Monsters and Knives

Himura Satō

"In my defense, I never cooked anything above an open fire," I say to myself. While eating a burnt fish, I look at the river to see even more fish swimming downstream. There weren't a lot of fish or even any at all in the afternoon so I was under the impression that the monsters outside don't let any fishes to exist here.

I look back to the campfire made with wood that releases no smoke. Actually, there is smoke, but the moment the smoke leaves the warmth of the fire, I stop seeing it but the smell is clearly there. "This totally won't have long-lasting effects on my lungs," I say, sarcastically.

I look up to the sky and think to myself, "What now?" My core problems are pretty much solved. I have a way to get food, water can be purified when I eventually somehow manage to get a container. I was starting to not have a need for money anymore meaning I don't even have to find that knife-eared woman and hope she gives me a job or something.

I have no clue what to do now. I don't want to spend my time training and though I'm willing to try to decipher their language, it's also starting to lose its purpose. "Theoretically, I'm pretty self-sufficient." That fact alone brought me a feeling of elation. A feeling gained through the skill of nobody but myself.

I sigh as I remove the remains of the fish from the stick. "I wanna draw…" I complain to myself as I draw on the ground with my stick. I imprint the simplified image of the human body. I draw another image of the same body but this time, I warp it into the shape of what I wish; small, annoying little shit of a body that resembles the body of a goblin.

I pull my long blade out of its scabbard and marvel at it. It's a sword, of course, it's marvelous. I want to fight, the emotions I gain from fighting for survival are indescribable. The scheming of the best next move, the fear of death, and the of elation knowing that the fear will never claim you. "Well, the last part is kind of false now, and yet that feeling is still there, stronger than before."

"SKREEEEEEEEE!" The sound of a whistle reverberates through my ears. The sound made me point my blade in the direction where it came from but the sound was clearly far from here. Who in their right mind would follow such an unpleasant sound? An idiot, of course.

I put the long blade back to its scabbard and put the fire out. I grab my waist bag next to me and I walk to the source of the noise. Making sure not to make any noise to make sure that I don't get ambushed by the one that made the noise.

The noise was similar to a bird's screech so maybe some sort of bird monster awaited me. "Can't hurt to what it was. It would allow me to learn how to deal with." I say to myself as if I was trying to convince myself to not run away despite the fact that I already know how dangerous this is.

This cycle of idiotic excuses is hurting my brain as the layers of lies are so many that I don't even know what thoughts are genuine. I held back an urge to berate myself and soon approached another empty field.

There is a bag on a nearby tree and I place my bag next to it. I grab the broken spear out of my bag and run into the empty field. I throw the spear at a nearby monster which misses horribly. Seven monsters lay on the ground, full of stab wounds and the remaining six were monsters of various forms.

The one I threw my spear at, is a monster that has a humanoid shape with a head that has very long rough fur. The left arm is long and has four fingers while the right arm is short but at the midway point, just after beyond the elbow, it seems to be split in two.

The two parts of the hand only have two fingers each. The gap between the forearm is lined with many sharp jagged teeth. With my quick analysis, I focus and I draw my long blade. The monster tried to bash me with the long arm like a whip but it was so slow that I simply closed the gap between me and it.

The right arm tries to take a chunk out of me but I slip under the long arm and go behind it. I grab onto its shoulder with my left and quickly raise my foot. I kick both its knees forward causing it to kneel and then I place my long blade at its throat with one hand at the handle and the other at the other end then I try to slice its neck but the fur didn't allow me to do such a smooth kill on this monster so I had to hack its throat.

The monster falls on its back, bashing me with its weight. As I hack through the fur, it flails, hitting me on the left side of my face. The monster's right arm elbows my side before trying to bite me again but thankfully, I got through its fur in time.

Another monster approaches me, a creature with guts half exposed and a foul odor; a ghoul probably. I pivot with my right foot and push the body away then I kick the knee of the approaching creature. Like fighting a skeleton, it works like a charm and the ghoul falls towards my thigh.

I aim my blade at its brain and quickly stab its head before it can even nibble at my thigh. The last creature, with a form similar to a humanoid rotting lizard, walks towards me as its throat begins to swell. There was a smell beyond revolting and I didn't know whether it was acidic or just really disgusting but either way, I didn't want my clothes to get even more dirty.

"Run, run, FUCKEN RUN!" I shout as I run towards a tree and hide behind it. The monster spits the foul liquid, practically melting the tree that I was taking cover at. It only took half a second for the acid to completely go through the tree, making it fall and leaving only the base to be standing.

I dash to another tree as soon as the acid stops but upon taking a glimpse at the monster, the strong acid seems to have torn through its throat. Seeing this, I make a mad dash towards the monster and almost try to slash its throat but I quickly switch to a thumb grip. I bash the side of the monster's head and leave it to die by its own acid.

At the same time of my first engagement, on the other side of the field, there was another battle occurring.

Astoria

I spit my whistle out of my mouth while grappling another melitabr. I kick its stomach, grab a throwing knife, and stab it through its thick neck to the point that the entire knife is inside the neck. It growls in pain and tries to move away from me but I grab its head and bash it against mine.

What tiny amount of blood this creature has, pours out of its nose and onto my brown hair. "Tch, bastard…" I murmur. I need something deeper. "This damn thing can barely bleed, however…" I turn my head to see a broken Bellken spearhead on the ground. "Good enough."

I punch the melitabr at the side of its head and quickly crawl towards the spear and grab it. An oka raises its crude spear and tries to stab me but I spin my body with my legs like a tornado and hit the oka by the back of its knee. However, the knee did not move much. "That exoskeleton is annoying, makes me wish that the God of ascension would grant that to me though."

I wrap my legs at its knee then grab the crude spear which the oka tries to lift up. I push it down with my left hand then let my lower body lift me up close to it. I bash the exoskeleton at the right side of its chest which did not do any damage but it made the gaps slightly wider and seeing that, I switch to a reverse grip and stab its chest.

Before it falls to the ground, I grab its falling body and use it to cushion myself by switching places. I look behind me to see a skeleton slowly approaching. "How are you moving, the bright moon happened a few days ago. I swear if there is another godforsaken necromancer…" I say to myself, exasperated. Though I don't really mind, if there's something to kill, it's a potential business.

I grab a throwing knife from one of the bodies and throw it at its cranium. The knife didn't do much and bounced back towards me but I threw it with enough force at it fell. I look in front of me to see the melitabr standing up. Its arm full of teeth has a throwing knife stuck to it. The throat was empty of a throwing knife. "Let's change that."

I mock it and grab the throwing knife from earlier. I place it between my middle and ring finger. With my throwing knife in my left hand and the spear to my right, I dash towards it. The melitabr opens its arm, I smile slightly and when both of my feet are off the ground, I open my mouth and speak the same familiar words, "ᎶᏬᏕᏖ." Infusing the "Yu" and "Iss" parts of the spell with mana, I direct the spell at the output located at my back.

The spell closes the gap, catching the melitabr surprised. I stab the spear inside the arm and forcefully close it by punching with my left and pushing with my right. The spear pierces the arm leaving half of the handle inside. I grab it with my right in a reverse grip and weave back and forth from the left side of its arm to the right in a boxing stance.

Before its other arm could make a move, I uppercut its chin with my left then stabbed the spear to its neck. "Now where was I? Oh right, they barely have blood but a good hit at the neck still kills it." As I finish my statement born out of purely mocking the melitabr, I look back at the skeleton. I throw my spear at it and as it spins, I infuse my mana to the "Yu" part of ᎶᏬᏕᏖ, and direct it to my right palm.

I push my arm slightly then created a tether at the spear's tip. The spell releases at the end of the tether which spins the spear faster. The skeleton was no match for it and it immediately falls, its head crushed. The reanimated nikal's acid seemed to have melted its throat and it died on the spot. I look back at the weird man, standing up and I sigh to myself. "Finally done."