Smurfocalypse chapter 57: The Forest Part 8 – The Arrow That Flies by Day

The battle wages on around him in the forest as Archer makes his way through the foliage to advance further into the woods. Archer's skill with the bow was derived entirely from his hobby in the sport of archery. Archer was born anywhere from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty years ago. He then was delivered by stork to Uncle Smurf's village in the meadow during peaceful, happier times. There he would grow up alongside peers such as Falconer, Boxer, Scientist, and of course Modest. Archer was moderately popular as a Smurfling, but this changed when he began developing skill in archery. Many of his peers thought it was cool that he was able to hit the target almost every time. As the years progressed Archer never gave up his passion for archery, and as the years of experience built up so did his popularity as he became something of a celebrity in his village amongst his social peers. It eventually came to the point where Archer was the undefeated champion in his village for his skills. His accomplishments in life also include the invention of the long bow hundreds of years before human hands would craft them. Archer is a very successful Smurf. Skilled as he was with the bow it wasn't even viewed as a tool by him, more like his favorite toy. Archer took on odd jobs around the village such as being a farmhand during the harvest, aiding the construction crew, transporting tools via wheelbarrow to work sites. If there was a job opening for temporary work he'd take it to contribute to the village.

Archer has been encountering demons he hasn't seen before. The 'Smurfette' demons that seem completely invincible. He's been able to outsmart them and their feral senses by keeping to the bushes, but he knew they were looking for him as he'd see them running past every so often. Archer readied an arrow and crouched before continuing to slowly progress through the thick bushes. His light armor allows him perhaps the most flexibility of all the knights next to Falconer.

"A Smurf that hides and cowers in fear. Never killed one like that before." A demonic female voice said.

There were demons around him, but he was perfectly still. Peering through the bushes after coming to a stop he'd see the demon taunting him. The demon resembled a Smurfette with long forest green hair, and a dark almost black green dress with the same color hat. Its eyes were the lifeless eyes of a corpse. She turned away from him and Archer made the mistake of firing an arrow at her. The arrow flew from the bushes and struck the demon right in the back of the head causing it to stumble forward a step or two from the punch of the arrow hitting. It then stood up straight and pulled the arrow right out of the back of its head while cackling.

"Nice shot." It said sarcastically.

"Impossible!" Archer said.

"You better believe it." The demon replied.

It then cracked its knuckles and assumed a fighting stance.

"And now I'm going to beat you to death!" The demon said before cackling again.

As the beast cackled Archer let loose another arrow which struck it straight in the heart, and yet it continued to stand there.

"Go ahead. Waste all your ammo. You wouldn't be the first archer I've killed." The demon said.

"You talk an awful lot, and I hate it." Archer said.

"Just one of many benefits of being black hearted." The demon grinned.

"Black hearted?" Archer asked.

"A step up from these mindless bastards you hear running around. The black hearted are Smurfs, or Smurfette in my case that were given another chance at life after death. We have been granted great power, and all we have to do is eliminate the Smurfs. The more we kill the stronger we are." The demon explained.

"Coming back to life fully is impossible. It seems your new life has come at the cost of your smurfy nature. I will put an end to you!" Archer said.

"I will destroy you with my Divine Fist!" The demon yelled.

She then began channel visible energy into her fists causing a green aura to surround her firsts. She then began running at Archer who was simply running backward while still facing her. He swung his bladed bow at the demon causing her to leap back to avoid it. He then quickly drew an arrow from his quiver and held up his right with only his index finger and the finger next to it up revealing two rings. One ring had a piece of flint, and the other ring was thick and steel. He quickly held the arrow up to his hand and snapped his fingers setting the arrow tip on fire before readying it, and firing the arrow which struck the demon in the forehead. She simply pulled it out again and tossed it aside carelessly. The flame went out once the arrow touched the dirt.

"That one almost poked my brain!" She exclaimed.

Archer glared at her as she cackled at him. Never has he been made such a fool of in his life. She then picked up speed and dashed towards Archer retaliated by swinging his bladed bow towards her chest slicing a gash across her chest. He had her now there was no way she'd survive this. Archer quickly pulled back his arm, and impaled the demon in the gut before pulling the blade upward causing it to slice vertically up her entire torso. He then pulled out the bow and kicked his shocked opponent over onto the forest floor. The demon laid there in a puddle of its own blood motionless for what seemed like an eternity simply because of the intense adrenaline. Sure enough it rose back up after completely healing.

"Good thing you're a dumbass, or I actually could have died." She said winking her dead eye sarcastically

Archer raised an eyebrow. Did his opportunity to kill this demon pass him up? There had to be a special trick to killing her as she already claimed she was different from other demons, and fully recovered from a fatal blow. What was it though? What was the trick to killing this enemy? They had to figure it out. Once again she rushed Archer and sent her right fist towards his face. Archer dodged the attack and she instead punched a hole in the bark of a tree. Archer looked to the tree and began to sweat. That attack would have destroyed his skull and killed him instantly.

"Now you see my power, and I've seen yours." She said before running towards him again.

Archer drew his bow again and was ready to use the blades on it to defend himself. This was not an ideal combat situation for him though. He was used to long range combat even though he was fairly skilled in close range combat that was almost exclusively the case if he were still able to use his bow to fire arrows. Instead it seems it's more of a melee weapon now. He went to swing his bow again but she grabbed it and used her bizarre energy fist to snap the weapon in two before sending a punch to Archer's kidney which caused him to double over. He would be pissing blood for a long time if he makes it out of this one alive.

"Looks like I broke your little toy. Now what? You going to beg for mercy like the other Smurfs I've killed?" The demon said.

"Go to hell!" Archer said before spitting in her face.

The demon calmly wiped her face clean. Before glaring at Archer.

"Oh you will pay dearly for that." She said.

As Archer struggled to recover from the last punch she punched him a second time in the arm causing it to break and causing Archer to scream out in pain. The pain, and the stress he was feeling right now was incredible, but not in a good way. It was an all-new level of pain for Archer. His light armor was not designed to absorb such heavy blows.

"How about I just slowly break you apart? Sounds fun to me anyway." She said giggling.

Archer's saving grace was ironically the sound of a war horn which for some reason got the attention of his opponent.

"Funs over for now." She exclaimed

The demon then ran off into the forest. Archer wanted to follow her and see where she was going, but was in no condition to fight, and probably wouldn't be for quite some time.

"I hate that I have to do this Hefty, but I have to go back to the port." Archer thought as he began to head home.