Lady of Curses

''Grefured, take these to Alex.'' Without missing a beat, June took two glass bottles with some kind of red-green liquid in them, out of her pouch and handed them to Grefured, those were healing potions. Obeying his summoner's command, Grefured grabbed the potions with his mouth and ran to Alex. 

While June sent Grefured to Alex, she herself cast another spell. This one was stronger than her usual spikes, and it took quite a bit of mana. Before the monster could continue his path to her, June's spell stopped it. Giant tree roots emerged from the cave's floor, breaking it and making large pieces of the floor splinter away in all directions. 

The roots grabbed onto the monster entangling it. The monster's all four limbs and its maw was getting restricted and squeezed by these roots. It took a large amount of mana to create this spell, and June was exhausted, she fell on her knee as her strength left her body. 

In that time Grefured had managed to deliver the potions to Alex. He wasn't screaming anymore, but it still hurt and he wasn't capable of doing anything else right now except look around and hold his mangled leg. Seeing the summoned wolf approach with two potions in its mouth Alex knew what he needed to do. 

He took both potions and automatically uncorked the first one and drank it with one big gulp, now he needed to figure out how to make Hubert drink the other one.

While Alex was trying to keep himself and Huber from daying, Kayne and Sam were ready to strike the monster. The roots kept the monster in place while the monster tried to break free from them. 

Kayne went with his original plan, taking out the monster's legs, while Sam tried to slash every joint, and weak spot the monster has. Sam started from the bottom, she first tried to slash the achilles heels, it didn't leave a deep mark, but she didn't stop. Then she went to its ligaments that were back of the knees and continued up without losing momentum, the black-haired catkin's speed even rose as she continued.

Kayne on the other hand, used all he got to destroy the monster's legs. He started with one leg. He started with a punch, then without losing momentum, he kicked the same leg, in almost the same spot. Then shifting from blunt damage he used mana blade to slash again at the same spot. Kayne continued attacking the same spot, in hopes that it would damage the leg faster. 

While Kayne and Sam were assaulting the monster, the beast itself wasn't just standing there and waiting for them to kill it. 'TRRRKKK...'' The roots started to crack, June was still on her knee, and Alex's leg was healing but at a slow rate, so he still wasn't able to do much, Hubert was just laying there. Fortunately, Hubert was getting better as Alex got him to swallow the potion, but same as Alex it will take a while.

Seeing the roots crack, Sam jumped off the best, but in that time she had managed to leave her marks all around the monster's body. His elbows, shoulders, armpits, neck, and a few scratches here and there around his body. Sam intended to go for the monster's healthy eye but she decided to jump off instead of risking it.

And that was the right decision as while Sam was in her free fall, the monster freed one of its hands, but before Sam was too far away, she threw one of her smoke bombs at the beast's head just to buy them a little bit more time. On impact the bomb activated, and the smoke broke loose covering most of the monster's face with smoke. 

But it didn't last long, almost at the same moment as Sam landed on the floor with a roll the monster used his free hand to break the roots that were keeping his elonged jaw shut. ''RAAAAAARRR!!!'' With its mouth now free, it roared, strong enough to create a shockwave that dispersed the smoke and made Kayne and Sam take a few steps back. 

''Well fuck.'' June wasn't one to curse, but she knew that after the monster broke loose from her roots, it will be an end to them if they didn't think of something. Kayne and Sam were strong in their own way, but that monster's strength was just overwhelming plus it had some intelligence behind those red eyes, now eye. Sam had pumped the monster with some poison, but who knows how long will that take before it takes effect if it ever will take effect, so there wasn't much hope in that.

''BUY ME SOME TIME!'' Without any options left June asked Kayne and Sam to buy her some time. Seeing both beastkin nodded understanding what June wanted to do. The blond elf pulled out another potion from her pouch. But this one was colored bluish-purple. June didn't want to drink it but if she wanted to survive she had to.

June uncorked the bottle and gulped its content down. The next moment, she felt the surrounding mana rush at her, filling her full with mana. Feeling this June didn't hesitate to stand back up and start casting her spell. 

Seeing June start casting her spell, Kayne and Sam got ready to buy some time. The monster by now had broken off the roots of his second hand and was ready to break those that restricted its legs. Sam sprinted at the monster. She arrived at one of its lowered hands and slashed at the monster's digits. Sam used quite a bit of her power and skills to do as much damage as possible and she succeeded. It looked like the hide wasn't that durable in those spots, allowing Sam to make deep cuts. 

''RRAA!'' Feeling the pain the monster made a small roar as it pulled the injured hand away from the catkin. Sam wanted to do the same thing for the other hand, but she couldn't because the monster had already used the other hand to break free one of his legs, and then pulled the hand up.

Now the monster was standing only on its legs, making it a little less stable. Kyane was already in motion, similar to Sam he ran at the monster, but his aim was the monster's leg that he had attacked previously, and right now was still restricted by roots. With momentum, the wolfkin jumped and extended his leg. With the jumping kick he clashed against the monster's leg with some force. 

The impact was strong enough to make the monster lose its balance. But it didn't fall, it used its hands to keep itself balanced. Although the monster didn't fall Kayne wasn't too disappointed, because the leg he struck was now injured enough that the monster won't be able to use it completely. 

''RAAAR!'' With another roar the monster balanced on its hands, and pulled the still entangled leg free. Now the monster was free and unrestricted. But it wasn't in the best condition.

Now the monster was in worse shape than when they started this battle. One of its eyes was now blinded by Alex's arrow, it had cuts from Sam mostly in its weak spots, making it so that the monster wasn't able to move and react as fast. Then there were some small puncture wounds from June and the messed up leg that Kyane was responsible for. 

Though it wasn't like Kayne and Sam were in the best condition either. Although neither of them had sustained any external injuries from this monster,  they were getting tired. They still could go on for a while, but the longer they fought the more stamina it will take from them. And the more tired they get the more mistakes they will make. 

But now wasn't the time to think about that, their mission was to buy time until June has completed her spell. So the battle continued, as Sam and Kayne dodged the monster's fists and roars, while at the same time finding a window where they could land an attack or two. There were a few times when the monster wanted to attack June with a roar, but those times Kayne grabbed a rock and threw it at the monster's face, or Same used one of her smoke bombs.

And the monster didn't try to run at June, because with all its injuries it wouldn't be too fast, and in that time Kayne and Sam could injure the monster pretty badly. So there was nothing the monster could do until it dealt with at least one of the beastkin.

The monster tried to kill either Sam or Kayne but it didn't make it in time. ''Deodar coffin.'' The moment these words left June's mouth, Kayne and Sam turned around and tried to get as far from the monster as they could. While on the other hand, the monster got a little confused for a moment before it felt imminent danger.

The monster didn't have much time to react before giant roots burst out of the ground, but different from the earlier ones, these had a golden-green glow to them, and they were more numerous. They easily restricted the monster. His legs, arms, torso, neck, and mouth got restricted so that the beast couldn't move.

Next came the spikes, similar to roots, they burst out of the ground, breaking the cavern's floor. One after another those giant spikes impaled the monster, they easily punctured the monster's hide and muscles, and even the bones were no match for the spikes power. Now restricted and with multiple spikes coming in and out it its body, the monster wanted to screen in agony but couldn't. 

The monster couldn't move a muscle in this state, it could only move its eye, as its blood dripped down the stakes. But the spell wasn't over, like a wooden, spherical jaw, two sides of the dome emerged from the ground and engulfed the monster so that it couldn't be seen from the outside, only the wooden dome that had teeth like spikes inside it. 

''Is it over?'' Sam asked while looking at the impressive dome. But her answer didn't take long to get answered. the wooden construction slowly dissipated, until the catkin could fully see the monster.

It was lying on the ground, with multiple holes in its body. By the looks of it, the monster won't be able to move anymore and fighting is out of the question. Sam looked in wonder at the monster, its body lying in its own pull of blood. Suddenly the monster opened its mouth and made one last roar. ''RAAAAAAAaaaarr...'' The roar was weaker than its other ones, and it sounded like it was calling for something nothing like its previous dominating roars. With the last roar the monster died, but because of the last roar the party didn't feel relaxed, no they felt cold shivers run down their spines.