Brighid of Gauwynn
Brighid watched in abject terror while the self-proclaimed Duhlmor towered over them. Correl was directly under it, and while the thing may have now officially been made one-handed, there was no telling if that made it any less dangerous.
Shakily, she brought her hand in front of her face, coated in a blackish-blue blood that perfectly matched what poured out of Duhlmor’s flesh wound. With more preparation things would be different. As quick as she could, Brighid reached out for one of the first bags of their she could grab, and threw it as hard as she could straight at the monster. It reacted, smacking the bag with what remained of its right arm, clearly hoping to have more of an impact.
Instead the bag made contact, and pushed the wounded arm into the monster’s body, giving Brighid just enough time to force herself onto her feet, rushed forward, and pull Correl from in front of the monster and pull both of them out of their guest room. Brighid ignored the roars of discontent and the monster was held up, And pulled Correl into the air, much like a kitten.
“Are you alright?!” She screamed, and Correl replied by nodding vigorously. “We need to move! Can you run?” Brighid continued, wincing as she heard footsteps, several sets, coming towards them from both direction. One belonging to the calm and orderly march of knights protecting their keep, the other disjointed scrambling which belonged to their monster, assuredly. Above the racing of her own heart, she heard Correl confirm that she could run on her own, and setting the girl down as much as she could in that moment, she spurred her squire into a run.
The two very soon ran into the aforementioned “calm and orderly march” of knights, a small squadron of at least five or six of them, being led by Sir Virgil. In the moment, Brighid waved to catch their attention.
“What’s happening? We’ve heard noises?” Virgil met them with his own hands stretched out in front of him, his eyes widening at the amount of blood on Brighid in particular. “You’ve been hurt?” Ignoring the searing pain at the back of her neck, Brighid shook her head, “None of this… is mine.” She breathed out. Taking the surprising looks she earned in stride, “There’s a… we’re being followed by-”
More shrill screaming cut her off, and a surprising eloquent string of curses for a monster. “Virgil, I think I may have found the murderer.” The old man looked between Brighid and the closing in sounds, before turning to order his knights to take action and ready themselves. Brighid moved herself and Correl behind the line of knights, trying to catch her breath.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Correl’s voice sounded to her left, and Brighid could actually count on two hands the amount of time her squire had asked that specific question in three days. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was well on its way of becoming a pattern. Every time, Brighid winced, because she could not lie her way out of the concern in her mentee’s eyes, and had not, in the time between each asking, even figured out a plausible enough answer to give that wouldn’t just create more concern. So she nodded, hissing when the motion pulled at the new scar on her neck. Just another thing to lie/withhold. Gods forgive her.
The monster Duhlmor, if It was supposed to be an assassin, had not mastered the art of the quiet kill. Which, in the defense of the creature, it didn’t seem like the other knights it killed were able to take off most of its’ hand and wrist. He barreled down the hallway like a bull, until he confronted Virgil’s force of knights head-on. Many of them were shocked, having never seen something in their lives like the walking, talking dragon man in front of them. And Brighid could almost be sure that most of the teachings for knights never included magic monster slaying.
When the opposing forces met for battle, Duhlmor showed it was little more than thrashing about, clearly blinded by pain and fury. A great advantage for the knights of Fort Hawke, as it made it easier to swing at him. However dodging in the enclosed hallway space was very much keeping things on even footing. Correl looked on, even with just her short sword she looked like she wanted to run back into the fray. Brighid was not for it, for all the good she did back in their guest room, Correl had never seen real battle and this monster was not going to be the testing grounds.
Of course, even as she thought that, the monster spotted them. It should have spotted them before honestly, what with Brighid still heads taller than most of these knights, but… In an incredible showing of acrobatic prowess, the monster vaulted over the group of knights, nearly landing on Brighid and Correl, if the former had not pulled them back against the wall. That did leave the two cornered once again. All other knights pointed their swords at the monster, trying to surround it or force it to flee like a cat, but there was no convincing Duhlmor, who had cornered its prize.
“Ssstupid, ssstupid knight-thing…” it chuckled, as much as it was able, spraying spit and black blood in their direction, “Duhlmor will kill you at my lord’s will… ha ha ah~ and will string your innards around Duhlmor like a flesh coat!”
Brighid tried to thing of what she could do, pushing Correl behind her as much as possible, and flinched. Her hand had briefly brushed the metal short sword the smaller woman carried. In a split second, Brighid watched as the confident beast would edge closer to them, and shy away from the knights’ swords. “Iron…” she muttered.
“Correl,” Brighid murmured in a flat even tone, “You’re going to need to do exactly what I tell you.” Internally, she cursed, this is exactly the situation she wanted to avoid. Wasn’t that just the way things were working out today? The dragon creature looked between Brighid and Correl, almost hungrily, Brighid wondered for a moment if it had anything to do with whatever a flesh coat was.
In a moment like this, Brighid was happy to be as physically big as she was. She wasted no time rushing into the monster, ignoring surprised cries all around her. But where else was she supposed to move? She tried moving in low to the ground, pushing under the monster’s arms to crash into it’s stomach. She felt the force of it in her spine, and for a minute everything in the hall spun, . She pushed forward as much as she could. And when she felt she’d pushed enough, wrapped her arms around both the monster’s arms and forced them close to its own body. Brighid squeezed as tight as she could, and roared back at her squire, “Correl!! Stab it! Slash it! STRIKE IT DOWN, NOW!”
The monster Duhlmor writhed like an oiled pig, squealing and shrieking all the same. Brighid could hear Virgil behind him ordering his men to copy Correl’s lead. And she felt Correl’s hair which past her and the girl slid past speedily to stab the monster in its stomach, the easiest weak point, though admittedly not the easiest to reach currently. In spite of the situation, Brighid let out a laugh, the sound of it being the mixture of pride and fear.
Correl struck gold however, stabbing into the underbelly of the monster and tearing through it like it was a leather purse. Even as the monster screamed, wailed and bashed against Brighid she refused to move, standing with the most awkward footing to not trip over Correl as she worked, the weight of the monster was only made more unbearable when the other knights began to stab the defenseless back of the monster. Twice Brighid suffered heavy blows to the skull before the monster grew still and the full weight leaned against her. There was a heavy silence before anyone moved. Correl stood shakily beside Brighid as much as could be allowed with a monster literally on top of them, trying to ease the weight of the monster for her master.
They pushed the monster onto the floor in front of them where the body settle with the loudest thud, echoing into the large. The small group of knights cheered, and why wouldn’t they, the day- night was won, and a monster had been defeated. They especially cheered Correl and Brighid, which the former abashedly accepted. Brighid hummed, looking over the felled beast with keen interest. Virgil appeared beside her like a ghost, “Is there something causing you pause, Lord Brighid?”
“Yeah…”
They’d been almost three days without incident. Three days sleeping out in the open, under the stars, completely and totally unguarded. And not a single incident. And yet the moment they enter a town, there was an attack. Brighid looked over the monster’s corpse, the black blood pooling under its body, and she tried her hardest not to wonder aloud. Was this orchestrated? There were only a select few who knew of her investigation? All of them would gain nothing to sabotage or kill her…And how did they do this? Summon this beast to destroy her? The monster had insinuated the will of some lord? They were taking orders, so this wasn’t a random occurrence… And probably the worst and most horrifying fact of all:
This monster could not have possible killed all of those knights.
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