The plan is to check it all tomorrow, and then send it off to the beta readers. A September 1st release date is still on-track!
I brought a saber with me, but that was for the mad Baron. Besides, for this kind of close-in work I prefer a good, old-fashioned short mace. They’re quiet, easy to use, and rather intimidating. Besides, more than one monster, construct, or Wonderman of Alchemy out there has skin that can’t be cut or torn. For some reason, they rarely try to make sure that you can’t pulverize the bone underneath it.
These creatures hadn’t any protections like that; just claws and fangs. The second one did jump on me as I dropped the first with a broken nose and skull, but though I don’t like being bitten it didn’t like biting me even more. One taste of my blood and it was falling back, clutching at its mouth and trying to scream. The best it could do was a wheezing, guttural gasp that only ended when I stepped forward, and broke its neck. This wasn’t an act of mercy, since my blood probably wouldn’t have killed it. But it was a monster which had attacked me first. I wasn’t going to leave it alive behind me.
I squatted down to look at the monsters, wincing at the itching pain in my shoulder. It had already scabbed over, but I was feeling a little tenderized. And horribly hungry. “What are these things?”
Jonesy squatted next to me, giving my wound a quick once-over first. “Nachzehrers. Mutated.”
I looked. The general description matched — a human-sized corpse, with fangs and a protuding left eye — but: “They’re covered in fur. And the legs are oddly put together. Nachzehrers were human, once?”
Jonesy shrugged. “Mutated,” she said again.