The Silver Bayonet - The Carpathians Castle Fier

Gemeine Florian Müller is usually cool in a crisis and swift in his decision making, but maybe due to the fatigue of often fighting at night when hunting down monsters in The Carpathians, this night he had been spooked. Whilst out in front on a patrol he saw a figure in the darkness. They were close to a village so he hesitated to confirm in the gloom what he was about to firing his musket at, for fear of hitting a local out on a late night stroll. The delay almost cost him his life as the figure appeared to sniff the air, look right at Müller, and bolted straight for him. Thankfully the hours of bayonet drill and muscle memory of defending himself in several battles and skirmishes most likely saved his life. He had fixed his bayonet moments earlier when he heard a noise, and raised the blade tipped musket just as the beast collided with him and heard a spine tingling otherworldly yelp as he drew blood and the creature knocked Müller to the ground and darted off into the ruins just feet away. His fellow Austrian monster hunters heard the commotion and came running. To his surprise Müller wasn’t injured, gathered himself and was embarrassed to say he couldn’t tell what had hit him, only that a blood trail now led into the ruins and the beast was taller and felt stronger than an average human. His officer barked that the Gemeine should continue as the lead on the patrol and guide them along the blood trail as best he could. Müller stole himself, straighted his white uniform, raised his musket to his shoulder and slowly edged into the ruins…