After a quick celebration, the soldiers wore already busying themselves with taking care of the injured companions and recovering spears and arrows from the slaughtered demon. Ichimaru grunted with the effort of pulling his sword off and frowned upon the disgusting stench from the wound.
"Damn, I don't wanna know what I hit."
"Thank you for the help", Oda said, coming back from the village. "How did you know of the attack?"
"Are you kidding? I could hear this thing screaming from a mile away! My ears are still buzzing from the last howl…" He rubbed the blade against a tree, trying to rid it of the goo that came off the bug. "What did the villagers say?"
"They knew there was a demon at the woods." The samurai pointed a small forest on the top of the hill. "It used to feed on small animals, or any horse that eventually got lost. It was the first time the monster came out to attack humans."
"It's strange, alright. Right in the middle of the winter…" He knelt down to check on the centipede's corpse.
"One of my men's got a broken leg and need to be taken care of. The other hurt his ankle, and might be in condition to ride in a few days but, until we can take them to the castle, we're stuck here."
Ichimaru's attention was drawn to a strange mark at the bug's belly.
"So, if you won't mind, I'll take a closer look by myself."
