Demon Hunters

The Forsaken Village III

Marco turned to his right, where the crowd was slightly smaller, and charged forward. Soon, he was a veritable storm of metal as his swords swished through the air, drawing more blood with each strike. He did not have the luxury of time to aim his strikes, so only a minority of them were lethal. However, he succeeded in pushing the villagers away enough to start making his way forward. Speed was of the essence, as Marco was keenly aware of the villagers that were slowly approaching him from behind. As such, he quickened up his pace, making sure not to slip on the mud that was quickly becoming slick with blood.

Marco's advance was halted when a particularly lumbering man crossed his path. The man was seemingly unfazed by Marco's strikes, though the wounds he had inflicted had to be deep. As the giant man was raising his axe above his head, ready to strike, Marco plunged one of his swords into the man's chest, killing him instantly. However, other attacks from the villagers surrounding him forced Marco to back down before he could pull out his sword. As the man fell to the ground, he buried away the weapon, leaving Marco in a much more difficult situation.

"He lost his other weapon! Get him!" someone screamed, evidently emboldened by this event.

However, Marco's sweeping attack disabused the villagers of this notion, as with this one arching attack he managed to wound three attackers and even killed one of them. The locals now surrounded the lone demon hunter from all sides, yet they were clearly hesitant to approach the man who was decidedly more dangerous in a fight than any of them could hope to be. Still, Marco realized how hopeless his situation was.

This is not good. I'm one sword down, and there's no end to these bastards. It's pretty clear that escaping is my only option, he thought as he detached a bomb from his belt.

He struck the bomb against the rough surface on his equipment belt, lighting the fuse, and threw it toward the crowd in front of him. Understandably, those on the front row dove for cover, creating chaos among the villagers' ranks. What they did not know, however, was that the object Marco had thrown was, in fact, a smoke bomb. The demon hunter dashed forward as a thick plume of smoke enveloped the narrow passage. He had wagered on the fact that his enemies would be too confused from the blast and the smoke to stop him, and initially, he was correct. Marco managed to push his way through the first few ranks with relative ease and in fact, the chaos caused the villagers to attack each other by accident. However, Marco's luck ran out when he was nearing the very edge of the horde. His downfall was heralded by a stinging pain in his thigh, which caused him to fall to the ground. As he twisted around to see what was causing him the pain, his heart sunk. Perhaps by mistake, a sickle had been plunged deep into his flesh.

"Shit!" Marco roared, the pain causing tears to well up in his eyes.

Regardless, he decided to try and press on. Indeed, he managed to crawl his way tantalizingly close to the corner of the inn when someone grabbed him by the shoulder and a heavy blow landed on his head.

"Bastard!" one of the villagers cried.

Marco was about to retort when a kick to his chest knocked his wind out. The kick was followed by another and then another, and soon similar punts were coming in from every direction. Marco could do nothing but try to relax his body so as to minimize the damage, as useless as though that may have been.

"Stop! Stop! You know he is to be kept alive!" a voice Marco recognized to be Dayton yelled.

Finally, the painful strikes ceased. Marco spat out the blood that had gathered in his mouth and collapsed to a heap, panting heavily. His leather armour had served to lighten the kicks, but it was evident that his ribs had still been cracked from multiple points. Furthermore, the sickle was still lodged in his thigh. Trying not to faint from the pain, he slowly reached toward his medicine. However, just as he managed to reclaim the vial, someone stomped on his arm, causing Marco to yelp in pain.