Chapter 6: Bonefiend
Steel rang out loudly beyond the smoke.
"Hold it back!"
Dolin moved carefully before entering a wide chamber. He had been moving for a while and finally came upon some people.
A group of knights stood in a stable formation. Six of them.
Their skin was scorched and scarred from battle, yet they looked undeterred.
In front of them stood a terrifying creature.
It was easily as tall as two men. It had a wiry frame, covered in plates of jagged bone across its shoulders and spine.
It had arms that ended in hooked claws and tentacles rather than legs.
One of the knights thrust a spear forward, only for it to be knocked back at a frightening speed.
It slammed a claw down, barely giving enough time for the knight to roll away from the impact.
"Damn it!" someone shouted.
"With all of the awakened in the courtyard we can't damage it at all!"
Dolin did not hesitate.
If that thing took the knights down, it would come for him next.
"Move!"
One of the knights glanced at him with wide eyes as Dolin rushed forward.
The creature turned toward Dolin, facing the new threat.
It opened its maw, baring multiple rows of hooked teeth.
Dolin slashed outward with his sword, causing it to fall down on one of the creature's tentacles in a downward arc. It cut true, cleaving it off, causing the creature to growl in pain.
Seeing that the odd-looking boy with a sword was an ally, the knights soon followed up. Taking the opening that the boy had given them, they responded with many spear jabs and sword slashes, slightly bruising the body of the nightmare creature.
The monster roared.
One of its claws caught a knight across the chest, hurling him back into the smoke. Its tentacles shot out, seeking to penetrate the defenses of Dolin and the knights.
Dolin ducked beneath it, the tentacle just barely missing him. One of the knights was not so fortunate, and he was impaled. The creature dragged the now screaming man back before ripping into his flesh with its huge maw.
The sound of crunching bone echoed through the chamber.
One of the knights shouted out in rage.
"Damn beast!"
Two of them rushed forward, their swords flashing in the air. One blade struck the creature's shoulder plate of bone, bouncing off harmlessly. The second knight's spear thrusted beneath the creature's ribs, striking true.
But the creature reacted instantly. One of its tentacles snapped forward like a whip, wrapping around the knight's arm. The man's arm was ripped from his shoulder as the creature yanked it violently.
Dolin ran forward, taking the opportunity that the knights created for them and swung with the Traitorous Edge.
He lunged forward, his sword biting deep.
The blade sliced through one of the beast's limbs, severing it completely.
Black blood sprayed across the floor as fell with a dull thud.
The knight who lost his arm crashed to the ground and rolled away just before another claw slammed into the spot where he landed, cracking the stone under the impact.
The creature shrieked in fury.
Its remaining tentacles lashed out wildly, forcing both Dolin and the knights to retreat several steps.
"Spread out!" one of them shouted.
The defenders quickly repositioned themselves, forming a loose circle around the monster.
I must find an opening.
Dolin watched carefully.
The smoke was stinging his eyes, yet his concentration was unbroken. If he made one mistake, that meant death.
The creature's bone plate protected most of its upper body, but the space in between plates revealed flesh when it moved to attack.
A gap.
It wasn't large, but it would have to do.
"Between the plates!" Dolin shouted.
The knights reacted immediately.
Two of them feinted towards the creature's head, drawing its attention.
The monster lunged at them with a furious roar.
That was the opening he needed.
Dolin rushed forward.
He slid beneath one of the creature's swinging claws and drove his sword upwards, right between the two bone plates.
The monster screamed, black blood erupting from the wound.
By now, the encircling knights had made a move as well.
A spear followed Dolin's strike, plunging into another of the gaps.
The creature thrashed violently, spraying a mist of black blood onto all of them.
One of its tentacles wrapped around the spear shaft, ripping the weapon free before hurling it across the chamber.
The monster catapulted itself at Dolin, its maw snapping shut inches from his face.
A claw threatened from above, making him roll away.
The monster suddenly froze.
A knight had climbed onto its back, driving his blade right into the soft flesh between the plates. It must have hit a vital organ, as the monster began to bleed profusely from its mouth.
"Kill it now!" he roared.
Dolin did not need him to tell him twice.
He sprinted forward, driving the Traitorous Edge deep into the flesh in the creature's neck. In a wide upward arc, he slashed his sword, cleaving right into the creature's maw from the neck.
The monster let out a horrible shriek, but the attacks did not let up.
Two of the remaining knights attacked at once. A spear and sword pierced through the exposed flesh, tearing into bone and muscle with a scraping sound.
The creature staggered, tentacles flailing weakly.
Finally, Dolin lifted his sword up once again, bringing it down into the creature's face. Black blood sprayed onto him.
The massive body finally collapsed, the knight riding on its back jumping off right before it hit the floor with a heavy crash.
[You have slain a dormant monster, Grasping Bonefiend.]
[You have received a memory: Bonefiend's Embrace.]
Nice. I seem to be lucky, getting all of these Memories.
Silence followed as smoke drifted through the chamber.
"Damn thing nearly killed us," came from a knight leaning heavily on his sword.
Another kicked one of the tentacles to the side.
"We lost Reiner and Dwarvey because of it."
The knight who had jumped off the creature's back turned to Dolin.
"You're not one of the defenders are you."
Dolin shook his head.
"No."
The knight nodded slowly, as if having a hard time to accept the fact that a boy that looked no older than 17 had helped them.
"Well… whoever you are…," he said before glancing at the corpse of the nightmare creature.
"...good timing."