Barrister cursed and trudged toward his horse to try to reach the sword. The men drew their weapons and tugged on the reins to try to calm the horses that were lunging at each other nervously as they smelled the hidden threat.
"Protect the Lady Roselyn!" shouted Barrister.
A horse whinnied.
Reiner looked back. A black silhouette the size of a wild boar but thinner was charging Franz's horse, teeth and claws digging deeply into the poor beast's haunches. The horse fell sideways into the undergrowth and Franz was thrown off. Before Reiner could even utter the boy's name, more black silhouettes attacked amid roars and howls.
Reiner drew his pistols.
"No shooting!" shouted Barrister the moment he retrieved his sword. "Their masters might hear them!"
"Masters?" thought Reiner. The boars had no masters. Then he saw that one of the attacking monsters was wearing a spiked collar. They were mastiffs! But he had never seen such mastiffs before: huge, deformed creatures with twisted, over-muscled limbs and fat, fleshy goiters on their misshapen faces. The jaws, fitted with huge fangs, dripped yellow mucus.
Erich spurred his horse and received the charge of a mastiff with the lance. The impact was not strong enough to kill the beast, as both mastiff and horse were slowed by the tangle of brush. The mastiff struggled and fought, clawing and biting at the spear. Reiner drove the horse forward and stabbed it in the back with the sword. It was like trying to pierce the leather of a saddle. The muscles were almost as solid as wood. It was even difficult to cleave through the caked fur. Reiner raised the sword again and delivered a second downward thrust with both hands.
Behind him, Pavel and Hals dismounted in a leap and engaged the mastiffs on foot, pikemen that they were. They picked out one beast and wounded it in the chest as it leaped toward them.
Giano shot another with his crossbow and hit it in the eye, it was a devastating critical hit.
The beast howled and shook its head from side to side in an attempt to shake off the annoyance. The arrow remained stuck. The mastiff stopped and tried to remove the arrow by rubbing himself against the ground, but all he succeeded in doing was to drive it deeper into his skull. It vomited blood and died. Giano loaded the crossbow to fire another shot.
Ulf swung his huge mallet at a drooling mastiff. He hit it squarely in the shoulder and knocked it down, but it too lost its balance and fell.
Another beast leaped toward Oskar's horse. The man swung sword blows at it, but his horse did more damage to the beast by rearing up and striking it with its hooves.
Captain Barrister made his way through the underbrush to meet the harried gunner.
Reiner finally managed to drive his sword between the mastiff's ribs and through its heart. The beast shuddered and collapsed beneath him. He wrenched the sword from the carcass and scanned the battle with his eyes for Franz. There was movement beyond the boy's horse. A mastiff was leaping and prancing. It had something on its back. Franz! The boy was riding over the beast, clutching the collar with his left hand and stabbing it again and again with the dagger he held in his right, while the beast was throwing teeth over his shoulder. Reiner had never seen anyone so frightened. The boy's expression might have been comical if the situation had not been so desperate.
Gustaf was close to the boy but, although he had his sword drawn and was watching with concern, he did nothing to help him. Reiner cursed and spurred the horse forward towards the young man, but the animal was tangled in the undergrowth and had trouble turning.
"Damn this forest!" he roared inwardly. He dismounted with a bound and made his way on foot toward the boy, clawing at the brambles with every step.
Erich removed the spear from the body of the beast that Reiner had killed, but did not look for another target but remained at Lady Roselyn's side.
Pavel's spear split under the weight of the beast he and Hals had wounded, and the pikeman fell under the mastiff. Hals bellowed and thrust his pike into the monster's side in an attempt to pull it away from his friend. Pavel raised his arms to protect his face, and the beast clawed at them.
The mastiff attacking Oskar sunk its teeth into one of the gunner's boots and dragged him to the ground screaming. Giano fired at it but missed the shot. Barrister lunged forward and delivered several slashes at the beast, penetrating deep into a shoulder. The mastiff rolled over and leapt at him. Barrister thrust his mail-clad fist into its jaws and drove the sword through its neck.
Near him, Ulf struck again with the mallet and this time crushed the skull of the creature he was fighting. The beast fell at his feet, while brain mass and pestilent purple fluids gushed from its head.
Roaring, Reiner charged at the beast Franz rode but failed to contain the sweep of his sword for fear of injuring the boy. At least he attracted the attention of the mastiff, which leapt toward him and finally shook Franz off. Reiner barely managed to raise the sword in time, which slammed into the creature's sternum with a shuddering impact. It knocked him off balance and slammed him to the ground, knocking him off his feet. Luckily, the mastiff was restrained by the tip of Reiner's sword and could not reach it with its teeth or paws. In any case, it was likely to kill him. The entire weight of the beast rested on the sword, the pommel of which pressed against Reiner's ribs, which he heard cracking. He could not breathe. The creature's fetid saliva dripped down his face.
Something jumped out of the darkness... Franz! The boy punched the beast in the shoulder and knocked it to the side, where he stabbed at it, frantic. The beast lunged at him and rolled on top of him. The boy shrieked like a young girl as the beast's teeth closed to within inches of his face.
Reiner struggled to his feet as he breathed in greedily. He launched a mammoth mandole toward the creature's head. The blade bounced sonorously off the skull and the vibration stung his hand, but had little effect on the beast.
"Come on, mangy beast!" He delivered a thrust to a shoulder and also failed to do anything to it. The mastiff looked up at him, snarling, and crouched down to jump, but, as it did so, Franz stabbed it in the neck just below the jaw. The mastiff let out a whine and a river of blood soaked the boy's arm. The beast collapsed on top of him, crushing him.
"Get it off me!" gasped Franz. "I can't breathe!"
"Stay there for a moment," said Reiner as he looked around. "It's the safest place."
The scuffle seemed to be over at last. Barrister was standing next to a dead beast. Oskar was struggling to his feet. His boot was in tatters but, fortunately, the foot underneath had only the occasional scratch. Behind them, Hals was helping Pavel up.
Pavel was clutching his face, the left side of which was red and shiny.
The mastiff against which the two pikemen had fought was lying with the two pikes stuck in its ribs.
"All right." said Reiner to Franz. "All clear." He rolled the mastiff off the boy and helped him up. His arms were red up to his shoulder.
"Is that your blood?"
"Most of it is the mastiff's, I think." replied Franz.
Reiner chuckled.
"You're a petty thief of game prey, aren't you?"
Franz looked aghast.
"You came to help me. I couldn't stand by while..."
In turn, Reiner felt embarrassed.
"Yes, yes, that's enough." He cast quick glances at Erich, still on his horse beside Lady Roselyn, and Gustaf, who was unharmed. "Would that all our companions thought as you do. You haven't landed a single blow, have you?" he growled at Gustaf.
"I am a surgeon. Who would patch you up if I had been wounded?"
"Leech!" shouted Barrister at him. "Take care of the wounded."
Gustaf gave Reiner a smug grin and hurried to Pavel's side with the field kit slung over his shoulder.
Reiner watched him as he walked away.
"That's a guy I wouldn't mind finding dead in a latrine."
Franz gave him a wide grin. They both looked up at the sound of angry voices.
"And where were you at the time?" Hals was shouting at Erich. "Standing there with your spear at the ready and doing nothing while we were being murdered. Pavel has lost an eye, you beardless fop!"
"Don't you dare speak to me in that tone, you insolent peasant." Erich raised the spear as if to wound the pikeman.
Barrister stepped between them.
"Don't try it, sir."
"Insolent or not." interjected Reiner as he rejoined them. "You're not wrong. You stood aside almost as much as the surgeon."
"I killed one."
"I killed him." replied Reiner. "You could have at least tried another."
"We had been ordered to protect Lady Roselyn."
His warning came too late because, as the men fell silent, harsh voices and the sound of heavy boots were coming toward them. They looked down the road. Swaying torches and hulking silhouettes were speeding through the forest.
"By the blood of the gods!" cursed Captain Barrister. "Cover your wounds and ride at full speed."
"And what about me?" asked Oskar plaintively as he pointed to one leg. "Look at all this blood."
"What blood?" asked Gustaf as he picked up his medical kit "I've had flea bites that bled more than that"
The men hurriedly mounted, but Franz's horse was dead, its throat torn by the monstrous beast, and the mule was carrying too much weight to add to that of a rider. No one seemed eager to share the mount with him.
"I don't want you to stick a knife in my ribs if you get any strange ideas." said Hals.
Reiner sighed and offered Franz a hand to ride with him.
"Come on, boy."
Franz picked up his gear from the dead horse and mounted behind Reiner, but sat well apart from him.
"Hold on tight." "Amused Reiner."It may be a frantic ride."
"I'll be..., I'll be fine."
There was no time to argue. Before they had all turned the horses, huge, almost human-looking figures burst from the darkness, roaring and brandishing massive weapons.