Nerini groaned in pain and slashed her blades out blindly, her instincts allowing her to catch the monster mid strike. The bite of her swords caused it to scream in pain and hesitate, which allowed her barely enough time to catch her feet under her before the creature resumed its attack. Before she could lift her blades in defence, Nerini was thrown, tumbling through the air like a rag doll.
It hit her another couple times before she feebly caught a claw with her sword, slashing at it out of instincts. Another scream of pain was the only sign she had made any damage as she slammed against another tree from the force of a blow. Nerini's head still swam from the collision when she felt a claw wrap around her throat and haul her into the air.
The world shuddered to a halt as she choked for breath, struggling against a force too big, too fast, and too strong for her to have any effect on. The limb pressing her into the unforgiving surface of the tree with a crushing force was too long to allow her to land any kicks.
Nerini gasped for breath and spun her blade, trying to get it up and under the thing's guard somehow, her moves desperate and ineffective. Even as she was trying to slash feebly at the creature, its other hand clamped hard down onto her shoulder and dug in through her armour. As she screamed in agony, her arm went numb and she dropped her sword with a soft swish into the snowbank below her.
The silence of the dark woods became apparent again, the creature watching her from the swirling black mass of its shadowy features, though it loosened its grip to allow her to breathe. She filled the air with the sounds of her pained gasps and the creak of her armour as she dangled. Details of the moment continued to shift into her mind as she found herself filled with a numbing calm, allowing her to feel the bite of the hard bark digging into the back of her head and the cold air licking at her sweat and blood covered features.
"We will not kill you now. But it gives us pleasure to cause you pain." As the shadowed being spoke, it spoke with a crowd of voices, all of them alien enough to send shudders of fear up and down her spine.
"Go screw yourself." Nerini spat out, yelling in pain as it pulled her back from the tree and then slammed her against it once more.
"We seek your annihilation," It halted, its entire body shuddering as it regarded her with renewed interest, as if something had caught its attention. "But you... you are here to help us. We've been calling you for years. You will help."
There was a new tone in its voice, a purr of fanaticism that caused its body to tense and its claw to tighten around her throat once more.
Nerini's vision faded as she failed to get enough air into her lungs, vaguely feeling her body pulled away from the tree. She tried to claw herself back into consciousness, fighting the feeling that she was flying or sinking, or something between the two sensations even as she choked to breathe. Her heartbeat rushed through her mind as it battled to support her body with enough oxygen to stay alive. The realization that she wasn't flying or falling unconscious hit her when she realized that the thing was carrying her, her body swayed with the shift of its footsteps.
Even as her mind focused on the fact that she wasn't yet dead, she realized she was still gripping her other sword somehow.
"I'm never going to help you." Nerini's words sounded foolhardy and weak as she choked them out, but she followed through by bringing her foot up to kick the thing in the face, hoping that it had bent its harm enough to bring her smaller limbs within range. The feeling of her foot connecting solidly caused her to grin, even as it stumbled to the side.
It growled angrily, letting go of her throat to shake her by the shoulder like a child's toy as it snarled. Nerini felt the claws tear deeper into her shoulder and pull a cry of agony out of her as it. Then the monster paused and brought its free hand up to the shifting shadow of its face. It made a wiping motion and then seemed to lick its palm with consideration.
Nerini had seen her blood splatter it into the face, and it was all she could do not to remember how the thing had drained the dead child of blood as she saved his brother. Even as she watched in confusion, Nerini fought to force her brain to fully appreciate what was going on and take advantage of what seemed to be a valuable distraction. The creature looked stunned, as much as a shadow without a lot of features could, and she hoped for a moment that perhaps it wasn't the taste of her blood that had stopped it.
But the grin that spread over its features as its eyes focused on her was enough to fill her mind with nauseating terror. She felt her remaining confusion burn away with a sudden, uncontrollable fear as the thing regarded her with a disturbing ferocity. It was nearly impossible to pick out a face or distinguishable features in the shadows that looked at her, but something about this unfamiliar expression told her the game had changed. Nerini gritted her teeth as it lifted her up closer to its face, lowering its head to nuzzle the wound on her shoulder and let out a disturbingly intimate purr.
"We're supposed to all share you. But even that little way.... I think you could survive a taste..." She couldn't see what it was doing, but nearly gagged as she felt something cold slithering over her skin, as if licking at her wounds and lapping up the blood that was streaming out of them.
Nerini clenched her fist again in desperation, remembering the sword she continued to cling to, she raised her arm as slowly as she could, fighting waves of revulsion as she felt the thing still licking and sucking at the wounds on her shoulder with a single-minded intensity she did not want to contemplate. Nerini swallowed, steadying her breathing as she brought the tip of her sword as close to its head as she could, taking a slow breath.
"Hey, how about you all share this?" She whispered, before slamming her sword hilt deep into the thing's head. It bit down on her shoulder with the force of her blow then screamed and the next thing she knew she was flying through the air. Nerini's body whistled through branches until she landed hard into a half-frozen snow bank, disappearing into the icy darkness of the deep snow.
She lay there for long several minutes, her mind focusing on the fact that she had lost her second sword and that she now had no weapons other than some small daggers and throwing knives to fight with. The silence grew as she felt the cold surround her, waiting to hear the screams of anger once more or feel the claws and teeth tearing at her again.
Still, she waited.
Until her body cooled down enough to convince her to climb up out into the open air and out of the pile of snow she had been hiding in. Nerini stumbled forward, gasping as she blinked blood out of her eyes, looking towards where a still form lay several feet away from her.
The creature had changed now that it wasn't cloaked in shifting darkness. Its skin was the same colour as decaying leaves in the fall, complete with the pale green, yellow and brown tinges. Its body was still tall, but lanky as opposed to bulky, features looking like a refined version of a human.
Nerini's sword was stuck straight up through its jaw and into its brain, face mangled by the damage and though it still looked vaguely human, the features were too predatory. The nose and eyes looked feline, its hands and feet clawed like a bird or lizard, long and vicious. Nerini watched it for a long moment before getting close enough to grasp her blade.
She frowned as she placed a foot on its head and tugged her sword free with her uninjured arm though shooting pain from that effort was enough to tell Nerini that there weren't very many parts of her that were unscathed from the fight. She was thankful for the adrenaline that kept most of her aches and pains away to allow her to keep moving.
The woods were still silent, but it was the natural quiet of the night, alive with the breeze and the timid calling of night creatures. The oppression in the air that she had felt had disappeared. Even with the mangled body of a creature out of a nightmare on the ground at her feet, Nerini felt her terror dissipating.
She glanced around her slowly to allow herself to calm down and steady her breathing. Safe and natural as the woods seemed for now, its words about there being more stuck in her mind. With a curse, Nerini brought her sword down one handed, taking several shaky swings to cut off the creature's head and then one of its hands.
As she pulled off her torn and blood cloak, and tied it up as a bag around her acquisitions, she mumbled. "Not so big and scary without your head, huh?"
Silence was the only response.
Unsure if she wanted this creature to be found by whoever its friends were, Nerini stacked as much dead fall as she could around the creature. Using her flint and a well-balanced rock, she struggled for several painful moments to catch a spark with only one workable hand. Even as she wondered why the hell she was bothering with trying to cremate it, a spark flew from her flint and landed on the creature's skin, exploding into a sudden rush of flames.
Nerini stumbled back from the sudden heat, gagging at the smell of rancid, burning meat. She forced herself to remain close enough to warm up and dry off, knowing it was a long way home on a cold, dark night. When the pain overwhelmed her, she forced herself to stand and regard the path back. With all the fighting and being carried while half conscious, she struggled to find certainty in the direction she needed to go. With the sky dark with heavy clouds, her only guidepost was the creature's path carving through the snow.
Nerini watched her blood drip down into the snow idly, her mind losing focus and becoming enthralled by the steady drops of red into the dirty snow. A small part of her mind tried to tell her that it was dangerous to let herself bleed like this, out in the cold.
After a few long moments, she steadied her breathing and shook her head. With one last look at the fire, Nerini stumbled away into the woods.
If she found the road, she should be able to find the village, as long as no one came looking for the creature whose head was dangling in a bloody sack from her belt.