Chapter 15: Bloody Melee 1
The beast that crashed alongside him sprung to its feet with a growl. It whipped its long claws and struck at Seth's thigh. Seth heard its growl and pushed forward, driving his knee into the beasts chest before its attack connected. Seth counterattack staggered the ghoul, and he struck without hesitation.
He sent fierce thrust in the general direction he sensed the beast's attack came from. The tip of his dagger whistled through the air and dug deep into the creature's neck. The creature let out an inhuman screech and pulled back. Seth followed, ready to finish it off when he felt the air current around him flicker.
Two sets of claws struck at his torso. They sliced through his light armor and dug into his oblique and left biceps. Seth reeled back in pain and scarcely had time to react before at third claw came for his face.
He dropped to a squat just as the claws swept overhead. Before he had room to counterattack, a faceless torso crashed into him and pressed him hard against the tree. His ribs groaned and creaked from the pressure, and he struggled to get his hand over his head in time to ram his blade into the back of his attacker before it launched another furious attack.
The beast let out an inhuman screech that forced Seth to cringe in pain so much, that he considered letting go of the dagger. He wanted to shield his senses- some reprieve from the pain- but realized that a moment of hesitation could give the beast a chance it needed to make it escape or counter-attack.
So instead of giving in to the pain, he pulled his dagger out of the creature's back and stabbed again, this time with more gusto. He stabbed it again, and again. He worked the back as fast as they could, drawing blood and tearing muscle with each stab and pull.
His hands were slick with blood, and chest felt like it would crack from the pressure the creature increasingly mounted, but he didn't stop stabbing. The beast's screech became disjointed and uneven, pulsating with each well-placed stab. When he felt the grip of the beast loosen, he dropped both blades, pushed off the tree, wrapped both hands around the ghoul's side and threw it as far as his body would let him.
He felt the muscles of his back, abdomen, legs, and chest shiver as he squeezed every single ounce of strength out of them for the throw. Though both ears were still ringing, he heard a loud crash, and several uncoordinated screams follow. He must have hit some of the beasts, he thought.
He felt the air around him for the third time that night and knew an attack was coming at him, again. This time from his left. He hurried to counter-attack.
He pushed down with the balls of his feet and channelled power by whipping his strained midsection to deliver a devastating punch. The attack might connect, or fail, but attacking first was better than a counter after a failed dodge.
The punch he threw landed with a sickening crunch. He felt the head of the creature shatter from the impact of the blow and his muscles and bones mince from the blowback of the attack. He reeled back in pain and crashed back into the tree. His right hand fell limp, completely wrecked from the pain.
He heard several grunts and loud snaps coming in from all directions. The beasts no longer attacked; instead, they waited, studied and encircled him. Any small micro-movement Seth made was greeted with a screech or multiple grunts. He knew that, like him, they were searching for some weakness, an angle they could exploit. Any second now, they would pounce, and he would lose all hope of retaliating or escaping. In a bid to ready himself for that eventual outcome, he decided to use the firebombs he bought.
He summoned a firebomb with his last functional hand and threw it in the direction of the growl. While the glass of luminescent fire liquid travelled the air, the beasts simultaneously started their sound wave attack. The firebomb exploded mid-flight and rained down hot fire, on everything in a five-meter area. Just the force from the blast sent Seth flying into the distance. The area where he formerly stood was bathed in a nebulous, almost malicious blaze of red, and blue and white. He bounced off the forest floor, kicking up dirt, and bloodying the green. His midsection violently wrapped around a thick branch, and his slightly scorched frame fell to the floor. He pushed to his feet, groaning in pain. Most of his shirt was gone, and his skin was a bloody, rare white, but now he could see.
The fire from the bomb was spreading, hopping from tree to tree, and it illuminated his foes, or rather what was left of them. Three were charred beyond recognition, and the remaining two blindly shrunk backwards, avoiding the flames as though it even the smallest strand of flame. A cunning smile settled on his face. His remaining hair stood on end, and he summoned his estoc and pointed its tip at the ghouls. He kicked off with all the strength his legs and crossed space between them in seconds. With a clear thrust, he pierced the skull of the first ghoul. Before its body reached the ground, he expertly transitioned to a slash and hacked the second ghoul from shoulder down to chest.
His blade shattered three ribs before it lost momentum and wedged in the fourth rib. The beast clawed at him, blade still halfway through it. Seth weaved to the side to dodge, pulled his blade and twirled to deliver a devastating reverse vertical slash that tore most of the beast's head off. Blood sprayed out of its partially hanging head, and torso as it fell to the ground. It bathed Seth from head to toe in red. Seth' followed up with a thrust deep into its chest, just to make sure it was really dead. The white skin of the ghoul was shrouded in sticky red, and its body a mangled mess. Seth heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of his dead opponent. His heartbeat slowed, and he felt his grip loosened on his blade. He dropped to his knee panting and with a smile on his face, "I can't believe I survived."
At the corner of his watery stinging eyes, he saw something move in the flame. His heart skipped, and he rushed to his feet. "What now?" he said in a low dreadful whisper.
"There's more of them?"
He swallowed hard; he should've never left camp.
His grip tightened around the hilt of his blade and nervously scanned the flames for movement. He saw nothing but burning trees, charred corpses and shadowy smoke at first. A second later, he glimpsed a shadowy silhouette. It appeared and vanished every three seconds or so. It was featureless and rapid.
It seemed to enjoy toying with him- always reappearing behind him just as he turned to face it. The sweltering heat, and rising smoke compounded with his rising anxiety. The beast zipped in and out of view so fast, Seth almost swore his mind was playing a trick on him. His blade began to rattle in his only working arm. "Face me!" he yelled into the flames.
The silhouette appeared in a copse of burning trees in front of him, almost immediately, as if in response. The strange figure opened its maw to reveal a darkness. The fire around its head parted, and a black mass emerged from its maw. It leaked grey grainy mana, and it swirled as it gently hovered, gaining size with each rotation. Its head was featureless and scared. It had the same white head all the ghouls that he fought before did. Its entire body looked unmarred by the blaze, like the fire itself feared to touch it, much less burn it.
Seth jittered as he stared into the darkness- a knowing fear settled in his heart; he felt as though he stood in front of the blood mage again, crippled and bound. Just like back then, he knew he was going to die. He looked to his left and whispered "sister," but no streak of light came, nothing changed. Before enemies that were simply beyond him, he was all but powerless. Hot tears streamed from his eyes, "Holy magic: Lance," on chanted desperately. Tiny specs of mana stirred within him; no beam of light followed.
His eyes sunk, he forgot? For a minute he actually forgot-
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone