Mikael was thankful that he had his blunt weapon, not wanting to imaging how that warm blood would feel on hi skin. The Kobold from before laid to his feet, glancing menacingly, the clicking noises intensifying. He had stroken the leg, as this creature jumped at him, making him unconsciously alter the path his weapon took.
It managed to get up on his healthy leg, already in a half position to attempt another jump. It used its leg to propel, accelerating faster than Mikael thought it could.
'Dodge, I have to dodge!' he knew, but his body was not keeping up with his mind, only taking a few hastily steps backwards, before he tripped over a dead kobold, which he had not thought of.
He fell on his butt, still clutching his weapon. Bjorn was still a fair distance away, not in harms way. And just for safety, they gave him a dagger, should the need arise.
His foe jumped on him, the ugly face only few centimeters away from his, the hot breath and salvia dripping making him feel sick.
"Get off me, you nasty creature!" he pressed out, ignoring the pain of claws trying to dig into his flesh through his clothes.
Before it managed to bite him, Mikael got a hold with his free hand of the neck, using as much force as his position permitted.
'It's stronger than it looks.' he noticed, clenching his teeth while holding against the push the Kobold exerted.
He tugged in his right leg, forcing it under the gray belly and kicked.
The Kobold still held onto his clothes, ripping out some strands as it was pushed away, falling onto its own back.
Clumsily Mikael got on his feet, breathing heavily and suppressing the pain rising from the butt and shoulder.
Walking towards the dazed enemy, he grasped the hammer with both hands, swinging it like a sickle, directly at the head. He put his whole body into that swing, only because not able to keep it from moving against it.
'Holy, that is gory.'
Upon connecting, the head of that Kobold moved with it, before the limit was reached, but the force continued, and before Mikael could register, the head already flew away, ripped of from the torso, the tissue bleeding, the artery still pumping blood, making it splurt over the earth and some on his pants.
'And I was glad a moment ago.'
The adrenalin still pumpkin, he turned, looking for the next opponent.
To his surprise, no new ones came his way, making him nervously looking around, expecting to be ambushed.
"I think we got it under control now." Bjorn came, looking shocked at the headless corpse to Mikael's feet.
"But holy Mother, you took this guy out good. Never saw someone using it like that." he looked towards the greenery, the head laying away a couple meters.
"Come, maybe they need still some help."
Mikael followed, widely awake and grasping his hammer so hard the white of his knuckles was seen.
Leon just pinpointed his remaining foe onto the ground, crushing the neck with his foot and bodyweight.
Sophia also had removed her gloves and hood, cleaning her sword roughly.
Her neck length dark red hair sticking to her skin, the yellow eyes looking up.
She sat on a big rock at the entrance, seing Mikael coming over, her eyes clearer than this morning.
"You take the first shift tonight after we cleared out the inside. To your own good... We saw you fighting by the way." her eyes wandered to the corpses a distance away, curling her lips to a slight smile that made Mikael a bit uncomfortable.
"Not impressive, but for your first time also not bad. But that last one!" she whistled impressed, imitate his action with one arm.
"Yeah, good job Mikael." Leon also joined, letting his eyes wander around the perimeter. "Do you need medical attention? A open wound, bleeding, scratches?"
"Nothing, it's claws couldn't get through my clothes." he answered.
But Bjorn walked up, grabbing his arm and forcing to open his palm.
"Some water and a bandage is enough for that." Leon simply said after seeing that, already cramming in his backpack he got from their previous hiding place, putting Mikael's next to it.
"Totally forgot about that." Mikael expressed, the torn skin slightly bleeding. "But it doesn't hurt at all."
"You are still in a high, it's a exciting situation for you, so no wonder. Your sore muscles tomorrow will be fun."
After a quick cleaning and a bandage wrapped around his hand, he was told to check the cave with Sophia, as he wanted to collect the bodies and body parts.
"After you are done inside come help me dig a pit, or do you maybe want to burn these up."
Leon already began with his task, Mikael taking a sip from his own flask, observing that he shivered slightly.
He took a deep breath, the back of Sophia walking inside calming him somewhat.
"Do we need a torch?"
Sophia already walked towards the corner, one hand on the wall, the other holding her middle distance weapon.
"Don't think so, see that shiny thing?"
Following her nod, on the ceiling he perceived a dimly glowing rock, spending some light.
"How can a rock emit light?" he spoke to himself, walking after Sophia.
"Many caves or natural produced systems got these. They convert energy inside the wall into light. Convenient, no?"
Mikael scratched at a stone, experimenting if he could take one out.
"Useless, they loose their benefit when separated, many tried, no one succeeded. Now get over here, there are some unconscious ones."
They walked inside a big room, lit up by many glowing rocks. The light was cold, slightly bluish, but in their shine the gray bodies of strewn around bones, shells and bodies was visible.
"Hurray smoke, saved us some work." she cheered sarcastically handing Mikael a knife.
"Either brain or heart. I suggest heart, easier to damage."
She made her way to the first body, making short work and stabbing the said organ.
Mikael followed her example, walking towards another Kobold.
After 5 minutes they eliminated each remaining creature, exploring in the process another room, making this quite a big cave.
There was no resistance, the small bodies poisoned by the smoke, making them faint in their sleep already.
"But our client will be disappointed. Not many herbs they gathered. Guess they wanted food more than anything. I mean, look at that."
Holding the body she dragged behind her a bit up, her voice was as if it was a bother to move them.
"Barely any meat on them, no muscles. Normally they are at least more of stress relievers, but today only their numbers were worth noting."
They took all the remaining bodies outside onto a pile Leon created.
Mikael was soon digging up the soft earth, using a shovel he bought before.
The other two also worked on it, and combined they made a hole big enough for the 25 bodies and parts, even if not as deep as it should be, Leon mentioned.
"I have something for that." Bjorn said.
The night got closer, and with it the danger of nocturnal creatures.
They couldn't waste more time on this, so Bjorn suggested:" I recently connected some plants with a strong odor. They use that to keep away their predators, some sort of defense mechanism. Interesting fact, one of these plants..." A solid smack from Sophia saved Bjorn from entering his lecture.
"No time for that, what do you wanna do?"
"Hrrmph, sprinkle some of that tincture on the bodies, it should mask the scent at least for some days, relieving us of that worry."
He gave a glass vial to Leon, a see-through green fluid inside.
"But only some drops, as it is quite concentrated."
They then proceeded to fill up the hole, making Mikael sweat more than when he fought. Together they then brought some evergreen branches to vaguely cover up the entrance, after they went in.
The Moon stood already quite high in the sky, the actions and weariness from the whole day weighting down on them.
They wasted not many words, but made themselves comfortable with some blankets, using the backpacks as pillows. Mikael was assigned the first guard duty, Leon placing a sand clock next to him.
"Good job today. As young and inexperienced you come across, the actions speak for you. Room for improvement, sure, everyone got that, but even that you held your own was enough. Not many beginner hunters can let their action speak."
He left him alone, leaving his impression behind, as well as some dried meat he had.
Not that he could respond, Mikael's mind was in turmoil.
He absently took the jerky, munching on it to have something to do while thinking and watching.
'I didn't only fight monsters today, I exterminated their lair, taking everything from them. I knew I had to do it, either me or them. They came at us with no hesitation, then why do I feel so guilty. These are just monsters. I mean, even the bandits back then had no remorse slaughtering their way through. And they looked okay with that.'
He reasoned with himself, barely paying attention to the hour glass or the jerky between his teeth.
He still had the sound of bones braking in his ear, the pained voice of these critters.
To calm himself down, he took out his own rag and the hammer, beginning to clean some dried up blood that still was on the head.
'That shot tho was incredible.' he had to admit himself.
Never thought a hammer could rip apart skull from spine, and so easily.'
Recalling the situation, he could think of better ways to finish that Kobold, less brutal ones.
'Weird, the first time against the Goblin u felt much worse, making me sick. But now I feel fine. Exhausted and tired, but not like vomiting.'
He compared his situation with back then, and compared to then he now had a good weapon, was warned prior and took the initiative.
'Maybe I can get accustomed to it.' he thought, not perceiving how scary that thought process was.
He laid down the hammer, its dull surface weakly reflecting the dim light coming from the stones above him.