I stared down at the decapitated bunny, my face turning red with embarrassment. Dorrn and Feiya looked at me with amused expressions, but thankfully they didn't say anything. Everyone had a first time in the forest, so I was sure they understood how scary it was for me.
Just then, though, Dorrn's head snapped over, looking at something through the treeline. He held up a hand in a gesture that, at this point, I'd learned was one he made whenever he saw a hunting target.
This time, however, he didn't rush into battle like usual. He waved me and Feiya over to come look at whatever he saw. I crept forward, taking care not to make any noise, and gazed through the break in the treeline. What I saw made me immediately understand his hesitation.
The being I looked at was obviously Humanoid. It had two arms, two legs, and generally standard proportions. That said, it definitely wasn't Human. It was facing away from us, but even without seeing the front of its body, I could tell that much.
It was taller than the average person; it could easily stand head-and-shoulders above me, and its fingers ended in sharp claws rather than rounded fingernails.
Its skin was crimson red, with veins of blue blood shining an unnatural neon through its skin. It was bald-headed – in place of hair, it had two long, pointed horns. And instead of standing on the ground, it hovered, its feet suspended barely above the dirt.
It was a Demon – the red-and-blue coloring gave that much away – but I had no idea what kind it could possibly be. I'd heard of horned Demons, but those were normally the animalistic variants, like Hellhounds, not the Humanoid ones.
And I'd also never heard of a Demon that could float off the ground like that. Flight was advanced magic, and I'd certainly have heard of a Demon that could use it. From the looks of their faces, Dorrn and Feiya were just as confused by the monster as I was.
"Plan?" Feiya muttered to Dorrn.
"We kill it. If we flee, it could notice and get the drop on us. We got the upper hand now, so we need to make use of it."
"We do not know how strong it is."
"If it's out here and we haven't heard of it, it can't be too strong. If it'd been terrorizing the locals for months, they'd've put out a request to kill it."
Feiya seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded.
Dorrn and Feiya crept toward the two-horned Demon, taking care to stay silent, while I hid behind a tree, head poking out so I could watch the fight. The monster's back was still to us as Feiya prepared a Spell and Dorrn hefted his battleaxe.
Then, as quick as lightning, he lunged forward, swinging his axe with supernatural speed at the Demon. The axe struck the beast in the side of its chest, sending it careening into a tree. It swiftly recovered, however, turning and ducking to dodge a chunk of earth that Feiya had cast at it.
Dorrn was on it yet again, swinging his axe in a wild spin, but the Demon dodged yet again, and counterattacked with a mad set of swipes with its claws.
They struck Dorrn with a clang, his thick armor protecting him from major harm. The Demon was pelted at with another stone projectile by Feiya, and this one was a direct hit. Stunned by the rock, it couldn't dodge Dorrn's axe which sliced across its belly, followed by a hefty kick that flung it to the ground.
Dorrn's follow-up strike hit empty dirt as the Demon's flight magic carried it off the ground and back away from its attackers, but Feiya once again flung a storm of projectiles its way, not giving the monster a second to rest. Then, in a single bound, Dorrn closed the distance between himself and the Demon, swinging and cleanly severing the Demon's arm from its body. Blue liquid poured from the beast's shoulder.
It seemed to realize it was defeated, and turned to flee. However, a strike at its back hit it to the ground, and this time it couldn't get up; Dorrn's foot was stomped hard on the beast's back, putting the man's entire weight down on it.
"It's Level 14, Arlan!" He called out, "Come on over!"
For a moment, I didn't even recognize my own name – I was too mesmerized by the battle to remember why I was watching. But once I realized what he was saying, I jolted, took a deep breath to calm myself, and stepped out from my hiding spot.
The Demon's head was turned away from me, so I couldn't even tell if it was dead or not, but I assumed they'd kept it alive for me. Once I stood next to it, I hefted my sword, aimed for its neck, and swung downward, cleanly severing the Demon's head from its–
Dorrn and Feiya crept toward the two-horned Demon, taking care to stay silent, while I hid behind a tree, head poking out so I could watch the fight. The monster's back was still to us as– wait.
Two-horned? It only had one horn poking out of the right side of its head. The horn on the left was nowhere to be seen, as if it were never there. Was I mistaken? Suddenly, the Demon jolted, looked behind itself straight at Dorrn and Feiya, and dashed off.
"Shit! It's getting away!" Feiya shouted as she cast a Spell. Immediately, four walls of light appeared from nowhere, surrounding the clearing and boxing the Demon in with us.
"How'd it notice?" Dorrn asked Feiya while keeping his eyes on the Demon. It had turned to face them, realizing it couldn't get through the magical barricades.
"No clue. It's like the knowledge that we were there was suddenly beamed into its head."
"Well, whatever. If it's running away, it means we can probably beat it." Dorrn hefted his axe and lunged forward, swinging at the Demon. It ducked, and Dorrn followed up with a kick, but the Demon dodged to the side before he even lifted his leg, as if expecting it.
Without looking, the Demon swiped its claw to the side, perfectly deflecting a well-aimed hunk of stone launched by Feiya. I had no idea how it knew their fighting style already – they had only just started the battle.
Left wide-open by his two missed attacks, Dorrn couldn't block a set of claw strikes that the Demon hit him with – aimed perfectly at the gaps in his plate armor.
However, his Health pool seemed to be large enough to protect him from significant harm. That said, they hadn't gotten one solid strike on the monster, while it seemed to already know everything about them. They were fighting a losing battle.
Dorrn stepped back, adopting a more defensive stance. "Feiya! I need a buff!"
"On it!" Feiya cast a Spell that caused Dorrn's skin to glow a slight red and his muscles to bulge. The Demon watched, looking surprised – it seemed it didn't know everything about them, after all.