The monster paused after shoving its way into the room. It stood, looming on top of the collapsed door. As if surveying its surroundings.

It was tall - nearly eight feet tall, and had to duck under the door frame on its way in. One clawed hand gripped the frame to steady it as it crouch-walked into the room. The wood under its hand dented. Its burnt-umber claws scraped down the frame as it finished pulling itself into the house.

Hirrus didn’t know what the hell it was. It was roughly humanoid, but covered in thick armor-like scales the color of burnished bronze. The creature had a long, toothy snout, like that of a crocodile, with giant fangs poking up on both sides of the toothy maw. Hirrus expected to see a tail trailing behind it, but there was none. Its humanoid body was bulging with muscles, barely contained by the brigandine armor that was visibly deformed by its bulk.

In one clawed hand, it held an unadorned shortsword, worn by frequent use.

The huge beast only stood in the door for a moment longer. Julissa made a sound and the creature oriented on the two of them instead. It made a horrible growling sound, like a bedsheet being torn in half, and lunged forward.

With its free claw, the monster grabbed the table and wrenched it up and out of the way. The table flipped over and everything atop it was sent shattering against the wall.

In the face of the monster’s raw physical power, Hirrus wondered briefly if its shortsword was necessary at all.

Hirrus took a step forward, his decision tree giving him the option to frighten the creature away.

Julissa was closer to the monster, however, and so it focused on her. It snarled, raising its weapon to strike her down.

But that wasn’t what Hirrus would allow to happen. He had speed on his side, borne of years of training. That and the raw terror of seeing his wife in danger.

He sprung into action, dashing across the room.

Hirrus didn’t even know when he swapped his armor out of his inventory and back into his equipment. His only conscious concern was interposing himself physically between Julissa and the invader.

Dishes tumbled from his hands and crashed to the floor, forgotten as he flung himself into harm’s way.

The beast’s sword arm slashed at him. His familiarity with the general use of the weapon let him predict its path. Hirrus’ hands moved with practiced ease. He caught the arm, barely stopping it before the blade smashed against him. The strength of the blow took him from his feet and vaulted him against the overturned table. With a crack the wood split apart under him.

Hirrus scrambled to his feet as fast as he could. He wasn’t totally sure how he managed to get back up before the monster could attack again. The heat of battle washed over him and so he wasn’t going to question the regained tempo.

His decision tree told him - superfluously as ever - that combat had begun.

One hand dropped to his hip, and Hirrus felt a stab of panic when his axe wasn’t there.

Of course it wasn’t. He was home, so it was across the room, hanging over the mantle. Where he’d put it.

He was going to be forced to fight unarmed.

It was far from ideal, but it was his only option at the moment. His decision tree didn’t tell him to disengage from the beast to arm himself, even as it told him to use the Cleave attack that was inaccessible without a weapon in hand.

Before he could come to grips with that, the beast’s sword swept around again. The strike was the brief, utilitarian attack the short blade was best suited for, but Hirrus had enough room to slip to the left of it. As the blade passed just to the side of his shoulder, he lunged in, driving his gauntleted fist into the monster’s ribs. The metal gauntlet rattled as it struck the brigandine armor solidly.

Despite striking where it would knock the breath from a human opponent, it was like punching stone wrapped in cloth. He felt like the padded armor was more protection for his fist than it was for them.

Hirrus felt the damage he inflicted occur. Unarmed as he was, it was low. Only seven hundred and fifty-eight damage. But it was something.

His awareness detected a small sliver slink off the end of the reptilian humanoid’s health bar.

Even armed, he could tell that the fight would be an extended affair.

Hirrus recognized the armor, though, now that it was the focus of his attention. It was the uniform normally worn by the night shift guards.

His mind raced.

What was this thing? Was the town under attack? Had some henceforth undiscovered species of beastman attacked the town and raided the guard armory?

He didn’t have time to try and get his bearings on the larger situation that might be at hand here. The fight for his own dining room was more pressing and immediate than any fight that might be happening for all of Yenon.

The monster’s shortsword ripped across them, smashing into Hirrus’ shoulder.

He didn’t have time to slip under this blow as the muscular arm brought the light weapon back across too fast for him to react. The blade carved one thousand, eight hundred, and ninety damage into his own health bar.

It wasn’t an indomitable number. While it was significantly higher than his own potential output, his total hit points were still in the tens of thousands. The fight may have been skewed against him, but he could make a fight of it.

He would lose, but it would take a while.

More than long enough for Julissa to get clear of the battle.

He drove his fist straight up into the creature’s jaw. The hit was solid this time, and he felt it do eight hundred and thirty-four damage. Another tiny chip came off of its health bar. He thought that after such a direct hit, the monster would be slowed down, but it seemed barely affected by the strike.

The shortsword whipped around again, jabbing into his bicep.

There was a crunch of blade against the chain armor there, and he suffered two thousand and forty damage. The monster was chipping away at him steadily. Trading blows like this was not sustainable. The scaled beast would win this in a straight race.

Hirrus focused on ducking to the left as the next sweep of the sword cut straight down at his shoulders. The attack glanced off of his pauldron, but wasn’t a solid enough hit to deal damage. He backed off and away, and the monster followed, keeping pace. He wanted to move slightly, seeking a position where he might entice his decision tree to allow him to cross to the mantle and fetch his axe so that he could actually use the Cleave attack it kept hammering into his mind.

The monster was too fast, though, and Hirrus was forced to engage with it again.

He lashed out with his fist, driving his armored knuckles against the creature’s gut.

There was a mad hope that he could figure out a weak point that might give it pause. Maybe afford him an edge. But everywhere he struck was like punching a boulder. He was doing damage - six hundred and seventy, this time - but the bulky humanoid didn’t care. Instead he was shaving tiny slivers off of its health bar, while its blows were nontrivial chunks of his own.

He knew he was doomed, but the monster could at least pretend to care about fighting him. It was just hacking away, paying his attacks no mind.

Its sword flashed in faster than he could respond, cutting across his thigh. The force of the blow cut through the armor there, and bits of metal chain rattled against the floor as he took two thousand and fifty-seven damage from the blow.

Hirrus still had hit points to spare. His guard status gave him a significant health pool to work with, but it wouldn’t last forever, especially if his decision tree was going to keep informing him that his Cleave attack was ready to be used, rather than allowing him to pursue any other avenue of attack. That point was dramatically underlined as the shortsword ripped across his chest, dealing two thousand and ninety-nine damage.

The impact of the blow sent him staggering back.

His stumbling feet hit something.

Hirrus tripped over an overturned dining chair, and the dining room spun around him as he fell.

The monster lunged.