Ode to DevilJho
I lie here, battered, bruised, and weary. The fruits of my labor gone sour. Now I have but one choice in this matter. To either stand and face that which has answered my call or to remain trampled and await my fall. It is with the bitterness of fate that I reflect upon the task in front of me. My armor, long worn, creaks with my every movement. I have faced far too many a beast. Now before me stands a monstrosity I doubt I can truly handle on my own. It's feet impact the ground with a horrendous crash, the vibrations can easily be felt far across the land. I have come out here looking for a worthy hunt and now it seems my expectations were truly surpassed. So as I stand here looking over this looming beast I feel the stir of anguish within me.
My mind cannot stop dreading the worst, it has clouded my ability and I find myself unable to act as I normally would. This, I suppose, is the giveaway that I should have walked away from this life some time ago. My pride turned on me, brought me against this beast and now I see that my options are thin. My time may be short, the beast looms ever closer. So now, I feel the pressure of total fear. A feeling I haven't experienced in so many years, all that long ago. Had I been a man of lesser experience I don't even believe I would still be alive. So, as I grip my weapon tight, I ready myself for what could be my final charge. There are those I still wish to see, things I still wish to do, places I still wish to go. It seems those will all have to wait though, for if I am to see what I have yet to see. I must first live through this grand finale.
Beast with the towering body, hide tougher than rock. Do you feel anything? Your body is littered with the scars of war, bones improperly healed, joints that must hurt with each step, do you feel them? Or have you reached a point in your madness where you no longer care? Has your mind become numb to all but the thrill of killing? Your tail in itself is far grander than any I have seen. With the muscle and spines to do irreversible damage, thick enough and strong enough to crush the strongest of armor. Does your massive body not wear you out? Your hide so tough, I have yet to see it truly pierced. Do those jaws really claim as many lives as they look capable of claiming? The teeth that have literally forced themselves through your jaw, did they hurt to grow out? Did they play into the madness that you feel? Your ferocious maw drips with hunger, you can sense that I'm nearby, can't you? Do you know where exactly? No, you really don't know I'm here...you are just always in a state of aggressiveness aren't you? Always in the mood to murder.
Truly as I've watched you scour the land for the body of the hunter who came for you I've come to understand why no man willingly chooses to hunt you down. You, dear monster...are the authentic hunter that man has long considered himself to be. Your hunger doesn't drive you, nor does your pride. You hunt for the simple satisfaction of killing, nothing more. Now I stand before you, my ideals long worn down through my many tales. My perspective long deteriorated through my experience. Hoping to face against you, a beast that has no ideals, a beast with it's desire to murder still as fresh as the day it was born. I feel taken aback at your straight forwardness, my hands practically trembling at your burning desire to rend the flesh from my bones. That is why I must face you now...for you see. I am a hunter, I have faced many Wyverns and Dragons with strong resolve. My accomplishments tower over yours...and still, you will be my biggest challenge yet.
For the one thing you have that no other beast I've faced had. A desire to kill, for the sake of killing. You have no home to guard, no nest to protect. You aren't looking for food, and you choose not to mate. No, the only reason you ever wake in the morning is simply to kill. A true menace to the world, a creature with no desire than to spill blood. No friends or enemies, everything to you is nothing but a victim. I find it hard to believe that a land that has bared such gorgeous wonders could bring about an entity with no absolute regard for it's majesty, whose sole purpose is to do nothing but kill. You, monster. Shall be my downfall, regardless of who walks from our battle today. For I know...once I have fought against a beast with such an immense lust to kill. There will be no greater challenge awaiting me, there will be no greater fight. After today, should I still stand, all I'll have left in this world are my weapons, my armor, and my memories.
That is why I rise, I rise to face against the greatest killer of all time. I am going to fight you, monster! With my resolve strong after watching you, I feel that only through fighting you can I finally walk away from this life. So now...look no longer for me, I'm not running. I'm standing right here in the open, weapon ready! Come at me! You're nothing but a murderer! I will not fall victim to you without making sure you remember me! For the first time in your life you will remember the challenge I've given you! You, who kills indiscriminately, who does not care to remember who gave you those scars will finally face an opponent you will remember for the rest of your life! After today, both our purposes shall be fulfilled! I'll have faced the greatest killer in the land, and you'll have finally met someone whose more than another victim! One of us will not leave this field alive! I have no intention of letting it be me!