It backfired, as he thought it would scare the Wyvern off. But the man charged at him. Hunt jumped backward, throwing a blow with the butt of the weapon. It struck the Wyvern across the face, barely doing any damage. As he rushed to attack again, a demon dog jumped on the Wyvern from behind, biting into his neck and back. Hunt quickly sliced off the legs of the demon dog, kicking it off of the Wyvern.
“What?” the Wyvern asked as he saw Hunt stretching out a hand. Every part of his body screamed at him, telling him to retract his hand. The Wyvern could easily take his arm off or kill him in a matter of seconds if he wasn’t ready to protect himself. But Hunt had to change. If he was going to be better, he had to start now.
“Come on!” he yelled, helping the Wyvern up.
The Wyvern nodded at him, before turning to fight another one of the dog creatures. Hunt turned and set his sights on Conan, knowing he was their only chance. If they joinedforces, there was a chance that they would be able to hold Garret off, at least enough for Emma to escape.
“He’s not on your side! Your plans backfired; we have to work together to survive this!” Hunt yelled at Conan.
The Wyvern bit into the necks of one of the creatures, ripping the head clean off. Blood dripped down his mouth as he turned to Hunt. Conan growled, reaching out to grab Hunt. He jumped back, swinging his blade to stop Conan from advancing. He was sure he could take the Wyvern down, but killing him would put them at a disadvantage.
“Garret wants to kill all of us!” Hunt yelled. “We put him down together, and you’d be the Wyvern who took him down!”
Conan raised a hand to strike, and then he stopped, looking at Garret. “We can do it together.”
“Yeah,” Hunt agreed, nodding. “We can take him down, we can do it.”
Hunt was certain they couldn’t do it; he was making a gamble he wasn’t sure was going to pay off. But he had to do something. As he turned, he saw Emma ripping one of the demon-dog creatures in half before turning around to catch another one by the throat. As she turned around, Garret slammed a fist into the side of her face, knocking her off-balance.
Emma fell face-first to the floor, leaving Garret standing over her. He pulled out his claws, looking to drive them into her back. Hunt felt a wave of panic come over him, pushing through all of his fears and reservations. “No!”
He quickly pulled the small dagger from his bag, throwing it quickly, right at Garret. It buried itself deep in the back of his palm. As Garret looked up, Hunt had already crossed thedistance between them, slicing at his face with his blade. Garret tried to dodge by moving backward, but it sliced underneath his eye, going across his face. Hunt saw his face instantly recoil from the pain of the weapon, shooting through his head.
Disoriented by it, Hunt followed up with another attack, slashing at his arm, looking to take it off with one shot, but the Dragon had thick skin and the weapon only cut deep into his forearm. Hunt pulled the blade back and leaped off to the side just in time as Garret rushed at him in a frenzy.
Normally, Hunt liked to incapacitate his enemy with a single strike, and a blow from his blade would result in enough pain to fend them off for a few seconds, but Garret was able to work through the pain. The sword’s magic was made to induce a crippling stinging sensation.
Garret was simply on another level.
Hunt realized that his own speed was no match for Garret, and the Dragon would hit him. As Garret swung to strike, Hunt reacted quickly, grabbing the corpse of a demon near him and putting it in the path of Garret’s strike. The blow sliced off an entire arm of the creature. Hunt threw it at Garret, and he slammed it to the side, growling at Hunt.
“Come on,” Hunt snickered.
Garret rushed at him with blazing speed, faster than Hunt could even react. But Hunt wasn’t looking for a reaction. He wanted Garret to touch him. He had secretly sliced into a live cable behind him, and was using his body as a conduit, protecting himself with magic. Garret threw a fist at Hunt, looking to take him down with a single blow, but once he made contact with Hunt, the electricity sent him flying backward.
Hunt turned and nodded to Conan. “We can do this!”
The Wyvern nodded and pointed to Garret, signaling to the other Wyverns. They all rushed at Garret. Hunt turned to see Emma still unconscious on the floor. His heart shattered as he wondered if she was okay. He rushed over to her, driving his blade into a demon dog that blocked his path.
“Emma!” Hunt called out as he got closer to her. “Emma, are you okay?”
She turned around with a bloody forehead, groaning, “Yeah, I just…need a minute.”
“Stay back,” Hunt said to her, feeling his body shuddering. “You can do it now.”
“What?”
“You have the bag, you can leave, you can get out of here. Conan and I will distract him. Save yourself, please,” Hunt spoke, wondering why he was so out of it.
He hadn’t felt this way since he had found his family murdered in their own home. That was when it occurred to him. He was reliving the trauma, as the possibility of losing Emma had become all too real. Hunt was panicked, on the verge of hyperventilating. He needed Emma to stay alive; his heart wouldn’t be able to take it if anything happened to her.
“I can fight, I can…”
“Emma!” Hunt yelled at her, “there’s no reason to fight! Go! Just get out of here, get back to the pack!”
“But, Hunt, I…”
Hunt shook his head, feeling the tears come to his eyes. “I can’t let you, please. I can’t let you do that.”