Hunter or Hunted

"That?"

"Get off your ass!"

"Such a disgrace!"

Once the warriors and the hunters gathered at the point they were called at, they all discovered the truth behind that beast.

"Get off the way!"

As the first-rate warrior, Bang Su, joined the fray, he could see what looked like a tiger's face painted on the tree trunk with earth-based paint, blood, and mud. He scratched the painting with his finger then rubbed them together and smelled it.

"It is fresh!" He said and his eyes widened, "Lee Song, watch out! This isn't the doing of a beast, it is a person."

As he said his warning.

The first-rate warriors sped back to their posts to the point where the carriages were formed together as a fortified point. As the three of them, including Lee Song, entered the enclosure where the merchants were fortifying themselves, all they could see was blood and limbs.

Wang Jung, the merchant who hired them for this hunt, was the only survivor as he stuck his back to a wagon and held his sword with shaken hands. As the hunters saw him, they all turned around carefully but the beast wasn't there.

"Where?" Lee Song asked the merchant urgently.

As if he had given up on all hope, the merchant dropped his sword and looked at his hands as he spoke with a tragic face.

"I have doomed us all…"

His words weren't finished as his entire being was suddenly slapped to the ground and pulled under a wagon.

"Aaaaaaaah! NO! PLEASE! I BEG YOU!"

The merchant wailed as he was dragged and the warriors immediately gave pursuit since they needed their employer very much alive but as they bypassed the wagons' enclosure, they became stunned and hesitant by what they saw.

The question of whether it was a tiger had been asked repeatedly along the journey. Now, with the beast in sight, the answer didn't seem to be a decisive one.

On one hand, it has the characteristics of a tiger. The head, the fur, and even the long claws. On the other hand, it seemed like a standing man.

As it stood, it carried Wang Jung by his chest as five claws appeared from the back of the motionless merchant. A second didn't pass before the beast flung his arm aside and threw the merchant away as it turned to the three first-rate warriors.

As they saw its red eyes, they came to a dreadful halt and the warmth their torches provided became very insignificant as a dreadful coldness gripped their hearts. The three warriors—experienced as they were—didn't know what to do and made sure that their swords were between them and the thing they were seeing.

"Don't daze off! It's only a man!"

But unlike Lee Song and the other two, Bang Su, the fourth first-rate warrior, came charging while being followed by the six second-rate warriors.

With long strides and fancy footwork, Bang Su whirled his blade and slashed at the so-called beast in order to behead him but the beast was nimble and it backed away. The second-rate warriors also ran and attempted to encircle the beast but they lost to it in terms of speed and it was already on the run.

"Coward!" Bang Su shouted and tried to keep up as well.

The beast ran back to the woods with a tail of ten warriors after him holding their swords, spears, and torches. They tried to maintain a formation as they chased the beast but still couldn't stop it.

A warrior from the left and another from the right attempted to tackle the beast with their spears and a third tried to slash it from the back but all they got was half of the pelt that the beast wore to disguise itself as a tiger.

At that point, it wasn't proper to call him a beast. Still, once it was almost definitely confirmed to be a man, it broke through the strong spear shafts that the warriors were tackling it with by brute force and without even slowing down.

Moreover, it swung its right arm and five streaks of blood were formed on the second-rate warrior at his right. The man was shredded from his abdomen all the way to his neck and shoulder and fell coughing out his blood and his last insufferable breath.

"No!" Bang Su shouted in devastation and threw a small hatchet at the beast with the full might of his first-rate warrior's arm.

But as if it used its wild instincts, the beast jumped out of the way to a nearby tree and without waiting to catch its breath, it started climbing and jumping to other trees leaving many claw marks at where its hands and feet were.

"I'll shoot him."

But just as the beast almost escaped between the trees, the three first-rate warriors caught up along with hunter Kwang who notched an arrow to his bowstring and aimed it in a direction the others didn't anticipate the beast would be.

Swoosh

As he let the arrow loose, it made a swooshing sound and struck something way up in the dark. A second later, something fell from above.

The shape was that of a man and it seemed that the arrow had finally hit him. Such a man was definitely a demonic human in order to be with such beast-like prowess.

But as soon as that man reached some point before it would reach the ground, he immediately held on to a branch and redirected his fall towards the ground at a speed they couldn't even react to. Once they reacted, it was already gone along with a chunk from Hunter Kwang's neck.

The Hunter fell soundless and terror was now creeping into the hearts of the warriors.

That's because they saw that man's face.

It wasn't a face, it was a visage for something demonic and evil.

Man? No. Tiger? Neither. Demon? Could be.

What then?

"Jiangshi!"

Such pale skin, such evil eyes, such long claws, such sharp fangs, and such bizarre nimble jumps.

It can only be the monster from the legends.

A Jiangshi!

The man who said that simply ran as his comrades tried to stop him. He still held onto his torch but suddenly, its light went off along with a miserable dying scream.

Three fell so far, this wasn't favorable, not favorable at all.

"We are sitting ducks here." Lee Song said as he kept his cool.

"We're right in its hunting ground. We must move." Bang Su agreed.

"Back to the clearing! Maintain formation. Cover all directions."

As the eight warriors covered every possible angle while making their hasty retreat, they kept their torches lit and their weapons ahead for any possible attack.

All they could hope for was to make it out of the woods and to keep their ground in an open place where they could do something about this demon. It lured them out of their chosen battle site and managed to inflict huge damage against them.

Far above on a tree mingled within the darkness stood that thing with horrifying features. It watched the men and its eyes started to have some sense of intelligence and calmness.

Finally, he found what he was looking for and now he can complete the order he was given. He had to choose his moment to attack carefully but before he moved onward, he felt something and looked at the sky. A vicious grin appeared on his face then he relaxed again.

Luck was on his side tonight.

***

Once they got to the clearing, the eight warriors were nervously exhausted.

They couldn't believe the experience they had just been through and it was impossible to do anything with a cool head past this point.

"This is dangerous… way too dangerous… it is above anything we were paid for." One of the first-rate warriors said, "I'm not giving up my life for that."

"We must leave." A second-rate warrior agreed with him.

"Wait!" Lee Song called, "You can't do this right now."

"I'm not staying!" The first-rate warrior insisted on leaving.

"We're not out of the woods yet." Bang Su said urgently as he looked around, "That thing is stalking us… waiting for a weakness. Once we turn our backs and run, we will be hunted one by one."

"If you want to stay and fight it, be my guest."

"Splitting up is a bigger mistake." Lee Song said, "We must retreat for sure but it must be done very carefully."

In front of him, the first-rate warrior that wanted to leave as well as all the second-rate warriors, were all scared shitless. It was hard to command an unorganized band of vagabonds that had no hierarchy efficiently in chaotic situations. Lee Song had to step up his game.

"There are only 8 of us, that thing out there chose its battle wisely because it was no match for us in the open. Keep your guard up until the hour of dawn and we will make it out alive."

His words struck some sense into the warriors around him and his reason and guess about the beast was right on point. The demon can chase them in the open and all it can do is sneak up on them to hit and run.

Ideally, this would have worked.

Realistically, the factor of the unknown was not on the side of the eight warriors for when Lee Song had just finished his words, he felt a tiny wet feeling on his neck, then behind his ear, then on his cheek, and his forehead.

All the warriors had the same sensation and in a moment of unfortunate realization, they all looked up at the starless sky which was filled with heavy rain clouds.

Not a couple of seconds later, the rain poured down and doused all the campfires around the clearing. Except for a few torches, the light dimmed out.

That wasn't just a simple rain. The sky poured with all its might and the earth let its mud overflow to a point where a man's whole foot would be covered in mud.

The humans were helpless as they lost their vision to the darkness and their hearing to the heavily pouring rain while the Demonic Vampire stood closer than they could ever imagine. He could see, he could hear, and he could smell.

He was about to feast.