I charged straight at the maws of hell itself, or at least it looked that way, as the wyvern slid to a stop after its crash landing. In hindsight it probably was a good thing that the beast was disoriented from the crash and distracted by all the debris it had kicked up. Otherwise it could have ended me then and there with a single snap of its jaws. It would have been able to bite through me, armor and all, I had no more doubt about it as I closed in for my strike.

As I reached the downed monster I used one of its nostrils as a stepping stone to launch myself at its eye with the blade of my glaive leading the way. It must have realized the danger it was in at that moment as I could see a transparent lid slide shut over the eye I was aiming for. Either that or all the dust in the air was irritating it. Either way, it was too little, too late. The transparent eyelid protected the beast from irritating dirt for sure. It might even have protected it from any lesser weapons. It didn't do it any good as the blade cut from a wyvern's stinger struck true though.

The blade punched clean through the lid and all the momentum provided by my body made sure it penetrated the rest of the eye itself as well. It didn't stop there either. It sunk in all the way to the point where I was gripping the weapon's shaft with my leading hand, a pace or one and half deep. I wasn't exactly an expert on wyvern anatomy, probably no one really was, but with just about any other creature that would mean that the weapon's deadly tip would be lodged deep in its brain.

The beast certainly felt it. It reared its head, shaking it violently in an attempt to dislodge me but I held on tight. As a result my blade was only jerked around violently in the monsters flesh, cutting ever deeper. For a moment its jaws gaped open wide below me as it roared in defiance. I only held on even tighter, fighting for dear life, to not drop straight down the wyvern's gullet. Nothing but certain doom would await me there, even if the damn over sized lizard were to die as it choked on me. No matter how hard it tried, it couldn't dislodge me.

At least not at first. As it kept trashing I could feel my fingers slip though. My weapon would stay where it was but now my momentum was working against me as the beast flung its head left and right. My heartbeat quickened. The beast would weaken soon but not before my fingers or my arms would go numb. In the end I had no choice. I had to let go. I took great care to time it right though, to make sure I would not end as the dying monster's last snack.

I let go as the beast's head reached the apex of a swing and went flying as a result. I crashed into the remains of an uprooted tree and my wyvern scale mail was probably the only reason I didn't end up skewered on a dozen splinters as long as my arm. That none of them managed to penetrate my armor didn't mean that it didn't hurt though but at least I hadn't been gobbled up by my dying foe. Still I needed a moment to catch my breath before I could even think about getting back on my feet.

When I finally got back up I noticed that I hadn't been the only one who had been sent flying. The man who had been in the saddle at the base of the wyvern's neck had suffered a similar fate. I couldn't tell if he had been sent flying by the trashing of the dying beast or earlier during the initial crash landing but he was only now getting back on his feet as well. His steps weren't nearly as wobbly as mine though. I stared at the brutally jagged crown of dull gray metal he wore on his helmet. Of course, a dead man wouldn't be bothered much by getting the wind knocked out of him.

I grimaced. This would be bad. Especially since my main weapon was well out of reach. I looked over at the wyvern which was by now reduced to weak twitching and even as I watched it went entirely still. Well, it seems a wyvern's poison was as deadly to another wyvern as it was to anyone else. It made sense in a way. They didn't need the poison to bring down most things that could qualify as prey after all. They probably used their stingers in territorial fights with other wyverns and maybe real dragons more often than not.

I looked back at the slowly advancing ghoul king and flashed him a cheeky smile. It looked like he hadn't gotten away entirely unscathed either, considering the way he dragged his sword along the ground. It looked like something in that arm had been dislocated or broken in a bad way. Well, time to add insult to injury. I nodded in the direction of his now dead mount and drew my hunting knives. “It would seem like your one eyed wyrm went a bit limp, you rotting, sorry excuse for a king. You sure you are up to this?”

I almost got to eat and regret my words right away. He might be a dead man only animated by the foul powers of the Devourer but he was still fast. Not as fast as me though. Especially as I had taken the time my little wordplay bought me to cast Cat's Grace on myself once more. Even that on its own wouldn't have saved me though. What did save me was the undead king's wrecked arm. He simply couldn't bring that sword up to properly strike at me. He tried to hit me anyway, using his whole body like a flail but the swing went wide.

Most people would have tried to stay as far away from the wretched thing as possible. I went in close instead. As I dodged the clumsy swing I sidestepped around the ghoul king and jabbed one of my knifes into his shoulder from above, through the gap between his helmet and the breast plate he was wearing. Sure, although there was a gap in the plate there was still chain mail covering it, but I put my whole momentum into it again and punched through it, lodging the blade into his shoulder all the way to the hilt, utterly smashing the collar bone in the process.

Only once that was done did I get some distance in between him and me. I was down to one knife now and I didn't exactly like that but my opponent didn't fare any better. Now he couldn't move his sword arm at all. Not in a controlled manner anyway. He seemed to come to a similar realization. What he did next though had me staring in disbelief. The wretched thing reached over with its good arm and tore its damaged one free of the shoulder with one single jerk, emitting a hissing screech all the while.

I was still staring as it dropped the twisted and torn arm, only to pick the sword back up, which had come free of the grip of the now lifeless limb. Oh, this was not good. A hunting knife simply was no match for a proper sword. And this one was a damn good one at that, crafted in a dwarven forge for sure. I gripped my knife a little tighter. Where were the others? Hopefully not squashed under the cadaver of the wyvern. I really could use some help right about now after all. Either that or an idea. Either would be fine.

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I looked around, best I could without letting my current opponent out of my view. If he managed to blindside me that would be it after all. I needed a better weapon and I needed it fast. Until then I needed to keep my distance. The ghoul's grip on the sword was a little clumsy. It probably was not used to fighting with that arm. That wouldn't save my ass though if it managed to land a blow. Thus I ran instead of facing it head on as it charged my way.

I ran up one of the mangled wings of the downed wyvern, sheathed my knife and laughed with relish as I at last noticed that the ghoul stumbled and fell of as it tried to follow me. Instead of turning around to strike at the fallen foe I went for the dead creature's head instead. There I jumped, grabbing the shaft of my still stuck glaive as I somersaulted in midair. That was finally enough to get it free, together with most of the creature's eye.

I would have cursed as something icky sprayed across me but right now I had no time for it. If it was anything like the creature's blood I would have to clean it off quickly though. As soon as the damn ghoul king was down for good anyway. Well, at least I hadn't swallowed any of it this time. I whirled the glaive around as I landed, flinging most of the remains of the destroyed eye away. What little remained didn't disturb me much. Or rather, it was damn disturbing, but it didn't upset the balance of the weapon enough to bother me.

Finally my opponent came around the giant lizard's corpse and I greeted him by smashing the butt of my weapon in the face mask of his helmet. That would have downed most living enemies. The ghoul on the other hand was barely staggered at all. It bought me time to evade his clumsy swing. A quick step and a turn brought me into position for my next attack while the undead king was still off balance from his own miss. I raised my weapon high for a heavy chop without ever stopping, carrying along every bit of momentum I could, and brought it back down on the should of his good arm.

The attack left me wide open but right now there was no one who could have taken advantage. The blade bit deep as it connected, broken chain links flying everywhere. Again the creature emitted a wheezing screech of impotent rage. It whirled around as soon as I pulled my weapon free and my eyes widened as the tip of the clumsily swung blade came within a finger's width of my face. Then the pain hit me and I staggered back, staring at the severed tip of my right horn on the ground between us.

It hurt. It hurt like nothing ever had. There was bright blood dripping from the spot where the ghoul's blade had severed the tip of the horn. He emitted a wheezing cackle and the world turned red for me. I jabbed at him again and again, the wyvern stinger blade finding the gaps in his plate mail, easily breaking the chain links that were supposed to cover these gaps. Elbow. Wrist. Hip. Shoulder. The other hip. On and on.

With every hit the ghoul stumbled back a little further until I had him backed against a tree. He had lost his blade long ago. He wasn't cackling any more either. And as I had him against that tree I ran his neck through with my glaive, half severing it and smashing his spine for good. In the end my blade was the only thing still keeping him upright as it pretty much nailed him to the tree.

I took a deep breath, trying to fight past the pain, for one last stupid, witty remark when I caught a blur out of the corner of my eyes. Whatever it was, it was upon me before I could do anything. It slammed into me with enough force to drive the breath from my lungs and knock me flat on my back a few steps away. My vision blurred and I wheezed for breath as that second impact stole my breath again right away before I even had a chance to properly catch it again. And whatever it was, it landed right on top of me and for a moment everything went black.