Chapter 3: Death’s Eye

Mud, water, and desperation filled Detrick’s head. ‘This is truly hell,’ he thought. He felt the gauntleted fist smash into the back of his helm once again, driving his face even further into the muck.

‘Let me die fast. God, please let me die fast.’ His brain kept repeating the phrase deliriously.

He had no more arm strength left to push himself up. He couldn’t even feel the spear piercing his thigh anymore. All he knew was the frantic need to take a breath of air and not be buried alive.

His desperation worsened every time he felt the weight of another body being added to the already enormous pig pile on top of him. Men grunted, groaned, growled, screamed, and whimpered everywhere around him.

Being drowned in the mud of the battlefield had always been his worst nightmare. He had seen knights trampled before. It was one of the worst ways to die in battle.

But this was no nightmare. It was actually happening. And in the worst way imaginable.

Mercifully—after a few more futile convulsions of his body—Detrick’s will began to break. The panic of being smothered faded as death forced itself upon him.

In his last moments, he felt a defiance rise up in him. Risking his left eye filling with mud, he forced it open. If this was the end, he intended to die staring death in the eye.

When he forced the eye open, it did not fill with mud. Instead, he saw light. And he heard screaming. Not the screams of the fallen soldiers littering the battlefield. An unearthly scream that threatened to pop his eardrums.

And then the scream abruptly cutoff.

His senses returning, Detrick realized the tremendous weight on top of him had lessened.

Suddenly, the weight of the man directly on top of him—the one that had forced his face into the mud in the first place—was gone. He heard the distinct sound of armored feet as they moved away, smacking into the muddy earth.

Detrick’s head burst from the mud then. His mouth agape, he gulped air. Eyes wild, he looked about aimlessly, too overwhelmed to think clearly.

Pulling his arms free from the thick mud, he flopped onto his back.

Immediately, his right thigh blew up in pain. The pain radiated out from the very center of his thigh. It ran up into his groin, and down his leg to his foot. Dropping the sword he had amazingly held onto, he reached for the injured leg with both hands, rocking back and forth in anguish.

His eyes bulged from his head as the shock and pain overwhelmed him. However, despite the pain, his eyes saw what was ahead of him.

Detrick’s rocking slowed. His breathing came to a stop. He saw why the soldiers around him had fled.

Three things stood out.

Yes, the limp form of armored men littered the ground. And a handful of steel clad knights ran for their lives, attempting to reach the edge of the nearby forest.

But that was not what stood out.

Amidst the small group of living knights, three massive dog-like creatures pursued them. Detrick watched as one of the dogs leapt easily through the air, landing on the back of one knight. It tore the knight’s armor away as if it were paper.

Intestines, an arm, and then a loose head, were effortlessly flung into the air as the creature raked its claws across the knight’s body.

Another dog tore into a man not twenty feet from Detrick. He could see the gore covered whiskers quivering on the beast’s massive snout as it sniffed at, and then bit down on the man’s crotch. When the dog ripped his manhood off, the armored man convulsed once, whimpering pitifully.

But what drew Detrick’s attention more than anything else was the enormous ogre sitting in the field between him and the forest. Detrick watched as it peeled off the armor of a corpse it had picked up, tore the body in half, and sucked on the visceral matter spilling out of the torso.

It was as gruesome of a thing as Detrick had ever seen. The ogre then pointed at a running knight, and gave a command Detrick could not understand to one of the dogs. The beast didn’t hesitate, bounding after and killing the knight moments later.

While the ogre picked up another body, pulled off the helmet, and bit the head off, Detrick noticed something else. Considering the horror surrounding him, Detrick almost missed it.

An unmoving dark figure sat not far from him. It was perhaps a little smaller than a man, and it was pitch black. But then Detrick saw the red eyes staring back at him. A distinct red mark stretched horizontally across the bridge of its overly large nose and its cheekbones.

The thing’s face was hideous. Its eyes were full of hatred. Suddenly it threw its head back and wailed. It sounded just like the odd ear splitting scream Detrick had heard moments ago.

And then Detrick felt that something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t making sense. He turned his head and closed his left eye. When he looked in the direction of the wailing creature with only his right eye, the thing vanished.

He turned his head the other way and tried seeing it with his left eye. When he opened the left eye, the thing’s horrifying face was inches from his own. It screamed in his face and Detrick fell back scared for his life.

It was on top of him in a heartbeat. It lifted its fists and began to pound on Detrick’s breastplate. He was sure he was about to die.

The thing continued to relentlessly beat upon him. This close, Detrick could easily tell that for some reason he could only see it through his left eye.

But then one of the dogs that had just torn a man’s arm free of his torso, noticed the commotion Detrick was making. This dog was hairless and looked like it might have been part pig. Blood shot out of a stump still attached to the body the dog stood upon as it eyed Detrick.

Then it dropped the arm in its mouth and charged. Unable to do anything else, Detrick just watched as the beast closed in. All the while, the thing on top of Detrick kept pounding on his armor.

But before the dog reached them, the dark creature looked up at the charging beast. When the dog arrived, the nightmare on top of Detrick grabbed hold of the muzzle and prevented the jaws from closing on Detrick.

The horrifying dark creature was tiny next to the huge dog. But it effortlessly forced the jaws apart and ripped the dog's head in half.

Hot blood and gore poured over Detrick.

There was only one thing left for Detrick to do. He passed out.