Don't Let Them Catch You

10? Scout

Suddenly the wind panicked around them, bludgeoning her to the point she couldn't breathe, as if it were trying to tell her something.

She got the message soon enough.

They both steeled against the pungent scent of burning flesh the air carried towards them. Amos had only been walking for ten minutes, the barrier a two minute walk from where they had stopped.

Aura aimed to take a calculated step forwards, until she felt an invisible arm against her stomach, barring her way. Her hands wrapped around it, feeling up, up until one rested against his shoulder. "Look, in front." He was so quiet she barely picked up the words.

Ahead of them was something straight out of a horrible nightmare. So dark it blended with the shadows, had its scent not betrayed it's location they wouldn't have seen it so soon.

Hunched over, hands like heavy weights against the mossy ground was the type of monster her father tried to protect her from.

Skin appearing as though it was trying to leak off of its bones, leaving a trail of tar that charred the earth. Talons like knives cutting the ground from its finger tips, it had a stump for a head, no face. Just slits for a nose and its mouth no more than a repugnant gaping hole.

She had studied this type of demon.

Those claws had to ability to tether soul from body, leaving you paralysed as you watched your spirit depart only to be devoured.

The slits on its face were also perfectly attuned for detecting magic, and judging from the way it ambled lazily, sniffing the air, keeping to the shadows, she knew straight away what it was looking for.

They had to kill this beast, and let Markus know straight away.

It shouldn't even be this close to the barrier, it should have turned away within a hundred miles of it. The only way it could keep going was if it consciously knew there was something to look for.

How on earth would the demons know there is anything here at all?

Aura squeezed the thick curve of Amos shoulder, her nails gathering the material of his shirt. The arm barring her way slid around her body, turning them away from the demon, silently motioning them towards the barrier.

Aura reluctantly obeyed the commands of his body, still, however, feeling it necessary the demon were dealt with before it sniffed out the barrier—if it hadn't already. But she foolishly came unarmed, and no regular knife would slice through this creature anyway.

It needed to be killed with something blessed, straight through the heart, and she wasn't carrying any anointed weapons.

The best thing they could do now was retreat, get their hands on the right sword and come back.

Amos couldn't fly them into base, it would attract attention. Everything had to be done painfully slowly.

Closer. The barrier was almost there, Aura could almost feel her body melt through. Just a few more steps now.

Steps they couldn't take.

There was another, larger one waiting at the barrier.

Staring straight at them as if it could see them both.

The angels froze.

From her peripheral vision, she could see the first one dragging it's way towards them, lumbering over its heavy hands.

A change in wind indicated Amos had set free his wings, silently wrapping them around her, shielding her even though she didn't want to be.

"I smell... something delicious. Don't you Eree?" Rasped the larger beast. It spoke in an ancient language that translated itself in Aura's mind.