"PREPARE!" Hans shouts shooting out of their hiding place like an arrow set loose.
"WAI-" the woman tries to warn the blonde monster but fails. He is already on his way to meet Hans.
Das stands up and raises a barrier to protect him and Ida. Who in turn sticks even more to his arm and looks amazed at the magic wall that swallows them both.
In a few seconds, Hans and the monster are within reach of each other, the latter is confident in his sharp claws and jumps at Hans like a wild beast.
His destiny ends similarly, Hans's experience moves his entire body like a dancer of execution. Skilfully dodging each attempt from the monster to tear him apart with his hands, and each time he dodges, the foil swords pierce and incapacitate a part of its body until both ends pierce the skull.
The maimed body of the monster falls limp, splashing hard on the water of the swamp. Without losing a moment, Hans raises his foil swords in an X in front of him, facing one of the two remaining monsters.
He looks up and sees the other monster falling right on top of him. But then beneath him, light shoots out along magical chains that trap the monster mid-air, they are close enough for Das to see them better, Hans seizes this opportunity and in one jump pierces through the skull of the monster, bringing down both swords and tearing apart its face.
The innards fall and taint the body of the Hunter as he looks at the terrified monster standing still at the distance.
"N-No...the archmage and a hunter" the woman murmurs, any confidence she could have had gone as she turns around and jumps from tree to tree, as far away as she can.
"Follow me!" Hans orders as he mimics the monster, only that his strength and speed are greater, causing the entire tree to move as if it had been hit by a boulder each time he jumps.
Das reacts without thinking twice and levitates off the ground, shooting forward as fast as he can for a few seconds until the screams of Ida make him remember the unfortunate luggage he is carrying in one arm.
"I will catch up! Don't lose her!" he screams as his speed decreases considerably to prevent the young beggar from falling off.
"As if" Hans whispers, his heart racing as every muscle of his body burns with the thrill of the hunt.
He follows the monster from behind only for a few seconds, soon, he is jumping and running at the same speed, a couple of meters next to her. She panics and moves deeper inside the swamp.
Committing the grave mistake of moving in a straight line, Hans shoots a row of knives in her direction, the cold steel piercing right through her knees as she runs on what little ground is there before reaching another large puddle of water.
She crashes on the mud and the speed she was moving forces her body to roll a few meters further ahead, into the pool of murky water.
Raising her upper body through the water she throws an ear-splitting scream that sounds unnaturally powerful. Alarmed, Hans catches up, and falling right in front of her he slices her throat with the end of his swords, cutting the scream short and replacing it with gurgles as black blood escapes through the open wound and the monster's mouth.
Losing no time, Hans pierces both shoulders of the woman, in the exact places he needs so they can no longer move. He then kicks her and sends her flying back to where there is land.
For Hans, this has been nothing out of the ordinary.
He pounces on the monster, kneeling on top of her and forcing her head still by piercing both of her pointy ears, so they look and face directly at each other.
The monster struggles and tries to scream once more, this time barely succeeding in forcing more blood off her body through her mouth.
Hans remains in that position, looking carefully at her, noticing with increasing surprise how she is still alive, or rather, moving, despite the deadly wound on her throat.
Taking one of his gloves off he tries to sense the pulse of the creature, his surprise only visible beneath his mask. She is dead.
Or should be, however, she keeps squirming beneath him.
"What are you?" He murmurs as he stands up, a faint light making his head jolt in its direction, and he quickly realizes its Das flying towards him "Good, the least I want is to be separated in here" then, he looks down on the creature, and the surprises keep coming.
Tears fall one after the other from the red eyes of the woman, her expression a mixture of fear and sadness.
His hand twitches for only a second, going for the handle of his sword to pull it out of the mud and her ear, but this doubt is brief "She- It looks too human, nothing more" his thoughts are loud, a remainder so he doesn't falter.
"You got it?" Das asks as he finally reaches Hans, his eyes soon fall on the trapped monster beneath his feet.
Hans kneels once again, this time to stick his fingers inside the open wound of the woman, twisting and forcing it open, inspecting its insides as if she wasn't moving and shaking beneath him.
Das takes a step back, shocked by what the Hunter is doing, along with Ida, who looks aghast and quickly steps behind Das, closing her eyes and pressing her face against his back.
the Hunter keeps digging with his fingers until he sees what he wants to, how the muscles of the monster reattach and heal back at an impressive speed "It will heal back soon enough, we have to take it out of Totesland and cauterize the wound, I suppose if I treat it like a troll, the wound won't close" satisfied, Hans lets go of her and steps away from her body "If she is healing from this, there is no guarantee that the others aren't healing up as we speak"
"Y-Yeah, of course"
Hans raises his head slightly, looking at Das through the black lens of his mask "This is a monster. Doesn't matter how human it looks, if you let yourself be deceived by it, you will die"
He pulls out his swords from the mud and rapidly pierces the whole body of the woman from the neck down dozens of times, skilfully avoiding what he supposes is still her most important organs, but making sure bones and ligaments are broken and snap, sending strikes of black ichor flying in all directions, forcing Das to take several steps backs, and even then a few streaks of blood manage to get on him.
Once he is done, his entire leather attire is dripping with blood, and the limbs of the creature are a mess of holes.
"If I'm not mistaken, this should slow its regeneration considerably, but I can't be certain, let's go," Hans says as he kneels in front of her once more, this time bashing her mouth with the handle of his swords before sheathing both and taking the mangled body of the monster over his shoulder. Noticing Das's tense stare, he lets out a tired sigh "Those teeth looked like trouble, I wasn't going to risk it. Let's go"
Out of words, Das simply nods and turns around.
"Help!" A faint scream, a man, can be heard from deeper inside the swamp.
The group turns their heads around and collectively looks at the deeper parts of the endless swamp that almost vanish in the darkness.
"A victim?"Das asks, already stepping towards its direction only to be stopped by Hans's raised arm.
"Or a trap" He then throws the body on the mud, he remains silent for a few seconds considering his options "I will see which one is, remember we are still on the look for two other of these things" unsheathing his foil swords once again, he looks over his shoulder at Das "Be alert"
Hans quickly vanishes from sight as he jumps from tree to tree, leaving the other two alone with the crippled monster.
Das lets out a nervous sigh and swallows hard, squeezing his staff with more strength than before.
"Mmm" Ida draws his attention, she then points a shivering finger at the monster.
He looks at her, she is facing down, head half-sunken in the mud since she is much closer to the water, it is clear she tries to free her face but can't, far too deep and into the mud.
Doubt fills his mind as he watches her try to move helplessly, only capable of moving her head as it seems she tries her best to move anything else, only managing to briefly free her nose from the encroaching mud. Should he help her?
"Help," she says or tries to, instead it comes out like something you could only understand by looking at her situation, her sliced throat, and the increasing amount of water and mud covering her head.
Finally, it's enough.
Das walks up to her, leaving the unsure Ida behind, not at all willing to get closer to her. He then pulls her body free and drags it away from the edges of the large puddle, holding her sideways so she can spit out all the mud, while she does that, parts of her broken teeth are launched out too.
Once she seems done, he lets her rest on her back and she looks at him, her vertical pupils slowly turn back to a circular shape, but the irises are still scarlet red.
They look at each other in silence, until her face slowly contorts in an expression of utter desperation, somehow, she forces her head to look down on her body, the expression worsening as she realizes just how badly has she been harmed.
A drowned cry comes out of her mouth, mud gushing out of her sliced throat as she throws her head back and, cries.
Cries with all her might even if all that comes out is a messy gurgling and barely discernible letters. And the word that she tries her best to shout, to scream, is something Das understands even if she can't speak.
"HELP!" the words she can't speak "SOMEONE, HELP ME!"
His breath quickens, and a knot forms in his throat that would make him as capable of speech as her. Das looks away, his fist clenching and shudders.
"She is a monster" he repeats to himself in his mind time and time again. Gritting his teeth as the gurgling sound coming from the woman worsen.
Bringing back all sorts of memories. All types of pain. He closes his eyes.
Meanwhile, Hans sees the figure of a man laying down on the mud, half of his body beneath the waters of a large river. He falls one meter in front of him, both swords pointing at the man.
"Please, they dragged me here, I-I'm freezing and can't feel my legs" the man, a grown adult, extends an arm towards Hans. His hair tied on a short low ponytail.
He quickly examines his surroundings and then the man asking for help. His ears, teeth, eyes, and skin are all normal. A human.
"Calm down, I will help you get out of here" Hans sheathes his swords and approaches the man, kneeling down and pulling his body from the water, seeing both legs bent and twisted he now knows why he couldn't stand up.
Hans picks up the man in his arms and turns around, ready to hurry back to where Das is.
Then, a sensation, maybe a gut feeling or a sixth sense grew after two decades of a life in constant danger. Letting go of the man who has just now tried to tear his face apart with the swipe of a hand, instead, catching and tearing only his mask and cloak from him, he jumps backward and turns mid-air.
Falling on the waist-deep river several meters away, his eyes widen with shock, blood dripping from the superficial wound on his chin, courtesy of the monster.
The moments ago human stands up, his legs popping back in place, skin turning white, ears pointy, teeth like needles, and bright scarlet eyes with vertical pupils, a maniacal grin grows on his face.
If he had been a second slower, he would be dead.
But it's not over.
From behind him, from beneath the murky and dirty waters, another man lounges at Hans, barely able to dodge him, he jumps out of the water towards a nearby tree, only to find the other monster already waiting for him.
Unsheathing his foil swords he clashes with the sharp nails of the monster, that somehow manage to withstand the full force of his swing long enough for him to be forced to kick the torso of the man and launch himself once again further deeper inside the swamp, this time landing in the middle of the river now chest-deep.
His heart is racing once more, but this time not with the illusionary excitement, now, it is an emotion he hadn't felt for quite some time.
Fear.