The demon charged at the bull with its mouth gnashing hungrily, impatient for a taste of beef. Captain Rix darted to the right at the last second, burying his great axe into the side of the creature with a swing brimming with the full strength of his might.

The bull cut an impressive slash along the creature before his axe cleaved itself free. The demon turned on the bull immediately, stepping forward to charge the beast again, but stopped abruptly as Sir Corper snatched a hold of a back leg and gave it a rough twist.

The knee broke from the socket with a grotesque pop as the demon let out another squeal in pain. The bull rushed forward to land another blow, but the flailing tongue from the first mouth shot out suddenly and wrapped the tendril around his left arm.

The demon would've taken it off completely had Oust not reached out just in time to cut the bull loose with his sharpened claws. The demon withdrew its flailing, severed tongue and kicked with its good back leg, forcing Sir Corper to bring his arms up and release the broken leg as he blocked the attack.

The bear was knocked backwards from the force of the sudden strike, doing a flip as he rolled onto his back, over his head, and back onto his knees, his powerful claws digging in the earth to brace himself and to stop his trajectory.

The bear stood dusting himself off and grunted as the fiend's leg spasmed back into place with a crunch, and the gash on the side sealed itself up. The demon put a small bit of distance between it and the warriors briefly. Sir Corper spoke as calmly as ever.

"This is getting us nowhere. We need a decisive strike before we find ourselves its dinner."

Captain Rix grunted, pulling the amputated tongue free from his wrist as he answered.

"IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS, I'M ALL EARS!" As the bull shouted his response, the demon charged at a nearby orc with the fewest marks on his skin. The orc turned to flee, never facing such a gruesome opponent before, but tripped over himself in his panic, falling to his knees.

The demon barreled over him, never slowing as the mouth on its underbelly opened up wide, and the tendril of intestines shot out and grabbed a hold of the orc. It drew the screaming orc into its mouth, and clamped shut around him with a squelch of blood squirting from between the teeth, leaving a trail of dripping, bloodied mud in its wake as it slowed its charge to choose its next target.

Oust was horrified by the sight but steeled his resolve and thoughts for a moment, remaining calm as Sir Corper had been. That was when he realized it always attacked by charging.

The tiger looked to where the first orc victim had been devoured and saw the metal spear lying in the dirt. Oust thought back to a trick he had seen the human use to stop a heavy opponent during their training, and made a quick decision.

The tiger sprinted off with frightening speed, rapidly closing the distance to crouch down and snatch a hold of the spear before changing course back towards the fiend. Oust barreled towards the creature just as the demon chose him as its next course.

The demon screeched loudly and charged towards the tiger in turn, the two running directly at each other as the gap between them shrunk at an astounding rate. Oust braced the spear with both hands and held it forward as he advanced.

Just as the demon's upper mouth started unfolding once more to latch onto the tiger's head, Oust lunged forward, thrust the back of the spear into the earth below, and leaned back with it, bracing with everything he had as it pierced into the charging demon's chest between the two mouths raggedly on impact. As expected, it ran straight into the spear, unable to turn mid-charge.

The demon's front half lifted off of the ground and over the tiger a bit as the rod sharply bowed under the weight. The bottom mouth opened up once more as the demon screeched over the tiger, its jagged teeth spewing globs of orc blood and slime upon him as the intestines shot out, and snatched a hold of his leg.

Oust had underestimated the creature's reach. He had missed his mark, and the jaws of the monster were closing in around him.

As Oust felt the tendril tighten up in an attempt to draw him in, Captain Rix collided with the side of the creature in a full-on charge. His head was lowered, resulting in his ebony horns goring into the demon with ferocious impact, knocking the fiend onto its side mere milliseconds before Oust became its next meal.

Oust heard a sharp cracking sound on impact, and his captain was flung a short ways away after the fiend sharply rolled with the bull's horns still stuck inside of it. The tiger released the spear and quickly reached down to slice off the tendril gripping his leg with a quick swipe of his claws.

As the demon went to open its upper mouth to counterattack, Sir Corper rushed in, and swung a hefty arm over the base of the bloom before locking his hands together and leaning back against the body, doing his part to keep it pinned.

The bear was barely managing the headlock, but the mouth was forced closed. The barbed tongue caught on the petals of flesh and wouldn't let it extend more than a few inches.

Oust quickly realized his teachers had given their all to keep him alive and make him another opening. The tiger would not waste it. He would likely not get another.

Oust quickly went to work, finally getting a chance to accurately rend at the flesh beneath the demon's neck. The tiger made passes with his claws as quickly as possible, tearing through corded tendons and spurting veins as entire muscles were sliced apart with ease by his ivory tips bearing down with the force of his overpowering strength.

Oust felt a larger bone against his grasp and jerked back hard, snapping open access to the ribcage through the clavicle. The fiend squirmed in attempt to stand, but the tiger reached over with his left arm, and struck the spear sticking out from its chest roughly, making the demon squeal in pain as it writhed and lost the footing it had been trying to regain.

Oust turned back towards the hole he had torn though its throat, reached a pointed right hand back, and jabbed forward as hard as he could into the wound of the beast, piercing through the chest cavity as he felt around for the heart amidst the black blood flowing out around his arm.

The larger mouth on the belly started to open again, the tendril having healed since the tiger had last cut it off. Right before the demon could strike with the regrown, fleshy tongue, Captain Rixator, having recovered from being thrown, leapt atop the demon, forcing its larger jaws shut with his great weight just long enough to swing his axe forward and sink it into the crease of the lower mouth, pinning it closed around the troublesome tentacle.

The bull was shouting before Oust had even realized that he needed saving.

"YOU WANT TO HURRY IT THE FUCK UP HERE TIGER?"

Oust was frantically reaching around inside of the creature, desperately seeking the heart. He was already buried shoulder deep, almost half of his body coated by the gushing, black blood when he finally felt a pulse brush against his claw.

He slashed at it but couldn't get quite deep enough to get a grip. He snarled out to the bull.

"IT'S JUST BARELY TOO FAR... I CAN'T REACH..."

Oust saw the captain hand him something from the corner of his eye, and got a real look at the bull for the first time since the charge. Captain Rixator had a broken horn about halfway down his left side, and he was bleeding from that wound.

The tiger felt odd shuddering at the sight, considering where his arm was as the moment, but he couldn't help it. The bull was holding out his own, broken off horn to the tiger as a weapon while he held a demon down with only his firmly planted axe and the sheer force of his weight.

Oust couldn't help but think it... The captain really was a badass.

Oust snatched a hold of the broken horn with his left arm and withdrew his right. He plunged back into the body with the horn in his fist, noting that the monster was already trying to heal up the wound.

He shifted his arm upwards to where he felt the pulse before, moved his hand to grip the horn like a spike against his palm, and thrust forward as deeply as he could, forcing a torrential gush of black blood to flow out against his fur in heavy, dark clots.

The demon gave one final ear splitting squeal as it tensed up its entire body, spasmed for a split second, and simply went limp as it quickly hardened into brittle ash, disintegrating entirely at last and releasing all three warriors from their draining roles.

Sir Corper took a single step forward, shaking off a good bit of blood from his arm where it had splashed over him as he spoke in a clearly annoyed tone.

"Little messy there, young one... But good work."

The captain chimed in shortly as he stood, surprising the tiger by not yelling towards him for the first time ever.

"A little messy? That was a bloodbath. Not a bad kill for your first demon, though." The bull strutted over and gave the tiger a hefty slap on the back before he finished his statement with a smirk. "But next time, I'm bringing the wolf too."

The tiger turned and gave his captain another look, glancing up at the broken, bleeding horn his teacher had sacrificed to save him. The tiger clenched the piece in his hand tightly and offered it back to the bull in respect and gratitude as he made a small bow.

"I am sorry... Will it grow back?"

Captain Rixator reached out and took a hold of the broken horn coated with the black blood. He shook it off a bit and tucked it into his waistband with a long and heavy exhale through his snout before he answered gruffly.

"No."

The bull rolled his shoulders once, gripped his axe firmly, let out a huff, and started towards the battlefield on the other side of the wall with determination. He called back to the tiger, the bear, and the remaining orcs with him in that usual, commanding boom that he called a voice.

"I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU LOT, BUT THESE FIENDS HAVE REALLY PISSED ME THE FUCK OFF."

The great bull charged ever forward, a lack of rest, nor the great shame of a broken horn for a bull of his stature enough to slow that drive of his in that moment. Not a warrior there hesitated to follow his lead.

***