The creature quickly started righting itself but not before Jack got a good smack in on its back with his torch. Sparks flew and the creature wailed in pain, its skin starting to burn and blister. Another blazing arrow flew forth striking the blistering area, and this time it actually pierced through its defenses. It looks like fire weakens its defenses, good to know. Seeing the same thing Ferdinand raised his spear and plunged it towards the weakened area, but the creature was no fool, it tucked its shoulder in and rammed into his shield. Ferdinand was sent off his feet and the creature went in for the kill.

Its mouth opened to an impossible degree and it lunged forward grabbing the large man’s neck. Ferdinand screamed in pain as teeth tore through his flesh and arteries, in desperation I went up and started hitting the creature with my torch over and over. Thankfully it worked and the creature quickly leapt away like a frog. Jack quickly stood in front of Ferdinand protectively while I went up and applied pressure to the gushing hole in his neck. I knew it was useless though, not even a vile of alchemist’s life could heal a wound such as this, half of his neck was gone.

Soon the blood stopped flowing and I stopped applying pressure, he was gone. I closed his bloodshot eyes and sighed, if I make it out of this alive, I swear I will retire, screw this. I raised my blade and tossed my torch, it had broken while I was hitting the creature and grabbed another. I would have grabbed Ferdinand’s shield, but it clearly didn’t do him any good and my style doesn’t work with a shield that big. We stood together more warily now with weapons at the ready, we were one down, but we did some good damage. My eyes cautiously watched our surroundings for any signs of movement, but the night was still once again. A crash and screaming broke the silence as a shadow dropped down from above.

Poor Rolaf’s luck has run out, the creature landed on top of him and started to frantically tear him limb from limb. Blood filled the air and the sound of wet tearing echoed out, like Apelica he was torn apart before I could even react. Jack acted first with a large overhead swing, but the creature moved its shoulder in between the sword and its weak point. Jack instantly backpaddled and held up his guard but the creature didn’t retaliate, it only sat there and consumed. I suppressed my fear and slowly circled the creature until I had a clear shot, I signaled Jack to distract the creature. He charged with a faint, but the creature still responded by trying to block the absent attack with its shoulder, leaving its back stretched and open to attack.

I stabbed towards the burned and charred skin and the tip of my blade sunk deep into the wound with almost no resistance. The creature jerked and finally turned away from its meal, its milky white eyes shining a harsh devilish light. I waived my torch frantically in front of me like a shield causing the creature to pause, while its attention was on me Jack came up from behind and stabbed his torch into the gaping wound caused by my previous strike. It roared and slammed its arm back into Jack’s sternum with such force that he was sent flying, but instead of pouncing it reached back and ripped the torch out and screamed in pain before crawling into the darkness to presumably lick its wounds. I ran up to Jack and dragged him back into the circle of torches, well I guess it's more of a triangle now. He was still breathing thankfully but many of his ribs were broken and I was worried about internal bleeding.

Ribs are a very tricky thing to heal with the Alchemist’s life vile because you need to properly set the bones, so Jack was now out of the battle, he cant draw a bow or swing a sword in that state. I gave him another torch and sat him beside the other noncombatants, it was only Sahona and me now. I was a little pissed off that she had done nothing so far but magic works in unfathomable ways so I will repress my anger for now. I stood tall and carefully held my ground, if I fall now, we are all most likely doomed.

3rd person--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The man stood there in the depth of nigh with only a torch to keep the darkness at bay, friend after friend fell but he was determined to get through this alive. A roar pierced the night and the creature leaped out of the darkness with blinding speed, the man dove to the side narrowly missing his death. The creature slammed into the ground and rolled letting momentum carry it. Despite the deaths of his allies, the man was no longer at a disadvantage for the creature was on its last legs. Its gaping wound now released a blue flame and its blackened veins now supported glowing embers. The creature stopped it's rolling and slowly started circling like a hungry wolf, but the man staid his ground and held his torch protectively in front.

This standoff held until a slight breeze blew through which ignited the fight, torch met with claws and sword met with teeth. Sparks flew through the air with each individual blocking the others attack until the creature released a sudden charge which knocked the man off his feet. The air was knocked out of him, but he still held his sword with an iron grip. The creature went for the kill, but the man wasn’t out yet, with a roll the creature only hit the soft snow. Unfortunately, he was slow to get up and the creature was quick to recover, it rose over him intimidatingly and stabbed its claws out for the kill, but a flaming arrow caused it to stumble. The claws had sunk deep into the man’s flesh, but they had narrowly missed the major vital organs.

It looked like Jack wasn’t done yet, he had limped over to Rolaf’s mangled corpse and ripped the bow out of his cold dead hands. The creature screamed in agony and it held its hand to its eye, it was a very lucky shot, striking the creature's eye and sinking deep into its head. In a rage it leapt over Deadlaf and charged, claws met bone, and the sound of cracking sounded out as its hand sunk deeply into Jack's chest, and in his final moments Jack stared into the creature’s eyes in defiance. The creature rose and ripped the arrow out without hesitation, but the damage had been done and the flame had spread throughout its head. Deadlaf was saddened at the loss of another friend and vowed to finish this, he brought his blade up and slammed the blade into its head. The edge bit deep but that’s not how you kill such a beast, the creature whipped around and elbowed the man in the chest causing him to stagger back.

The attack would have normally crushed his bones to splinters but the creature was weak now. It brought a hand up to the cut that went down to its jaw and cradled it carefully but the piece of flesh was only hanging on by a thread and fell off with the smallest of movements. When it impacted the ground the slab of head collapsed into flaming ash. The man attacked once again as it mourned the loss piece of itself and slashed through its arm like butter. The flames had spread to the creature’s blood and was quickly turning it to ash. It stared dumbfoundedly at its missing arm before turning to the man and lashing out with its remaining teeth, but it was slow now, much too slow to ever catch its prey.

The man easily dodged its advances and slashed across its chest but instead of blood, it bleed blue flame. The creature, unwilling to die without taking the man with it, it leapt to kill but instead of soft flesh, it met the bark of a tree. Unable to course-correct its body slammed into the tree with such force that the impacting parts of the body were reduced to ash. Now headless and missing over sixty percent of its body it stood up once again and lashed out with its feet, but the fight was over, with one final swing its legs were chopped off. The man stood there with relief and pain painted over his face, the fight was over, and he had won. He stumbled over to the noncombatants and in the process dropping his sword. He looked out over the now bloodied snow and observed the mangled remains of his long companions. He had won, but at what cost?

As he stared off at nothing in particular a hand landed on his shoulder and he looked over only to see it was his once thought dead companion, Jack. His face brightened up instantly and so did Jacks, but for different reasons. The man was swept off his feet and landed hard, he was confused and felt a sudden pain, so he looked down and only saw a stump where his right leg once occupied.