Running Out Of Hope

Asher didn't know how it had happened.

All he remembered was running, while his body acted all on its own. The knife in his hand tore through the air, slicing the eyes of the Slug Demon off.

"SKAAAAAAAAAA!" The Slug Demon let out a cry of pain and thrashed out.

"AHHHH!" Asher was right behind the demon and was struck by one of its arms.

~THUD~

His body was flung across the rubble strewn area and landed on top of a ruined tent. It absorbed some of the impact, but wasn't enough to stop Asher from getting injured.

"Ugh… My chest…" Asher felt searing pain coming from his chest where he had been struck by the Slug Demon's hand. 'Did I break something?' he wondered, as the pain got worse with movement.

~SCREAM~

He shook off the daze from the pain and looked at the source of the scream. 

"Run! Run while it can't see us!" Tess urged the others, pulling them off from the ground.

Their legs had turned to stone, because of the fear. But now that Tess was helping them, they realized the situation and started to run with Tess. 

"SKAAAAA!" The Slug Demon swung its arms around blindly, thrashing everything that was near it.

Asher didn't expect to injure the Slug Demon when he had charged at it. He only wished to delay it long enough so that Tess and the others would have the chance to get away. He had swung at the Slug Demon's eyes instinctively, but had managed to hit one of the few vulnerabilities of the demon.

Unlike the other Orc Demon, the Slug Demon's weakness was its exposed eyes. They were only attached by fleshy branches rather than being embedded safely into its skull. While this type of eyes allowed the Slug Demon to look in all directions without needing to turn its head, it also meant that the eyes were unprotected most of the time.

Normally this was not an issue for it, since the Slug Demon would be able to protect itself. After all, it was decently fast and would catch and counterattack an enemy with its six arms. But because it was preoccupied by the prey in front of it, the Slug Demon had not thought that a weak human would dare to ambush it.

Asher had lucked out, and left the Slug Demon without an important sense.

"It's coming after us!" But that was only for a short while, as the Slug Demon started to go after Tess and the other women.

"Dammit!" Asher saw it and cursed. "It's listening to noises and their scent." He realized.

There was little they could do to stop the noise, as they were running and it would be even harder to hide their scent. The demons were able to smell out humans with decent success, and now that the Slug Demon was past its initial shock from the loss of its eyes, it was going after the prey again.

Other creatures might have stumbled and fallen due to the lack of vision, but the Slug Demon didn't really have legs. Its slug like body could traverse all the rubble and didn't care about what was in front of it. It simply followed the sound and scent and went after the women that were running in front of it.

Since Asher had been flung in another distance, the Slug Demon didn't sense him.

"I have to… Do something…" Asher stood up with difficulty, the pain from his ribs radiating all over his body.

It made breathing difficult for him too, and he could only take shorter breaths. If he breathed too deeply, the pain only got worse.

"Where's the knife?" Asher looked around and found it lying some distance from him.

It had been thrown away when Asher was flung. The knife was the only way of defending for Asher at the moment, as the sword that Berk was using was broken. He would have liked to take the swords of other guards, but most of the weapons had either been lost in the rubble, or were too damaged to use.

The Carapaces of the Demons caused the weapons to break or lose their edge quickly. Not to mention, they could also shatter metal like it was chalk.

This was the reason why the Fortress needed so much Ore. They went through weapons far too quickly fighting the demons and there was only so many times they could repair it before they would have to be reforged. 

Asher did his best to run after the Slug Demon, though he had no idea what he would be doing. 

~SCREECH~

But a loud screeching sound was heard coming from the sky, making Asher's eyes go wide.

"No… not now…" Asher looked up, finding a swarm of hornless demons flying towards the area. 

~tremble~

That was not all though, as the ground also started to tremble as if something was charging towards them. 

~THUD~THUD~THUD~

And sure enough, a dust cloud could be seen moving towards the area. Asher spotted the One horned demons, who were the ones kicking up the dirt. They were charging over as well, and there were easily tens of them.

Just the Two Horned Slug Demon was a great obstacle, and now there were hundreds more demons heading over. 

"What do we do now…" Asher almost felt like all hope was lost.

He looked at Tess and the other women who were still running and were forced to circle around. They were now coming towards him, and Asher's eyes met Tess' gaze.

With the swarm of hornless demons in the sky, the charging one horned demons on one side, and the Slug Demon on the other, Asher was stuck in the middle.

'Is this the end?' Asher could see no hope in sight, and couldn't figure out any way to get out.

~WOONG~

But before the swarm of demons could reach Asher and Tess, a clarion call was heard. 

"Sourcefather Provides! Tidemother Guides!"