Before I knew it, Father stood before us like a wall, the unsheathed blade ready in his palms.

"Stay behind me," he commanded, and then his figure vanished from our side.

My eyes shifted to follow him, when the very foremost devourer's head fell to the ground, murky blood spraying a metre up from its severed neck. The weakest of these ghoulish demons were as strong as Noble-class augmenters, possessing superior regenerative and healing capabilities. So long as wounds weren't too devastating—say, for example, beheaded, or a portion of its skull gone—they could recover from anything.

And yet Father was cutting through their ranks like they were nothing but mere vegetables. Their shrieks and cries continued to echo through the wild expanse of the Candor Mountains as their numbers began to dwindle. Even still, the mindless creatures ignored their plight to chase towards us. Father did not let even a single one of them reach within ten paces, though I remained prepared with my most powerful spell. His figure darted with inhuman speed, a reddish flash with the aura empowering his form, as severed limbs, heads, and mangled corpses littered the forest floor.

"We need to get out of here," Father said. His aura flared to remove all the ghoulish blood that had splattered over him before he returned to our side. He checked on the odd lion-dog before carrying it onto his back. "Arilyn, use your boots to take Eran with you."

The seriousness in his voice demanded my full compliance. I gestured for Eran to climb onto my back. I wasted no time activating the boots, supporting Eran on my back. As we hovered up in the air, my eyes could not help but linger on the macabre scene of mangled corpses, and black blood spurted all over. My nose scrunched up, a contorting distaste rising in my stomach. Before the distaste could rise to puking, I turned away.

"What's going to happen?" my friend asked, his heartbeat rising. "Is there a rift? Has a rift broken again?"

"Possibly," Father said, "or else there's no other way for these ghouls to appear out here. Come on, we've no time to waste. There are likely more of those from where they came."

Even using the boots' full capacity, my speed was significantly slower than usual, with Eran clinging to my back. Setting aside the fact that I couldn't take us higher than a dozen metres at all. Father could have overtaken us with no effort, yet still followed behind us, and when another round of those cries reverberated through the howling wind, I knew exactly why.

Craning my neck, I found movement through the murky obscurity, the cries rising higher, and say nothing of the horrid stench, indicating they were drawing closer to us. And not just from one direction.

"Don't look back. Go straight—"

Something flew out from the dark woods at a pace comparable to Father at his peak. A bestial creature, standing over two and a half metres, with six limbs to support its massive, sinewy form that tumbled over an ancient tree, breaking it apart in its wake. Its maw opened in a blood-chilling snarl. Its jaw was large enough to gulp down the tallest of men, filled with dagger-like jagged teeth, a pink tongue salivating and whipped beyond the bounds of its maw. Unlike the devourers, this one didn't reek, because this one wasn't born out of unholy mutation, but a demon of mythical origin.

"Is that an Ashhound?" I cried. I felt Eran shudder in my arms, or was it me? I could not tell.

The Ashhound's skin was akin to matted stone boulders, like pale white marble, shining even in the dimming light. Its eyes were like two red blobs of smouldering gemstone, whilst its entire form was scaled like a reptile.

Father cursed something in a language I wasn't sure I recognised. The Ashound gave him no time to prepare, colliding with him and sending the pitiful creature he was carrying hurtling several metres away. The Komainu awoke with another cry and seemed to barely muster the power to stand on its four limbs, when the pale demon loomed behind it, its maw opening to take a taste of the guardian animal.

I released the compressed fire arrow I had been holding onto. It had already been straining, so I decided I might as well put it to some use.

And what use did it serve? The Ashhound's white scales were utterly unharmed. Perhaps other than providing it with a bit of heat, the blue firelight did nothing.

An Ashhound was incomparable to those lesser demons like corpse flies, devourers, leechers, or any corrupt insectoids. We needed a specialised team of fabled-class awakened to even hunt down one successfully. Even if it was far down the line from its mythical counterpart, an Ashhound was a walking catastrophe for anything below fabled class.

And now that catastrophe was looking down on me. Even under the weight of its gaze, I tumbled in the air. The [Band of Protection] flared, supporting me against its turbulent explosion of aura, which boiled the very air we breathed.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Ashhound did not like that it needed to exert more effort to tear through our fragile bodies. As I teetered in the air with Eran clutching tightly, its mammoth form charged, another beastly snarl causing a layer of oscillating ward to appear over the already formed barrier.

Father dashed in front of us before the towering beast could tear through the barrier. His aura exploded outward, cancelling the beast's auric force. Taking control of the warping wind surrounding us, his sword fell with the resonance of Whispering Gale.

As before, the Ashhound's defence was adamantine. Coupling with its magical resistance, Father's sword only grazed its forelimb.

"Go, go, go!" Father shouted.

My pitiful skill could barely hurt a devourer, much less such a horrifying creature. The only way I could help was to reach Mum and ask her for aid.

Saying nothing further, I complied and shot towards our home. Finally, I had a brief respite to manipulate the threads within the artefact to enlarge itself and bring Eran under its protection as well.

"What about that komainu?" Eran asked, causing my eyes to dart to the pitiful creature, which seemed to have shrunk by a foot, limping its way forward.

Since Father had been so determined to protect it, I could not allow it to flounder on its own. There was no way for me to carry it along even without Eran burdening the flight, but it would not hurt to lead it towards home whilst Father fought the Ashhound. Once again, I couldn't help but glance back at Father as we drifted away.

He'll be alright, I told myself. He'll be fine.

Soon it became dismally evident that I had no room for worrying about him when there were still packs of devourers on our tail. Whilst there was only one Ashhound, there were multiple packs of those ghoulish devourers, their screeches joining from all directions. Most of them gave chase at the very sight of us, or rather of the lion-dog creature.

With its hind leg injured and claw marks all over it, the Komainu was pitifully slow, even slower than our pace. Those malformed devourers caught up to it before it could traverse half a mile, their cries ringing like an alarm bell.

"Hold tight," I said to Eran before weaving all the threads in my arsenal to form a wind blade.

I hurled it towards the first creature I saw. The wind blade struck so abruptly that it didn't have time to dodge. However, it was thrust backwards with a deep gashing wound on its chest, black blood gushing out from it.

Then it stood back up in no time, screeched at me, and charged, abandoning its original target.

"Should have aimed for the head," I berated myself, voice as dry as a sheet of paper.

I compressed the next wind blade to the limit of my ability and launched it at the creature, which turned out to have some bestial instinct and evaded. My wind blade collided with a hardwood tree, biting into its trunk as it slowly tumbled over. I had no time to be impressed with my spell as the ghoulish creature shot towards us, its horrifying maw opening to reveal a tongue twice as long as any creature should have. It flung its tongue at me, spitting out disgusting black saliva. No, not just black saliva. My Arcane Acuity tingled, telling me that it was acid, with something far more tainted hidden within it.

Much to my relief, the protective barrier defended against it all, even though I tried to dodge.

More of those repulsive abominations caught up to us. Even flying several metres up in the air proved to be of little use, as the demons surged from all directions, some of them even climbing the old trees to leap at us. With Eran on my back, I navigated through the gnarled woods that seemed to create a twisted cage, pitting us against those horrid ghouls.

Although my pace was faster than most of them, there were a few that were as agile as Priam at his best, chasing us like ferocious predators out for blood. One of them clutched onto my ankle, pulling us down, its claws raking into the forcefield.

Clenching my jaw, I hurled a wind blade at its skull. At such a short distance, there was no way for it to miss. The spell cleaved through its maw, yet still its clawed arm clutched onto my foot. I had to deliver a kick to fling it away, when two other ghouls lunged from my rear. I immediately twisted the threads within the artefact, whilst manipulating the levitation runes in the boots to raise us higher.

Eran's cry of alarm came a moment late as the forcefield wrapping us surged with oscillating force and thrust at the inhuman creatures, launching them several metres away as they collided with some unyielding trees.

The sigh of relief never escaped my lips, as soon I detected the sheer number of demons shifting in the encroaching darkness. As we drove down the rugged slope, the towering trees in the surroundings gradually thinned. Before we could leave the shade of the trees completely, I allowed myself a low-stake gamble. Forming wind blades as swiftly as I could, I hurled them all at my back.

"What are you..." Eran cried, but I had no time to answer him. My entire focus was consumed by forming wind blades and launching them all around us.

I did not bother to aim; there was no need to. My targets were not the yowling demons, but the armoured trees and their gnarled branches that surrounded us.

The echoes of branches splitting were barely audible among the maddening screeches, but I didn't have to turn my head to feel the large blocks of trees crashing down, one by one, their thick logs at least impeding our pursuers for a moment.

With the moment of respite, I enabled Haste, shooting through the rustling wind. Surely, the crashing trees could not slow all of them. Three or four of the agile ones closed the gap swiftly, a couple of them were even on four limbs, their grotesque forms dashed in jerking motion.

Once again, I delivered a kinetic thrust to the closest ones and wove fireballs, as we hurried away. The kinetic force worked as well as I hoped it would, whilst the crimson flames fended off the rest. It could not end them, or even wound them seriously, but it bought me a moment, and that was all I—

"Arilyn!" Eran screamed, his arms clutched onto me so tightly that I choked.

If only the choking was the end of my dilemma... when a dark shadow tore through the shifting gloom, smashing into us with its towering frame.

The [Band of Protection] held up to the impact, relieving us from the fate of our bodies being torn apart. Unfortunately, it could not disperse the utter crushing force in time.

We slammed down onto the cold ground, where dozens of those cruel red eyes shone all around us.

__________

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