It was a four-legged beast, its length equivalent to the height of a grown man, the ends of its tail fluffy, the fur erect as if it had built up a lot of static electricity. It resembled a feline creature in its gait and posture, but its frame was wide, almost three-fourths of its length. It sported a massive head, a mouth filled with zagged teeth, and a long tongue that reached the ground.

In her vision, Re’Kha noticed the grey sand be repelled around the creature, making its form less defined. Still, she could identify it based on its wide frame, the distinct characteristic only present in a single beast in the Harara Forest.

“It’s a Punou,” Re’Kha muttered, her arm trembling as she released her hold of the cow head’s horn. The cackling screeches echoed from all around her; shadows flashed past the trees. In her vision, there were numerous spaces devoid of the grey sand flashing around, heading in and out of the surrounding sand cluster.

“Pssch,” The three-headed beast snorted a powerful breath of air, slightly shaking its back, signalling Re’Kha to hold the horn. Re’Kha grabbed it immediately, watching the three-headed beast immediately make a high jump.

A flash of blue streaked past underneath, colliding into the tree behind. Like a rock smashing onto the ground from high up, the produced sound was loud. The tree came crashing down, its branches getting entangled with the surrounding trees. A portion of the trunk at its bottom had disappeared, leaving only some splinters behind.

Re’Kha crouched forward under the force of the jump, watching the goat head condense a thick sphere—made from the grey sand she witnessed—before its mouth and shoot it towards the thicket of trees. A space of blankness moved away on the ground, barely dodging the attack, the sand cluster within spiralling out from the impact.

It splashed onto the space of blankness, faintly outlining it. Re’Kha held the bag with her mouth, craning her left hand backward after entering a punching pose. Her body seeped blue radiance that flowed through her left arm, condensing around her hand, branching out into five flows.

They joined together to form a spherical vortex as she aimed at the space of blankness, intending to attack when the vortex collapsed, causing blood to leak out of her orifices. The bag she held in her mouth was dyed red as her left arm slumped, having lost all strength for the time being.

“Why…” Re’Kha grunted, failing to understand the cause that prevented her from attacking. The three-headed beast landed on the ground and tilted its body, lifting the fore and rear legs on its right, watching another flash of blue streak past, followed by the sound of thunder as it slammed into the trees.

Just when Re’Kha tried to attack again, she noticed the cow head condense a sphere of grey sand and aim it at the ground, dispersing it when fired. The grey sand unleashed a gale that splashed forth water and mud, creating a cover that it used to leap.

Air condensed under its hooves, forming the foothold; it used the foothold to jump higher and higher up in the air. It then leaped, tilting its body forward. Re’Kha tightened her hold, watching the cow head unleash three more of the grey sand spheres towards the ground.

The blank spaces on the ground flashed to and fro, hurriedly dodging the attacks. Without seeing the result of its attack, the three-headed beast scaled forward, taking five long leaps in the air before landing on the ground.

Without a second’s pause, it continued to sprint. Cackling screeches resounded from behind as the Punous gave chase, trailing parallel to its run. The sheep head blasted an attack to its right the moment a Punou tried to close in.

The three-headed beast made another leap into the air, jumping thrice using the air footholds as it crossed a massive tree along its way, passing through a gap between its branches. Some of the smaller branches scraped past them, inflicting numerous wounds.

Re’Kha controlled herself from screaming, watching the three-headed beast head into something like a tunnel of sorts through a swirling grey sand cluster. The tunnel spanned forth like a winding passageway. In actuality, it was the three-headed beast using its agility and spring-like legs to jump through the gaps in the foliage, in an effort to hinder the Punous from chasing.

Re’Kha felt helpless, unable to assist the three-headed beast with the battle, grieving as she noticed grey sand spill out of it in copious amounts.

‘It doesn’t have long to live.’ Her heart lurched as she tried to condense the blue radiance in her left hand once again, coughing out blood when it failed.

Suddenly, she noticed the grey sand clusters around her reduce in density, as if they were doused by something. She felt a droplet of water fall on her forehead, turning red as it mixed with her blood and dripped past.

The droplets falling on her swiftly increased before it started to rain heavily. Re’Kha found the grey sand around her decrease before vanishing entirely. Only in some discrete spots did they exist, but they too began to dissipate as the rain poured with unrelenting momentum.

The sound of thunder resounded as a streak of blue flashed past, slamming into the sheep head on the right. Its horns cracked while a large part of its face vanished. Re’Kha noticed the sheep head crumble into grey sand that was instantly washed away by the rain, “No!”

She punched to her right in anger, condensing the blue radiance in her hand again, only to fail as the backlash caused more blood to bleed out of her orifices, “Dammit.”

The three-headed beast—now only having two heads—jerked its body, slamming its hooves into the ground, using the created recoil to stagger its momentum, skewing its centre of gravity as it made an abrupt turn in the anti-clockwise direction.

The cow and goat head condensed tiny spheres of air—that looked like the grey sand cluster to Re’Kha—and shot forth, spamming their breath attacks as they charged forth. The Punous along the way jumped to the sides, dodging the attacks while the three-headed beast sprinted through the gap.

Its abrupt action threw them off, wasting the encirclement they tried to create. The three-headed beast kicked the ground with its hooves, taking off to the skies once again, this time making a long leap.

“Aaah!” An intense sense of vertigo enveloped Re’Kha as she screamed, watching the faint traces of grey sand disappear altogether. The three-headed beast had jumped off a cliff, making an arc as it fell parallel to the steep slope.