Free Web NovelChapter 466: Chapter 466
He refused to stay down. Refused to give up. So he kept fighting.
Each movement was agony. Every shift of his weight sent sharp, splintering pain up through his leg and into his spine, yet he forced himself forward again and again. He did what he could to aid the surviving hunters, though in his current state he was slower. More than once, he felt the beast’s attention linger on him, as though it had already marked him as the easiest prey. He was no longer the hunter he had been at the start of the battle. Now, he was little more than a moving target.
Still, he fought.
Even weakened and bleeding, he pushed himself beyond reason. He gripped his sword tight in his hand, and in one desperate lunge, he managed to slash across the fenrar’s flank. The blade bit deep enough to draw blood, a fleeting victory that did nothing but enrage the beast further. It snarled, its movements growing more violent and more reckless. frёeωebɳovel.com
There had been just over fifteen hunters when the attack began.
Now, only four remained.
Ragnar, two demon riders and a single vampire hunter.
The battlefield was littered with bodies, men torn apart, their blood soaking into the earth. The air reeked of sweat and death. Yet despite the carnage, the fenrar was still eager for blood.
The combined efforts of the remaining hunters had taken their toll. The creature’s breaths came heavier now, its movements slowing ever so slightly from exhaustion.
But it was not enough.
Seeing no other options, Ragnar drove his sword forward.
The blade went in below the ribs. The beast twisted and the blade tore free and then enraged, it came back at Ragnar with force but he was able to move out of the way on time.
The demons launched more shadows at the beast to subdue it.
The vampire hunter was attacking the fenrar from the left while the demon riders had shadows on it from two directions.
Then the fenrar pivoted.
It tore free from the shadows and it went for the vampire hunter with everything it had left. The man saw it coming and moved but not fast enough. The beast’s claws came down twice on the hunter in rapid succession, tearing open the man’s chest.
The hunter went down hard and did not move again. The blood spread from him quickly, pooling dark beneath him.
Ragnar looked at him and then looked away.
Three of them now.
The two demon riders did not relent on their attacks. Shadows lashed out, striking, withdrawing, and striking again as they kept dragging its focus in different directions.
Ragnar came at it from the side, slow enough that the fenrar should have tracked him easily, but it had two points of attack already demanding its focus and he slipped through the gap.
As quickly as he caught, he stabbed the beast again with his sword.
The fenrar screamed and threw itself sideways and took the sword with it, ripping it from his grip and he was left there with an empty hand and a damaged leg
The beast swung toward him. freeweɓnøvel.com
One of the demon riders shouted to warn him. The shadows surged and caught the fenrar around the haunches, dragging at it back, but the creature shedded the restraints through sheer fury, and it lurched towards Ragnar again.
This time, his broken leg made it so that he couldn’t move out of the way fast enough before it made contact.
The impact took him off his feet and white hot pain flooded him, filling every space where a coherent thought might have been. He lay flat on the ground once again.
His leg refused to move, and the rest of his body felt like it was coming apart at the seams. Blood filled his mouth. His vision swam, dark spots flickering at the edges, his pulse thundering loudly in his ears.
He turned his head.
The fenrar stood over him, its shadow swallowing him whole. Its jaws parted slowly, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth slick with blood. Blood matted its fur in a dozen places. The sword was still buried in its side.
Right then, as Ragnar stared death in the face, he thought of Circe.
He thought of the promise he had made her. He thought of the child he had not yet seen and might never see. He thought of the small beautiful family he had built, the life he had not expected and had come to want more than he had understood until this moment, lying on the ground with a broken leg and no sword and a fenrar about to end him.
He was not going to make it.
He looked up at the beast and felt his lips pull back as he bared his fangs at it. Even pinned down, even on the brink of death, he would not face it meekly.
A second later, a winged creature swept overhead, its presence heralded by a massive ball of flames that tore through the sky and crashed directly into the beast.
One moment, the fenrar stood over Ragnar. The next, it was engulfed.
Flames erupted around it in a blinding inferno, swallowing its form as it howled in agony. The heat washed over Ragnar’s face in a searing wave.
Summoning the last of his strength, Ragnar forced his body to move. He rolled, just enough to drag himself away from the burning creature, away from the flames.
Behind him, the fenrar’s growls twisted into pained, furious screams. And then silence.
The fire consumed it completely.
The world blurred. The pain became too much. Dark spots flooded Ragnar’s vision, spreading until they swallowed everything. His body finally gave in, slipping toward the edge of consciousness.
But just before the darkness claimed him, he saw it. A silhouette against the dimming sky. Large, dark wings stretching wide and as the figure drew closer, he saw that it was a woman.
Then his eyelids drooped and everything went black.
