I think I've been reading too much fantasy, or watching too much Star Trek(Sam's kinda on a binge).

Last night I fought a monster that just wouldn't die.

I'd just gotten back from some heroic endeavor with my crew, only to discover our little corner of the universe had been sorcerously usurped by this devilish froglike alien. In the process of 'trading', supposedly supplying my people with foodstuffs, he had taken control of their minds with this bizarre radiant power.

Skeptically, I watched it happen... He raised his arms, cloak trailing from them like the raised wings of an angel and light blazed brilliant from him. A godlike, if frogsome, image. I saw my people bring their treasures and food and lay them before him in worshipful abandon.

Grrrr....

So I dispatched my crew to safeguard the bedazzled community and slipped into the portal.

My blaster, aimed dead on his chest, on full blast'emtocinders setting, did little good. He sort of croaked a bit, but retained a superior smile as my laser beam sputtered away... I flipped it around, turning the nozzle to a handle, pressed a button and SHHHLZZT! Out slashed a five inch blade. I proceeded to stab him again and again, his infuriating smile telling me that I had yet to pierce a really valuable part of his amphibian anatomy, though he was bleeding all over.

I realised somewhere in the bloody, jabbing, ichor-spurting mess that I'd lost control, that somehow the creature had hold of my mind and I couldn't trust what I was seeing, feeling, hearing...

I closed my eyes.

I brought the knife down in a final blow and felt him crumple, hollow.

It felt good to wake up.