Suddenly, I felt a clang against my helm, almost knocking it off my head, before something sharp scraped across my shoulder blades and drew blood. Turning around with one blade outstretched to guard and the other held close, ready to stab, I saw a blurry outline that seemed to meld with the night. From its alien chittering, I deduced it to be one of the chameleonic strains of the creatures.

I fell back into a desperate strategy, a whirlwind of blows to overwhelm the monster. Still new to this world, my skill would be no match against such a lithe and lightning-fast creature. Where skill failed, raw savagery would have to prevail. I could barely make its outline in the moonlit night, and each one of my strikes felt like a literal stab in the dark.

Swinging with wild abandon, I continually missed the creature as it dodged and weaved, like mist in the night. Just as I was gearing up to strike out at the creature again, I was saved from the results of my reckless strategy by Elwin, who appeared, as if by magic, behind the creature, stabbing it with a precise blow to the base of its neck.

Knowing better than to pause in combat, I swiftly turned on the balls of my feet, engaging a regular drone with my twin weapons against its natural armaments. I was faster, tougher, and stronger than the drone. I roared as I charged, my higher dexterity allowing me to parry both of its falling arm-blades with my daggers.

However, as I ducked under its vicious mandibles, I was met by its other pair of clawed arms. These tore through cloth and left bloody lines across my chest, causing me to lose a chunk of my Health. At the back of my mind, even in the heat of battle, I realized that I was not feeling any pain from the blows I had received. It must be because my Health was still over eighty percent, I thought, remembering the Tree-Laur and the exact threshold when the bleeding damage began to cause me great pain.

I did not have to wait long for my theory to be proven correct, because a sharp pain burst from my left leg as another of the Echo-Stalkers struck from my blind spot. This forced me to keep my left weapon in a hastily made guard position to help fend off further attacks from this new threat.

However, I was still within my initial target’s guard, and needing to end this quickly, I used a Power Strike to try and skewer the monster with my right blade. My dagger hit true and the crudely made thing pierced through its armored chest with part of my fist burying itself in its body.

I booted it off with a savage kick, uncaring to make sure it was dead, and turned to face my new opponent; the beast that had stabbed my leg. My Health points were falling precipitously due to bleed damage from the number of wounds I had received. I needed something to distract the enemies before me, to let me disengage and heal myself.

Not seeing where Elwin had disappeared to, I shouted, “Kidu! To me!” My voice cut through the din of combat.

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Kidu swiftly disengaged from his opponent by rapidly spinning his spear. The viper-swift blade formed a temporary circle of safety that swept away his opponents and he found his way to my side. The Hunter covered me with his bulk, keeping our enemies at bay.

I took this moment of respite to gather my magical energies and cast Heal vocally, prioritizing speed over anything else. The magic of the spell quickly filled my body with familiar soothing energies and raised my Health to nearly full. I studied Kidu for a moment and saw that he was not in any need of healing, having only suffered minor cuts along his arms and legs.

Fully invigorated, Kidu and I rejoined the chaos of the fray. Kidu’s spear was like lightning, thrusts mixed in with wide circular motions that kept multiple opponents at bay and relieved a lot of the pressure from the charcoal burners. Regarding the massive Hunter as the principal threat, most of the Echo-Stalkers focused their attacks on him.

I took the opportunity to savage their now exposed flanks, slicing and stabbing here and there while they were busy attacking him. Kidu was a storm of violence as he went from sweeping cuts to savage jabs, smoothly mixing offense and defense with his weapon forms.

I glimpsed Elwin there at the edges of the chaos, dancing among the melee between the charcoal burners and the Echo-Stalkers. There he was, stabbing at the joints of an Echo-Stalker’s natural armor, at the moments when they were busy fighting a charcoal burner. There he was again, plunging a blade into one of the insect monster’s eyes, before fading back into the night in an impressive display of shadowy stealth and martial skill.

Alongside the surviving charcoal burners, we began whittling away at the monsters’ numbers. Gradually we crushed them with our combined might, our enemies reduced to so many still twitching corpses and, as such, they were converted into power-giving experience.

My Stamina was just under half when we finished stabbing the last of the Echo-Stalkers, and I was a little displeased that I had not leveled up after the encounter. Over half of the charcoal burners had perished in the fight, and the remaining few looked tired but grateful to our party. On closer inspection, I noticed the leader, who was clad in bloody, blue, loose robes, came up to me, offering his hand in gratitude.

With no belt or scabbard on which to hang my blade, I handed one of them to Elwin, who tested its balance, as I walked up to meet the man.

Smiling oily, the leader spoke to us in a voice that was both obsequious, yet condescending, “Thank you, travelers, without your timely help this night I am sure that perhaps we would all have perished. We owe you our lives, and you have rekindled my faith that all men are brothers against the dark things. May I offer you the humble hospitality of our camp?

Even as he was speaking, a whisper in my subconscious suggested to me that he only wished me to let my guard down, before trapping me once again into slavery. A twisted, logical part of my mind understood that this was the only possible way he could recover from the losses of this night.

Before he could finish his traitorous thought, I stabbed him mercilessly in the neck.

You have slain Chagatai Nyamdor 85 experience gained.

“You are no brother of mine,” I spat vehemently at his corpse.