'Go ahead then, but I should warn you, make a step towards the girl and it won't go well for you.' Typhus gritted his teeth to make the half hearted threat, he had spent years, if not decades honing his instincts for fighting. He ignored them often of course, but this demon exuded a wholly different aura. He had no idea how he could tell but to him it was like calling the color green, green. This thing in Nocturne's body was a demon and Typhus knew it.
Following a stillness borne from fear itself, small green fires flicked gently into the center of its eye sockets. 'That was… Surprising to hear, kin…', creaking its neck awkwardly the skull snapped and reattached with green flames serving as the tendons under the purple stained bones. Kin was mentally thrown in his face as if some kind of insult.
'Unfortunately, we only have seconds or this conversation would be much, much more… aggressive. Escape, through the red grass you encroached on. Now.' The green flame closest to its tailbone started to extinguish slowly like a candle wick burning without wax. 'You've body snatched my friend, and make demands of me in what must be the middle of the night but hey who knows it's hard to base time on the TWO RED FUCKING MOONS! I don't think listening to you is a… let's say, novel case of decision making.' Fear gripped his chest tightly making his response a tablespoon more venomous than intended.
Fake-Nocturne's flames reached its lower back at this point and showed no signs of slowing down. Typhus knew it was an indicator of some kind, but had no clue what it signaled. 'Speaking of novels, that's what you tzeth-' shaking its skull in a spasm interrupting the word it continued like nothing happened. 'Idiots! Don't understand, the book has doomed you.'
Book? His bestiary was currently a crude attempt of turning charcoal into graphite. Surely, it meant something else entirel- 'the purple skull book with the care package? Why? What is it?'. Confusion didn't stop his heart from beating at a rapid pace but Typhus's skin crawled like a thousand small spiders roamed on the back of his neck. It laughed. 'Well, that's just rich, a real fuck you to me personally. You don't know you hold Necropolise? How did you activate it then?'
Finally, he found a reason to have even the smallest amount of leverage in the conversation. Typhus knew something the demon didn't, maybe he could stall out the fuse if that meant the control over Nocturne was lost. All he had to do was survive one hit if it attacked, but that was like saying just survive one bite from a great white shark inflicted at the neck of Nocturne's strength was this creature's to wield .
'The purple skull book. We activated a spell, but it was too much. I'm not exactly an expert but the mana it wanted was an endless pit?' The fuse climbed midway through its ribcage slowing down noticeably. 'We, huh… maybe she could have some uses?' The skull instantly locked onto Sophia whose back raised and dipped gently in her slumber.
Having chosen to tell the creature the truth outright, Typhus accidentally endangered the only other human he's met in the last three days.
OUUUUUUUUHRRRRRREEEEEEeeeeee
Familiar screeching sounded out encircling the hole above them clearly within mere meters of their position. 'I will do you a favor in the name of trust, kin.' Snapping its bony fingers a green spark jumped from the carpal bones where the palm would have been. The trees of the roof illuminated brightly green for a moment before changing the red moonlight to a somber yellow mixing with an unknown source outside the sightline. Instantly silence resumed its allegiance to the night.
Sophia had woken from the screeching with wide eyes checking every crevice of her environment. After scanning for a few heartbeats her eyes rested on Typhus who refused to take his eyes off the burning demon who stood between them. Wordlessly her chest heaved with anxiety as her back pressed onto the dirt wall watching the outwardly silent interaction.
'Why do we need to go through the red grass now? And what did you just do?' Typhus was still near paralyzed from the amount of fear that was palpable around them. As the question finished the skeleton's green flaming eyes jumped back to Typhus.
You've done me a service by forcing the hand of death to reveal itself. Should you not accept my advice, you will die'. Finishing the foreboding warning the flames reached the skull causing the uncountable runes and markings to also catch ablaze and peel off the skull and into the air itself. Nocturne crumbled to the floor like a doll with cut strings and laid there unmoving.
Typhus brought a finger to his lips while motioning for Sophia to make her way to him, she clung to the outer wall away from Nocturne until she reached Typhus. In a whisper she asked, "what in the world just happened to Nocturne?".
"I… Don't know…", Typhus responded hesitantly knowing he had promised her nothing would come from the accompanying skeleton. Her mind raced at the revelation, he gave her little time to gather her thoughts as he grabbed her wrist and climbed out of the hovel. Climbing out of the ground under the moonlight made him feel like he was bursting from a grave with Sophia in tow.
Small burnt remains bubbled and smoldered from a ridiculous amount of heat, the dirt floor almost becoming pyroclastic magma from the sheer temperature of what ever happened. Four remains were in cinders and ash within the blackened spots. Darkness of night made details almost impossible to make out but the scene lacked blood splatters, no signs of a struggle. Instant death?
The pair of humans looked towards each other and locked eyes, sharing a mixture of confusion, fear, and indignation at the circumstances.
OUUUUUUUUHRRRRRREEEEEEeeeeee
Echoed across the forest originating from the direction of the cave Sophia was found within. While it was much further away it kept repeating and crescendoing. Until finally, a chorus of hundreds responded with a similar cry, like wolves howling they had found prey.
Grabbing her forearm with one hand and the silver blade with the other, Typhus sprinted away from the calls, towards the taller red grass. "What is… the plan?" Sophia ducked and dodged the branches that whipped back from Typhus's stride while asking. He didn't have a response to give her outside of the demon said this is the best decision, so he declined to say anything and kept pushing them further away from the screeching that continued and kept getting closer.
Passing the overturned tree they reached the border of the forest, without hesitation Typhus plunged them into the darkness within.
Visibility was difficult before, within the grass it seemed impossible. Shifting the blades and disturbing the ground they pressed ahead wordlessly.
OUUUUUUUUHRRRRRREEEEEEeeeeee
Leaping from the right Typhus was tackled to the floor by an unknown assailant, "KEEP RUNNING UNTIL YOU REACH THE PLAINS!" He yelled to Sophia who had stopped moving during the attack. Finding any solid contact point was hard but eventually Typhus was able to flip the attacker off him by rolling on his back and kicking the heavy weight off of him sending the monster high into the air. The silhouette hovered between himself and the red moon creating an unmistakable shape. Ghouls and from the sound of the howling at least a few dozen were on their way.
Landing on its feet the ghoul leapt with no hesitation back at Typhus. Reading the movement he brought his sword in a sweeping arc to parry the long nails the previous ghoul had used as its primary weapon. Expecting to meet no real resistance from the grass he was shocked when the blade abruptly stopped mid swing. The red grass curled around the sword's path making a knot at the point of impact that he couldn't just cut through. The ghouls' attack had met a similar fate, getting stopped before coming anywhere close to its intended target.
Screeching in a higher octave Typhus knew his location was just disclosed to all the encroaching enemies. Staring at the ghoul Typhus weighed his options while the ghoul seemed more concerned with keeping him in sight than actually killing him for now. Waiting for the larger pack to arrive rather than risk its life?
He wondered why the grass was impeding the attacks, and why the ghoul would call for back up if it wanted to eat him? Clearly, it thought Typhus was easy prey, or did it want to seperate him and Sophia? More questions came at rapid velocity but this was not the time for testing.
The silver sword would be little help in the absurdly close quarter combat the long blades of grass provided. Smirking Typhus buried the blade into the dirt underfoot and cocked his fists before rushing the beast. For the first time he saw a ghoul make a face other than hatred and anger, confusion at the arrogance of his prey.
That gap in decision making was all he needed. Taking two steps, Typhus threw a fist that the ghoul deftly dodged to the left. He let the fist continue far past his target before planting a hand in the dirt. Raising his back foot into the air he cartwheel kicked the monster between the eyes. The stat boosts showing their value when the monster was blasted backwards onto its back with a heel sized crater causing its already buggy eyes to bulge out further.
Typhus used the momentum of the hit to right his posture, landing back on his feet and swaying in place. Slowly, the ghoul rose to its own feet, clearly more cautious than it had been. Running to close the distance Typhus ducked a quick jab from the fist of the ghoul, kicking its backwards leg sideways, breaking it immediately. A new kind of screech bellowed from the monster, deep and guttural. Echoing for many more kilometers than the higher pitched ones closing in on them.
"Fuck it." Typhus said to the crawling monster. He grabbed the hilt of his sword and ripped it from the earth. He nailed the creature in place by driving it through the disabled legs calf, this time the grass did not intervene. Rather than attempting to free itself it swiped its nails at Typhus's own calves only to be stopped by the grass like someone holding the arms of an opponent back. Stomping hard and repeatedly on the divot his heel created, the ghoul's eyes burst from their sockets. Unmoving, it had no more fight in it after the first few seconds of the brutal violence.
*Ding*
Pulling his sword from the corpse he continued his run through the grass, using the moons as a compass since any other landmark for direction would be useless in the near total lack of line of sight.
Each footfall away from the screeching felt like he was only delaying the inevitable. Each yell felt like it was right behind his head. Each moment inside the grass felt like he was running in the wrong direction.
After another ten minutes or so of sprinting he started to hear voices, not within his head like talking to Nocturne or the imposter but human voices that grew louder the closer towards them he traveled.
Within meters of the sound he recognized one as Sophia's and the other sounded like a man with an incredibly deep voice.