Matthew summoned Kinslayer, engaging the sword demon in a deadly dance. He slipped under multiple successive blows and retaliated.
He sidestepped a slash and ducked under its second blade, before backstepping the reverse and deflecting the straight stab for his chest.
Kinslayer streaked forward as his counter sliced off one of the Sword demon's arms.
The cowardly demon retreated, but Matthew wasn't done with it.
His wandering spirit flew out from under them aiming to slash its leg, the demon sensing it stepped back a little and raised its only blade.
Matthew was, of course, still attacking, forcing it to focus on blocking him, he shouted back to Stella who was watching the Hivebeasts get riled up by his fight.
"Toss rocks at the hive beasts, distract them till I can kill this bastard!"
He engaged the beast pushing back the sword demon with his superior tactics and technique. The demon's guttural and eerie scream echoed through the tunnel as it fought.
He moved in perfect synchronicity with his wandering spirit, and attacked in strange ways that confused the rabid monster.
Snaking feints that slipped past its guard, aggressive movement that kept it turning to keep Matthew off its weak side.
It was thoroughly outclassed, Matthew personally thought, he should be the sword demon as he trounced the beast.
He spun away from a stab, feinting a horizontal slash.
The creature seemed ready to sacrifice one of its normal hands to block it, and raised its remaining blade arm to cave his skull in.
But Matthew's wandering spirit curled around it, making the demon stop its cleave and block the spirit's tiny hand with its blade.
Matthew's sword slammed into its midriff, decimating the hand the demon tried to block with, and forcing the demon to retreat again with a dreadful keeling sound.
He was about to keep the pressure up and kill the beast when he heard a shrill scream behind him.
Jesse was pinned down by a Hive beast, she pushed desperately against its dry, grey spiked leg and screamed as the spike stabbed into her shoulder.
The Demon watched him carefully, a steady growling in its throat as they faced each other.
He immediately changed the protocol for the Wandering spirit, it was almost an instinctually built pyramid of commands.
Protect Stella.
The Little spirit flew away, striking the Hive beast, replicating a slash that killed the beast and showered Stella in its warm gelatinous blood.
"Retreat! I'm right behind you!"
He engaged the demon once more with horrible ferocity, they locked blades.
It slammed the decimated arm into his thigh using its exposed bone as a weapon.
It let out a gleeful noise as Matthew's warm blood covered its bone. Behind them more and more Hive beasts crawled towards them.
He adjusted his sword under its blade arm and flicked it away.
Then he decapitated the unsightly beast with the returning slash.
The whole cavern in front of him was filled with hive beasts, he closed his eyes and dismissed all his armaments.
A deep lethargy swept over him.
He opened his eyes and began to walk through the crowded space, not quickly, but certainly not slowly.
He jumped and squeezed between the gaps of multiple grey beasts.
They smelt hot and disgusting like a wet dog, he ignored all that sinking away from his senses as he swam through the crowded tunnel.
A Hive beast sensing something, Matthew couldn't see it as he kept his eyes on escaping. It crept closer and its spiked leg reached for him.
It missed him by almost two meters, he continued to free space and then began jogging almost mindlessly. Once he was fifteen meters away he began to run.
His leg stung with a blinding pain, but he let out a sigh of relief as he escaped the nest.
—–
A few minutes later he was with Jesse, they sat against the brown stone floor silently. His leg had been mostly stitched up and treated by her. She carried some medical supplies she made from herbs and leaves of the Dark forest.
After that they were mostly quiet as Matthew was contemplating what to do, she fiddled with her boot and occasionally looked up at Matthew.
His bright blue eyes were staring into space, occasionally tapping the ground.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
Matthew spared her a glance and continued thinking.
Could they make it safely back without a fight?
The detection range of the Hive beasts was short, maybe fifteen meters, and a majority of them were always in the nest tending to the cocoons.
Could he find another way? Or should he wait?
He couldn't be sure of the time, but Hive beasts usually have a set time for hunting. They could use that period of lower activity to try and escape.
"I still want to help the others." Stella affirmed, "You can leave me behind. I'll draw a map for you, and then you can help me get the others."
Matthew's jaw tightened as he turned to the blonde girl. "How many spirits have you absorbed?"
Stella's eyes widened, turning away from Matthew's silent glare she hid her face behind a curtain of blonde hair. She muttered something slowly.
"Can't hear you," Matthew said tightly.
"None."
He turned away from her, feeling a little foolish. He had worried that she died, held her because of some ugly feeling of not wanting to see her empty eyes and even went against his own instincts to leave her behind at the nest.
All that for someone who doesn't even care about her own life.
"I wanted to ask, but we had hunters who hadn't even gotten one yet, and I helped with the load tying and pulling, but Kirk and the others—" She stammered.
"Draw the map, I don't care."
She turned back to him sharply, her eyes welling up with tears and a soft whimper escaped her throat. Matthew continued to look ahead, he had no time for her.
Stella's eyes hardened into a glare as she ripped out the paper and began to draw a map, the only sound in the small tunnel was her strained breath and tears falling against paper.
She handed the map to him, not looking and he took it doing the same. He closed his eyes to meditate, and maybe increase his regeneration for his aching spirit and mind.
He also had many fiery thoughts and feelings to process before he left.
Stella gripped her black trousers tightly, forcing herself not to make a sound. Finally a pained groan escaped her throat.
"I stayed back for you. if i left i could have escaped. Can't you see it in your heart to step up and do the same for others."
Matthew remained frustratingly quiet, but his fist tightened ever so slightly as he meditated. Stella continued her admonition.
"Everything we've done for you. We tried to invite you! To be your friend, to keep you safe, to make you happy and what do we get in return?! You look down on all of us for not being so great and enlightened as you."
"The brain joke hurt that much, huh?" he replied indifferently.
"Oh, fuck off you pompous…hgggrh Why do you have to be like this?!" Stella screamed, tears pouring down her face as reared over him. "What did we do to offend you? All we wanted to do was help you."
"You think what you do is helping. If you asked me five hundred times to help those people and I said no everytime, you would still follow me out here pretending to be torn up." He said calmly.
Each word twisted Stella's face more and more into an incredulous mess of anger. He turned, cowling her as she was about to start shouting again, his cold blue eyes smothering her fury like a tiny candle.
"You don't care enough about those people to risk your life, or even risk annoying me. You wouldn't even ask five hundred times, at most three times before you finally shut up. Did you think I would owe you for being nice to me?"
"You… your hubris is so—" he cut himself off, jaw tight for a breath too long. Then the fury returned, sharp as glass. "You're the type of person that pisses me off the most. The world will always be a shithole because of floppy, little shits like you."
He turned away from her, "Fuck off somewhere will you, darling? I need to get ready to actually fight for my life."
Stella looked conflicted, his outburst scared her, and hurt her deeply. But she needed him and her smothered fury was still warm and painful.
"You can't leave me," she grabbed his shirt with an almost forceful grip.
Matthew looked down at her hand, chuckling softly. "That's the best you can do?"
He grabbed her hand and his grip made her yelp, jumping back like an injured animal. Matthew glared at her furiously.
"Now, excuse me if you don't mind."
Matthew returned to his meditation.
Stella remained for a moment, then she turned, her pitiful form retreating into the distance.