The beast began to lope forward the distance towards John. The fireballs landed clean, one smashing chunks of gold from its face, the other flittered somewhat ineffectually into the oily black substance of the creatures skin.
It let out an abmammalian screeching howl as it closed the distance towards John, mere metres away from crunching into his flesh and bones. For its size, the beast was deceptively fast, but bore the trademarks of such a large creature. Its movements were highly telegraphed, its reflexes by its nature slower.
Its head lowered, bringing the golden faceplate to John's height, aiming to collide to crash into his body with devastating momentum.