The woods were still and silent. No birds sang in the boughs of the trees, nor did the wolves that frequented the area howl, despite the dark of night that reigned over the land.
It was almost as if even the wildlife could sense that something deeply evil had stepped foot in their woodland home and were holding their breath, waiting until it passed them by. Then they would resume their ordinary day-to-day lives of just surviving.
Maybe Vesper would’ve wished he could do the same, had hunting that very evil not become his one true drive in life.
He had no other purpose—something that the Monster would soon come to regret.
Vesper perched in the branches of a sturdy oak, hidden behind the shroud of its leaves. His dark hood hung low over his eyes as he drew back his bowstring, taking aim at the leaf-covered ground below.
Or, so it appeared. He could tell from the slight depressions of footprints in the leafy carpet that it was anything but.
Got you. He released the arrow, and it went streaking through the night to land in the invisible body below him. A piercing roar rang through the forest, and the ebon-scaled body of the Monster shimmered into existence, an arrow sticking out of its back.
Without a second’s hesitation, Vesper dropped his bow—if all went as planned, he wouldn’t be needing it again—and drew the twin axes that hung from his hips. He dropped down right in front of the Monster’s snarling face and hacked it in the shoulder, spraying purple blood, and tried to follow through with a chop at its neck with his other axe—only for the Monster to twist aside, swiping at him with its venomous claws as it went. Vesper had to practically bend over backwards to avoid the talons—which would have paralyzed him if they’d hit their mark—but he managed and snapped back up in an instant, launching a flurry of chops and slashes at his opponent as he did so.
Growling, the Monster did its best to dodge—though more than a few strikes got through—searching for an opening. It found one just as Vesper slowed his flurry and lunged forward, n- eedle-like teeth flashing. Vesper realized what it was doing and tried to backpedal to avoid it, but he was too slow; teeth sunk deeply into the flesh between his neck and shoulder, and he shouted out in pain, frantically hacking at its side—only for the Monster to vanish in a blink of light, reappearing again a short distance away, beneath a nearby tree.
But, even through the pain of his injury, Vesper had expected the move and anticipated exactly where it would reappear, thanks to months of stalking and observing it.
When it reappeared, Vesper was already there, waiting for it. His axes flashed out.
The Monster fell.
Vesper smiled. “Got you,” he murmured into the night.
Thank you for reading! I wrote this story as part of the Storytelling Collective’s Flash Fiction February 2023 challenge, so a huge thanks to them for inspiring me to give it a shot.
