Interrupted by a powerful Fiend

Venus rested for a few moments, laying between Boma and Dakur. She would have happily fallen asleep now that she was content sexually, but her stomach growled and reminded her she had barely touched her soup. She took a sip from her bowl, but it had cooled during their rutting, so she stood and made her way for the cook fire where the rest of the soup was still bubbling.

She was just about to add some fresh broth to her bowl when movement just beyond her field of vision in the forest caught her eye. Her instincts as a Hunter kicked in and She jumped back as a needle, three inches long and half an inch thick, sailed out of the forest and through the spot she had been standing. Two similar barbs came flying at her just as quickly as the first two and she barely managed to avoid the first. The second one flew just a bit to high, passing over her right shoulder.

By this time her companions where on their feet and grabbing their weapons. Boma tossed her sword to her and she ripped it from its sheath before using it to bat away another needle. She realized that all the attacks were aimed at her, but she wasn't sure why. Something about the needles seemed familiar. Something from her training, but she couldn't quite remember what. Then she saw it coming out of the forest.

The body was that of a lion. It was red and as large as an ox. The blood red mane ringed a human face, but the sharp fangs ruined what could have been a handsome face. On its back sat a powerful set of black leathery wings. The creature's tail was that of a scorpion with a sharp poisonous tip. Just under the tip were three small holes, each with a needle already growing in to replace the ones it had already fired.

This was a Manticore. These monsters had once been quite common in Fyrona, but with the rise of the Shadow Hunters, most had been wiped out. In the days before the Hunters, Manticores had been among the most lethal of monsters. The needles they could fire from their tails were poisonous. One barb could cause temporary paralysis, but more than two doses of their poison at once could kill even the hardiest of men. Many Hunters had trained specifically to kill these beasts.

The beast's head swiveled to her companions and the eyes narrowed before turning to focus on her once more. It licked its lips and began walking slowly into the clearing. Boma's alarm cord snapped under the creature's powerful paw as it focused entirely on her.

Dakur and Boma began spreading out, with Dakur trying to get on one side of the beast and Boma readying his bow from a little farther back. If it attacked either of them, Venus wasn't sure they could survive. Her best chance was to keep it focused on her and hope that her lovers could get a luck strike in and kill it before it could refocus on them. For now it didn't appear to be threatened by them at all. Not that Venus blamed it: Manticore were among the top predators of the monster world. Their size and strength, coupled with their intellect and poison made them S class monsters.