"why"
This was the one single though he had as he layed on the floor, the building burning as smoke and fire engulfed the place.
His body felt weak, his legs liek jelly, as he crawled through the building, finger tips raw and bleeding.
He couldn't die here, he refused to die.
He just had to find out the answer to that one single though going on in his head.
Even if he had to drag him self out of the maw of hell.
View of Darkness
The Huntsman opened his eye, scanning around quickly (force of habit when ever he was aggitated), before slumping back against the tree, his left hand shaking.
"Compared to that heat back then, i feel so... cold" he muttered to him self as he looked up.
It had been a few hours since he and his 2 companions, Sasha and Reina, had left the desert and entered the twisted landscape that belonged to the undead, one which was soaked with a thick, demonic taint.
You couldn't even call it residual back ground energy, the air was thick with the stuff, each breath for the Huntsman heavy and uncomfortable, despite the medallion he wore filtering out a large portion of it.
Worse still, was the fact that the mass amount of energy dulled his ability to sense nearby monsters signifcantly.
At most, he could sense Sasha and Reina, who were with in 10 metres and that was with some effort.
His 'sight' was even worse, as if somebody had put up a wall of darkness in front of him.
All he could see was twisting black energy.
The Huntsman took a deep breath, the air being sucked in through his nose, before expelling it out through his mouth, a very basic technique he had picked up which helped to keep him calm and in the right frame of mind.
"Get up, we're moving"
Manipulation
Reina walked through the forest of twisted trees, sniffing as she did, her ears sharp and alert, ready to catch the sound of any potencial ambushes.
She was followed by the Huntsman, who kept a 10 metre distance from her, his right hand holding a knife.
Lastly was Sasha, who was humming happily, her hips swaying from side to side as her tail swished to and fro.
Both Sasha and Reina were in their element here, the demonic energy in the air having a refreshing scent compared to the dry desert they had been in.
Each breath they took rejuvinated them, energy coursing through their veins, the air having a refreshing effect as it entered their lungs, though that did nothing to cool their body heat.
No, quite the opposite, not only did each breath fill them full of energy, it also caused their bodies to heat up, their blood to boil.
It didn't help that the object of their desire was nearby, the urge to simply assault and ravish him almost unbearable.
The Huntsman had accounted for this, so he had whispered a few words to both of them, out of ear shot of the other before they had packed up their supplies from the camp they had made before.
To Sasha, he had told her to keep an eye on Reina and the surroundings, trusting her to be his back up if anything went wrong, which had fired her up with a fervor that would rival that of some of the mightest heros of the order.
To Reina, he had played on her ego, telling her that if she tried to take him without making sure no one would disturb them, then she could end up having him stolen and raped by a gang of other monsters working together, or even by Sasha if she got a one up on her.
He had basically set them against each other and every other monster that may inhabit the land, which would help to keep their attention off him and perferably on each other.
Though he didn't expect it to work forever.
Sooner of later, one of them would snap and let their instincts kick in, that was garenteed.
He just had to try and delay that inevitable senario for as long as possible.
He really couldn't afford to waste energy in this place.
Tread Lightly
"Stop" The Huntsman whispered whiel holding his hand up, casuing Sasha and Reina to halt as well, with Reina twisting her head.
"What, why sho... " Reina was cut off in mid sentence by the Huntsman coveirng her mouth with her hand, the warm sensation of his flesh agaisnt her lips causing her to moisten, much to the annoyance of Sasha, who would of created a fuss if it wasn't for the Huntsman who was brandishing one of his daggers.
"You 2 don't sense it... that we're not alone"
The Huntsman pointed towards a small patch of dirt in the direction they had been moving, it was nothing out of the ordinary, apart from a few stones which were sitting next to the dirt, some half covered in dirt, like they had been removed from the ground.
To the Huntsman however, he could clearly see there was something underneath, the concentraion of demonic energy coming from the dirt gave away the hidden occupant.
Zombies by nature, while strong, are both slow and incredibly stupid, unable to follow even the simplest of plans, relying instead of sheer pyhsical resilience and strength to pin down their victum, though in most cases people simply ran at the sight of them, easily able to out pace the lumbering sack of meat the average zombie was.
Julia had spent considerable time thinking about this problem, along with ways of defending agaisnt order incursions, a very common ocurence thanks to the proximity of her lands to the orders.
She solved both these problems in one very simple, but dangerous (for any non-monster visitors) way.
First, a spell was cast on the zombies, one that put them into a coma like state (admitdly not much different from their normal selves, just less moaning), next, they were buried, shallow enough so that they could quickly come out of the gorund and grab any unfortunate victum, but deep enough that the soil on top could be patted flat to make it less abovuis that something was underneath the soil.
Now when, lets say a order scout came along, the residual spiritual energy in their sweat and breath would cause the Spell on the zombie to break, in turn causing them to wake up and attack the near by scout.
Still, even with the advantage of surpise, any one with a good level of training could easily dodge a zombie trying to claw its way out of the ground, which is why they were usually buried in groups, ranging from a few zombies to dozens or even hundreds, with a few of their number being buried with modfied versions of the sleeping spell which would set off every other zombie if they were woken up.
One may be easy to dodge, a few can be problematic, but with hundreds of zombies surrounding you, it would be very difficult to escape or defeat them all.
The Huntsman took a deep breath while removing his hand from Reinas mouth, ignore the fact that it was now covered in drool.
"Both of you need to keep an eye out for any loose stones with mud on them, any ground where the soil as been turned over and any out of place shrubbery, it's an indication that something is buried under the ground near by" The Huntsman whispered as both Sasha and Reina listened closely.
"And i'd rather not wake them anything up, so tread lightly and keep your mouth shut" The huntsman ended as he started to walk slowly, moving around the patch of dirt with the upturned stones, with Sasha and Reina following suit.
"Julia, you really know how to make things difficult"
???
Authors notes:
And i've added a part, beena long time since i did any additions, feels good.
Laterz
Update 28-08-2015
I am currently revisting chapter 4 (old wounds) and plant o make major alterations to it, meaning i won't be continuing this chapter until i've done that.
Update 07-10-2015:
Doing significant updating and changes.