(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

treasure, yes? The troco must die. You keep treasure. We get body. Yesss?"
"What is that creature?" I couldn't tell whether it was undead or not. Then
again, the thought of large reptilian monsters keeping a comfortable
ecological niche in a network of sewers was ridiculous.
"It'sss a trocoptoca. White. Hornssss. Nasssty. Trocosss eat flessssh. Our
enemiesss. Kill it, yes?"
"What's with your friend?"
He grinned, "Ha ha... coward, he isss. Afraid of troco. Ha ha. Kill it for us,
yesss?"
The second ghoul snarled, "Not friend! Braggart! Big ghoul! Afraid of
nothing, he saysss! You see him getting clossse to troco? No! He coward!
You kill it and show him who brave isss!"
I leaned to get a better look. A motionless lump lay behind the
tocop-something, a mangled corpse draped in a Collector's robe. "I'd rather
not get in the way of such a thing if I can help it."
The second ghoul hissed, "Hsssst- we not interested in coins or things that
go clink. Just the flesh... Kill the troco for usss, yesss, and you take itsss
money. We take itsss food. You like, yesss?"
Well, we could do a favor I suppose. The more content the ghouls are here,
the less they'll bother me.
The thing snarled, trying to drive me from its territory the way predatory
beasts do. Such creatures are rarely interested in fights. Much better to butt
heads and scare an enemy off than risk crippling wounds open to infection if
things got really nasty. If all it had were snarls and grunts, perhaps I could-
My thoughts were cut off when the thing swung its head and gored me with
one of those mandibular spikes.
"Oh son of a-" I screamed as I landed, gripping a deep puncture in my leg.
The gush of blood wasn't as bad as it could've been... a quarter of an inch off
and the artery would've been spewing my scarlet life over the stones.
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