A few moments before,
Grim and Gix saw the eating ghoul and wanted to step back, but as if fate didn't want them to succeed, the ghoul stopped eating and slowly turned in their direction while sniffing the air. The dead and empty eyes locked onto them, while it split its lips to reveal many razor-sharp teeth. It looked like a gruesome smile. As if it was excited at the thought of fresh meat after eating already decomposing creatures for a long time.
Grim noticed something and said to Gix, "I think I know where our scouts went, Gix."
He pointed at a few dead Gremlins. Gix wasn't a tough guy, so as he saw what Grim looked at, he began to scream like a pig. Gix ran with speed, which should be impossible for a guy with his body and hid in a corner.
Grim thought, 'As expected from this chicken.' With a fast movement of his hands, two daggers appeared, held in a reverse grip. With a serious expression, he faced the ghoul and slowly circled it, while the ghoul did the same. Suddenly he started sprinting in the ghoul's direction, and as he was only a few centimeters from the ghoul's face, he swung both of his arms up, holding the daggers. But the bastard had a good reaction speed. Before the knives could slice him, he removed his hands from the floor and jumped backward with his two hind-lags. Again, the two were circling each other, trying to find an opening in the opponent's moves, when unexpectedly, they heard the sound of bones breaking echoing through the cavern and cursing from someone.
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The ghoul turned its head and saw a human standing where usually should be a wall, but it thought that this detail was irrelevant, as it slowly felt a little bit threatened in its domain. It couldn't point a claw at it, but something felt off about this human. Maybe it was the cold and sharp thingy in its hands, but it wasn't sure. The other odd thing was the tree which it hadn't noticed standing there before. 'Was there always a tree there' it thought but shrugged it off. The human was more important. It knew that the little gremlin was still standing near, so it didn't let its guard down. But as it thought that the human was more of a threat, it began running towards it, jumping at the last moment.
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Cillian had been careless, which made both, the gremlin and the ghoul notice him. He sighed but stopped abruptly as the ghoul was quickly moving towards him and jumping. He didn't have the time to block or evade as the ghoul latched onto him with its claws and bit into his shoulder. Pain cursed through Cillian's veins. So much pain he hadn't felt in a long time. He was dizzy but quickly regained his wits as he threw the ghoul off of him. But the damage was immense, and he reeled from it. While this was happening, in the corner of his eye, he saw the little figure of the rogue gremlin slowly sneaking towards the back of the ghoul.
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Grim didn't know the guy, but he came at the right time. He didn't know if he and Mr. Pussy in the corner could best this creature. The human had raven-black hair and a lean build. He wore a long crimson trench coat and held a pickaxe made of ice in his right hand. Grim also noticed the strange tree, which was behind the human.
Back to the fight. Grim was sorry for the human, but the fact that the ghoul attacked it gave him the perfect opportunity to strike from the back. He lowered his center as far as possible without affecting his speed and slowly got closer to the back of the ghoul. As he was about 1m away, he jumped onto the back of the ghoul, held onto it with his feet, and brought his left hand down, inserting one of his knives into the back of the creature.
With an ear-piercing shriek, the ghoul stood up and tried to shake off Grim with his thin arms. Grim's mouth changed into a faint smile as he pierced the back of the ghoul with his other knife. Now he was practically riding the ghoul.
Suddenly the branches of the suspicious tree started to move – as they slowly pulled a beautiful wooden Bow out. The tree took a dead branch off of himself and shot it with the Bow at the ghoul. Grim felt the wind of the arrow-turned-branch flying at the Ghoul millimeters from his ear and lodging itself into the neck of the ghoul. A cry of pain came from the creature as it began to wobble. Grim saw his chance and carved along the back of the ghoul until he stopped at the bottom. Two lethal slashes were to be seen on the back of the ghoul.
Like slow-motion, the ghoul began to fall forward, he landed on his knees and then slumped forward.
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Cillian threw an approving glance at the gremlin while slowly marching forward to meet him. This gremlin was ferocious, and he liked that. Beside him, tree-face began to move his big roots to move. Before the gremlin turned to him, he disgustedly looked at his' comrade,' the fat one. Cillian put his hand forward, "Good to see a friendly face down here. All this death is making me tired. What's your name?". The gremlin put his hand before his waist and bowed slightly before shaking Cillian's hand, "Grim, from the Desertcrawler Clan. The trembling meet sack in the corner is Gix. Who might you be, Travelers?" Cillian retrieved his hand and put it into his pocket. "My name is Cillian, and I call the thing over there tree-face because he forgot his name. We want to leave this dessert, might you be able to help us?". He saw a flicker of curiosity fly over Grim's face, but as fast as it came, it was gone.
Grim began, "We can certainly guide you out of the desert, but we have to find the remains of our second scout first. Because as far as I can see here, there is only one Gremlin corpse. If you help us find him, I will see what I can do for you after guiding you to our clan.". Gix was slowly coming toward them. Tree-face commented, "It would be fascinating to see a clan cave for the first time since the beginning of my travels. I shall follow you." With that, the discussion ended, and the odd group of four began to march up the tunnel Grim, and Gix walked down before.