Chapter Four.

[You have slain an awakened monster, Scaveging Fiend.]

'I can't stand these notifications anymore!' Jack thought tiredly as he drove his scimitar through the neck of another Fiend, chopping its head off in one swift movement. The beast had sunk its teeth in his left arm moments before, leaving it a mangled mess. 'I guess I won't be using this one for a while...'

What he originally thought to be about ten of the creatures, proved to be a never-ending flood of the abominations. The more he killed, the more the smell of blood attracted them. At this point, their body count was already higher than the Armored Fiends surrounding him, although less than an hour had passed.

In the opening junctures of the fight, their teeth and claws could not rend through his armor, but their constant battering and great numbers had finally cracked the protection of his left arm, leaving it vulnerable. It was not long after that one of their jaws found purchase into it, severely wounding Jack. And it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the rest of his armor was broken through.

'I can't keep doing this. They're going to run me over at this rate.' Jack thought furiously as he dodged another claw swipe and ran the tip of his scimitar through the eye of the offender.

[You have slain an awakened monster, Scavaging Fiend.]

As he pondered, Jack could hear more Armored Fiends chittering as they were attracted to the sounds of battle. The large beasts sent shockwaves through the ground with their heavy steps. 

'That's my ticket out of here!' With a flash of inspiration, Jack quickly unsummoned his armor, trading protection for dexterity, and ran through the surrounding Scavaging Fiends. 'Time to see if I still got it.'

Soon began a mad scramble, as he ducked and weaved between the flesh-hungry beasts, trying to leave the encirclement. As he ran, Jack used every opportunity to hit the flat of his blade against the carapaces of the Scaveging Fiends, antagonizing them and making as much noise as possible. 

In a few moments, he found his mark: a group of five Armored Fiends lured by the sounds. With a grin, he quickly zigzagged between them with his entourage of Scavengers, drawing the ire of the larger Fiends. 

As soon as a Scavenging Fiend passed close enough to them, a snake-like bite seized it, crutching the creature and ending its life in moments.

At that moment, the floodgates were opened. Although the Armored Fiends were Demons, and as such had greater intellect, the Scaveging Fiends were Monsters and relied mostly on instinct. When one of their group was attacked, it was not long before they changed targets to the more immediate threats - their larger cousins. And what the Scaveging Fiends lacked in strength, they had in numbers. An all-out fight ensued.

Jack continued running until he put what he considered a safe distance between himself and the brawl, no longer hearing the screeches of teeth against plating.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, he reassessed his situation.

'I'm very tired, with an almost destroyed left arm. Although I have the enhanced regeneration from Deathless, I don't believe my arm can fully regenerate in the time for it to be useful in the current battle. It's not my dominant arm, but it'll still compromise my balance. Blood loss is also a problem.' Jack thoughtfully surmised. 'Could be worse, I guess.'

'But I can't treat lives as disposable right now. I'm in a very vulnerable position.' His carefree mentality as a reincarnator was a liability at this moment, due to his [Deathless] attribute.

'From now on, I have to avoid every battle I can and find a way to end this nightmare as soon as possible.' He definitely didn't want to have his first death so soon and allow Cthylla to rearrange his body for Daddy dearest.

Taking stock of his surroundings, Jack tried to fall back from enemy lines, to where the human presence was thicker on the battlefield. As the battle raged on and the human army had been pushed back, his previous frontline position was slowly surrounded by beasts. Getting back to a safer position was paramount for his continued survival. 

In a bid to find a safe path back, however, Jack discovered what was surely the central plotline of his Nightmare: A general among enemy forces.

And not any General: he was a giant of a man with silver-inscribed armor, swinging a 3-meter glaive with the same ease a child might swing a wooden stick. Each of his attacks was devastating, cutting through two or three Armored Fiends at a time and sending gusts of wind through the battlefield.

And slowly approaching the man, surrounded by infantile Fiends, was what could only be described as a Matriarch.

While most Armored Fiends stood at about three meters tall, the approaching behemoth easily breached the five-meter mark, standing heads-and-shoulder above her counterparts. With its giant jaws, intimidating teeth, and spear-like blade crowning its tail, the creature would surely put even the mightiest of T-Rexes to shame. 

Although a giant by human standards, the man still seemed minuscule compared to the Matriarch. But it didn't appear to impede him. The General seemed to only be further stimulated by the approach of the towering beast, accelerating his movements even more.

And soon, the two Giants of the battlefield clashed. With movements so rapid they were hard for Jack to follow, the General and the Matriarch exchanged hits with the ferocity of a cornered beast.

'I can't believe it.' Jack thought with exasperation. 'Of all the things to have to kill in my Nightmare, did it have to be a Tyrant?'

Sunny managed to kill the Tyrant in his Nightmare on a stroke of luck. One could say it was because it was his Fate. But as was already established, Jack was [Fateless]. And so, he wouldn't be getting help from Gods or Daemons any time soon.

He was on his own.

'Well... Not completely on my own.' He thought as he watched his very large "friend" exchange hits with the Matriarch and as the juveniles following her tried to disrupt his flow. 'I just have to do this right.'

Slowly approaching the edge of the ongoing fight, Jack watched the pattern of movement of the Matriarch and the juveniles. 'Although the Matriarch is very smart, probably smarter than most humans, its offspring are only capable of very simple coordination. The other Armored Fiends seem afraid of getting closer to the Infatile Fiends, maybe fearing retaliation from the Matriarch, so they probably won't help in this scuffle. But at the same time, there are no more soldiers on this part of the battlefield, so no reinforcements...'

'By Tyrant standards, this one seems to be bottom tier. At the very least, it hasn't shown any outstanding abilities other than its overwhelming strength and defense, and its rudimentary coordination with the Infantiles...'

It was easy to see that, moments before a tail attack from the Matriarch would happen, the juveniles leaped forward and tried to disrupt the General, with mixed results. Up until this moment, the General had been incapable of landing a blow on the smaller ones, opting to ignore them to block the high-power hits of the Matriarch. On their current rhythm, it was hard to predict who would come out on top.

And then, while he perused through his memories, he found one recently gained during his escape that gave him pause. 'So it is like that...'

And so, Jack decided to wait for the right moment to help his big "friend" and catch the Matriarch's attention...

-x-

A loud 'swoosh' sound alerted the General to another attack from his foe. With a mighty swing of his Rankbreaker, he countered the tail with a grunt, paying no mind to the smaller mutts, even as they nipped at his heels. They soon tried retreating beyond the reach of his glaive, as they had done in previous clashes. 

'In time, you'll taste my blade.' He thought with little sympathy for the bothersome runts.

But this time, something was different. As soon as the first of the smaller creatures moved a step away from the General's range, its head flew high in the air, followed by a spurt of blackish blood. Its body crumbled to the floor in a heap.

The culprit was an armored young man with a strange, black scimitar, his features hidden by his horned helmet. Only his battered left arm was visible through the cracks in his plate armor.

A moment after the minion died, his Foe roared in anger, quickly trying to change targets and finish the newest and smaller challenger.

The battle-hardened General scoffed. 'In your dreams.'

With speed that belied its size, the creature tried moving past him, only to be hit with crushing force by Rankbreaker on the underside of its jaws. Such was the force of the hit, that the tons-heavy beast stood airborne for more than a second before it fell again to the ground with a weighty thud. Its cracked jaw plates also attested to the power behind such a blow.

During that stalemate-breaking moment, the young armored man had already moved again, trusting the general to protect him, and had cut through two more minions, before once again distancing himself from the battle of giants.

The General gave the young man a nod, approving of their tentative partnership.

From then, they fell into a rhythm. The general held the beast at bay, while the young man nipped at its heels; killing its offspring and leaving small wounds between its plates when possible. 

The beast got sluggish as the blood loss and mounting wounds got to it. But as it entered its death roes the fighting only got more frantic. The beast no longer differentiated friend or foe, as its sweeping tail slashes took as many lives of its offspring as Jack's blade did. But it was clear, its powerful movements were not as swift as before.

'This is too easy.' Jack reflected while he watched the beast's erratic moves. 

One could assume the fight was going Jack's way due to the great strength of his situational ally. But underestimating an enemy you don't know is a beginner's mistake, and Jack was anything but. 

'Tyrants have that name for a reason. Even though it's only awakened, it should at least have the ability to create more minions. But their numbers seem static…'

At that moment, something different started happening. Some of the offspring, apparently no longer willing to be massacred, turned against their matriarch. 

And as they started biting and clawing at its heels, the enraged matriarch started swallowing them whole, one by one.

The macabre scene of a mother gorging on her offspring was complemented by the bulging of the matriarch's armor as it grew and deformed.

'So… second phase?'

The General didn't waste time with idle thoughts. Quickly running towards the beast, his blade coursed through the air with a tight whistle.

As it made contact with the matriarch's right leg, the sound of metal screeching rang. 

"Raaah!!" The General's eyes bulged as he stretched his arms to their limits, slicing the leg in one fell swoop.

With a chittering cry, the already maddened creature used its partially transformed and misshapen maw to snap at the chest of the now-vulnerable General. Even as it fell due to its missing leg, the beast's aim was deadly.

Its crooked teeth easily found purchase on the General's heavy-plated armor, though not managing to crush him completely.

"Argh!" With a pained grunt, the wounded man tried to open the creature's jaws, having little success. 

Seeing that he wouldn't be able to open the jaws trapping his chest, the General tried a last-ditch effort to finish his foe. Although his left arm was stuck against his body, his right arm still had free reign. Using the beast's proximity to his favor, the man jabbed his armored arm straight through its eye socket and brain, getting a pained cry in response.

Incensed, the matriarch thrashed on the ground, using its powerful jaw and size to try and ravage its captured enemy. Although great damage had been done to it by the General, its transformation was still ongoing, giving it a second wind through what should have been a fatal wound.

Desperate, the General locked eyes with Jack. "Finish it! We don't have much time!"

Jack nodded readily. "You got it, boss!" 

Running as fast as he could, Jack was soon near the thrashing beast, with the dying General still locked in its jaws.

With a swift jump, he found support on the beast's head, already wearing his newest Charm. Jack readied his blade and, with a smooth downward plunge of his blade, killed his enemy.

'Heh.'

[You have slain an awakened human: Darius, the Scourge.]

With a jerk, Jack took his blade from the man's mouth, and it was followed by a gargle of blackish blood.

"I think you meant to say you don't have much time," Jack said evenly. The Matriarch Fiend was no longer moving around, feeling the calming waves emanating from his equipped earring. In it, a black claw with faint runic etchings could be seen.

'Enemy or not, that guy was a great actor...'

Remembering the memory he got just before the current fight, Jack heaved a sigh of relief. 'He might have got to me otherwise...'

Memory: [Rider's Earpiece]

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Type: Charm.

Memory Description: [On the Bloody Plains, everything that moves is an enemy. That was the unerasable truth until the great Shamans of the Karakrt Clan transcribed magic into words. With Runes, they were able to bind their greatest enemies, and once and for all conquer these deadly plains...

For centuries, it was so - before the Empire brought the plague to them. The plains were no longer bloody but barren. And the once mighty tribe fell to an undefeatable enemy: Hunger.]

'These are just the remnants of the army of the native tribe... Their war beasts.' He thought as he looked at the still ongoing fight some hundreds of meters away. 

'The Empire probably used biological warfare to severely weaken an unbeatable enemy and were now just coming to collect the spoils. And here I am, wearing their tribe's chitin armor next to an Empire Official. No way that would end well for me.' Jack thought with levity.

'But that guy was way too strong for a normal awakened. That epithet "The Scourge" and the black blood... I might have killed someone important here.'

Jack laughed silently.

'Welp! Not that it matters to me.' He would soon be gone from this hellhole. 'At least, I hope so.'

The beast he was over moved slightly, almost to remind him of its miserable existence. Although it still lived, the many wounds and gaping cavity in its eyesocket didn't leave it a grand prognosis.

"Ah! Where are my manners? You did a great job, my dear friend. It was great knowing you, and all that Jazz. Thank you for the Nightmare points!" Jack said, swiftly plunging his blade into the already opened gateway to its brain.

[You have slain an awakened tyrant, Matriarch Fiend.]

'As they say back home: easy money.'

[Wake up Jack! Your nightmare is over.]

[Prepare for appraisal...]