After clearing up any confusion in his head he turned around and froze at the sight of the Frostgnasher getting back up. It's not done yet?
Just then something caught the Frostgnasher's attention. It turned in a random direction and after a moment rushed into the darkness. Reiji stood completely still, not wanting to catch its attention. He noticed small flashes of light coming from the direction it ran in. It was the soldiers.
Their movement must have caused enough noise to alert the Frostgnasher. Those idiots will die!
He stepped forward and immediately fell to one knee. His body was still rocked from the pain it suffered from the fall. He slowly got up and took a few careful steps before needing to rest again. Damn it! Just a few seconds, all I need is a few seconds!
…
The captain heard the noise of something running to his left and stopped the horse. "Spread out!" He pointed his flintlock rifle in the general direction of the sound. The soldiers created a circle around their captain. More of the soldiers were guarding the direction the captain was pointing his gun.
All of them had shields. Most of them also had swords while a smaller number had spears.
The movement of the soldiers only confirmed their position to the Frostgnasher. The captain fired off a shot but the bullet missed. The Frostgnasher barreled through the soldiers, killing some with blunt force. It pounced and bit down on the captain, crushing the horse in the process. His entire upper body was inside its mouth.
It thrashed him around wildly, its needle-like teeth puncturing his waist until his lower half detached and was flung away. Some of the soldiers panicked and ran while others kept their cool and stood still, making no noise.
It went after those it could hear and feel, killing most of them in the process. A few soldiers survived. One was lying on the ground, staring directly at the slowly approaching Frostgnasher.
Despite his best efforts he couldn't be completely quiet. The Frostgnasher picked up on these sounds and approached.
It was just a meter away from him, when suddenly…
Thwack!
Its right ear was pierced by a spear. It screamed out in pain before a voice rang out from the same direction the spear came from.
"You didn't think you could just run away and kill whoever you pleased, did you? I'll put you down like a worthless dog."
He picked up three spears from the ground. Now he had two in his left hand having just thrown one.
Reiji struck a tree with the back of his right hand, causing all the snow from it to fall around them. The beast turned its head frantically. It couldn't hear in its right ear. It gripped the spear's handle, prying out of its skull. It thought that it would regain its hearing afterwards, which didn't happen.
Meanwhile Reiji punched and kicked as many trees as possible, constantly creating noise and vibrations. After a short while it began to home in on his location since he caused more noise than the falling snow by running from tree to tree.
He readied another spear to throw with his right hand. He aimed and threw the spear to the side. It hit a tree, causing the Frostgnasher to fully turn to the side, exposing its left ear.
Thwack!
Another spear pierced its left ear. It screamed and thrashed around. After it calmed down it pulled out the spear and charged at where it was thrown from.
Reiji took a few steps to his left while it screamed in pain. As it charged he readied himself and prepared to slash with his katana. It didn't know the exact distance so it decided to trample over anything in its path.
Of course, it missed him by just a hair. Having timed it just right he slashed and used its momentum to create a cut down its whole side. After traveling a few more meters it stopped. With its head lowered and taking deep breaths, it was clearly in pain.
The snow under it started to turn red because of its blood.
Reiji Kurozuma stared at it for a moment. He thought that there was no reason to kill it. It would die anyway. It was deaf and all its wounds would result in major blood loss and infections.
I don't know if it qualifies as mercy killing or cruelty, but I'll put it down right here.
He ran forward and jumped into the air, holding his katana with both hands. It felt him running and turned its head in that direction. He came down, stabbing it directly in the head.
The blade, however, did not pierce its skull. It thrashed around frantically, freeing the katana from its head. Reiji parried a left claw swipe but got flatted by another one to his back from the other limb.
He managed to roll away before it bit down. He quickly got on his feet and parried a right claw swipe. He moved forward, now being right next to its head. The Frostgnasher tried to move away but got stabbed in its submandibular gland. The blade pierced all the way through its mouth and hit its skull.
Reiji jumped on the back of its neck, freed his katana and stabbed it directly into its spinal cord. It went limp and dropped to the ground.
Reiji sat on its corpse for a few moments before pulling out his katana and rolling off of it. He laid on his back, watching the stars.
I'm just so tired. I just want to sleep.
He slowly stood up and sheathed his katana. He looked at the dead Frostgnasher and put his hand on its head.
"I'm sorry."
He looked around and saw the corpses. So many dead soldiers. Out of the fifty he counted earlier he now counted thirty-eight dead. The other twelve were nowhere to be found.
He stood there for a moment, taking it all in. He put his hands together and prayed for them.
After praying he started walking away. "All of this because of some damn coins. How stupid can I get?"
Reiji moved in the direction the soldiers came from. He thought that it would connect to the road and he'd move back to where he left Haruto.
It took a long time. He was a walking corpse already and now he barely got back to their vantage point over the road.
He came into view of the vantage point and saw a small fire and two, no, three people. One was small, definitely Haruto. They were sitting around the campfire.
This made Reiji snap out of his tiredness right away. He quickly moved, pushing through the pain.
When he was close enough, Haruto and the other two people noticed him. "Hey, you're back! These kind people built this fire for me, but they asked a bunch of weird questions."
Haruto slowly walked up to Reiji who quickly stepped in front of him in a protective stance. "Who the hell are you?"
One was sitting down while the other one was standing up, both looking at him. They were wearing dark cloaks that hid their faces. The one sitting stood up and pulled down the hood of her dark cloak.
She had long, wavy blonde hair pulled partly back, with some strands falling loosely around her face. She had brown eyes and a curvy figure.
Her expression was sharp and self-assured. She appeared like a confident woman who was used to being in control.
"We have been watching you ever since you came up here. Of course, we watched over the child. Haruto Hishino is a beautiful name. It suits his personality very well."
"Cut the crap. Who…are you guys?"
Reiji collapsed into the snow face-first. He was simply too destroyed from a lack of sleep, physical trauma and hatred for himself. It was his greed that killed all those men and that Frostgnasher that was just trying to survive.
"We'll take him with us and ask questions when he wakes up."
Those were the last words he heard before falling unconscious.