No Emotions to Feel

Ch 17: The Hunter

(note: sorry in advance, i'm bad at action scenes. also! violence and a bit of gore warning!)

The six eyes widened slightly at the vessel's quick reaction, but only for a moment. A blur of green and black tore past the vessel, coming to a sharp stop and turning around.

For the fraction of the second the figure was across the small clearing, the vessel could see what it was. It was a large and spindly creature with black chitin. His face was hidden in the dark shadows from the shrubbery around his head, and six narrow white eyes glowed brightly through it.

The observation was short-lived however, as the creature sprung towards the vessel again. It moved to dodge but watched in shock as the creature somehow changed direction mid-step to compensate. The vessel instinctively shot a violent burst of soul to the ground, shoving it into the air as claws sliced through the space beneath it.

This creature was fast, and incredibly smart. There was no doubt that if the vessel hadn't moved it would have been cut cleanly in two.

Then it realized something with a twist of dread, it was falling directly above the creature. There was no time to dodge so it would have to strike if it wanted to live.

The creature seemed to realize this too.

The large hand swept up and slashed above him, hitting and slicing through something. The creature turned to look up to see what it caught, only to feel a drop of something land on its face.

A force landed on the plants surrounding his face causing him to stagger, as a shadow fell over his vision.

An impossibly dark, viscous-yet-permeable liquid dripped from a gash on the figure looming over his face. A glint shone off the sharp blade positioned over one of his eyes. But the creature did not pay them much attention.

He could only stare at the two eye sockets staring right back. The darkness in the sockets were black and empty, an emptiness that greedily devoured any light that would otherwise penetrate it. The creature felt like the darkness was waiting for his move, ready to lash out in retaliation and consume his very existence.

This little entity was small, with an innocent looking mask. But it was not prey.

No.

Not even close.

This was a hunter.

This both interested, and worried him. Would the little shadow listen to his words? Or would it strike him down as he had tried.

Only one way to find out.

"You win, little shadow" the creature forced his body to relax a little to show he wasn't lying, feeling a hint of dread when the little entity did not follow suit.

The vessel looked at the creature's face, trying to find a hint of a lie. It knew he wasn't, but it was still paranoid.

Only when the adrenaline had started to fade did the vessel realize and relax as well, letting the point of the nail fall away from the eye. The creature leaned down a little and the vessel jumped away to the floor, putting its nail back.

The creature and vessel eyed each other with equal curiosity, with perhaps a bit of weariness on the vessels side.

"You're very misleading, did you know that?" the creature commented as vessel tilted its head slightly in response. "You look quite harmless, even childlike if not for the way you carry that nail"

The vessel looked off into the distance, seemingly distracted. It wanted to catch up to the red figure. The creature looked as well, but seeing nothing he continued on, "it looks like you're after something, I won't take up your time then. Just pay me a visit sometime. You have a lot of potential and could hone your hunting skills well with enough training. Maybe you'd even be as good as me"

The creature reached into the leaves around his face and pulled out a small pin, "here" the pin began to glow softly with Soul, "with that dodge of yours, you're clearly good with Soul. Use this to find me when you're ready."

He tossed the pin at the vessel, watching with satisfaction as the vessel simply raised its hand to catch it without looking. Though his eyes seen narrowed when he saw the gash in the vessel's arm seep a black liquid when it lifted. He didn't get much time to reflect on this though, as the vessel turned, crouched, and disappeared into the greenery with a burst of speed.

He did, however, take his time to watch in interest when the supposed blood slowed in its fall and drifted to the ground. It touched the grass but started to faze through, staining the leaves black.

The Hunter chuckled and turned to go back to his den, leaving the spot of dead grass and moss knight corpse behind.