The guards had left, leaving idle villagers behind, the one perceived as livestock heaved a sigh of relief and went on the rest of that day without any fear in their hearts, they lived as they always did until night fell.
Peacefully asleep, they were left at the mercy of a monster, the wretch moved quickly, using the underground to his advantage to move from house to house, using his needle-like claws, he pierced throats after throats, the villagers jerked in their last moments, eyes wide open, free to meet the gaze of the creature standing above them, unable to do more than choke on their blood.
Feeling safe, the wretch took to the time to steal and drag the corpses into the undergound after drinking the blood pouring out of the wounds.
He made no distinction, he had grown able to see the differences between the humans, indeed, now that he paid attention to the kill notifications, he knew their names, 'human' what a stupid name! Much less valiant than 'wretch'.
He stared at their faces full of mixed emotions, fear, anguish, terror as they realised they were going to die, anger as they saw their murderer, sadness as they realised their loved ones would alsp die, the wretch watched with a bright smile on his face.
At the very last house, the wretch noticed a loud sound, someone had woken up and escaped, not that it was very important but the wretch still followed after whoever it was but he wasn't able to as he felt the call of sleep grip him.
He was evolving again and fell flat to the ground as a little girl went screaming outside, unaware that everyone but her was already done for, stocked into the monster's food locker for later consumption.
_______
Morly didn't feel comfortable leaving the villagers without any guards, so he stayed on the wall and watched over the place, looking for any furtive shadow and listening to anything strange.
He thought that he had been mistaken after nothing happened for most of the night, it was the middle of it and only faint moonlight illuminated the place when he saw a small figure rushing out of a house, he gripped his sword instinctively as he realised it was a little girl.
Crying and screaming, Morly almost jumped off the wall to go to her but he would just break his legs from that height so he settled for recklessly going down the old stairs, yelling at the sleeping guards inside the wall to stay alert, causing them to stand straight up while still half asleep.
Once they gained some of their awareness back, they noticed the captain rushing away, thinking that it was an emergency they rushed over to the top with bows and crossbows.
Morly sprinted the fastest he had in a while, which wasn't as fast as his burst in speed against the wretch earlier but it could only be used for short distances.
He slid through the soil as he put his hands on the little girls shoulders, trying to reassure her.
Morly had no children of his own so he had no experience in deciphering a toddlers rough language through an ocean of tears but her pointing at her house was enough as he placed her behind him, he would have told her to go toward the city but he didn't want to risk leaving her by herself.
Before the captain could approach the house, the thing that scared the girl so much went out by itself, another wretch.
There were really more than one remaining, the captain prepared to rush it down but his guts told him to hold his ground instead.
This wretch was weird, it a head and half taller than the other one he had killed and had deep purple eyes, even Morly with his limited knowledge knew that this wasn't an usual eye color for a wretch, not that it was for anything else either.
The wretch smiled at him in a cocky manner as it waved its hands around, chuckling to itself.
'It doesn't have any claws?' wondered the captain as he noticed the clawless and nailess fingers of the monster.
'Did it evolve?'
Stunning him, the wretch suddenly made a sour expression, pointing at the girl behind his back and doing something he hadn't expected at all.
"Cattle, surrender food" it actually spoke, it's voice was mischevious and oozed with a vile tone.
"Why would I do that?" spoke Morly, it was concerning but if it could talk then he could just stall by talking, the monster didn't seem like a threat to him but it was staring right at the little girl instead, it was going to sink its teeth into her first thing.
The wretch didn't seem very amused by him responding to it as it just stayed there, as if frozen with it's finger still pointed at what it had demanded.
It's mouth curled upward again in sharp grin, showing off its black teeth as it raised its eyebrows at the captain, as if suddenly finding something very amusing.
"Captain!" a guard ran over to him, this was perfect for Morly.
"Take her to safety" ordered the guard captain and the guard obeyed as he carried the terrified little girl in his arms, taking one look at the monster.
Unlike the captain, he didn't focus on only the physiolgy of the wretch and instead took notice of the other condemnind elements, it's face was covered in blood, fresh as it dropped down on the ground.
It was also wearing clothes, that it had definitely stolen and resized for itself.
Seeing it turned toward him as he picked up the girl he hurried back as his captain had ordered as he heard a clash behind him.
The wretch had immediately tried attacking the guard from behind but Morly had been just fast enough block it's way.
'It's fast, faster than me' realised Morly, before any cold sweat or any fear could settle in, he flashed his booming smile at the monster.
It looked at him as if he was an idiot but the guard paid it no heed as he simply took his stance.
"I thought you were just a bloodthirsty monster but it seems like I was mistaken, you are intelligent, therefor, you have no excuse for slaughtering these innocents villagers!" spoke the captain, ever since he had gotten closer to the village, he had tasted the iron in the air, blood was everywhere, it had murdered most, if not all of the villagers right while he had been watching over the place.
"This won't wash away my incompetence but I will bring you down!" he declared, the wretch didn't understand with he was smiling like a dumbass while saying all that but it didn't pay much attention to that and focused on the approaching blade.