He strode past the corpse and thrust his sword through the nearest demonspawn, the little monster let out a little yelp and its hands and knees fell, little blood staining his blade.
He stomped on its head and pulled off his sword. He jumped onto the next and drove his blade through it and then onto the last.
With his blade still fixed in the body of the last demonspawn, he let out a sigh of relief.
The whole area now stank of demon's blood and Finrod had to move. He pulled up his blade and swung the blade to his side spilling the blood sticking to it on the soil, and placed his sword back into the sheath.
He continued on his journey through the forest with no destination in mind, only the urge to move farther away from his village and to kill the weaker demons he could find.
He walked and walked losing track of time. Then out of nowhere, his tummy rumbled and he felt quite hungry.
He pulled off the quiver strapped across his back and chest and looked into it.
The fruit he had placed there had some of its parts squashed inside, it looked really messy and slimy.
Finrod took the fruit from the quiver, cut the part that had spoilt a little with one of his knives and he stuffed the rest into his mouth.
It wasn't bad, it was quite sweet like he had expected, it just wasn't as sweet as the ones he had previously freshly plucked.
He forcibly swallowed the chewed fruit bits and thought to rest once more. However, below was dangerous, any transformed creature or demon could come up at him and attack his defenseless body, he had to go up above and settle on the tree branches, hopefully, he'd recover some mana as well.
The trees of the forest were quite tall with long branches forming canopies and blocking away sunlight, it would require a lot more effort to jump atop it compared to the trees in the woods.
He sighed and cycled the last of his mana through his body, particularly his legs and he leaped.
"Ahh!"
Then a bam as soon as he hit the tree's stem, about halfway to the top, his left hand tightly grasped the rough surfaces of the tree's bark and on his right was a knife pierced into the tree holding him up, one of his leg stood partly on a protruded rough edge while the other hung freely.
He exhaled and repeated the process of reinforcing his body and then he went up again, higher this time around.
He clasped the long knife with his two hands and it dug into the bark holding off his weight, it seemed so until it dragged down causing his outfit to scratch against the tree bark, and then it stopped.
He took in deep breaths quickly, hyperventilating. His mana was almost out and his weak small arms couldn't support his weight.
He gritted his teeth, released his left hand grip on the blade and grabbed the tree's surface.
"There's no way I'm going to make it up there."
His mana was almost out and his hands were about to give up, and besides, who knew what awaited him up there?
He pulled out his knife and began to fall and as soon as he passed below half of the tree, he struck in the knife halting his descent.
He pulled it out again and fell at tens of meters and just about six meters away from the ground, he shook in his knife and then the worst happened.
His mana finished, and his arms weren't ready for the force to be exerted on them so when he held up, his right arm dislocated from the socket.
He whimpered forcing his mouth shut so he doesn't attract predators and then his grip slid and he fell hard on the black damp soil.
"Ahhhh" he cried.
His body couldn't move and he felt that he had broken a few ribs. He pressed his left hand against the ground and tried to force his body to turn to the side but there wasn't much power behind it so he laid there.
'I suppose this is the end, I have tried. No one lasted as long as I did, I gave my all.'
Defeated thoughts crept into him as his tired, pained body fought to stay awake.
Then, out of nowhere, a powerful thought came.
'I'm going to die if I don't get up, I can't die.'
He pushed himself to the side his right again and this time, he got his body to lay on the side and then he was comfortable enough to push himself to sit upright.
"My ribs, bird's turd!" He cursed, he almost covered his hands over his mouth in reflex like he had always done on the occasion he cursed but his broken ribs didn't let him.
He forced himself up, wrapped his left arm across his lower chest while his right dangled and he walked to a tree that was just a few meters away from him at the right.
He limped, his right leg wasn't in the best shape either, it was bruised. He took a few struggled steps and then something tipped his balance. He landed face flat on the soil.
"Ahh ahhh." He wailed, he then pushed himself to lay on his back and he looked up at the canopies of branches spotting the thin rays that passed through in his view.
He smiled and suddenly the smile left his face turning into a frown which honestly was more befitting.
He felt his feet on the object that he had tripped over and kicked it away. Lying, loud buzzing sounds filled his eardrums but he couldn't see the insects that made the sound, he was curious but mostly afraid, it was possible that insects could transform just like the animals did and he didn't like the idea of that.
The fear turned a switch on him and he quickly got up walking backwards away from where he thought the buzzes came from.
There, he saw it. The object of the insects' attraction.
A skull…