Drasvalik

He quickly searched the area around himself for something to distract them with, his eyes eventually landing on the black knife in his hands. However, he immediately dismissed the idea of wasting the only weapon he currently had.

A few trees away, he noticed a small rock sitting beneath a patch of leaves.

He moved towards it quickly, picking it up before throwing it at a tree some distance behind him.

It made an audible thwack upon impact, drawing the attention of the creatures.

All three of them looked at each other for a moment, before one of them began moving towards the source of the sound.

The others, not caring much for what was going on, continued their abhorrent ritual. 

The moment they laid one of their limbs on the little girl, she snapped out of the daze they had placed her in and began screaming. A sort of shrill cry that sounded painful to make.

Unfortunately, there was nothing Edric could do at the moment. For him to rush in and try to take on all three creatures simultaneously would be folly. And as much as he wanted to maintain some semblance of humanity, he wasn't going to outright throw his life away for a stranger.

Luckily however, the creatures seemed to be performing some pre-ritual before they were going to impale the girl, so he still had some time.

At this point, the monster who had come out to investigate was coming closer. 

Edric was currently hidden behind a tree, holding his breath so as to avoid detection.

The moment the creature's head came into view from the side of the tree he was hiding behind, he dashed in front of it, using the full power of his legs to cover as much distance in as little time as possible.

For a moment, the creature was stunned, unable to process what was happening.

It was in this moment that Edric sent his knee crashing into the creature. For a moment there was no reaction, however, an instant later a loud booming sound was sent out, as if an explosion had occurred.

The creature had been blown to bits by the impact of his full-force knee, turning into little mucus bits - confirming Edric's hypothesis of them being made of some sort of liquid.

Edric was stunned at the amount of force he was capable of using, however, he didn't spend too much time dwelling on it. 

He quickly took cover behind another tree and waited.

If these creatures had any intelligence, they would investigate what the noise was about. 

~If one of them comes out, I'll kill it. If both of them do, I'll run towards the captives,~ Edric decided, his eyes moving in between the area where the remaining creatures were and the area where he had killed the other one.

~No soulgems, what a waste of time,~ he thought in disappointment.

~Still, these guys probably have some money on them. I'm sure they'll be more than willing to pay their saviour handsomely~ he thought to himself, the thought of payment calming him down a little.

The creatures looked at each other once again, this time however for a little longer than before.

~Are they communicating?~ Edric thought to himself, as he watched from the distance.

After several seconds of silence, one of them exhaled a cloud of black smoke right in front of the screaming girl's face, placing her into a motionless daze once again.

After dragging her back towards the other survivors, the two creatures split up and began approaching the area where Edric had killed the other one. Though by this point, he had already moved quite a good distance away from there.

Once they had ventured a good distance away from the survivors, Edric began to make his way towards them.

The smell of blood and flesh clogged the air, making Edric's mouth water more and more the closer he got.

~The poor things are still alive,~ he thought to himself as he passed by the mutilated horses. Their braying had become nothing more than laboured exhales, and despite the obvious pain they were enduring, they could hardly move around.

Now that he was closer to them, he noticed that these horses were way larger than even the largest workhorses on earth. And that said a lot seeing as he was now a being of 2.4 meters tall.

Resisting the urge to gobble them up, he continued past them.

~It's a shame, I'm sure they were worth a good sum of money,~ he thought to himself before approaching the area where the survivors were huddled up.

~Contact seemed to be enough to break the trance, but I can't have them screaming right as I free them,~ Edric thought to himself, before taking a good look at them.

There were four survivors; the little girl, an old man, and two other men perhaps in their 30's.

One of them was dressed in odd-looking armor made from what seemed like a cross between metal and leather. At the centre of this odd-looking armour was a red gem, similar to ruby.

~Hmm.~ 

After some thought, Edric decided to wake up the man dressed in the magical-looking armour first. He looked to be some kind of soldier based on his armour and bulky build, and as such would probably react the most level-headedly.

So, Edric covered the man's mouth from behind, his contact breaking the trance.

The man's mouth opened to scream for a moment, however, no sound came out as Edric applied quite a bit of pressure.

"There are monsters nearby. If we're going to make it out of here alive, I need your help. Nod once if you understand," Edric whispered into the man's ear.

After a moment, the man stopped screaming and nodded his head.

"Good. Contact seems to be enough to break the trance. Just cover their mouths before doing it," he instructed, before slowly letting the man go.

"Let's be quick about it, the monsters will be back any second," Edric whispered, before heading towards the other 30-year-old-looking man.

"Th-thank you," the soldier whispered as he turned around.

However, the moment he laid his eyes upon Edric, he stumbled backwards, snapping a few twigs as he did so.

"I thought we agreed. You're going to get us killed," Edric whispered in an annoyed tone.

"By the deities, a Drasvalik," the soldier whispered, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"The monsters. Do you want to save them or not?" Edric whispered in reply.

The man took a moment to snap out of his shock, however even as he moved to free the little girl, he did not take his eyes off Edric.

~It seems that whatever race I'm a part of is not well accepted by humans,~ Edric thought to himself.

Though at least he knew a little bit more about himself.

He was a Drasvalik, whatever that meant.