The Bounty Hunter

November 8th, 2088

Terra’s POV   

As soon as I left Veronica and Kira to navigate the alleys back to the store, I wiped some of Veronica’s blood off my clothes and onto my hands.  Demon became an amorphous blob and absorbed the blood.  Suddenly, the blob expanded into a humanoid shape.  Soon after the features were defined and a copy of Veronica was in my arms again.  There was no expression or emotion, Demon was the lowest class of demon after all and didn’t even have self-awareness yet. 

With this fake in my arms, I located the Bounty Hounds who were persistently following our scents.  I leaped high into the air, just like I did when I scooped up Veronica.  I was immensely pleased with my Body Reinforcement magic.  I don’t usually have to use it, but it perfectly fits my needs this time.  I casually sauntered on the roof tops until I saw Vuser and company.

Awowowo!  Again they started barking and eagerly pursued me as I “barely” stayed ahead of them.  I led them out of Obsidia into the nearby forest until I became “trapped” at the foot of a cliff.  I had “dropped” the fake Veronica when a conjured fireball managed to “hit” me.  5 dog-kin plus Vuser surrounded me in a half-circle while the other 3 were securing the fake Veronica. Vuser stepped forward while growling menacingly.

“You irritating fucking cat!  You think you can fuck with the Bounty Hounds like this!!  I’ll kill you!!”  Vuser howled at me as he lifted up his tower shield and Morningstar.  *Sigh* “Hello to you too, Loser.  Since this’ll be the last time we meet like this, I guess I should also say Good Bye.”  At my words, a look of recognition flashed across Vuser’s ugly mug.  But before he could say anything Demon made its move. 

“AHHHHHH!”  Screams of pain and horror echoed from the 3 Bounty Hounds assigned to ‘Veronica’ as Demon morphed back into its abominable form.  It had already swallowed one of them whole while the other two were tangled in its tentacles and rapidly losing the ability to resist.  “You two go deal with that fucking thing!”  Vuser barked at some of his dogs.  They rushed over, while Vuser and the remaining three charged me. 

I launched a gout of flame at one of the Bounty Hounds, charring him into cinders, before the others reached me.  I sidestepped past Vuser’s overhead slam with his Morningstar that caused the ground to shake, ducked beneath a swinging greatsword that left an icy trail behind it, and then jumped above a flaming spear thrust aimed at my knees.  I then landed directly on said spear, snapping it in two as I sent out a bolt of lightning which roasted the spear wielder. 

Vuser and the swordsman both jumped back to avoid more of my magic at point-blank range.  Vuser then swung his Morningstar down once more, causing everything in a straight line between me and him to go up in a series of explosions.  I raised the ground in front of me to form a wall to shield me from the blast.  I then crushed the earthen wall and sent the pieces flying towards Vuser.  He blocked the deadly projectiles with his tower shield, its enchantments lighting up to negate the impact of the attack.

The swordsman charged back in and performed a vertical slash with his frost greatsword, but I executed a sword catch with my hands enveloped in light blue flame.  The frost covering the greatsword sublimated into steam instantly and the force of the expanding gas managed to push back Vuser as he was about to ram me with his shield.  Within the cloud of steam I wrenched the greatsword from the swordsmen’s grasp and immediately impaled him with a conjured earthen spike. 

The steam cloud suddenly was blown away as Vuser used his tower shield’s wind blast.  He then charged forward.  I tossed the greatsword at him, allowing it to rattle towards his feet like I did against Arc the Asuran.  Vuser immediately performed a small jump and avoided the sword magnificently.  However, as he was momentarily in the air I made a horizontal cyclone hit him from the side, driving him deep into the cliff. 

Before he could get out, I let loose a high pressure water jet into the hole.  It cut through the cliff, causing it to collapse in on itself.  I heard a loud growl, and Vuser blasted his way out with his Morningstar causing an explosion that pushed back the rock slide and made the cliff collapse behind him.  His tower shield was bent out of shape, and his Morningstar was cracked due to the overexertion of blasting away the cliff. 

I gave him a come hither sign with two fingers and said “With fists, then?”  Vuser snarled and tossed aside his equipment as he walked from out of the rubble of my last attack.  He finally got on level ground and was about to say something before our brawl when I caused a lance of ice to sublimate from the water vapor in the air.  It extended instantly and pierced Vuser’s heart before he could react.  “You fucker…”  Vuser managed to gasp those words out before dying. 

Only heroes do something as stupid as being fair in a fight.  I am not a hero, thus I don’t need to care about something as superfluous as a warrior’s code of conduct.  All warfare is based on deception (to quote Sun Tzu) and the ones naïve enough to believe anything an enemy says or does die first.  I looked over to Demon and saw that it had successfully finished things up on its end.  It was missing a few teeth and tentacles but was otherwise fine. 

“Demon, these corpses are all yours.”  I watched as it eagerly consumed all the remains.  As it finished devouring Vuser, I felt a change in the bond connecting me with my familiar.  It unexpectedly morphed into its amorphous blob form, then imploded, leaving behind a pitch-black onyx stone the size of a golf ball.  I picked it up and pocketed it.  I can deal with this oddity with Demon later.  Let’s check on Veronica and Kira first.