Chapter 38 - 37

I frown at the view, at the sound of gasping all around, at the so many lives being lost right at this moment before my eyes, close enough so that I can hear their last moments with ease, which only deepens my frown.

…Weren't humans supposed to stay together to guard themselves against danger? To protect each other or something like that? So why the hell did this human just simply ended so many of his colleague's lives like this and for what? Hunting me down? A 'fellow human'?

That is beyond confusing, especially when I can still hear him hushing around, searching me, careless and carefree of the chaos he just caused, as if he hasn't just killed hundreds of people in the less then a few seconds, or even worst, more annoyed to have lost me to the fall then to have done what he just did.

Savage, and yet…stupidly pointless.

If I had any understating of humans before; and this human in particular; it all just went out the window. I understand the joy of hunting, of killing, of having fresh meat and warm blood down the throat, but this… I don't even know what to make out of this. Not even ghouls do this, if they kill, and rarely they do, their own is to eat, for hunger, nothing more..

So, in the end, I settle with leaving in silence, going back to my original plan of hunting the cold-eyed man, but I knew I could not shake this heavyweight at the back of my mind so quickly or easily as the frown that keeps itself plastered on my face no matter how far I have already got from that place.

Shaking my head and trying to focus I remind myself of the juicy meal that is waiting for me up above, remembering the taste of his blood, and soon after I'm dashing in pursuit of it, away from the ghosts, leaving them behind.

No point in dwelling on that, no reason to too. It shouldn't bother me, no, it doesn't bother me. I shake my head again.

My disappointment and annoyance, however, only grows when I reach the place that I've left Takamori in only to find it empty, well, lacking the important people I'm searching for I mean, not considering some soldiers left behind nor the many people screaming and crying to the side.

I smell the air and the windy night, a burning stench hitting my nose, but as I get close to that a smile creeps over my lips, for I am certain now that someone has come this way.

How could I ever mistake his smell for anything else?

I close my eyes for a second and inhale as much as I can from it, but the strong stench of burnet flesh mixes and obscures some of it, but not enough to make me lose track of him.

As I hop over I pass a pile of coal like mess, and with a quick glance I discover it to be one of the Moth Ghouls that were flying around, burned to a crisp enough to make him smaller and distorted, with the limbs tensed up in a fetal position.

Tsk tsk that one passed the cooking point for sure, it almost fused together with the wood below it.

I barely scrape the floor when the door to the roof opens and a few soldiers came in, and as I hide to the side I manage to see them check the corpse, kicking it as if it did not look dead enough, and watching over the sky in search of others.

"I still think we should help the others in the outer region."

"You shouldn't think anything soldier, we have our orders, and if the flying ones come back we have to be prepared and alert. Now move it!"

"Y-yes Sir.!" At that they set base in here, taking something long to put in the eyes as they stare at the horizon, and holding the longest gun I've seen so far, so much so that the soldier putts the nuzzle over the railing for support.

As they stay there I lose interest and with far, far better things to do I start jumping away from the debris of my lost home towards the fancy meal that I'm definitely going to have a taste of tonight.

Ignoring anything else I jump and dash, passing by known parts of the town, unknown parts too, until I'm reaching the outer walls of this great city.

The sturdy structure is imposing as ever, great walls surrounded by a pit of fire, now lit and burning like a hungry beast with its mouth open, swallowing every creature who dares to approach the hole.

And yet, beyond the smell of burning flesh, of the fire, of the ghouls and sweaty humans, of my prey, there is of human waste smell added to the mix, making me realize that they probably burn their waste up as fuel to keep the flames up; I can only imagine how much it consumes, being light up every night; and not only the visual is too much but the wind carries way too many smells and odors, adding to the chaotic situation.

And still, as I watch the humans fight back over the walls, shooting normal bullets at the ghouls who manage to jump over the pit and grab onto the wall, making the Ghouls fall backward by the force of the bullets and into the flames that awaited to consume them and use their bodies as fuel too, flashes and screams came from beyond the wall, prolonging the fight to beyond the wall line and into the outside lands. 

And by the smell of it of course my meal would have jumped straight into danger. What should I expect from someone who tried to fight me off alone and injured? I roll my eyes at that.

My red orbs shine in the darkness under the night cover and is easy for me to hop over the wall towards the nightmare outside since all soldiers are guarding themselves for things that want to come in, not go out, and the only thing they notice is a human figure appearing among the chaos below as they shout and shoot at the ghouls around me.

But I ignore their screams and the ghouls around, inhaling the air and looking beyond the corpses and gunfire.

I start running seconds later, and almost forget to do as a human and use only my legs, but soon after it does not matter since they lose sight of me, making me able to jump around and dash forward as fast as I can right into the chaotic warzone up ahead.

I stay out of it so I can have a clearer view of the area as I search for my target among the chaos, and because of it I'm able to see fights unfold throughout the place, and analyze some of the attacking forces as well.

There are ghouls that I've seen some times in the woods, but his camouflage is so good that I've hardly had a taste of it for the creature can blend in with the wood trucks of the trees with expertise, almost stopping his heart from beating as he stays like a tree himself glued to the wood, so this is actually one of the first times I see it in action.

The Fungus Ghoul has a thin crooked body hidden under layer and layers of fungus, mushrooms, and all sorts of green life that could have grown out of a wooden trunk present on his body, making it almost impossible to see the human form underneath, nor the small eyes and long nails.

Beyond all that there is still a yellow and green puss dripping along its body, including the nails, and soon I discover that is actually the strange thing's saliva dripping off from it lipless mouth, and since it could not move fast enough to hunt that turned out to be its weapon, if close enough to a human it would vomit on their bodies, aiming for their mouths to infect them,and if too far it would use an acid version that would corrode the humans and melt flesh and bone, however as they screamed in pain soon they were howling with then, turning into Rotting Ghouls with what remained of their bodies, limbs being dragged along as they advance slowly.

I must say they don't look very appetizing… like the green salad on the plate, plus they smell funny.

The other one, however, is new to me and looks full of meat, round, fat and big, the Deformed Ghoul has all its proportions wrong, one arm bigger than the other, the face with big ears, nose and round layers of skin under the shin, and as I think of it to be the most human-looking around it attacks, the rock fire-resistant body managing to get close enough so his belly would open up to the nightmare below, rows of sharp teeth put together in a chaotic manner that resembled a round mouth, with long tongue like appendices that shot out to capture the prey into its iron maiden arms, totally focused in eating more and more and more.

That and the many normal ghouls around… tsk tsk, things are not looking good for this group of soldiers, they should have forgotten the humans at the outer circled and run back to the main city once they saw all these creatures coming at them, though I guess they would have never expected so many at the same like this, almost as if they are coordinating an attack…

Not that I care anyway… but one thing still bothers me.

Where the hell is the cold-eye man?! Don't tell me he is dead already?! I'm burning this city down if he is, god damnit!