What Goes Bump In The Night

XVI: New Blood

I stare deep into the abyss of the tinted goggles, searching for any hint of eyes. Besides the obscured face, the rest of him is quite strange. He has a dense coat lined with dark fur, sturdy pants for hiking, and high boots to match. He has gauntlets crafted from a reptilian hide of some kind, making me think his whole outfit is the product of the hunt. On his hip is a cavalry sword, stashed safely in a scabbard. Even through his dense outfit, he's muscular but not overweight in physique. From behind the scarf, he speaks once again.

"What's your business here? Why the hell have you come out here?"

Sorina, still enraged, takes the first step in a sword charge. Reacting with incredible speed, the mystery man flips his rifle around and bats away the sword. His opponent staggered, he then kicks the side of her leg, buckling the Ice Witch to one knee.

"Easy, banshee, no need to get so frisky."

With little else to do, I lift a spell note to join my ally in the fight. My eyes go wide when he switches the weapon around and fires it, the bullet turning my spell into smithereens. Yet, to my relief, there's not so much as a scratch on me. Suspicious of something, I watch Pearce charge in. After a loud war cry, the lycan misses a swing and then dodges his opponent's swing back. I expect them to begin to exchange blows, but instead, the ambusher lowers his shoulder and tackles the lycan to the ground.

"Why aren't you hurting us?"

I ask, realizing that he's avoiding any attacks that would injure us severely. If I was in his shoes and wanted to walk out of here with us three dead, then I would've gone about this so much differently. Shooting Sorina was an easy choice, then drawing his sword and attacking either of us would've been the logical next step too. Instead, he chose to subdue the first target in an obviously non-lethal manner, before precisely shooting my spell and then pinning the other threat. My deductive reasoning is proven successful when he lets go of Pearce and slowly stands to his feet, breathing a little heavily.

"I thought you were upset that I killed the Nest Queen, but I realized you're just mad I beat ya to it. If y'all were hunting down a bloodsucker then that puts us on the same side."

Sorina looks up at him with malice in her eyes, he notices and tries to offer a hand to assist her in standing.

"I don't need your help."

She made sure to let some spit fly while making her reply.

"I'm feeling some irritation coming my way-"

He announces while throwing the rifle over his shoulder, letting a sling catch it so that he doesn't need to carry the cumbersome weapon.

"-I realize you're probably a bit frightened, but rest assured we're not enemies."

Pearce shoots back to his feet, trying his hardest to look like the fight didn't affect him. Stepping to Sorina's side, I shoot a question that he asked earlier right back at him.

"Who are you?"

Despite his face being covered, I can still see his cheeks raise in a smile.

"Finally, someone willing to be rational. I'm a vagabond of nature, hunter of the Nesuferit, and a damn good lover too. The name's Matvey, you can learn my surname later if I feel y'all are up to scratch."

He holds out a hand for me to shake but Sorina cuts in, stepping between the two of us.

"I don't care who you are. What gives you the right to storm in here, take our kill, and then point a gun at us?!"

Matvey scratched the back of his head while sizing the woman up.

"In fairness, I've been hunting this Nest Queen for a month now-"