The setting sun was just above the wall, shining ever annoyingly into Wattyson’s eyes. He contemplated to use the scarf again to shield, but he was alone now. Arlene wasn’t there to guide him if he blinded himself.

  Walking through the claustrophobic crowd, he eyed for anything as a landmark to where he was going. Unfortunately, it was prime evening. A lot of civilians were rushing to return home from work, or going out to eat with friends or families.

  I should’ve just went with that bureaucracy shits He thought as his pace was slowing down. The only thing he remembered about that Inn was a hotdog stand on a random balcony in an alleyway. Problem was… there were too many alleyways.

  His mind harkened back to Arlene’s words about finding him, about how there were too many red forests. Realization dawned on him understanding Arlene now. He had to fight his way through this jungle of a city. But how? This was an enemy he couldn’t draw blade or magic against. The all-encompassing city loomed over him, mocking him with the crowded civilians and the endless chatters. He had to fight using his mind and memory.

  An hour passed and still no sign of that hot dog stand perched up on a balcony. Sitting on a bench near a park, he listed out even more reasons why he hated city. A long sigh exhaled out as his gaze became more focused. He stood and walked now with a purpose in mind.

  “PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” a voice cried out in an alleyway as the man himself was being held by the collar. No one could hear him. No one would come to his rescue.

  “Relax, I need you to do something for me” spoke a voice too monotone and clinical for its own good.

  “I-I-I HAVEN’T BITTEN ANYONE OR KILL ANYONE, WHY A-ARE YOU DOING THIS ANATHEMA?!”

  The screaming plea hit Anathema to which he released that vampire adventurer, putting him back down.

  “Sorry,” Wattyson spoke. “Old habit. Also, don’t call me Anathema. I already retired.”

  The vampire adventurer was on all four as he grasped for air loudly. “E-easy for you to s-say. How did you even find me?!”

  “You made a mistake showing yourself to me back in the Guild. It was easy afterward.”

  “I thanked you! I thanked you for granting my sister a swift death! That was the least I could do and now you’re hunting me?!”

  A quick thrust from Wattyson’s leg, knocking him to the side. “Calm yourself. I’m here to make you do something for me, not to make you cease being. Now, what’s your name?”

  The vampire quickly risen up via morphing himself into shadow on the wall and materializing back into his human form, dusting off the dirt on his leather armor. “It’s Naciv,” he bowed down slightly, out of respect and fears. “Thanks for not killing me at this moment… uhh..”

  “Wattyson.”

  “Wattyson.” He repeated. “So what can I-I-I help the great hunter with?”

  “Do not talk to me like that again or I will commit you with a cleansing fire your kind are so afraid of.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Wattyson leaned onto the wall on his right side, both hands into his pant pockets. “I need an update of what’s going on in the world, I haven’t kept up with it since I retired.”

  “O-Okay… any specific?”

  “Corrupted Blood. Heard anything related to that in this city’s vicinity?”

  Corrupted Blood implied demon, that much Naciv’s knew. Why would the self-proclaimed retired hunter seek knowledge on it in this city?

  “I-I… why do you think I know? Why don’t you go ask the Corax?”

  “They’re here in the city?”

  “They are… I can uhh guide you to them if you want.”

  A quick pause as Naciv’s internally screaming just by being near him. There was something about him screaming to Naciv’s instinct to run away, to hide or to die as quick as possible. The noises of the city weren’t filtering into his hearing at all, only the sound of his unalive heart beating loudly like a rattling gear spinning too fast.

  “No.” Wattyson finally answered sharply as his gaze remained firmly on the vampire.

  “I can’t help you with tha—“

  “I know you can,” Wattyson interrupted. “You’re Clan S’Shide. Information brokers and effective espionage or recon vampires. Neciel could walk around in Tamare without making a single sound, even her transformation didn’t make any noise beside herself talking.”

  “And you yourself,” he continued, “find out the whole ‘demon’ attack was actually a vampire incident. You walked into a restricted area in that village without other people noticing. Don’t bullshit me.”

  Naciv was frozen in place. This retired hunter… was still sharp and even knowledgeable on his own clan and able to deduce just from that… no it wasn’t from that. It was from how he could single down to his clan when there were other clans that do the same. The only exception was S’Shide was more powerful in term of strength than others.

  “Alright,” he muttered out in defeat. “So what do you want to know exactly?”

  Wattyson glanced to both side, ensuring nothing can come near. “Any supernatural involve?”

  “I can only tell you from the vampire’s side in this city and few anecdotes from other supernatural factions. Will that be alright?”

  “Okay. Start speaking.”

  “It’s not us that’s for sure… or at least not our faction. Though from what we see, other vampire factions aren’t involved either.”

  “What factions do you think are likely to be involve if given the chance?”

  “I guess those vampire supremacists. They want to fill the vacuum left behind by the Dark Lord after all. Six hundred years of existential warfare left the Aeudys faction struggling to maintain the vampire’s society worldwide. I mean who could blame them right? Trying to keep us hidden from both the mundane world and the Dark Lord’s Legion.”

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  “Are those vampire supremacists part of the Vindicapire?”

  “Yeah, they’re trying to undermine the Aeudys and enslave all other vampires lesser in power to them and—“

  “Turn everyone that’s not a vampire into cattle, yes I’m aware.” Wattyson put his arm around Naciv’s shoulder and dragging him to walk. “And what are the S’Shide part of nowadays? Aeudys, Vindicapire or Ubolis?”

  “Aeudys, sir.”

  “Hmmm… a necessary evil I tolerate.”

  Naciv could feel his own heart rattling even more, it was like his entire body trying to start up again with life… in an unlife body. He walked trembling. He gulped down trying to ask the Anathema something other vampires had asked.

  “Why do you hate Vampire? I mean…” he tailed back. “I hate our own races too. If it wasn’t for me and my sister continued survival, I…”

  “I hate your kind.” Wattyson spoke without missing a beat. “You blankbody leeches and kills. You strip yourself of everything that make a race and chose to become parasite instead.”

  Naciv shouldn’t but he felt compelled to retort back. He gritted his teeth and fangs whilst his hand clenching tightly.

  “I’ve been trying to live my life outside of that! Against that! You think I’m the same as them?!”

  “It is precisely because of you. You are a race of disease, emptying everything that make you yourself. You think eating and drinking pig’s blood will save you? It’s only a matter of time until the body develop an allergy to that blood and demands actual bloods from humans, dwarves, elves and other humanoid races. I’m aware now there are vampire trying to live their lives despite the odds but at the end, you all will succumb to the Hunger anyway. You are alive now because you held on, but do not think for a second you are winning. It’s only a matter of time until you will be hunted either by me or another hunter.”

  Naciv felt his shoulder tapped on by Anathema’s hand during the whole speech, and he felt that side was heavier than before. His entire morality was judged. He was sure him drinking pig’s blood would save him yet now it was spelt out it only delayed him.

  “You spoke like you’re absolute, you know?” Naciv felt brave now being close to death… at least in his mind. “Judging and condemning our entire race and the supernatural, you might as well be a god.”

  Wattyson didn’t rebuke. “Tell me of the other supernatural, any info on them?”

  Naciv in turn exhaled out short interval of sigh from that bravery earlier. “Uhh yes. The werewolves and coraxi you don’t have to worry. They fought against the Dark Lord too so they would be against such a thing. You know how stuck up to nature they are.”

  “Hmmm… do you know one of them?”

  “I do… us Aeudys and those Gaia’s fanatics are somewhat in a cooperative relation in this city so in my line of work I know some of them.”

  “Then why are you working as an adventurer?”

  “Come on, even you have a sense of adventuring right?”

  His joke didn’t land, if anything he cringed to himself.

  “A-Anyway, I don’t see anything from the wyrm’s cultists.”

  “Good. Those guys are way too destructive.”

  “Oh no, you should be concerned!” Naciv shook his head so hard it looked like it was about to fall off. “I don’t SEE anything! They’re hiding themselves too well!”

  Naciv could feel himself jerked backward from the sudden halt. His shoulder felt like it was about to be peeled off from that and now breaking from Wattyson’s grip.

  “Which wyrm’s cultist?”

  “The one that worshiped the madness wyrm.”

  Wattyson’s face settled into something of concerned but calculating. “Destruction huh,” he murmured to himself. He could feel something twitching on his face, etching something to one side of his cheek. As if the muscle in his body was reacting to the theorized revelation with glee. He was smiling fully though only to one half.

  A soft chuckle echoed through the alleyway before disappearing entirely when the two merged with the crowd. They had no destination, but Wattyson still dragged Naciv along. His hand gripped tighter on the vampire’s shoulder. He could feel the rough skin rather than leather on Naciv’s shoulder.

  Naciv grew increasingly anxious. His heart rattled harder and harder, clanking and clinking as if it was a gear. There was another sounds that intruded into his heightened hearing sense. It wasn’t the crowd chatters, that was filtered out. The sound of the retired hunter next to him, chuckling to himself. It was like something had just found its meal. A predator found their prey.

  He knew what it was like to be a predator. He had given up his human life to become a vampire after all. His entire species were to hunt humanity for food and survival, even if he fought against his nature, he understood what it was to be a predator.

  Only tales of the Anathema were told from the high ranking and elders of the clan. Such a thing alone wouldn’t scare away any new vampires post-Anathema, but Naciv couldn’t help it. He wanted to find out, he had to know what was it that brought fear even to the old guards of his clan or vampire society as a whole. The things he found searching through old records and tomes instilled fear to him, through his ancestral vampiric blood flowing through him. And now, walking next to the very horror himself, his entire body shivered at every breaths and chuckles.

  And then a question cut in through the derailing of his mind. That monotonous voice… mixed with found gleefulness asked of him.

  “Anyone else?”

  It struck him back into rational consciousness. Something that could prove himself useful to not be killed right now. He knew he wouldn’t be struck down but proving himself useful brought him peace of mind.

  “T-The wyrm cultists?”

  “No, anything else from other supernatural factions? Like the faeries or wendigoes?”

  “O-Oh no. Faeries are content to stay in the Tu’ei forest. Wendigoes aren’t near Toulasi…”

  Wattyson’s face settled back into neutral, he snickered at that last comment from Naciv, Tu’ei forest… faeris love showing themselves disguising as spirit orbs and pranking people, and they didn’t show themselves to him and the other. It was an interesting line of thinking, but he shoved it for now.

  “Naciv.”

  “Y-y-yes, sir?”

  “You want to live yes?”

  “I-yes, of course!”

  “Then continue to monitor the current situation and find any information on the corrupted blood for me. My… peers believe the humans are creating replica of a demon’s blood and utilizing it for whatever beneficial reasons. That better be the case… but if a supernatural is involved in it…”

  “Don’t worry!” Naciv answered fast, his instinct demanded it. “I’ll find out anything even the smallest of details! I’ll be your informants, don’t worry, I’ll get the—“

  “You will not tell your other parasites or those gaia’s fanatics of me. You will continue to work for me as long as I’m in this city. My peer wanted to stay for more than a week. Consider your continued unalive existence as your payment.”

  The vampire wanted to argue against that. That would just put a target on him for going against his own clan to work for their enemy… but his mind and instinct knew better. It would be more imperative to work for him than rejecting at all. Even if… the horror before him said it retired, that could be change at any given moment.

  “Of course… then how should I contact you?”

  A ripple in empty space formed into a hole small enough for Wattyson’s hand to pull through. He took out a small paper with glyph all over it. A talisman? That ripple quickly went away quietly before anyone in public noticed.

  “When you have sufficient infos for me, drip your own blood into this. It’ll alert me of you and I’ll find you.”

  “You-You’ll find me how?”

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “Of course, my apology.”

  Physical weight soon lifted off the vampire’s shoulder only to be replaced by another mental weight. He felt himself jolted by Wattyson forward, stumbling and nearly bumped into someone. He turned around to find him walking away, soon devoured by the crowd. He gulped and held tightly to that fragile paper, feeling its smooth texture and the granite rough feeling in that glyphs.

  For Wattyson himself, he strode to a nearby meat skewers stall. He remembered seeing it when he and Arlene walked through here for the inn.

  “Excuse me miss,” he stood straight with one hand in pocket and another gesturing and emulating how a person would ask. “Can you tell me where the Treeho-“ he suddenly yawned out a long one. “Sorry, I felt sleepy all of the sudden. Can you tell me where the Treehouse Inn is?”

  “Ah! It’s two blocks down there,” she pointed to the right, “Turn the corner on the left after and walk ahead till you see an alleyway, you won’t miss it!”

  “Thank you miss,” his hand reached out with a few coins. “Can I have some skewers?”

  “Emm… Sir? I don’t know what coins those are. Sorry I aint selling you it.”

  “Ah… bummer. Anyway thank you for your help.” He bowed slightly and waved her goodbye, walking toward the direction to a place he could finally rest.