Hunter's Bane [#1]

The night hides. The day reveals. 

Those were the two rules that lived by- Always search in the shadows first, because there is always something hiding there.

"Get behind me." With a hand lifted to deflect the blow that was coming to attack the kid, he spun around with the weight of the attack while shooting with his crossbow that made him feel like Van Helsing. Don't get him wrong, he might be a self-proclaimed Monster Hunter, but he doesn't really think he could pull off a Hugh Jackman even though he is quite a huge jacked man himself! "These things are annoying!" With a blast of the crossbow, the bolt that had a silver tip broke through the beast's shoulder, the impact enough to push it a few feet away thanks to the magic embedded into the wood and metal of his crossbow. The bolt stayed attached to the beast's body, seeping away the beast's energy and giving it a lot of pain, but his objective here wasn't to kill the kid! He witnessed the kid being bitten, and knowing that he was bitten by a Rougaru, all he had to do was kill the Origin Bite and all the bitten will be released, like a domino effect. 

He lifted his hand, allowing the kid to sink his teeth into his arm, not really caring about the pain and the scream of panic that he heard from behind him- serious, what part of "stay silent" do these kids don't understand? "Go to sleep." With a punch to the head, the small pomeranian-sized little feral wolf-like monstrosity fell to the ground with a whine, he soon followed by sinking a small dagger-like syringe into the little boy's neck, making him freeze as the wolfsbane mixture entered his body. Wolfsbane aren't exactly poisonous to Rougarus, only Werewolves. 

He would know. 

While it makes Werewolves have an allergic reaction- which he has long made his body accustomed to, much to his suffering for 5 years straight, making himself completely immune to [Poison] -it makes Rougaru have to go to sleep. It's a tranquilizer for them and a completely poisonous thing for other Werewolves, even though the only other type he knows that exist aren't alive anymore thanks to his own hands. 

What? They tried to kill him! 

He was the only True Werewolf in this world, thanks to the little thing that lives inside his head- 

[A Rougaru (Lvl 3) Was Defeated] 

[You've received +5 XP Points] 

-that just spoke to him again. 'Huh, the kid was truly weak as shit- But hey, he was a kid!' The kid wasn't exactly a kid, but Hunter didn't really care about his exact age- he was smaller than him, weaker than him, definitely younger than him, and smelled like a baby wolf to his old wolf nose. It was weird, pulling out the silver bolt out of the kid's shoulder, he pulled him into the house before throwing him into the freezer and locking the door. "Urgh, I just washed this shirt! And this was the... 3rd? 3rd jacket this month alone." Looking down at his torn leather jacket and bloodied shirt, Hunter resigned himself to simply buying new clothes because fuck it, he is tired of washing the same shirt over and over again- Oh, right, he had that! "[Prestidigitation]." Waving his hand over his bloodied body, he whispered the magic word and willed away the blood- it fell down like dried dust, leaving everything completely clean: "I always forget." After all, he had become a [Wizard] only a week ago after completing his Lvl 20 [Blood Hunter - Order of the Lycan] and finishing his main class! Magic is still weird, even though he uses it all of the time with his [Blood Maledictions] and [Blood Bargains], he is still working on that [Spellbook] thing and he has been making some progress learning the Cantrips and a single Lvl 1 spell that he is quite proud of! "And... [Mending]." 

There, clean and repaired! 

He should really try to remember that he has these spells, they're really useful. 

"Anyway- back to finding this White Wolf and killing it." Shrugging off the pain as best as he could, he gripped his crossbow and newly acquired gun with a silver bullet, humming a merry tune under his breath as he ignored the world around him- As a True Werewolf, his sense of hearing was a thousand times more sensitive than that of a wolf, so he could easily hear everything around him. He got used to sensory overload that came with both smelling the scent of a storm coming days before it arrived and hearing the sound of a pin drop a thousand feet away in a busy traffic street full of the nastiest people in the world. He mostly learned how to deal, having learned how to turn himself temporarily human in the senses category, which made him feel both relieved and naked- after all, living 23 years of his life with those strong senses made everything easier and harder on himself. 

Being bitten as a 10 year old is not fun at all, but killing the guy? That was kinda fun, if a bit unskilled at the time- but hey, he didn't do bad with killing a werewolf two times his size using a silver necklace to choke the guy to death after he killed his mother and tried to take him away after biting him. Apparently that was his dad!

Crazy family drama, I know. 

Whistling 'It's A Small World After All', he picked up on a rapidly approaching set of footsteps that smelled and sounded human, so he didn't turn around to kill everyone just yet, instead ignoring the kid who followed him frantically: "Hey, Hey!" A hand reached out to touch his shoulder and he turned around, his rugged 33 year old face was much scarier than he thought because the girl flinched and took her hand off: "I-i... Please, help me find my friends!" She sounded desperate, sad even, but Hunter already planned on doing that anyway! He pulled out a pistol, a simple one, loaded with silver bullets and gave it to the girl: "Here you go, girly. Follow along now, don't want you lost too, right? Oh, by the by, the name's Hunter. I'm a... let's say, professional Monster Hunter." He was hyperfixated on monsters even before he was reborn- they were the ultimate cool concept to him and he had read, watched thousands of videos, and even designed his own monsters. 

He was, also, kinda of a monster fucker. 

In his first life he (as well as this one too, shockingly) was disabled- confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, feeling worthless. He spent years struggling with his mental health, believing that his freeloader ass was too much of a burden to his family. Then the apocalypse happens, he dies by being drained of all his blood by this weird giant blood leech tentacle thing, and then he wakes up as a baby! Life was boring, spent 10 years trying to learn how to be a normal person and failed miserably, and then went to school, got bullied, broke a few noses, got a lot of detention, was declared a "troubled child", started liking arts and crafts, watched his mother be brutally mauled and killed by a big wolf monster, gets bitten, kills wolf monster with his mother's silver necklace, discovers he is a werewolf and that the monster he killed was his dad, is sent to foster care after no side of his mother's nor father's family contact the government to let them know he still had living relatives, awakens this mysterious system that lives inside his head, spends years mastering himself and his newly found powers, and then at the age of 10, he becomes a Monster Hunter and doesn't stop killing monsters.

Why? 

Well, mostly for the experience! You see, whenever he defeats or kills a monster, he gets a set amount of experience that he can use on one of his classes to get levels, feats, knowledge, and even trade it for coins to get magic items from the shop! It was crazy how much he learned, and after spending 23 years of his life working on this sysyem slowly- because hot damn, how difficult it is to fucking get a wolf spirit obeying his orders! He had to literally tear his soul apart and fuse the werewolf and the man together to become himself after spending 10 years on The Taming to prepare himself for a lifetime of battle of wills between the wolf and himself- just to shut that down when he became the wolf and the wolf became him, essentially making them one and the same. 

With that out of the way, he spent years from 10 to now (33) hunting monsters and taking them down. 

There are quite a bunch of them, actually, that are just chill- he didn't disturb the weak little critters that kept to themselves, having seen what happened to them as the magic of the world wasn't exactly the strongest... He? He was quite the exception, drawing his magic from himself, his own blood, rather than the world around him! He was able to become a Lvl 20 [Order of the Lycan] Blood Hunter thanks to his efforts, learning a lot about monsters and how to track them down- He had fun being the predator that he is. "Point. Pull. Shoot. Got it? Easy! Careful with the recoil and you'll be fine, just don't miss and if you do you'll probably die..." He grinned, remembering the similar conversation he had with a similarly young kid 3 years ago when he stopped by in Canada to hunt down some Wendigos... 'Oh, right, their marriage is in a few weeks... I need to find a present.' Maybe a guide on ritualistic magic? Although the magic he jas become able to cast isn't exactly normal, ritualistic magic is very much real! Drawing power takes a long time, but a a few sacrifices here and there can accelerate the time... Maybe he could give the couple a bunch of fliers explaining how he could train them if they wanted. Maybe a few potions? Oh, definitely that too! Some poultice will be good for the two since they've been fucking like rabbits every spring. 

He doesn't know how Chris can take it, being fully human and so fragile... 

'Oh... there's that spell too... If I become strong enough, then It'll be the perfect gift.' He knew vaguely nowadays, since this world didn't have Dungeons and Dragons- I know, pure blasphemy, but the passage of time, the beating of depression teamed up with trauma weathered and beat the shit out of his memories of the game, making the system the only reliable source of information that he could get. 'I should check it again... Make sure everything is allright.' 

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[Read the Status Page on the Next Chapter Because it got too Big for this one]

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He still felt pride whenever he saw that screen- After all, he spent 23 years of his life working hard and non-stop to achieve such heights! And his expertise speaks for itself, seeing as he can cast magic, transform into a werewolf (and a wolf), he knows a lot about potion and poultice making, and he even knows a lot of lore for magical creatures! He is also growing stronger by learning magic from his [Wizard] class, using his own blood as a source of magic to empower his spells. He also had a connection to nature, seeing as a [Ranger] he could cast spells too- It's a lot of text that he used to read every single night before bed... Now? Now he doesn't sleep that much, studying his newly bought book of spells with gold coins that he spent thousands of XP points on... Seriously, if he converted XP to dollars in a 1:1 ratio, he'd have spent more than 4 million dollars on himself in less than 2 years! And the amount he gets from defeating enemies doesn't really change, so that's nice at least. 

"So, what's your name, kid?" Without turning back, with his crossbow on his shoulder and his free hand looking through his pockets for a cigarette. For a moment he thought about smoking weed again and dismissed that thought- He doesn't wanna get high again and become the Beast of Bray Road again... That one time was embarrassing and people started pulling cases after cases- hey, at least he learned that there was a Rougaru there too because of his stupidity, so win-win! He still feels bad for hitting that woman's car, though. "You don't look like a shooter, but anybody can learn." After all, who is he to say what she can and can't do? He literally spent 20 plus years of his life killing monsters instead of going to therapy to cope with the brutal death of his mother and subsequent murder of his own father while being mauled to death by him too. "I mean, I learned to shoot one when I was 10, so I guess you can too."

The blond girl looked at the pistol in her trembling hands for a moment before she clenched it- Accidentally pulling the trigger and shooting him. "Oops." Nonchalantly and under the shocked and fearful gaze of the young girl- how old was she? 17? 18? -he simply sighed. His fingers dug a bit into the bullet wound and his nails enlarged for a moment before he pulled the silver bullet out: "That kinda hurts." He held the bullet that sizzled his skin like he was holding a frying pan right out of the stove- he did that one time -and it was still hot. "There you go, first bullet! You keep that one, it's a good luck charm."

"W-what are you?" 

"Well, my name's Hunter. I'm a Monster Hunter." Hunter shrugged, looking at his bloodied hands for a moment before he allowed his blood to slip out into the ground, whereupon it was absorbed by the earth: "I also am here to save your little friends, kill the White Wolf, and also expose some crimes done by the Hatchet? What are their names again... Ah, right, the Hacketts." He turned around to continue walking, and although his gait was gaunt in style, he was listening to everything around him and waiting for a Rougaru to attack them. He didn't want to turn into a werewolf in front of the girl and scare the shit out of her because he didn't want to see that- sure, its funny sometimes, but he isn't exactly dumb. He doesn't want to give the girl more trauma than she has already: "So, Miss True Shot- You okay? Don't be nervous now, we're saving your friends... I just hope none died yet." 

"I-" The girl paused, took a deep breath to calm down before making a decision. She'd rather be with this weirdo who appeared out of nowhere, wrestled one of the monsters into the walking freezer, and apparently can shrug off bullets than with those monsters who want to eat her and her friends. "-my name's Emma... Nice to meet you, Hunter?" 

"That's the spirit!" With a grin, Hunter turned to the side and aimed his crossbow before shooting. There was a loud whine as a small Rougaru stumbled out of the woods- another kid? Damn! This one was even smaller, probably born like this after their parents fucked under the full moon, making the kid inherit the curse too. His bolt this time had wolfsbane within it, just enough to knock one of the adults out, so for the kid it was more than enough! "Are these Hackett pricks breeding an army of Rougarus? That's a literal child." Disgusted and disappointed with everything, Hunter sighed before he began to tie the kid up and pull off the bolt. "Here, hold this-" He gave part of the rope to the girl who stood still, perhaps confused and surprised, but she soon started helping him tie the kid up. "-there we go!"

"Huh, that was... easy?" Emma was utterly confused but also glad she was with a professional right now. The guy clearly knew what he was doing because it was working! 

"So, where did you say your friends were again?" 

"Oh, uhm, in the radio tower! Ryan and Dylan went there to try and call for help when the phone wouldn't work..."

"Ah, let me guess... The Hacketts turned it off?" Hunter hummed, thoughts racing through his head as he took a big sniff- Immediately, he smelled the scent of Rougaru as far as he could sense: "Ah... Damn, fuck- Look, we gotta group all your friends together and I gotta get you all out of here." 

"W-wait, why?" Seeing the man suddenly nervous, Emma felt panic grow within her. If the professional was anxious and nervous, how could she not be too? 

"Well, the Hacckets have turned their little camp into a Rougaru breeding ground, and they're all following the White Wolf, which means this went from an Annoyance Level to a Serious Threat Level." Pulling out a big shotgun from the small bag on his waist, Hunter began to fumble and look for a few bottles from the same bag: "Here, you gonna need this- drink it when you're in danger or when I tell you to, don't worry, it will help you run and escape." He gave her one of his [Potion of Speed] as he took a deep breath and said: "Also, we need to get to your friends quickly... so, don't panic." 

"Don't panic-" 

It was too late. She was already panicking- "Holy shit!" -the man before her suddenly grew a foot higher, he was a lot harrier, and had a snout instead of a nose. His fur was black and white with stripes, and he had a mohawk-like hairstyle while his eyes were glowing red. She was ready to shoot the monster before her when it said: "...sorry to do this, but would you rather your friends get ripped to shreds by tens of other Rougarus? Get on my back and hold on." Instead of complaining or being scared, Emma took a deep breath- she will deal with the fact that this guy just turned into a literal zebra styled mohawk wolfman later, right now she wants to save her friends. 

"Let's go."