I activated [Insightful Analysis] and called up the yeti’s stats page once again.

  What I saw sent a shiver through me while my blood ran colder than ice water in the arctic.

  That was one hell of a boost. That boost cemented the yeti as the monster with the single highest amount of stat points I had ever come across.

  I had no time to think on it further. The yeti was already moving. This time I couldn’t escape the incoming blow, the yeti blurred across the chamber in a single breath. It struck like a freight train, my bulk was lifted from the floor and slingshot across the chamber. I felt my chitin crack under the blow and then I struck the wall of the chamber. For a moment everything was white and pain was all I knew as my mind struggled to keep up with what had happened.

  Move! There’s more where that came from.

  Rather than try to shift myself out of the frozen debris of the wall I crashed into, I reverted back to my human form. That choice probably saved my life as the yeti plowed into the wall fist first a scant few feet above where my much smaller human body tumbled from the wreckage of the wall. I tumbled along the floor of the chamber in a shower of debris, eyes wide as I stared back at the yeti. The yeti was already wrenching itself free of the wall, blue blood smearing its massive fists as it pounded the wall to fragments in a violent attempt to free itself. I rolled to my feet just in time to see it launch a fridge-sized block of ice directly at my head. I had barely enough time to throw myself left, but the shattered spray of frozen debris still caught me high on the shoulder and cheek. My vision flickered as I felt something give in my jaw, and hot blood poured into my mouth despite the cold.

  I dove behind the nearest pillar, heart racing so fast it felt like the only warmth left in my body. [Pain Mitigation] was the only reason I could still think straight. I could feel the cracks running through my armor, muscle, even my bones underneath. A quick glance confirmed that my breastplate was nearly done for, cracks ran up and down the chitin that made up its structure. I sucked in a breath through the blood and snapped my dislocated jaw back into place with a sickening pop and crunch. My vision tunneled; I let the pain burn through me. It was familiar, a baptism of ice and blood. Trial by fire.

  Above me the ice pillar shattered casting chunks of ice around. Cursing I dove and shifted from man to spider while I escaped the flying debris. Flexing my spider limbs I launched myself up from the floor to wall, gaze roaming the chamber to look for the yeti. I didn’t have to look hard.

  The blur of white and madness launched itself out of the pillars debris towards where I was perched on the wall. Without a thought I launched another [Edge Glare]. I winced in discomfort while the arc of force slammed into the monster at the speed of thought. It was weak. I knew that as soon as the Spell had launched. I saw the impact of the Spell slam the yeti back to the ground, but I also saw it shatter against the yetis body, barely having drawn blood.

  It was hard to come up with a plan that didn’t end in me painted across the walls and floors of the icy chamber. The thing moved like a rabid wolf, nothing but hate and hunger—higher thought burned away in the berserk eruption of its [Frozen Rampage]. The next attack was already loading: I saw it in the coiling of muscle, the low crouch of a predator about to leap. I didn’t need to guess at the intent, just the timing. It was an animal driven by nothing but rage and hunger at this point. It would pursue my endlessly around this chamber until either it broke and died, or I did. Right now it was anyone’s guess which was more likely.

  A pair of icicles hissed through the air forcing me to leap away from my perch or be skewered. They impacted the wall like bombs exploding in a shower of ice fragments, causing chunks of the icy wall to fall away. Apparently the the yeti wasn’t so lost to the rage of it’s Skill that it wouldn’t use it other Skills.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Just my luck.

  I skittered around the chamber, [Gaze of Bane] running in my left eyes. The stacks of [Bane] I could feel were growing even slower than they were previously. The damn thing just had way too much Endurance. It was like I was a house spider trying to poison and elephant to death. The chase spun out, vicious and endless. I had the sense of being hunted in my own skin, and some part of me—some deep root in my soul that had never belonged to a man—rejoiced at the clarity of it. No more games, no more acting: the yeti was a creature of tooth and purpose, and every move was a contest of velocity and nerve. I pressed harder, letting instinct run wild, half-crazed in the echo of its own [Frozen Rampage]. Instinct ran away with my thought processes.

  Web lines flashed out from spider limbs, snatching at the debris that littered the floor. I couldn’t throw the massive chunks of ice as hard as the yeti, that was true. I could throw more of them at once though. Chunks of ice anchored by web lines streaked across the chamber to slam home into the yet. They shattered on impact but it looked stunned for a moment. More chunks of ice flicked into the air dragged along by my web lines as I battered at the monster with debris that littered the chamber.

  While I zipped through the air and across the ceiling, the terrain told me its secrets. The floor was a slick, almost glassy rink interspersed by rough pillars and the fallen chunks of the shattered wall. There was a geometry to it, a pattern I could use. I kept my movements irregular, never letting it anticipate where I'd be long enough to corner me. I flew around the room collecting debris wherever I went. I assaulted the yeti from all directions, using my web lines to curve my crude projectiles into meteor like arc before smashing into the yeti. Every time the yet got near me another piece of debris arced around to smash into the monster. I wasn’t doing a lot of damage, but I was doing damage. Slowly stacking it up. Slowly, steadily it was working. I was wearing down the big bastard of a monster and it’s massive pool of Endurance.

  Then it all went wrong.

  With no warning the yeti reached down and ripped a chunk of ice out of the floor. Instead of winding up for a pitch at my head, it spun and flung the thing directly at the ceiling. Where I was clinging to. I had not accounted for that, not even a little. The instant the frozen missile connected with the ceiling of the chamber it shattered my grip and sent me spinning off the ceiling. The floor rushed up at me, and I barely managed to twist to land on my spider limbs. Pain shot up through every leg, and I tumbled like a crippled bug right into the middle of the chamber. I scrambled to the side, but the yeti was already there; it snatched one of my rear legs in a vice grip and yanked, lifting me bodily from the ground.

  It slammed me down like a gong, the sound of my carapace hitting the floor reverberated through the whole chamber. I fought to free myself, but the yeti let loose a savage bellow, and smashed me bodily into the floor of the chamber again. My world flared white with pain and stun, before I felt myself being swung again. My carapace was slowly cracking, breaking. Another hit like that and I might splatter my insides across the floor. On instinct I reverted to my human form and slipped free from the yetis grip. Free of its grip I sailed across the the chamber and smashed through a pile of debris. Pain was my world for a long moment. My body was battered and wrecked, I could feel Vipera’s [Rootborn Regeneration] and my [Totem of Regrowth] struggling to repair the damage.

  I needed more, I wasn’t yet enough. I couldn’t do this as I was. Face locked in a snarl my status sheet flicked open in my vision, my eyes locked on the only thing that mattered in that instant.

  In an instant my stats surged as I allocated every point I had saved over months of work, and grind, and battle. My stat page showed me a clipped and updated set of numbers.

  Vitality surged through my body as [Rootborn Regeneration] and my amulet [Totem of Regrowth] seized on the new resources my body had to offer. 10 points in a Stat was not a small adjustment, and I had allocated 30 points across my Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity.

  All at once.

  My spine arched and I roared as I dragged myself to standing through the agony, it felt like I was burning from the inside out as my body adapted to the rapid influx of power. All of this happened in moments, the single largest surge of Stats I had ever experienced.

  When my eyes opened I was greeted by the sight of the yeti charging straight at me. I grimaced and tried to move, then cursed as my muscles locked up. My body was still stabilizing from the rapid influx of stats. I hadn’t realized it would lock up my muscles like a body wide cramp. I stared, growling in defiance as it cocked back it’s arm, fist poised to crush my fragile human body back into the rubble. There was no time to wonder if I was about to die. The world slowed, every detail as sharp as broken glass—the wild, spittle-flecked rage in the yeti’s eyes, the halo of frost steaming from its fists, the glimmer of blue blood freezing in midair as it barreled into its punch.

  I braced for impact. My feet dug ruts in the ice, hair standing on end as the monster’s shadow fell over me. My muscles screamed protest but I forced my arms up—crossed in front of my face, left forearm braced by the right.

  A tugging sensation from deep within me preceded the appearance of Vipera. She launched herself from my chest at the speed of thought as she manifested in reality. She slithered up the yeti’s arm like a bolt of greased lightning, all the while her scales carving a path of blood and venom. I watched in stun as she launched herself from the monsters arm to it’s face.

  Vipera was a blur, a black-and-electric-blue streak that seemed to outpace even my desperate thoughts. She hit the yeti’s face fangs-first. All of her considerable bulk and momentum concentrated into the strike, for she was not the same size she’d been even a few months ago. The recent levels had seen her grow to nearly 25 feet in length, and nearly as thick around as both my legs together.

  The monster’s eyes bulged, and then it let out a gurgling, strangled scream as Vipera’s fangs found purchase in its right eye, punching straight through to the viscous gel and scoring deep into the bone behind it. The yeti stumbled then fell to the ground, blind hands grasping for Vipera as she slithered away from it’s eye.

  Go, go! Get out of there!

  I could do nothing but watch with my body still locked up, as the hand of the yeti grasped Vipera’s tail. I watched in horror as she was hoisted into the air then slammed against the ground much the same way as I had been not long ago. I struggled against my own body. railed against my limbs, demanding that they move. They refused, joints grinding, muscles seizing as teh yet grasped Vipera with it’s other hand even as she struggled it it’s grip.

  I swore the beast looked at me.

  It grinned.

  A single sharp pull and my companion, my familiar who had been with me through thick and thin. Who had helped keep me stable and steady even when my psyche probably should have shattered like glass. Who had been with me in my darkest moments. Who had fought with me side by side through all the blood and pain it had taken to get here.

  Was no more.

  I watched as the electric blue glow in her eyes, that streaked along her scales, winked out. I felt the moment the connection that linked us was severed, her life snuffed out, faded away in the endless black of death.

  I howled.