They called us monsters part 8

Chapter 8: The halfman

‘’Hold up!’’, a female voice called behind him, but Yaju was too determined by his previous words to stop. More than infuriated by the way things had turned out, he had already begun devising a plan to beat the demons.

‘’I said wait!’’

Footsteps approached him quickly as he made his way through the nearly empty streets of south Tereen. He managed an annoyed grunt before he felt something pull on his left hand, making him stop. When he turned around, he was met with the emerald eyes of the huntress, an infuriated expression pasted on her face.

‘’I don’t have time to waste.’’, he grumbled through his teeth and the woman’s expression softened.

‘’Why do you even care about this town if the people themselves do not?’’, she questioned him and he tilted his head upwards, looking down on her. There was no need for him to answer the question, but he chose to do so. She was a young hunter and judging by the previous discussion in the cells, she was in it for all the wrong reasons young hunters were.

‘’I refuse to sit back and let these monsters gain ground in the Failands.’’, his words forced a frown on her face. ‘’The less towns they have influence in, the better.’’ The woman looked down, as if considering his words.

‘’I hate them too, but I think it’s a lost cause.’’, she murmured and glanced up at him. ‘’You need more people.’’

‘’If you wish to help, I’m all for it, but I won’t expect anything from anyone anymore.’’

‘’Fine. What is your plan?’’

Despite her initial hesitation, the huntress began to agree with Yaju’s plan to execute the demons who desired to take over this town, before they even reached it. Krista, the redhead huntress, had arrived from the capital a few days back, looking to make some money for her family back home, or at least that was what she claimed. She spoke of little, but did divulge some information to Yaju. She admitted that she hadn’t killed too many demons and she had never fought against so many at once. Her inexperience, compared to the black-haired male, placed them in a disadvantage, but he could still make use of her willingness to assist.

Yaju had no intention of letting another battle take place in Tereen, yet there were no signs of the locations these demons used as base on none of the bodies. The hunter had no choice but to use his other half, his demon side. From a young age, the thirst for human flesh teased his existence from time to time, serving as a reminder of his father who he had never met. Along with that monstrous thirst though, came the skills: superhuman speed and strength, as well heightened senses. Whenever Yaju used his demonic sense of scent, it made him wonder how excruciating it must be for these monsters to feel everything so vividly.

Forming the actual plan into his head and after informing the huntress that he had a clue of the demon’s hideout from information collected by the bodies, he headed for the doctor’s establishment. Lady Ester belonged to the handful of people aware of Yaju’s bastard nature and she was going to give him what he needed to awaken this nature fully: human blood. By using his scent, the hunter planned to locate every demon near Tereen and find the one’s behind the attack. It was the only thing he could achieve with the time and power he currently possessed. He approached the doctor’s house after he prepared himself for his hunt and a few hours before closing time, when the sun had already set behind the mountains.

When one of the assistants noticed him, his expression altered to a troubled one. Doctor Rego had always been a welcoming man, but his assistants hadn’t. He nodded and stepped into the waiting room, looking for lady Ester who usually stood nearby, preparing medicine or filling out patient files. As soon as he saw her, her expression turned bittersweet, expressing sadness for the loss of her husband.

‘’Lady Ester…’’, the black haired hunter begun, his gruff and heavy voice attracted a number of eyes on him, even after his best efforts to whisper. ‘’My deepest condolences for your loss. I owe doctor Rego my life, as most of Tereen.’’, he added and the woman smiled with the corner of her lips, more wrinkles showing on her pale skin. In that small amount of time, her hair had gotten whiter and her blue eyes hazier, as if she had aged a great deal overnight. ‘’I would also like to apologize for not visiting sooner…’’, he carried on and she lifted her hand up to interrupt him, pausing her previous job of grinding dry herbs.

‘’You have been defending this town as always, there is no need to apologize.’’, she commented and shifted her attention entirely to him, by sitting to the side of her low wooden chair. The doctor’s wife had her own little crafting corner in the large waiting room and no one but the assistants dared to interrupt her when working. The hunter stiffened and brought his face near hers, his expression of concern making her frown as she lifted her head to the side in order to bring her ear near his mouth.

‘’I will be needing some blood.’’

The next moment, Lady Ester stood from her seat and nodded to him, so that he would follow. She walked him through the room the assistants used to tend to the patients, ignoring the expressions of wonder and concern thrown their way, and into the back room, a room Yaju had been only a couple of times. It was doctor Rego’s personal office. The hunter shut the door behind them and watched over, as lady Ester searched through the vials positioned on selves at the right side of the room. A huge marble bench as well as medical equipment was beside it, while on the left was the office desk and a large bookcase stuffed with books and binders. Ester approached the male and gave him two medium sized vials, nearly the size of his own palm, containing a red liquid.

‘’Jiro extracted some this morning for a client, but we had a few vials left after the operation. It went well so we won’t be needing it.’’, she commented and Yaju placed them into his back pack. He realized his luck that there was some fresh blood left.

‘’Care to explain yourself?’’, the elder woman commented, raising a cocky brow at the tall and sturdy hunter in front of her.

‘’I will need all I can get in order to win this fight. ‘’, he abstractedly replied and Ester simply sighed, accepting his secretive nature.

‘’Do take care of yourself. This town needs more people taking care of it, not less.’’, were her last words before showing him out of the office and back into the waiting room.

With newfound courage and confidence in his powers, the black-haired hunter headed for the east entrance of the town, where he met with Krista, who was ready for battle, wearing her leather armor, her long spear folded behind her back.

‘’I guess you know where to look for them?’’, she questioned and lifted a brow, her emerald eyes focused on his. The male nodded and motioned her to follow him to the stables. After climbing on his horse, the hunter took out one of the vials as secretly as possible and downed the red fluid. He held his back to the huntress as they rode out of town in a leisurely pace. Yaju grinded his teeth, doing his best to hide his reaction after ingesting blood. His senses were electrified and he felt as if he had come to life. His eyesight, hearing and sense of smell turned abnormally heightened. His own blood pulsated aggressively through his veins and his muscles tingled with excitement, aching to move, to kill. He took a deep breath in an effort to bring himself back to reality. Detesting the fact that he had to use these powers, his focus shifted on locating the demons. Their scent had left a trail from the town and back into the forest from which Yaju had previously escaped, the forest where the lake and its undefeatable demon was.

‘’Follow closely behind me.’’, he spoke up and kicked his horse to force it into a faster pace. He did not glance behind him, in fear of showing his face after having fed his demonic side. He followed the trail into the forest, appreciating his demonic eyesight that guided him through the woods with ease.

‘’How can you even see where we are going?’’ A mumble was heard behind him and if he hadn’t used his powers he wouldn’t have been able to hear her words over the galloping. Suddenly, the demon hunter forced his horse to stop and signaled the woman to do the same as well. He dismounted and tied the steed to a tree next to him, motioning the huntress to copy him. With a signal of his hand, they paced slowly through the woods, trying to make as minimal noise as possible, while the scent of the demons got progressively stronger.

‘’Do you even know where they really are? We are moving randomly…’’, Krista cleverly commented and Yaju couldn’t blame her. He had no choice but to move this way since that was the trail the demons had left.

‘’Just follow me and be quiet.’’, he glanced back at her, his teeth already grinding in his effort to restrain his frustration. ‘’Get ready.’’

At the sound of his words the female huntress took her spear in her hand and unfolded it, preparing for battle. Yaju could not smell the demons a few kilometers ahead of him, really close to the lake and heading to it. The hunter shut his eyes and allowed his other senses take over as he reached for the other vial of blood into his pocket. The fluid would take him on edge, giving him the boost he needed to defeat the nearly ten demons ahead of him. As soon as the crimson liquid slid down his throat, his body shivered and a thirst to kill took over him, his eyes, now wide open, were glowing yellow, like the creatures he so much resented. Some of them showed yellow eyes and others red. Lucky for Yaju he hadn’t met too many elder red eyed one’s, or he might not live to tell the tale.

With his blade now unsheathed and by his side, he took step after step, focusing his vicious nature to the battle that was about to commence, trying to ignore the female behind him who smelled quite tasty to him at the moment. The scents of the demons ahead where quite intense and moments before reaching the clearing beside the lake he counted, nine of them. A flash of yellow eyes appeared in front of him and snarls of anger echoed, since they had located them as well, before blades clashed and blood gushed allover. In the midst of battle, the hunter lost himself. He attacked the first demon in front of him, decapitating him immediately. He thought he saw the female hunter strive to attack as well with his peripheral vision, but he was so obsessively focused on the monsters that clearly aimed for him.

‘’This guy is a demon too! Get rid of him!’’, he heard someone shout and his eyes focused on the way too pretty for a male person, who aimed his thin blade towards Yaju’s neck. This demon’s silk, nearly silver hair shone under the moonlight, giving him an ethereal aura that didn’t match his bloodshot yellow eyes. The hunter did what came natural to him. The demon’s blade managed to pierce his shoulder as he dashed to the side to avoid it and Yaju, having trapped his enemy’s sword, charged at him, forcing him to step back in confusion. Then, with a sudden move of his blade, the demon’s pretty face had been sliced off. 

The hunter suffered wounds, too many for him to count. Yet the demon blood that run through him made sure that they did not hinder his fight.

‘’Yaju!’’, he heard a female cry and his crimson eyes finally turned to acknowledge the huntress. Her own emerald one’s widened, from fear and shock at the same time. She had suffered a wound in her sides and was unable to keep her spear up. The hunter run up to her, facing off the demon who aimed to get rid of her. Yaju was impressed by Krista, as she had managed to kill two demons.

‘’What…what are you…’’, her mumbles were clearly heard, but he was too busy with the fight to pay attention to her shock.

‘’Die, you fucking monster!’’, the demon in front of him shouted, squirming violently, while blood gushed out of his mouth, the hunter’s blade having gone through his chest. The demon clenched his fingers and shoved them towards Yaju, aiming to reach for his heart, demons’ favorite organ. The hunter was faster, though, and lifted his hand, making the demon’s fingers pierce through his forearm. He pulled the blade from his chest and swung it around, cutting the last two demons who run to him across their necks, while slicing the first one’s forehead off.

With his wounds still bleeding, the black-haired hunter looked around him to make sure that all the demons had been killed. His attention shifted to one of them, a usually mortal wound in his throat made him simply squirm as the flesh gradually reconnected. Yaju stepped near him, looking down into his desperate yellow eyes.

‘’There is no mercy for you kind, monster.’’, he gritted through his teeth, his voice coming out as low as possible, showing exhaustion the man did not actually feel. Hunger still lingered inside of him and in a state of madness he knelt beside the demon. Baring his teeth, the hunter, the half man, did the unthinkable, he bit flesh from the demon’s neck. The metallic taste and smell of blood kept him there, as he drank and ate and tore flesh to reach the tender, warm organs inside. And with every mouthful and every sip, his wounds closed, his hunger was satisfied. The man had become one with the monster.