Chapter 8: 8 – Surprise Attack

The sound of footsteps woke me up. No, they weren’t quite footsteps, I realized. They were closer to the sound of animal paws. Except no animal was stupid enough to make that much noise in the middle of the night.

I turned my head to the side of the small camp where Blake was sleeping. Our eyes met, and we exchanged a silent understanding. There was something in the woods, and that something was likely there to eat us. 

I reached for my sword, which had been laying not too far from me, as silently as I could. Blake already had both his daggers in hand and seemed ready to jump up at the first sight of danger. 

And sure enough, a dark silhouette peeked through the bushes. It was hard to make out details when most of the starlight was filtered out by the canopy above us. 

The creature was tall and covered in dark fur. It stood on two goat-like legs, but its arms reached all the way to the ground. From its head grew two ram-like horns. It was a forest devil, I realized. I had only seen them in textbooks, and I had been certain that they had all been killed during the great Extermination Expedition.

The creature looked at me, then at Blake. I laid as still as I could, remembering that they had poor eyesight. They saw everything immobile as one solid colour, and could not pick out any smells other than blood or water. I didn't even know why it had come to our encampment. We were far from any water sources and neither I nor my travel companion had any wounds -

The monster leapt towards Blake. The rogue got up in a split second and blocked its claws with his short blade while aiming for its neck with his other dagger. 

I grabbed my sword and swung it at the creature. It raised one of its long arms to block it, but my blade slid through it like butter. It growled in pain and launched towards me with its un-wounded claw. I easily dodged it and aimed for its chest, in hopes of creating an opening for Blake.

He seemed to have understood my movements and attacked its exposed neck. 

Suddenly the devil threw its head back, shoving Blake to the side with its massive horns. The rogue hit a tree, and slumped to the ground. I swung my sword at the creature’s leg, but it seemed to have lost all interest in me.

“Get up!” I yelled.

But Blake only let out a pained moan and wrapped an arm around his stomach. With his free hand, he raised up a dagger, bracing for an attack.

The monster swung its arm.

My body moved on its own; it must have been my knight training. Its claws impaled into my shoulder, and it looked at me with bloodshot eyes. Wincing from pain, I slowly pushed my sword through its chest. I watched as the life drained from its eyes. Then I suddenly felt its weight pushing me to the floor. 

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I dropped my sword and dropped to my knees. I pulled its claws from my shoulder, holding back tears. I then crawled on all fours to my rucksack and pulled out a clean piece of cloth. I pressed it against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

“Fuck.” I said as I saw the dark blood spreading through the cloth. “Sorry mother, you overestimated my skills it seems.” I quietly added. 

Wiping the blood off my hand, I reached inside the rucksack to check if the letters were still there. They were, and that brought me some relief.

“Shit. How bad is it?” I heard Blake’s voice somewhere beside me.

He’d managed to get up, so that was also good.

“Oh, you know,” I whispered, “Just a bad scratch, I'll live.”

“Fuck. I’m sorry. If not for me -” the other man muttered. 

“Come on, we need to move.” I painstakingly pushed myself off the ground. “Let’s go, before its blood attracts more monsters.”

“Let me help.” 

Blake tried helping me up, but unintentionally whined when I leaned onto him. I didn’t comment on it, and simply swung my rucksack over my good shoulder, and using my halberd as a walking stick, began slowly walking towards the nearest road. 

I vaguely knew the lay of the land, and if my memory wasn’t tricking me, there was an inn not too far from here. 

“My blade will be fucked after this.” I complained, mainly in an attempt to start a conversation and distract myself from the pain.

“That should be the least of your worries right now.” Blake said as he caught up with me.

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