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The bolt flew true, gliding through the air effortlessly as it found its mark. The iron head pierced flesh and crushed bone as it entered in the back of a beast's head, the body seizing suddenly mid-swing as it tried to cleave one of the guards. The body fell over, the inertia of it's swing carrying it further than it normally would go. The guard reacted quickly enough, evading the creature's lumbering body as he twisted to the side. The guard's eyes moved around rapidly, trying to discern where the bolt had come from as another one flew past his head and entering the chest plate of another that was running towards him from behind. That was twice Artemis saved the poor fool's life.

Artemis was already knocking another bolt as one of the beastman caught sight of him, no doubt having traced the origin of the two bolts that ended the lives of his comrades. The creature barreled into a support post that was holding the small outcropping that Artemis was kneeling on sending the structure collapsing. The blow surprised Artemis and he barely caught his footing as he slid down the wooden boards, tumbling onto the ground. He kept the crossbow close to him, as any sudden impact could send the bolt flying down range, and as his feet found purchase, he buckled his knees and rolled forward, twisting his torso as he came back vertical to face the beast that had derailed his height advantage. A quick glance as the crossbow already trained on the beast, satisfied it was still armed, he pulled the lever and sent death. 

As quickly as he fired the bolt, he let the crossbow go, his left hand producing a dirk and his right sliding his longsword from its sheath. His eyes scanned the area and focused in on another enemy. These creatures were massive brutes. Incredibly strong and agile enough for their bulk, the game plan here was to use his smaller frame to his advantage. He raced toward another beastman, his sword angled away and downward. His enemy saw him and his own axe raised in a blind fury as he let out a thunderous roar, spit and blood spraying from his mouth. The guard behind him was limp on the ground, a large chunk of his neck ripped out with what looked like a bite wound.

Axe and blade found each other, but the superior strength of the beastman was also it's weakness. Catching the blade under the business end of the axe, near the wooden shaft of the weapon, the push from the beastman allowed the weapon to glide down the length of Artemis's blade. Artemis himself used the beast's body movement by pushing the axe away from him, sending the cursing devil to the left, exposing vital organs to Artemis's dirk. His movement was blindingly fast as his dirk entered and exited several times in a second, finding precious organs. His last attack, he shifted left, pushing off his back foot and sliding the dirk deep into the spinal cord. The wounds would prove fatal, but were not instant kills. Severing the spinal cord allowed him to incapacitate his enemy while he bled out in what would probably be an excrutiating death.

Four down. As the beast crumbled before him, his brain no longer in synergy with his legs, Artemis moved through the battlefield, his blades cutting deep into aggressors. He spotted others that were not in guard uniform and made note of what they wore and looked like.  It seemed as if this was a smaller force. A raiding party that may have overextended their hand. Galloway was well defended by the guardsman, and no doubt these creatures could have killed them easily being far more bloodied than the town watch, but they were not aware that there were others in this town that wanted nothing more than to cast their entrails across their mother's feet.

For all his bloodlust, Artemis seemed calm, a dull haze passing over his eyes to those watching. His focus was unmatched as each blow found it's mark, leaving corpses and shrieks in his wake. This was a man possessed of one goal: To murder...

And he was [i]damn[/i] good at it.