~ Third Person POV ~

“Now then, let the games… begin!”

The monsters charged towards the group of soldiers, all of them wielding their metal weapons in hand. The soldiers shivered in fear, but held their ground, determined to make it out alive.

“Shhiiiitt!!” the commanding officer snarled while grasping at his stump. That didn’t stop him from commanding his subordinates to better the chances of making it out alive. “Loose formation!”

The soldiers swiftly separated themselves from each other before the monsters reached their positions. If they clumped up against those behemoths, a lot of soldiers would die with just one swing.

The soldiers braced themselves, shields at the ready, their sword arms shaking. Once the monsters got closer, they saw just how huge they were. Quickly deducing that their defense wouldn’t mean shit, they got ready to dodge their attacks.

Then, the two sides clashed.

The first monster arrived, its huge and hairy arms wielding a club. It slammed the club down and the soldier dodged to the side, but was struck by a spear to the gut, courtesy of a monster child riding its silver back.

The soldier coughed out a bit of blood before collapsing on the ground. He was then trampled on by another monster rushing towards a nearby soldier, killing him in the process.

The soldiers who saw this winced, but didn’t falter.

Another hairy beast brought its metal club high before swinging down. The targeted soldier dodged to the side and blocked a wooden spear thrust to his chest, a monster child gripping the wooden handle. The echoes of roars and yells, as well as pained screams, rushed adrenaline through his body. The soldier dashed in; his sword poised to pierce the hairy beast through the chest.

With no visible armor, the iron sword pierced through. The hairy beast roared in pain, bucking off the monster child in the process. In a last-ditch effort before the beast died, it let go of its club and grabbed the soldier’s head with his hand. The soldier struggled as he furiously punched the face of the dying, hairy beast.

The beast then grabbed the torso of the soldier with its other arm, then pulled, the soldier screaming in pain as he felt his body being stretched to its limit. An audible pop later, the head of the soldier was ripped from his body, along with his spine, his face eternally twisted in an expression of anguish and horror.

The beast dropped its head and fell down, its breathing grinding to a halt. Not minding their comrade’s death, the monsters kept on pushing, killing soldiers left and right.

It was useless. The soldiers were visibly outnumbered, and outmatched. They cursed their superior for bringing them into this hell as they all did their best to survive.

Another soldier fell to the ground due to a lizardman, its katana severing the leg of the shrieking soldier. Without any hesitation, the lizardman pierced through the throat of the soldier, his eyes rolling uncontrollably as he lost control of his bladder.

All around the battlefield, the odor of iron, feces, and ammonia tickled the noses of the Hunters, who were struggling against a huge beast, an orc, and a monster child.

Due to their specialization in fighting monsters, they had a better time surviving against the onslaught. Right beside them lay the body of the commanding officer, his face twisted into a snarl with his eyes rolled back into his head.

“Shit… Anytime now…” A Hunter blocked a spear aimed for his throat, before ducking under a swing from the orc. He countered with a quick stab towards the monster child, its hands still stretched with the spear in its grip, making it an easy target.

If it weren’t for the beast swinging its metal club down on his head, then the monster child would’ve been killed, and if it weren’t for his quick reaction time, he would’ve been turned into a red paste on the ground.

“I can’t get a good opportunity!” The lead Hunter gritted his teeth as he slashed at the open side of the beast. Blood trickled out of the gash and the beast roared in pain, stumbling back to regain its bearings.

“Argh! Fuck!” The last Hunter yelped in pain as an arrow lodged itself in his shield arm, the puncture wound slowly bleeding. It wasn’t long until a monster capitulated to his pain and stabbed him in the throat.

He gurgled out a gibberish response before dropping on the ground like a sack of potatoes, his body doing everything it could to suck in some air as he drowned in his own blood.

The two other Hunters fared no better than their other member. The lead Hunter suffered from a wound in the side he procured from a goblin who got a good hit when he was dodging an attack from the beast he wounded.

He continued to fight, looking for a way to grab into his bag and use the Return Stone, but the monsters wouldn’t let him. Whenever he made so much as a twitch, a monster would charge, thus prompting him to block.

A soldier who was fighting against a hairy beast was flung through the air like a ragdoll, his body crashing into the ground like crumpled paper.

This spooked the lead Hunter for a second, which resulted in his downfall. A spear was thrust towards his gut and he reacted a tad bit too slowly. The spear lodged itself into his gut and he let out a pained gasp. Then the monster child lunged towards the pained lead Hunter before taking a bite out of his jugular, blood staining the ground as it gushed out from his wound like a fountain.

The remaining Hunter yelled in defiance, but was soon overwhelmed by the numbers, his dying shrieks further increasing the ferocity of the monsters’ assault.

By now, only a handful of soldiers survived, and they were those who were lucky enough to keep on dodging the attacks of the monsters, or who were able to survive because the soldier next to them died.

The remaining soldiers braced for their deaths, but when all hope seemed lost, their salvation came from a very unsuspecting source.

“Enough, leave them alive.”

The monster leader approached, his armor making its figure even more daunting. Its giant club, even bigger than the others the beasts used, indented the ground with just its weight alone.

The soldiers stopped fighting, fear gripping their hearts as they pleaded to the Gods to save them.

And they were saved, just not in the way they were expecting.

“Capture them, they may be of use to me yet.”

And maybe, they thought, maybe death was a better option than life.