The first wave of creatures arrived, they came slithering out of the gloom, their bodies warped into something almost human—almost, but not quite.
The torchlight painted their twisted forms in jagged, flickering shadows, stretching their limbs into grotesque parodies of men. Their eyes burned like embers in the dark, unblinking, and hungry.
The sight made Li Wei's blood turn cold . The way they moved— all jerking limbs and unnatural angles sent a primal terror clawing up his spine. But worst were the claws—black and jagged, scraping against stone with a sound like knives on bone.
Then the wind shifted, and a stench hit him: coming from the creatures like rotting meat and wet fur, thick enough to taste.
Still on that thought the Li Wei heard a shout.
"Hold the line!"
Old Man Zhang's voice cracked through the chaos like a whip. The elder stood rooted at the front, his knotted hands clenched around a rusted sickle instead of his usual walking stick.
Seeing the old man determination, For a heartbeat, Li Wei almost believed they could survive this.
But Then the creatures screeched—a sound like grinding bones—and charged.
Li Wei braced himself, shoulder pressed against another youth trembling back, their ragged line holding against the tide of nightmares.
But the creatures didn't just attack—they erupted. One second they were twitching in the shadows; the next, black talons ripped the air where Li Wei's throat had been. He jerked back, felt the wind of the slash against his Adam's apple.
Instinct took over.
His spear lanced out—not a farmer's desperate jab, but a warrior's thrust. The point caught the Level 1 demonic human just below its clavicle, punching through hide that felt like rotting leather stretched over iron.
The thing didn't scream. It spasmed, its glowing eyes flickering like guttering candles as black ichor bubbled. Then it collapsed, not like a man falling, but like a puppet with its strings severed.
Someone behind him sobbed in relief. But that's the mistake beginners make, Because the second creature was already leaping over its fallen kin.
Then the tide of horrors never slowed.
For every monstrosity they fought and felled, two more clawed their way from the darkness. Their jagged limbs clattering like a hail of knives on stone.
But Despite that the villagers continued, they fought with the wild courage of cornered beasts—sickles rising and falling, hoes splintering on hardened flesh and teeth bared in wordless screams.
But courage alone couldn't fill the gaps in their line. Not when the horde pressed on, relentless as a landslide
Li Wei's arms burned with exhaustion. His spear was slick with black ichor, his boots slipping in the gore churning underfoot. Around him, the line buckled. Old Man Zhang's shouts were now swallowed by the snarls of the creatures, their movements strangely synchronized, as if guided by a single, monstrous will.
They attack without a care for defence and damage dealt to them, their bodies absorbing blows that would have droped any mortal man.
And amidst all that, a scream tore through the chaos as the left flank collapsed. A boy—barely fourteen—went down beneath a writhing mass of claws and teeth.
Then the disadvantage increased as the Liang brothers fell back-to-back, drowned under a swarm of gnashing shadows.
The creatures continued undistracted, and unbothered, they didn't feast. They didn't pause. They simply kill and surged forward, their glowing eyes fixed on the heart of the village.
The fight carried on, and then the barricade of carts and shattered furniture couldn't hold anymore and splintered inward.
The villagers continued fighting but are losing ground fast.
"FALL BACK!"
Old man Zhang voice tore through the chaos like a rusted blade—raw, ragged, and bleeding desperation. His voice barely sounded human anymore.
But then the villagers finally broke.
The words that were supposed to be an order, rather became a death rattle of their defense.
Their defense crumbled like a shattered dam.
And Instead of the orderly retreat of soldiers, It became the stumbling, gasping flight of people who'd seen hell's teeth up close.
Some stumbled backward, weapons raised in trembling hands. Others simply ran– their sandals slipping in the mud, churned black with blood and worse things.
Sickle blades clattered on stone as farmers-turned-warriors abandoned weapons to drag wounded kin.
While some Dropped weapons they couldn't remember holding anymore.
A teenager even vomited as he ran, his terror outpacing his shame.
They all ran for the shrine.
The all retreated.
Their movements frantic as they tried to regroup. But as they reached the shrine, they realized the creatures had already surrounded them.
The women and children that are supposed to escape earlier through the tunnel are standing by the side.
Which means the tunnel too is likely blocked by the creatures.
And there is no way out.
A new horror dawned on Li Wei - So all their sacrifice had now been....for nothing.
Not the broken bodies left at the barricade. Not the blood spent to buy these last precious minutes. Not even his own impending death.
The tunnel mouth yawned at the far end behind the shrine, its dark throat choked with rubble and squirming shadows of creatures.
His mother stood with the village's last survivors - wide-eyed children clinging to women whose faces had gone slack with despair. The little ones didn't understand yet. But the women did.
The women and children had been meant to escape in order to survive as the men fought, but now they were just easier prey, trapped near the shrine's crumbling embrace.
The creatures moved in from all sides now, their clicking mandibles and too-many-jointed limbs silhouetted against the dying torchlight.
The men had fought like demons to buy time that meant nothing. The men, women, and children everyone had nowhere left to run now.
Li Wei's knees nearly buckled under the weight of it - not fear for himself, but the crushing realization that every last one of them would die here tonight.