Tsarmina dashed up and down the bank with a spear at the ready. She could not throw it for fear of hitting her destroyer. Mud boiled up from the bottom to mix with the flotsam of combat. Silver scales and gray black fur became indistinguishable in the melee.

Now Gloomer had latched his claws into Stormfin’s side and bitten deep into the pike’s dorsal fin. Stormfin thwacked away at Gloomer’s injured side with his heavy tail like a stout paddle. He had severed Gloomer’s tail and was tearing ferociously at the rat’s hindquarters.

The need for breath forced Gloomer to relinquish his hold momentarily, and Stormfin slid off like a wraith, following the current. Gloomer surfaced and gulped in several grateful breaths.

Dementedly Tsarmina shouted from the bank, “Gloomer’s won! Where’s the pike? Is it dead?”

Fortunata was caught up in the excitement. “It must be, Milady. Nothing could stand against the Gloomer for long.”

The soldiers raised a ragged cheer. It was immediately stifled as Stormfin came back to the attack!

Driving low, hard and fast, the big pike crashed into Gloomer with staggering force, catching him unawares. The huge rat had the breath smashed from his lungs as he was battered swiftly up against the far bank. Falling back into the water, he swallowed liquid instead of air. Still lashing out with tooth and claw, Gloomer was unconsciously inflicting injuries on the pike, but the damage was done.

Stormfin knew every inch of his river. He slid into a deep pit beneath the bank and attacked the rat’s soft underbelly with the mad power of one who feels victory in sight. Gloomer scratched blindly at the rock either side of the underwater hole, missing his adversary’s head completely. Baffled, he tried to turn away.

Stormfin’s jaws clamped tight on Gloomer’s back legs. The monster pike backed water as he dragged the rat backward down the pit with him. The watchers on the bank saw Gloomer’s front claws emerge wildly from the water, grasping at thin air before they vanished beneath the surface.

The destroyer from Kotir was beaten. Stormfin had finally won!

Tsarmina shot several arrows into the area where the pike had pulled her rat down. The soldiers stood about on the bank, shuffling awkwardly and fidgeting. A sense of foreboding hung over them after the defeat of Gloomer. Fortunata tried to stroll casually out of sight, knowing the wildcat Queen would be looking for a scapegoat to vent her wrath upon.

“Get back here, fox. Don’t try to slink away.” Holding out her paw, the wildcat Queen snapped at a stoat close by, “Give me your spear.”

Keeping her eyes fixed on the quaking vixen, Tsarmina accepted the spear. She swung it around until the point was at Fortunata’s throat. “So, nothing could stand against the Gloomer, eh, fox?”

The terrified fox could think of nothing to say. She merely gulped.

Tsarmina swung the spear away and dipped it into the river. She fished about for a moment then whipped the point out of the water. Looped over the spearpoint was the collar once worn by the Gloomer. Tsarmina hurled the weapon. It whizzed past Fortunata and buried itself in an ash trunk, quivering with bright droplets of water shaking from it.