As Vigil and the rest of the mercenaries were readying themselves, he began to speak - to no one in particular - in hopes of receiving an answer.
"So how exactly does this work? Do we all just rush in or do we wait for a que or something?"
Marya, who was now nocking an arrow into a bow that had seemingly come from nowhere, responded to the boy in a voice just loud enough for him to hear over the overbearing sounds of gunfire.
"To start, do you see those Creatures of War that seem stronger than the rest?"
She said while glancing over at the boy.
When he noticed her gaze he gave a small yet discernable nod, clearly able to tell the distinction between the enemies that were stronger and those that were weaker.
The main discern between the two was that, when staring at one of the stronger monsters, an inexplicable chill would crawl up his spine, as if to instinctually tell himself that they were to be avoided.
Seeing as the young boy had given her confirmation, Marya continued as she drew her bow string taut.
"Those of us that are in the convoy that are of higher ranks, they know who they are, will begin by targeting the dangerous ones. After those small skirmishes start is when the rest of the melee fighters will launch a counter assault."
As she finished talking, the tip of her arrow began to glow a soft green.
When it did, she gently let go of the bowstring, allowing her arrow to fly off into the distance towards a very large and seemingly dangerous monster.
After only a few seconds had passed, the arrow had hit its mark.
The Creature of War that Marya had aimed at was a hulking beast that stood a couple dozen meters tall with skin that reminded Vigil of what the inside of a human would look like after their corpse had been decomposing for a while.
Not only did the ghastly thing look creepy, but it felt that way too.
Vigil could tell just by the feeling he would get whenever he would glance in the monster's general vicinity. That being that it was clearly one of the deadlier creatures that had come towards the convoy in hopes of satiating its carnivorous desires.
... At least that was what he would say if not for the fact that it was his fault that the massive horde had come their way...
However, the sight of the creature that had instilled within him an incredible amount of fear was no more.
In its place was but a mountainous haze of red mist that had begun to come pouring down on the rest of the horde.
After seeing what happened to the towering monstrosity, Vigil quickly shot his astonished gaze over to Marya, who was now nocking another arrow into her bow.
It was at this point in time that Vigil recalled what the beautiful dryad had said just moments before.
'I guess the people that can deal with those beings really do know who they are.'
With those thoughts lingering in the back of his mind, the young boy swiftly snapped out of his recently acquired stupor and joined the rest of the convoy's melee fighters in their conjoined charge.
Only a few moments had passed by the time that the first mercenary at the head of the pack was engaged in a deadly brawl. And in each second that passed thereon, more and more mercs had joined the fray.
As Vigil was at the rear of the melee forces' mighty charge, it had taken a few extra seconds for him to join in on the perilous struggle.
However, when he did, he was met with quite a dangerous welcome.
It had only taken but a small moment for Vigil, out of the corner of his eye, to notice a large beast - that dwarfed over his small frame - pouncing at him with its jaw wide open, most likely in hopes of taking his head for a small mid-battle snack.
Seeing the monstrous being that looked like something akin to a deformed wolf lunging at him, Vigil quickly allowed his instincts to take over.
With his sword firmly grasped within the grip of his right hand, Vigil quickly placed his left foot forward to stop himself from travelling any further. While he was at it, he used the momentum of that action to bend down just enough to duck underneath the now airborne creature.
Using his unmoved right foot as a pivot point, he promptly turned his upper body back around, now facing from whence he came just a moment ago.
Coincidentally, this was also the same direction in which the Creature of War was now travelling, unable to stop due to being in mid-air.
But... Why would he waste his energy by performing those extra movements and turning around?
Well, the answer was simple.
It was all in order to give his blade a clear line to cut through and in turn save just a tiny bit more of his stamina.
Although whenever the boy was on a battlefield he would do things on an instinctual level, he always still thought about the best way to perform each and every movement. This was all in order to preserve as much energy as he could.
Throughout his many confrontations, Vigil has come to an understanding that, most of the time, it is much easier and less stress intensive on his endurance to reposition the body than it was a weapon.
So as Vigil performed those seemingly overcomplicated yet simple movements, he was, in reality, able to better conserve his energy as well as accentuate his attack.
Now that Vigil was directly below the pouncing predator, he quickly swung his sword in an overhead arc, utilizing the momentum he had gained from his previous movements to deepen the cutting power and strength of his swing.
As a result, when his blade had come falling back down after being raised high, a whole leg plus a small chunk of the creature's pelvis had fallen along with it.
Not even sparing the monster another glance, Vigil hurriedly turned around and bolted off into the fray once more.
Afterall, there was no need to confirm the kill as it would soon bleed out anyway.
Only a few seconds after taking down his first target, Vigil had been met with yet another adversary.
As he was running, an abrupt crushing pain - almost as if something with an insane weight or speed had just rammed into him - was felt coming from the inside of his left leg. The same one that was currently being outstretched while running.
However, it was not just a sense of pain that he felt. It was also his sense of balance that had come crashing down, as he was currently falling to the ground.
Just as Vigil was toppling over, he noticed a greyish blur in front of him growing in size at an incredible rate. From the looks of it, it was coming straight for his head.
Seeing as he did not have much time before another attack would hit him, Vigil quickly thought up a way to salvage this situation
So, in order to gain even the slightest bit of stability back, he allowed himself to fall to the ground. In doing so, he put the knee of his left leg - the one that was just hit - on the ground while keeping his right foot firmly planted.
Now on the ground in a kneeling position, Vigil lifted his sword and counter-attacked by stabbing towards the incoming blur. As he did so, he hoped that whatever he was currently trying to kill could not avoid his attack by moving, or stopping itself, in such a short amount of time.
Thankfully, his hopes had been well received by the world.
In the next instant, the blade of his weapon was lodged not-so cleanly into the head of what looked to be an overly large version of an aberrant rabbit.
However, Vigil was unable to take a good look at the monster he had just slain, as getting up from the ground was his first, and only, priority at the moment
Embedding the tip of his sword - which still had the monster's corpse attached to it - into the ground, he began to lift himself up using it as a form of leverage.
Sadly, just as his weapon had touched the bloodied landscape, a mighty beast with giant claws affixed to the end of each paw came pouncing at him with its front right leg held high.
Seeing the monsters powerful claw coming down at him from above, Vigil had no doubt that it would be able to tear cleanly through his armor
And due to the fact that he already had one of his knees on the ground Vigil had come to a quick realization that dodging would only put him in yet an even more disadvantageous position.
So instead, he firmly grasped his sword, putting his left hand on the hilt while switching his right hand that was originally on the hilt to the base of the blade.
He then brought it up just quick enough and at just the right angle for the monster's claw to slide down the blade's length.
When its razor sharp claws had hit the ground, Vigil took his left hand off of the hilt and drove the monster's head into the ground with all of the force that he could muster, hoping to disorient it in order to kill it soon after.
But it was at this moment that a chill ran down his spine
Hastily swiveling his head to the side, Vigil was only able to catch a glimpse of something rushing at him with terrible speed. However, he was not quick enough this time.
Feeling as though he had been hit by a truck, Vigil let out a quiet grunt as he flew about half a dozen feet before hitting the ground and stopping himself from going any further.
During this time he had been knocked down for only a second.
But in a battlefield such as the one he was currently fighting in, it was enough to end his life multiple times over.
So, standing up as fast as he could, the boy quickly glanced in every direction around him in search of the being that had knocked him over, all while reaching for something behind his back.
It had only taken him a fraction of a second before he found a short, four legged monster with greyish-brown fur and four large tusks protruding from where its eye sockets were supposed to be, rushing at him.
Grabbing hold of the semi-automatic handgun that had been strapped to his belt behind his back, Vigil quickly drew it out from its holster and pointed it at the beast. From there, it did not even take him a second to shoot three consecutive shots at the charging creature's head.
At first, Vigil had no clue if his shots had hit the mark, or had even done anything to the monster for that matter.
However, not even a moment had passed by the time that the vile thing had lost strength in its legs, soon hitting the ground with a small thud.
From the looks of it, it was dead.
However, even though the monster was seemingly dead, that did not mean that its momentum had ceased to exist.
So in order to not get hit by the small boulder of flesh that had been launched in his direction, he quickly side-stepped to his right, barely evading it.
After sparring one last glance at the monster to make sure that it was truly no longer among the living, Vigil proceeded to twist his head back around with the full intention to find yet another hunt.
But it was at this moment that he saw the figure of someone running in his direction.
Without thinking, Vigil quickly lifted his gun with the barrel pointed directly at the aforementioned figure.
Then, he squeezed the trigger.
*Tick*
But the sound of a gunshot never rang out. In its place, however, was a familiar voice, seemingly full of fury.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?!"