Chapter 77 - Nest of Devourers (2)

[133 Days Remaining]

It was close to afternoon when we arrived at the forest near Rygrad. The forest was large, enough to hide an army inside without any trouble. We had asked some of the townspeople and they answered our questions with an obvious nervousness. There had been a few people who had suddenly gone missing from the town.

After confirming that, we were now at the opening of the forest, all of us divided into five even groups, one hundred soldiers to each group. The plan was to spread out and surround the Devourers so that they would not escape. Each group would keep a devourer busy and if they could manage, kill the devourer. Since there were six groups, the group that had all four of us together would engage two Devourers simultaneously.

Caldrun had informed me that the Devourers, once they had made a nest, would not easily elave it. They were also creatures confident of their strength, so the Devourers would fight against a measly five hundred and four humans. They would not run away at the sight of us, since the Devourers were also somewhat territorial after making a nest.

We entered the forest, two groups immediately breaking off to each side. The four groups would flank our initial attack. We did not even try to soften or quiet our footfalls. The footfalls of a hundred soldiers passing through a forest would have been impossible to mask entirely. The sounds of fallen twigs and the smell of crushed grass was palpable in the air.

A few minutes passed as we trudged deeper into the forest, all of our swords drawn, and our eyes alert. Despite the wide canopies of the trees, daylight still managed to pass through, lighting the forest and making shadows. As our group headed deeper in, with the three Grim Hunters beside me, I saw a tree which looked bended and broken in some areas, as if it had been slammed at by an enormous animal.

The Devourers, Caldrun had told me, were categorized as day monsters. This meant that they were not weak to daylight and were not part of the undead species. Day or nighttime did nothing to them. We chose to attack at daytime, because we would be more disadvantaged at nighttime.

Screams suddenly pierced the forests, worse than the sound of shattered mirrors—they were the screams of dying men. It seemed to come from the right, the dying screams.

The Grim Hunters immediately reacted, Caldrun being the quickest of the three. They sprinted toward where the screams had come from. I followed closely behind, So did my soldiers.

Then shouts came from behind me. Caldrun instantly turned his head a little, but continued running. “Time to show your skills, White Demon! You handle that Devourer, while we go help the other groups!”

I did not even bother to reply before turning around. A scene of a Devourer with his fist speared through the throat of a male soldier entered my vision; the dead soldier was hanging two feet above the ground, solely relying on the arm shoved through his throat. Blood dripped down in a steady flow toward the ground.

The Devourer had an angular beauty to him and would not have looked out of place among humans. He was dressed in a black vest and pants, now stained red from the blood. Several of my soldiers were slowly circling the monster, creating a ring of human soldiers around him. There was vengeance in their eyes, but caution was better than recklessness.

I hurried toward the Devourer, and my soldiers parted to let me through. I neared just in time to hear the Devourer speak in a low voice, made strange by the unknown language he spoke.

“Irow haj zeu ta il tral'xil, Marivels!”

I understood the unknown language the Devourer had spoken in, my dragon gift for languages instantly translating the foreign words.

“We shall feast on you tonight, Mortals.” That was what the Devourer had said.

One of the circling soldiers took out a dagger and threw it at the Devourer. The humanoid creature did not even bother to dodge the weapon, letting it pierce his gut. The Devourer only frowned a little before taking the dagger out, red blood dying the spot on his vest. Then the creature sneered at the soldiers, the disdain in his eyes obvious.

The human soldier he held through his fist suddenly started emitting white mist, which was absorbed by the Devourer. It took only a second, at most two seconds, before the soldier became a dried, pale husk, his skin sagging against his bones as if he had been terribly emaciated, starved for years. The life essence—the white mist, most likely—had reduced the soldier into an old wizened husk almost instantly.

The Devourer looked vitalized then; the life essence he had taken had healed him and made him stronger.

I charged at the Devourer, my speed a blur to the human eyes. I must have looked as if I had teleported a short distance. One moment I had been standing near the circle of human soldiers and the next moment my sword was coming down at the Devourer.

The Devourer reacted quickly though, using the human husk as a shield. My longsword made of Astraldite, however, cut through the husk and the Devourer's arm. Fresh blood sprayed in a clean arc and the severed arm of the Devourer dropped onto the ground.

The creature growled in pain at me and shoved his bloody, half-arm stump toward my face. He tried to retreat, looking for an easier prey to heal himself. I didn't relent though, following his retreat. My sword soon found his other arm before he could even grab at an outlying soldier encircling him. His arms had been halved into two bloody stumps.

The Devourer jumped high, well over ten feet. I didn't let him escape though. I formed an earthen spear in my hand and thew it at the Devourer. The creature twisted his body in an attempt to dodge the spear, but it was futile. The spear pierced through his chest and stuck him against the trunk of a tall tree. The earthen spear had worked because it was technically not magic, since I was no longer feeding magic power to the spear after its creation.

Even with an earthen spear pierced through his chest, the Devourer was still alive, growling at me from above. More than three feet of the earthen spear's length was lodged through the trunk of the tree. And though the Devourer undoubtedly had strength far superior to that of a human, it was hard to free oneself form a spear.

I formed two slabs of earth and slammed them together, crushing the Devourer stuck five feet above the ground on the trunk of the tree. There was an audible crunch of bones and a squishy, nauseating sound produced as a result of that. A puddle of blood also dripped down from between the slabs of earth, forming a small puddle on the forest floor. It would serve as food for the roots of the tree, and the tree itself would act as a grave marker for the dead Devourer.

The sounds of battles and shouts were still coming from the other areas. I turned to where the majority of the ninety-nine soldiers in my group were at, before addressing them. “All of you will go help the right groups and I will go help the left groups. Make sure not to give the Devourers a chance to touch you.”

“As ordered, Gold Knight Commander Verath!” a knight captain said.

We split up then, all of the soldiers in my group heading toward the right, while I headed toward the left.

After the soldiers were seen rushing out, I looked upward at the nearby trees, whose leafy branches could hide many things...including a Devourer. My gift for sensing danger, which only worked sometimes and quite infrequently, was finally rearing its head.

“Show yourself, Devourer!” I shouted toward the canopies of the trees.

The Devourer—a humanoid looking female with straw-color hair—landed gracefully onto the forest floor. Like the male Devourer I had previously killed, she had a sort of angular beauty with all the right, soft curves. A beauty, I suppose, if one ignored the fact that she could suck the life essence out of a man in a mere second or two.

“Il sar na Marivel!” the female Devourer exclaimed.

I neither smiled nor commented, only holding my Astraldite longsword ready.

“You are not human!” the female Devourer repeated, sharply emphasizing the word human. I could sense that the Devourer was somewhat curious in me. And from her easy pose and placating manner, she did not look to be threatening me. But I had been wrong about women on multiple accounts before. I would remain wary, even though my curiosity was making itself known.

“What do you want?” I asked the Devourer in a calm voice.

The female humanoid creature chose not to answer and instead drew closer toward me, the leaves rustling underfoot. Her face was pale, her eyes black and enormous, almost like saucers. She came closer and closer toward me until we were only about three feet away from each other. Then she sniffed the air, as if taking in some sort of essence or smell from me.

I watched the female Devourer, half of my attention solely focused on any sudden movements she would make, while the other half was wondering in curiosity. Her eyes widened, and an awkward looking smile appeared on her face, her small, red lips broadening a little.

“Araach'draakzur!” she said excitedly. Then she jumped at me.

I became instantly alert and counterattacked with a kick, the force of it throwing her back a few feet. She landed on the ground with what looked to be a hard thud and there was a small frown on her face. Then the female Devourer stood up and jumped at me again, shouting “Arraach'draakzur!”

I didn't know what she was saying. I was only able to glean a little meaning from that long, foreign word she had shouted at me. The only meaning that had been translated by my gift for languages was the word “dragon,” but it was only part of that long word. I was still missing many things.

I kicked at the female Devourer again. She landed on the forest floor once more, her frown growing larger. She stood up, unfazed from my kicks. This time though, she only stood motionless, watching me with her large, black eyes.

I looked at her in curiosity and likewise, she did the same.

Little did I know back then that the female Devourer had been trying to jump at me in an attempt to get closer, to smell me better, and to touch me.

Don't judge, my guest, for I know that a female monster who could drain your life in a touch, no matter how beautiful she looked, would certainly be kicked away if she suddenly jumped at you. She should consider herself lucky that I had been curious enough to not kill her the moment she jumped at me.

As we both stood watching each other amidst the screams of dying human men and women—I was too busy with the female Devourer to pay any attention to my soldiers—I tried suggesting to the female Devourer that she wait for me here. That I would come back to this area after I had killed the other Devourers.

The female Devourer only shrugged, and it made me believe that it did not matter to her whether the other Devourers died.

I quickly left the area while the female Devourer went back into hiding, and proceeded toward the thick of the ongoing battles, and helped killed another male Devourer by working in concert with a few of my better soldiers. The monster did not go down easy, taking a few soldiers along with him to his death.

By the time we had finished with the two Devourers in the left area of the forest, the remaining soldiers and I all sprinted toward the right area of the forest. One Devourer had already been killed with a bolt from a crossbow through an eye, and multiple stab wounds were found all over his body. Near the body of the Devourer, there were also the wizened, dried husks of my soldiers. Dozens of them, in fact.

And when we arrived at the area where the other remaining Devourer was, the monster was already heavily bleeding while the three Grim Hunters were like small whirlwinds around the monster. There was a trail of old, shrunken bodies of soldiers tracing the path where the battle with the Devourer had taken place. It was not long before the three Grim Hunters finally put an end to the remaining Devourer.

Caldrun, Gunther, and Lyra were heaving with effort, and there was a noticeable limp on both Gunther and Caldrun as they came toward me. There was much blood on their clothes and leather armors, as if the three Grim Hunters had taken a stroll through a short, heavy rain of blood.

“Did you get the other three?” Caldrun asked, having finally regained his breath.

I shook my head. “No. One got away.”

There was a sharp grimace on Caldrun's face. “Are the two other dead Devourers both males?”

I nodded.

“Shit. Whore of a dog,” Lyra swore. “This means that the female Devourer got away then.”

Gunther added in an almost whispering voice. “Yes, the matriarch Devourer. The leader of the nest.”

Caldrun sighed softly. “It's too late to chase her anyway. Who knows where the monster has gone. A Devourer's speed and stamina is no joke, so we can only try another time. Useless chasing her now. We shall have to just rely on our scryers and scouts.”

Leaning on his longsword which was similar to that of Lyra, Caldrun turned his head toward me. “You have done the Grim Hunters a great service today, Verath. I thank thee for your help, and if we ever meet again, I shall treat you to some food.”

Caldrun grinned at me and walked closer, trying not to put weight on his sprained, right foot. He then embraced me and whispered, “I know you are a monster, but you seem to do more good than harm. If ever that balance reverses, I will personally hunt you down. And do not worry, despite my looks, I have an extensive influence within my organization.”

He stopped his embrace and retreated back to his group of Grim Hunters. Then Caldrun smiled at me. I, likewise, smiled back. But we both knew that our smiles did not reach our eyes.

We went our separate ways then, the Grim Hunters choosing not to rest near Rygrad town. My group, however, settled for a good afternoon and a night's rest at the town. We had some burying to do for the dead soldiers tomorrow morning. There had been a hundred and twenty casualties, and despite our victory, we did not have a jovial mood. Our mood was solemn and determined instead.

Also, as I exited the forest, I carefully gestured to the female Devourer—the matriarch of the nest— to follow me. My hands, not literally, of course, would be busy with this female Devourer for the night.