Heng immediately went in Yin Hai's help as left his spear behind, and unshethed his sword. The sword was a standard side arm of the Xu Kingdom, something like shortened Jian , a decent cutter, and a good stabber. As he approached Heng saw that Hai had managed to stab one of these things in the heart, but it clearly hadn't fallen dead as it was still rushing forward, the only thing stopping it from killing Hai the spear Hai used to keep it at bay.

Seeing that Hai was attracting its attention Heng took a deap breath as he gripped his sword with both hands and chopped at the head from behind.

*Crack*

The sound of bone breaking was heard as the sword fell lile a meteor, but it did cut all the way. "What the...." seeing this Heng was surprised, but only for a second as his training kicked in and he delivered a tiger claw strike to the head, finally decapitating the thing.

"Ahhh...

Yin Hai who was not expecting this lost his spear as the body finally fell limply on the ground, but the didn't stay put as something else came from the forest. It was bigger then the others and was also covered in armour. Compared to the bluish dragonscale armour they wrote wearing it had a more intricate armour protecring all his body which was made of palm sized iron plates, and was completely coloured black.

"Graaaaa...."yelled the thing as it attacked the nearest soldier with astounding spead for its big frame.

"Aahhh..ahhh...

The soldier was scared shitless as he saw the thing rush hm, so hebof course raised his shield to protect himself, but the diamond mace on the things hand had other plans. The sound of wood breaking was heard as the shield almost flew out of the soldiers had, but he held on . Unfortunately for him tue difference in power was to great, and in the next second the mace found its way to the man's head.

*Bammm...*

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"Grraaaaaaaaa.....

That sound seemed to silence them all as a feeling of fear passed through the spines of those watching. It was so unbelievable to watch one of them dying in such an easy way, but reality was such a bitch. As they were processing this the thing knocked out the next soldier with his mace , but they weren't without hope either.

With two long strides Commander Li was upon the thing like a panther, and stabbed it in the face. Unfortunately the thing seems to expect something like this and moved its head to the side and the spear hit it's helmet and bounced of. Commander Li though wasn't dejected as he immediately moved out of the wasy of the mace and tried to stab the thing again and again, but it didn't seem to be working. The thing was to armored aggressive for him to land a good strike in, so he changed strategy.

"Surround him....hurry!"

As the words reached the soldiers ears they immediately moved and four of them surrounded the thing and started to stabb him, but it was like kids trying to fight a bodybuilder, a complete difference in power. They managed to to only leave scratches on its armour, and one of them was even heavily injured by a mace strike. The situation didn't seem to be going good, but Commander Li stepped in once again.

This time though he wasn't holding a spear, but a thick and short saber. He quickly passed through the soldiers and with shout slashed at the things left knee from the back.

"Huaappp....

The saber passed through the armour like a hot knife through butter, and the left leg of the thing was gone. Seeing this Heng and the others immediately intensified their attacks as they stabbed where ever they found flesh on their now crippled enemy. After what felt like an eternity the thing finally stopped moving, and the quiet night was present once again.

"Stop staring at that thing! Gather your weapons and regain your breath, there could be more of these things. Also, tend to those who are wounded......

Commander Li who didn't seem to be fazed to much by this immediately shouted his orders to everyone. It was a good thing as it stopped them from thinking to much of what just happened. Still, the fear of death still lingered over their heads as they often took glances towards the dark forest, tensig up at every little noise.

................

The very next morning all of them looked like shit. They were tired, sleepy, and irritated, but they couldn't stay here for long. The appearance of the things from yesterday had clearly upset Commander Li who seemed to have had an argument with the village leader, so now they were not welcome anymore inside the village and were beeing observed by the sentinels. It was frustrating to all of them to be treated this way after they just risked their life to protect them, but the order to march back to camp made it almost forgotten.