After watching the younger boy go down fighting the beast, Dust knew he had to keep fighting if he wanted to keep the rest of the people alive. He felt completely drained and he couldn’t move without an intense jolt of pain racking his body. His stone was still in the beast’s skin. He would need another weapon to fight. He didn't have the strength to break another stone from the ground.<br/><br/>The beast now had several stones sticking out of it, the gathered people’s desperate attempt to survive. However, the beast also wanted to survive. This was several beings fighting to stay alive on both sides. With the things they currently had they were not much of a match for this beast, which had many ways of fighting. Most of the remaining survivors were injured badly, Dust included.<br/><br/>He obviously had several broken bones in his chest, making breathing hard and excruciating. He couldn't let that stop him though. There were still others fighting who needed help, lest they all fall. Dust struggled through the pain to get up to his knees. He looked at the snake looking for any way to fight it. His own stone wasn’t very deep and could be pulled out fairly easily. This is the action he settled on.<br/><br/>Dust pushed himself to crawl towards the snake, its attention focused elsewhere. Once close enough he leaped and grabbed hold of the stone ripping it out. The force left a rather deep cut in his left hand but he ignored the pain and dripping blood as the removal of the stone got the beast’s attention, its head whipping in an instant to stare at him.<br/><br/>Dust jumped at the moment he saw the head turning and managed to grab onto the top of the snake, near its head. Holding on with his left arm he jammed the stone as hard and deep as he could into the beast’s eye. There was a sickening feel as the stone forced itself into the beast’s much softer eye. Blood gushed out and the beast began tossing furiously, slamming itself into the ground and crushing the upper part of Dust’s left arm between its body and the ground.<br/><br/>Dust let out a powerful yell before being flung off the snake. He crashed into the ground with painful force, blood flying from his mouth. He laid there, blood flowing from the cuts in his hand, unable to move his left arm at all. His entire body was in pain. The beast was still thrashing about in pain though.<span style="font-style: italic">Maybe they can live now</span>was Dust’s last thought before slipping into unconsciousness.