A New Beast to Hunt

I reached the city or better yet town only to find the place mostly devoid of life. Now there're being within this town just from the scent in the air but none that I can see through the barren streets. The streets are littered with destroyed carts and stalls. The merchandise for each of these are sprawled every which way across the ground and the air reeks of blood. Maybe the reason behind this is because blood is covering the stalls plus the carts. I can see it dried around me but still present. A massacre occurred here not to long ago.

As I entered the town I noticed the scent of blood and a couple patches of it painting some of the pouches of the houses I passed or the glass within the shops I took notice of. I began to memorize where this abnormal and almost deliberately placed mixture of bodies in the streets. It's almost as if meant to draw the attention of people and the good will within them to lay these slightly mauled bodies to rest. I found this curious and even more when I saw children's bodies as well. The conclusion I can safety come to is that whatever did this has no remorse for the loss of pure lives and is willing to kill anything that was human by the looks of it.

I stopped at the body of one of the creature's victim and noticed that while he was torn apart his arms, legs, neck, and head are all intact. The torso and mid are of his body on the other hand is ripped open. Not cut open with a sword but more along the lines of torn with maybe a pair of claws or fingers. I kneeled down before the corpse and shook my head at this display of savagery. Only monsters are capable of such cruelty. Even when I personally brutalize a target with my hands I don't leave the body in such a state. Upon closer inspection I noticed that a great deal of this man's innards have been removed. His heart is still within his body same with his lungs but everything else and down like the kidneys, pancreas, liver, and intestines are completely clawed out. Strangely enough that's about it. It stops there though. Most of the ribs are intact same with his lungs and stomach. It seems like this monster was very deliberate in what it wanted from the corpse. That demonstrates a calm head and near human level of intelligence.

This monster used claws to splice into the skin and used an impressive strength to pulled it open. It didn't break the most of the rips so knew how far out to go out and dig in. It has amble knowledge of the human body and the placement of it's parts. Finally it pulled out the organs and innards with iths claw causing the scratches and marks on the inside under the skin to eat the these tough organs with it's sharp teeth. This man was never literally bitten open but ripped open.

Overall this man was chased down and easily caught after maybe a playful chase but only a couple feet. More than likely happened in a building and not so much outside just from the dileberate placing of the body. By the looks of the bruises on his wrists whatever did this held him down by them with his arms up. Then it bit open his neck and watched as he slowly drowned in his own blood. Right after this it ripped opened his torso and devoured his innards.

Savage, carnivorous, intelligent, with abnormal strength, speed, and a monster. Needs to be studied for further for proper Judgement over Severity.

Analyses complete.

I know only a couple monsters came that to mind who might've done this. Only a few who take pleasure in the pain and carnage it causes.

A werewolf it out. Its day time and last night was the new moon .

A blood thirsty lesser or a very driven High vampire might've caused this. The sort with not just two forms like lesser vampires but a third fully monstrous form. One that possibility went into a blood frenzy. This isn't the case as well. The body is still in one piece and they eat the body whole. They don't believe in leaving scraps of a kill, less they end up attracting hunters like myself.

It's not an ogre or an orc. They have hands not claws, even though the size of these hand marks are about right. They prefer to rip their prey apart limb by limb and eat most of the human flesh around the limb. They prefer not to eat the inside.

That left one monster that can survived longer than a day in this type of environment. The wendigo. It would explain the strength, the ferocity, the claws, and the appetite, but it doesn't explain the man slaughter. Wendigo are terrible humanoid creature that used to be human but turned into monsters once they turned to cannibalism. The wendigo though doesn't have a scent like this hanging in the air and mixed with the blood and bodies. They are primal, but don't carry the intellect to even dream of torturing its dinner. They capture them or at least store the bodies somewhere safe and dark. This isn't the case.

The size of these prints as well are well above that of a wendigo. Maybe a hybrid creature. A mix of wendigo and an ogre. That would explain everything if that's even possible. Regardless of its origin it must be probably Judged via the Jäger code.

CAWWWW!

The chickens in the distance are completely untouched. It eats human exclusively. A blood-starved beast then. That's my jurisdiction. If it is a wendigo it has to be ten or more of them commit death of death of this scale and without anyone escaping. There're tracks coming in to include mine but none coming out. This is strange as well because the wendigo doesn't travel in packs. Ogres do though maybe this proves further that this beast might be a hybrid mix of wendigo and orc. Though I don't know any orc in existence that desperate. They normally provide "special services" to women. This might further my investigate on what I might be dealing with.

I walked to the nearest body of a woman I could find that has definitely seen better days. I sighed and dropped down to a knee to examine the marks on her next. I looked around the ground and like I expected there're signs of struggle. Though is not the kind I expect because of the lack of one. Orcs love human women and seek to mate with him repeatedly until spent. This beast played with it's food but not in a sexual way like that of an Orc. It let her linger a bit longer than the man but maybe for only five minutes more at most.

I noticed foot prints on the ground next to the corpse, deformed and larger with sharp claw, but still human in shape.

With the claw and bite marks on the bodies surrounding me coupled with the foot marks on the ground I could see the scene right now.

The wendigo came from around the corner around ten feet away and rushed a man first that was sticking out of a window 7 feet in behind me. A grown man was sent sailing in the air for about eight feet and by the claw marks on his back. The power that was behind it is beyond human measures. After the man went sailing the woman turned around and attempted to rush in his direction. The indent and slide marks I see mean that most likely the monster jumped her and skidded against the ground on top of her back. Judging from the claw marks on her neck running along the front, the monster choked the woman at first, but she fought back, if barely. I noticed some purple like liquid on the ground and a purple ended kitchen knife a couple meters away and slightly bent to the side. The woman got a stab in on the monster, but it was futile in the attempt because it bat the knife away and slit her neck open. All she managed to do what make it angry. The woman started to bleed out, but the monster didn't bother waiting for her to die slow. It tore her apart and open with its claws.

I sighed and stood to my feet. I walked to the knife and looked it over and the dried blood on top. I poked it with my finger and rose it to my lips. I put out my tongue to taste it. The blood burned on my tongue and I felt my blood boil. I felt my vision shift and my back arc and crack. My bones felt like they turned brittle before coming back together same with my muscles, but denser than before. I felt powerful but also starving for something delicious and filling innards. I want it. I want it. I want. I want. I WANT IT. I WANT IT!

I blinked my eyes and rose the knife up as I examined my eyes more closely. Golden with cat like irises. They remained this way for only a couple more seconds and that voice in my head telling me to kill, eat, and repeat followed.

Judgement is partially complete.

This monster is ravenous, stronger than normal men, and more agile as well. It eats human flesh yet left everything else untouched, and it felt no remorse for the death of women and children. By the looks of it there're more than one of them so it's safe to assume that all of them are dead. I can picture a town like this holding a couple hundred people at the most, and yet where are these couple hundred? I saw many bodies littering the streets, but this can't be all of them. I heard that some wendigo can mimic human voices and with this enhanced wendigo it makes me wonder if that's all it can really do. Maybe it can mimic a person as well. Shed it's skin like the skinwalker. I know shapeshifting is a norm for few very powerful and elusive creatures.

It's hunger is impossible to comprehend or control without a collar. It's mind is muddled by this glutenous desire to feet to the point it commits even more evil acts during to fulfill it.

Severity: Yellow

Annulment: Preferred

For now, I'll hold back until I have all the facts.

As I walked I counted the bodies I came across. I counted at least around seventy and this is after walking for over ten minutes. This can't be right, but this does further promote my theory of an enhanced hybrid wendigo with the ability to change skin. If it has the intelligence it can come up with a plan to systematically take control of a city one human at a time if they actually can take the shape of humans. I've yet to encounter them though which means they're watching, studying, and waiting to ambush me.

I can feel that I'm being watched. I knew it the moment I got within sight distance to the town. They haven't bothered me yet so for now I'll get what I came here for and leave. This town is dead meaning that there're no humans left to Hunt for and no payment for my services. I can at least stock up whilst marooned in this literal god forsake land.

I looked around and went from one kiosk to the next and looted what I could ranging from food, precious metals, gems, jewelry, and a couple flasks of water. Thank the goddess. I drank my fill and sighed in relief as the cooling water fell into the molten pit that is my stomach. I noticed a corpse of a woman with a nice golden necklace and snagged it as well. I can't really resist the call of treasure. Sometimes I think that I'm part dragon or something, because of my large fascination with shiny and priceless stones and gems like gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, and so much more. There wasn't much but enough place a rare smile upon my lips. Dead men and women don't need such things and to leave it is an insult than to take it for use. This gold necklace could land in the hands of a woman and buy her children from a bandit leader one say.

I do know well enough to pay my respects to the fallen with two gold coins, one for each eye, for everyone I came across. It was the least I could for them to find their way to the afterlife and safe passage across the waters.

I saw one building that look like a general store and I went inside with a body or two every which way. Many goods and items were on the ground from the struggle and broken glass covered the floor. Despite the mix up of merchandise scattered in the floor covered in a substance I would like to think is blood, I still found something I could use. One of which happened to be a map that's clean enough for me to read. I laid it down on the counter next to what I'll assume is the register and examined every piece of it. I'm on a small continent with very few regions.

Judging from the color I'm in the eastern region of deserts and mountains, but I'm not too far from the center of the continent. The north was mountainous if these contour lines meant anything and most likely a frozen taiga. The west was flat but marked with what appears to be lines of grass maybe. Maybe this region has vast vegetation in the manner of plains. The south was forest but with a transition from high to low elevation here or there. I think the town I was in was in is place called Lautrec. I know I traveled at least 29 miles from the sea so I followed the maps current pathways. I continued west and by the looks of it a large city call Rabona. All major roads converge in the middle to this city like most humans do so that mean most of the trading routes take this route. It might be a capital city, because it was one of the biggest marked on the map I have. That's probably a good place to start my mission.

I may be a fallen Jäger but I'm still a Jäger in body and soul. My mission never changes. Conquest and control. Create an hidden power within the land and seize hold of its underbelly then move to the next. I might want start with a few of the eastern and southern cities marked on the map. There aren't that many, so I can assume this is because of monster activity. I'll have opportunities to hunt, gain insight, recruit agents, and become part of the trading community.

"What's a little hunting with some blood," I recited the words of my master. Blood in the form of what gives life whether it be flesh or money. That which men starve over is what I will gain to insert my hand into the land.

I rolled the map up and placed it in my knapsack with everything else. Gods above I love elvish magic. Even though I'm not adept in the Aura or magic like I'd prefer, I still find items of importance with my sight and store them accordingly. For example: my knapsack is magical. It's bottomless and I can place anything inside of it if it's small enough to fit into the opening for the fold. The weight accumulates as time goes by though but with a couple charms from a friend the knapsack practically carries itself via floating. This is only if I'm wearing my gloves though, but it's still a nice item to have. Once crushed an ogre skull with it once.

I'm relieved to see that going west the entire time was a good idea so now I can continue on now. It's a shame what happened to this place though. If only I'd arrived maybe a couple days or a month back I could've saved someone. Someone that can pay me for my services and spread the word of a Hunter willing to hunt for an easy fee of money but more importantly secrets. Since I haven't seen any survivors yet that means this town can't provide this for me. The destruction of human cities isn't any of my business though. They should've had safeties or a failsafe to protect them from a horde of beasts or spies within their ranks. There must be a way to tell if a man, woman, or child is a monster or not. There's always a way, because there's one fact that a monster cannot defy; they will never be human.

I exited the store and looked around my surrounding and frowned. Something was different about the street. I can paint a picture in my mind of previous places I've either walked through or walked past, and for some reason I felt that this part of town was different compared to how I remember it. The stalls are all still turned over still, but I noticed one bowl that I was surely right side up. Before it was upside down. A body as well to my left was changed in a way. The left arm was spread out with the middle finger slightly above the ear, but now it was below it. Death bodies don't move unless the body wasn't dead to begin with.

I drew my eyes to a change to my picture as well. I noticed a new indent on the corner in front of me. It was a fresh claw mark. I'm not alone anymore and they're making their move. I looked at the body and picked up a stone. I tossed the rock to the body and the rock didn't bounce off. It hit and slide down as if hitting something soft. These bodies have had the time they needed to harden so the rock should have bounced off.

I started to reach into my coat until I heard something to my right away from the body. I stayed neutral to the street and turned my head and eyes instead of my body. The smell of rotten flesh filled my nose that almost made me want to gag. I could feel the taint of these beasts and it was closer to me than ever before. Whatever killed these people now has me surrounded. Actually, I've been surrounded by them, but they haven't gotten that close to me before like they have now. If they can shape shift then impersonating a body shouldn't be difficult. It would explain the different body composition. They must be working together to set up an ambush for me and like any good monster they leave out bait for the unsuspecting man to bite on. The question being what's going to be the bait?

Now that my mind is off the gold and supplies I can feel them much easier now. My right arm shivered at the presence of monsters. They possess some manner of Od or a special brand of Ki like what I use. This might call for me to go above my basic form if they can used it. If not, then maybe my sight is all that will be needed instead of my augments.

I heard another sound but remained still. I think this one was meant to pull my attention toward it. I glanced towards it and something turned over the corner. I peered at it and saw that it was a woman. A grown woman that looked worse for wear in a common woman's dress. It was torn and shredded from something or maybe running. She was dirty and filthy with a scared look in her black eyes as well as a something in her long black messy hair. I rose an eyebrow at the woman and let my arm fall to the side from my pistol. I looked at the woman carefully to see if it really is a woman. I have to admit this thing looked human on the outside.

"Please, can you help me?" She asked me in a shaky voice that was believably human as well.

I looked back to a corpse and then back to the woman and found a difference between the two. I noticed a shadow on the roof of the building I just left as well. This woman didn't smell of rotten flesh, but there's a distinct scent on her that made me grit her teeth. This could be the scent of roses maybe so perfume. Makes me wonder where this woman would have gotten it and why does she still have it on. Then again with the scent of blood, sweat, and tears in the air it's not too difficult to cover it with simple perfume. Speaking of blood, I couldn't smell any on her at the moment which is strange seeing that there is blood littering the streets. I can see it on the walls that looks like she's been leaning on so she should have at least accumulated some of it on her. That is unless before she came, by pure coincidence and chance, close to an hour after I arrived, cleaned up and slightly washed off most of the compromising indicators off her body.

I could make out a faint smell of tainted beings on her but not much. That scent isn't enough to prove her humanity or not. I looked down to her left arm and noticed it twitch every now and again. The sleeve had dirt on it like the rest of her clothing, but the strangest thing is that I saw a black residue mixed in with the dirt. A purple smudge was on the right heel of her sandals as well what smelled of the taint. A purple smudge that has the scent of a tainted human.

The woman also appears to be scared but on the inside that was a different case. Being a Hunter I could see it in her eyes. Those aren't the eyes of a woman that has seen hell and is suffering through it. That raise another alarm in my head and the urge to cut this woman down was progressively growing. I need to make sure before I act, because I don't wish to kill an innocent. I've done too much of that already.

The woman stepped back while I was lost in thought. It seems that silence is making her more anxious by the moment. I turned toward her and walked in her general direction. The young woman flinched back as I closed the distance between us. "Are you o-one of th-them," she stuttered a little though it fell on deaf ears.

I was right on her when she stepped back onto a corpse and fell onto the ground. I ignored the girl as she yelped on the way down. Her dress fell down a little revealing her ample breast to me. I must admit that this wendigo or woman is good at what it does to lure in men. Could be a woman that somehow hid and survived in wait for a stranger to pass by, but I sincerely doubt it.

Just as I was about to help her up I felt monster energy in the distance then heard a crash. The sensation I had disappeared just as fast as it came after the crash. I lifted my nose and picked up another scent. A distinctive one separate from the rest. A human scent so maybe a survivor.

"Don't worry, my business here is done with woman." I looked down to the woman or monster with a quick warning in mind. "As long as I'm allowed to leave in peace I won't result to hostilities."

My words could be seen as cold and apathetic, but I cared nothing about others anymore so, it's not my fault. I also noted to her I know a little more than I should but cared only if I was attacked. Because of the code I follow I'm not for helping others and doing deeds without proper compensation. All I want is to leave without a fight and once I'm out I doubt the things around me will follow. If they do at least I can stretch my muscles for the first time in a while. Being on ship did little for my skills or muscles.

I could feel the presence of something all around me and I put my hand into my coat.

"Hey," I heard behind me, but ignored it with my colt in hand. I examined it silently as I moved towards the single remaining human presence in the town. I felt several still, but this one is the closest and the brightest.

I stopped at a house when I heard it. The sound of female crying and not from a woman but from a little girl.

The wendigo in the form of a young woman from before rammed into me when I stopped so abruptly and fell back onto her rear again.

"Please don't leave me!" The woman leapt up toward me and looped her arms around my neck.

I felt the energies converging on me meaning that my window of action was closing fast and this woman behind me now is one of them. The flesh of humans; I can smell it in her breath. The smell of innards and blood that like the corpse had on him. That's what I was waiting for. The scent of blood starved beast.

I reached for my pistol and revealed it for her to see. I loaded six bullets from my belt then I pulled the hammer back. I did warn this thing to leave me be and it didn't listen, so I has to face the consequences. I faced the wolf in sheep's clothing and said, "Do not worry I'm not going anywhere yet." The relief on her face was comical because my next action turned that relief into shock. The barrel of my colt pointed straight down on her forehead pointed at an angle to the spinal column at the neck.

"Same can't be said about you."

I pulled the trigger to a loud boom that echoed through the town and I'm sure alerting anything else around me to my position.

The woman after a moment lost its disguise and turned into some form of greenish brown monster with golden eyes. Its teeth are razor sharp and it had long claws as well. The muscles this thing had were impressive I must say so it must have at least the power to toss a regular man at least twenty feet. It's like the mixture of a wendigo for sure and maybe a troll just without the tusks. Maybe just a different evolution of a wendigo instead of a hybrid. If this is so than its good that these only exist on this island and not in England.

I twirled the colt back into its front holster and faced back towards the house. I gripped my sword before walking into the house. I saw the body of a woman with her insides eaten by the tainted ones and a girl was over the body crying. I heard the occasional whisper of what sounded like "Mama, mama" from the girl. I saw a wendigo in the form of a man this time in between myself and the girl and the wendigo reached for the girl.

"Shut up girl right now," the wendigo in human flesh growled. It's apparent that the little girl doesn't like this man and wants nothing to do with him, so I walked silently to the monster from behind with Hate in my right hand.

"No! Daddy, no!" The little girl screamed at the wendigo took her shoulder. I hesitated for a moment when she said this. Did wendigo have children? I believed them all to be sterile so that can't be possible. This wendigo probably took the form of her father and killed her mother in front of her eyes. This thing deserves what's coming next.

I grasped its shoulder and pulled back while slamming the pommel of my sword between his shoulder blades. I heard loud crack and forced in down. I rested the edge of my sword under his ear right on top of the jugular. "Ahh gaa…" It didn't get to finish because the second it tensed the blade went across its neck. I stepped past it forcing the monster back as I slashed its throat from one end to the next without any remorse.

The monster gasped and instinctively reached for its throat with its only good arm to cover the spluttering wound in his neck. I stepped back then thrust my black dirk into its body at the side repeatedly causing fatal organ wounds with each stab. The wendigo gasped out a bloody scream as I continued to push it back slamming with eat stab until the bastard fell from its wound onto the hard wooden floor. The monster looked dead up to me and I felt the deeps and darkest contempt for this thing.

"Die," I cursed the wendigo as I rose my foot and stomped into the clawed hand over its throat. I heard it's wrist break and watched it decorate the insides of the beasts neck. The sound of its gasps and pained moans made this all the more pleasurable in my book.

The little girl watched with red tear filled eyes at what I did. I was in a precarious situation now. I felt larger spikes of energy, multiple signifiers not too long ago, and the smell of taint slowly increase around me. A large one is slowly coming toward my general direction. Unless I wish to fight an oversized enemy with my normal sized weapons in confined quarters its best I leave now.

I looked down to the girl and knew that I had to do something. I saved her making her my responsibility, so I must do something. The code dictates that any life that I save automatically belongs to me and at her age I can't leave her here to fend for herself.

I kicked the still alive but dying wendigo away from us and walked toward the girl and knelt down. "It's okay little girl," I tried to calm her down. "The monster is gone so don't worry." I said in my still empty voice making me sigh on the inside. This sort of approach might make the girl more afraid of me. I don't wish for her to be.

The girl looked up to me search for something to ease her mind. She desires to see me it seems, and I can indulge. I lifted my hood back to show her my eyes and head then pulled the face mask down so she could see my face. I smiled warmly at the girl like I was trained to do and said, "I'm a normal man so don't worry."

Now that my vision wasn't restricted by my hood I could see that this was a very cute girl with long straight dark brown hair with her bangs literally hiding her eyes away from sight. So much so I had to physically spread her bangs apart to see them and when I looked into her eyes I had to comment on them. "You've really pretty eyes," I noted despite her bangs covering her eyes almost fully. I could see that they're a jade green that complemented her brunette hair. It seems direction of approaching this was working because her hard crying turned into quiet sobs that quickly quieted away as well.

"There you go." I reached over to her head and watched as she didn't flinch away from my touch with my naked right hand. Not even when I pat her on top as trained when dealing with small children.

"You really dark," she returned as a compliment? I think it was a compliment, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's simply an observation. I noticed after all with my walk through the town a lack of Africans or any other race other than those with white skin. I suppose someone like me with my skin color would appear strange to her. I left this thought behind mind knowing she wasn't trying to be offensive, and I pat her head softly as my smile grew. Then she started to calm down even more enough for me to introduce myself.

I cleared my throat and said, "You may call me Ledger, Ledger Naertens." This name was on my sister gave to me many years ago. I've long forgotten my real name and just adopted the names that were given to me by others. "What's your name cutie?"

The girl went silent for a moment giving me time to see that the dress she was dressed in was not very… serviceable so she's in need of something else to wear. The white dress she had on was torn and ripped down to her elbows and dirty from the wendigo's blood. I reached into my back pocket and took out a handkerchief from my right pocket when I saw her about to reach up to wipe the tears away from her face. I caught her hands and smiled again when she looked back up to me. I used the cloth on her eyes and her cheeks also cleaning the blood off as well. If she would've used her dirty hands to wipe her face it could have been bad for her in a few days' time. I placed the rag away when I was satisfied with my work and let her speak.

"Miata," she said weakly. I thought on the name and nodded.

"That's a pretty name with a long story behind it." A very long story at that it's a wonder why her parents would give her that name. What's next? Am I going to find a girl named Lilith with pitch black hair and eyes radiating demon energy? Gods I hope not.

"You pwetty red eyes," she said in response to my compliment of her eyes making my eyes widen. The bloodlust must have made my eyes change without my meaning too. No wonder things slowed down when I killed that wendigo.

Strange that only a broken shoulder, slash of the neck, and 17 stabs was all it took to kill it. Normally it takes fire, piercing the brain, crushing the heart, or cutting off the head.

I shook these thoughts off and turned my attention back to the little girl in front of me. I blinked and smiled as my red eyes turned back to the dark brown they were before making the girl's widen in awe. "Thank your Miata, but you have to keep this a secret okay?"

Miata nodded and softly said, "O-okay."

I felt the spike of energy from before and it's becoming stronger. "Behind you!" Miata cried but by that moment I was already in my reaction stage. My instincts pulled my head down out of the way of a swipe that could have taken it off if I was a couple milliseconds slower. I braced my hands to the ground and used my free leg and swept it in an arc. My leg came into contact with something and it fell over and came into contact with the ground.

With the momentum of the kick I pushed myself up to my feet with Love, a shining sword with a blue and white grip, in my left hand and Hate, the sword that devoured light with a red and black handle, in my right drawn ready to kill whatever attacked me.

I saw that it was the wendigo from before, but something was wrong. I knew something was wrong because it was laughing at me and that can't be possible with a destroyed throat. The monster laughed and leaned up staring at me with those golden eyes. A regular wendigo wouldn't have been able to recover that fast from a mixture of shattered bones, a dislocated shoulder, gashed open neck and near broken neck, and every major organ destroyed on top of that. That normally would've taken an hour or so for it to regenerate, ten minutes at the most.

I narrowed my eyes at this evolved prey that spoke to me and laughed. "How are you still alive monster?" I had to ask right before killing it. These sorts of monsters are always arrogant and tell off their secrets when they believe they've won.

Like I predicted it laughed madly at me as it stood to its feet to speak. "Come now human! Did you think you could kill me like that hahahaha!" I frowned and poised Hate in reverse grip and Love in regular. From what I can see the neck that I destroy was completely healed. The wound gone almost as if it wasn't there to begin with. It was standing as well which means that the organs I cut open that would have killed a normal man somehow got mended back together.

Such fast chimera comparable regeneration. I dare say it can heal as fast as I can.

Now I know that severe injuries that can kill a human slows it down at most. I need to hack off the head, destroy the brain, or sever the spine as per my training and the norm when hunting monsters. All living things fall under a set rules when it comes to death and this thing is no different. When I shot the other wendigo in the head it stayed down. I can see the body from here still laying outside on the ground. If I cut it in half I'm sure it will still die as well. If I rip out its heart though there's a chance it might survive. I'm going to have to test this soon. Stabbing the heart isn't good to start with though. For now I'll hand this the old fashioned way.

I raised my blades as time slowed around me. I ran up to the wendigo greatly surprising the monster with my speed. There aren't that many humans that can match my speed. Almost on instinct the wendigo rose his arms up to grab me. My blades found home in the muscles of its upper arms and slashed downward making the muscles completely useless. I cut deep through the bone of each arm and yanked back nearly sawing the limb off. My sword Hate can be classified as a saw blade because of the toothy edge but is very small and fine. It can cut through anything and everything with ease. Hate can even cut a man with look.

The monster gasped and stepped back with a roar. I followed much faster than it moved and side stepped to its left flank. I landed a side kick into the beast's knee forcing it to snap like a twig with the pressure behind it. I rose my leg in a quick side kick that crushed its knee in toward the second leg. I stepped out of the way as it fell to the ground.

"DAMN YOU HUMAN!" The wendigo roared as it sat back up with its good arm. I moved out its line sight and swiped Hate across its good arm like a hot knife through butter. There's no such thing as resistance to Hate. You suffer it no matter who or what you are. Hate will always cut deep. As the wendigo fell to the ground yet once more I stepped in its area of descent with my Love raised up. The monster fell onto my blades edge with his neck and gasped. Love can't cut only protect so his neck rested softly on Love's edge. I rose Hate up over my head acting out as the headsmen for this impending execution.

"N-no please," it begged and honestly, I found this pathetic. I felt the beast within me purr to see and taste of fear, remorse, and hatred pouring out of this beast. There's no stopping this for my blade calls for his blood. The beast in my body calls for its life. The demons in my soul are calling for its very essence.

I shook my head while gripping the handle to Hate firmly. I dropped Hate down in one fluid motion without any force behind it. The sword himself cleaved clean through its neck. In a less than a second his head fell from the shoulders to the ground in a loud thump. I watched the body spasm for a moment before following the heads lead on the floor.

I sighed as I wiped the blood from the monster off my blades and sheathing in their respected homes at my hips. I covered them with the flap of my coat until it fell back to its original place in front of me. A pain that comes from the receding bloodlust forced me to grit my teeth. The red shaded world around me faded away to the regular one. The colors around me took on different shades of brown as well as the light outside taking a more yellowish coloration instead of the red, black, blue, and purple my power forced me to see.

My hood face mask came up a second later at the same time Miata walked toward me trembling slightly as she past the body on the ground. I knelt back down to the little girl's level thinking on what exactly she just watched me do. I've probably traumatized her with little hope of recovery. What can do about this one? Most likely the rest of the wendigo monsters are outside lying in wait for me to come out.

A decision must be made. Should I take her or leave her?

I looked back out the door and around me towards the tainted power spiking again me. I glanced back and saw something coming off of the monster I beheaded. A light of sorts that could be only one thing. The soul of a demon, but how can that be? No, that's not a demon soul. It's not strong enough to qualify, but it's something like a demon's soul though. Its connected with the body still and still hasn't pass on to the god that these monsters belong to.

I reached into my pocket and grabbed an old magical crystal used to store the souls of monsters I've killed. A monster's soul when infused with that of a human or a man-made weapon can gain the properties of that very monster as long as they don't allow the soul to take control of their own. I contain demons and a lord within myself and it's a war every waking moment of every day to keep them contained. A soul of an evolved wendigo though could provide some much-needed information. Torturing a soul is fun at times and I believe these things deserve it.

I lifted my arm and felt the eye in the crystal open. The soul rose off the body and fell into the grey crystal creating a small light. This will be useful if I ever run out of energy. "Tis' safer to use thy soul in crystal then in thy body." The words from one of the greatest magic users I've ever met. I pulled the crystal to my chest and closed my eyes. The soul resisted the conversion from life force to power source; futile it may be. This weak soul isn't even as powerful as that of a goblin's.

The restoration abilities and different qualities the souls gave me felt so good after prolonged use. That's the catch to having the ability of absorbing the souls of the corrupt, an oppression and addiction to the powers it brings, but I've gone so long without it's like eating candy you haven't in a while. It tastes good but not as much as it did before. The body of the wendigo faded away and my mind filled with information and memories.

My, this thing can devour people and gain their memories. Nothing was all that useful until it came to Miata here. It ate her mother and father thus gaining both their memories and what I'm seeing made my frown. Not the best father but one of the bravest mothers I've ever seen.

Her name was Melyna.

"Miata," I called getting her little girl's attention.

"Yes," she answered quietly.

"Would you like to come with me?" The girl blinked as the question echoed through her head. In truth I can never imagine what a little girl at the age of six or seven would have going through her head at a time like this, but with the larger rise of wendigo outside I can sense around the house its best to get out now instead of later.

The sound of a window breaking upstairs had me on my guard. I pushed her back into a corner next to a cabinet as more wendigo began to pour into the house. The ceiling above began to buckle as more and more of these things charged in surrounding us. Even when these things laughed and roared for my death I waited for the girls answer.

"Would you like to come with me?" I asked again and she looked into my eyes the entire time. It felt like a lifetime before she nodded her head up and then down.

"Y-yes."

I lifted my face mask and turned around as the ceiling started to give. "Let's go then." I said without any urgency back in the emotionless tone I had before even though the situation called for me to move, but I stayed calm with my eyes closed.

Severity: Red

Kill who instigate.

I opened my eyes and the Hunter within me came alive. Time to Hunt some beasts.