Erin gripped his bow as he watched the large group of monsters making their way towards Havens walls. All the available guards, soldiers and stationed Rangers were currently up on the walls ready for battle.

He had not been part of the Ranger group that had come across the monsters that were making their way towards Haven. But once they had received the news the city had gone into panic.

Several guards had to put down riots because of this. It was foolish of the Baron upon hearing the news to instantly put a food limit and tax on the supplies. Erin was pretty sure he just used it as an excuse to steal some wealth.

Though frustrated by the man's greed he had to push it to the back of his mind as the monsters drew ever closer and he was actually capable of getting a good look at them.

The creatures almost seemed like bunnies. Horrible misshapen bunnies that were unsettling to look at. An almost perverse sin against nature itself. Standing at roughly 5 feet tall on their hind legs. Their matted fur seemed to cling to their fur which seemed to hide the powerful muscles underneath.

They actually did look sort of like a mix of bunnies and humans if you were to combine the two except for one detail. Their faces.

The bunnies were almost screeching with foam coming out of their mouths, molars covering all of their teeth except for the front where sharp fangs sat. He didn’t know what would be worse if he was bitten by those fangs or crunched on by the molars. Their eyes clearly gave off a madness he knew all too well in seeing other animals. These monsters were rabid and would fight till they no longer drew breath.

But that wasn’t Erins biggest concern. In the front, leading this horde of vermin was a different monster entirely.

It stood at about 8 feet tall easily overshadowing the rest of the monsters that it was with. Possessing a lot of the bunnies characteristics from the hind legs, fur, ears and face. But what separated it was that it had 4 arms. Each holding a crude but cruel looking blade. Large leather wings sprouting from its back making him wonder how they could possibly hold such a large creature afloat but if they could that would make things all that more complicated.

Upon hearing the captain of the group he had been assigned to call out to be ready, he pulled out one of his arrows and notched it to his bow but hadn’t pulled it back yet waiting for the order.

The head monster that was in front of the army let out a loud howl and all the monsters behind him froze. They were just out of arrow range which made him slightly worry that they weren’t as dumb as they appeared to be.

The monster in the lead snarled and began to pace back and forth. His eyes continued scanning the walls and everyone at the top before his gaze slowly turned to the gate that was at the front.

The monster scoffed and let out a massive bellow before pointing one of its swords towards the wall and the rabid bunny monsters and they all began to charge.

“Draw!” The voice from the captain Commanded and Erin drew his bow and

aimed towards the horde.

“Lose!” Erin fired his arrow and began to grab his second. The first few lines of the monsters died. Erin quickly notched another arrow and fired again as he observed the monsters charging towards them at a rapid speed.

None of them had ladders or siege engines of any kind, and the walls themselves held protective enchantments so he didn’t really see them being capable of breaking through. They were likely to just crash upon the wall where they would basically be fish in a barrel.

The monsters then jumped easily above the wall's height as they aimed for the people manning it.

“Oh yeah. Bunnies.” Erin's reaction was faster than the ones standing beside him as he quickly dropped his bow and arrow and drew his sword. Slashing through the monster's body in half as it tried to land on top of him.

He quickly turned his blade onto the bunny-like monster that had tackled the person to his side and slashed it across the back as it was busy trying to bite through the man's arm.

He unfortunately couldn’t turn to help the others as the next monster had landed on the edge of the wall and launched themselves at him. Their snout was met with his swords pummel and as he took a step back he brought the blade down and cleaved his blade into its skull.

He couldn’t even get much of a chance to breathe as soon more of the bunnies launched themselves onto the walls. If there was one thing he was thankful for was that these monsters had no tactics. They just lunged themselves at the nearest person with no regard to safety.

He soon sort of found an odd rhythm to the bunnies as they launched themselves at him and he quickly dispatched the next over and over again. The stone walls became slick with blood as their bodies fell over and over again.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

More of the soldiers that were next to him fell as they slowly got overwhelmed by their numbers as they hopped over the walls.

It was then that a dark shadow moved over Erin and his head whipped up to see the 4 armed leader of these monsters flying above them, its eyes trained on the captain that was barking orders with a cruel grin on its face before plummeting and smashing down in front of him.

Erin barely had a chance to blink before he watched the mans head fly clean off his head.

“Shit!” The leading monster let out a bellow and began to cleave its way through the wall, killing both its allies and foes alike as it moved closer to him with unsettling ease.

Slashing through one of the bunnies that was nearest him. Erin quickly began running backwards. Fighting that thing head on would be suicide in his opinion. It seemed that most people around him shared his opinion as they also turned around and began running away too.

Erin had to cut through a few more of the rabbits before he heard the heavy footsteps behind him and following his instincts he dove off the edge of the wall grabbing onto the edge as the monster leader charged through where they were, it’s four arms carving its way through everyone in front of it.

He probably would have lost his grip had it not been for the claws of his left arm that dug into the stone of the wall.

With some effort he pulled himself up and saw the carved up bloody remains of everyone and everything. Erin was no stranger to violence and bloodshed but he felt his stomach do a flip because of it. A crashing boom echoed and Erin looked over to see the monster had broken through one of the gate towers and he could hear panicked screaming inside.

What he wouldn’t have killed for them to actually have a mage here. A powerful spell would work wonders. The only real magic Erin knew was utility and the average soldier didn’t know anything at all.

With a growl, knowing how stupid of an idea this was, he started to rush towards the gate tower, picking up a short spear along the way and cutting down yet another one of the bunnies that had hopped onto the wall and charged into the gate tower.

It only took a millisecond for his eyes to adjust and he saw several people carved up dead on the floor. With the monster leader climbing up the stairs killing everyone in its way as they tried to flee in terror stepping to the top of the tower where they had several archers and a ballista up there.

He quickly ran up the stairs and into the top of the tower where the monster had its back to him as it smashed the ballista to pieces. Wishing he had a better plan than this, he rushed the monster and jabbed the spear into its back where he figured the kidney was.

The creature let out a massive howl of pain and before it could turn around, Erin stabbed his sword into the other side and quickly rushed backwards just in time to avoid the swords that swung just where his head was.

Now seeing the monster turn all of its attention and unbridled hatred towards Erin made him really understand how stupid of an idea this was and did the only sensible thing today and ran like hell, jumping into the trap door that lead back into the tower and tumbled down the stairs as the creature howled and charged after him.

As he slammed to the ground he thrust his spear upwards and into the monster's thigh causing it to once again howl in pain, tripping and falling down into the wooden floor below, crashing through and into the ground floor, taking his spear with him.

Erin trotted down the now somewhat broken staircase and headed for the smashed door back out to the wall as he heard the creature crashing about below him but then paused. It wasn’t a smart idea, but what about his previous actions today were smart.

Before he had a chance to do the sensible thing and keep running, he turned back around and leapt off the second floor and dropped down to the beast below. His sword pointed downwards as he slammed into the creature's lower back as it was struggling to pick himself back up. His blade pierced through the monster's spine, severing it and causing it to smash back down in the ground with a howl of pain.

He tried to pull his sword out but found it firmly lodged into the creature's back and as such he didn’t notice the meaty fist that whipped backwards and smashed into him. Knocking him off and into the wall.

If it weren’t for the horrible angel he would definitely be dead. But that did not stop his vision swimming from the blow.

It took him a couple of seconds for his vision to refocus and watched as the monster was dragging itself towards him with a look that said if it was going to die it was going to take Erin with him.

With a soft grunt he picked up a sword from one of the dead soldiers at his feet and waited for the monster to get close enough before charging him as fast as he could. Aiming the sword for the monster's eye and striking perfectly just as a second fist connected with him and all went black.

* * *

Erin woke with a gasp and pain racking all through his body. It took him a couple of seconds for him to recognize where he was, which was a medical tent and another few for him to remember what had happened to get him here.

The fact that he was alive boded well, and the fact that he didn’t hear the sound of battle was also a good thing too.

In fact, despite the splitting headache, the aches in his body and what he assumed was a broken rib or two, he’d say he turned out really well all things considered.

As he lay on the bed he heard a rustle and saw a man come up towards him with a smile on his face with a nurse right behind him.

“As you can see, he is awake now my lord. I will return to tending to the patients now if that is permitted.” the nurse spoke with professionalism

The baron's simple hand waved her away and she left them alone and Erin a sneaking suspicion as to what was about to happen.

“I am glad you are recovering well there. It would be a real shame if such a fine Ranger such as you were to suddenly bite the dust like that. I will admit I was hesitant of the idea of having a forsaken be a ranger in our lovely little city but I guess the head ranger has a good eye for talent no matter where they come from”

“Thank you sir” Erin said keeping his tone neutral and not betray the frustration of being talked down too like this.

“Now I am sure you are wondering why I am here”

Erin let out a small sigh as he pretty much already knew “I will stand witness in saying you killed the leading monster.” Like the others Erin thought to himself as the baron grinned at him

“Good man. I knew the rangers hired smart individuals, glad to see that reputation was also not unfounded.” He then placed a couple of silver coins into Erin's human hand “For your troubles. Spend it on something nice”

The Baron then left as Erin lay on his back staring at the top of the ten, the silver coins felt slimy in his hands once again and all he wanted to do was vomit from the feeling that welled in his stomach.