DISCLAIMER: I do not own any original BPRD character. I own just the plot and the OCs. I do not think I own Ruddy either: he has a kind of life on his own.

A warning for my readers: this chapter contains mild graphic violence, nothing terrible, but if you feel bad about spilled blood, please feel free not to read this chapter.

Challenge's still up and there are a lot of clues in this chapter.

Enjoy!

"Oh my God!" Dr. Daisy Marsh murmured in excitement as soon as the creature came out of his bolt-hole.
She couldn't believe her eyes.
A real living cryptid, right in front of her, not running away but showing himself fully in a majestic pose: this called for photographic evidence.
She left her cover and crept nearer, brandishing her camera.
Kneeling on the dirt, she turned on the flash and took a photo.

Ruddy yowled in pain and closed his eyes, momentarily blinded.
The woman attacked him with light.
He had underestimated them, it seemed, but it was not going to happen again.
He repeatedly blinked, his vision plagued by black spots, and used a little of his power to produce a bright miniature lightning which landed in the middle of the hunters.

"Oh, crap!" Hellboy exclaimed, jumping away from the coming lightning.
This was not fair, he thought.
Taking advantage of their moment of confusion and surprise, the beast closed in at full speed and slashed at his tight with sharp claws, then hit Abe and finally pounced Professor Krauss, sinking his fangs where the man's throat was supposed to be and toppling him.
He looked quite abated when, upon shredding the contention suit, it simply deflated without a single drop of spilled blood, letting out what looked like smoke.

Hellboy hissed in pain but lost no time in drawing his gun to shoot at the red-furred bastard.
The creature used another electric spark, aimed directly at his hand and forced him to let it fall down.
His hand felt numb and useless.
He cursed loudly.
The damned dog laughed, not metaphorically but really.
He laughed exactly like a human laughing, leaving the team completely dumbfounded.
Their astonishment only increased when he said in a deep male voice with a slight accent: "You look so funny, demon."
Hellboy was flabbergasted and quite offended but unable to react, as his mind tried to come to terms with the idea of a talking dog.

The moment of general paralysis was interrupted by a loud shot.
The beast yelped in pain as a tranquillizer dart lodged itself in his hind quarters.
"I so hate when people laughs in my face." said Scott dryly, gun still smoking.

It stung but didn't hurt as the first time he was hit some days ago.
Maybe it was a different projectile, he mused.
It annoyed him no end, though.
"You are starting to piss me off." he admonished, growling.
He turned and ran for the shooter.

Scott tried to shoot the creature again but had no time.
His rifle was knocked out of his hands as he fell to the floor, the creature biting at his right arm.
He punched hard at his muzzle and ribs with his free hand, to no effect, except irritating the creature further and making him bite harder.
The bones of his arm snapped, the agent cried out in agony and lost consciousness.
"Hold on, Scottie! I am coming!" yelled Ash, running towards his fallen comrade with a taser.
He was not a good shooter and didn't want to risk hitting his friend.
Undertaking a great personal risk, he got close to the beast and kicked him.
The beast released his friend's arm and turned towards the new attacker.
Ash fired his weapon.
The electric darts hit the creature in the shoulder, a maximum effect point in humans, and discharged a powerful electric shock.
The creature, however didn't yelp or convulse or drop to the ground, it just glared at him with scarlet eyes, fangs still dripping Scottie's blood.
It looked like the taser had no effect.
Ash paled and dropped it.

Mildly amused, Ruddy stared the brave human right in the eye.
"Nice try." he acknowledged, before giving him a taste of his own medicine.
The boy screamed nicely under the shock.

He had not much time to spare for thoughts, however, as the demon and the dark-haired woman charged him.
He nimbly evaded the demon's stone hand, which dig a nice burrow on the ground, and managed to bite his arrow-tipped tail.
The demon cried out and cursed, trying to pry his abused appendage from his grip by shaking him down.
The woman screamed.
From the corner of an eye he saw her conjuring a fire ball from her hands, aiming at him.
"Holy Shit!" he exclaimed, dropping the demon's tail an trying to move away from the line of fire.
He partially managed: the fireball scorched his left side and the tip of his tail instead of hitting him square on the face.
He was in serious pain now, and seriously furious.
Ruddy let go of his self-control and charged his foes as rage overwhelmed pain: he had to break the circle and get away as fast as possible, before it subsided and left him exhausted and hurt.

Liz threw another fireball at the beast charging her, but he dodged it, apparently unhindered by the burns he had just received.
"Shoot him, for heaven's sake!" she cried out.
One of the other gunmen profited of her aiming a third fireball at the creature and caught him in the back with a dart.
The red bastard didn't stop, it looked like he had not even felt the sting.
"With bullets!" she yelled.

Ruddy pounced the woman, who managed to dodge by sidestepping and punching out his injured left side .
He managed to claw her arm and landed heavily, panting.
He felt dizzy and numb, though he was not in such a bad shape yet.
Replaying the last moments in his mind, he remembered being hit again by a projectile.
Comprehension dawned on him: "You have poisoned me!" he bellowed, his voice like the rumble of thunder.
He noticed the man wielding the "thunder staff" and stunned him with a mild shock, not wanting to exhaust his power.

His vision was beginning to blur: there was precious little time now.
The hunters circled him loosely. Ruddy charged again, his target was the woman who had scorched him.
Time seemed to flow slower than usually: as he ran towards her, surrounded by an electric nimbus, the demon rushed at her side.
He leaped high in the air, with the intention of incapacitating her with a head blow and continuing his flight past her, but the demon's stone hand connected with his ribcage with a smacking noise.

The creature was thrown some feet away from the force of impact.
He landed in a heap, apparently knocked out.
Hellboy doubtfully rubbed his hand still tingling from the power surrounding the dog-thing.
The nasty creature was slowly getting to his feet, coughing blood and staggering: he still glared at them with fury and determination, he still wanted to fight.
Stubborn bastard, he thought with admiration.

Excruciating pain took over him at every breath.
Ruddy felt his force seeping away, like water from a cracked pot.
He knew the fight was over, he was shortly going to lose consciousness, but they were not going to be happy about it.
As a brave and fierce Roman had said, if you cannot win, make sure you do not fall without you vengeance and leave a bloody and mournful victory to your enemy.
That's what he was going to do.
His vision was blurred and doubled, but he could still make out the demon's silhouette, right in front of him, the hill and its tree on the background.
"I am not over yet." he whispered, coughing blood.
He gathered every remaining ounce of his power and concentrated it.
"Vae victis!" he bellowed, discharging a full-force lightning.
The air around tore apart, thundering.

The women shrieked as the lightning passed just right of Hellboy and hit the old tree on top of the hill, shattering it in a million burning shards.
Hellboy fell sitting on the floor, feeling weak and faint from relief.
Liz rushed to his side, crying in relief. "I thought he'd kill you." she whispered.
"I got lucky he missed." he admitted, hugging her tight.

The beast had passed out: even lying in a heap on the ground all burnt and bleeding it still looked menacing and proud.
"Are these things supposed to do so?" he asked a trembling Dr. Marsh.
"N-no. – she stuttered, caught between the desire of getting closer to the creature to examine him and the fear of him awakening again – They are not. I have never heard of anything like this."
In the distance, Scottie was crying like a child, his arm broken by the force of the beast's bite.
Two of the others, Ash and the other lad, were still down for the count.
Almost all the members of the team got injured during the fight, and they were experienced agents.
Their adversary was a mighty fighter and clearly intelligent.
He had powers unaccounted for and talked: he had even said something in Latin!
She felt like she had as a child when on Christmas morning her father had given her an old tome about mythical animals, she felt excited and fascinated.

"It looks like we had caught more than we were hunting for." said the incorporeal voice of Professor Krauss, summarizing the feelings of the team.
"Oh, yeah. - concluded Hellboy – This guy is from hell."

A.N on Latin stuff:
The Roman guy quoted by Ruddy is Lucius Sergius Catilina, a Roman patrician who led a revolt in 63 B.C after his project for agrarian reform was vetoed in the Senate and found a glorious death in battle against the regular army.
"Vae victis!" means "woe to the conquered!"

Any ideas about Ruddy now?
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