Pt.1

Vithrys polished his blade slowly by the soft light emitting from their dying campfire. His mind solely focused on the most recent massacre he and his party had recently stumbled upon.

His group of bounty hunters had been tracking what they had assumed to be some form of demon for the past two months.

The demon had been killing groups of creatures. They had tracked the demon back to what they believed to be its first kill of a pile of squirrels found by a group of hunters, generally something that would not have sparked interest except for the fact that there was twenty squirrels striped of their bones and insides, their eyes and skin, still perfectly intact.

From there Vithrys had tracked the demon based on similar scenes of mutilation. When he arrived at a town who’s entire population of farm animals were slain overnight he decided he was going to need to employ extra help.

He arrived at a local tavern and was able to enlist the help of Annalise and Derivard a pair of hunters, both skilled with bow, familiar with animal tracking and knowledgeable in the anatomy of the creatures they killed and sold.

The final member of their party was a Healer they had nicknamed “Patches”. A youthful member of a traveling priesthood, he had overheard Vithrys discussing the numerous scenes of brutality that he had witnessed to Annalise and Derivard and had just about demanded to come with them. He insisted that a healer could be the difference between life and death and while Vithrys had his reservations about the usefulness of “healers” some who could barely mend a wound let alone save a life, he admired the boys enthusiasm and had allowed him to come along.

This morning they had arrived at a small village to discover all of its inhabitants had been slaughtered, but in an unmistakable way. Piles of human flesh lay within tattered clothing. The occasional limb could be seen amidst broken houses and destroyed goods. Vithrys kneeled down and confirmed what he already knew to be true. The pile of flesh was without bone or muscle. He shifted the flesh enough to see a gaping mouth and empty eye sockets and stood up and looked at his companions.

Derivard held Annalise consoling her a look of rage and determination on his face. Patches simply stared, his mouth open. Vithrys couldn’t blame him, if he hadn’t witnessed the destruction a demon could cause firsthand, he would probably would be in a similar state.

“Come on” he said as he began to move through the town “Let’s see if there’s anyone left”.

Their search ended up fruitless and they decided to make camp further down the road for the evening. Emotional strain could be exhausting.

Vithrys finished polishing his blade and admired the rune imbedded in the hilt. Forged by a mage in the far north Vithrys had endured a lifetime of pain to gather what was needed to create the blade. Imbued with spells the blade was made to destroy demons. Vithrys had wielded it to destroy the demon that had ruined his life.

“Memories for another time” he thought “I should probably get some sleep before my watch begins”.

Just as he was about to lie down and close his eyes a scream pierced the the night.

Vithrys was on his feet in seconds, sword drawn and quickly moved over to Patches and gave him a soft kick as he peered through the trees trying to locate the source of the scream.

“Get up and get that fire burning I need light” Vithrys whispered as Patches slowly got to his feet confused.

Motion caught Vithrys’ eye and Annalise came bounding out of the bushes on the other side of the camp.

“Derivard’s dead” she barely managed to get out between breaths.

Vithrys noticed that she was shaking violently, her face pale and terrified. She was in shock, whatever had killed Derivard had inspired terror.

“I….I… it’s” Annalise said stumbling over her words when suddenly she was cut off as a thin spear of bone erupted from her throat.

Patches stepped back in horror as blood spilled from Annalise’s mouth and neck.

Vithrys moved towards her when four more spikes pierced through her dangling arms and legs and lifted her into the air.

Vithrys was now able to see that each bone spike was connected by tendrils to what could only be described as a tail. Vithrys stared in horror as his brain processed what could only be described as exposed muscle brought Annalise into the sky.

Out of the dark came a multi limbed monstrosity. The demon’s figure was composed of muscle and bones jutting out at odd angles, gaping mouths covered its body connected by limbs of humans and animals alike all thread together by pulsing red tendons.

Even by the light of the fire that Patches had barely been able to stoke Vithrys could see maggots squirming all over the demon.

Annalise let out a gurgling scream as the demon simultaneously ripped her apart, each bone spear pulling her body a different direction.

Bones snapping, flesh ripping Annalise’s torso dropped down into an eagerly awaiting mouth with a sickening wet splash. Each of the five spikes then delivered the severed limbs to a different mouth as the whole demon began to digest her, the mouths slowly crunching down on each limb.

With horror Vithrys watched Annalise’s head roll around the demon’s mouth until it could find a solid angle to crack her head in half as if the demon was trying to free a nut from its shell.

Flashbacks of a past repressed flooded Vithrys’ mind. His wife’s hand held in his as a demon ripped her from his grasp. His family obliterated as he ran away in terror.

Not again, not this time.