He had to think quickly. He glanced around him. There was a felled branch to his left. Without thinking twice, he reached over and grabbed it with his right hand, closed his eyes, and swung it around in a long arc, shouting something incomprehensible. He felt it connect with something. Opening his eyes, he saw what he could only describe as walking blasphemy. It was a chicken, or at least its body was shaped much like one, but only its head and feet had any resemblance to a fowl. It had a scaled body and thick tail that was as long as its body, tipped as it was with red ridges that emerged from its turquoise scales. The cockatrice stumbled and fell over from the sudden blow. It writhed and squirmed on the ground, cawing as it struggled to get back on its feet, leathery wings thrashing on the ground around it as another nearby living briar reached out to grasp at the struggling form of the abomination. It shrieked and cawed for release from the unrelenting grasp of the bush. The human broke and ran. He simply could not take it anymore. This place was madness incarnate: huge beasts, murderous plant life, and a creature straight out of ancient myth, turning creatures to stone with its very gaze.