As the horde of monsters was coming towards the convoy, which was currently preparing for a fight, Vigil, without turning his gaze away from the rampaging cluster of creatures, asked to no one in particular:
"So, what? We just kill all of them and be on our way or do we get to take a break afterwards? I am starting to feel kind of hungry..."
In response, Marya, who was standing just a few feet behind the boy currently knocking an arrow into her bow, said in a gentle but reprimanding tone:
"Dread, although you are still but a child you should know by now that it is always good to be prepared..."
She paused for a few moments to glance at the young boy, then straightened her sight back onto her targets.
"With that being said, why did you not eat anything before leaving Mercy or on the way here?"
"Hey, he's a growing boy! Don't blame him for having a fast metabolism!"
Vin chimed in directly after the beautiful druid had finished speaking, followed by the sounds of agreement coming from the majority of people that were riding with them in their transport vehicle.
This made Marya roll her eyes with a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. From what Vigil could tell, their little group was trying to keep everyone in high spirits for the fight.
But even then, there was still something that was weighing on his mind.
Whenever Vigil had bore witness to the start of a battle on a similar scale to what this one would be, there was always some form of coherence in the formation and forces between everyone that would participate in it.
However, contrary to what he would call normal, the mercenaries that would participate in this battle did not seem to be too prepared for it. But even then, they all acted apathetic to this fact. It was almost as if they did not even care to come up with a strategy or anything like that...
'...I wonder if they will be fine after this...'
Vigil thought while remembering the small band of misfits that took him in. More specifically, he was thinking of the two faces that popped up in his head the most when thinking about said group. Witch, the woman that had taken him in and introduced him to the world that he was not all that privy to, and Elata, the kind dwarf that he had been living with for the past month and a half.
Shaking his head to get his thoughts back on track, Vigil readied himself for the upcoming clash.
Just as he did, Vin's voice bellowed out from beside him.
"Alright kid, you're with me. I expect you to have my back out there, yeah? So, let's see what you can do!"
He then launched forward without any warning, which at first seemed crazy to the boy since Vin would be the first one into the fray. However, those thoughts were soon crushed and thrown to the side as Vigil saw most of the front-line fighters in the convoy rush towards the enemy as well.
Based on what he could tell, there seemed to be an understanding within the convoy - or more specifically the mercenaries - of what to do if a situation like this one were to arise.
Seeing as he would not be hurling himself into the jaws of death all by himself, Vigil decided to rush forward as well, only lagging slightly behind the imposing demon.
From the time that most of the front liners had taken off to when they had come into contact with the ferocious horde, only a few seconds had passed. And when the two forces had clashed, it did not even take a second for all hell to break loose.
As Vigil was running towards the fight, a large jaw attached to a furry four-legged monster - that stood about as tall as the average man - with seven beady eyes and two large horns atop its head suddenly appeared in front of him.
From the looks of it, a monster had already broken through the convoy's ranks.
Seeing as it was lunging forward and trying to bite his head clean off - acting quickly while still mid run - Vigil slammed his right foot on the ground while using that momentum to duck under the attack.
He then proceeded to stretch his left leg out in front of him and plant his foot firmly on the ground, readying himself for a counterattack. Twisting his body so that he was now looking in the same direction that the monster was lunging towards, Vigil launched a downward slash towards its left hind leg, completely severing it from the rest of its body.
Paying no more heed to the now critically injured monster while thinking that someone behind him would finish the job, Vigil turned back around to face the horde of feral creatures once more.
When he did, he did not even give it a second thought before charging into the deadly melee.
To him, a battle like this was a common occurrence. For a few years, every week or two he would have to jump headfirst into some deadly battlefield in order to survive, so chaotic places like this one were easy for Vigil to wrap his head around and get accustomed too.
However, there were two key differences in this battle when compared to the ones that he would normally take part in.
First, this fight was between people and Creatures of War, which was a rare experience even for someone as weathered as him. And second, the more complicated of the two, was that Vigil was not fighting against people, he was fighting with them.
This would be the first time in his whole life that he would fight side by side with other people in a battle that could lead to his death. Which is why he kept making mistakes.
No... mistake is not the right word.
Instead, it was more like a bad habit that he could not shake loose had finally decided to rear its head, making it painfully noticeable to the boy.
Side-stepping to the right to dodge the charge of a creepy monster with faces grafted onto its whole body, Vigil slashed horizontally, allowing the creatures built up momentum as well as his own to help in cutting the vile things body in two.
Not letting up, he began to rush at the nearest monster intending to kill it.
As he did, he saw a woman dressed in lightweight leather armor suddenly come into view from his left. Feeling startled by the woman's unexpected appearance, Vigil did the one thing that he knew how to do in this situation...
... And went for the kill.
As he was bringing his blade up from the ground to throw an upward slash at the woman, he suddenly felt his torso slam into something akin to a brick wall, abruptly stopping him both mid-charge and mid-swing.
The stopping of his momentum so quick that he had no time to even react.
Looking down towards his chest while thinking the worst, Vigil could see a dark red hand being pressed against his body. Attached to the hand was the large visage of his newly made acquaintance, Vin.
And boy did he not look happy.
"What the hell are you thinking!?"
As he said this, he grabbed Vigil by the head with his free right hand, pulling him closer to his large body, while making a quick spin to build momentum. The large demon then launched his elbow towards the monster that was trying to get the jump on Vigil from behind, completely destroying the beings head, turning it into a bloody pulp.
Giving a quick glance to Vigil once more, Vin hurriedly said:
"We'll talk later when we have time! For now, just don't do anything that stupid again!"
The small reprimand was all he gave before throwing himself at another monster, digging his hand into its stomach and ripping out its guts.
That was his bad habit.
He saw people as no better than the monsters that he was trying to kill, targets. Beings that he would cut down with no remorse if it meant his continued survival. He was so used to people being his enemy that it was nearly impossible for him to see them as his allies.
And now that he was forced to do so, he was having trouble with adjusting.
So much so, that he had to actively stop himself from cutting down even more of his allies a handful of times before the battle ended half a day later.
Now surrounded by corpses, most of which being monsters of all different shapes and sizes with some being people dotted throughout the once raging battlefield, Vigil was able to rest.
Although, it wasn't for long as Vin was slowly walking up to him with a face that betrayed his emotions.