Paragaea by Chris Roberson

Leena's eyes a brief moment to adjust to the gloom, having stared so long in the direction of the firelight, but the dim illumination cast by the still-flickering cook-fire aided somewhat.
    There, only a few meters before them, hulked the massive form of a sloth, but not like any sloth Leena had ever seen, in life or in photograph. Laying supine on the ground, its muzzle pointed towards them, eyes blazing in the flickering firelight, this sloth was easily two meters from belly to back.
    â€œWhat is?” Leena said, almost unable to breathe.
    The sloth climbed slowly to its hind legs, standing almost as high as the surrounding trees, and brandished claws almost as long as Leena was tall.
    â€œTrouble,” Hieronymus said simply, and tightened his grip on the saber.

The giant sloth towered over them, standing six meters or more from nose to tail, covered in long, shaggy brown hair. Lumbering forward on its thick hind legs, its enormous weight counterbalanced by a massive tail, it swatted at the air before it with long claws and lifted its deceptively docile-looking snout to emit a fearsome, rumbling bellow.
    â€œSloth eat plants!” Leena objected, scrambling backwards, keeping as far from the reach of the enraged creature as possible.
    â€œThis one doesn't appear to be particular,” Hieronymus said out of the side of his mouth, sidling to the left while Balam slid to the right, flanking the beast.
    â€œMad beast,” Balam shouted back, his tone as clipped and to the point as his choice of words. “Bloodlust.”
    The giant sloth's black eyes followed Hieronymus and Balam as they circled around to either side, its snout pointing first at one, then at the other.
    The sloth chose Balam, lunging forward and sweeping towards the jaguar man with both of its forelegs, its claws splayed out like a deadly fan. The jaguar man, with a lithe agility that brought to Leena's mind the wild cat he resembled, leapt a meter straight up in the air, high enough that the vicious claws of the maddened beast sailed unimpeded beneath him. Landing nimbly, he slashed out at the sloth's forearms with his knife, and though the blade did not bite deep, it drew blood, the pain serving only to make the beast more enraged still.
    The sloth bellowed again, its maddened bloodlust increased. Its torments, though, were not through. With the beast's concentration on Balam, Hieronymus dashed forward and slashed at its left hind leg with his saber, cutting far deeper than Balam's knife had done. Hieronymus's blade came away slippery and gored, and the giant beast bellowed with rage. But, pricked on one side and sliced on the other, the sloth showed no signs of retreating, no indication that it was losing its balance or inertia.
    The sloth now turned its attention to Hieronymus, the most noisome of the two pests prodding it. As it had done before, it lunged forward, and swatted at Hieronymus with the claws of both forepaws outstretched and deadly. Lacking the jaguar man's dexterity, Hieronymus danced back out of reach as quickly as he could, but not quickly enough. The leading edge of the claws ripped his shirt to ribbons and carved wicked gashes across his chest. Hissing with pain, Hieronymus swung his saber in an ineffective attempt to parry the beast's attack, and staggered backwards.
    Without wasting a breath to speak, Balam rushed forward, sinking knife and talons into the thick tail of the giant beast, his fangs bared, eyes wild and flashing.
    The giant sloth reared up, mouth wide and howling with insensate rage, twisting to one side and the other, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the jaguar man from its tail. Hieronymus shouted, trying to get the great beast's attention, and Balam, digging deeper with knife and claw, began to roar.
    The deafening din was brought silent by a single sound.
    BLAM.
    One of the sloth's black eyes blossomed into a red bloom, and the beast's horrible bellow was immediately silenced. The sloth jerked