Demons in the Dark

Sounds get louder and closer, the dwarf is disturbed and Krastinaff's group notices this, he was fearless during the bright period of the cycle, it's been a few minutes since everything they can see is illuminated by the light from the campfire, even the trees around them are scarier, the temperature dropped a little more than usual.

Cold winds rumble as if they want to put out the fire, Susano takes care to keep the fire steady, the darkness is so much that Susano can't take advantage of shooting fire arrows, they collected as much wood as they could in the short time they had.

Most of the wood they got will only serve as firewood, some will serve as a primitive weapon for Ramon to hit whatever is going to attack them, whatever it is, Amira will also take the opportunity to shoot some sticks prepared as fire darts.

Krastinaff is holding back, he doesn't want to waste his light spells, of course this fight won't be quick or simple, Krastinaff hears whispers in a language he can't understand, sparks of purple light stand out from behind the trees, heavy and light footsteps denote the imminent presence of those creatures, they are all holding their weapons tightly with their hearts in their throats.

Just over half an hour since dark has passed, the temperature has dropped even more, they didn't come prepared for a temperature too low, they fear the cold now beyond the monsters, Ramon is holding a thick branch already on fire.

A creature barely bigger than a big dog jumps on Amira and is hit by Ramon with his burning branch, not even Ramon can see for sure what it was, but it didn't die, obviously from the sound of Ramon's attack the creature must have broken a few bones, besides they really must be susceptible to fire, the blow was quick but a strong smell and burning spread in the air.

Two other creatures similar to the first one jump at Amira, again Ramon repels one with his branch, the other hits Amira and causes a deep scratch on her neck, Amira hits the creature twice with her spear, the first blow almost at the same time she got hit, hits the creature and the second to push the creature away, but it's almost as if the creature doesn't care, the sounds of the spear's blows on the creature are strong, and the scent of the creatures Ramon's hit is carried by the wind back to their camp.

"Attack me you damn demons!" the dwarf is angry, feeling slighted, he knows the creatures don't have an known attack pattern, other sounds keep emitting from behind the trees.

"Sir, please tell us what these things are, before it's too late" Susano takes the initiative seeing that Krastinaff is lost in his thoughts.

The dwarf doesn't have time to respond, immediately a creature with several legs attacks him, it's hard to see, it's as if the light refuses to illuminate the creature or the creature refuses to be touched by the firelight, the dwarf was prepared and delivers a heavy top-down blow with his ax in what should be the creature's head, then he drives a thin burning twig sideways into the creature's head with his other hand, the creature feels the first blow, but squirms with the second.

The creature runs to the safety of the darkness before the dwarf manages to grab another burning branch from the fire, the creature squeaks in pain as it flees.

"Shut up you shit! And do as I did, try to kill some of these things or die at once!" the dwarf is still adamant in his cold and hostile behavior towards Krastinaff's group, it's just clear that he doesn't have time to be mean to them as usual.

Seven other creatures jump at them at the same time, three go directly against Ramon, one against Amira, two against the dwarf and one against Krastinaff, the dwarf immediately bounces one of them back into the trees and sticks his burning branch in the other, throwing it sideways up the fire.

Ramon buries his burning branch deep in the head of one that falls inert to the ground, grabs the other's head with his other 'hand' and throws it back, the third manages to sink its fangs deep into Ramon's trunk, Ramon's blood it hurts in contact with the creature's fangs and his blood oozes down its chest, the creature seeing its mates' fate flees back to the safety of the darkness behind the trees.

Amira hits the creature with her spear, the creature flees before she can use her other hand to skewer the creature with her lit dart.

Krastinaff uses his light shield for a moment to push the creature back into darkness, the light from Krastinaff's shield glows for an instant like that, but with this glow Krastinaff more than anyone can clearly see the shape of the attacking creature .

A creature with the body of a large, short-haired dog, thick, protruding teeth, wide dark red eyes, the ears like a pig, the tail was long with a stinger at the end, the cartilaginous paws with very sharp, protruding claws, the creature reminded Krastinaff of the undead chimeras in the first layer, but it wasn't like the chimeras, it looked like a single creature, not a jumble of parts like those chimeras.

Susano out of the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of the creature shape and he shivered and reflexively feared, he would have shot a fire arrow if he could, but that kind of opportunity in this combat doesn't seem plausible, he just holds two flaming darts.

"Stupid mutts! Throw that shit into the fire!" the dwarf yells at Ramon as quickly as he senses the situation, Ramon notices the creature starts to spasm and obeys the order.

The creatures burning over the fire are quickly consumed by the flames and turned into thick black smoke that rises rapidly, a strong sulfur smell comes from those bodies, Amira is almost vomiting feeling that smell and Krastinaff is very upset too, Susano covers his nose with his mask, the mask reduces the discomfort of the smell without, however, eliminating it.

"Sir, there are too many, there is no way for us to survive here" Krastinaff tries to dissuade the dwarf into an escape.

"Shut up coward worm!" the dwarf looks at Krastinaff for a moment and stops himself. "If I wasn't busy fighting demons I'd throw you into that fire!" Krastinaff swallows hard, that warning sounds real.

"And what are we going to do then?" Krastinaff keeps talking, with so many threats, including threats from the dwarf himself, he feels the courage to speak.

"I'm going to kill these things and when I'm done, if you're still alive, I or have the pleasure of being able to beat you to death!" the dwarf tries to silence Krastinaff.

This time they see that many of those creatures and some others are approaching step by step, without even being able to see them well, they know they are hideous and deadly, they are not invested, it is an almost coordinated attack, the creatures tighten the encirclement.

"NOW!!!" the dwarf storms with the creatures a few steps away from them, Susano draws his bow and shoots some flaming arrows without being able to see the targets he needs to hit, no problem, he easily hits the oil puddles in a few seconds with his arrows.

They had dug near the trees and deposited a very flammable oil that is used in the fort to forge metal items, oil that they themselves collected in part in their search for supplies, extracting the sap of some very rare plants they knew in this layer, Susano still has a burn on his arm from being distracted while using the oil for the first time.

The oil puddles explode, igniting the trees and creatures around, no wonder they set up their camp in a large clearing, dozens of creatures run desperately in flames, the smell gets worse thousands of times, it's toxic, now they're attacked by the creatures that luckily they had already gotten far enough away from the trees not to be hit by the explosions and things that caught fire with the explosions, these creatures attack with more fury than the previous ones.

It is possible to see that a string of flames has formed around their clearing, and beyond this string of flames many other creatures are milling around waiting.

The creatures that had the misfortune to attack Ramon and Amira were quickly thrown into the string of flames by Ramon, Ramon is also intimidated by so many flames now, fire was never his friend but he is happy to be the creatures to burn in the fire.

Amira protects Susano as he fires the arrows and manages to keep the creatures far enough away until Ramon can finish them off.

The dwarf smiled as he split the creatures in half with his ax and kicked them into the fire or into the flame string, Krastinaff lured the attacking creatures away from their blows with heels and rolls, until he crossed the axe's path. of the dwarf.

The dwarf was annoyed for Krastinaff using him to defeat the creatures attacking Krastinaff, but was also impressed that Krastinaff managed to dodge all attacks, it always looked like the creature would hit Krastinaff, but at the last moment the claws, teeth, haste, stingers they passed in a vacuum.

"You cowardly worm, stop running and fight!" the dwarf is furious with Krastinaff, who rarely attacks one of the creatures, often his attacks are no more than feints and taunts.

"Don't worry sir, I'll stay alive, I just hope you survive to fulfill your promise to kill me" Krastinaff's self-indulgence ignites the hatred of the dwarf that chases him and exterminates many creatures that arrive by flying or with long leaps inward of the clearing.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" dwarf is frustrated in killing the creatures, he truly tries to hit Krastinaff, Krastinaff looks like an untouchable mirage.

Ramon leaps up and catches the creatures in the air in his reach and hurls them violently against the fire or the trees on fire, the sounds of bones breaking on impact against the burning trees are loud and make it difficult for Krastinaff to hear the distant voices that he had noticed since the attack started, he couldn't understand anything the voices were saying.

Susano covers Ramon's back, disturbing the creatures that try to hit him behind, while Amira keeps the creatures trying to hit her and Susano as far as she can, sometimes she manages to throw one of the creatures into the fire or the string of flames taking advantage of the creature's own momentum and leveraging it with his spear.

Cold wind currents burst through the string of flames, these currents come from all directions, they realize again that they are surrounded and that the worst is certainly yet to come, the currents open breaches in the string of flames turning it into several smaller fires.

More creatures cross these gaps quickly, these are bigger and stronger than the previous ones, with their base sizes and shapes ranging from a tiger to a bull, as well as the ones that looked like dogs, they have the base shape of a tiger or bull but has limbs surreal in size or shape, even with all the light from the flames it's still hard to see the details.

The creatures that attack from the air are the size of sparrows to vultures and similar shapes too, but they all look like natural chimeras, not like the ones in the first layer, many have stingers or tentacles, they are fierce, their chirps are either too high or too low, unnatural.

Little by little, the group runs out of resources, first Susano's arrows, Amira's spear breaks and she improvises with long branches that also break in a short time, Krasinaff starts to be hit by the creatures, Krastinaff always makes the creatures throw themselves against the flames with their own jumps, the dwarf concentrates on defending himself and stops chasing Krastinaff, he is still splitting creatures in half and getting rid of them, but his pace slows down a little with each blow.

The bonfires that had formed from the string of flames broken by the currents of icy winds begin to go out one after the other and again gradually darkness prevails, until this is only the fire they are defending in the center of the camp.

They quickly begin to suffer bruises and deep cuts from the increasing attacks and the overwhelming number of enemies surrounding them on all sides and there is still a long time before the period of light in that layer starts again.