Monster Hunting

*Fuck*

*FUCK!*

As the monster roared at me, its spittle flying in a hundred different directions and smearing the stench of it on my face. I look in its open mouth and see that at least half of the teeth are broken or missing, though I don’t doubt that what it still has is enough to bite through bone with ease. The waist is covered by a filthy loincloth, spattered with mud and other substances that I try not to think too hard about yet somehow manages not to be the worst smelling thing here.

In an instant I forget everything that I had been taught in my hours of training with both mother and Canis over the past two years. I don’t take a combat stance, I don’t steady my breath, I don’t even grip the spear properly. As the ogre finishes its terrifying roar it lifts up its club again and swings it towards me with tremendous ****.

I dodge out of the way, making a jump backwards , in my haste I stumble over some old branches on the ground though manage to recover myself and remain on my feet. The ogre looks at me as though in confusion that I would try not to get hit by his big stick. In that moment I grip my spear tightly, heart pounding in my chest as adrenaline floods my body. *I won’t die to it. I WON’T*. I look at it’s arm still bent across its chest from the swing, and I leap forwards, my spear thrust outwards as I blindly stab at the arm. The metal tip of the weapon pierces the flesh and I see a blue liquid trickling from the wound, the smell of it is awful almost like an unwashed rat decided to eat a rotten carcass then frolic in faeces before vomiting over itself.

The enormous monster bellows in pain as it tries to break my spear, but I manage to pull it out of the flesh before it can reach it. I look over towards Lord Beckront and see him slumped against a tree, blood seeping from a gash on his forehead as Raynar licks his wound, his eyes are beginning to open as he regains his bearings after the blow that he suffered. I doubt he will be able to help much in this fight given how hard the ogre must have hit him.

Truly angered now, the ogre fixes its gaze on me; the squinting look making his swollen eye appear to be closed. Its huge arms raise up the tree trunk it is carrying and raise it above my head. *thud* the wooden weapon sinks into the ground where I was stood a second before, sending up a cloud of debris; I had managed to scramble to the side and now lay on my back as the ogre lifts his club from the ground and turns his eyes to find me.

It comes back towards me, and I use my arms and feet to crawl backwards, still lying on my back as it stumbles in my direction. The blue blood dripping from the wound that I gave it onto the old sticks, leaves, and dirt that it tramples to get to its prey. Me.

Before it can crush me with its weapon again, Lord Beckront had found a way to his feet and was coming to my aid with his spear at the ready, his knuckles turning white with his grip on the weapon; Raynar comes up alongside him, a low snarling sound coming from the wolfs throat as it stares at the monster before us.

“Can you stand boy?” he says as he offers me his hand to help me to my feet

“Just about” I wheeze as I take it and stand up, readying my spear too

“That cut was you? Good job” he praises me as he looks at the blood dripping from the ogre’s arm “Right now, you need to run and get back to the village. Let me take care of this beasty. Finally a real hunt” he adds, grinning like a maniac

I shake my head, “No chance, er, my Lord. You were thrown into that tree, and you look pretty hurt. There’s no way you can take it on by yourself” I say, to which I receive a **** sigh

“If this thing doesn’t kill me then your mother will” he says, seeing that I am steady on my feet now and finally taking one of the stances that I was taught. “Very well, let’s show you what the other tenth of adventuring is” he says with a smile “follow my lead”

Grim determination settles over both of us, even Raynar too by the looks of things, “go for the stomach” Beckront says, “beneath the fat, it’s a sensitive spot for them”

I nod my head and we both run at the oncoming monster, curving around it in opposite directions to split its attention, just like Canis told me to against big but slow monsters.

“Aha! Come on you lumbering lout. You think that stick will knock me out of the fight? No, I am Lord Fenley Beckront, slayer of monsters, adventurer of renown, lord of these lands, and lover of women” the old man declares in his usual loud bellow, the biggest grin that I had ever seen on his face as he jabs his spear between two rolls of fat.

*By the goddesses, he really is mad* I can’t help but think as I see his manic expression and the joy in his voice as he taunts the ogre.

Following his lead in at least one thing, I jam my spear into the other side of the ogre, puncturing a sweat covered roll as the monster unleashes a roar that seemed to be challenging Lord Beckront in loudness. The creature lowers its club so that it is hovering off of the ground and swings it around, its body spinning as it does so. With the surprising speed with which it turns I struggle to hold onto my spear which is still sunk inside of it and let go, falling backwards just before a high-speed tree trunk whistle through the space I was just standing in. Lord Beckront is not so lucky. The club collides with him again to a resounding crunch and his body is once more flown backwards into a small bush.

He doesn’t get up again this time and Raynar pokes its nose at the old man, I can hear a wheezing sound coming from him, the blow must have broken something, cracked a rib maybe? I can’t focus on that right now; the ogre is still here albeit with two spears protruding from its stomach. Its coming back to me again.

Quickly, I reach for the bow slung over my back and take out an arrow from the quiver, fumbling it as I try to knock it. On my third try I knock the arrow and point it at the monster, it lands near the shoulder but doesn’t slow the creature down. The footsteps still come for me as I knock another arrow and try again, still to no avail.

“grrrr” I look to my side and see Raynar there, having came from his bond and looking at the ogre. I fire arrow after arrow to no significant effect and am down to my last one. At an unreal speed, the wolf pounces across the ground and up the ogre’s chest, its claws making wounds on the body as the ogre cries out in shock. The blades that fill the mouth of the wolf sink into the neck of the ogre and it releases the claws as its body flails around in the air, a chunk of flesh slowly being ripped from the neck of the ogre.

It screams in agony as a rush of blue liquid spurts from the spot in his neck that used to be flesh. The monster drops his club with a resounding *thud* and grips its wound with a hand, Raynar now having fallen to the ground and dropping the hunk of ogre flesh at my feet, dripping with blue blood as it returns to Lord Beckront’s side.

I watch as the knees of the ogre buckle and it falls to the ground, the loss of blood apparently becoming too much for it. I walk over and yank out one of the spears from the belly of the beast before feverously slamming it into the neck of the monster again and again until it looks like the head is only half attached to the neck.

Satisfied that the monster will not be causing any more trouble for us, I rush over to Lord Beckront; dropping my spear in my dash I drop to my knees to check if he’s okay.

“Lord Beckront? Lord Beckront!” I say as I see his chest struggling to raise.

His eyes clawed their way open, and he gives me a weak smile, “Aucus my boy, you did it” *cough, cough* blood splatters his hand as he speaks, “ah shit”

“I knew you’d do it my boy, never had any doubt. Wish I’d been able to have a son like you” his voice trails off as he finishes speaking and his eyes close. His breathing still weak as I look down at his chest and see a sunken blow where his ribs usually are. He needs a healer, and now.

“Come on old man, I’m not letting you die. Not after your wolf killed that thing” I say as I lift the old man up in my arms as Raynar lets out a soft whine at the trouble of his bond before disappearing to the spirit realm. With Lord Beckront in my arms I run back to the village as fast as I ever have, leaving the body of an ogre and an elk carcass behind us.

I spend the next twenty minutes building up a sweat as I carry the wounded body in my arms, listening to the protesting moans that he makes as his body is jerked around to avoid slamming into trees. In the village a large group forms as they see that I am carrying the body of Lord Beckront in my arms

“Quick, we need to get him to Maya” I scream out, making them clear the path as I hurry him to the healer.

Hearing the commotion in the village, Maya opens her door, her eyes widening as she sees Lord Beckront in my arms, blood trickling out of his mouth. I help lay him down in a bed and am rushed out of the house, along with everyone else who desperately needed to see what was happening, as Maya begins to use what little healing magic she has on the old man whilst her husband prepares a number of salves and instruments.

Outside of her house, with a worried crowd gathering, and asking me what happened? Where were we? Did an elk really do that? Did I do it? I sit down on the ground exhausted from my ordeal. I feel my body and realise I’m not too injured, besides from a few bruises and scrapes I’m mostly just tired. It seems that with the ogre only dealing a few powerful but slow attacks I was able to dodge most of the damage it was giving out. It seems that in his old age, Lord Beckront’s reflexes weren’t as quick as his and he suffered for it

A woman with dark hair pushes through the crowd and my eyes light up as I see her, feeling a surge of new energy I stand up and wrap my arms around her

“Mother” I say, almost **** on the word, I feel tears coming from my eyes.

She just holds me against her warm body for a while, I think I hear a tear or two coming from her as well. After a while, she gently pushes me back from the hug, still holding me by my shoulders as she demands to know what happened.

I tell her everything. How Lord Beckront invited us for a hunt, how I borrowed a bow from Canis, meeting with him in the clearing, seeing the white Elk and hunting it, the ogre and how Lord Beckront’s spirit wolf killed it and how he was injured. I don’t miss out anything, unable to stop after I start, I detail where we were and how I brought him back.

She just holds me as she sits me back on the ground and joins me, realising how tired I am

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay” her soft comforting voice sounds as I hold onto her and fell my eyes gradually closing.