Red Night
Night had arrived and Ryo was still wide awake, same as the "council" -as they had come to call themselves-. The "council" was composed of Ryo, the girls, Rei's parents, Kouta, Matsushima and the Yamadas. They were the people who had been helping Ryo manage everything since the very beginning. Karma, who still wasn't trusted with any actual responsibility, insisted in staying awake. After he had drank the Liquid Virus, he insisted in staying and helping as much as possible.
Ryo, who respected that, realized he hadn't chequed Karma's Status even once since meeting him, so he decided to do it right then and there.
[Name: Akabane Karma
Level: 2
Strength: 26
Agility: 26
Intelligence: 28
Dexterity: 24
Charisma: 26
Skills:
Ryo was thinking just what kind of kid Karma was to have a skill like
"Hmm... karma, you're pretty good at ambush tactics, right?" Ryo asked, acting as if he had scanned karma with his eyes. The red-haired boy was surprised when he realized he had been seen through so easily, but answered honestly. "Yeah, I am. Why?"
"I want you to hide in between the tall bushes" Ryo said while pointing to a place on the side of the road. "If anyone passes by there, you take the one on the back down. Scare them"
Karma nodded in acknowledgement and revealed a wicked grin that promised blood. Ryo chuckled seeing his excitement. At least the kid didn't seem like the kind to be traumatized by gore.
"Rika, get in position already. The top of any tree will do, right?" Ryo ordered while looking at the tanned sniper. She lowered her shooting glasses to her eyes and replied teasingly. "Sure... but I want your thick tree trunk later~"
"*sigh*... when we are done, perhaps" Ryo answered while sighing heavily. After Yuriko, Rika was the thirstiest of the girls. "The rest, with me, close to the entrace through the main road"
*
In the middle of the night, walking with only a few torches for illumination, was a group of people with similar clothes. The group was lead by Minami Riku, a middle-aged man who escaped jail after being arrested for the third time because of the same felony: armed robbery. His group was talking merrily on its way to a mountain village that they plundered a few days ago. This time they were back to take whatever had been left.
"Do you think they have any more weapons there?" said a bald man that looked like a street thug. He was replied by a young kid that looked just like him. "I don't know, but I hope there is at least one hot chick there"
They continued to walk while conversing like that, with a jolly atmosphere present all the time, dancing around their every word. Their nightmare began when they were a mile (1.6 km) away from the village. They heard the sound of bushes moving, so they turned around on guard...
"Hey Rintaro..." said the bald man, calling for their partner that was walking at the back of the group. But Rintaro was nowhere to be found. "Where is Rintaro?"
From withing the forest that surrounded the road and the village, they heard a scream full of terror. The voice that produced the scream was one they knew particularly well.
"Rintaro!" one of them yelled before dashing in the direction of the scream. The others wanted to stop him, but Minami held them back. "Don't waste your time... they sealed the deal themselves"
"But, Riku-san...!" one of the men tried to protest, only to receive on angry glare from Minami. "If you want to go then go, I won't stop you againg, but don't expect to return with us!"
Under such threat, they could only keep marching towards the village, even if their morale was now low.
*
Unknown to them, the guy that had just ran after Rintaro's scream had managed to find the man. Rintaro's body and head were separated from each other. His body was tied to a tree with a bloody rope, while his head was hanging from a branch, tied with the other end of the same rope.
"W-What the fuck is this..." he muttered, fear gripping his heart slowly. He heard the sound of the bushes moving, behind him, so he quickly turned around and pointed his gun there. The same sound soon followed from other direction, and other, and other. "W-Who's there! C-Come out or I'll shoot!"
The next thing he new, the sound mas made from all directions in succession. Scared shitless, the man just began shooting in random directions. When his gun ran out of bullets, he heard a ghostly, whispery voice behind him, feeling a cold breath on the back of his neck.
"Are you scared~?" Karma said before pressing his knife against the man's neck, allowing him to scream before effectively slashing his neck from side to side. Appreciating his job, Karma smiled while thinking of the training he would be doing with his new, inhuman sensei. "*phew*... I hope Ryo-sensei will be happy with this"
*
Minami's group had just heard the second scream. Everyone, Minami included, was holding their guns tightly. Their bodies were tense while cold sweat ran down their backs and foreheads.
"Riku-san... I really have a bad feeling... this doesn't feel like the group from before at all!" a man shouted at Riku, only to feel a punch connect to his face a second later. "Do you think I like this?! You idiot, we don't have a choice!"
And that was the truth. If they came back empty-handed, they would be treated like idiots, traitors or something like that. Their leader wasn't inhuman, but some of the people close to him were. And punishment, which they saw as torture, wasn't something they could afford to go through. Not if they ever wanted to keep the little sanity they still had, at least.
"I know that but... I'd rather be crazy than dead" said the man that had just got punched. It wasn't a weird occurrence, so not only was he used to it, but didn't feel bothered either. Minami sighed before answering. "Then go back yourself and explain why you're there. That or shut the fuck up and move"
Not having any real good option, he manned-up and moved forwards, staying as close as possible to the group. When they heard the sound of bushes moving, they turned around faster. Unluckily, they only managed to catch a white blur before the guy disappeared. They had suddenly gone from being 30 to 27 in a moment. The worst part? They didn't even see what happened truly. And still, they kept going forwards. Their fear of what could happen in their base was stronger than the fear they had right now... but that would soon change.
It was when they got closer to the entrance of the gate, about half a mile, that they saw a huge wolf standing in the middle of the road. A second later it was gone in the same white blur that had taken one of them.
Right behind the wolf had been standing a kid with a well built body. But the thing that picked their attention and freezed their hearts, were his shiny, bluish eyes. In the middle of the night, under the moonlight and the dim light of their torches, he looked like Death itself coming to reap their souls. They heard a short command before the white blur took one of them again.
"Hunt"
Right after those words left his mouth, many shadows protruded from among the trees. They could recognize some from their previous raid, but that was where the similarities ended. They were clearly not the same people, seeing how they bashed through their group. Minami tried to aim his gun, but he soon felt a cold blade pressed against his neck. Looking through the corner of his eyes, he saw the man that had been standing behind the wolf.
*
"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Ryo said as he stared down at the man who seemed to be the leader of that group, if Karma's report was right.
Minami gulped air before letting go of his weapon. He hadn't even heard a sound but in under a second Ryo was already behind him. He understood that, whatever he did, he would have to obbey.
"Now, while MY friends hunt YOUR friends... why don't you tell me a few things?"
That night, the only thing that was heard where the screams of pain and unadulterated terror that Minami Riku's group suffered, while Minami Riku was forced to watch how they were dismembered, gutted, beheaded and one eaten by Zeke. Ryo made him live a nightmare in his wake, making sure he wouldn't resist later on.