Knight Encounter

From between the trees in the distance, Evan could see a figure become clear from among the trees. While he couldn't see any prominent features on the creature, he could tell something about it.

{Knight}

Despite the word being rather meaningless to him, Evan knew on a primal level that it was dangerous. He had thought of the word rodent when confronted with the thing from before, and this was magnitudes of power stronger than it was. He didn't know how he knew, but he just did. It was like how it is instinctual knowledge that heights are dangerous, even if one had never encountered heights in a way that would be dangerous, much like how the word rodent had came to his mind.

As it walked closer to them, each step being forceful and projecting a weight that was clear to any who could see it, more of its details came clear to Evan. It held a humanoid form, one that was full with muscles tucked under skin that seemed wrapped around the body too tightly than what was natural. It was naked, but there was nothing but the overall humanoid shape that made it resemble a humanoid. What hands it did have were finished with three digits, rather than the five that humans had. It's shoulders were broad, to the point where it seemed like it had been sculpted out of clay, and its head was completed with sharp edges that could easily function as a weapon if used in such a way.

As it came even closer, Evan was able to make out its facial features, or at least what should have been its face. It possessed no nose, and where it should have had eyes were instead gaps in its head that looked dark and soulless. It did have a mouth, but it moved inorganically, like a wooden puppet.

"Aren't they wonderful?" it said, raising its arms up and gesturing to the flock of birds that had surrounded them. "So much time was spent gathering them, and so much effort was made to protect them from the others. But when it gathers, I can't help but feel a huge swell of emotion deep inside."

Sensing the danger of the situation, Jeremy swiftly drew his hammer and readied it. But instead of focusing on the figure that was heading their way, he instead seemed to be more interested in the flock of birds.

"They're not just Rodents," his bird said in a panicked tone, "there's Cattle, too."

"I can see the colours," Jeremy responded in an absent minded tone. "Go and find the others, bring them to us quickly."

Without another word, the bird flew off, disappearing above the tree line. A few of the brightly coloured birds moved to follow it, but the figure gestured for them not to.

"Don't go," it said in a rather concerned tone. "It will destroy you, and I have no way to protect you there. It's a shame, but we will have to end those that stand before us and escape to wreak more havoc before those that are stronger come."

"We have to just try and hold off as many of those smaller Demons as we can until help comes. I can't fight the Knight, no matter how hard I try," Jeremy said, speaking to Evan even though he didn't move his eyes from the birds. "I don't want to have to trust you, and I don't, but I need your help to survive this. Don't stab me in the back." As he said those last words, he finally turned to look at Evan, making a point of emphasising the last thing he said. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because, this is exciting," Evan said in a giddy tone. "Just what I wanted."

"There's a big chance that we die here, and you want to be excited?"

"Ah, you wouldn't get it."

{Run}

{Run}

{Run}

The same voice that had identified the thing as a Knight was now constantly warning Evan to run, but he forced the persistent sound to the back of his head. Running would do him no good in this situation, even just a moment of thought would bring someone to that conclusion. But given that it had done something similar back when Evan had fought that one eyed thing earlier, he had a feeling that this would be a common thing with whatever it was.

He looked around at the surrounding forest, seeking out anything that was within arm's reach that he could grab and use to defend himself. But all that he could get to without alerting the birds or the unknown figure were tiny twigs that would break after a single blow, and so were useless to him.

'Doesn't matter too much,' he reassured himself. He had gotten himself into worse situations than what could be posed by some birds, and he had always managed to get himself out of those situations in one piece with nothing but his bare hands, so he had no reason to think that he wouldn't be able to get himself out of this kind of situation with those same tools.

The figure was imposing, whoever it was, but it was the least of Evan's concerns in the current moment. They had to focus on stopping the birds, and hope that the help that was coming would be enough to deal with it.

The swarm flew towards them, commanded to surge forward by a gesture from the figure as it slowly advanced towards them. Even though they were made up of a number of different colours, the mass of bodies blotted out what amount of light managed to cut through the treeline and illuminated the ground.

As soon as they were close enough, Evan began swinging wildly at the flock, his fists striking them with every blow. Even though his brain was telling him that he should have been taking at least one down with every blow that landed, he found that they were far more resilient than that.

A quick glance to his companion confirmed that he was almost useless in this scenario, as Jeremy used the hammer that he was armed with to cleave through multiple of the birds with every swing. It was an incredible sight for Evan to see, one that he would have described as being from some fantasy world, with waves of light flying away from the hammer in the shape of the arc that it was being swung in.

Most of the birds were killed by his attacks, and almost all were at least affected by them in some way. But there were some that seemed unbothered by it all, and effortlessly moved out of the way. Seeing that, Evan decided to prioritise dealing with those that were able to dodge.

As they worked their way through the swarm, Evan saw movement beyond it from the Knight. It continually moved towards them, and, judging by what he could make out about its face, became more and more annoyed as the two of them increased the number of birds that they had felled. The voice in Evan's head continued to warn him, and as the Knight came closer he began to feel like he should listen to it, that the Knight was too big of a threat for him to even try and face.

As the ground behind the birds cracked, and Evan saw a flash of dark light originate seemingly from the Knight, he braced himself for some kind of attack to come. But instead, he could see a new figure behind the swarm of birds.