kevin.

  “Like hell he did. Stop trying to salvage this. I’ll be investigating this regardless, but there is no way I’m crediting Axel.”

  Just off to the side was a small shack which contained several hooks with tattered jackets and other clothing. Oswin grabbed two of the jackets and tossed them on a nearby table.

  “Creating clothing from nothing is rather difficult, but if I have something to work with already–” Oswin’s hand radiated power. The old jackets transformed into two headlamps. He handed one to Kevin.

  The tunnel, now flooded with light, revealed a road which ended in a loading bay with a truck parked at it. Hazardous barrels were strewn about, and the pipes which entered the mountain from outside continued along the walls. The loading bay contained one massive hole in its back wall. From this hole the green light emitted.

  “Ladies first” said Oswin.

  “Of course.” responded Kevin, gesturing for his friend to take the lead.

  “My leg is broken, dumbass.”