Fast coming to regret my decision of more or less knocking my armed backup out of commission and inflicting a fairly debilitating wound on myself, I did what little I could to prepare myself to be drained.

And not in the fun way.

The eyes were closing in, my vision was more than a little blurry, and I’d only just realized there was no second part to my brilliant plan, at least not one that I could remember with my blood soaking my shirt.

However, as I stared down the beasts as best as I could manage, a wave of bravery strong enough to clear my eyes a little hit me, or I lost enough blood that the part of my brain that feels fear decided to take a little nap.

Either way, I took advantage of my newfound spirit and got into the best stance I could manage, my axe-wielding hand wrapped around the middle of the handle and my feet firmly planted on the thick soil.

Granted, I would be completely screwed if Liz and Millie buckled to their base urges and decided to rush me, but I was still far too woozy to think about anything like that.

Apparently thinking they’d seen a gap in my defenses, two of the dog-like monsters launched at me, the first’s claws and rotting form gliding clean past me as I sidestepped it and drove my axe into the side of its friend.

Embarrassingly, the skin and bone creature I’d buried my axe in was enough to throw me off balance, the ‘KILL +100’ notification barely registering in my eyes as I struggled not to do a complete pirouette and fall on my ass.

Barely managing to stay upright, my struggle was worsened as the wind kicked up the rotting stench of the split Chupacabra into my face, bringing tears to my eyes instantly and clogging my throat with putrid air.

Blind, choking, and feeling a disconcerting tingling sensation radiating down my forearm, I started swinging at the cautious monsters at my feet, their eyes just about the only thing I could see through the burning tears.

“Shit…” I muttered after stumbling, my axe having sliced through one of the creature’s heads and dragged me with it, the ‘KILL +100’ a warning light that gave me all of two seconds to react as one of the enraged Chupacabras pounced.

Unable to block the attack, I did my best to simply stay vertical and hold onto my axe as the monster tried its hardest to latch onto my throat, its clawed front paws scrambling for purchase on my clothes while its back legs tried to kick mine out from under me.

Trying and failing to bash my passenger off with my arm, I turned my head and roared at it the best I could, shocking it for a moment before the newly recovered bastard that had leaped past me bit down on my left calf.

Blood filled my jeans quickly as I fell to my knee, bringing my dead left arm down to my side with it while my right acted as my throat’s only guard against the even hungrier Chupacabra clawing at my ribs through my shirt.

On the plus side, the latched Chupacabra’s poison was numbing me up pretty quickly, making my fast-approaching death at least somewhat comfortable.

“Christ!” I cried out as a deafening blast of fire and lead turned the Chupacabra going for my throat into smoky gibs.

Before I could turn around, the bloodsucker on my calf let out a breathless wheeze as it was punted in the gut and swiftly executed, leaving behind a dozen needle-like holes and a white patch of flesh under my torn jeans.

“Up,” Liz said firmly, hooking her left arm under my right armpit and helping me to my feet, “as much as I’d love to mock you for it later, I have no interest in dragging you right now.”

“I’m fine,” I slurred, awkwardly wriggling free, “watch.”

As if to help me prove my point, a set of glowing eyes came scuttling towards us, giving me a good target to swing at and slap with the broad side of my axe, eliciting a yelp from the nasty critter as the full extent of the damage to my calf became slightly more obvious.

Dragging my left leg as we made our slow retreat, I couldn’t help but feel the slightest amount of concern at the lack of anything in my kill feed.

“Did you get it?” Liz asked quietly, her eyes scanning the field as the weakened pack took a more intelligent approach and disappeared in the dark field.

“I don’t think I did, no,” I seethed, “maybe we scared them off though?”

“Un-fucking-likely,” Liz scoffed before looking over her shoulder, “you see anything!?”

“Nothing!” Millie called back, “Just hurry up and get back here!”

“C’mon, pick up the pace,” Liz whispered, clearly not wanting to hurt my feelings by outright snapping at me, “can you run?”

“Not a chance,” I replied as a mildly comforting pain made its way to my arm and leg, “you go, I’ll catch up.”

“Yeah, ‘cause last time you were alone in the field went so well,” Liz chuckled humorlessly, “just a few more feet and we’ll be…”

I didn’t have to wonder long about why Liz had trailed off, her hand on my shoulder stopping me in my tracks giving me all the indication I needed.

If it weren’t for their involuntary excited chittering, I doubt we would’ve even noticed the three or four Chupacabras that had made their way behind us.

“Poison cleared up at all?” Liz murmured through her pursed lips.

“Mmhm,” I snuck out through a breath, “how far do you reckon ‘til we hit the fence?”

“We’re at least half way,” Liz muttered, it becoming clearer that the Chupacabras would gladly wait all night for us to stumble over them, “I won’t be able to carry you though, not if we want to shoot our way through.”

“You won’t need to,” I replied reassuringly, “count of three?”

“How about the count of run?” Liz asked with a smirk.

I tilted my head at that, “Count of wha-”

“Run!” Liz barked before spinning around and firing a blast into the small group behind us.

With no opportunity to enjoy Liz’s little joke, I limped after her with zombie-like desperation, blind to the carnage in front of me, swinging my axe at anything that vaguely resembled not-grass.

To my surprise, I actually managed to hit something at one point and only mostly lost my grip on my axe before Millie squeezed off a round at the wounded monster, giving me a slightly disappointing ‘ASSIST +50’.

‘A little closer,’ I told myself as Liz vaulted the fence and took up a defensive position, ‘just a little-’

Before I could finish the thought, I was on my face, one the Chupacabras having jumped into my back and sent me crashing down.

Relieved to not have a fresh set of teeth dug into my body, I rolled over and started shuffling backwards, slashing at the eyes as they darted around in the grass.

“Al!?” Millie called out desperately.

I wanted to yell back, if only to assure her I was alive, but I was using all my breath to shuffle and swing at the creature looking for even the smallest gap in my defenses, its snake-like tongue slithering for my feet in the brief moments I lost sight of it.

Convinced if I scrambled to my feet and tried to leg it again I’d only be opening myself up to another attack, I continued my exhausting shuffle long after I last saw the glowing eyes, trying my hardest to both look ahead and listen behind.

It’s harder than it sounds.

Mercifully, right as my already weak arm threatened to give out under me, my shoulders hit the fence, bringing a relieved smile to my face and giving me a moment to prop myself up and take a hard-earned moment to breathe.

A moment’s all I got though as a spine-tingling chittering to my immediate left pricked up my ear, prompting me to slowly turn my head and see the Chupacabra a few short feet from me.

“Clever girl…” I muttered to myself right before the monster shot at me, its mouth opened wide as I swung the axe as hard as I possibly could.

I don’t know how I did it, all I know is what I felt as the blade cleaved clean through bone and muscle, stopping only as it buried itself in the wooden fence with a hearty crack, pinning the limp corpse and leaving me to collapse with the weight of the swing.

Face down in the dirt, barely conscious, and still losing a good deal of blood, I barely heard the girls calling my name as the less-than-enthusing ‘KILL +100’ faded from my feed and left me in the darkness of my closed eyes.

Truth be told, I was beginning to wonder if I’d overestimated my abilities when I’d taken the job.