Just Another Witch Hunt

chapter four: Beastly

" mmmm finally we're here Layla." I reply with a tired whisper approaching the ruined shambles of what was once a village. Now all that was left were burned wooden frames, charged bodies and maimed body parts every where. There was a massacre here, a small village of 800 humans wiped out so completely. I could feel the traced of the slaughter, my hands touching the ground to feel the cold traces of blood lust and death paining the picture of war. A humans using farm tools, casting weakly trained spells against train monsters, these monsters were least by men who were once beasts. But from what I can see they were no longer men, but instead demons.

However not all was lost following the trace of mayhem I could deduce this was a small hunting squad of 50 trained monsters, commanded by 15 beast men. Or at least that's what I could tell from their dead bodies. Their throats slashed, heads decapitated and limbs torn off, someone had been here recently saw that the hundred or so survivors were being used for... "Entertainment." And decided to have their own share of fun. Honestly I was filled with all sorts of complex emotions, I was anger for not being quicker. I was in pain as I remembered my own home, I was hopeful seeing that their were traces of survival. But most of all I was hungry, my body ached for any way to feed the need for vengeance growing inside of me. Like a malnourished seed, the few bandits or monsters I sleep on the way we're not enough.

I turned to see Layla stoned faced looking off in the direction of a cliff side. I had just finished burying the villages young, when she caught my attention. I gently found my self scratching behind her ear whispering, " what is it girl?"

Layla slowly guided me to a cave not far off, the cave was next to a water fall where a heavy stream drowned out most of the noise. Something sounded like it was dying in here and they were loud enough to be heard from so far even while being drowned out. I found a seed of fear growing in the pit of my stomach the screams curdling my blood, as I drew my sword in case it was remnants of her army torturing a poor human.
I creep bit by bit until I reach a corned of a cave, I was by my self letting Layla stand guard at the entrance I peeked around the corner ever so slightly. My eyes surprised by what they saw.

A white haired stranger from a few days ago interrogating a lone scout of the demon queens army.

"Where is she?!" A loud growl echoing throughout the small cavern. He had the weasel tied straps to a chair, his face inches from his filthy muzzle. Staring down the half beast form a red haired Weasel the height of human. A Beast man, the sick mutation of the wild Queen their sick species growing larger, stronger and more twisted with every generation.

It appeared as if he had spent the last few days torturing him for information. First he went with the basics pulling finger nails out one by one, then tie nails. He'd wait from the look of it till the pain subsided before then slicing each appendage off one by one. Before cauterizing the wounds sealing them off and stopping the bleeding. He removed his genitals, destroyed his anus with a sharply honed blade, then while he slept it appeared he had shaved him of his fur. Then gentle began to cut and peel the first layer of skin off the creature. The nerves were exposed as he waited for him to wake questioning over and over again, and when he didn't receive the answers he wanted to hear he would trace the exposed nerves with hot iron knife. Then after all was said and done, he'd use some kind of druidic spell on the creature healing him only to restart the entire process.

Or at least that's what I could gather by the time I got here. I watched for a while best I could trying to learn the same answers, so I could leave as soon as possible. While I sympathetized with the creature, in the end I could do nothing. In my heart I felt like he deserved the torture that was being done to him after hearing him scream his confessions. But this sick bastard liked younger girls, he killed every girl over the age of twenty with their throats slashed and bodies ravaged. The one girls who were so lucky were found ravaged and chained by the stranger, I couldn't find them around but from what I could gather by their tracks, they left towards a near by human settlement. It was obvious that they received no every help and we're moving by the skin of their teeth. The men were torn to pieces in a make shift arena. They were putting the survivors against monsters for entertainment. Honestly at this point I wanted to hate the tall white haired stranger, but I knew he was avenging them the best way he could. I could feel it, a thrust for vengeance far greater than my own as he worked like and man. Dissecting, breaking and rebuilding the creature countless times.

From what I could gather during my own espionage the castle tortoise moved through here. And since it was one the way she decided to let some of her new recruits get a taste of their first blood. She them here to quell their need for violence as well as their lust, they're jobs were to kill and breed leaving more hybrids to slowly infect and destroy the land. It was the same everywhere they went, she would convert the wild and innocent into humans. Then train them to be warriors, then break them into monsters. Then unleash them on the world with a twisted cold smile to her face.

Finally he cleaned his tolls one by one before deciding to leave him there peeled and ready to bleed out chained to the chair. He had gotten a direction, and had I.... South east. Towards the ruined kingdom of Aquariume.

" You can come out now it's over..." These words chilled me to my core as I stopped my escape frozen In fear at the sound of his gentle voice. My mind telling me to run with every neuron inside of my head screaming to leave after the sight I had just witnessed. However much like a Thorned Deer to a hunter I found myself frozen in place. My heart pumping as I slowly felt myself out of my own control, my body refusing to listen me as I stepped out into his view...
" Hi..."