The headache was starting to feel different. It was so strange, the only reason Malum even felt it was because he was so sensitive to just about everything that he could even feel it.
Blade met bone, as Malum continued the dance even as the moon stared down at him. His predictions were becoming better, more accurate even if they were based on less senses.
It was wrong sometimes, but with failure came lessons and Malum learned them every time.
His body ached, but now he didn’t even feel it. Instead his mind was so occupied with this feeling that it didn’t notice the red blood slowly seeping from his wounds.
Initially, that wasn’t such an issue. Such was the reason that an hour had passed like this and he still had yet to realise the problem.
It was only when he went to swing for a demon and he missed did he realise something was wrong. Missing was fine, but every calculation demanded that the blade should have hit.
The damage he received from his failure made the blood loss even worse.
He looked around dazed slightly as he thought of the problem. Checking his body, and realising his error took only moments but the demons only needed that to escape Malum’s senses.
He dropped a sword and used the spare hand to relieve the problem. Bandages might not solve the root of the problem but it would help stave off death for now.
The sword wielding hand culled through the demons that had escaped his senses but more energy was wasted to kill them than usual.
This was the problem with errors, they always followed one another making each one more dangerous than the last.
He needed a break; he needed a moment to heal.
Instead of letting fate decide his life, Malum was going to force it.
`How do I give myself some time.`
Malum looked around to see torches and darkness, and he heard only demons and the river.
A fire would need something flammable. And the only option in the department was either his supply bag or the demons bodies.
The river would be a good way to calm it down if it got out of control, otherwise Malum couldn’t think of anything else.
With his decision made, Malum searched for something to light to the fire and his senses guided him towards the torches he had yet to light.
The demons followed him, using the night as cover they dove for his back their jaws open and their mouths dripping in saliva.
Red eyes gave them away. The head was the destination of his sword, and even though the blade was fairly dull, it still managed to hack through their neck.
With the torches obtained Malum flicked them against each other and with it he now had two roaring flames to set some bodies alight.
He followed his previous footsteps, using the flames as a guard and his sword as his offense. Even though his fingers ached as they held two torches, he forced them closed.
One hand held his hope, the other cut away at the demons that had heralded his death.
With bodies now lining the floor, the sounds of its own brethren eating themselves, Malum began the fire as he got out some of the extra food he had laid out.
The demons had nowhere else to go, with the front blocked by fire, one side by a raging river, one a cliff, and the other by its own furious brethren. They stopped for moments as their raging eyes figured out any ideas.
Wrapping his bloody arms, Malum rewrapped on his sword. One hand would remain free but the other, his more dominant right hand, would be better at defending him any situation like this occurred.
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With the little rest, and the snack and drink. Malum felt slightly better as he waded back into the fray. The demons instincts wouldn’t let them just wait out the flames.
Thankfully some jumped in the river. Killing themselves as swimming didn’t come naturally and the rocky path would finish of those that managed to float.
Some jumped through the fire, gaining themselves a new danger Malum had to prepare for but at least the burns had restricted some movements on some demons and the ablaze demons couldn’t exactly hide from Malum now that they were walking torches.
They fast and they came furious. The pain seemed to numb even their logical reasoning as some turned against each other but some charged at Malum with greed in their eyes.
Malum stood, then he slowly began to sway.
He began to hum a tune, one a baker used to sing.
It was slow, simple, but all Malum needed was to get back into the flow. Initially, it felt wrong. Forcing the dance wasn’t something Malum had the ability to do.
Instead he went back to what his roots of fighting where.
Simple stabs and simple slashes.
Heads were removed as injuries slowly returned to his body.
With his attacks came the movement to enhance them. To add weight to his attack to increase the power.
When he had questioned why the blade had bested the demons leg, he had left himself a large query. In death, such queries were treasure troves of useful time spent thinking and the result of that thinking was his answer.
The demonic beast had been charging toward Jameson its speed and weight vastly out numbering Jameson own. But, it’s weight was focused on it’s leg. Towards the earth at its feet.
Not on the joint that Jameson had cut. With this in mind, the joint no longer had the weight part of the equation and such was weak even if it was far faster.
All that meant was that Malum needed to hit the right places, at the right time. Weak points where exactly that. Some parts had to do with the areas weakened skin, such as the Titanoboa but for the triceratops those legs were the perfect example.
With this confirmed theory, Malum now began to put it into practice. With his style sorted out and effort being useless to advance his flow he decided to put on the agenda his new theory.
Joints, legs, arms, necks, heads, chest, even the demonic beasts hips. Malum tested everything, for every variant he spilled more than enough blood to prove his ideas.
Results showed Joints and Legs as good targets. Chests generally worked the other way around, but for arms he found even though they were weak and he could slash them the rewards outweighed the effort.
Joints and legs removed movement which made them easy prey. With a demonic beast, if it had one arm it still had it maw full of teeth to kill him with not to mention the sharp claws on its legs and the sheer weight it had as an advantage.
Malum wanted consistency. With regular results he could further narrow down weak areas to improve on rather than irregular results telling him only that improvement was needed.
Blood continued to seep into the desert, as the wave continued to attack.
If before he was getting tired, Malum now felt like he was running on scraps.
Every movement felt hard, such every move he made became more thought out.
He wanted to lie down. Laze around on a bed, feel the lovely nothing of sleep. But death wasn’t an option, especially not in front of so many demons.
His combined sense was getting more deadly, and combine that with his solid style and effective theories and Malum was a walking demon slaughterer.
The ground he walked on was already becoming a muddy terrain. Now it was pretty much a bog, it weighed down on his legs and that wasn’t even mentioning the smell.
He praised the Gods above for the two pieces of bandages in his nose. They had likely saved that sense singlehandedly.
All he had to do now was continue. Swing his sword, again, again, and again.
Muscles could ache as much as they liked, Malum had to leave this place alive so as the sun rose up the sounds of his battle continued.
Malum leaned on his left leg as he swung again. He didn’t even look at his sword cleaving the demon in half, instead he looked towards the ground.
He wished he could have fell to that soft ground. To let the pain end.
He couldn’t, he couldn’t, he couldn’t.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t want to.
He looked up as he straightened up before he turned slightly to the left. Letting a claw cleave where he once was, he impaled the beast to the ground before he looked up to see the sky.
The sun, it was so close.
Just a few more, no just a demon or two more. It was lies but it was lies his body wanted to hear.
He just continued to cull the beasts; the end was in sight.
Just a few more.
An 001, an 004 and what looked like a winged one at the back.
The 001 got a slash to the throat. The blood left on the blade was flicked onto the 004s eyes before Malum stabbed through the eyes into the brain.
Finally the winged bastard.
He was lightheaded. He was exhausted. But he could kill one more.
Especially one which had killed his friend.
For Jerome. Malum held out his sword before he felt everything around him and then reeled back and breathed.
He watched the beasts inhuman speed.
What was once invisible was now easy to see.
He watched as the beast circled round. The red eyes turning into streaks in his vision as it reached top speed. It then reached its pinnacle before it fell down and prepared to attack.
Malum felt his sword in his hand.
He didn’t even need to look. Sound was his friend as he slightly tiled to the side and cut with his sword where the demon now flew into.
Malum’s body reeled back from the force of the beast going against the sword. He fell back but didn’t mind as he felt blood run down his sword.
Now on the ground, with no demons left to kill him, he could rest.