Cricket chirps playfully danced in the quiet eerie grounds, while dustful winds sweep the grime off the once beautiful housing skyscrapers of Eastland. I took one final look from the 7th floor edge of a decayed building. The scenery of the old war paints over the horizon with fallen rubbles, sand, dust and blood. I entered the dim teetering room, illuminated only by the light of the afternoon, the hunt was young, and my prey stood somewhere near me. The sniff of dangerous dense air made me tighten my gloves, as tickering chuckles filled the room, "da, itraku ko irabrene?" Who are you in this place? The growling voice from the shadows spoke. It soon after came off the ceiling's corner, showing itself. Eight spider legs stuck to one grinning rectangular face, the right eye gouged out never closing, never resting. A nose pointed and a long tongue with a mark of the Güdwigth clan on its forehead. A circle with the four constellations of their blood magic. "Oh? Fey ko... Pipra?" Oh? A demon? the inhumanely tall head asked, curious, yet defensive, checking me like an animal checks its prey. It was a suicide to hunt a demon alone, it is even more of a suicide to hunt them in their nests.
I dashed right it as it jumped, sticking up the ceiling again. It used it like a trampoline to launch back at me. I bounced back as it jagged the floor, trembling the building, the entire tilt of the floor shifted to the side of the demon. One more attack like that, and this skyscraper is going down. In a haste, I snapped my fingers as the face jumped at me. The strings of blood woven by my fingers entranced his body.
"Huh?!" it huffed in confusion. The creature fought to wiggle out, cutting its flesh against the thorns of the black bloody rope around its arms and head. "Atraku ki! Tav saul breinnai ni" let go! If not for the small house! Protested the 8 limbed fuck. I crouched next to it, holding its worried shivering jaw into my palm, what a poor bastard. I pity them, madness and power only bring you far, but a functional brain. Now that's a valuable prize.
"...HA!" it yelled as one of its limbs broke free swinging towards my head, the speed of his limb shattered the sound barrier when I caught it with my left hand. The explosive force from that stop rammed air through the room, pushing away the burnt furniture, breaking down the remaining glass on the windows, destroying the doors and chopping off my arm in return.
"Miva Miva." Useless Useless. I said, while grinning at the pain, I lost my arm so many times this has become ticklish. The gushed blood flows through the wooden floor before jumping onto the demon and completely restraining all his arms. Due to the impact, My long hair flew back, the flock of hair hiding my cursed eye now back showed my right eye socket.
"...Ko" the creature mumbled, "shiaku! Shiaku rafria iyh ko satra!!" I won't die to the likes of you! You traitors! He yelled.
"Can you just, shut the fuck up," I said. Last thing I needed was hearing 'traitor!' Again. is not like I chose to be the way I am. Why would anyone accept being in such a weak state, ah yes, having my brain intact. I looked at the demon in agony. It screamed again but I quickly silenced it by a throat cut, it bled from its mouth and neck in black colours, too bad these sad bastards cannot generate like I do. Not all demons generate after all, those who do are cursed with weaker forms for practicing with or becoming toys to. The roles have reversed now.
I enjoyed the silence in the room, the calm settling of the dust gave a relaxing sensation as I turned the demon's head around. "Try not to choke on your blood" I said, before chopping through its feverish dark and gray skin. I extracted the black demonic brain, cutting off all the nerves connected to the limbs. Imagine how much a brain this big will sell, demon organs always come at a huge demand in the market, if you can make it into a weapon, it will sell high. Besides, those legged fucks are hard to capture to begin with, making them great for trophy hunting. I let go of the oozing brain in the red freezing capsule, nitrogen began infusing within the chambers as soon as I closed the led. And this should be a good day's hunt, however, I caught a glimpse of glimmer from the darkness. Within the broken closet door from the fight earlier I saw a... chrysalis? What were they doing here, constellating a butterfly? The size of it is one third of my body, and its roots pierced the ground. The smell of rotten plague and death began seeping out of it. Now any normal hunter would just leave whatever curse this is and enjoy a good day's hunt, but for whatever reason it felt as if it kept calling on me, and these clittering footsteps from downstairs didn't help either, I won't allow these heathens something so valuable. I cut the chrysalis off, covering it into my leather blood tainted brown jacket as I jumped out the window.
birds flapped their wings above the passing cars in the serene neighborhood of Autumn Streets, or what is left of it. The sun is about to sleep as leaves dance their charades through the air, many house owners of this part of the land tend to take care of their own properties, or whatever was left of it, with the help of the involved new order of the miracles, things just keep getting tougher for us honest hunters'.
I smacked the hammer onto the one more time above the dark-oaked manor, repairing the damages. "Alright, just one more and I should be done," I said, "when is Hiko coming back from that hunt..." And speak of the devil, he came back walking towards the house on the cobblestone sidewalk.
"Took ya long enough!" I waved the hammer down at him. Hiko looked flustered, his red eyes glared up before letting himself on the front desaturated yard.
"Come down, Kan." He said, entering through the clanky front door, I jumped through a small hole in his room, filled with skin-wrapped almost alive books and weird runic drawings, some of them would give me a headache if I stared long enough, and a layered sheets atop of each making a small bed. I ran down the hallway sliding onto the stair fence,
"How did the hunt go? Found something to sell?" I asked, landing perfectly. He relieved his back off the container, the sound of a heavy thud shackled the hallway as he dropped it
"I found this too," unwrapping the sleeves off the egg-shaped object, a glowing chrysalis in his hands, the pulsations between his palms felt uncanny as the chrysalis was warm and beating. Each beat had its own light splattered around the room. I gleamed in confused awe as I looked at Hiko with a raised brow. "Not sure what it is..." Hiko said, as he focused on the glowing textured chrysalis. Whatever inside was formulating itself to become alive. "Never seen a demon's egg like this before, let's harvest it when it comes out."
"Sure, and I will sell that organ for a hefty price" I winked as I grabbed the capsule, "please don't let whatever egg that is destroy this house too. You know what happened to the last one" I said before walking out of the cranky front door, heading to the thief's market.
The buzzing of the street grew wide and frisky as I walked through one of the alleys leading to the thieves market. Almost everything can be found here, from simple clothes to high functional weapons. Though illegal, nobody can stop the vendors from gathering at sunset, but what makes this place unique is every attender wears a mask, a custom uniquely shaped mask that covers the faces of everyone, a frog mask, a swine mask, a totally weird but cool creepy mask. Anything can be had with masks. Mine was the white wolf's mask, with trials of red lines slither on the sides of the cheek. I navigated through the crowded street of this alley, often stopped by merchants to sell me their cheap shit or colliding with the passers in such a short passageway. "Well if it isn't Wolf." A thick gruff voice of a 40 year old man uttered from behind his little vendor's station, it was barely standing yet compact enough like a hotdog-like stand with different saws and knives. It didn't take half a second to recognize the voice, if not the smell of blood on his clothes that sets him apart, then surely the dwarf bald muscular. We shake hands, and I place the capsule on the bloody sheeted table jumping right into the business.
"So, what do you think, an awesome fresh demon brain for an awesome butcherer." I said, circulating my stiff back a bit before opening the top hatch of the capsule, the nitrogen embedded capsule let out a steam of gas and I slid the dark gobbly brain on the counter consequenting a trail of dark goo as it reached Salgar's front.
"A brain? Not as rare as the heart I asked for," Salgar said, his atrocious old man laugh filling the space. Sure, a heart is rare, due to only a handful of 'entrepreneur' hunters and groups getting one, of course it comes at the cost of losing your comrades or losing your limbs at best. But a brain?! it is not like anyone can extract it without it exploding like a nuke. He brushed his messy blooded ginger beard as he checked the organ, poking, cutting, even tasting the blood. He suddenly yells his price, "six thousand hins," he said while mesmerized with the organ, his eager smile showed shining yellow teeth from under that butcher's mask.
"Awwwh come on, ya' know we really need the hins... how about a raise?" I replied, backing up a bit. That run-down house really needs some handy work, especially upstairs, the wood is unstable, and I can't sleep on the floor forever, my back just can't take it.
"Nay kid, I really cannot help you with that,." He crossed his arms grinning, "six thousand is generous, you know, if you can bring me a heart with it I will make it double next time, 12 thousand hins, deal?" he continued, giving off that same unique laugh, now with nervous undertones.
"Fine, you better keep to your words, Salgar, or am extracting your heart instead," I said as he took the brain and capsule into his small shack, and coming back with the capsule, as well as a black leathered suitcase. I never understood where and how he stores what we give him, and I don't think I want to know. Those demons are a pain in the ass, let alone not getting caught mid act by the 'scholars'. I checked the six thousand hins one by one from the suitcase. If you wouldn't inspect what someone promises you, you might as well get scammed legally. I nodded bidding him a farewell strolling away from his stand and merging in the astir loud streets and colorful merchant scams and bargains. A good day deal, until I noticed them.
white robes, five. Their heads were covered with black masks, "bounty hunters... great," I said to myself as I started running off through the crowd. I gazed up at the houses to my sides, and behind me, two of them were up, jumping from a house to another making the alleyways, three were behind. Fast and elegant as they are. I took a run to one of the dead-ends as the two from the roof jumped in front and the three trailing came from behind, "...well then, never realized I was that famous," I grinned at them.
"Nothing personal kid," one of them said, as the five of them pointed their modified seemingly self-made guns at me with silencers, they were like automatic rifles, but less automatic and more 'crazy destroy everything' rifles, "We need the money."
"Ooooo, are these blood infused? Do you know how to really use them?" I said looking at the guns, they had black pulsations around them, almost alive. But the mean leader ignored me, and all of them readied their guns, "give me a break already, if you're eager for an autograph, all you had to do was ask," I said, cackling. "This is not the first time one of you comes for me,"
"It won't be the last, Wolf," the leader said, grinning, "FIRE"
I dodged to the side behind crates as bullets began trailing me. I began jumping off the wall adjacent to me to the roof and booked it. I can win against one or two, three if I am lucky, but five is a fucking suicide. I ran off as fast as I could, but they scattered to find me. Lucky for me, one of the old broken windows of a seemingly abandoned building was open, a broken wooden bed, and the mattress was still on, although dirty. I hid under it as I waited for as much of their footstep to go as possible. Having the wolf's gift, I can hear and smell 16 times better than a human. It has its benefits and stupid disadvantages, like one time I smelled Hiko's dirty sock; I never recovered from that. The creak of the wooden floor was vibrant enough to keep me on guard. Another creak, this time closer. The aroma was unnatural, almost unidentifiable, masked by the smell of dust and the dirty old mattress above it. I took a deep breath, and calmed my senses, ready to throw this whole bed at anything that comes
"Bo-!"
I kicked the whole bed to the wall opposite to it, trying to go for the head that just popped out of nowhere. I jumped up, inspecting my surroundings before I was smacked with a screechy high toned voice, "H-Hey!!" I looked at the source, and before me on the ground. A mysterious gal, hair as brown as wood, yet as smooth as silk extending to her rear, and a quite boring black and yellow slithered jacket atop her white tank top and ripped jeans, a midnight-colored scarf was resting around her smooth tanned neck, a mask of a green teeth showing a lizard was present
"My eyes are up here..." she murmured, seemingly annoyed that I might've been staring at her, well... That. Before I came to comprehend what she just said, I got smacked on the head.
"Ow! It is not my fault your cleavage is out like that, who the hell are you anyways?" I yelled, backing off near the window of the room.
"Me? What are you doing in my place?!" She inquired. I told her I was running from a gang looking for me, not a lie, not the complete truth, but still works. Since I had to run off with this suitcase, and didn't want more interrogation, I jumped off her window before she could even reply to my quick witted explanations. I didn't realize I was on the second floor of this old apartment,
'Whow whow!" I fell on my feet as it all jagged my body, it felt like nothing, except a strained muscle probably. I blended out into the crowded alley outside the thieves market...
"So, at least we renovated the place" I said with a cheerful tone, and a proud stance, clapping my hands across each other, "we got some beds, and this place is less... dusty, plus some holes are already patched up!" I continued. The lights were not as dim as before, and with the replaced broken parts of the floors; walls and ceilings, it has become a place to call home, or at least a shelter.
"You said you got chased by some bounty hunters today?" Hiko asked, while sitting on his new king bed within his room.
"Yeah, I am not sure if it was bounty hunters or the scholars. At least they couldn't see my face, also, I met this lizard masked girl" I said, caressing my chin "she sounded cute"
"Don't even think about bring anyone here." Hiko said, glaring at me.
"Yeah yeah, I know the rules." I replied, walking towards the door "is dinner ready yet?"
"Yeah... your blood share is on the counter, I already ate, so please turn off the light when you finish," he said, getting a hang of his book and turning on the lamp's dim light. The book's cover was made with ominous red markings and scribbles, giving it a sense of danger. And the width of the book is that of a mountain, containing thousands of pages.
"Again?! You said you would wait." I yelled, furrowing my brows.
"I prefer eating alone. And you talk a lot." Hiko calmly replied, betting no eye to the protests of his partner.
"Aha, and you are a fucking ass you know that?"
I walked out the room down to the dining table, eating alone in the empty room. It wasn't a new custom to eat alone, yet the dry weather caused by the silence grew on my skin. The thoughts of the good old days gathered like clouds around me, and thunderstorms of the past within the ol' locked backdoors came to gather too. I couldn't help but smile at what remained of the memories. My old comrades and I sat together on a dining table we made from nothing; I saw them die in the war... I saw them cheer in the coldest nights; I saw them survive the worst days. Their memory, makes me wish only to have them back, although we hated each other to death... I couldn't deny the good times. I brushed it off as I added Hiko's blood to the food. A component essential for my diet that tastes worse than medicine or sewage water. "If it wasn't for this..., Would we really be comrades?" I murmured to myself, as I ate the blood and the rice.
Bam!! I felt the house shake for a second, with light that pierced through the planks, and I ran up, seeing Hiko already opening the attic's door and jumping up the stairs. I followed behind, looking at what just caused the mini earthquake...
"mmm..." a red haired... little humanoid girl covered in transparent ooze emerged from the chrysalis, she raised her soft head rubbing it as her light skin emitted a weird bright light, her crimson eyes fixated on the confused two. "####?"
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