"Isn't it the most embarrassing thing you've ever heard? Amateur. And the more frantic he got, the more he panicked! He stopped, brandished that axe, shouted - come out and face me like a man!!"

To that, even just remembering it, Alastor guffawed.

"Don't be SILLY. He still had that fight, that adrenaline. I let the bayou answer him with nothing but frogsong and settling water. By then, he was on that last pump of adrenaline... and then it was the waiting game. I watched from the shadows, waiting in silence, already catching my breath.

"And then his knees buckled. He hid himself away as best as he could in the crux of fallen trees, tangling himself in the roots. None the wiser as he fiddled with his boots to pour out the water, I swiped his axe and hacked off his leg below the knee! Hahahah!"