"I was hoping I could avoid a fight on this job," I sighed as I lifted my sword and shield from their sheaths. Man, I hate fighting, mostly because I suck at it.

Why can't every job just be a quick and easy.

There was a long pause that seemed to have lasted for an eternity. Then I heard a snap of a twig from the other side, I quickly backed away from it just in time to dodge a knife and that's when our eye’s met. The man was older than me, like way older then me, like by about 50 years based off the gray hairs and wrinkles all over his face, he was taller than me by a whole head and armed with multiple throwing knives on his person.

Alright, let me see if I can talk my way out of fighting this guy.

"Listen, I don't know why you are after me, but let's just talk about -oh shi—," I said as I barely managed to get my shield up in time to defend against the knife the man threw at me.

Alright, it looks like there is no talking to this old man.

I quickly got my footing and prepared for his next assault. The man quickly tried to blitz me by going for an aggressive stab but I managed to guard against the attack with my shield. His dagger to pierce through my shield, nearly hitting my arm due to how far it went through. The man tried to pull his dagger, but it seems his weapon is stuck.

I took that to my advantage and slashed the man across his face. I managed to cut his right eye, but he didn't react at all and just went straight back to attacking without even a hint of pain on his face. He tried to grab me, but I managed to backstep and strike him again. This time the sword went halfway through his left arm, so he won't be using that for a long time.

"Let’s stop this and we both go home, I heard women love battle scar’s and there are plenty of healers that can heal that arm, so there's still hope," I said while keeping my guard up. The old man lifted its arm and stared at it for a few seconds, then looked at me with a smile as it grabbed its wounded arm and started ripping it off. I was shocked, scared, and sickened as I was watching it completely rip off his own wounded arm without any sign’s of pain or concern for what he was doing. After he completely ripped off his arm with a gut-sickening ripping sound like you would hear if you had ripped a chicken thigh apart, he then put his bleeding torn-off arm against his mouth and licked the blood as if he were cleaning it.

"What the h—," I said, but I got interrupted by him randomly roaring at the top of his lungs to the sky and charging at me. I thrust my sword in his chest to stop him, but he still didn't flinch like he couldn't feel pain or something.

The man then swung at me like a wild beast with its left arm and hit me in the shoulder. Somehow, the impact of his swing managed to send me flying backward like a rag-doll. After I landed on the ground, I grasped my arm in pain from the attack that somehow felt like the equivalent of getting hit by a Gorilla on steroids. I then looked back and quickly rolled out of the way of a log that was thrown at me.

Ah great. He must be a supernatural, I have to out smart him somehow.

I got back up, Scooped some dirt into my shield and charged at him. I quickly flung my shield in the direction of the man, which caused the dirt to come out and hit him in his eyes, and that made the man finally made a reaction.

The man began to rub his eye's trying to get the dirt out and that's when I then quickly charged, and hit him with a thrust right through his stomach.

The Man collapsed on its knees due to the sword most likely severing his spine, while looking down at my hand on the sword that's in his stomach as I pull my sword out. The man then proceeded hit the ground with a soft thud on the forest's grass and finally let out a long breath with his eyes wide open and his lip's forming a wicked smile with tears in his eye's.

Like he was finally freed from something.

"What did you even want in the first place?" I said to the corpse as I put my weapons away in the sheath and started walking in the opposite direction of the corpse. I began to try and locate how far I ran away from the town and then began looking around to see if I could find any landmarks, and after a minute of searching, I finally found the direction I was running from and started heading there.

After a couple of steps towards the path, I looked back to have one last look at the body, only to find the body was gone and only a bloodstain was in its place.

I quickly got my weapons at the ready while scanning my surroundings and staying prepared for a surprise attack. That’s when I suddenly heard a loud growl from the left side of me. I quickly turned towards the direction of the noise, only to see nothing there, and that's when something suddenly slammed against my back sending my fly forward and wrapping around my body.

I was then lifted off the ground, flipped over, and then I was face-to-face with something you would usually see in sleep paralysis at 3 am. The creature that I was looking for was the man that I had killed but had somehow mutated into something 10 times scarier than what he looked like. The man somehow had a large tentacle-like organ coming out of its chest, which was holding me in the air.

"Man, you are one ugly mother Fu-," I began. But before I could finish my sentence the man let out a laugh and started slamming me on the ground repeatedly, over and over again. I tried to soften the blow by using my shield to block the ground, but that didn't work at all(no surprise there).

After he slammed me to the ground 5 times, he then stopped and dragged me in slowly due to me playing dead by letting my body go limp. As I was slowly being pulled in by the man, I slowly reached for his dagger that was in still in my shield as prepared to do a hit and run.

After 15 seconds of him pulling me in, he finally got me in arm's distance and started examining me up and down to check if I was alive or not; I couldn't see his facial expression, but I could have sworn he sniffed me while he was examining me. He then let out a small chuckle before opening up his mouth in a literal 180% angle and was ready to take a huge bite out of me.

"Sorry, man, but I don't swing that way," I said as I pulled my blade out and slashed the man's bottom jaw which caused him to do a shriek of pain and throw me away.

He threw me far, like I would have had time to count the coins in my pocket before I finally hit the ground, and as the ground began to approach, I braced for impact...

Yep, this is going to hurt.

Crack, thump.

Whelp, I finally hit the ground, but not before I managed to hit the biggest tree in the forest first. My left leg was the only part of my body that managed to hit the tree, but the impact still made me spin around like a helicopter blade.

Once I hit the ground I heard a loud snap on the bottom of me, which made me take a long, hopeful breath in and began to pray.

"Sweet lord in heaven, please don't let my left leg be broken, please just let me twig I landed on," I prayed to the sky. I looked down and saw that my left leg was perfectly fine, I let out a sigh of relief while looking up at the sky. I then looked at my other leg in curiosity, only to find out that my right leg was the one that's broken.

"Oh, come on, you weren't even the one who got hit by the tree!" I yelled at my leg while grasping it and breathing in pain. I was going to try to get up until I heard the loudest scream of rage I have ever heard in my life, which made me go from calm to panic in a microsecond.

I sat up straight and started looking for an escape somewhere in this forest. I suddenly spotted a little hiding spot behind me in the tree I just hit which had a small opening that I could fit in. Normally, I would try to find a better place to hide that wouldn't leave me backed into a corner, but it's not like I have much of a choice right now.

I crawled to that opening in the tree like my life depended on it (because it did) and once I finally made it to the opening, I began to slowly scoot in carefully only to notice my feet not touching the bottom. I went a little lower with my stomach on the ground, but I still couldn't touch the bottom. I went a little lower with my elbows holding me up this time while I was trying to feel for the bottom, but I still could not feel the bottom.

I was going to try to get back up from the hole, but the man suddenly bolted from the other tree on the side of another tree and started looking around for me. I didn't make one peep or move one inch after I saw him, the man then took a long look around, then proceeded to lift his head up and started smelling his general area. After smelling the sky for about 5 seconds, the man quickly turned around to look dead at me, which showed me just how much that slash damaged him.

"Damn, I messed you up bad!" I laughed in shock. The slash somehow fully cut off his whole bottom jaw which revealed more tentacles in his throat, there's no way I did that much damage to his face on accident.

Welp, no way we can negotiate now.

I then decided to fully jump down the hole, but not before flipping the bird, with a smile.