Chapter 15 Demon #3
“Something’s wrong.”
Without waiting for an answer, he jumped up and peered down, his eyes growing wide.
He could not believe only moments had passed.
The torches lay scattered in the mud, all but one already snuffed out by the moisture.
In the flickering light of the dying last one, a terrifying scene unfolded.
Three orderkeepers stood huddled together, blades in trembling hands.
The fourth one, a woman with auburn hair as Kraghtol remembered, was gone.
No, not gone. Her body was torn apart violently.
Red blood and pieces of red cloth clung to the twisted body of the demon, which slashed at the survivors with its claws.
Kraghtol felt sickness rising in his throat.
What was happening? The beast was supposed to be harmless, a tool for scaring off the orderkeepers!
Yet, as he watched, a claw pierced through the chest of the second woman until it emerged from her back, raising her off the ground with a triumphant roar and flicking the corpse back against the other two humans, as if it were a doll, staggering them.
The beast was clearly at an advantage. The orderkeepers’ blades were much too short, and Kraghtol knew from experience how dense the creature’s hide was.
“No! Stop! Run!” Kraghtol heard himself shout, and for a moment, the demon turned its head towards him, eyes glittering in malicious rage, as if to say, “You are next.” The last of Roderic’s companions, a man younger than Kraghtol, was the first to react and half stumbled, half crawled towards the opening in the brambles.
The one way out, the choke point their trap had created.
Roderic was only a split second slower, going backwards while slashing the air in front of him with his weapon.
He tried to keep the beast at a distance, but Kraghtol could already see it wouldn’t work.
The demon’s gaze went towards the fleeing man, and he could see its five leg muscles tense, getting ready to pounce.
“Fuck!” Kraghtol exclaimed and sprinted.
Behind him, Valir and Dagna, who had watched the scene in stunned silence, started shouting, but the half-orc ignored them.
As much as he would have wished for his Orcish instincts to take over, this was all him.
This was all going horribly wrong, and it was his fault!
Running and sliding down the slick mound was no simple task, and Kraghtol fell down more than once, but jumped up as quickly as he could.
A wave of mud erupted as the demon landed right on the back of the younger man, and perhaps it was just his imagination, but Kraghtol was sure he could hear the ugly snap of his back breaking like a twig.
The demon raged brutally, clawing at the last remaining orderkeeper now, who only barely backed away.
He was trapped. All around him were dense brambles that would take far too long to break through.
The demon was guarding the only exit, and Kraghtol realized it knew.
There was a glint of horrifying intelligence in its eyes as it slowly approached the man in the red jacket, who had nowhere to run now.
Kraghtol was nearly at the foot of the small hill, with the dangerous foliage right in front of him, separating him from the clearing.
With all his strength, he launched himself off the spongy ground to jump over the barrier, which only half-worked.
He passed two-thirds of the bush, but landed right in the middle of the last part, thorns and brambles cutting into his flailing arms and legs.
Pain erupted, but he shoved it aside and ripped himself free, which only added to the agony and cost him precious seconds.
Finally, he broke free, just in time for him to see the demon’s horrendous maw rush forward.
Roderic had been expecting the attack and thrust his blade forward, right between the teeth-laden jaws of the beast.
The huge demon roared as sharp iron wounded the soft inside of its mouth, but the stab had not been strong enough to kill it. Instead, the jaws closed shut, snapping his upper arm in two as if biting through the bone was nothing.
Roderic stumbled back, falling on his back as the demon spat out the blade, with his arm still attached to the hilt.
Kraghtol was amazed the other man was still conscious and alive, but that would soon change.
With another terrifying roar, the demon rose on two of its hind legs, the other three limbs raised into the air, ready to finish the job.
Finally, the last bramble let go of him, and Kraghtol dashed forward as fast as his strained legs would allow.
This was madness! He didn’t even have a weapon of his own!
But he couldn’t stop now! He passed the prone orderkeeper on the muddy ground and made a fist. An incoherent scream was erupting from deep within him, breaking way out of his tusked mouth, just as he launched himself at the demon.
The strike was forceful enough to have knocked out one of Fennew’s friends back at home instantly, breaking one or two bones in the process.
The demon, however, barely flinched, only sliding back a few centimeters through the mud from the force of impact.
Its hide was far too thick for the fist to have any actual effect, and yet, Kraghtol followed through with his left one.
Familiar pain shot through his hands, but he didn’t stop.
“No!” he shouted and struck with all his might, not doing any actual damage.
Mud splattered all around them as the demon heavily dropped to all five legs again, bringing its open mouth right in front of Kraghtol.
Stars above! It was about to bite off his head!
The deafening roar splattered beastly blood from the wound in its mouth all over Kraghtol, and he got ready to dodge.
He didn’t know what he was doing; it didn’t make sense.
After killing him, the demon would just continue with Roderic and then Dagna and Valir.
He was just throwing away his life for nothing.
The attack didn’t come. The mouth snapped shut only centimeters in front of his face, and evil eyes pierced through his skin, accompanied by a menacing growl.
Then, after a long moment, the demon turned around as if suddenly losing interest, broke through the brambles without even slowing down, and disappeared into the darkness.
Kraghtol just stared. He was unable to grasp anything that just happened.
Suddenly, he felt dizzy. He should be dead!
Dead like the three orderkeepers around him.
He punched the bloodthirsty beast with his bare fists, and yet, it just left.
He spun around at the fast footsteps rushing behind him.
Valir ran through the mud, uncaring of the earth and blood dirtying his clothes, until he stood right in front of him, out of breath.
“Kragh! Are you okay?”
The half-orc could only nod, and Valir exhaled. “Stars above…”
Then, without warning, he grabbed Kraghtol’s head and pulled him close, pressing his own trembling lips against Kraghtol’s dark green ones.
Kraghtol’s world stopped, and for a moment, there was nothing else.
Just Valir’s lips on his, overwhelming his every sense.
He didn’t know what to do with his hands.
Or with his mouth. But none of that mattered, as he felt himself melt into the kiss, and for one single beautiful moment, he wasn’t in an unnatural, evil swamp, surrounded by blood and death.
It was impossible to tell how long they remained like that, but one thing was certain: it was too short. Despite everything, Valir was smiling, and Kraghtol wouldn’t be surprised to find himself grinning like an idiot as well.
“That was for surviving,” Valir said quietly, before continuing louder. “And for scaring me like this, I will kick you in the balls. Later. What about him?”
Kraghtol’s mind was abruptly forced back to reality.
Valir was talking about Roderic. The orderkeeper was still alive!
But not for long if he did nothing. Dagna still hadn’t arrived, so the kiss couldn’t have lasted longer than a few heartbeats.
Roderic had moved half a meter, and his left arm was clutching his right, or what remained of it after it had been bitten off above the elbow.
He was bleeding heavily, and that alone would kill him quickly.
“Fuck! I need bandages, fire, water… Valir! You still have alcohol?”
The orderkeeper was barely conscious anymore, and didn’t fight back when Kraghtol picked him up and got to work.
The bite had been forceful enough to cut through tissue and bone alike, but the wound was bleeding like mad.
He needed to stop that first. Using a piece of cord, he tied off the arm with a strength that made Roderic wince. He couldn’t afford to be careful.
It was still bleeding too much. He broke off a stick and snapped it in two. With one part, he tightened the cord by turning it until the flesh beneath turned pale.
“Sorry, but the next part is going to be much worse. Bite on that.” He shoved the second part into the wounded man’s mouth and took the burning piece of wood that Dagna had brought.
Clenching his teeth as if he were the one on the receiving end, he held the fiery end directly to the wound.
A sizzling sound and the barely bearable smell of burned flesh filled the clearing, and a split second later, Roderic screamed from the top of his lungs, the stick falling out of his mouth, before his eyes rolled back and he went slack.
Kraghtol continued for several more seconds until the stump was blackened and hopefully sealed for good.