The monster landed its front leg on Eleanor’s backpack and stomped as hard as it could. Eleanor yelped in surprise as the backpack pulled her to the ground, where it opened as soon as she landed. Bloody pieces of meat flew right out of it and spread all over the ground.
Every other monster chasing us snapped to look at the bloody pieces of meat and turned their blood-shot eyes to them. With shouting voices, they jumped to it. The ones at the back jumped over the ones that were at the front to try to get the pieces of meat, and the ones that couldn’t, did their best to push away the ones that were in the way. Chomping noises of those beings lowering their heads, opening their mouths wide, and eating as fast as chickens could be heard in between the pushing and shouting.
Eleanor took the opportunity that losing her stash of meat gave her to stand back up and look with wide and teary eyes at the mess of the monsters. She took a step back, getting ready to run away, but I jumped in front of her and looked at her with determination; determination that I then turned to the distracted monsters. Right now, it was perfect for her to attack them and get rid of them.
I hoped that she understood my meaning from my actions. She hesitated slightly, but after a short moment, she pulled out her sword, held it with both hands, took a deep breath, and with a shout, rushed over to the noisy monsters that were trying to get to the few remaining pieces of meat.
Hearing her loud voice, the monster closer to her turned its human-like head to her. She didn’t hesitate and swiftly swung her weapon, right at the monster’s neck. With a booming sound of the blade cutting the air, it passed right through the monster, causing the head to fly through the air, with the body dropping lifelessly to the ground right after.
The few monsters next to it obviously noticed what happened and turned their shrieking heads to the one that caused it. Eleanor’s face turned to immediate fear at their wide, bloody teeth being pointed at her, but she still managed to hold her ground as she immediately swung her sword to the next monster.
The attack wasn’t quite as powerful as the last one, causing her sword to be half-stuck in the monster’s neck, which allowed it to still struggle as a gurgling voice came out of it, with blood pouring out of the mouth. It pushed ahead to try to overwhelm Eleanor, but she got the sword out in time and attacked once more; this time, cutting straight through the place where she last hit.
By now, the other monsters were already on the move. Eleanor moved her sword in quick motion to the closer one, causing it to impale itself on the top of the sword. Its head bopped forward and back with the mouth chomping the air as it tried to get to her, and her eyes opened wide at the dangerous noise coming from the mouth.
It was then that the rest of the monsters jumped one on top of the others to get to her, which caused the monsters impaled on her sword to topple on top of her, and the sword to go deeper into its body. It struggled for a moment, its mouth still trying to bite Eleanor, but it quickly died once the blade pierced the body completely.
However, there were now two monsters on top of her, with a third quickly getting on top.
“Ah!” exclaimed Eleanor when a fourth, not too far away from her, bit into her ankle.
It didn’t pierce the piece of armor that she took from before, but it wouldn’t last long as it continued to bite down several times. The armor still managed to keep the teeth away, but the overall shape of the piece was starting to deform on her leg. If she didn’t act quickly, the rest of the monsters were going to eat her.
“Ggh!” she let out a grunt of effort, her arms shaking as she tried her best to force away the other monsters that were doing like the first one as they also tried to bite her. “Get off me!”
A dark mist formed on her left arm, and then, suddenly, exploded in a black shadow. The monsters that were on top of her blew up in a bloody mess that spread to the walls, the ceilings and all around her, with the black hand from before appearing in their place. Eleanor looked surprised again, but when another group of monsters jumped from their spots to attack her, she was forced to turn her gaze at them.
From the floor, she swung her arm, and the large shadow arm matched her movements. A monster that was mid-flight was immediately hit by the hand and sent flying through the air and into a wall, where it splattered. The next one, not caring about what was going on, was sent into the opposite wall when she backhanded it with the same arm.
Eleanor turned her gaze down at the still biting monster, and with a downwards slapping movement she slammed the monster to the floor. Since her leg was also in the way, she was careful not to harm herself, so her slap caused the monster to be dazed instead, giving her the opportunity to retract her legs and use her sword to stab at the monster’s head, piercing it, and dropping it dead like the others.
There were still a handful of monsters, all of them shrieking and shouting as their human-like legs slapped the floor to get to her. With the distance that they had from her, Eleanor stood back up and took a different stance, where the shadow hand looked like a large shadow-like shield on her left, and the sword at her right side, ready to be swung.
One of the monsters jumped like a wild beast, right at whatever was in front of it. It tried to bite down on the large shadow hand, but its teeth simply slid off the surface of the back of the hand. Eleanor parried with the hand as if it was a shield, and the monster was sent flying back and into another monster that was rushing right behind it. However, there was another right next to it that was still coming for her.
Seeing that, she swung the sword from right to left in a wide arc, exactly when the monster got into her space. It cut below the neck, where a pale horse-like skinny chest was, causing the monster to stumble to its right side and fall dead with a large gaping wound and a bloody mess.
Eleanor saw with a heaving breath as the remaining monsters recovered from the crash, shouted and rushed once more towards her. She winded her left arm back, with the shadow arm matching her movement, and with a shout and one swift—somewhat clumsy—jab, she punched forward.
The shadow arm boomed through the air, and crashed with the incoming monsters. They exploded, leaving nothing but a bloody mess, and just one last monster; a slow one, with completely deformed legs that stumbled from side to side as it tried to make its way to her. However, it, like the other ones, carried the same beastly desire to kill and consume. She couldn’t be lenient with the last one.
With a heaving breath, her shoulders going up and down, and her eyebrows furrowed upwards in an anxious look, Eleanor shouted and rushed to her last enemy. The monster shouted back with a deep, raspy voice; the mouth on the top of its head flowing with yellowish saliva, as if responding to Eleanor.
This last one was slow, but she didn’t seem to notice as she did the same as she did with the other ones and swung her left arm with as much strength as she could muster, this time, in a downward punch. The large shadow hand, as always, matched her movement, and came down like a giant’s fist.
An explosion followed, with a crunching noise coming from the point of impact, and rocks flying from the destroyed ground. Eleanor, not sure about her success, repeated the same motion one, two, and three times; with each one, causing the hole to turn deeper and deeper until she ran out of breath, which is when she stopped.
Eleanor fell to the ground on her knees and looked around with desperate eyes. First at the now flat body in the hole, then back to the monsters that she killed before, then me, and finally, to the dark depths from where they came. Once she made sure that there wasn’t anything else coming to get her, she lowered her head and tried her best to recover her breath.
I nodded in satisfaction. This time, she fought mostly on her own. It would’ve been best if she didn’t need some form of encouragement, but it seemed like she was adapting to her situation fast—for being a poor noble lady, that was.
These monsters hardly carried any power, since they acted mostly as mindless beasts, so through the fight, with every kill, only a few pieces of power were being absorbed into her body. Not enough to make her stronger, but good enough for her to get used to what was likely lurking ahead in the next few corners.
I made my way over to her. Once I was close enough to her, I sat down, and waited for her to recover—though I'd tap her if it was taking too long. We still had more places to go, and plenty more to explore.
The monster landed its front leg on Eleanor’s backpack and stomped as hard as it could. Eleanor yelped in surprise as the backpack pulled her to the ground, where it opened as soon as she landed. Bloody pieces of meat flew right out of it and spread all over the ground.
Every other monster chasing us snapped to look at the bloody pieces of meat and turned their blood-shot eyes to them. With shouting voices, they jumped to it. The ones at the back jumped over the ones that were at the front to try to get the pieces of meat, and the ones that couldn’t, did their best to push away the ones that were in the way. Chomping noises of those beings lowering their heads, opening their mouths wide, and eating as fast as chickens could be heard in between the pushing and shouting.
Eleanor took the opportunity that losing her stash of meat gave her to stand back up and look with wide and teary eyes at the mess of the monsters. She took a step back, getting ready to run away, but I jumped in front of her and looked at her with determination; determination that I then turned to the distracted monsters. Right now, it was perfect for her to attack them and get rid of them.
I hoped that she understood my meaning from my actions. She hesitated slightly, but after a short moment, she pulled out her sword, held it with both hands, took a deep breath, and with a shout, rushed over to the noisy monsters that were trying to get to the few remaining pieces of meat.
Hearing her loud voice, the monster closer to her turned its human-like head to her. She didn’t hesitate and swiftly swung her weapon, right at the monster’s neck. With a booming sound of the blade cutting the air, it passed right through the monster, causing the head to fly through the air, with the body dropping lifelessly to the ground right after.
The few monsters next to it obviously noticed what happened and turned their shrieking heads to the one that caused it. Eleanor’s face turned to immediate fear at their wide, bloody teeth being pointed at her, but she still managed to hold her ground as she immediately swung her sword to the next monster.
The attack wasn’t quite as powerful as the last one, causing her sword to be half-stuck in the monster’s neck, which allowed it to still struggle as a gurgling voice came out of it, with blood pouring out of the mouth. It pushed ahead to try to overwhelm Eleanor, but she got the sword out in time and attacked once more; this time, cutting straight through the place where she last hit.
By now, the other monsters were already on the move. Eleanor moved her sword in quick motion to the closer one, causing it to impale itself on the top of the sword. Its head bopped forward and back with the mouth chomping the air as it tried to get to her, and her eyes opened wide at the dangerous noise coming from the mouth.
It was then that the rest of the monsters jumped one on top of the others to get to her, which caused the monsters impaled on her sword to topple on top of her, and the sword to go deeper into its body. It struggled for a moment, its mouth still trying to bite Eleanor, but it quickly died once the blade pierced the body completely.
However, there were now two monsters on top of her, with a third quickly getting on top.
“Ah!” exclaimed Eleanor when a fourth, not too far away from her, bit into her ankle.
It didn’t pierce the piece of armor that she took from before, but it wouldn’t last long as it continued to bite down several times. The armor still managed to keep the teeth away, but the overall shape of the piece was starting to deform on her leg. If she didn’t act quickly, the rest of the monsters were going to eat her.
“Ggh!” she let out a grunt of effort, her arms shaking as she tried her best to force away the other monsters that were doing like the first one as they also tried to bite her. “Get off me!”
A dark mist formed on her left arm, and then, suddenly, exploded in a black shadow. The monsters that were on top of her blew up in a bloody mess that spread to the walls, the ceilings and all around her, with the black hand from before appearing in their place. Eleanor looked surprised again, but when another group of monsters jumped from their spots to attack her, she was forced to turn her gaze at them.
From the floor, she swung her arm, and the large shadow arm matched her movements. A monster that was mid-flight was immediately hit by the hand and sent flying through the air and into a wall, where it splattered. The next one, not caring about what was going on, was sent into the opposite wall when she backhanded it with the same arm.
Eleanor turned her gaze down at the still biting monster, and with a downwards slapping movement she slammed the monster to the floor. Since her leg was also in the way, she was careful not to harm herself, so her slap caused the monster to be dazed instead, giving her the opportunity to retract her legs and use her sword to stab at the monster’s head, piercing it, and dropping it dead like the others.
There were still a handful of monsters, all of them shrieking and shouting as their human-like legs slapped the floor to get to her. With the distance that they had from her, Eleanor stood back up and took a different stance, where the shadow hand looked like a large shadow-like shield on her left, and the sword at her right side, ready to be swung.
One of the monsters jumped like a wild beast, right at whatever was in front of it. It tried to bite down on the large shadow hand, but its teeth simply slid off the surface of the back of the hand. Eleanor parried with the hand as if it was a shield, and the monster was sent flying back and into another monster that was rushing right behind it. However, there was another right next to it that was still coming for her.
Seeing that, she swung the sword from right to left in a wide arc, exactly when the monster got into her space. It cut below the neck, where a pale horse-like skinny chest was, causing the monster to stumble to its right side and fall dead with a large gaping wound and a bloody mess.
Eleanor saw with a heaving breath as the remaining monsters recovered from the crash, shouted and rushed once more towards her. She winded her left arm back, with the shadow arm matching her movement, and with a shout and one swift—somewhat clumsy—jab, she punched forward.
The shadow arm boomed through the air, and crashed with the incoming monsters. They exploded, leaving nothing but a bloody mess, and just one last monster; a slow one, with completely deformed legs that stumbled from side to side as it tried to make its way to her. However, it, like the other ones, carried the same beastly desire to kill and consume. She couldn’t be lenient with the last one.
With a heaving breath, her shoulders going up and down, and her eyebrows furrowed upwards in an anxious look, Eleanor shouted and rushed to her last enemy. The monster shouted back with a deep, raspy voice; the mouth on the top of its head flowing with yellowish saliva, as if responding to Eleanor.
This last one was slow, but she didn’t seem to notice as she did the same as she did with the other ones and swung her left arm with as much strength as she could muster, this time, in a downward punch. The large shadow hand, as always, matched her movement, and came down like a giant’s fist.
An explosion followed, with a crunching noise coming from the point of impact, and rocks flying from the destroyed ground. Eleanor, not sure about her success, repeated the same motion one, two, and three times; with each one, causing the hole to turn deeper and deeper until she ran out of breath, which is when she stopped.
Eleanor fell to the ground on her knees and looked around with desperate eyes. First at the now flat body in the hole, then back to the monsters that she killed before, then me, and finally, to the dark depths from where they came. Once she made sure that there wasn’t anything else coming to get her, she lowered her head and tried her best to recover her breath.
I nodded in satisfaction. This time, she fought mostly on her own. It would’ve been best if she didn’t need some form of encouragement, but it seemed like she was adapting to her situation fast—for being a poor noble lady, that was.
These monsters hardly carried any power, since they acted mostly as mindless beasts, so through the fight, with every kill, only a few pieces of power were being absorbed into her body. Not enough to make her stronger, but good enough for her to get used to what was likely lurking ahead in the next few corners.
I made my way over to her. Once I was close enough to her, I sat down, and waited for her to recover—though I'd tap her if it was taking too long. We still had more places to go, and plenty more to explore.
