It wasn’t looking good for her companion. Pushing through her dizziness, Kire lunged just as the man had collapsed onto the ground, the brute pulling out the sword at his side as if plucking a little thorn from his skin. Kire thrust her sword up just as the monster was about to turn to face her, piercing his torso diagonally. The monster snarled, bending to make a grab for her, swinging his sword arm to slash her but with a cry she twisted downward, sword held firm, narrowly missing its swing. Her blade slashed all the way through the monster’s middle. The moment her blade went out the other side of his torso, Kire leapt back, not trusting that even getting his chest cleaved in two would remove the threat completely. 

The moment the body fell, she raised her sword again and hacked the head off, then looked the whole body over, trying to see if it had the same rune and gem she had seen in the corpse of its fellow earlier today. Nothing. At least nothing she could see on the surface at the moment. That would have to wait, unless this new corpse shambled back to life. Kire turned her attention to her companion. She sprinted over to where he lay and knelt, an ear to his chest. “Hey. You alive?” He was. But his neck looked badly bruised. She would need to rest up before she could use the portal again, but they needed to get to safety in case these monsters were followed by more of their kin. “Where’s the safest hiding place here?” she asked, thinking aloud, picking up the head covering the monster had torn off him, wrapping it around her hand, and picking him up carefully, ready to carry him to safety.