Demon Hunters

The Inquisitor VII

"This is the area?" Lucas asked, scanning the environment.

For now, there was no sign of the demon that had supposedly roamed the area the day before. The forest surrounding the small road was quiet and serene.

"This is it, sir. We saw it some ways into the forest," the other inquisitor affirmed.

"Alright. Men, spread out. Keep your eyes peeled – we don't want this thing surprising us!" Lucas barked his orders.

The inquisitors did as Lucas ordered, assuming a wedge-shaped formation. Every other man was equipped with a firearm, while the rest had taken the heaviest weapons available. The idea was to bring the monster down with combined fire after which the rest of the men would move in for the kill. There were major risks involved, of course: if the first volley was unable to stop the demon, things would become difficult very quickly. Lucas weighed the pistol in his hand. He had confidence in his skills, yet firearms were inherently inaccurate. The backup plan, meanwhile, mostly hinged on Magnus, who was carrying a large crossbow. Unlike the muskets, it was accurate, but like the muskets, it was slow to reload. So, were both the muskets and Magnus to fail, people would end up dying – as would any hope of Lucas being able to control his men. Lucas quietly cursed the demon hunter who had gotten them in this mess – unlike the inquisitors, the hunter would have possessed the equipment to make things a whole lot simpler.

Lucas was so deep in thought that it took him a while to realize that one of his men was signalling something. The man was pointing toward something deeper in the forest. Lucas ordered the men to halt with hand gestures and moved to see what had alerted the man. It didn't take him long to understand what was going on: a massive bear appeared to be feasting on a corpse of some unfortunate animal. The creature was large, extremely so, but it was on its all-fours, which would have been rare for demons. Unlike demon hunters, Lucas had no way of telling for certain what, exactly, this creature was. Demon or not, though, it could possibly pose a threat to the locals, so it needed to be hunted down. Lucas thanked his luck, as the inquisitors had apparently approached upwind, and their pray appeared completely unaware of their presence. With some quick orders, he managed to set up a decent kill zone. The distance wasn't ideal, but just about manageable for the muskets. Just as they were taking aim, the bear-like creature lifted its head, as if sensing something.

"Fire!" Lucas roared.

A cacophony of gunfire drowned out every other sound in the forest. Lucas coughed and fanned with his hand to try and dissipate the smoke. At least some of the riflemen had hit their mark, as blood could be seen pouring from multiple wounds on the creature. They had even managed to knock it off balance, which was better than Lucas had hoped. The monster let out a roar of pain and struggled to get back onto its feet. If it indeed was a demon, the regeneration would certainly kick in any moment now.

"Charge!" he yelled.

However, in the next moment, the world around him became a blurry mess. Lucas could only vaguely tell that he was flying through the air before it all went black. This reprieve did not last for long, however, as stinging pain brought Lucas back into consciousness. He grunted and pushed himself up with his arms. He had landed on moss, which had softened the blow somewhat. The air was filled with screams and roars, though it took Lucas a moment to truly grasp what was going on. By the looks, he had flown a fair distance. When he looked back at where he had been, he felt his heart sink. Mere moments ago, Magnus and Lucas had been set up next to a large tree trunk. Now the tree had all but disappeared, and the only proof of Magnus's existence was a pair of mangled limbs trapped under a large rock that had appeared from nowhere. A stream of blood was flowing from under it, pooling in a small indent on the ground.