Hansel had a strategy that he devised based on how others had hunters Greater Fiends in the past. That night he rode into the deep dark woods with three assistants from the academy. The air was thick and filled with the clicking and chirping of bugs. They came upon the small run-down village that was now Etheryn’s Gulley, and it was so desolate that Hansel half expected to see ghosts strolling amidst the buildings.
They found the lumber camp where the twelve workers were slain. Suddenly there was no sound but the wind rustling through the trees. “This is a foul place indeed,” Hanse murmured. Sign of the Greater Fiend was all over the place; broken trees and flattened bushes, and large holes dug into the earth, not to mention to claw marks. “Here was here alright, and something tells me he’s still around. We’ll set up the trap over there.”
Patience was not one of Hansel’s stronger qualities, and walking around the open forest knowing that the eyes of a monster were somewhere over his shoulder did little to help in this situation. The hard truth, however, was that like Victor had been used to draw in the griffin, live bait was the best way to draw in this Greater Fiend. But the longer he waited, the quicker his nerves began to go. “You just had to make it a challenge!” he ridiculed himself. “You couldn’t just go for a goblyn king or something small like everyone else!”
A horrid and sleepless night passed and the same thing went on the next day. This time, at about noon, Hansel heard noised off in the distance; something rustling the leaves, and a low grunting and heavy breathing. Hansel slowly raised his sword and crept forward. His heart pounded. Silence flowed through the forest.
The fiend exploded from the shadowy leaves and bounded over Hansel. The creature was twice the size of a bear and yet strangely resembled an elk; with its wide sharp antlers and brown fur. And yet, the fiend howled, bearing thick yellow tusks and flashing its red eyes.
It knocked Hansel down in its first charge – and he was lucky that that is all it did. The fiend ran off again into the trees, but Hansel knew it would return, and when it did he led it towards the lumber camp. There he stood his ground; again, his heart thumping to the rhythm of its feet on the forest floor. It raised one massive clawed hand and tried to swipe at Hansel, but he dived away and the beast tumbled through the leaves that concealed the wooden contraption of spikes that splintered and impaled the beast as it ran through them.
Hansel breathed a sigh of relief. But too soon! The fiend howled and cried and yelped, but then stood up and began ripping away the bleeding spikes. Hansel stared wide-eyed. The beast, once recovered, bounded after him again. Hansel hacked at an antler and jumped away before being impaled, but was too slow to avoid being thrown against a tree. Bleeding, he felt his ribs crack, but there was no time for that now, as the beast came after him again. It tried now to bite him, snapping his ghastly jaws up and down. Hansel raised his sword and jabbed it in the eye. The fiend recoiled.
Hansel stumbled into the underbrush and ran for his life. He had underestimated his opponent and now fear dominated every inch of his body. He ran, ignoring the beastly screams or the leaves whipping his face. He ran until his lungs burned. Suddenly a waterfall blocked his path, and the long drop into a river below was speckled with sharp rocks. Knowing he would not survive such a fall, he turned back, only to see the dark red eyes of the beast before he was tackled over the edge.
In the few seconds before he collided with the water, Hansel truly believed he was going to die. It was not some dream-like state as he had sometimes imagined it; it was cold hard fear and he hated every moment. After almost breaking himself upon the impact of the water he found that he was drowning under the weight of the waterfall, and though his arms and legs seemed heavier than lead he clawed his way to the surface. There was a loud choking breath as he made it up and climbed onto a rock. His vision faded and the thunderous waterfall devoured all things. Hansel rolled over and saw the fiend across from him, lying dead upon a bloodied rock. He chuckled, and then passed out.