Page 49 of Obsidian Prince

The big werebear tried stomping on the badger, but by then the smaller creature’s entire body was below the grade of the rest of the ground. The bear’s foot was far larger than the badger was wide. The giant couldn’t get its big foot to do much damage.

While the bear became increasingly frustrated and enraged, pounding, clawing, and stomping on the half-buried badger, Liliana crept through the tree branches to the net of webbing she’d prepared.

The edges of the web were weighted with stones. She pulled the single line that dislodged all the stones just as the demi-bear reared up to try a double-fisted smash on the battered badger.

The net entangled the werebear’s entire upper body, including both his arms.

As the bear-kin stumbled back, Runningwolf took his chance to race out of his half burrow and bite the bear’s ankle again.

The bear-kin struggled frantically, flailing in the net, entangling his arms more thoroughly. He fell onto his butt, lifted his leg into the air, badger still attached, and slammed John Runningwolf into a tree.

Liliana winced in sympathy.

The blow knocked the badger loose, but when he got up from where he landed, his bared teeth were bloody. The badger-kin had taken a chunk of the bear with him.

The werebear’s broad muzzle stuck out through a hole in the net. He tried to bite Runningwolf where he crouched snarling and hissing.

The badger looked like it would be just a mouthful for the monster, but Runningwolf twisted his body to avoid being bear lunch. Instead, he chomped down hard with vicious badger teeth on the bear’s lip.

The giant bearman made an amazingly high-pitched sound for such a big, growly beast-kin. Yelling, he rolled onto his back. He tried to grab the badger, but the net entangled his arms.

Runningwolf stood on his chest. He shifted the grip of his teeth to bite the bear’s whole muzzle, puncturing deep into his nose.

“AHHH,” the werebear howled. His frantic struggles entangled him even more in the net until he could barely move. Blood seeped down like thick red tears as the bear made whining pain noises. “Sthtop! Pleathe! I give up!” he pleaded.

Liliana climbed down out of the tree.

Runningwolf growled, refusing to release the demi-bear’s muzzle.

The bear-kin whined like a cub. “I thwear. I won’t fight anymore. Just let go of my nothe!”

The badger released his grip on the bear’s face. Runningwolf didn’t budge, however, from his position, squat body standing with all four feet on the demi-bear’s chest. The bear lay with arms entangled, helpless while the badger snarled in his face. Eye to eye with the predator that weighed more than ten times what he did, John Runningwolf snapped his teeth.

The gigantic bear whimpered in terror beneath him as he wet himself.

Liliana wrinkled her nose. She wrapped web line around the bear’s ankles, tying some lines to her net, and anchoring it all to a couple of sturdy tree trunks.

When she was sure the bear-kin was no longer a danger, she slowly stepped backward until her back encountered a nearby tree. She watched warily the smaller, but infinitely more dangerous predator now aflame with a bonfire of fire orange anger in her third vision.

John Runningwolf turned the attention of his beady black eyes to her.

The badger-kin climbed off the body of the demi-bear, who shrank down to human form, holding his mangled face and weeping in agony.

Liliana knew her bonds would hold even on the bear-kin’s smaller, human form, so she ignored him. At the moment, he was far from the most dangerous creature in the clearing.

The squat, flat, scratched, bloody, and enraged badger stalked stiffly toward her, his snarl showing four long fangs dripping bear blood.

Liliana held out John Runningwolf’s pants. “You did win and you are not dead.”

The badger stared at her, snarling and hissing for a few more seconds. Finally, he huffed, snagged the pants with one long claw, and dragged them behind a tree still grumbling.

Lieutenant John Runningwolf in human form, barefoot and shirtless, came out from behind the tree a few moments later, snarling nearly as much as his badger form had been.

Liliana looked at the claw slashes, deep bruises, and blood smears covering his entire body. She gave a wan smile. “You did defeat the bear-kin.”

“I hate you.”

Liliana shrugged. That was understandable. “I said you could win in badger form, not that it would be easy.”

---