The Vampire & Her Witch

The skies overhead wore a blanket of gray clouds, casting a gloom over the stretch of country road as Carwyn took his place before the powerful demon-knight. A soft rain began to fall, as if the Holy Lord of Light himself couldn’t bear to watch what was about to transpire as he hid himself away behind the darkening skies.

”You stand against Barsali,” the flat tailed demon shouted as Carwyn took his position. ”Champion of fifty battles, Leader of the Triplet Tails, and Captain serving Commander Tausau’s Third Army!”

As the demon read off the list of impressive sounding titles, it shot a glare at the proud demon-knight as if it resented the spectacle it had been forced to participate in. Still, it delivered its lines loudly enough that even the soldiers behind Carwyn could hear them and by the time it ended, it was looking at Carwyn as if it hoped to see him waver.

”Name yourself, human!” the flat tailed demon commanded bitterly when he didn’t see any sign of cowering or even fear from the young knight.

”I am Sir Carwyn Belvin,” Carwyn shouted without bothering to raise his visor. Since the demon-knight had no intention showing even the minimal amount of courtesy to reveal the face behind the cage of his helm, Carwyn saw no reason to be polite as he continued his introduction. ”Knight Protector of Raek Village, Slayer of Demons and Commander of Belvin’s Hounds.”

He had no great victories to boast of and it might be an exaggeration to call himself a ’slayer of demons’ when he’d only fought the occasional stray demon in the wilderness and the one he’d killed today but Carwyn didn’t care. He added the title as if it were a layer over his heart, guarding his courage even as his heart began to pound in his chest and sweat trickled down his back.

Every instinct in his body said that he should run far away, that he had no business facing such a powerful foe in single combat and that he should get as far away as he could before the fight began. But Carwyn refused to listen to his body’s desire to flee just as much as he ignored the pain in his ribs and the aches in his arms.

His battle had finally found him and he refused to run from it!

The small demon took a moment to translate Carwyn’s introduction, prompting the demon-knight Barsali to raise his strangely hooked sword and spear in the air, shouting in the demon’s language and banging his weapons together before taking a fighting stance of his own.

”Fight!” the flat tailed demon shouted before it scampered backwards off the road.

Barsali wasted no time. As soon as he heard the command to fight he charged forward, slithering on his long tail in a rapid dash toward the waiting knight.

To Carwyn, the movements of the serpentine warrior were strange and unnatural as his charge seemed to wander from left to right, weaving side to side even as he charged. If human had tried to run in such a strange, zig-zagging fashion, they would have lost half their speed and could easily injure themselves in the attempts to move so chaotically, but from the serpent, it only seemed to make it faster!

Carwyn took a wide stance, hunkering down behind his shield and letting the chain of his flail rest over his shoulder. Only the top of his helm and the gap in his visor were visible above the top of his shield, completely concealing his weapon and giving him a chance to attack in any line without giving away his intentions.

It was a tactic that worked well against poorly trained brigands and bandits, but against an unpredictable foe like Barsali, at best, it put them on even footing. Desperately, Carwyn tried to read his foe’s body language, trying to figure out if he would attack with the spear or the sword, from the right or the left.

A heartbeat later, the towering demon arrived before him, rearing up on its tail like a striking cobra, looming head and shoulders above the human knight. The spear in its hand thrust out as fast as lightning, slamming into Carwyn’s shield and knocking him half a step backward with the force of its impact.

While one hand pushed forward with the spear, the other hand raised its strange hooked sword up high before slamming it down directly on the top of Carwyn’s shield, digging deeply into the wooden frame of the shield and dragging it down.

”Aaaaa!” Carwyn shouted as he stepped to the right side, angling his shield to let the force of the blows slide past him as he lashed out with his flail. Much like the demon had targeted his shield instead of aiming for the man behind it, Carwyn aimed for the demon’s spear, wrapping the chain of the flail around the spear’s shaft before yanking hard to wrest the weapon out of its scaly hand.

The motion pulled both men closer together when his move failed to wrest the spear from the demon’s hand, but Carwyn was already flowing into his next attack, dropping his weight low before thrusting upward with the lower tip of his triangular shield, slamming it directly into the serpentine demon’s abdomen and freeing the shield from the demon’s sword in the process.

Pain exploded in Carwyn’s calf as the demon’s armored tail slammed into his leg, trying to knock him from his feet, but the young knight had expected the blow from the demon’s ’third weapon’ this time and he refused to be knocked aside.

The demon was taller than him with greater reach from its spear and more power from its sword. It could fend him off with slaps from its powerful tail and play him like a fiddle if he tried to fight in the middle distance. That much had been clear even before they closed and it was only more clear now.

So, since the middle distance was no different from standing with one foot in his own grave, Carwyn pressed forward, clinging to Barsali’s flanks like a hound with its teeth in a deer’s haunches. His legs drove him forward and he used his shield like a battering ram, constantly pressing up against the powerful demon while his right hand struck out again and again, swinging from as many different angles as he could while he pressed his attack.

Hounds, like wolves, could pull down larger prey as long as they were tenacious enough and willing to take the beating that came from getting in close. Now, Carwynn embodied his family’s emblem, lashing out again and again and again.

As many times as it took, as often as it took, he would hammer at this demon until nothing was left but bloody meat wrapped in dented armor!