The Fires of the Past

"You're going nowhere human," declared one of the many wendigo who surrounded me from every angle.

"Lets' kill him," another yelled in excitement with its golden cat-like eyes on my form. Its intent was that of a feral animal relishing the kill before the feast. These things believe me to be dead before we've even started. They seemed uncaring for the one I've killed already though without a body what would I expect in that regard?

I counted them from one to the next and analyzed the living room and possible exits. The bottom floor is compromised for most of them flood it. I can't cut my way through with this little girl as my tiny companion. She can't defend herself and might get caught by my blades. I'm not that careful when I fight or when the blood lust takes hold. I studied the house and its construction next. It's made mostly out of wood and old from the years of sand and sun that's violated it's grain. This place could come down with a couple key detonations in the right areas and bury all of them in tow. Despite the adnormal strength these things might hold if buried alive by a house even I'd be trapped.

I formulated my plan and meshed together the light I could see from the stairs and summarized a window is right above it. I noticed a couple walls with dry rot and counted shifted my attention to the few rooms on this floor. I can make this work.

I reached to my belt and pulled a couple grenades from it with the cap still on top of the wick and fuse. I just need to pull this off and like with a flintlock pistol I need only to swipe my hand or something across the cap to ignite the wick. I had a feeling I'd need one or two of these but hope they are dry enough now to burn. I held it up to show it off and any man knows these things can tear a man in two if applied to the right area.

"What," one taunted, "Is that it? Some little orb is your way of escape," it laughed at me leaving me a bit curious. They don't know what a grenade is? What manner of world did I find myself into? Now that I think of it I didn't once see a gun during my exploring of this town. What age are these people stuck in? The time before the colonial maybe.

I reached for Hate and took a breath. "Miata, hold onto me." She reached for my arm and wrapped hers around it. I fixed her and made it so Miata climbed on top of my back and wrapped her arms over my neck instead. This way I can move and with my sword sticking out from the back of my coat for ease of access. I placed my left arm around my back to cradle her from under her rear. Being only a child, her legs only came out from my front and couldn't wrap around my waist so I had to hold her.

I climbed up to my feet and leaned forward a bit as the wendigo began to converge upon me. I rushed to the side a opening with the least amount broke a grenade and sent it into the first room. I rose my leg and kicked one of the wendigo in the chest once it tried to cut me down. The grenade blasted it towards me and I twirled around to the corner as it hit a couple of the other beasts instead.

I dropped another grenade below me then rushed on top of the small batch of bodies. I jumped and kicked one of the wendigo back away from me to stop me next to the stairs. I tackled it back forcing this thing off balance as the next one blew and showered that room with parts and guts. I forced myself and a couple of them into the next room and dropped two more grenades. One came from my right and I rose my arm. With the flow placed my hand against it's wrist and parried it away from me then kicked it in the back of the leg down to the ground.

I reached for my belt and pulled a few more grenades and sent them in every which corner with dry rot and a few of the beasts. As they blew the house began to creak and snap under the weight. I took to stairs and dropped down in a crouch as one pounced towards me. In my hand was a cooking grenade and with it I tossed it up at the ceiling and whirled under another attack into the dining room that was already beginning to come down.

The explosion from above forced many of them back in a sea of fire that consumed them. I heard the ceiling quake and suddenly it all began to come down. I rushed out from my corner with Hate in my hand. I slashed and cut through the panicking and frenzied wendigo that got in my way as the ceiling began to give way. I shoulder tackled a few and forced them back away from me so I could book it up the stairs. I lit a grenade and tossed it back over my shoulder right on top of the stairs. I rushed to the window above at the top of the staircase and rose my arm with Hate positioned in a way to cover my eyes. I burst through the window just as the last grenade went off and dropped down to the ground. Below my position I noticed one of them that got out though the back door somehow. Regardless it would make a nice landing pad.

I rose Hate in hand and landed on top of the wendigo whilst stabbing it hard into the top of its head down into the ground. I landed down in a crouch above the beast as it twitched for a couple moments before going still. Regardless I brought my sword across its his multiple times slicing it into pieces just in case.

Normally after making my escape from the collapsing building I would follow up with a mad dash away, but I don't have that option. If I move at my full speed this little girl won't be capable of holding on to me, and I haven't mastered the art of "fighting with a passenger" yet. With Miata on my back, because of my style of fighting, she would more than likely get thrown off during my evasive maneuvers. I'll have to slow my movements and enhance my perceptions instead to keep up with these beasts without endangering the girl's life any more than it is now.

I let out the breath I was holding before and walked out from the small alley between the houses to the main road. I could sense a few of them behind me and many more around me. I could smell the rancid scent rotten flesh and hear them scratching and growling as they prowled in search of their prey. In search of me.

"AHHHHH!" I heard a loud roar meaning one of them noticed me, not that I was hiding. With that roar I can assume it translates to "I've found our dinner" and the rest of them are following the bell. As I walked into the main path of the town I took notice that they were now rushing towards me to surround me. Like bugs they're coming out the houses, the alleyways, and standing up from amidst the corpses that littered the ground.

The closest and the first to charge at me was the first I targeted. I pulled a grenade off my belt and lit the fuse. I turned to the right and threw it straight into the mouth of a wendigo in an alley between a shop and a house. It blew up and blasted the others around him away. I think maybe two ended up dead from that.

"I have you now!" I sheath Hate and pulled Love from her scabbard instead. I stopped a pair of claws coming down from above from taking my head and felt my legs creak a bit from the pressure. My basic form is going to be strained to sustain against their strength and I can't manage Ki without proper footing. Nevertheless, I rose my foot and thrust kicked the wendigo in the stomach away from me. They are strong but I'm a might stronger than they are in my most basic form. I stabbed Love into the ground to use as a crutch and rose my foot again landed a kick between its chin and chest forcing it further back. I released Love and pulled Hate out of its scabbard. I walked up to it just as it came back to its senses only to suffer a stab from Hate in this neck. I stepped to the left and dragged Hate across its neck to its back. I reversed to other side and cut through its neck the rest of the way from the back forward back to Love.

I wasted time with defending myself and shielding Miata from harm instead of my usual aggressive retaliation. Now they surrounded me.

Some didn't waste words and charged which turned out to be a relentless bumrush to kill me. No teamwork is being oriented so more than likely they have the "first come first served" mentality. I stepped back and leaned down to the ground. I let go of the girl's rear go and felt her quiver when I did. I gripped Hate in reverse grip and Love in normal once I plucked her from the ground. I can't move like normally because of this, but I can fight back at maybe 20%. That won't be enough.

"It seems I've more hunting to do," I muttered to myself as I felt the black blood boil I won't be able to control myself once I slip into battle sleep. I won't think about the girl on my back, and I can feel that Miata didn't wish to let go of me. But, in order for me to fight efficiently I need to free my back of all obstruction. I glanced back to the girl just at the wendigo converged upon us. "Let me go, I cannot fight with you hanging on me. You have to let me go," I spoke calmly so not to excite the girl too much and made it seem like she had all the time in the world to decide when in actuality she had only seconds.

"Miata don't want to" she argued childishly, but I have a counter.

"If you wish to live you have to," I said back at her.

"Your mine human!" One took to the air from my right flank.

"Kiiiie!" Another rushed from behind me

Two more jumped towards me in a pounce from the front on top of this. To the normal eye this might be fast, but to the eye of a Hunter these movements were getting increasingly slower by the moment. I reached up to pry the girl's fingers from neck but suddenly they gave way on their own with my interference. I felt my back was free of her weight and block upon my move set removed. I already had my hands on Hate the moment I leaned down to prep for the clash, and now I'm free he's primed and ready to kill once more. I sheath Love once more and kept my left hand free but my fingers arced to reflect that of a claw.

I took a breath into a step and slashed around and across the extended claws of the disgusting looking humanoids cutting away five arms from the four that came down upon me. I shot up toward the wendigo to my right with my left hand back and lifted up while driving my hand into its neck. I gripped its wind pipe and tore my hand out with this throat I hand. I leaned to the right and glanced back at one that missed me. I flicked the contents in my hand away into its face forcing it back. I dropped to the ground and slid Hate across its legs with ease and came back up to my feet.

The wendigo without a throat gasped in more than surprise when his back impacted with the ground. I twirled around swinging Hate in an arch of red death across the back of the other one that landed behind me through his spine. The monster froze unable to move until I stabbed Hate into his heart and out. I felt something grab my ankle and looked down to it. The monster I took down a second ago without legs had his free hand on my leg struggling to hold me. I cut off its other arm and then dropped and stabbed it in the head to send it to the afterlife. I glanced back to the wendigo without a throat coughing and struggling I think to heal. I walked up to it as the other one without one arm stepped back and watched as I planted my boot in the middle of its neck.

I glared down upon the armless wendigo and growled "Trash" as I smashed my foot down further into its downed comrade's neck down to the spine. The monster froze but I wasn't finished yet. I lifted my foot again and futility it rose it's split in half arm to stop me until I stomped back down five times harder with enough ki to blast the head off into the face of one of the incoming monsters ahead of me. The last of the four that attacked me stood near horrified at my act of cruelty and I think I might've felt fear emanating from it. Fear I took advantage of by lunging forward and stabbed it in the chest and bracing my hand on its shoulder. It coughed out blood as I lifted it up and tossed it over my shoulder to the ground next to me. I walked past it and stabbed own into its head and the first conflict of many more ended.

I reached for my dirk sheath on my back in reverse grip and let my breath go. I held the dirk up and Hate in my left hand in regular. I was completely surrounded still but they all seemed to hesitate to press the obvious numbers advantage they have. So they feel just like humans. Normal humans would always be brought to a pause of such brutality of their kind. Suddenly one of the wendigo roared and charged. As if broken out of their stupor the rest following.

I rose my blades and couldn't help but to smile at the coming slaughter. I relish in this old feeling from before. Year out in sea… my goddess I've almost forgotten. "Yes," I breathed out in anticipation. "Today is a good day to die," I agreed with her.

I pushed out my senses and heard one dropping down from above me to the right. I stepped towards it and rolled behind it when it landed. It whirled around only to meet Hate in the form of a stab to its chest. I gripped my dirk and with a twist slashed open his neck while dragging Hate across its chest. I kick the beast away sending it flying back. I shot back into another beast with a Ki infused elbow to the center of his chest then kicked downward down upon its knee. It buckled down but before it could hit the ground I stabbed it in the neck with my dirk to keep it up. I circled around decapitated it with Hate and with the momentum stabbed into the shoulder of one wendigo that tried to take advantage of my rear flank. I yanked it down and kneed it center in the facial area back up and also extracting my dirk. I rose Hate up bisecting it in half from the chest up and kicked its lower half away into another beast.

I heard my ears twitch and a vibration of a coming beast through my feet. I turned around and parried its swipe forcing it past me with Hate's edge upward. It slid across its edge but the saw like edge stopped it halfway. I sawed through the rest of the way when I pulled Hate out of it's body then turned around and cutting down another.

This feels almost endless. The more I killed the more seemed to climb out of nowhere to replace them. How many monsters are in this town? Is the whole town just a nest for these things?

I heard a scream and shot my eyes towards it to Miata. I was getting away from her with every kill without even noticing it. For the most part they kept their attention on me, but one of the beasts grew smart enough to assault such an easy target instead. The wendigo went for Miata thus diverting it's attention away from me. It learned too late that to target her meant death.

I slashed the head of one wendigo and shot up to its shoulders. I balanced and shot from shoulder to shoulder with that one wendigo in my sight and shot upward down upon it. I rose my foot up and kick it down in the back of the neck into the blood stained dirt littered with much more than human corpses now. I landed in a crouch and rose my foot and cut its jaw with a back thrust kick that shot it up and its knees with the force. I brought my leg back and rolled back to my feet the flipped backward to its back. I stabbed down into its back through the spine with my dirk to keep it steady then brought Hate across its head decapitating it with ease.

I rose my dirk and parried a wendigo from my left forcing it's strike to my right and stepped in stabbing it in the chest with my dirk. I left shoulder tackled it back with stab from my dirk following after in its heart and chest cavity. I twisted my hips left and brought Hate across its right leg cutting it off. I reversed and cut off the last leg and whirled around. Soon its head followed

In the shock of an ear piercing roar I found myself enveloped in a bear hold form behind suddenly. I dropped my weight and let him hold me.

"Good, now hold him!"

Two from the front rushed over to me with the intent to claw me to ribbons. I shot my head back and impacted its face causing its grip to loosen. I freed my right hand and stabbed my dirk down into its wrist and twisted it in. The monster howled but tightened his grip which is what I wanted. With my legs and waist free all I really had to do was a mock shoulder throw up and over until my holder became my meat shield. These things didn't hold back and cut straight into his fellow to get to me, but I had already backed away before they could claw through him fully. I jumped up over one of the carcasses toward the two monsters with my blades aimed down and landed on the unsuspecting two while cutting through the top of their heads killing them as well.

I tossed my dirk back and caught one in the chest then twirled around and parried a claw with my free hand. I gripped its wrist and twisted forcing it to bow then kicked its chest while I twisted the rest of way. Its shoulder and elbow snapped out of place and I let go of it. I turned around and grabbed my dirk and dragged it further into the beast's chest. It roared and reached to grab me but I cut down on its arm from the elbow. I aimed Hate and stabbed it where the neck and shoulders meet gripped the dirk with turned around executed. I picked it up and tossed it overhead right into the wendigo kicked from earlier forcing them both into a pile. I jumped up and stabbed Hate into both of their heads before they could recover.

The good thing about fighting a swarm in this way is that only four of them can attack me at once unless they come from above, which they haven't. They seem to keep with the wearing me down tactic that won't work on me. I'm capable of fighting for three days without sleep or sustenance. Though with every four I cut down four more took their place. I had to grab Miata a couple times and force my way out of the opening into an alleyway to another street when the bodies began to pile up. I cut down many more until the horde decreased into something much smaller. A unit is more like it.

I set her down and followed through with my hunt as they rushed after me. Just as I dispatch another I noticed one rushing towards Miata for the hundredth time, but I was a bit of a distance from her. I didn't notice with all the hunting again I was increasing the distance between myself and the cowering girl currently squatting down with her hands on her head.

I readied my blades and ran towards the little girl once more. I saw two of the monsters going after her in a pincer. I chose the closest one first and jumped into the air landing on top of him at his flank while stabbing into his shoulder down to his lungs. I hit the ground in a roll but once I was up I threw my dirk straight at and into the shoulder of the other one.

I twisted back towards the wendigo with Hate sticking out of it and slide him across the monster's head. Taking my sword with me, I rushed to the last with my dirk within it's body. The attack surprised him at the most but didn't stop him only slowed him down. It slowed him down enough for me to reach Miata first and come her defense. I crossed Hate with his extended his claws parrying them up leaving him free to attack and grit my teeth and the damage I sustained from defending with Hate. I whirled around parried the one behind me with a back hand. I rose my left hand and blocked a downward slash contacting my arm to his and stabbed it back into its gullet.

It shot forward and lifted my leg up for a thrust kick and connected into the other one's stomach. I shot back again and took back my knife from the one nursing the stab wound. From shoulder down along his arm I extracted my dirk with a great deal of resistance. My dirks are quite normal compared to Hate and I need to be more cautious.

I pulled up arm up overhead and stabbed something I felt coming at. My dirk was buried in the hand of a monster. I hummed and pulled back bisecting it's hand then brought Hate down on him from his left shoulder down to his right hip. I brought Hate back around across his stomach. This wasn't out of brutality but stop a claw attack from my right. Hate cut through forcing it back. I positioned my knife now in my left hand and Hate in my right. The monster roared at me but I ignored the loud cry and approached it. I elbowed it's sides with my right after a dodge with enough ki to turn it's ribs into organ bullets. The monster gasped which I was getting tired of hearing. I rose up and stabbed my dirk into its neck then dislodged my knife to a new home in its chest. I kicked out its leg and pulled down on my dirk until it was on its knee before me.

"Trash."

I brought Hate to the other side of its neck and stabbed it in as well. Time seemed to freeze because all the other monsters watched with gruesome horror as in slowly sawed both blades out its neck from opposite sides. The head fell down in a shower of blood around me, and I hate blood showers. This hate only seemed to full the blood lust. Lust that slowly began to turn to rage.

I kicked the body back down to the ground where it belongs. I took a moment to examine the ugly green and gray humanoid with disgust. I stepped on top of it in front of the many more monsters left for me to kill and rose my swords in a stance as I stepped off. Hate was behind me with my offside facing the front and my dirk facing the same direction as Hate in preparation for the coming ancient art that all living beings seem to know.

One monster yelled in the twisted form of a human voice at me and jumped. When one went the rest followed in almost every direction. They finally got smart in a way and turned to the old tactic of "dog piling" on top of me. I mused on whether or not I should use any of my abilities yet but decided against it. These things aren't worthy.

"Trash," I growled again and tightened my grip on my blade but made the rest of my body limber and loose. I took a breath to settle the Ki in the pit of my stomach and waited for the dog pile to come. From every direction they came. Whether it be from above, left, right, forward, and back they came with Miata and myself in the center. With her right behind me in my blind spot, which is the only reason I know she's safe there. She's in the ideal place for the next attack I plan to use.

"Miata," I called to the frightened little girl who was a quivering mess behind me. If I wasn't in my battle mode right now I might've told her to cover her eyes from what I was about to do in a moment but instead what came out was the complete opposite. "Don't be afraid of these things. They hurt and bleed like us," I noted as I faced the first and bent my legs for the explosive combination of moves to come. "That means they will die just like us. For as long as I'm the Hunter, the Jaeger, all blood thirsty beast will be the hunted."

Miata's eyes if they closed at any moment now where glued on my form as I stepped toward the first one and in one large rotation with chi at the ends of my blades I whirled. Black and red traces and illusions of the speed at which I went streak out pushing and extending to impossible edges. I felt my blade call home in the bodies of many as I rotated again and again and my chi extended my kill zone out past physical reaches. More and more invisible blades danced around me to the point that some of the buildings and walls suffered a cut or two as well. I rotated a total of five times before I came to a halt with a small circular trench around me pushed out by at least four feet in radius from the center meaning me. Miata was perfectly safe below me between that four feet of me and where the cuts on the ground began. That's what was most important with the fact that the threat was gone as second.

Time seemed to be still again as the monsters around me all remained still and some of them landed behind me after my assault. My attack with every rotation in the five dished out 200 cuts per. In five I have cut everything in my surrounding vicinity at least 1000 times. I sheath my dirk behind me and threw Hate down to get most of the blood off of him. I turned around with my back to Miata and sheath Hate. The sound of him sitting within his home must have caused time to move forward once more, because not even a moment later every beast around me fell from the ground in pieces. All of them shredded at the torso except their arms, legs, and smaller appendages which are all scattered everywhere around us.

I thought I pushed enough chi into that attack to kill all of them but I felt life nearby regardless. I looked around trying to find it but the things presence seemed to be everywhere. Maybe it was because of the still twitching parts or maybe this thing knows a fair bit of Ki control to push it's aura outward to mask it's position. I couldn't pinpoint it but the smell was undeniably to my right. The smell of dead monster and the smell of live monster are instantly and noticeably different. I looked back to the little girl as she sat below me on her knees aweing all she saw with still star crossed eyes. I've changed this child in more ways than one in less than ten minutes. I fear it may not be for the best though.

"Stay here," I said while gripping my dirk and Hate in my right hand. "I have a little bit more trash to Hunt down." With that I stepped over the first corpse stabbed every head I came across just to make sure. I've fought the undead before and stopped taking chances long ago with my corpses. You never know when one might just climb back up and attack you.

I drew my pistol in my left hand and aimed up to the door of the house to my left over to the right of the window. I could feel the fear radiating off of it. I pulled the trigger to a loud boom. "AAHHH!" It shot right and my body followed to a door to the side. I stabbed Hate into the wood and felt something at the end of my blade, something squishy but solid as well. I pulled out and opened the door to a monster that was hiding behind it clutching its stomach and a bullet wound in his neck.

"Trash," I growled as I twirled my colt back into the holster and faced it. I pulled Hate down then jammed my spear hand into the monster's chest through the gash. I grasp the first solid thing I could and pulled it straight out. The wendigo gasped and reached up to stop me only to lose both hands for this attempt in a cross and reverse slash of Hate.

I tossed the beating organ I had in hand away onto the ground and out of the house with purple blood covering my gloved hand, not that I cared. I hate it when my prey thinks he can hide from me and not take its death with dignity. A monster that preyed in the lives blood of humans was now running away from me. Well, more like crawling.

I walked up behind it as it struggled to crawl away from me with its stubby arms as its means to crutch itself away. The monster grumbled as it thrashed while kicking out its feet as if trying to ward me away from it.

"N-no please," it begged. The wendigo fell to his rear crawling back away from me. "Please... I don't want to die."

I narrowed my eyes to the wendigo. "Says the trash that slaughtered an entire village." I stepped down with my blade at the ready to my side begging me to end this sooner rather than later.

"I-it wasn't my f-fault. I was just..."

I swiped my sword over its head to silence the monster. The monster gawked then a faint line formed from its chin to forehead. I kicked it in the chest and the top of its head fell straight off. "Only trash makes excuses." I walked on top then over the corpse before stepping to the next corpse to continue what I was doing before; stabbing heads to ensure the bodies are dead.

"If you don't come out," I voiced out to the monsters still hiding away from me. I paused before making an inquiry, "I'll make it slow when I find you."

I sheath Hate and drew my pistol again to reload the two bullets I had already used already with some from my belt then holstered it back. I think the next one I find I might just use my bare hands instead of my sword. I still stabbed every head I came across killing three already with an end to their suffering, a simple mercy. I reached the final line of bodies to the last one. This one didn't even look injured or even hurt in any way at all. It was still moving and breathing. It's doing a terrible job at playing dead. I crossed my arms at it and sighed at the monster that sort of whimpered like a little girl.

"I know you're alive." It began to shiver but remained still. I reached for my dirk but stopped once I noticed an signifier behind me. The surrounding Ki around me faded away from the area down to the beast below me clearing my senses to the other wendigo around me and the one that was sneaking around a building towards Miata. I looked back to the girl then to the monster below me weighing my options. I have a feeling this monster knew what was going on and waited for me to get this close so I could choose between saving the little girl or killing it. My, this thing is surprisingly smarter than I gave it credit for. It gauged my threat level and is willing to sacrifice its fellows to survive.

"Too bad I can do both." I pulled out a grenade and dropped it before I ran out jumping from one body to the next up and over the parts to get to Miata. The beast must have noticed me rushing toward Miata and did the same but kicked up bodies and part of them in the middle of its trek. My bomb blew up and took it by surprise slowing it down further. It struggled to beat me too her.

"The girl is mine!"

I growled and stomped on a clear patch of land between the bodies. I charged my legs with enough Ki to kick a horse over then kicked off and sailed faster than before in a trajectory that will force an impact from the two of us. We both reached the safe zone but the monster was aiming for Miata while I was aiming for him. Its claw was a hair from the girl before I blindsided him with a vicious tackle to the side. Shoulder first into his side we shot pass the girl into the blood soaked ground adjacent to her.

The monster struggled to get on top of me but if I know one thing it was grappling against things twice my size and weight like this thing was. I was able to pin the Queen of the Amazons and this thing paled in comparison. The more it squirmed the easier it became to get a good hold on its arms and legs with my own. The ground is a great equalizer that can turn a one sided bout into a great battle for balance and right now I have the advantage.

I had its arm over its neck and secured the other hand it had to its side. Its strength amounted to almost nothing for it, but the large muscles on its arm served well to choke the bastard to death without a waste of much energy on my part. He struggled but eventually I got his arm right where I wanted it on his neck blocking the blood to his brain and waited. All I had to do was be patient as the monster's struggling came to a soft halt. It couldn't supply air blood to the brain so eventually it will die. I wonder if drowning will work. I'm sure it will.

Even when the beast went still I held on for another minute before letting go of its arms and chest. I crawled inch by inch out from under it and sighed at my first bare handed kill. I wanted it to be more impressive, but you take what you can get I suppose.

I drew my dirk from my back and stabbed it in the head and said a much needed, "Just in case."

"Ledger!" I blinked when I heard that name. I blinked away the red haze that was over my eyes same with the dizziness that followed as well. I hate the feeling you get when the blood lust leaves the body like its doing now. I could just feel the girl take to my chest nearly tackling me down to the ground. I looked down to the little girl named Miata and could already feel that she was familiar with me in some way past the norm. A way in which she'd lay her cards down on me like this and cry in my chest. The chest of a stranger but also her protector, so I suppose it makes sense.

I reached for her but noticed that my gloves are covered in fluids I didn't want on this little girl, so I removed them both. I inspected my hands and nodded when I saw nothing on them.

"Hey," I cooed and hugged her back to me while soothingly rubbing the back of her head. "Why are you crying?"

Miata sobbed and snort a couple times before she looked up to me. "Miata... afraid you gone." She was worried when that monster and I fell to the ground that I expired. I pat her on the head again and smiled under my mask.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said matter-of-factly.

Miata snorted a couple time before raising you a frail hand. One that I took into my own. "Promise."

That word. That word has sealed my fate many times before. It was always a promise to serve, a promise to protect, a promise to kill all things evil until the end of time, a promise to give myself to the void every time I rest, and a promise to keep to the creeds of which I lived my life by. So many promises and many of them ended up contradicting the others in some way. A promise to free a country from a tyrant is as monumental to me as promising to never abandon a little girl. At the end a life will be in my hands outside of my own.

I bit my lip to stop the almost automatic yes from coming out and nodded instead. It seemed to put her at ease but it left a bad taste in my mouth. My word is my bond and my bounds, but I'd have to speak them first.

"Come," I finally said and picked myself up with Miata still holding on to me. It was as if she didn't I'd disappear. "Let's get a move on," I muttered with my eyes flowing from one house to the next. I noticed a signifier from before coming toward us. One larger than that of these wendigo around me. I don't know what could controlled these monsters other than an even bigger monster and right now I was in no mood for a prolonged fight. I have a map, water, food, and currency. I don't need much else from this town outside the norm.

The clean-up.

I can't leave these corpse just laying around. Human bodies are bad for the soil so, I can imagine that evolved wendigo are worse. For every conflict zone without survivors we sanitize it in fire to erase our presence. The same will happen to this one.

"Follow close to me," I said down to the little girl. Instead of the following part she must have took it as an order to latch on to me. She gripped my leg with her hands and hid underneath my coat. It's was almost cute. It was like a turtle taking cover in its shell; except she's not a turtle and my coat isn't a shell.

Best just leave her be for right now.

I pulled my gloves back on to my hands and listened to the sound of the leather stretching once I clenched my fists. That's not right. Why can I hear the stretching of the leather of my gloves right now? I just noticed that the large power I felt before from that alpha is gone. I know I didn't kill it. I know this because I can remember ever single kill with perfect clarity and yet I don't recall fighting an abnormal wendigo. It's too quiet, the energy is gone. It must be in hiding now.

As I surveyed the area I absorb souls into my crystal. The bodies slowly disintegrated as I snatch the souls away from them. The reason a body lingers is because a soul is attached to it as proof of its existence in our plane. One the soul leaves this plane the energy keeping the body together unravels. This crystal takes the souls and enters them into that new plane and so the body fades with the loss of its anchor.

"YAK!" I heard a cough to the side and wandered towards it. I rose my crystal and watched as the souls lifted up and faded into it except two or three. Still alive and I can see why. One was missing both legs cut off at the knees and yet unlike what I saw before it didn't regenerate its legs fully. I shook my head and drew Hate out his scabbard. I'm sure it noticed quickly that the bodies of its fellows have faded away leaving it alone.

"N-no plea…" I cut off the arm that extended out to me and stabbed my sword down upon its head. I can't leave survivors after all. Speaking of which I need to find that one loose end before it gets too far away from me.

I sighed and pushed my way along to take in the rest of the wendigo souls.

I did my best to keep my crystal from taking in the human souls, which strangely enough sort of resembled the wendigo souls. Maybe I'm just overthinking things and exhaustion from mental fatigue is setting in. It could just be that. Using my powers puts strain on both body and mind but having the ability to replenish my energies helps in that regard. It doesn't help with the mental strain though. I can feel a small pressure behind my eyes so that means I'm sitting at about 15%. The mental strain is existent.

I know that alpha is here somewhere. I can feel the presence of the wendigo all around me like before. I walked up to a body still moving with its arm split halfway open from the hand to the shoulder and several gushing holes on its chest. Its lungs are ripped open and I made a nice incision around its heart cutting off the arteries. It's lost most of the blood leading to its head and is more than likely going into shock if monsters go into shock that is. I don't remember even doing this to this beast but in my blood rage I'm prone to get creative with my hunts.

I rose my sword up and stabbed downward into its skull finishing it off once and for all.

That's the second one. I'm getting sloppy with all the witnesses I left for dead. I need to remember that these beasts can survive fatal injuries.

Slowly, but surely I'm mopping up my mess. All that time at sea has left me a little rusty. How did we end up in a sea where our compass doesn't work I will never know, but ending up here might not be that bad. I know that humans reside here and monsters. Cannibalistic monsters that I'm sure humans will pay a wealthy sum for me to exterminate.

I've acquired over seventy of these souls total before the streets appeared to be barren with only human corpses left. I thought on what I should do with them all. A proper burial would be the right answer but that's so much work for nothing. A mass burial might work though. Place all the bodies into a house and then light it on fire. I could try that but it goes back to collecting every scrap and piece of human here. That would truly be a chore.

I suddenly felt a tug of resistance on my leg. I looked down to the little girl still under my coat but focusing on something. I followed her sight and my yes landed on a demolished house. I looked down to the body in front and recognized it right off the bat.

"This is your house." Miata's hands gripped my leg even tighter once I remarked on this. I can understand a little of how crushed she is right now. When I was five my home burned to the ground with my most precious person within. Seeing everything burn away in those yellow-orange flames brought pain that I could barely understand. All I knew and could understand is that the fire was caused by me. My precious person died because of me. I was hunted for years because of what I was and what I did.

Miata was forced to watch her father devour her mother while taunting her for being a stupid brat. He promised that she would come next in due time. Of course she didn't understand everything but she knew that she was in a living nightmare.

The similarities between us and what she could become unless taken care of worries me a little. Because of my plights I became a near inhuman monster that gets off on the death and murder of anything that moves. A man that uses the power of supernatural beings to sustain his body and live longer than any other man should. I became a monster in my own right. Now that I think of it one of those wendigo called me a monster. I was called this multiple times throughout my life. I'm not surprised that even inhuman monsters think of me as a being worse than they are. They kill for pleasure, food, fun, or something else twisted or primal. I kill to kill, for money, or for information. I hunt and kill the injured and any that try to escape.

"It's simple to kill without emotion." I repeated the words from Bethany. I wish she were here right now.

I don't wish for Miata to grow up to become a Jaeger like myself. I don't want her life to be consumed by thoughts of anger or revenge like mine did. That first kill is what separates the two of us. When I killed my first human that's when it finally took root.

Funny, I called him human even though he was a monster in my eyes. Maybe I'm worse than the man who took the last of my family away from me. No, I kill but only in self-defense, when I'm paid to, and when my wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of those around me are threatened. Simple and to the point.

"Mama." I could feel the sorrow pouring out of her every pour.

I removed my glove and pat her down on top her head. Miata looked up to me with tears pouring down her cheeks. Of what I could see of her eyes from behind her bangs, they were red and nearing bloodshot. Snot poured out her nose and she sobbed with harsh sorrowful pants. It was like seeing myself on from long before. The difference being is that someone like me is here to embrace her. I leaned down and opened my arms to her.

"Mama!" Miata cried as she flew into my chest. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she hugged herself to my chest. Her face pressed into my shoulder so hard I was afraid she might have injured herself on my shoulder pauldren.

I'm unsure of what to do in a situation like this. I never really had to deal with children unless I had to purge a bloodline, which included the children. That or when I killed the children of monsters when I found their nests, mating ground, or resting grounds. My experience with children is lacking in many ways and it shows in how I'm currently frozen in place.

Awkwardly, I pat her on the head again and let her rest her crying eyes in my shoulder. I don't feel sorrow anymore so I can't begin to understand her own so I can only do what I've seen many times before. I pat her in the back and rubbed in small circles and recited what I've witnessed mothers do for their children when distressed. "It's okay. It's okay," I whispered in her ear hoping this will help her out. Even though I can't related to her sorrow I can to her loneliness that stems from the loss of close family. "I'll stay with you and keep you safe." My words were hollow and cruel to give for I don't necessarily mean them, but to help her get over this I'll try almost anything.

"Mama! Mama… Mama gone," she cried. "Papa hurt mama."

"That wasn't your papa Miata," I said quickly. If she believes that I killed her father then that may spell trouble later in the future. I have to crush this possibility here and now. "That was a wendigo, a monster in human flesh." I pushed her back enough so that her eyes could meet my own. "Monsters can wear the faces of men and that was a monster."

Miata blinked and snort. "Papa a monster."

I guess she didn't understand me or what I meant. "No princess," I said using a nickname I remember hearing this one man say to his daughter. "That wasn't your papa," I shook my head. "That was a monster."

"Papa turn into monster." I couldn't defend the man all that much. If these memories mean anything then the father of Miata was a rubbish father and man. He beat his daughter and Miata's mother took the blunt of his abuse.

"Your father was a monster," I finally decided to go with. "Your mother was an angel like you. She protected you and loved you from the bottom of her heart. I'll make sure she gets a burial." Cremation isn't really how I'd wish to leave this world, but I'm sure the people here won't mind. I pat Miata over the head and climbed up to my feet. "Like your mother did I'll keep you safe until the day comes that I'm not needed."

Miata blinked up to me and gazed up to me. I gulp when her gaze took such a sudden sharpness towards it. She reached out and hugged my leg again and pressed her head into my pants.

"Papa."

I almost coughed when she called me this. Papa! I can't be a "papa." I'm not even a father figure. My life as a Jaeger leaves no room for a family and especially kids. She seems to be dead set on this though. Her hug was now possessive and desperate. After everything she watched me do and everything I said how can I come off at a "papa" to this little girl?

I bite my lip and sighed.

Whatever. I suppose I can just go along with this until I can find her a home away from my lifestyle. I wouldn't wish my fate on anyone.

"Come on princess, let's take care of this."

I reached down and gripped her arm to pry her off of my leg. She suddenly switched from my legs to my hand and held it with her own. She wished to hold hands with me. I guess I can humor her. I've had to hold hands with many from the Kushan leaders to an occasional courtesan. Holding hands with a little frail girl isn't the worst situation to find myself in but certainly not the best either. I held her hand with my left hand and held my soul rock within my right gloved hand. I kept up with my previous actions before I became a surrogate father.

A thought suddenly crossed my mind. If this girl suddenly thinks of my as a father and gets attached to me that means that I'm taking full responsibility for her. Her actions will reflect mine, her state of modesty will be an indicator of her quality of life, and her health as well will be one of my many priorities. Sort of like when I'm with one of my "friends" but much more… I think.

I shook these thoughts off and wandered down the street to get my hands on a barrel of oil I saw in the general store before. I can use that to set fire to the house Miata's parents lived in. That way I can lay their bodies to rest. Miata's mother deserves at least that. I walked towards the general store and looked back to the girl. With the alpha laying in wait I can't leave her alone even for a second. I pulled her into the store with me and wandered to the back.

"I'm letting go of your hand Miata so don't panic." The little girl nodded earnestly but I could as the shiver of her shoulders she was scared to be separated from me. "Just stay close to me and we'll be alright."

I leaned down and wrapped my arms around the barrel. I couldn't even touch my fingers at the tips, it was so large. I took a breath and pulled the barrel off the floor and leaned back. I grit my teeth a little from the strain but got used to it in moments.

"Okay," I panted slightly, "let's get outside."

"What that?" Miata gripped my coat tail and followed behind me.

"This is a barrel of oil. I'm going to use it to send your mama off."

"Mama," she sobbed softly again.

"Yes. Right now she's with your father and many other monsters but with this I can free her and send her to heaven where she belongs."

"Heaven? Oil?"

"Yes. You see I will set fire to the house with everything moving still in it. Doing so will cremate your mother's body and free her spirit so she can pass on to the afterlife. It's the best I can do considering." She's dead and the only thing you can do with the dead is lay them to rest or let them linger for other uses. I'd rather not do the latter out of respect for the dead.

"Papa, will Miata see mama again?"

"I'm not sure." I kicked the door out the general store open. "One day you might but is not anytime soon." I'll make sure of that for a long as can while she's with me. I don't plan to keep this girl with me for long though. My destination is damnation, words from the demon goddess herself. I'll never see heaven unless it's a raid for some artifact I want. I never see hell again unless I'm fool enough to deal with a warlock again. The void, nothingness, is my destiny.

I reached the house in no time with the wendigo still buried in the rubble struggling to get themselves free. I left Miata at the road as I climbed up to the top of the collapsed two story house and poured the oil. I reveled in the desperate cries of the monsters that understood what they ended up drenched in. I pulled off the glove for my right hand and pointed my palm towards the center of the house. One of the greatest discoveries I've ever made has to be my ability to wield magic destructively. A small Palm of lightning or a fist sized ball of fire; two of the few elemental spells I can cast without a medium. I felt the heat focusing into the palm of my hand and pointed it down to the face of one wendigo.

"No hu…"

I fired my ball at the monster and the fire spread quickly over the remains of the house. It surrounded me with flames licking at my clothing and yet not catching fire.

I walked out from the now frantically moving rubble onto the porch that remained and finally the ground of the road. Now to get to the real work. I grabbed saw a carriage on the way to Miata's house and grabbed it to help transport the oil. Along the way I picked up body after body to throw on the fire. Miata watched the fire the whole time and me as I "freed" these people from their human bounds. Every house that smelled of blood and held a corpse I noted for later to burn down as well.

Miata walked up to my side and reached up to take my hand once more. I looked down to her and saw her focusing hard on the fire. I thought back to that nine 22 years ago. I think it might even be today that it happened when I lost my mother to fire. I thought back to it and what followed was a verse from a book she'd read to me almost every other night. A verse that seemed appropriate for this instance. And one I spoke that night as well as I watched the manor burn.

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," I began to recite with in a hollowed town. Miata looked up to me once I started and I returned it. "Till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken," I continued. Tears suddenly began to fall down her cheeks once more. Even though she probably doesn't understand the words then meaning behind it is solid.

"For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."