Demon Hunters, Chapter 2 – Kidnapped.
#2 of The Chronicles Of The Demon Hunters.
i WANT O SAY THANKS TO MORE THAN ONE PEOPLE, BRITSINGE, AND LOBORON BY HELPING ME WITH WORDS AND TO DON'T GIVE UP, AND TO LUCIAN CANAD TO MAKE THE REVIEW ^^, HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THIS.
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Demon Hunters, Chapter 2 â€" Kidnapped.
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The sound of the plane losing altitude was barely audible inside the presidential suite, but, yet, the sound proof windows of the second floor shook a little.
A massive orange scaled arm was the first thing Shaan noticed when he woke up that morning. He moved a little and grinned when he perceived that the allosaurus was still inside him after the night they had spend to-gether. After he managed to remove the arm over his head, he became face to face with Nurrey. The wolf was looking at him with a smile that was a perfect mix between satisfaction and pleasure.
"Were you watching me sleep?" asked Shaan the wolf, their noses almost touching.
"Yeah, and I've to say: it is quite a view"
The hunters were in a hotel, near the Louis Armstrong International Airport, on New Orleans.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
After Broken Ravine, they spent one more week on England. Shaan was already looking for their assignment when Nurrey received a call from another hunter: Mareck.
Mareck was a dolphin; he and Nurrey were neighbors back on their hometown, and both were tossed into the world of demon-hunting when they were fourteen and their families were taken hostages by a horde of scream-ing imps. They were saved by the hunters that were hunting those imps. After this incidents that changed their lives forever, dolphin and wolf asked to learn what the hunters knew and they grew up learning how to fight against the things that hide into the darkness of the night.
After almost five years hunting demons as a good team, they split up. Mareck settled down, moving to a small town called Mary's Swamps, near Louisiana's capital. Despite being a small town, there were random demons that walked around those lands. Places such as these are called Darkness Callers, Demons and other things can cross easily in those spots, no one knows exactly why. Moving to this place the dolphin believed that he could keep hunting demons and, yet, stop with the constant travels he and Nurrey usually endured trying to discover clues about demons, wherever they could be.
The problem that caused Mareck to call his old friend was that the number of demon causing troubles in the town was growing quickly. The situation was being kept under control so far. However, Mareck asked for their help in investigating the motive so many demons were appearing at the same time; even the place being a Darkness Caller zone.
They took the first plane back to the United States but, when they arrived, it was already too late on the night. So they decided to spend the rest of the night in a hotel. One thing leaded to another, and they found some fun.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Come on guys this will be a really short trip" said Nurrey, one hour later, in the hotel parking area, opening one door of the black land cruiser and getting inside.
Shaan was carefully placing some luggage into the trunk of the car when Alexei showed up, eating greedily one hamburger e with three other ones inside a bag he was holding with his left paw.
"If you keep eating like this, you will become overweight" Teased Nurrey, when the allosaurus entered the car.
Shaan was already on the backseat, reading a hand book.
"No if we just continue our night games. Don't you agree fluffy?" answered the dino, smiling.
In a quickly movement, the wolf grabbed the dino by his chin. "Call me fluffy again, and I hope you can rapidly convert yourself into a masochist"
Shaan laughed in silence at his place, using the book to cover his mouth.
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Mareck town's was half an hour of quiet car travel far from New Orleans. They didn't have any trouble to get in there, or to find the hunter's address. Shaan call him on his cell, just to say they are arriving, but there was no answer. Nurrey told later this was Mareck's style, contact him was always a hard task.
The digital watch on the car's display was flashing 2:34 pm in yellow numbers when they parked the car in front of a two-story wooden house, painted in white.
Nurrey turned the car off. "This is it, we are here. Everybody, get out" said the wolf.
"This was your captain speaking, thanks you all by traveling with the Wolf in Bad Mood travels inc. We wish you all a nice day" Teased the dinosaur;
Nurrey limited himself to raise an eyebrow, glancing at the dino with his amber eyes.
Shaan sighed while he heard one more time the sound of the calling being made. He waited a moment, then, he cancelled the call. The result was the same: no one answered.
"Again, I can't contact him"
"Shaan, we just have to knock on the door. It isn't so difficult, we just have to go across the street" Said Alexei.
Mareck's house had a big garden, and a very well cared one. Trained eyes could recognize easily plants used to expurgate dark energy, to kill demons and other with uses that just a few knew. The front of the house was adorned with a large balcony where some vines had grown, providing a natural look to the house.
Shaan knocked. No answer. He knocked again.
"It is so good to be well received, don't you agree?"
"He might be busy doing other things or not home right now, or perhaps didn't hear us" Suggested Alexei
"The last one look more like the Mareck I know" said Nurrey "He used to use earphones to listen music deafe-ningly loud"
"If this is the case" Said the dino, stepping forward "We just need to make sure that we are being heard" Alexei knocked on the door really hard, it vibrated and slowly opened.
The cozy and well treated appearance of the outside seemed to melt away when they looked inside. The furni-ture was all broken and scattered. It was clear that a battle had happened there. Some ancient vases were broken and their fragments were spread all over the floor.
"What in hell happened here?" asked Alexei out loud.
"Looks like we missed the party" said Nurrey. The wolf grabbed his Berettas.
Shaan removed his eternal dark glasses, and placed them in one of his coat's pockets, searching for some runes in other one. On his side, Alexei was loading some shells into a long rifle.
Nurrey walked in first. The windows were closed, all of them, sinking the place in a dim darkness. He made a wide circle with his guns before saying that the place was clear. The other two walked inside.
"Let's split up and search some evidence or trace of whoever was here before us" Muttered Shaan to the other two.
From the upper floor came the sound of steps, and of something hitting the ground with a loud dull sound. The hunters turned their heads to the ceiling.
Nurrey smiled. "It seems that we are playing"
The wooden floor cracked behind then as the horde of demons attacked. They were four. Alexei used his gun as a hammer, hitting the nearest demon on the face, shooting two times on his face as the demon fell, killing him, while a second demon jumped on his back. Shaan was knocked down, but he took the opportunity to stab the demon on his belly with one of his daggers. His shirt was coated with demonic blood as his attacker suc-cumbed to the powerful runes carved on the silver blade.
Nurrey was using normal ammunition, not the bullets filled with yeast that caused instant death to any demon, unlike Alexei. The wolf discharged two shots on the demon that had attacked him. But it wasn't enough to kill him. The wolf sighed and tossed one of the Berettas away, punching the demon's face with his leather gauntlet. The demon fell to the floor; the wolf started to punch him in sequence.
Alexei was facing his own problems too. The demon behind him was in such a position that he could scratch and bite the dino's back, without the allosaurus being able to reach him. Suddenly, Alexei felt the demon pierce all his claws into his flesh at the same time, then it released him. The hunter heard a dry thud as the demon col-lapsed. He turned around and saw a dagger buried in his head.
"Shaan, never throw one of these knives again, you could have killed me!"
"Well I didn't" asked the horse, standing up. "Try not to kill this one there, Nurrey. We need one alive to speak"
The wolf stopped, panting heavily. He had his leg pressing the chest of the demon laying unconsciously on the floor, the body covered by dark bruisers and the green fur stained in dark blood, but he was still breathing. "This was actually easy..." said Nurrey.
"Do you honestly believe that this is already over?" asked a voice; the door closed brutally without any one laying a finger on it, sinking the room into darkness. "It has just begun"
Alexei loaded his rifle, but a strong punch on his stomach made him to fell to his knees. Shaan was desperately looking in every pocket of his coat for something, cursing himself by having chosen a coat with so many pock-ets. At least, he found what he was looking for: A flare. The white stallion hit the bottom of the flare, it ignited, the tip glowing with a red flame. The red and intense light revealed the striped fist coming quickly towards his face. Shaan received a strong blow against his face.
The horse was thrown back, landing over a small wooden table that broke with the weight of his massive body. Shaan felt the metallic taste of his blood gathering inside his muzzle.
The red flare rolled on the floor, illuminating the scene: Two tigers were in the middle of the room, the light producing dancing shadows over their striped bodies; one of them lurched forward with all his strength and threw Nurrey against a piece of furniture. The tigers were extremely alike; both heavy muscled and had purple fur with white stripes, same height, and same eye color. They were twins.
"These three should be better than the other one, that stupid dolphin. Don't you think too, Luka?" Asked one of the demons, looking to the other one.
"I do hope so, Hyde, this place was becoming deadly boring"
Alexei grabbed his gun from the floor and started to shoot. The bullets stopped, one by one, before even touch-ing the tigers' fur, like they hit some sort of invisible wall, falling on the ground as the inoffensive pieces of metal they were reduced to. One of the twin tigers roared and ran at him, kicking him on the face, while the second one observed.
Nurrey and Shaan got up and tried to attack the second demon. The tiger merely bended his upper body, caus-ing Nurrey to miss his punch, he also used the movement to raise his leg, kicking Shaan on his chin. The tiger turned to Nurrey, Shaan grabbed his foot; the demon screamed in pain as the runes tattooed on the stallion's paw burned his flesh. Nurrey used the moment to punch him using his gauntlets.
The tiger that was battling against Alexei lost his attention when his twin screamed in pain, he was punched by a pair of massive orange scaled arms.
"This hurts your piece of shit" Said the tiger demon, crushing Shaan's arm agaisnt the floor, using the weight of his body, releasing his other leg of the hunter's grip. Nurrey tried to hit him, but the demon just stepped aside and avoided, knocking the wolf.
Shaan grabbed one of his daggers and tossed it; the demon was cut and moved back, growling audibly.
"Alexei, this is not the type of fight that can be won using weapons. Go find Mareck"
The allosaurus bit his lip, but obeyed.
"Do you think I will let you leave this place?" shouted the tiger.
Nurrey blocked the passage, not allowing the demon to go further, providing enough time to his friend run to the staircases.
"Your fight is with me; you will have to defeat me before you can go after Al"
The tiger smiled. "With pleasure, but, tell me the name I will have to write on your coffin"
"Nurrey, but this isn't going to happen, and I won't care to give you a coffin"
The demon tiger attacked. Nurrey managed to defend two punches at high speed, but he was brought down when the demon tripped him. The tiger rolled on the floor, pushing the wood beneath him, jumping and landing a few meters to the left. The wooden floor produced a moderate crack sound as he received the impact of the demon's weight.
Shaan was keeping some distance between him and the other demon. His dagger pointed forward; the tiger seemed to just be playing with him, walking slowly, arms open, ready to attack at any time. But he didn't do it until the horse moved one of his paws towards one of the pockets of his coat. Shaan dodged the first blow, but the tiger spun his body, hitting him on the stomach with one of his legs. The horse lost his breath, being thrown backwards; the next thing he saw was a striped shoulder coming quickly towards him. The hunter was carried away by the demon's stampede.
"Shaan!" Yelled Nurrey, seeing the horse being pressed against one of the walls.
The tiger that was fighting against Nurrey took the opportunity when the wolf got distracted. He pinned him down, immobilizing him. The demon climbed over the squirming wolf, locking his arms and legs under his weight.
"Good idea, Luka" said the other demon.
The tiger pressing Shaan against the wall smiled and hammered the horse's forehead using his own to do so. Shaan was hurled against the opposite wall of the room. When he fell to the floor the tiger was already at his side, he did with the horse the exactly thing his twin had done to the wolf.
At the second floor, the looks were even worse than in the first one. There were bullet holes on the walls. The worst part of the fight must have happened there. Then he saw. Mareck, the dolphin, was tied up, against the opposite side of the second floor; the dino was about to give his first step forward.
"Are you a demon slayer?" Asked a voice, coming from behind the dinosaur. "Are you one of the ones that hunt my kind?"
The allosaurus turned his face back just in time to see a bull wearing a dark robe walk out of one of the second floor's rooms.
"I asked: are you a demon slayer?" The demon repeated.
Alexei didn't even mind to use the rifle, he saw the bullets stopping in middle air before touching the striped demons; instead of using the gun, he grabbed the dagger Shaan had used to kill the demon attacking the dino from his back.
Seeing the short blade covered in runes, the bull smiled. He undid the clasps of his robes, becoming completely naked as the silken vests fell to the floor in a liquid motion. His fur was dark red and covered by several draw-ing made with white ink.
"I, sincerely, hope that you be better than the one that live here. Or my little incursion here may reveal itself as a perfect waste of time"
"What have you done to Mareck?"
Alexei attacked. The demon merely moved, but his eyes glowed with an intense red. Several ropes made of pure energy materialized from the ground and wrapped Alexei's feet, moving as fat snakes. The allosaurus fell to the floor, squirming, trying to tear off the ropes that were crawling over his legs. He tried to remove the ropes, but they seemed alive, growing and enveloping his paws. It didn't take long for his muscled body to be completely tied.
The bull came closer, kneeling next to Al, the dino was panting due the efforts he was still trying to do to get free. The dino winced when the bull stretched one arm at his direction, but, instead of attacking him, he started to caress him. The allosaurus was confused with this attitude, soon he sniffed something different in the air, at first it was weak, almost imperceptible, but, increasingly noticeable. A pleasant aroma, relaxing; all problems inside his mind sunk into the demon's spell.
"Yes, keep breathing, breathe more..." The bull was saying, whispering in one of Alexei's ears. "Be mine, love me, want me"
The mind of the allosaurus was reduced into practically nothing. Every single thing he did, he did in the name of desire. Desire guided by the powerful pheromone that the bull was producing. After noticing that the dino-saur was no longer a threat, the bull waved one of his paws and the ropes tying the allosaurus loosened and, afterward, vanished.
"Very well, now, let's see how you are without these annoying clothes that you are wearing" said the bull.
The painting spread all over the bull's body enveloped even his cock and balls and made a nice contrast with his dark fur.
Alexei crawled towards the demon as a dog following his owner, and, still as a dog, he hugged the demons legs, nuzzling the massive muscles, emitting a sound resembling a deep purr. The demon laughed, now he was totally sure that he was in fully command of the allosaurus; he moved down and kissed Alexei, a deep and slow kiss, his tongue swing on the dino's muzzle, wrestling against Alexei's. At the same time, the bull was running his pawn along the dino's chest, passing his belly, until he reached the erect member of the allosaurus, squeezing it through the fabric that was almost being toren apart by the throbbing erection.
"You seen to be well equipped" teased the demon, removing the dino's pants.
Alexei mind was far lost in the middle of the storm of lust going on the deeps of his brain. Now, lick the de-mon's muscled chest and stroking his hardening member looked like the best thing to do. The demon was pet-ting Alexei's head, encouraging him to move his muzzle to his throbbing cock
Alexei didn't though a second time, he opened his jaws taking all of the bull's meat into his mouth, wrapping his tongue around the throbbing pole of tauren flesh, sucking hard. The demon moaned, humping on the allo-saurus' muzzle; he bend his upper body forward, placing both paws on the dino's ass cheeks, squeezing then and feeling the solid muscles beneath the scales.
"Tell me, slave, what should I do with you" asked the bull, grinning.
The allosaurus produced a muffled sound in answer, without stop sucking the demon's engorged cock. The bull merely laughed from the dino and pulled him out of his cock, holding one of the bony prominences before and above the allosaurus' eyes.
"I think I didn't hear you. I think you had something in your mouth"
"Master, please, fuck me" Begged Alexei in a tone that would make him want to kill himself if he was in his normal self.
"With pleasure" The bull said, licking all over the scales on the dinosaur's spine, running down, towards his tail.
The demon repositioned himself behind the dino, hilting his cock into Alexei's tail hole in a single thrust causing the muscled dino to moan due the sudden invasion.
With no mercy, and with a straight face the bull started to pump his hips back and forth, almost hammering the dinosaur's ass. The wooden floor creaked loud with the combination of the big buff males having sex, the air was filled more and more with the scent the bull was producing. Even the dolphin, tied and unable to move, was hard and leaking pre watching the two.
Alexei clenched his teeth in awe and bliss, producing a loud growl of pleasure coming from the deeps of his being. Every thrust seemed to being like going to heave, and every time the demon pulled back his mind sub-merged in agony, his body claiming to be filled again with the demonic meat. His tail moving in quick and er-ratic moves, representing the jolts of pure pleasure being sent to the dinosaur' brain.
Even being a bull, the nails of the demon grew, looking like sharp blades. The only sounds filling the second floor where the ones that were produced by Alexei and the wet sound of the bull's testicles slapping against Alexei's. The allosaurus moaned when his backs started to being brutally slashed, but this didn't reduce the effect that the musk of the demon was producing.
Alexei roared wildly, adding generous doses of his essence to the puddle of pre he had created over the floor. He felt dizzy after his climax, not tired, but weaker. "You are going great, kiddo" whispered the demon.
Alexei moaned in pain and pleasure, shoving his body back in time with the Bull's thrusts. His dark red blood was running in generous doses over his legs and arms, joining the white cum into the floor. The bull groped the dino's cock, squeezing it, but not stroking, allowing Alexei to thrust into his closed paws each time the allosau-rus moved his body back and forth.
"Master, I love you" said Alexei in a tired and weak voice. His vision was becoming blurred, but he didn't want to stop.
"I love you, hunter, I love this body of your, and..." he licked the blood running over the allosaurus back "I do love your flavor. You will be perfect for tonight. Now, I want you to ride me"
The bull sat on the floor, his cock pointing straight to the ceiling. Alexei crawled towards the demon controlling him, for some reason he couldn't find a way to stand up. He placed his paws over the demon chest and lowered himself over the cock. The weight of his massive muscles was already enough to make the cock slip in. He moaned feeling the balls of the demon under his ass cheeks.
Not caring about his slashes, he started to raise and lower his hips, contracting every muscle of his inners walls around the demon. This one, still not showing any sign of pleasure, his face was straight, but his eyebrow were curved, as he was focused in one task that required a lot of attention.
After some more minutes of ridding, the allosaurus opened his jaws, letting another roar run free as his seed flew through the air. The bull didn't moan, didn't roar as the dino, didn't show any sign of pleasure. He just made a more concentrated face and cummed, flooding the insides of the dino with his warm seed.
Alexei closed his eyes, he was panting heavily, his arms were shaking, he collapsed over the bull demon body within seconds.
"I think you are perfect. Thanks by sparing me the work of seeking for a strong hunter, it could have took me days, but, with you this will run as the schedule" He placed one paw over the injuries he done. "Let me fix you; you can die... before the right time" The drawing over his body glowed as he used a healing spell.
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Back at the first floor, Hyde was tearing Shaan's shirt with one of his sharp claws, at the same time, the tip of the claw created a large, but not deep, cut on the stallion's skin, staining his white fur with the globs of red blood that cascaded down from the injury; the cut started in the horse's belly, a few inches above his bellybut-ton, going up to one of his pectorals. When he finished tearing the shirt, the demon pulled the fabric out, bend-ing his upper torso forward, to lick the wound he caused.
"I have to say: you do has a very good taste"
"You are sick" said Shaan, feeling the pain caused by the injury.
"I know, mommy always said that"
"At least until we killed her, silencing the old bitch forever. Right, brother?" added the other demon; both tiger laughed of the comment.
"Ready to play?" asked the demon over Shaan, licking the stallion's face.
The white horse felt repugnance and spited on the tiger's cheek; a strong punch onto his snout was the demon's answer.
"Where are your manners?"
The horse was wearing a silver chain, as it was some sort of necklace, and, instead of a pendant, there was a perfectly dark feather stuck on it. When the equine received the punch, the feather rose, pointing to the demon's head, stretching the chain in which it was locked. Both demon and hunter were surprised by this.
"But what the hell is th..." the demon didn't finish what he was saying. The feather broke free, crossing his head, piercing the ceiling. The demon fell motionless over Shaan, his body glowing as he disappeared.
"Hyde" Yelled the other demon. "What have you done to my big brother?"
The tiger got up in a quickly movement, he grabbed Nurrey by his leg and tossed the wolf against the white stallion. Shaan, that was getting up, tried to catch his friend, but he ended being knocked down. Luka crossed the room in large steps, drooling in anger. He stretched a paw, the sharp claws got longer.
Luka stopped just a few steps next to the fallen hunters, he was ready to attack, his eyes burning in resentment and fury. Something produced a dull sound as it hammered the floor. Shaan saw, with the corner of his eyes, the dark feather half buried on the wooden floor, washed in blood. Luka pressed his chest, stepping back; Nurrey noticed the blood cascading down from beneath the demon's hand. The feather had crossed his chest, but it didn't seem enough to kill him.
"What have you two done with me?" yelled the demon. "What have you done to my brother?
The flare's light was eclipsed by the light produced by the giant ball of energy that the demon created, raising both paws above his head. Shaan grabbed the feather and hurled it at the tiger. Luka was struck in between his eyes. The same way it had crossed his brother's skull, the feather disappeared inside Luka's head. Luka fell, his body started glowing as vanishing from this world, leaving behind just the feather that took his life away.
The wolf quickly got up, he was speechless. The white stallion said nothing too, not that he didn't wanted, but he wasn't sure about how he would explain about the mysterious feather he was carrying around his neck from the past few days, without even showing it to his closer friends. Nurrey opened his mouth to ask an explana-tion, then, they hear noise from the second floor and remembered his other friend.
"You'll have to make yourself clear some other time, Shaan" He grabbed his guns spread over the destroyed living room; Shaan looked for his dagger, but he just found one of them. Both hunters ran towards the staircas-es.
When they stepped at the second floor, Shaan felt the chain of his necklace get stretched as the feather pulled it vigorously; the feather pointed to the bull, as a compass would point north.
The stallion and the wolf needed more than a few seconds to perceive Alexei lying unconsciously at the de-mon's feet.
"Damn you!" yelled Nurrey, stampeding with fury after seeing his friend that way.
The demon bull just laughed and raised one of his paws. Within seconds later, Nurrey was squirming and rolling over the floor, howling in unbearable and excruciating agony while a powerful electric wave ran through his body.
Shaan placed his paw inside one of the pockets; he was not looking for a rune this time. He drew the 9mm and started shooting. As it happened before, against the tigers, the bullets stopped before touching the demon. But when that happened with the tigers, the bullets fell to the ground seconds later, now they were staying in mid-air.
"You, hunters, are so proud of yourselves that don't even know the limits you possess. You can kill some of us in your journeys, the weak ones; but you won't even be a true challenge to me"
"So... I hope you don't mind if I don't eat one of your words and try anyway"
"Be my guest, but don't make a fool of yourself believing that I will stand passively while you shoot me"
With a move of his fingers, the bullets, that were motionless into the air, spun 180 degrees, pointing to the way they came from. Straightly to Shaan.
"Oh, Shit"
The white horse barely had time to get down on the floor before the bullets flew back over his head. The hunter rolled over, hearing the sound of the wooden walls being hit by the metal projectiles. He tried to aim and shoot the demon. But the bull was no longer there.
"Looking for someone in particular?" asked a voice, whispering on Shaan's ear.
The hunter was lifted into the air; he looked like just an overgrown toy. No part of his body responded at his brain's commands; beneath him, Nurrey was still being electrocuted
"Mareck was a perfect waste of my precious time, but coming here wasn't after all; the allosaurus is already the remaining necessary piece required to we be able perform our ritual. As to you and the wolf, maybe you can be my master's food after he crosses"
"Who do you want to summon?" asked Shaan, his mouth was the only part of his body still under his control.
"I'm sure you are willing to know that; but... why spoil the surprise? I can say that my master will help us to summon once again the elder ones of my species" Answered the bull, grinning evilly.
The feather separated itself from the necklace once again. The demon had to release the spell over him and Nur-rey to create a shield spell.
The wolf rolled, lying on his back, panting heavily. He tried to get up, but his legs shook and hurt too much under his own weight, he collapsed and fell over his butt on the floor. He looked at the demon. The bull that was killing him just moving his fingers was now desperately creating a bubble defense just to avoid a dark feather. The feather was outside the force field, and where it touched the field, sparkles flied from it.
"Your cursed ones, how did you manage to take him out of that place? That thing should be dead for centuries" yelled the bull while he used his strengths to keep the force field.
"Shaan, what is happening here?" The wolf managed to mutter when the horse got near enough of him to hear what he was saying.
"I refuse to die here" Shouted his demon. He brought his paws together.
A series of cuts and slashes appeared on both arms of the bull at the exact time an enormous explosion occurred; the bottom of the second floor cracked and, then, exploded. Nurrey and Shaan landed on the first floor as the wood beneath their feet was reduced to splinters; they were showered by a layer of dust and burned wood.
After the cloud of smoke had wearied down, Mareck could see the huge hole on the floor. "Guys..." he shouted "For God's sake, tell me that you are alright" The dolphin could not see then, because he was still immobilized.
There was a brief pause, which seemed to last ages.
"Let's say that we still alive" grumbled Shaan; Nurrey sneezed due the dust. "But I'm not willing to answer the how good we are right now" The dolphin breathed in relief.
Then was Nurrey's turn to speak. "Mareck, we are already going up" the marine mammal heard sounds of things being pushed away and falling against the lower floor. "What happened to the demon? Did he die?"
"There is not body behind, but I think he still alive" He hesitated "Alexei isn't here too"
The dolphin was still tied up at the second floor; this forced him to lie still until one of the other hunters untied him. That was his old friend Nurrey.
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Around ten minutes have passed since the ceiling had collapsed and Alexei had disappeared along with the bull demon. Nurrey was sitting in the sofa on the first floor while Shaan finished removing the dry blood over Ma-reck's bruises and treating the injuries that the demon had left on the dolphin's body. Nurrey's old friend had already put some clothes on; his forearms had to be involved in bandages ‘cause there were some deep cuts on them.
"How did demons surprised a hunter at his own house?" Asked Nurrey.
Mareck exhaled noisily "I have no idea. You know me, I can't even sleep without double checking every barrier and spell around my house first. They were all working last time I verified them. No demon should be able to break inside. But not even my sensors picked their cursed presences. They were no ordinary demons"
"Did you know any of the ones that came here?" asked Shaan. He had already finished treating the dolphin, now he was taking care of himself, cleaning the wide cut Hyde left him as a memento of their brief encounter. It looked like that regard, someday, would became an ugly scar.
"Nope. I surprised a shapeshifter demon the other day, he was pretending to be a normal fox, a detector crystal picked his energy trace anyway; that demon was using a hypnosis technique on a citizen. I fought against him and the fur escaped"
"Did you tried to extract information from him?" asked the stallion.
"Of course I tried. I'm not a rookie on doing my job" Said the dolphin, straitening his back, behaving like the question had offended him a bit. "Demons only spare their victims when they want to perform a ritual. So I tried to discover what he would try to bring from the pyre. But when I used the Rosetta's Stone on him, he just died"
"Meaning that there was another demon controlling him, and this one made sure to his servants don't let private information leak" Said Nurrey, contemplating the broken furniture of the first floor.
"At least we know that Alexei is not in imminent danger" said the dolphin. "At least we still have some time, even that it might be short, to find and rescue him"
"We will need some heavy weaponry and some sort of powerful spell; that bull is going to be some harsh work. Shaan, is there anything we can do to prevent them to stop our bullets again?"
The horse had opened his mouth to speak something; the dolphin was quicker, interrupting him.
"Nurrey, you can't search for the right weapon for the job while you don't even know where to start looking for Alexei. We need discover a way to track him or the demon that took him first"
The other two hunters lowered their head at the same time, saying nothing.
"The longer we stay here, the chances of finding him grow fainter" Said Nurrey. "But we already tried every-thing: Shaan found no energy trace; Alexei's belongings are all here, so we can't track him as we did with Shaan, back on Broken Ravine"
Shaan sighed. "We need help this time" He muttered
There was a small explosion inside the room, near where they were. The three hunters drew they weapons me-chanically. There was dust in the air, inside it they could see a small sphere, sparkling light blue. Within the sphere there was a small dark thing that Shaan knew very well, he recognized it instantly.
"Lower your weapons" He said without paying attention if his order was or wasn't carried away.
"What do you mean with lower you weapons? What kind of joke is that? Shaan, what are you doing? Come back here"
The horse was slowly walking towards the floating energy globe. "Just... lower your weapon, will you?"
Nurrey growled and lowered his weapon, but he didn't reduce the drip around the Berettas' handles; Mareck did nothing. Shaan walked a few steps closer, hesitating each time he moved his feet. He stretched his arm, opening his paw.
The glowing sphere moved as if it was slowly blown by the wind. When it landed on the horse's paw, it disap-peared immediately. Nurrey moved forward and saw a dark feather on the horse's paw. Shaan closed his fingers around it, feeling the cold atmosphere around the little plume.
"I have seen that thing before" Said the dolphin, hesitantly. "That thing attacked the bull"
"Shaan, is this yours?" Asked the wolf.
He nodded. "I found it on Broken Ravine" He turned around, facing Nurrey. "This was what killed the tigers"
The feather rose into the air, shining, as if it wanted them to pay attention. It worked. The three hunters became silent, observing it float and spin in the air, stopping and pointing to a specific direction.
"So... if you read this thing's manual, can you explain to us what this mean?"
"I think that the feather wants us to go in that direction" Said the dolphin; the feather raised an inch and then lowered, as it was nodding.
Nurrey looked from one hunter to the other "Ok, but you two are not considering trusting in something like a creepy floater feather, do you? This can be anything, even some other sort of trap"
"Trap or not, we are heading in that direction" Said Shaan.
The feather reacted to this statement, spinning lightly. It floated and locked itself again on the horse's necklace, after that, it pointed back to the same direction.
"How do you know this is not a trap? How can you be sure about that?" Asked the skeptic wolf.
"I don't know; I'm not sure"
"Well" Started Mareck, rubbing both paws together. "Trap or not, we need to be prepared to face any demon on our way. Let me pick up something on my personal arsenal and we can go; and you two, be my guests to help yourselves"
______________________________________
Two hours after, Alexei was waking up, feeling worse than shit. The dinosaur rubbed the top of his head, feel-ing his view spin slowly, still blurred. Bit by bit he started to recover his focus. He could feel a cold surface beneath his body. He touched he felt the plain stone covered in dust. He blinked a few more times and finally noticed where he was: a stone cell.
The allosaurus was completely naked; the only source of light there was a torch three meters above the floor, projecting a phantasmagoric light upon the room. Next to him, a rhino was observing him curiously. In another corner of the room, two bears were sleeping, resting their bodies against each other. Just like him, the other furs were naked. He noticed the other three were using metal leashes on their necks; the leashes were tied to a metal chain fixed on the wall. Alexei moved his paws to feel the scales of his neck, but his finger just met the cold metal of his own leash.
"Where... am I?" he asked at last, his voiced sounded tired and weak.
"None of us really know; we just woke up here as you just did" Answered the rhinoceros. "My name is Ed-mund, and yours is..."
The dino mumbled. "This is not the time to introductions" He said dryly.
Alexei changed position, facing the wall as he tried the chains one more time, pulling them with all the strength he could gather into his arms' muscles. This was fruitless. Just after giving up he glanced at at the rhino again. Despite his size and muscles, the rhino was acting like a child would: he was hugging his legs, rocking back and forth, resting his head over his knees, facing the floor, his eyes seemed hopeless. Alexei sighed.
"My name is Alexei" The rhinoceros raised one of his ears, then, his head. "For how long have you guys been locked in here?"
"Two days" answered back the rhino, breathing stridently.
"The other two too?" the dino asked, using his thumb to point to the asleep bears.
"The twins?" Edmund glanced at at them for a while before coming with an answer "One and a half week. They are very funny when awake; at least, they discovered, somehow, a way to ignore this place, or just pretend they are somewhere else"
Al raised his eyes, giving a closer look to the cell itself. There were no windows or any indication of the outside world. The only thing was a huge wooden door, which was closed and out of reach. The Allosaurus realized that after crawling towards. Two meters was the closest he could be from the portal.
"What the hell these demons want from us?" he shouted, scowling; he looked at the rhino. "Are you guys hunt-ers too?"
The rhino seemed to be chocked with the term. He didn't know anything about demons, he, as almost everyone else, imagined that demons were just folklore. What happened to him was that he was captured after arriving on the bus station of Mary's Swamps. Just two blocks of walking after leaving the bus station, and he was hit by something on the back of his head; someone used a sack to cover his head. There, they have just seen an old hare that brought plates with food once a day.
Alexei told him about the demon. He told about how he became involved with this world where demons where a real threat, about the adventures and misadventures he already had, about demons he already faced. And about his friends, saying that they had found a way to track him, and, probably, they were already coming to rescue him.
The rhino was listening to all of this, paying extreme attention to each single word.
______________________________________
The feather, that wasn't showing anything our of the ordinary, except the coldness enveloping it, spun on Shaan's paw, pointing to the left side of the car. Without warning the car suffered a violent impact on the side the feather pointed to.
Mareck clenched his teeth, spinning the wheel, trying to recover control of the vehicle; two other impacts came. The heavy car was thrown out of the road.
The vehicle entered the tall grass that grew on both sides of the road, the windows were instantly blocked by a massive wall of green. Shaan jumped out of the car in time to see a huge ball of energy flying towards it, cover-ing the distance between them in an amazing speed.
Mareck managed to get out of the car too. But Nurrey was still in the car when it was flipped back in the air as the ball of demonic energy impacted against the metallic structure. Someway, the car didn't exploded, he rose into the air, landing several meters away.
"Nurrey!" yelled Shaan, running towards the upside down car. Another ball of energy came, exploding in front of him, incinerating part of the grass.
The wolf kicked the front passenger's door, cursing the safety belt that held him in place, not allowing him to get out of the car in time. Nurrey crawled out of the vehicle that was now upside down; just the wheels and some of the bottom, now the top, could be seen over the tall grass.
The wolf got up and moved his eyes until he found Shaan and Mareck. Both hunter were holding their guns and pointing them toward him. "What the hell these two are doi..."
Shaan yelled before he could finish the sentence: "Move, you idiot!"
A huge paw covered in dark fur closed around Nurrey's neck. The wolf felt the world getting away from his feet as he was lifted into the air. The grip was strong; the air was not running through his throat to his lungs, he could not breathe. The wolf squirmed savagely, trying to break free.
"Yeah, poor bastard, I like that, keep fighting for your life" Said a voice, just a few inches from Nurrey ears. "Make it fun, there is nothing better than a life disappearing among my fingers"
Nurrey didn't manage to move his body or head, to defend himself, or, even, to see his captor; with the corner of his eyes he could finally see the huge and fat panda suffocating him with his strong grip.
The panda was over the upside down vehicle. His fur and looks seemed normal, except his exaggerated size, the only thing giving away that he was a demon, that and the color of his eyes, two yellow orbs glowing, no pupil. Horse and dolphin aimed, but they didn't shoot. Shaan bit his lip. The demon was using Nurrey as a living shield against the hunters.
"For the sake of your little friend over here, I hope you two know how to shoot bull's eyes, otherwise you can accidentally hurt the poor wolf" Teased the demon; his deep voice echoing loud through the grass covered field.
Even piercing his claws deep into the flesh of the demon's paw, the grip around his neck was not reduced. "Damn you; if I don't think in something quickly I'm going to die" thought the wolf. "Unless I..."
The wolf convulsed his body violently, and, then, he stopped. He was hanging on the demon's paw as a lifeless doll.
"Nurrey!" Yelled the dolphin, seeing the limp body of his old friend moving morbidly in the air.
"Are you already dead, little one?" asked the demon, shaking Nurrey. His limp limbs moved in a wave motion. The wolf didn't react, so the panda brought him closer in order to confirm the hunter's death.
When he felt the warm breath of the panda a few centimeters behind his head, Nurrey focused all his strength to his ankle, kicking the panda's testicles strongly. It didn't matter if it was a mortal or demon, that would hurt as hell in both of them.
The panda released the hunter. Bending forward as he cupped his balls in an instinctive reaction, screaming in pain. The wolf's small fall was smothered by the tall and thick grass everywhere around the vehicle. H he had barely touched the ground, and he was already running away from the demon.
The demon was angry, he searched for Nurrey. He spotted the wolf running, as he raised his sight, he saw the remaining hunters; they were kneeled, aiming at him. The demon was struck with reality, remembering that they wouldn't avoid shooting this time. He cursed out loud, jumping to behind the car, using the metal structure as a defense while bullets flight through the exact place he was.
The horse looked at the car through the night vision apparatus of his gun. He aimed and pulled the trigger. The bullet split the air in its way, hitting the exposed gas tank. The equine has to close his eyes as the car exploded in a blinding ball of fire. They were hit by a weak wave of air as pieces of burning metal flew to random direc-tions.
"Shaan, I can't find him. I can't" yelled Mareck, without taking his eyes out of the telescope attached to the gun he was using. Nurrey had stopped and looked at the vehicle.
The horse used the night vision to look near the vehicle, even that the flames were illuminating the place quite well. The grass was bothering him while he tried to find the panda's body. The demon was nowhere to be seen. He must have died at the explosion and his body vanished.
There was no time to celebrate or anything. The soil next to Shaan cracked. The panda emerged from under-neath it. He had moved underground, transposing solid earth quicker than a person would cover the same space running over it.
The other hunters were still looking at the car, so they didn't notice the demon. Shaan spun his body, trying to point the weapon to the demon, but was relieved from it by a strong blow from the panda before he had the opportunity to pull the trigger. He felt a strong electric wave cross his body as the panda created an energy ball between their bodies.
Shaan felt his necklace's chain becoming tense. The feather became free again, lurching itself against the black and white bear. It didn't hit him, but, at least, forced him do react to defend himself. He had to dissipate the energy to block the attack. Shaan could jump back, drawing his daggers.
Nurrey turned around, to look at Mareck. Twenty meters behind the dolphin, Shaan was pulling two daggers against the panda, while the demon had one of his paws on the face and growled. Nurrey cursed and started to run towards his friend, shouting to the dolphin to turn his face back. (?????????????)
As soon as he saw what is happening behind him, the dolphin pulled the trigger and started to shoot. The demon became pissed, but he managed to avoid the bullets.
Nurrey was knocked down by something big that hit him. At the same time as he was getting up, he saw a dra-gon diving in to the next attack; he was heavy muscled and possessed two white curved horn coming out of his forehead, his scales were light blue, except on his chest and belly area, where they were dark blue.
The dragon didn't know Nurrey; he even thought it was funny: a mortal trying hit him using nothing more than his fists, and a leather gauntlet on his left hand. The demon was surprised by the powerful blow that threw him back, stronger than any normal fur could be.
"Gleon, your indolent lizard! Where the hell do you have been?" Yelled the panda, while he created a circle of energy to block the sequence of shoots being made by the dolphin.
The dragon quickly got up and glanced at Nurrey; the wolf was in a fighting position. Gleon smiled, feeling the taste of his own warm blood gathering inside his muzzle.
"If I am not wrong, it was you that ordered me to not interfere with your fun" Said the dragon "But, it looks like that you are not able to handle some simple mortal vermin like these"
Shaan jumped backwards, placing both pawn on the grassy soil, twisting his body to the left in order to avoid an energy ball created by the demon. The ammunition of Mareck's weapon ran out, he cursed when he pulled the trigger and the gun didn't shoot. The dolphin, then, moved his paw to his belt; he took a grip of a grenade and pulled the pin.
The small metal sphere did not explode as it touched the ground before the panda's feet, but it produced a thick cloud of smoke. Horse and dolphin jumped forward, landing on the soil to don't being hit by the energy balls that the demon was shooting blindly.
Shaan rolled over the grass covered ground. He was tying runes to the base of each dagger on his paws. The demon was not generating a bubble shield, just facets capable to block the incoming attacks, but it didn't cov-ered all his body, just the part he was focusing to protect; this particular detail would be the card on his sleeve.
The dragon had thought that the fight against Nurrey would be a piece of cake. But he was already reconsider-ing that thought. They were too close to him try any spell and get out without damage, that and the wolf was a very good fighter. The gauntlet he was using should have some sort of spell on it, because any blow made with it was several times stronger than the ones from the other fist.
The panda didn't wait until the smoke to dissipate. He kicked both feet on the ground and launched himself to outside the thick cloud, jumping some meters into the air and landing with a loud thud. A rain of bullets was his welcome. Shaan threw both daggers.
The demon panda laughed and jumped backwards, avoiding the two daggers "You big morrow, do you honestly believe that I will be brought down by some ordinary dagger" said the panda, laughing and straightening his backs. "You are so fucked wrong" He raised both furry paws over his head, focusing energy between his fingers.
What the panda didn't saw, but Mareck and Shaan did, was that the daggers didn't acted as normal dagger or any other normal blade would when they miss their target. As the two silver boomerangs, the daggers made a closed turn in their flight in plain air, coming back. The twin blades pierced the demon's back, just the handle remaining outside.
The panda screamed in agony while the rune covered blade burned his flesh from the inside out was sufficient to distract Gleon during the enough time to he be hit strongly in his lower jaw. As a result of the strong blow he received, the dragon was tossed several meters away. His vision started to get blurred, the last thing he saw was the three hunters running at his direction, and then he lost consciousness.