Chapter 152 - Hunt: Into The Swamps arc (7)

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Rob mumbled while running away in random directions, "I'm sorry Lenny, I just did what I had to..."

When the monster had just killed Trevor, it was standing in between Rob and Lenny, and the monster, whom none of them had seen or heard of before, was eyeing for Rob next.

At that moment, Rob just wanted to save his butt, and no one else. So he grabbed a fairly big rock from the ground and threw it at Lenny's head. Lenny, who was fixated at the monster, couldn't fight the rock and fell on the ground with a thud. The blood gushed out of his wound on his head and attracted the monster. The monster ignored Rob and jumped onto a defenceless Lenny. What happened next was nothing less than a scene from a horror movie.

Lenny's death wasn't painless or quick like Trevor's. The monster took his time to kill him. It first tore his legs apart from his body, because Lenny had been desperately kicking the 12 feet tall humanoid monster, in a last effort to save himself, but this annoyed the monster even more, but this also the monster want to 'play' more with Lenny. With his razor-sharp nails, It ripped through his stomach and started eating his intestines like instant noodles... all this time Lenny was still alive, barely, but alive. The monster then pushed the nails through Lenny's eyes, at this point, Lenny didn't even have the energy to scream or resist. He just wanted to die, so he laid there, allowing the monster to do whatever it wanted until he finally died.

Rob didn't stay there and watch it all happen but kept running tirelessly. He did not dare to stop. He was afraid that the monster would catch up to him and do what it did to Lenny and Trevor, or maybe do something even worse. Even thinking about it made him run even faster.

He ran for what seemed like hours, but there was no end to the forest because clueless to him, he had been running in circles. The monster has already caught up to him and was sitting on a tree branch, Lenny's corpse still on its shoulders. It was amused to see the human's reaction and decided to have more fun.

The monster threw the gutless corpse of Lenny in front Rob, who stumbled over Lenny's body... his eyeless face gazing through his soul, almost cursing at him for doing what he did to him.

Right as he was about to get up and run, something grabbed his legs and lifted him off the ground. The monster turned him upside down and... smiled to Rob's face, it was no ordinary smile... it was filled with murderous intent.

Rob's fears overwhelmed him and he ended up wetting himself. This pleased the monster even more and he started laughing hysterically while touching his wet crotch, his ear-piercing laughter echoed through the forest.

Monster's laughter helped Rob regain his senses. He knew it was a do or die scenario for him right now, adrenaline once again rushed through his body, he wasn't going to go down like Trevor or Lenny, not without a fight. He gathered whatever strength he had left in his body and used the only magic spell he knew, [Fireball].

As the monster opened its mouth, Rob barraged him with fireball after fireball, it didn't do much damage but it temporarily blinded the monster and he dropped Rob on the ground.

Rob ran away once again, and this time he was successful in getting out of the forest, where he found a forest ranger and told him everything. The ranger knew the situation was dangerous and immediately contacted the police who then informed the Black Family about it.

****

A couple of hours later, inside the forest.

Arnold, Nathan, Nicole and Nina were examining the corpses of the two victims who were killed by an unknown monster.

One of the corpses was lacking its head, but they didn't have to waste their time looking for it, because it was already scattered around them. It looked like his death was relatively quick and painless in comparison to the other corpse which was mutilated beyond recognition.

His body laid there like a ghoulish mannequin, the oesophagus and arteries sticking out like so much corrugated and rubber tubing, even his eyes were gouged out. It looked as if a special effects team had worked overtime for some Friday the thirteenth movie set, but that smell... That smell could only come from the recently slaughtered animal. In this case, the animal was a human and his corpses was still warm, the blood had started thickening but not yet dried. Some cases took a while to decide if foul play was involved, but this was murder all the way. A murder committed by a monster of unknown species.

"I've never seen anything like this..." Nicole mumbled, "It almost as if the monster wasn't interested in eating them but was rather-"

"Playing with them." Arnold squatted down to closely inspect their wounds, "Is the survivor ready to talk yet?"

"No. He's still in the trauma centre." Nina replied, "But from what he told to the ranger, we can conclude that the monster is working alone."

"I don't like this..." Arnold mumbled, "A couple of years ago, I'd have been happy to know if a single monster came out of a dungeon outbreak, but after what I witnessed earlier in the wastelands, it only worries me more."

"So you're saying that the monster killed his kind inside the dungeon, to evolve?" Nathan asked Arnold, while his men were looking out for the monster.

"That's what happened, most probably. Otherwise, it wouldn't make much sense if a single monster caused an outbreak." Arnold explained to the others while analysing Lenny's corpse, "This guy's abdomen was cut in one swoop, so I think that the monster has got pretty sharp claws or nails or something along the lines. Looking at how deep the wound is we have to be wary about his strength as well... how far has your group managed to search through the forest?"

Deacon immediately ran through the list of places that could've been perfect hiding places for the monster, checking off the ones they had already searched, "We might not be able to look through the entire forest tonight. But we'll finish up the search till the day after tomorrow."

As Arnold gazed around the forest, the ineffectiveness of Nathan's people bothered him a bit, but he wasn't in the position to correct them, even though Nathan and the others knew him, he was still just a 'guest' there. Still, he needed to point it out to Nathan without causing unnecessary drama.

"That's too long. Who knows what that monster would do in the next two days. Also, your men would be in danger if they end up encountering the monster, because the way I see it, the monster is already at least S ranked." Arnold then turned towards Nathan, "Do you mind, if I take care of this?"

"What are you planning to do?" Nathan asked him, the time wasn't the same as before, Nathan couldn't have Arnold running around doing senseless things anymore.

"I'll just speed up the search a bit. Tell your men to retreat, I'll find the monster for you." Arnold smiled, even Nathan knew the limitations of his soldiers so he agreed in the end. But someone wasn't happy about it.

"What could a single man possibly do that our forces can't?" Deacon remarked as he handed the list of places over to Arnold.

Nathan thought Arnold would be pissed, but instead, he was smiling, "Excuse me, but do you know anything about me?"

"I don't." Deacon confidently replied.

"Then I'll suggest you start taking notes because you're about to." Arnold smiled got wider as a portal opened up in front of the others.

Soon Arnold's summons started pouring out of the portal. One after another, his undead summons, automatons, and lava hounds all came out of the portal. Deacon's overconfident mouth was wide open, he immediately realised his mistake in his remark.

'He's not a single man... what's the point of even staying here anymore? This guy can do everything by himself.'

Arnold didn't summon everyone out, yet the people around him were overwhelmed, of course, this didn't include Nathan, Nina it Nicole for that matter as they already knew about his abilities.

Arnold only summoned the ones who were capable of tracing a target as soon as possible, still, the number of his summons was way over 150. Once everyone was out of the portal, Talos walked out of the crowd, towards his master.

"Your command, master?" He asked.

Arnold tossed the list of places towards him, "Search these places and look for the monster who killed these men. Cerberus and the hounds would lead the search and would go through the forest in its entirety as they are the best at tracking something down, while you along with the automatons and the undead would look for the monsters strictly at the locations I've specified."

"Consider it done." Talos replied, "What shall we do upon contact with the beast?"

"Just report back and do not engage. I want to see that beast with my own eyes." Arnold replied to the automaton.

"Yes, master."

Talos divided his troops into eight groups, each of the group was tasked with searching at a specific location, while Cerberus and the other hounds sniffed around the corpses to get a whiff of the monster's scent.

After Talos gave them their instruction his group immediately departed to search for the monster, while Cerberus and his fellow hounds got the monster's scent and began following the scent.

"What now?" Nina asked Arnold once the summons had disappeared from their sights.

"Now, the hunt begins."