Ropes and Rancors

Gonyaul finished collecting the rope and prepared it for use. It was easy to keep tabs on the Naylmo because with each structure it destroyed it was like a location ping on how close it was getting. Visibility was getting a little more difficult from all the dust, debris, and bone ashes getting mixed in the atmosphere.

Gonyaul peeked up over top of the tomb. His eyes went wide in panic as the Naylmo spotted that movement in its peripheral vision and turned to lock eyes on him. It growled, not having had this much difficulty finding its prey before and its eyes burned with wrath. The fiery intensity of the stare could have melted iron.

Gonyaul gasped and dove for safety just in time, as the ape had thrown a large piece of broken rubble through the air with accuracy. The top of the tomb Gonyaul was hiding behind was shattered by the collision.

Gonyaul scrambled to his feet. The beast accelerated now that it knew where he was. Like a wrecking ball, nothing in its way remained intact, as it pursued him on a straight line.

Gonyaul cried out as loud as he could while fleeing. “No want trubble.” The Naylmo paid his pleading no mind.

Gonyaul was going to run out of cover if he just kept running in one direction. At some point, rather soon, he would have to started heading back to the center of the room. The Naylmo was gaining on him at a remarkable pace. He had to think of something quick.

He had an sudden idea. While running past a small pillar, he slung the grappling hook around its base, the metal piece took the rope a few trips around before resting. Gonyaul held tight the other end of the line and kept running. The ape was almost to him. Gonyaul suddenly cut to the left and center of the space. As the beast reached for him he sprinted around another tomb and then another, pulling hard on the rope. This brought the rope tight like a trip wire.

The Naylmo missed its grab and then tripped over the rope. It roared as it lost its balance.

The monstrosity crashed head over heals and barrel rolled into several structures. The weight on the rope unfortunately lifted Gonyaul off the ground and with it. He hit the ground hard and rolled closer to the animal.

Both frantically tried to get back up. Gonyaul was back up before the beast. It reached for him while it’s legs were still kicking out of some rubble. Gonyaul did an evasive maneuver and using both arms parried as hard as he could down and with the momentum direction of the hand. It caused the hand to miss barely.

The Naylmo was enraged with frustration at its agile target. It stopped its hands forward momentum and did a backhanding motion back from whence it came; and where Gonyaul had evaded to. It was too fast for Gonyaul to avoid and he was backslapped across the cavernous space.

He went flying through the air like a rag doll. He bounced off a crypt, hit the ground hard and rolled and rolled until he hit the side of the cave. He lay there dazed and coughing from the wind getting knocked out of him. Meanwhile the Naylmo was crawling out of the debris and trying to regain its footing. It was scanning the area where Gonyaul went flying but it’s senses were not yet locating where he had disappeared to after launching him.

Meanwhile the struggling Gonyaul lay there unmoving with no sense of urgency to rise. He looked up and could have sworn he heard Voah’s beautiful voice encouraging him to get up and keep going. He started to crawl, not rise. He held onto a faux idea that he could do this all day, as he moved behind a small structure and resting against it low and out of view.