"Anyone see him?" I asked as I frantically searched the cave ceiling for any sign of the monster.
"No, it's too dark up there. He could be anywhere at this point," Teresa said as she held her sword at the ready.
"You think he just left the village, maybe went and started a life somewhere else?" I asked hopefully.
"Just be ready, I'm gonna try and lure him out," Bella said as she aimed her staff at the dark, rocky ceiling above us.
A long continuous plume of fire erupted from her staff. It illuminated a small area around the place where it landed. Bella moved her staff so that the flame weaved through the stalactite clusters.
"There," I yelled and pointed when I noticed a ball of red fur clinging to the ceiling.
Bella tried to hit the fur ball with the flames, but it launched itself away from them and toward us, me specifically. I braced myself as the collection of claws and fangs sped at me. I locked eyes with it and suddenly felt extremely heavy. A darkness crept over me. A certainty that I was going to die took hold of me. I felt my body lock up. I was as frozen as a statue as the creature enclosed on me. All of my instincts said run, now, but I couldn't move anything. When the creature was so close that I could smell its body odor Teresa appeared in the air next to it. She landed a powerful roundhouse kick and sent it crashing to the ground somewhere behind me.
"Swing next time," she said and slapped me on the back.
I opened my mouth to speak as the creature made its way back to its feet, but no words came out. It was impossible to explain what had just happened. I knew this thing was creepy, but I wasn't that afraid of it.
"Forgive me young one," Teresa said and took off in the creature's direction.
She attacked it with a ferocity that told me she wanted to end this quickly. She put all the power she had into her swings as she repeatedly slashed at the creature. The creature blocked each strike with the claws on its massive paws. The two of them moved at a pace so fast it was hard to keep track of. At one point the creature blocked Teresa's sword and looked into her eyes. She froze up just like I did.
"Help her" I yelled as I took off running in her direction.
"Deflect," Bella yelled as the creature attempted to bite Teresa in the face.
His massive mouth slammed into the invisible barrier. It stumbled away from Teresa shaking its head. Teresa dropped to one knee to collect herself once the hold was broken.
"What the hell was that?" she said as sweat dripped from her face.
"It happened to me too. He puts you in some kind of trance," I said as I stepped in front of her.
"It's been so long since I've felt fear, I've forgotten how powerful of a feeling it can be.
"Yeah, it's a pretty overpowering feeling," I said as the creature looked at me and roared.
I kept my eyes focused on its body. Okay, I can do this. I thought to myself as it dove at me. It slashed at me, and I parried the strike. I wasn't sure how long Teresa would need until she recovered, but I was determined to give her the time. The creature attacked with a barrage of lefts and rights, and I surprised myself by keeping pace with it. It switched up its tactics and slashed at my midsection. I flipped and swung my sword at its head while I was in the air. It backed away from the swing with inhuman speed and reflexes. I landed in front of it with a smirk on my face.
"That was good right? I know," I said to the monster.
"Where was that in training?" Teresa asked as she stood up, her hands still trembled.
"I'm not sure, but you look like you could still use a few minutes," I said and readied myself to attack again,
"No, I'm always ready for a good fight.," she said and did her best to catch her breath.
I didn't wait for her to attempt anything, instead I ran toward the creature and prepared to strike it. It was ready for me though, it sidestepped me. I ran a few steps past it. The creature swiped at my unguarded back. Its claws shredded my armor, and the flesh on my back. I was knocked to the ground beside a rotting corpse. My vision blurred as I fought not to pass out from the pain. I tried to get back up and realized I couldn't move. That was until it kicked me in the ribs and sent me rolling onto my back. It crawled beside me, its mouth inches from my face. Its breath smelled of rotting flesh and old blood. It opened its mouth and lunged at me. I closed my eyes and braced for a bite that never came.
I opened my eyes and Bella was standing over me. She leaned over me and repeated the word heal as yellow light streamed like sun rays from her outstretched hand.
"Th....thank you" I managed to say as the waves of pain washing over me made me shiver.
I heard Teresa grunting and yelling as she attacked the creature again. I felt a warm sensation settle over me when the pain finally eased. I sat up just in time to see the creature land a lucky blow across Teresa's throat. She dropped to the floor, as Bella and I raced over to her. Bella began healing as I took over fighting the creature. This time when I stood across from the creature things were different. My sword glowed brightly as my determination to kill this thing grew stronger.
He locked eyes with me, and I felt the fear pulling at me. I even heard a child's voice whispering fear me, from somewhere inside my head. It didn't matter though because the other sound I heard was Teresa gasping and gurgling, trying not to drown in her own blood. Then I heard Bella repeating heal while fighting back tears. It was too much, this thing had to die.
"No, you fear me," I said out loud with as much force as I could in my words.
The creature panicked and began swinging at imaginary enemies. I watched it and raised my sword to finish it off while it was distracted.
"Simeon don't, he's just a child!" Bella yelled at me and broke my concentration.
The creature stopped fighting the air. It held its paws up to its head as it tried to break free from whatever illusion it was still trapped in.
"Bella, I have to. It won't stop killing people until we kill it," I said and held my sword firm.
"Please, I can't live with knowing that we slaughtered a child,"
"I'm sorry, but we don't have much of a choice," I said as it finally broke free of the illusion.
The creature saw me standing across from it and leapt at me. I wasn't sure why, but a phrase began playing in my mind repeatedly. I pointed my sword at the creature's furry chest and said the phrase aloud.
"Blade of light," I yelled as a sword shaped shard of light energy shot forward and impaled the creature.
The creature made a quick yelp sound and then fell lifelessly to the ground.
"Dammit, why did you have to be a child," Bella said and wiped away a tear.
"Dammit, why do you have magic!" Teresa said as she stared at me.