33.

Erak followed the streaks of rusty blood deeper into the docks, moving in a low crouch with the sword in front of him. Every step was careful as he looked over the multitude of entrances and exits that his prey could have taken. The docks were a warren of twisting halls and small rooms.

He passed a pair of legs, one in the middle of the hall in the bright orange of a construction worker, and the other a deep violet sweatsuit that was propped against a corner. The walls were coated in the sticky gore and Erak could taste the hints of violence still lingering in the air.

Every breath was a harsh exclamation, loud in the silence of the haunted hallways. He stepped down and the ring of his boots on the metal was sharp as he looked around, waiting for the beast to come and confront him.

The blood slicks were growing thinner, the creature’s companion likely having assisted in stopping the blood loss from its wounds. He leaned down to look at the closest blood trail, wet and glistening.

A drop of saliva hit the floor. Erak slowly peered up and saw the creature he had been stalking looking at him with hungry, yellow eyes. They moved together, Erak rising up, sword and shield in harmony as the creature skittered at him, jaws wide and fire gleaming in the back of its throat.

The ball of fire washed over him, blinding Erak and stealing his breath as the superheated air burned. Weight slammed into him, knees buckled as he twisted and slashed, sending the wyrm to the side in a deafening crash. Erak rolled, turning the force of his fall in backward momentum and rising to his feet in a fighting stance.

A door whished open behind him and the demon came at him screaming a war cry as its short sword stabbed at Erak’s neck. Pinned between the two, Erak attacked the rider, trusting in his armor to hold as he crossed blades with the small demon.

Beast Tamer lvl. 11

The demon looked different than those he had been slaying all day. Smaller and more delicate, with sharp cheekbones and a button nose. Its ruddy red skin had black ink runes tattooed across the bridge of its nose and under its violet eyes. Thick iron gray hair was chopped in a pixie cut while short fangs protruded from its mouth as it hissed at him in defiance.

Erak slapped aside its sword with his shield and stabbed it through its thin leather armor, piercing its sternum and erupting from its back in a spray of pink blood. It coughed once and died as Erak put his big boot on its small chest and pulled the sword free to turn back to view the wrym.

Juvenile Wyrm lvl. 10

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

It looked similar to the Ice Wyrms he had hunted in the North. Six legs on each side with three talon claws, a long sinuous body with dull brown scales and yellow eyes that gleamed with intelligence. Drool dripped from its mouth as it moved side to side like a snake did before it struck.

Erak matched its movements, bobbing side to side with the sword ready to engage the nearly twenty foot long monster. It exploded in a furor of movement, all talons and teeth and Erak slashed and connected, parting scale like they were paper. Blood spilled on the deck in a loud splash, but the wyrm’s weight knocked him down and he hit the deck in a clang.

The wyrm screamed in his face as it tried to wrap around him, Erak’s heavy body being slammed back and forth as the wyrm coiled about. Its head twisted to look at him and Erak let go of his sword and slid his other arm free of his shield and wriggled both free of the tightening coils. Even through his armor he could feel the pressure mounting as the coils continued to tighten.

Erak punched it in the face, right where the eye was and was rewarded with its scream morphing into a yowl of pain. Erak grabbed at its thick neck with his other hand and squeezed, his fingers crushing small scales beneath in his clench.

Heat blossomed all around him, sweat breaking out on his face as the wyrm began to heat up. It hissed again, spittle spraying through his visor and clinging to his eyes as Erak growled in return, squeezing harder as he punched it again and again. Each titanic blow tore cuts through the scale until he finally connected and one of the dreadful yellow orbs popped in a spray of gelatinous flesh.

The reaction was immediate and violent, it tightened enough that his armor groaned in response and Erak’s breath fled him, forced from his diaphragm. Erak didn’t relent in his crusade to crush the wyrm’s skull. He clung to its neck with a vice-like grip, refusing to allow it to move, as he hammered away like a blacksmith at an anvil. It snapped on his arm and dagger like teeth broke on his rare grade armor.

Erak laughed, harsh and grating sounds that trembled up from his ruined throat as he ripped his arm free of the animal’s now ruined mouth. It howled in pain, but Erak was merciless. Sweating from the heat of its body and breath coming in short pained gasps, he persevered.

Minutes passed as they battled, the wyrm trying to slash him with claws, crush him in its coil, and cook him by emanating heat, but Erak was stronger. His fist hit its ruined face again, where the eye used to be and he was rewarded with bone splintering. Vigor flooded him, his weary limbs regaining their strength as he renewed his battering with precise focus.

The wyrm tried to get away, loosening its coils and beginning to crawl, but Erak clung with his one hand and hit with the other as he was dragged down the hall. His blows lacked leverage, but the misshapen skull was already broken and it only took two more hits to get the wyrm to stop and spasm before it fell to the ground.

Erak took a moment to catch his breath, laughter tugging free as he reveled in the aftermath of the fight. A hunt of an Ice Wyrm would require at least a half dozen hunters and even then victory was not assured. To catch one in his hand and pulverize its skull with the other.

He got to his feet and found his shield and sword discarded by the creature’s unraveling nature and cleaned the sword before tucking it back in its sheath. He went past the dead demon and into the room it had ambushed him from and looked about.

His spear was there, propped against a wall in the corner. The room was filled with other treasures that the wyrm rider had procured. Energy cores, weapons, valuable metals, and other things that Erak couldn’t identify. A bed was in the corner and Erak stipped it of its sheet and grabbed the energy cores that had been piled in the corner and filled the sheet and twisted the cloth, turning it into a temporary bag as he grabbed his spear and left the room.

The rest of the group should be here soon enough and he needed them to watch over him as he took the newest level he had just earned.