神级狩魔人

Chapter 9: Tongue

The light from the torches shone through the dark cemetery, illuminating the area around them. When the team went to investigate the desecrated graves, they saw that most of them were occupied by the skeletal remains of dead villagers. Only a few lay empty.

“The empty graves are the new ones.”  

As Roy assessed their situation, he remembered the tales that spoke of bloodthirsty, evil monsters. Ghouls. 

If ghouls were lurking in the cemetery, it would prove to be a problem to even witchers, and a precarious situation for normal villagers like them. 

“This is a treacherous area. Everyone, let’s leave!” Roy tried to warn everyone, but the eerie sound of a whip cracking against air reached them. 

Two short moments later, Fletcher grunted. As if he was a fish that was hooked, his limbs straightened, convulsed, and was pulled by something. Then he stumbled forward. 

Everyone shone their torches where Fletcher was attacked, and they saw an elongated, skin-colored tentacle glistening in the air, boring a hole in Fletcher’s shoulder like an arrow. It almost tore through Fletcher’s wound. 

Seeger reacted first. He swung his sword up in an attempt to slice the tentacle, but it whipped back into the darkness where the light from the torches couldn’t reach it. 

“What the hell was that?”  

Everyone hastened to form a circle, keeping Fletcher in the middle. 

He was sweating profusely, but he gritted his teeth, not even wincing at the pain. He tried to stop the bleeding by pressing down on the wound, but the crimson fluid didn’t stop gushing out. Everything started spinning around him, and he could feel the life flowing out of him. He could see death waiting for him on the other side. 

“I-I’m done for! Run! Leave me!” Fletcher said weakly. He pushed everyone away and dashed into the night. 

Jack looked around them, and murderous intent welled up within his good eye. But it was not the time for revenge. “We have to get away for now. Revenge can come later! That monster ain’t getting away with this easily.” 

He made a run for the cemetery’s exit, and everyone followed. 

Seeger dragged the stupefied Roy along. It took a while for him to snap out of it, but he was still shivering from the mysterious encounter.  

“That was no ghoul. What was that creature?”  

When he looked back, Roy could vaguely make out a hunched, humanoid form. It wasn’t sleek, no. In fact, it was bloated, heavy, and its belly resembled a pregnant woman’s. The creature looked like an old woman, but it sprinted faster than a cheetah. 

The creature pursued the team with tremendous speed, leaving afterimages wherever it went. It ran like the wind, and wherever it was, the creature would let out a shrill scream. It wasn’t going to kill the team just yet. The creature was enjoying the chase. It wanted to play with its prey first. 

“It collects bodies, looks like a hunched old lady, uses its tongue as a weapon, and lives in cemeteries.” As he connected the dots, Roy started to get a picture of the creature that was chasing them.  

When Jack noticed Roy spacing out, he slapped him. “Stop spacing out, Roy! Run, and don’t think about anything else! Just run for it!”  

Roy snapped out of it, and he mustered all his strength to escape the cemetery.