Chapter II-Mad Axe

It was middle of the night and the shattered moon shone brightly upon the rundown sector of Vale, it's empty roads, it´s dirty streets and, in particular, a certain set of abandoned buildings that may not appear abandoned at all.

In front one of these buildings, a man could been seen in front of the entrance with his back turned against the set of metal doors, as if protecting the entrance. The man's appearance is what most people would consider the aspect of a common thug: worn out street wear with a hoodie covering is head and a handgun in hand.

One of the metal doors opened behind him, it's rusty hinges creaking in the process, and another individual with similar clothing came out.

"Hey, time to switch." he said as he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pants back pocket.

The other thug sighed, but nodded nonetheless as he started to enter the building.

"I swear, we're not gettin' paid enough to put up with this shit." he muttered, signs of frustration clear in his voice.

"Oh quit your bitchin'." the other man responded. "We're just on a simple look out job while the boss does his business, what more do you expect? But if you want to sell your ass on the streets for a living then be my guest."

His companion gave him a glare. "Man, fuck you." he said annoyed.

As the the door closed, the sole thug had already a cigarette on his mouth and a lighter on his hand lighting the cigarette, letting out a puff of smoke through the air of the night.

A few moments passed, with the cancer stick already halfway smoked, and the thug suddenly noticed a set of lights approaching in his direction, accompanied by the sound of an engine. He squinted his eyes in suspicion as the lights kept getting closer and the sound of a powerful engine kept growing louder, until finally a car came upon his view, and stopped a few feet way from him.

The vehicle appeared to be a 1970 Dodge Charger with a opaque black paint, reinforced bumper and a hood scoop. After the headlights were turned off and the sound of the engine died, the door of the driver's seat opened and from within the driver came out.

The thug narrowed his eyes as he saw the figure coming out of the car, it was dark so he couldn't take in on the mystery guy's appearance. His hand was close to his handgun tucked behind his pants as a precaution.

"The fuck doin' out here?" he asked loudly. "If I were you, I'd drive my ass back where you came from!"

The presence in the shadows, however, did not seem affected by his warning. "Don't mind me, I just came here for my paycheck."

The casual tone of the stranger threw the thug off guard. "Paycheck? The hell you talkin' abo-"

Suddenly, a silver blur came from the strangers direction...

Shink

...and the thug found himself unable to complete his sentence thanks to the large, serrated, hunting knife lodged in his brain.

After the lifeless body hit the floor, the stranger relaxed his raised arm and started walking towards the body. When he walked in light where the body laid, his appearance became visible.

The stranger was tall and appeared to be young, almost in his 20's by the looks of it, he had dark red brown hair that was parted off-center and swept back, wine colored eyes, a few light scars on the left side of his face that scratched his cheek and deeper one running vertically across his right eyebrow. His clothing consisted in a dark red, classic trench coat reaching below his knees that had a buckle around his waist a black symbol on the left upper part of the sleeve (a black shape of a wood's axe running vertically across a upside down black star), white collared shirt with his first three buttons unbuttoned,white handwraps that only leave his fingers to bare, dark blue Levis pants and dark brown work boots. The most prominent thing on this young man was the giant, weaponized ax that was slung on his back. The blade of the weapon could be considered a mix between a wood's ax and an executioner ax, with the slightly curved handle being decorated with floral carving designs.

The young man bent down and reached for the knife lodged in the corpse's head, removing it with a fleshy sound, cleaned the blood on knife with the thug's hoodie and sheath it back in the back side of the belt covered by his coat.

"I think you've got the point." he couldn't contain the smirk from this one. "Seriously, you would think that they would have two look-outs and a fucking walkie-talkie at least, but I ain't complaining."

He then reached his inside his coat and drew a Scroll from it. Clicking a few times on it, he put the Scroll on his hear and waited for his call to be answered.

"...Yes? Who is it?" a male voice answered from the other end.

"Hey Henry, it's me." somewhat cheerful tone present.

"What do you want, Vino?" asked Henry, with an annoyed tone. "It's 3 in the morning, I was about to get some god damned rest."

"Alright, sheesh, I'll get to the point." the now called Vino replied. "It's about the bounty you propose to me. I forgot to ask you if I needed to bring the guy alive."

"Huuh, let me check here real quick..." a few tipping noises could be heard from the scroll. "Well, since this guy is a rouge huntsman and now crime lord, they want him to face a trial, so the bounty is only valid if he's at least breathing. I'm surprised you of all people didn't look up this particular detail."

Vino chuckled. "I know, right? This almost sounds like a convenient plot exposition."

"Anyway, plot exposition aside, if that's all then I'm gonna hang up." Henry concluded. "I got better things to do then to deal with your occasional unprofessional strokes. Goodnight."

"Have a good one." the call ended. "...Cranky four-eyed prick."

Vino sighed as put put his Scroll back in his coat. "Welp, time for light warm up." he said as he drew the ax, resting it on his shoulder, and approached the doors.

The doors were blown off its hinges with just a kick, and he was immediately welcomed by the mixture of the smell of decaying building, tobacco and the sound of hip-pop coming from out-of-view stereos. From his point of view, he could see two upper floors above him with a few thugs with shotguns and SMG's, some of them having also bullet-proof vests, in front of him, just a few meters away, was an elevator that would take him to the next floor above, with the only thing in between him and the elevator being an enemy only visibly armed with a baseball bat.

"Hello, bitches!" was the most formal greeting he could come up with for these soon to be dead scums. Without wasting anymore time, Vino sprinted to the nearest unfortunate enemy before any of the armed threats above him could start laying fire. "Wapow!"

Before the enemy could even react, Vino had already swung his ax to the thug's face, sending him flying straight to a wall on Vino's left, with aura being his only saving grace from having his jaw completely ripped off.

"Shit! Intruder!" one of them exclaimed.

The axe wielder then noticed the elevator doors opening, catching a glimpse of three men armed with assault rifles.

Reacting quickly, he swung the axe with his right arm, sending it hurling towards the man to his right, pining it to man's chest, and sprinted to the remaining thugs. He grabbed the head of the man in the middle and slammed it to the metallic wall behind him, knocking him unconscious, while the guy on the left raised his weapon, only for Vino to grab the weapon's barrel, sending some misfired rounds of dust to the side, and launch a devastating straight punch to the scum's face, denting the wall behind said scum in the process.

After the last threat went limp, Vino slammed the elevators controls with his hand, closing the doors, and removed his axe from the dead enemy's chest and slung it to his back. The wine eyed axe user then pulled from inside his coat a large, modified version of a 45 Long Colt Top Break Revolver. It was black chromed, and instead of having a cylindrical barrel, it had a 26 cm long rectangular barrel, almost resembling a pistol slide, with a miniature skull on the end of it for an iron sight, a seven round revolving chamber and a stylized grip twisting into a sharp point.

As soon the elevator's doors opened, Vino got out, aimed his gun with one hand to his right and let loose a .45 fire dus round with a loud bang. The round punched through the nearest foe, sending the foe to the ground with a pained scream, as Vino shot a few more rounds to the other thugs in front of him and one across the other side of the current floor, making them drop like flies.

"Aaaannd clear! Moving on!" Vino proclaimed with a grin as he ejected the empty shells from the chambers, said casings clattering on the ground, before injecting new ones with a speed loader.

Snapping the Top Break chambers shut, he reached a stairway to next floor, entering in a room with enemies on sight. He came up to the nearest armed thug and backhanded him and forcefully gripped him from behind, creating a meat shield. The meat-shield's companions showed no mercy as they kept laying down fire, while Vino retaliated with more success, each round found it's mark and painted the room and the tables with blood splatters.

Sensing someone coming from an entrance to his left, Vino disposed of his now useless meat-shield... by throwing it with one hand to the poor thug entering the room, sending them both to the ground. In a blink of an eye, Vino was already upon them, axe drawn over his shoulder, and executed a devastating downward strike with a beastly shout, cleaving them both by the waist and cracking floor underneath.

While the bodies were creating a huge crimson puddle, the axe bearer heard several steps coming from the entrance before him.

"He's definitely over here!"

"Heh, how about a little scatter fun?" Vino muttered. With a twirl of the axe, the weapon started shifting.

The blade of the ax shifted into a firearm stock, parts that were on the shoulder of the ax's handle sledded downwards the handle, letting a trigger and a trigger guard appear beneath the shoulder, transforming into a shotgun fore-end that was accompanied by a barrel that was the weapon's magazine. A circular entrance appeared beneath the knob, and an iron-sight appeared above it, extending firearm's ribs along the grip. With the transformation complete, the ax was shifted into a pump-action shotgun.

He pumped the weapon one-handed, letting a shell fall to the floor. Now he was ready.

"It's shotgun time!" Vino proclaimed with a mad grin.

Proceeding to the entrance before him, he came upon a hallway with a few enemies present, including two heavily armored thugs on the end of the hallway Vino noted.

BLAM!

CHICK-CHICK

So, naturally, he started pumping shell after shell, dropping bodies upon bodies.

"Step riiiigght up! Step right up!" he taunted his foes.

Has he took some cover, Vino reloaded shells into the weapon with his right hand, while the left hand alone then pumped the weapon when he finished reloading.

"Got my eyes on you, motherfucka!" shouted one of the thugs on the other end. "I'm gonna end you!"

"Oh yeah!?" Vino responded amused. "Not if I-!"

He cut himself off when sensed something landing beside him that made his eyes widen:

A grenade.

"SHIT!" was the only response he gave as he dove out of the cover before the grenade exploded it.

With no other choice, he started running towards the remaining armored thugs, his aura taking a few of the opposing shots, and pumped a few shots to stun them, giving him time to shift his shotgun back into a ax. As soon as he was near his first victim, he gave two quick horizontal strikes with his large ax, before delivering descending diagonal cleave towards the neck, decapitating the man.

By the time the head fell to the ground, the other armored men had recovered and aimed his assault rifle by the hip. Reacting quickly, Vino held his ax over his head with both his hands, and started repeatedly striking the thug's face with the end-knob of the weapon like it was a butt of a firearm...

BLAM!

...,with each strike letting a shotgun round loose from the end-knob, empty shells exiting from the shoulder of the handle.

BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!

With one final strike, the thugs head was obliterated due to his aura being incapable of taking anymore shots and his body was sent flipping.

With that taken care of, Vino proceeded forward to room in front of him, the entrance being a destroyed wall, and slid to the nearest cover as he noticed armed enemies to his left entering the room filled with a few crates and tables, staying in his crouching position.

"The fucker is gotta be here somewhere!" one the armed enemies exclaimed. "Spread out a bit!"

'Oh, they have no idea where I'm at.' Vino thought as he took a quick peek from his cover, shifting his ax to shotgun mode. 'I just gotta wait for the right moment.'

And so he waited a few seconds as the thugs spread out a bit and came closer.

"Cooome on, come on." he muttered with a smirk. He then finally laid the surprise ambush upon them:

"POP!"BLAM!

Vino repeatedly peaked from his cover with each shot, comically decimating his foes one by one, each of them screaming in pain.

CHICK-CHICK

"POP!"BLAM!

CHICK-CHICK

"POP!"BLAM!

CHICK-CHICK

"POP!"BLAM!

CHICK-CHICK

"POPA JOHN'S!"BLAM!

CHICK-CHICK

"POP!"BLAM!

CHICK-CHICK

"POP!"BLAM!

CHICK-CHICK

After the last empty shell hit the cement floor, only silence remained in the room as Vino stood over with his shotgun still smoking, analyzing the area now littered with corpses and few splatters of blood. A few more moments of silence later, Vino snorted as he remembered something.

"Did I really just say Popa John's?" he rhetorically asked himself in amusement.

Reloading the weapon, he continued on his path to the bounty.

"Well, time to meet the man. Hopefully this guy can offer me something more than a warm up."


Said muscular, leather hoodie bearing, rogue huntsman was not having the best of evenings.

First he had a tight schedule to begin with, then there was his lack of resources in order to hire decent henchmen, leaving him no other option than to hire street rats who would accept any easy job for some lien, and now there was an intruder currently butchering said street rats, who he was almost certain was coming for him.

The crime lord was currently alone in a large warehouse sized room, since the last of his henchmen have gone out in hopes to resolve the intruder problem, with huge amount of crates that were either filled with weapons, dust or illegal narcotics.

Just as he was organizing his products, he heard the ever increasing sound of gunshots, flesh being cut and pained screams getting closer and closer to him. With his body tense, he stopped what he was doing and concentrated all of his attention to the entrance. The sounds kept growing louder until, after a last slice, it all stopped, leaving only the ambient hip-hop beats to be heard.

After a few seconds of nothing happening, the rogue huntsman became skeptical...

...Until the door of the entrance was suddenly blown off it's hinges, forcing him to move slightly to the side to avoid to be hit by it, and the trench coat wearing intruder, with the axe rested on his right shoulder and a hand in his coat pocket, invited himself in.

"Heeeere's Johnny." Vino said with a low menacing voice accompanied by a feral grin.

Vino's young appearance took the rogue by surprise, since he was expecting at least someone older, although the look on his eyes may show that he could be mentally older in some ways.

"You got guts for a little shit, I'll give you that." the rouge voiced his displeasure.

"I wouldn't consider myself little, but alright." Vino murmured, comparing their height differences.

"So, you came here for my bounty, is that it?" the rogue continued on.

"You could say that." Vino said. 'Although at this point, it's more of an excuse to alleviate boredom.'

"So that makes you a suicidal greedy fool." the rogue concluded.

"Yeah yeah yeah, can we get on with this?" Vino interrupted the rogue with a bored tone, receiving a glare from the criminal in return. "As much as I would like to spend more time with you, I got better shit to do than to listen to you preaching about a man's sin. We already have churches for that."

"You're gonna eat your words, you arrogant little punk!" the rogue replied with a sneer, drawing a bastard sword from his back.

Vino observed his opponent's weapon, noticing the trigger-guard on the weapon's handle, the slot running through the middle of the blade and the four holes in the middle of the blades length. "Hm, the weapon's gun mode gotta be an assault rifle, but which caliber?"

Vino grinned, removing the ax from his shoulder, and held it horizontally in front of him with his knees slightly bent.

"Now we're speaking the same language!"

And with that, both combatants charged at each other. When they were in close proximity, they clashed their weapons simultaneously, creating sparks.

Vino proved to be the superior in strength, as the rogue was thrown off guard by the clash.

Seeing the opening, Vino spun his body and delivered a backwards kick to the rogue's stomach that sent him rolling back. When he came to a stop, the rogue almost had no time to react as Vino was already upon him with his ax already descending, so he dove to his right, letting the ax crack the floor.

In an attempt to retaliate, the rogue tried to horizontally slash Vino's left side. Vino, reacting quicker, immediately held his weapon in a vertical position to his exposed side, receiving the attack with the handle, and pushed the rogue's weapon away. He proceeded to upper slash his opponent, following up with a quick four strike combo, each strike being poorly defended by the rouge. Deciding to break his defense, Vino spun around and delivered a strike with the end-knob, shooting a shotgun round.

With the defense broken, Vino delivered a left hook to the rogue's chin, followed by back roundhouse kick. Using the momentum from the kick, he swung the ax with his right hand, nailing it into the opponent's abdomen, and spun it downwards with the rogue still lodged in it and slammed him to ground, making the rogue's body bounce off the ground.

Vino took advantage from the enemy's slight air-time by twisting his body, swinging his ax one-handed in a reverse grip in a uppercut motion that send his enemy higher in the air. Shifting his weapon into shotgun mode, he finished the combo by shooting the rogue that was in mid-air, sending his body crashing straight into one the boxes.

Switching his weapon back into ax mode, Vino glanced curiously at the weapon's blade. 'No blood? I thought I penetrated his aura back there. He must be wearing a protective vest underneath the-'

RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT-RAT!

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rapid fire and some dust infused bullets hitting his body.

Grunting, the ax wielder dove right behind the nearest box to get cover.

Vino took a quick peak from his cover and saw the rogue still standing, with his bastard sword that had the blade separated in the middle, showing a smoking barrel.

'Well, what do you know?' Vino mused, showing signs of being impressed. He took notice of the bullet wound in his own shoulder, since he was caught off guard his aura's defense couldn't protect him in time 'That thing packs a heat.'

"You enjoyed that one, bitch?!" the criminal aggressively taunted.

"Ooohh, you put a hole in my coat, I feel so wounded!" Vino mocked. Drawing his knife, he stuck the tip into the bullet wound with a slight grunt and began to twist it, trying to find the best position to take the projectile out of his body. Once he found it, took the knife out along with the now bloody projectile that fell into Vino's receiving hand, and inspected it. "I'll give you credit though, 5.56 mm rounds kick ass!"

"Stick around a bit longer and they'll soon be killing your ass!"

Felling his aura rapidly closing the wound, the wine-eyed young man smirked in relish. "Hohohoo, it's on, scumbag!"

With adrenaline pumping through his veins, Vino got out behind the crate with a sprint and started flanking his enemy through the left.

Said enemy immediately opened fire upon the ax wielder and found himself unable to land a single shot on the moving target as the target ran and jumped over any crates that were in his way.

Vino took out his revolver from his coat and fired three shots in his opponent's direction, forcing the rogue to roll behind a crate to take cover. Having only a few seconds window opportunity, he took a quick look through his surroundings, trying to find an advantage, until he took notice of an opened crate that was filled with crystalline Dust.

Seeing this, he made a mad dash into the crate, firing another shot to the rogue's cover along the way as a precaution, took a handful of Dust within the crate with his free hand and toss it into the rogue's cover.

Just as the rogue came out of his cover and aimed his weapon, his eyes widened as he noticed the Dust that was tossed in his way a little too late

BANG-BANG!

BOOM!

With the two shots from the courtesy of Vino's revolver, the Dust created chain reaction that resulted into a colorful explosion mixed with various elements, blasting the rogue back a couple meters.

Using this opportunity, Vino made a bee-line straight to the disoriented criminal who was slowly getting up, cooking his right fist back. As soon he was upon the criminal, he unleashed a right hook straight to his jaw, receiving a satisfying bone crunching sound, that spun the rogue around, leaving his back exposed. Vino then warped his arms around his foe's abdomen from behind and performed a ground crushing suplex, sending the enemy's weapon slide through the floor.

As Vino was picking himself up from the floor, the rogue stayed down grunting in pain and desperately tried to reach for his bastard sword. Taking notice on what he was doing, Vino drew his revolver in a blink of an eye.

"Nahnahnah, I know what you're thinking punk." Vino started, staring coldly into the rogue's fearful eyes. "You're thinking 'Did he fire seven shots or only six?'. Now to tell you the truth, I forgot it myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .45 Magnum , one of the most powerful handguns in the world and it'll blow your head clean off, you gotta ask yourself a question...'Do I feel lucky?'" there was a brief pause as the rogue was frozen in place, his fearful gaze constantly shifting from Vino's cold eyes to the gun's barrel. "Well, do ya p-"

BANG!

He didn't finish however, as a shot was fired from the rogue's direction, being Vino's head tilt reaction his only saving grace as the bullet grazed his cheek. Looking down on his target, he found in the rogue's trembling hand a miniature handgun that was probably hidden in his sleeve.

Vino gritted his teeth like feral animal, giving the shaking criminal a pissed off look, and started pushing his leg back...

"Oh, you cockblocking motherFUCKER!"

...to deliver a devastating kick to the rogue's chin, sending him crashing to the other side of the room.

With some of his anger vented, he stood there panting lightly in a attempt to calm himself, until he scoffed. "The dipshit just had to ruin my Clint Eastwood vibe..."

Sighing loudly, we walked towards the crashed body that was unconscious, slung it over his shoulder and proceed to the exit of the room.


Walking out of the decaying building and into the dark cool night, the axe wielder calmly strolled to his car with the still unconscious body on his shoulder, his footsteps being the only sound present besides the breeze that blew lightly on his coat's length as he walked. He pulled out of his coat a pack of cigarettes, caught one between his lips and took out a lighter and lit it.

As he arrived to his car, he took out his keys from his pants pocket and unlocked his vehicles doors with a click of a button.

Ever so calmly, he opened the trunk of the vehicle and dropped the body in there without too much of a care. Just as he was about to close the trunk, he stopped as his hearing picked on a peculiar sound.

Caaaw-Caaw-Caw

"That's weird, I thought crows didn't appear around these parts..." he mumbled, look around curiously in an attempt to find the source of the sound. After a few seconds, he gave up. "Huh, must've probably smelled the bodies."

Resuming what he was doing, he was about to close the trunk until he noticed the body's hand sticking out and shove it inside.

As soon as he closed the trunk of the car, Vino sensed, no, FELT something behind him not too far away from him. Keeping his cool, Vino slowly turned around and came face to face with a man.

Sharp red eyes, black,graying, spiky hair, slight stubble. This man was wearing a red tattered cloak, along with a gray dress shirt and black dress pants. The most eye-catching detail for Vino, however, was the single-edged greatsword the man was carrying behind his back. Vino deduced that he must be a huntsman.

Both stood there in silence, as if trying to see through each other souls through eye contact. The stranger stood there in a relaxed stance, with one hand on his hip, having a calm yet analytical (if not accusatory in Vino's opinion) look in his eyes. Vino had his hands on the coats pockets, with his cigarette hung lazily in his lips, giving the stranger a cautious yet bored look.

After a few more seconds of stare-off, Vino, letting a puff of smoke come out between his lips, decided to break the ice.

"Sooooo, what brings you around these neck of the woods?"

"Not much, I just came looking for a certain someone... " the stranger spoke with a rough voice, glancing at the trunk of the car. "...but by the looks of it, you already beat me to it."

"Yup, unfortunately that certain someone is in a bit of tight situation at the moment." to make his point, Vino taped his hand on the trunk. "Now, if you don't mind, I have places to be."

But the stranger wasn't having any of that.

"And where do you think you're going with him?" he said a bit more serious.

"What do you think? Getting my paycheck." Vino simply responded. "I'm not greedy, but I didn't drag my ass all the way over here for nothing."

"Yeah, but usually the info about these type of bounties are not that easy to get your hands upon, unless you're a huntsman." the man pointed out. "And you don't look like a certified hunter to me."

"True dat, but why do you care so much?" Vino questioned with a slight annoyed undertone. "For all I know, I'm doing you guys a favor by taking out these type of scum."

"Usually, I wouldn't mind letting someone give huntsmen a helping hand in these type of situations." the man's red eyes narrowed at a body not to far away from them. "But killing criminals is not the best way."

"These guys knew what they signed up for the moment they accepted their job, so don't feel too bad." Vino scoffed, letting some ashes from his cancer stick fall. "Besides, if it makes you feel any better, there are a few survivors."

The stranger, however, only raised an eyebrow at that.

Seeing the look he was giving, Vino turned his head to the building's entrance and saw the body of his first victim and he also saw that, inside the building, the elevator's doors were slamming repeatedly on a corpse that stood in the way.

Turning back to the man, Vino sweatdropped. "Well, few-ish."

The man only sighed.

"Look kid. It's not my place to say it, but here's the fact: you're skilled, but you're in need of a purpose, a direction to guide yourself" the man then snorted. " The fact that you're already smoking is a bad sign."

"Ooh spare me, it's not like I'm addicted to it." Vino proclaimed, until he smelt a slight scent of alcohol coming from the man. "By the way, how's that liver doing?"

"Huh, very funny." the stranger deadpanned.

"Hey, since you're the one saying I'm in a need of direction, have any genius advice for me?" Vino sarcastically asked.

The red eyed huntsman looked at Vino for a moment, before letting a smirk cross his face.

"I might have a preposition for you, if you're interested."

Vino stood there a few seconds musing, finishing his cigarette. Until his mind came to reality, letting the butt of the cigarette fall and stepping on it.

"...Alright, I'm listening."


And there you have it! Took me way longer to upload this chapter, considering I was planning to release it a week ago. Sorry if the action sequences are a bit confusing, it's my first time writing one.

By the way, put a VanossGaming reference in this (if you can even consider that a reference), and the other one is too obvious to point out.

Well, that's everything I have to say, hope you enjoyed this chapter, we'll see in the next one.

See ya.