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Don’t smell of fear!Linh told herself, choosing to remain as unafraid as humanly possible. She just clung to Nathair, hoping he’d wake to save her.

“Get off me!” Linh screamed, kicking her free leg to boot it in the face.

Red flickered in Nathair’s orbs while a growl gurgled up his torn throat. It made his blood bubble through his maw, and even from his bony nose hole. It was a harrowing sound and sight, and she clenched her eyes as she looked away.

Claws dug into her calf as the Demon tried to obtain a better grip on her, and blood welled. The pain was small, the Demon’s claws tiny, but Linh winced. She kicked harder and pulled on Nathair’s horn to get away from it.

His maw parted, just as she whispered, “Please, Nathair. Help.”

“Shut up, silly human,” the eel-like Demon hissed. She darted forward to cover Linh’s mouth. “His blood travels. More Demons come. Already fought for my prize.”

It was then that Linh noted the gashes over its body, and the purple blood – like Nathair’s – leaking from them. It covered her mouth to quieten her, while trying to pry her hands from his hooked horns.

Her own blood welled when her fingers were sliced, but she refused to let go.

Nathair moved like a flash of lightning. One minute she was clutching him, and the next, she belted out a scream when fangs lanced straight through the torso of the Demon and embedded into her thigh below it simultaneously. Ice-cold liquid burnedher flesh as it spread deep into the muscle of her leg. He quickly removed his fangs to tackle the Demon, coiling around it like a snake trapping its prey.

A new Demon entered the main cave. Linh shuffled back while covering the punctures in her thigh. Nathair’s fangs were so large that blood welled constantly from the deep wounds, and touching them made her whimper.

I need to get away from here.From the Demons and Nathair.

She eyed the water behind her.

He gave an ear-splitting roar with Demon blood coating his face. His orbs were red, his fins flared, and he lookedmenacing. He shuddered constantly, and his poor head tipped as if the muscles in his neck were ruined and unable to support it properly.

Using his hands to walk, his tail flicked side to side as he went into the tunnel to chase the scampering Demon.

But Linh knew, without a doubt, that her protector was currently not her friend.He bit me in confusion.Well, the Demon’s torso, but she’d been below it.

She dived into the water to minimise her blood scent. Holding onto the ledge, she splashed water onto the stone to reduce it even more. With that done, she started to swim to the other side of the lake, ignoring how cold the water was, how she was already shivering from blood loss. She’d never been more thankful that he’d taught her how to swim, otherwise she would have drowned.

She winced, only to cringe when her leg stopped responding.The venom is spreading,she thought, as her stomach muscles contracted. She was almost to the other side when her right arm began to grow lethargic.

Propping herself up enough that she could use her left arm and leg, the right side of her body became limp and useless.The second half of her quickly began to lock up as the paralysis spread faster now that it’d moved through her heart.

Managing to get out of the water until only her right foot was submerged, she focused on trying to breathe. Her lungs were tight, as if they, too, would turn to stone. Her breaths grew sharp, and she gasped for air.

The only light came from the torch on the other side of the cave and his magic circle still inside his nest. She stared at his magical glow when her head lolled. Screeches and roars reverberated up the tunnel while Nathair fought, only for silence to fall upon her.

For a long while, everything went quiet.

What’s going to happen to me?Would she die? Lie here forever? She had no idea how his venom worked.N-no. N-Nathair will heal me.

Linh stopped being afraid when she couldn’t even muster the strength for it. Her heart calmed to an eerily slow pace, and she worried it’d halt with how shallow her pulse was.

Her lids lowered as she tried to blink, but she never finished the movement. Her entire body went cold.Shit.

When Nathair heard the Demon, he’d hammered within his consciousness to break free. When he scented Linh’s fear, everything pushed to the side to let his bloodthirsty rage charge forward.

His fragments quietened, as did his self, and he struck. The Demon, her, he wasn’t quite sure.

The moment the Demon’s blood filled his maw, and it wriggled against him like squirming prey, his focus became it. He ripped it apart and chased the second as it fled. Its scream of fear and scampering excited the most feral part of him, and his body ached for the hunt.

It escaped halfway down the tunnel before it ran into others. They all shrieked and screamed as he dived, coiling his limbs against each of them like a springing trap. Envenoming and consuming them had been swift.

He gained new claw marks, most situated over the length of his tail, but they did little to stop him. They only pushed him to be more violent and more aggressive, his veins flooding with the need to destroy. Then, once there was nothing but Demon bloodinfiltrating his senses, everything went quiet besides his own snarls and hisses echoing against the walls.

His rage slowly slipped away.