Chapter 17:Reward begets risk

"What are you thinking about?" A voice echoed.

"Huhn!"Daniel was brought out of his reverie by a familiar voice. Turning to his side, it was none other than Collin, the only person capable of striking up a conversation with him.

"Your face was so dark, felt like you were oozing murder vibes." Collin chuckled. "Bet your liver must be aching that you missed out on a possible awesome time, cause that's what we had hehe. Me and Sara. Awesome time. Awesome time. Me and Sara. Awe..." He continued to mumble incoherently all the way to class.

Daniel sighed in exasperation. This particular human was so clingy. Despite the intense fluctuations in his aura due to his thoughts, Collin didn't think twice before approaching. He was either innately brave or very stupid. Taking a short glace at the crazed muttering figure of his 'friend', he nodded his head with certainty 'He's definitely both.'

They both slowly walked to their classroom, striking an unlikely duo to all that saw. One slowly walked unconcerned, silent, and oozed a certain aura of dismissal while the other nearly hopped, mouth mumbling non-stop, eyes vibrant and face full of life. They looked like two people who would have been better off existing as separate entities.

The classroom instantly turned quiet the moment the duo entered, an eerie silence permeating the atmosphere, much out of place in a room full of hormonal teenagers. Daniel's aura was curbed to the extreme but his bearing could not be hid. He unconsciously exuded the bearing and grace of a superior life form, a predator even amongst predators. Even the students could not explain exactly why they restrained themselves in his presence though a good part of it was his display of brutality the last semester, putting Brian in the hospital for weeks.

Of course, while regular humans might not be able to explain his unusual bearing, experienced hunters would be able to make mostly accurate deductions. Hunters could rarely ever be suppressed by ordinary humans, and possessed keen intuitions and judgment. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, the Ramirez twins weren't experienced to single out this aura even though they had an inkling the youth wasn't ordinary.

In this scenario though, it would take more than mere intuition to deduce Daniel's identity as it was incredibly rare for shifters to mix in with humans this way. There were currently very few methods to generally pick out a shifter from amongst a group of humans without causing harm to bystanders.

Daniel unhurriedly sat in his seat, Collin promptly following along. The class soon regained liveliness, the students resuming their earlier discussions and gossip. The bell rang moments later signaling the start of classes for the day and a pause in discussions…of course certain students don't seem to understand this unspoken rule.

"So did you hear they captured the "creature" killing people?" Collin muttered in a certain person's ear just as the teacher entered.

Daniel didn't pay attention to his mutterings but then his brain processed what he said and he managed to mutter a confused hum "Huhn?"

"The thing I told you about yesterday? The rabid killings" Collin whispered, his expression a merge of fear and curiosity.

"Yeah, I remember. So what do you mean they caught the creature?" Daniel asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. He figured the situation might have attracted hunters and the news was a way for them to cover it up…though he'd never heard of hunters covering up something so minor or giving a damn about public opinion.

"Yeah, turns out it wasn't some "creature" but some…"

"Mr Colllin, would you mind sharing with the class what's so interesting besides the calculus on the board" The teacher, Mr Bridge adjusted his glasses, glaring at the confused youth who looked like he'd be caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Uhmm uhhh well uhh" The poor boy's brain obviously started to short-circuit as he started spouting a bunch of nonsense which the teacher was much obliged to listen to.

Daniel sighed at his plight, his expression soon turning indifferent. His eyes roamed the class, noting the empty seats of the Ramirez twins. He couldn't stop himself from wondering the reason for their absence and more importantly why he didn't just skip the day anyway. The period fazed as he barely paid attention and he only came to when he heard the familiar muttering beside his ear.

"So where was I?" Daniel glanced at Collin from the corner of his eye, noting his bulging eyes and eager expression to gossip.

Daniel sighed in exasperation. "You said the creature was caught" A cold emotionless voice echoed from his throat, sending shivers down the spine of those who heard but of course, Collin was unaffected as his eyes seemed to turn brighter.

"Yeah, but except it wasn't a creature" Collin whispered.

"What does that mean?" Daniel raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Well apparently it was some psycho killer wearing claw-like gloves murdering people" Collin whispered, swiftly whipping out his phone to search the local news. "Here it is"

Daniel turned his head to get a better look at the phone noting the headline "Crazed monster-man behind killings" and attached was a picture of a gruff-looking fellow that would be hard to single out in a crowd and a picture of the claw-like gloves stained with blood.

"They caught him last night in the midst of assaulting a female student, but apparently she took defense classes or something so she didn't fall easy." A disturbed look flashed across Collin's face. "Her screams managed to attract some patrolling officers and he was quickly apprehended. Apparently the lunatic thought himself some kind of monster or wanted to get into some monster cult, not sure which it is."

Collin's voice slowly dribbled out of Daniel's consciousness as multiple thoughts ran amok his head. 'A human did this? It's dubious but if it's true then did I just wipe out a rat horde for no fucking reason!?' His face took on a ghastly expression and he let out an exasperated groan. 'My body is going to ache for at least a week because of this and it wasn't even them being sloppy, it was just some stupid human? Gahhhhh'

"Daniel….Daniel…"

'Tch! This is such a pain in the ass, I might just get in trouble with the elders for this and it's even for nothing…well not nothing, just not the original reason.'

"Dammit Danny!"

"Huhn?" Daniel cocked his eyebrow at the fuming Collin.

"Have you been listening to me?" Collin squinted his eyes. "Or did seeing Amelia there short-circuit your little brain?" He scoffed, turning his head to his phone.

"I told you to quit calling me Danny" Daniel squinted his eyes dangerously. He contemplated if it'll be worth murdering this pesky fellow in the woods but then his brain registered the latter part of Collin's statement and his eyes scanned the class again and sure enough the Ramirez twins were on seat. They'd probably entered a while earlier while he zoned out and another teacher was in class as well, seems he ignored the bell as well. "Hey Collin" he called out somewhat distractedly.

"Huhn? What" Collin muttered half-heartedly, his being more on his screen.

"Who pulled you out of the tree yesterday?" Daniel asked, his eyes still on the twins…well on one of the twins.

"Huhn? Oh right, it was…Heyyy we still need to talk about that, why'd you leave me hanging like that, I was practically doing you a favour" Collin narrowed his eyes in annoyance, seeing absolutely nothing off with helping his best friend secure a date…even at the expense of said friend's dignity.

Daniel scoffed. "You're lucky I didn't just run you over with my bike" He shot a threatening glare at the pesky fellow. "Now how'd you get out of the tree?"

"Jeez, can't even help a friend these days" Collin huffed. "I'm not helping you out no more you ingrate" Daniel rolled his eyes at his response, thinking to himself how dramatic this fellow is. "Anyway, if you must know it was some nice looking lady and her friends…course Amy tried to help too but they were quicker' He shrugged.

"Hmm, I see" A thoughtful look flashed in his eyes for a moment after which they turned indifferent and he slowly shut his eyes.

"Not gonna apologize for hanging me up a tree branch?" A voice whispered, tickling his ear

"No"

"Tsk! What a pain" The voice huffed

Collin turned silent after, finally stuffing his phone in his pocket and paying attention to the lesson. Daniel couldn't be bothered much, though he paid attention he had little need for "human education". His race were more simple creatures and were in too dire a state to bother about exploring the sciences. He was here for multiple reasons, the foremost being to stay off the radar and allow his injured soul to heal.

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The Horde cave

The once rat-filled cave oozing of fecal matter, urine, death, and dirty fur now had several humans carrying multiple equipment littered all over the place. They swiftly bagged the incapacitated rats, both dead and alive into a transparent large-sized polythene bag. The bag was a special material for transporting shifters, filled to near brim with a strong nerve agent ensuring total submission, and were much easier to use and carry than things like iron cages anyway.

The other members of the Hunter Squad D-258 were all present, garbed in full gear save their helmets. Unlike their earlier rushed recon, they carefully observed the cave. Sam and Mark inched closer to the Alpha's corpse which was in the process of being bagged

"The Alpha must have been completely outmatched" Sam murmured, eyebrows furrowed as he gently stroked his chin. "Being pummeled like that. It'll take me nearly going all out to achieve the same and yet some beast did this with its fists"

Mark nodded in agreement, well aware of his partner's strength. Sam was the strongest hunter in their squad, already nearing the rank of a C-class hunter and could already match a couple in strength alone. His hammer which he casually swings around weighs as much as a fridge which is about 90kg. It would indeed take him swinging that heavy stuff at near max power to smash the Alpha's head in so ruthlessly but no Alpha would stand there stupidly and get pummeled. An Alpha nearly surpasses all of them in terms of speed and the rats were known to be particularly nimble.

"Only problem now is…is that beast still around?" Sam said exactly what was on Mark's mind. The beast that could so easily take down this alpha would be their greatest threat yet.

*Beep* *Beep*

Both their watches let out synchronized beeps, and with a glance at the others, he could tell they received a message as well. Swiftly reading the message, he couldn't help but let out a smirk. A great risk is usually accompanied by a generous reward indeed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

MISSION UPDATE: FIND AND NEUTRALIZE THE PROBABLE ALPHA ENTITY

MISSION TAG: 91765D

MISSION RANK: D+

MISSION REWARD: SQUAD ADVANCES TO C-RANK

****CONTACT AGENT 365 FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION****

FAILURE TO ACCEPT MISSION WITHIN 6 HOURS RESULTS IN MISSION TERMINATION

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A very generous reward indeed.