This was definitely not what they had planned for. At least there was a shred of light from a slime in the wall sconce.

  “H-hobgoblins…?”

  Each hob clearly had the power to snap him like a little baby twig.

  ‘No, they don’t know that yet. I’m an unknown variable!’ he thought.

  In the corner, the demon’s eyes blazed from soulless black to a harsh, verdant glow. A smirk slithered up its face, glinting with rows of overlapping needle-like teeth.

  It spoke in a garbled language to the four hobgoblins who broke into mocking laughter. They glared at Kuro like a meek lamb wandering through the wilderness. He didn’t need to guess what the demon had told them.

  Kuro’s performative sneer fell into an expression of someone who had come to terms with things.

  ‘Guess it’s time to run.’

  The hobgoblins surrounded him and charged, roaring with unhinged abandon. Kuro saw his life flash. Heard Cinti’s voice last.

  “Trust me.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing behind his shield.

  Suddenly his attackers slowed as the ground — no, the entire hut — rumbled like a stampede breaking free.

  Boom!

  In a spray of splinters, Cinti burst through the wall behind them, loping off the nearest hobgoblin’s head.

  The momentum let her shield bash the hob on her left, shoving him into the wall like a battering ram with a thump. Its head bounced once before she staked her sword through its heart and yanked it out in a bloody spray. She hurled the blade at the oncoming hobs, pinning one through the shoulder on the opposite wall.

  The demon flew up from its corner. Kuro saw the glint of a dagger in its claws.

  "Behind you!"

  Cinti pivoted with a deadly roundhouse kick, smacking it out of the air. It smashed into the floorboards and lay still. But the instant she turned her back, the last hobgoblin bashed her with its mace and sent her flying across the room. The shock of the attack had worn off, and the survivor wasn't leaving her any chance to pick herself up. It threw its weight on her and wrapped a massive bicep around her neck.

  Cinti struggled to free herself from the chokehold, elbowing it in the ribs with her roundels and, when that didn't work, she managed to get a grip on his groin and squeeze.

  It didn't even flinch.

  A rage had taken it so fully, that even when there was a loud tearing noise and she tossed its manhood aside, it did not release her.

  Kuro stood dumbfounded.

  Cinti's eyes flicked over to him, brimming with panic. Kuro’s chest lurched.

  At that moment, he and the hob pinned to the wall shared a knowing look. It was up to them to determine the final outcome.

  While the hob grabbed the hilt of Cinti’s sword and started prying it from its shoulder, Kuro crossed the room to provide aid. He brandished his shortsword at the neck of her attacker like a practiced assassin.

  “Unhand her.”

  The hobgoblin bared its craggy teeth and a drowned chuckled echoed in its belly. Behind them came a metal clattering and the thud of a pommel. The other hob was free. An involuntary shudder took hold of Kuro as time seemed to slow.

  He couldn’t bluff anymore. Except… he had never killed anything in his life and now how could he be expected to jam a sharp object through a living creature’s neck? He swallowed against the dryness in his throat.

  Cinti’s light was fading fast. That brutish hobgoblin was pounding across the room. The corners of his vision blurred into dark needles.

  They were both going to die.

  His hand moved on its own, driving the sword through flesh, and with effort, past muscle. The monster choked as blood filled its throat.

  Its grip loosened on Cinti. She thrust its body off and sprang to her feet. Just as the last hob leapt at Kuro, swinging a club at his head, she intervened with a full-body elbow spear to its gut.

  They went skating into a wall, Cinti bent over the hob like she was weeping. But the bastard was defiant. It sank a dagger into the nape of her neck — the only exposed critical spot he could reach. All the while, it cackled and grinned.

  Cinti grunted against the pain. Kuro couldn’t see her expression, but he felt the heat of a deadly aura spilled off her. Then she headbutted the hobgoblin in his chin so hard, its jaw slammed shut on its tongue, biting it clean off.

  Kuro flinched — felt his heart pick up. Of everything he’d witnessed, that was somehow the most brutal.

  The creature didn’t have time to react. Cinti pummeled it like someone snapping on the person they’d held a grudge against all her life. The wooden walls bent and creaked, threatening to break under the force.

  She didn’t let up, keeping the hob pinned like an expert boxer, blocking his return strikes and breaking his offence. The bits and pieces of armour it wore dented and loosened, eventually falling away like a draconic beast shedding its scales. And with nothing left for protection, its sallow mossy skin bloomed black and purple bruises.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  There was a final blow that sent a blast wave rippling through the room and she pulled back her fists.

  The battered thing fell dead at her feet with a solid impact. Cinti staggered, steadied herself with a firm stance, and pulled the blade it stuck in her. When it was free, she stumbled. Then her whole body just sank to the floor.

  Kuro’s legs were shaking worse than if they were overcooked spaghetti. There was no way he could make it over to her like that, so he just took a seat on the floor. A long-awaited exhale loosened his chest just a bit. Looking around at the corpses, he found himself shivering the way he used to when he was a kid still afraid of imaginary monsters.

  Except this time, the monsters were real.

  The whole situation was only just setting in. While he sat there processing shock and fear, Cinti crawled over to the naked young woman curled up in another corner. She looked up at Cinti with lidded eyes, framed with tired dark circles and crusty with dried tears.

  Her moonlight skin was covered in bruises and lacerations.

  Cinti unbound her hands and feet, muttering in a tone that suggested curses.

  The young lady’s dress was shredded and tossed to the side, so Cinti grabbed it and draped it over her like a blanket.

  Suddenly, her voice softened.

  “You’re going to be alright now.”

  She brushed a lock of hair behind the young woman’s pointed ear and shared a look of understanding with her before turning her attention to Kuro.

  “Don’t let your guard down. We’re not done here until we deal with him.”

  She raised a gauntleted finger to the knocked out demon.

  “I don’t have the strength, so you’ll have to finish him off. My apologies for missing him. Imps don’t show up in mirrors and are masters of concealment.”

  Kuro pushed to his feet, stammering, “Do I just s-stab him?”

  “Yes. Through the heart. Quickly, before he awakens!” Cinti snapped. “They’re formidable despite their size.”

  Kuro hefted his shortsword for the second time, dreading the unsettling resistance of punching through a body. Dreading the tang of blood and gore in the air. As if their surroundings didn’t already smell like shit.

  With a sigh, he approached the imp and flipped it onto its back. Bringing the blade to hover millimetres above its chest, he rammed the point in deep.

  The imp’s eyes shot open.

  For a second, they stared at each other, expressionlessly acknowledging each other.

  Purple flames burst from its chest wound, scorching Kuro's hands. He cried out, forced to release his weapon and fall back. His hands trembled with a kind of stinging, throbbing, maddening pain. At the same time, the imp convulsed on the floor before abruptly going pin straight. That same strange fire engulfed its entire body as it ascended into the air like an unholy undead.

  As the blade melted under the heat, the sword buried in its chest fell with a pathetic thump. They could all see the wound closing up, weaving itself back together at an incredible rate.

  “Kuro!” Cinti’s voice wrested him from his clouded mind. Fear and pain shed for just a moment, he heard her shouting, “You have to run. Take the girl and run!”

  Kuro stared at her struggling to move, and hesitated.

  “What about you?”

  She shook her head. “I got us into this mess trying to be a hero. All I own is now yours. Take it and live a good life for the both of us.”

  She raised her skirts and there, strapped to her thigh, were three sapphire-blue vials. Slipping one from the holster, she pressed it to her lips. Kuro snatched it away.

  “No. We’re all surviving this,” he said.

  He downed the potion in one gulp and commanded his orb.

  “Take the imp.”

  The orb flew directly at the floating spectre where a vortex blossomed into being, warping space like heatwaves in a desert. In a flash, it funneled the demon into the orb,

  “Yes!”

  The orb dropped.

  Tink.

  Kuro was grinning like a maniac, glowing with a mix of after-battle relief and feeding off his own success. Because of him, the danger was gone.

  He looked back at Cinti, expecting a similar excitement. But his heart plunged to his stomach when he saw the looks on both women’s faces.

  Shock.

  Horror.

  Concern.

  Grief?

  Could the demon’s fate really have been so mortifying?

  “What is it?” he said.

  Then he felt it.

  A huge drain on his life force brought him to his knees. It was as if someone or something was siphoning power from him, trying to turn off his lights.

  Nausea bubbled in his chest. The world went wonky and he toppled onto his side. The floorboards creaked and scraped as someone made their way over. Cinti seemed to appear from nowhere. She was still dragging herself. Kuro thought he might have smiled at her but he couldn’t feel his body.

  She put another vial to his lips and poured it down his throat. Then another.

  From some other dimension, her words flowed into him, warming his cold limbs.

  “Whatever you do, don’t let go. Fight it. Hold on and don’t let go.”

  But his only response was to cough up blood. He looked down at his hands. Blackened, ugly veins showed through the dark skin. Was Cinti still speaking? She sounded so far away. Muffled...

  Then it all went dark.

  ***

  A thin tapping echoed from above, bringing Kuro back around. It took a while of staring at the pale leather ceiling to figure out what that sound was.

  Rain drizzling on a tent.

  He tried to move, but besides his neck, his body wouldn’t respond. Looking to his left, the tent flap had been pinned open just enough to let in fresh air. Past it, he could see the forest. To his right, the female elf they had rescued kneeled beside him. She seemed to be resting her eyes. Although cleaned up and dressed, a heavy exhaustion still hung over her.

  She jerked awake suddenly and saw him looking at her. A tiny gasp escaped her.

  Before he could say anything, she bolted from the tent. He could hear her splashing through puddles, shoes half-sinking into soft soil, calling Cinti’s name.

  Cinti popped her head in. Droplets clung to her hair and skin, glistening in the light.

  Coming to Kuro's side, she kneeled next to him in the cramped space and put a hand on his forehead.

  “You had me worried for a time,” she whispered. “Even Mahara thought you wouldn’t make it.”

  Kuro wobbled his head.

  “Oh, that’s the girl we saved. She and I took turns watching over you. ...I think you have an admirer.”

  Kuro gestured with his chin for her to lean in — close enough to whisper into her ear.

  “You’re on my nuts…”

  And he passed out again.