Karl opened his eyes wide, screaming: "aaagh! Aaaagh! Where is it?! Where's that thing?!"

"Sshhh! Silence!" said Dag, as he continued to approach his friend.

"Dag, Reidar! A huge flying being brought me up here! I couldn't see much, it grabbed me by the legs and lifted me off the ground! I think I banged my head and lost consciousness..." continued Karl, as he squirmed, trying to free himself.

Dag finally reached the top, when the trunk to which the grappling hook was hooked began to make less rea.s.suring sounds.

"Hurry up, Dag! That trunk won't hold your weight for much longer!" said Karl.

Dag pulled out his hammer and began hitting the logs that kept Karl imprisoned, trying to break them without hurting his friend.

With difficulty, he managed to break them all and when Karl broke away from the ceiling, he clung to Dag, so as not to fall.

The stone trunk shattered and Dag and Karl fell back to the ground.

"Ouch!"

"Aagh!"

They both complained, writhing on the ground in pain.

"Why did you f.u.c.king cling to me like that... are you dumb?!" said Dag, trying to recover.

"I thought your rope held us! And then... you served me to cus.h.i.+on the blow" chuckled Karl, happy to see his friends again.

"Thank you for saving me. I thought you'd never be able to find me in this place, more like a labyrinth than a forest" he continued, rising from the ground.

"If anything had happened to you, I would never have forgiven myself, brother. I'm glad you're safe" said Dag, who hugged Karl.

"I don't want to interrupt you, but... I think something's coming towards us... that way!" said Reidar, pointing an arrow at him.

Dag pulled out the hammer and Karl ran to his horse, taking the s.h.i.+eld and tomahawk from a bag.

From the darkness, a being walked slowly toward them: the torch that Reidar had wedged in the tree began to illuminate part of its body.

Two narrow, long hand-shaped paws held a pair of large featherless wings, red as blood. The lower legs came out right after, much larger and more imposing, although the steps of that abomination were unnaturally silent.

Then the torch also illuminated its chest, which seemed to be dug inwards, albeit of a humanoid form.

A large hairy mane stretched from the animal's back to above the head, where its gigantic pointed, upward-stretched ears moved to one side and the other, picking up all kinds of sounds.

When the animal raised its face towards Dag and his companions, they shuddered: a giant bat, just over two meters high, was staring at them, with its small, bright black eyes.

It had black fur, like the sky at midnight and its wings as red as blood.

The large flattened nose was similar to that of a pig: when it was close enough to smell human beings, it turned its head towards Dag and opened its mouth, showing its thin tusks, long and sharp as razors.

It uttered an inhumane verse, a screech that forced Dag and the others to cover their ears with their hands.

Soon after, the mutant animal leaped upwards, flapping its wings, which lifted a cloud of dust from the ground.

"Is that one?!" asked Dag, turning to Karl, asking if the giant bat was his aggressor.

"Yes, Dag!" replied Karl.

Reidar tried to keep his eyes on the beast, though he was very frightened.

As it flapped its wings, the torch flame moved violently, until it went out.

Now a single torch illuminated a small portion of the forest: the one Dag had fixed in the trunk just before saving Karl.

The bat flew towards Dag, opening his huge prehensile paws.

"Captain!" shouted Reidar, who could barely see the beast.

He charged an arrow and hit the bat on the chest, making him enraged: it uttered a second screech and changed its trajectory, grabbing Reidar's shoulders with its paws.

The animal's long claws slipped into his flesh, causing him great pain.

Then it lifted him off the ground.

"Aaagh! Help me!" yelled Reidar in a panic and trying unnecessarily to squirm, his bow and arrows falling to the ground.

"Reidar!" yelled Karl in fear, looking at Dag for help.

Dag and the giant bat for an instant looked into each other's eyes.

Then the animal raised its head upwards, intending to wedge Reidar's body between the stone branches of the ceiling, as it had done with Karl, in order to add another victim to its collection.

Just then, taking advantage of its distraction, Dag threw the Magni's hammer towards the bat and hit it violently under the chin: the abomination lost control for a moment and staggered in mid-air, leaving Reidar hanging for a single paw.

"Aaagh! f.u.c.k!" continued Reidar, as the weight of his body rested on one shoulder, while the other lost blood from the holes caused by the claws of the bat.

Dag's hammer, after hitting the beast, fell to the ground.

The bat, after being stunned, lost a slight alt.i.tude, reaching about one and a half meters above the ground.

Dag ran towards it and with a jump clung to one of its wings, grabbing the black fur on its back with his other hand.

At that point, the winged being drew the claws from Reidar's other shoulder, which fell to the ground and was immediately rescued by Karl, who promptly dragged him backwards.

Dag stood on the back of the animal, waving in the air, trying to get rid of the weight on its back.

Holding its hair tightly with one hand so as not to fall, Dag began repeatedly hitting the animal with punches on its head and ears, trying to disorient it and make it lose its balance.

The sounds of the bat were chilling, they looked like sharp human screams.

As Dag struggled in mid-air, Reidar ran to his bow and picked it up from the ground, drifting back toward Karl.