Cowering doors with anything he had left around he finally was able to hide from the harrowing thing that waited for him outside.

There was still the sound of various legs tapping on the wooden vessel, but the dark spider horse now looked more careful and it waited patiently.

Hildebrant hated it had so much intelligence for being of its status. He had no idea why it did have so much life in its eyes, but it was possible all monsters had something similar. The madness that gifted them not just power but also the ability to think similarly bit also different from humans.

Maybe, just maybe it was the other hand around and humans were similar to monsters or even came from them.

In the end, there was not much known about the Dark Age that came even before the Age of Heaven and hell first man was born.

The most known era and age was the age of order that belonged to Ordermaker and the age of three emperors that came right after.

Still, even in school, they taught him about such things they still did not know everything, but it was theorized that after Ordermaker's death, his brother and two sisters began to fight for his throne and power.

In the end, the entire kingdom that was formed from half of the continent was divided into three parts that at that time represented Manticore, Feyren republic, and Maddering desolates that later became Yormweld.

Interrupted from his thought by rhythmical steps that stopped above his head he listened to it with a sword in his hand.

Dark Horse's leg made a small hole into the wooden vessel and looked at him through it. Hildebrant looked back without fear and after a while of gazing into each other eyes it moved away leaving him to observe the now bright moon.

It was round, big, symmetrical, circular, and beautiful.

His body relaxed and his grip kept weakening longer he observed the moon, but he was unable to move his gaze away. How could he when the sight before him made his heart so calm and so excited?

There was nothing more gorgeous than the moon before him, and he wanted nothing more than to sacrifice himself for it but then something broke the wall next to him and a horse head with seven eyes lunged at him with open eyes.

Still mesmerized he had no time to dodge after he woke up and with ferocity, the spider horse bit into his elbow and refused to let go.

As blood poured out Hildebrant eyes widened and after fear gripping his heart transformed came anger and flames in his body responded to his command and began to escape his flesh.

Pain?

As blood poured out his wound dark horse would lick it clean and then hiss in satisfaction.

With furry Hildebrant punched and a second before his punch connected to horse head, he let flames in his hand explode.

Intense white light illuminated the small room and the exoskeleton cowering horse's head cracked a little and head that held him released its grip and stumbled a little to the side, but it quickly recovered and then tried to bite again. But Hildebrant was prepared and kicked it out of the vessel.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Expecting it to come back he was prepared to use his sword, but the horse did not return and all he left was a new gaping hole in his vessel.

Grinding his teeth Hildebrant knew he could no longer ignore the persistent monster.

That night one of them needed to die or the monster would harass him until his death.

With new desire burning in his heart, he watched as white sand began to rise and tried to get into his room, but he quickly jumped from his bed and used it to cover the hole left by the creature.

The sound of sheets ripping entered his ear and then the entire shore looked to come to life but up on his ship he could also hear something moving from one side to another.

Taking his marble blade, he walked out of his room.

Broken doors were repaired with anything he could find and after opening them they left a creaking noise but even then, it was not so terrifying as the sound of multiple legs moving at the same time.

Using his ears more than his sight he waited and then he spun around right as sharp spider legs tried to impale his head.

Parrying it he used the time between coming off another leg and swung it up missing a long neck just by a millimetre. Monster's neck moved with unusual speed and as it stretched, being looked at him from celling, its head twisting around its body in an unnatural and terrifying manner like a snake around its prey.

It looked like a horror story his mother read him when he was young and maybe even more harrowing. In the end monster from the book was not real or it wasn’t until he became ascender.

With an unsheathed sword, he let flames flow into his blade and then pushed them deeper into steel and the cold marble in it began to turn whiter, turning the entire blade and surrounding white.

It was a technique he discovered while still living in the sanctuary after his fight with the Icarus avatar.

It gave his sword the ability to cut and melt almost anything it touched but in time his sword would melt too so if he wanted to kill being before him, he would need to do it fast.

Letting flames explode in his legs he twisted his body and cut room around him letting the ceiling fall. Wood his sword touched turned red and then the walls surrounding him collapsed while the monster on the ceiling began to fall with it.

Maybe finally understanding danger monster held nothing back and all its legs attacked him at the same time while it dodged his sword.

For its size dark spider horse was nimble and fast and more agile than he even could wish for, but Hildebrant was not discouraged and used the opening to try to cut being neck, but his sword was stopped by its legs.

There was no technique behind the movement of the monster, but it killed many beings, and he could observe an underlying battle style that was nimble and brutal at the same time expressing its abilities and most primal form.

Sword clashed with hard skin and wooden vessel around and under them began to collapse as they clashed.

Hildebrant was pushed back but Dark Spider Horse was not on it better.

Its long neck used to hold him back before now held back the monster. It didn’t matter how long its neck could stretch, but before his sword that was now imbued with flames that held his intense furry and killing intent, its exoskeleton cowering his skin was nothing.

The only thing keeping the creature alive was its maddening intelligence and the hard surface of its legs.

Exchanging five more moves Hildebrant cut another part of the ship and let it collapse on both of them.

The floor under them also began collapsing and the ship he before called home began to bury him and the monster alive.

Using the debris, he distracted the monster's gaze and with a ghostly strike he pushed his sword into the creature's neck.

An inhuman horse scream came out of the creature's mouth and then black blood sprouted out of his divided neck that under gravity fell with the rest of the debris and body of the monster on the floor.

With soft radiance, Hildebrant touched the ground, and then debris that came falling on him was burned by flames that surrounded his skin.

Looking up there was no longer a ceiling stopping him from looking at the moon. It was still beautiful and harrowing but now at least he could hide from it without fear of someone trying to kill him in his sleep.