Medusa stood on the walls, blood on some parts of his armor, his hammer, stained with blood. In front of him were a bunch of corpses.
Many were spider corpses.
Many were human corpses. Dead soldiers. Dead soldiers who died fighting.
The battle was over, and Medusa and the soldiers won the fight. Yet, many died because of it. Medusa stared at the bodies, all mutilated, and maimed. He felt pity for them. He felt sorrowful for their families who now had to bear the deaths of their loved ones. That’s war, all of it was suffering and death.
Medusa was sick of it.
As he was looking at the bodies in front of him, he then saw a spider that was still alive, crawling slowly as it was injured. It was currently crawling to another spider corpse that was just near it. When the spider reached the corpse, it used one of its front limbs to poke at the face.
‘Tik Tik’
Two times, it poked the face. The corpse didn’t move, not one bit. Noticing this, the spider climbed on top of the corpse. Medusa tilted his head in confusion before seeing the spider curl up on it. The spider was silently chittering to itself. Slowly, the sound faded until it stopped chittering and finally succumbed to its wounds.
Medusa sighed as he watched the whole event unfold. It wasn’t the first time he saw something like that happen nor will it be the last for sure. Even creatures like them have emotions. Humans weren’t the only ones who had families or loved ones. Even the Federation has them.
Medusa laid his hammer down before taking a seat on the floor. There, he reminisced about what happened tonight.
----------------------------------------
The fight was brutal, tons of humans and spiders were fighting each other. Many were getting injured left and right. But there he was in the middle, fighting like a monster. Fighting like a demon. He was berserk, smashing the spiders left and right with no end in sight.
He was so terrifying that even his fellow comrades sweat at the sight of him fighting.
He was merciless towards his enemies.
Emotionless to everyone.
Wounded by none.
----------------------------------------
“Maybe I am a monster.” Medusa whispered to himself with regret. He never wanted to be a monster. No, he just wanted to help, to protect others. To protect the ones he loved from danger. But now, people feared him more than they feared the enemy.
He stared at his hammer, full of blood and guts. The weapon he always used to kill monsters. The weapon that caused fear.
One of the main causes of his loneliness.
His head drooped down in sadness. He had no one to talk to. No one to have fun with. No one to ask for help.
‘Was I born to be lonely?’ Medusa thought to himself. He then felt a tap from behind him. He looked behind him, seeing a soldier standing there, sweating. The soldier had long black hair an average height and a sword that was sheathed and located on his waist. The guy also had freckles randomly placed on his cheeks.
“Uh, uhm…I-uh…Need…” The soldier stuttered too much but Medusa already knew what he was going to say so he stood up, picked up his hammer, and left. Before going down, he saw the soldier uncomfortable looking at the bodies, fear, and shock in his eyes. He was definitely a rookie.
“You’ll get used to it kid.” Medusa said before leaving.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Wha-” The soldier turned to Medusa but he already left. He closed his eyes before muttering some words of encouragement to himself. “You’ll get used to it; you’ll get used to it Evan. You can do this.”
Evan proceeded to drag the bodies down as other soldiers came and dragged the others.
----------------------------------------
‘Shit…shit…shit…’ A spider that survived the attack ran back to the camp. ‘Herr…Koop…even fucking Junk…they’re dead…All dead!’
The spider was not alone as a few others survived and retreated.
‘Shit…shit…fucking hell!’ As soon as the spider returned to the camp, Orks and others quickly came.
“Gyle, ish dat yu?!” An Ork asked the spider, Gyle.
“zzzznumzzz.” Gyle responded, getting a nod from the Ork before running off to somewhere.
“What grrrhappened?” A Kobold with the head of a Wolf asked.
“zzzznamoszzz zzzgushtanzzzz” Gyle said, sadness in his voice.
“Rrrreally? All of them?” The Kobold asked to which Gyle nodded. Some other spiders reached the camp, all tired and in shock.
“zzzgizzzz zzzzfuzzzz” One of the spiders said to the Kobold.
“What do you meeaann? There was a de-grrrrrr de-grrrrr…d-d-d-demon?” The Kobold felt uncomfortable saying the word. The spider continued to speak to him.
“D-d-demon with a…hammer?” The kobold’s eyes showed trauma before shaking his head and asking again. “That is a grrr human settlement! There are no d-demons!”
“zzzbazzzz zzzcavuzzz”
“A human…did all those!?” The Kobold asked in shock. The spider nodded. Gyle just remained there, stationary as he knew who the demon with the hammer was.
Gyle was there…he was there when he saw the demon’s rampage on his comrades. He was there when he saw Herr, Koop, and Junk die at the hands of those humans. His friends, his friends were all dead. No magic can save them. Gyle curled up and cried.
The Kobold and spider that were chatting saw him do so.
“Gyle, it’s going to be alrrrright. They’rrre in a betterrr place now. It’s going to be alrright.” That was it, Gyle stopped crying as he uncurled and began to speak louder.
“zzznagzzz zzzmatzzzz zzzkuszzz zzzbashzzz!” Gyle shouted at them, tears falling from his eyes. His screams showed the pain he was currently having. “zzznuzgzzz zzzkoopzzz zzzherrzzz zzzzjunkzzz zzzkalozzz”
Gyle curled up into a ball again and continued to cry. The Kobold and the other spider just left him there since he needed some space.
Near the General's quarters, Foot was near, heading inside of the tent. His face was shocked to hear the news of the failed assault yet he knew it was a possibility. Once at the entrance, he took a step inside.
“S-shir…” Foot entered the tent of Gargok who was sitting down on a chair and doing something at the table. “I…newshs”
“What is it?” Gargok asked in a gentle voice. He was holding a knife in one hand and a piece of wood in the other. He was sculpting. The sound of the knife scraping the wood could be heard.
“Da attack wash a failure.” Foot replied bluntly. Gargok sighed dejectedly.
“I should have known…” Gargok said, voice still gentle and calm. “Tell the engineers to hurry up building the equipment.”
“Yesh sha!” Foot saluted before running out to inform the engineers. Gargok abruptly stopped his sculpting and stared at the piece of wood. Gargok sighed.
“Tomorrow will be a bloodbath.”
----------------------------------------
Inside a forest just near the fortress and camp, were two figures. Both of them had full metal armor with a dark grey color. It was studded with weird symbols. Their helmets were different as horns were branching out of the helmet. One had long horns that were about half a meter while the other had a combination of one short and one long. Two orange orbs of light were seen inside the helmets. They also had large two-headed battle axes on their backs.
They were mounted on a beast with full armor as well. It had a body figure of a wolf but with two medium-sized horns near the head area. Their eyes were pitch black. The mouth area had no protection, revealing its sharp teeth and slimy tongue.
It was a Nheiros, a type of beast that was both fast and deadly. They were more dangerous than dire wolves. Nheiros also had another nickname.
Hell Hounds.
And the riders were Demons.
They were on the edge of the forest, watching the Humans and Federation fight. Their gaze was unfaltering as if they located prey.
“Mahkat, ikhon abhariz, it ulto mhon uhrthros Federation jhanaz.” The demon with the long horns said to the other. His voice was deep and demonic. The other simply nodded and grunted before riding into the woods, leaving the demon to his own devices.
The demon just remained there, silently watching the camp as his comrade went. Suddenly, a twig snapped, getting his attention. He looked behind him, and there, he saw a goblin standing there with a pile of sticks, staring back at him with fear.
“No witnesses.” The demon said before taking out his axe with his left hand. The axe itself had a metal handle as well as the head of it. He then signaled his Hell Hound to turn around and quickly went for the goblin who was still standing there.
Once the goblin got out of his stupor, it was too late, his head was cut clean off. His body and head quickly dropped to the ground.
“Khalag.” The demon said as he was cleaning up his axe that had blood smeared on it. The Hell Hound went back to the body, trying to get a taste of it. "Bahras! shatoh lahkunro etkohros!"