We didn’t have enough time to gawk at my new found ability. The man started to throw javelins at us. I dodged the first two, though barely. The third was about to hit Vyth, but he broke free from my grasp just in time to fall out it’s trajectory. I regained my composure and hurled acid his way. Vyth followed suit, launching rocks from his slinger. Neither had any effect. The man rushed towards Vyth, so I dove down and grabbed him. The man grunted in anger, spitting what was probably a sea of insults our way. He grabbed another javelin and threw it in the direction I was flying.

I couldn’t dodge it. I couldn’t stop my movement. Time slowed. I knew what was gonna happen. Yet, I couldn’t stop it. Now, I was watching my own death play before me. The point of the javelin was a mere inch away from my eye, when Vyth hit it away with his spear. The point changed its course and only scraped the side of my head.

“Focus!”, yelled Vyth, “This is about life or death! About avenging our fallen! If you don’t give it your all, or dare to run away, I will never forgive you!”.

I did as he said and focused. This was still insane. The battle was still going on around us, though on a much smaller scale. And we were in the middle of it, fighting a monster. My nerves were still firing up. I almost lost my composure again, but managed to dodge another javelin just in time. My thoughts were racing. How were we going to survive this?! I tried calming myself down again. I took a look at our opponent and imagined him as a final boss in a video game. I convinced myself this was all just a game and dying would just mean restarting the fight.

The man grabbed a javelin from the ground and threw it. Five was all he had. I had an idea. I flew towards two others a good bit away from him and asked Vyth to grab them. This seemed to piss off the guy even more, but it didn’t matter. The extra weight was hard to carry, but I managed. I flew over the raging battle and asked Vyth to drop them. One landed on the ground, though the other hit a human that was about to finish off one of our own. Another javelin flew past me with far more force than the others. It only scraped me, but the javelin flew even further then the ones he dropped. I looked back at him. Never before had I seen such furry. The man had completely lost it. It brought terror back into my soul.

Vyth gave me a light hit to the stomach and gestured to attack him. I remembered what he said and flew towards the man. The man readied himself for a swing. Just as I had predicted, when we got close he jumped and swung at us with all his might. I flew a bit higher just in time, avoiding the attack. Vyth let go of me, dropping on the guy with his spear pointing down. As they both fell down, the spear slid between his neck and the armour, stabbing him in the back. It wasn’t fatal, however, and the guy immediately jumped back up, throwing Vyth violently several feet away. He charged him, but before he could get too close, I hit him with the freeze ray. Vyth got up and backed off of him. He grabbed a javelin sticking out of the ground just as I picked him back up. The man was seething. He rushed towards another javelin and launched it at us with force thought only possible by Hercules. It pierced Vyth’s tail, going straight through. He yelled out in pain and I started panicking.

It left a large bleeding hole. I had to get it patched up before he bled to death. I looked around the battlefield for anything to help us. Another javelin zoomed right in front of my face, missing by only an inch. The force of the wind alone hurt my eyes. The man let out a roar and yelled something to us.

“That beast”, Vyth quietly said. He could barely speak from the pain.

The triceratops was still on the battlefield. It was panicking and stomping at anyone who got too close. It was clearly frightened. I made use of that. I flew towards. A javelin scraped by my leg. It left a sizable wound, but I stayed my course. Once we were above it, I waited for it to face the man’s direction. Once it did, I sprayed acid on its tail and back. It let out a roar as it charged straight ahead. The man’s eyes were still on us. He was too engulfed by rage to notice the beast heading straight for him, until it was too late.

Wasting no time, I flew towards the village. I entered a random house and started ripping cloth from some bedsheets, which I used to wrap around Vyth’s tail. It was still bleeding heavily, but he’d make it. As long as nothing else went wrong, that is. After that was done, I sat down by the bed. All the pain and exhaustion that had been building up hit me at once. My wings felt like they were being torn from my back. Adrenaline had been the only thing keeping me in the air.

From the house we could hear the battle. I wanted to check how it was going, but couldn’t move a muscle. Both of us couldn’t. We had sat there, listening to it for what seemed like hours. Listening to the screams of both humans and Kobolds. Even recognizing some of them. After the battle ended, there was a sense of dread. We didn’t know who had won. We didn’t know whether friend or foe was going to come through the door. We regained the ability to move again from that fear at least. We inched our way to the window overlooking the battlefield. Barely anyone was left standing. But those who were, were human. Then, we saw him. The man we had fought, still alive, though bloodied and beaten.

“Fuck”, we both said at the same time.

I looked at Vyth. He was just as afraid as I was. Just as shocked. We lost our home. Our family. And now, there was a good chance of us losing our life. Luck was still somewhat on our side. None of them seemed to be headed our way. They were standing or sitting there. Probably recuperating and thanking whichever deity they worshipped that they’re still alive. The man was still looking for us, it seemed. But he was looking around, not knowing where we were. We took the opportunity and left the building as quietly as we could. We entered the forest the villagers had evacuated to. It took only a few minutes of walking in deeper, before we started to hear people speaking to each other. We snuck around, trying to get past them. Maybe not the brightest idea, but I figured they’d be too scared to attack us if they spotted us. We snuck past the initial group undetected. It seemed like all of them were there. But then we saw one more family a bit away. Out of sight of that group.

It was a girl about my age, before I died, and her two parents. The parents were clearly drunk. They had multiple glass bottles with them, half of which seemed empty and they were practically yelling in a complaining manner. The girl was quiet and sober, unlike them. She was just laying down on the grass, looking up at the sky. I ignored it. We needed to leave quickly. A loud crash, followed by silence. The father had broken a bottle over the tree trunk they were sitting on. He was yelling at us, pointing the sharp end towards us. He ran our way and tried to stab me. I barely had enough strength to walk, but Vyth managed to pull me out of the way in time. He then stabbed the father in the leg, who let out a yell. The mother then yelled something and hurled a bottle towards us. I pulled Vyth out of the way and turned around to see the man pulling his arm back for a swing. Vyth pulled me out of the way again, as I sprayed acid over the man’s face. He stumbled back a bit, hit a tree and fell onto the ground, presumably dead. The woman and girl both let out a scream. The mother then charged us with a bottle. But, before she could reach us, Vyth threw his spear, killing her instantly.

We looked at the corpses for a bit. It turned my stomach, but we had no choice. The girl seemed to be in shock, trying to wake up her mother. Tears streaming down her face. We left. Running as far away as possible. I felt empathy, but also anger. If they could shed tears for each other, why couldn’t they show us mercy? Why couldn’t they just leave us in peace?

We eventually left the forest through the other side. The sun was starting to rise, just our luck. We recuperated a bit before continuing. We had no idea where we were headed. But, staying was no longer an option.

To be continued in volume 2...