The rock winged the thing, disorienting it enough for Alex to take aim. He adjusted his stance and whipped the tail forward, but he caught the edge of the weird armor-plating or whatever that was, and ow that hurt. He made a strangled, pained noise and pulled the tail back, and the fish-thing grabbed for it with its weird spindly arms, digging scratches into it.

His second strike was truer, and took the fish-thing's head mostly off its body. It was enough to take it down, and it flopped to the sidewalk, making an awful wheezing noise.

"Thanks, man. Ugh, I guess I ought, ough-tuh, to finish it off."

He wasn't in a hurry to touch it again.