As both of the Scourge sized me up, I was trying to think of a plan. The one that had ripped most of its tentacle mane out as it swiped at me was bleeding and I remember that everyone said that a wounded predator was more dangerous than a whole one. I think. Either way without most of its venomous tentacles I didn't think I was going to have as much trouble with it as I was the other one. That one was uninjured and pissed even more than the other one was. Enough that it charged at me before I could come up with a good plan.

As soon as it raced toward me, the injured one took off after it before swerving to the side in an attempt to hit me where I couldn't see it. I decided that since I was going to die anyway, I may as well try to take a chunk out of the one in front of me; so I charged it back. As I approached it, the Scourge in front of me leaped into the air to knock me to the ground before I could get close enough in to hit it. Rather than let it hit me, I fell to the ground in a slide that would have made my middle school baseball coach proud and held my sword up hoping that I could at least knick this one before it killed me.

I'd like to say that it was all planned but it clearly wasn't. When I held my sword up I stabbed it into the front of the Scourge's chest and was just off center enough that I cut through all the ribs and continued to cut the damn thing from stem to stern. The bath in the things blood and guts was a bit much for me but when it landed it didn't get back up, so that was two down and one to go.

As soon as my slide ended, I sprang to my feet and faced off with the last Scourge alive. Staring one another down we circled warily each hoping that the other would make a mistake and give us the first opening. The torn mane on this one was steadily dripping blood and clearly caused it some pain as it carefully stepped to keep me in its sight. If I was willing to spend the next several hours here I guess I could wait for the damn thing to bleed out, but I just knew somehow that it would eventually stop bleeding and then I'd be in for a world of pain as I tried to finish the fight then.

Before I could decide on what to do the Scourge charged me and I was trying to keep myself alive again. Charging me once more, cause that worked so well for them, it sped across the divide between us and raised its arms as though it meant to grab me in a hug. Rather than recieve the hug from hell, I dove to the side and tried to keep hold of my sword as the Scourge turned to look at me again. Before I could stand up it was charging at me again trying to grab me. Rather than dodge and roll away, this time I tried to sidestep just enough that I could swipe at it with my sword. The cut that appeared on the side was shallow but it was a start. The swipe it took at me in return didn't break through my armor but I knew I'd have a wicked bruise from it.

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As we squared off again, I took the initiative this time and charged; the Scourge was very happy to respond in kind. Knowing that I'd only have one maybe two chances before I made a bad mistake, I prepared to end this fight as best I could while not knowing what I was doing. Charging one another, I tried to fake the Scourge out by lunging to the left before committing to the right instead, but it followed me with ease and as we approached each other it reached out with its arms and prepared to grab me.

Before it could grab me I jumped forward and cleaved downward with my sword hoping to cut into it enough that it would drop me from the pain. It almost worked I think; as I flew the last threeish feet toward it, it pulled its arms inward and tried to block my sword as it fell down onto it. I really had no idea how sharp that sword was and I didn't remember how easily it went through the ribs of the second Scourge, so when I cut through both of the arms the Scourge was trying to block with, the bones barely slowing me down, I was very surprised.

As I collided with the Scourge that had begun to cry in pain from the lost limbs, I tried to roll off it quickly to avoid the few tentacles that remained. Thankfully I was fast enough to only have one of them hit me, that armor from the Wardens was really paying off too since it didn't penetrate the plates that protected me. Springing to my feet I rallied myself one last time to end this. The Scourge was still crying out in pain at its missing limbs and was too distracted to focus on me as I tried to steady myself and my grip on the sword enough to finally kill it.

There was no battlecry, no roar of victory as I appoached the Scourge as quickly as I could without falling over, there was just me and the knowledge that I needed to put one foot in front of the other to put my sword through this thing as many times as I needed until it was dead and I could move on. Raising my sword point down was more of a chore than I wanted it to be as I prepared to thrust it downward into the Scourge. Before I did that I took one last look at the beast and marvelled how nature had made something so ugly, and then I drove my sword into its side once, twice, three times before it stopped moving entirely.

It was over and I had been lucky enough to survive my first encounter with the Scourge. Here's hoping I could do it again and again until I went home.