4 How (not) to kill a demon

The plan was simple. Charles the sniper, along with the stealthy Elise were to sneak away and hide on a roof top. I sent Elise with him because he wasn't proficient in close range combat and she was, also she was a master at stealth and I needed the to slip by unnoticed.

Next the three heavy hitters of the team, Roger, Craig and Emilie, disguised themselves as homeless people and infiltrated the group of homeless that were currently using an abandoned, constructionsite as a home.

I was to then sit and relax on the roof of another skyscraper and watch the show unfold- em... I of course mean that I was preparing to handle any unexpected issues.

I had even brought along my favorite green scarf! After all, I was expecting a long, chilly and boring wait.

'So how the hell how did they muck it up this time!' I wailed internally! Meanwhile, I was frantically dodging the claws and fangs of a humongous demonic beast. The laughter of the demon riding the beast rung out loudly...

*two hours earlier...*

Everyone was standing in front of a tall building, on the other side of the road was the abandoned construction site the bodies were found in.

"So everyone understands the plan?" I asked seriously, how only Charles seemed to be listening. Everyone else had focused their attention on my scarf... more accurately, the pink horror wrapped around my neck.

Even I was struggling to keep a straight face.

'I swear... that bastard is going to pay for this!' I swore silently to myself, however I wasn't about to give the others the impression that that I had been tricked.

"Hey! Focus! It may only be a lesser demon, but it could still easily slaughter the lot of you if aren't careful!" I chose to redirect my anger over that bastards tricks, at the bunch of useless morons in front of me.

"Now Emilie, remember the the most important part of your mission?" I asked, looking her in the eye.

She nodded and answered, "Yes, to remain disguised till the very end and not to give the demon a reason to attack us."

"Good! Then why the hell, are you so damn clean?!" I half-shouted at her, "not only do you not look homeless in the slightest, but even I can smell the hyper-morphic gear under your disguise! Let alone a fucking demon! Even Roger's disguise surpasses yours, and he's the dummest one here!" I made sure to give her a stupefied glare.

Emilie's face turned red and Roger had a confused look, seemingly unsure of wether he was being insulted or complimented.

"I... I was going to! Going to... em... improve- eh... finish... yeah finish it, after-" as Emilie tried to defend herself, everyone gave her sympathetic glances, however, no one said anything.

"Then hurry up! Get a move on! Don't blame me if the demon smells you coming, and kills you immediately!" As I rushed her, I remembered something important, "and remember Emilie, no soft heartedness, no sympathy. You cannot afford to give away any information. Even if it means they all die. We're aren't here to save lives, we're here to hunt and kill a demon. We clear?" She looked at me surprised, before nodding.

The reason that I said this to her, was because Roger, the dum ape, would, despite his stupidity, diligently follow orders. Or maybe it was because of his stupidity? And Craig, he knew when it was time for emotions and when it was not. In other words, Emilie was too emotional, 'all I can do is hope that she doesn't muck it up...' I silently sighed to myself.

After seeing them off, I gave the pink scarf a sour look. "Did I not tell you that, if you ever pulled any colour changing stunts again, I'd destroy your soul seal?"

"But I didn't do it in front of them! As I remember, I specifically stated, that I would never change colour in front of other people ever again! So, technically speaking, I didn't break my promise~" not to my surprise, the "scarf" cheekily answered back.

"Hmph, how about this, if you ever change from your original green colour again, without my permission, I will slowly burn your soul to nothingness." Sadly it was right, it had indeed not broken the promise. Due to my clumsy wording, in a state of anger, he (yes it's a he) had found a loophole.

"... why are you so cruel?" Wailed the scarf, "first, you trap my soul in this piece of shitty cloth-"

"-sorry, I don't I heard you correctly! So what the hell did you just say about my scarf you bastard!" I interrupted him with a threatening voice.

"-ah! I of course meant, this marvellous scarf! Sheez! Why are you so obsessed with it anyways?!" He quickly corrected himself, before questioning me.

"None of your business!" I answered, as I checked on the others. Charles and Elise has already disappeared from sight, that was good. Emilie and company, were approaching the entrance of the half finished building. I nodded to myself, 'so far, so good!'

I turned and looked at the tall skyscraper that I was standing by, stepped back a couple of paces, then suddenly broke out into a sprint. Yes that's right, I was running up the side of a building. Not an easy task. And definitely not humanly possible.

"You say I'm cruel for sealing your soul within my scarf, but what about you, who tried to possess my soul and body? It's not my fault that my automatic, instinctual defence was to seal your soul away within a random object..." I finally reached the top, my legs hurt and I was panting hard as I began to discuss with the soul in my scarf. After all, that was why I brought him along in the first place.

"Pah! I was just following orders, punishing a lowly servant like me really is despicable!" Replied the scarf.

I smiled wickedly, "well~ you've certainly changed your tone, I thought that you were a powerful lord?"

I then winced as I stiffly sat down on the ledge of the rooftop, sorrowfully reminiscing of the days where the previous stunt would've of been as easy to me as walking. Alas! Times change, and although that power is not gone, it is hidden deep. Locked away, chained and suppressed. It was too dangerous, too tempting.

"I am!" Claimed the scarf, correcting itself. "But even I have someone, I must obey." He sounded sad as he stated the last part. I listened intently, after all, it wasn't easy to prod out any information out of this guy.

"So... why were you ordered to possess me?" I asked.

The scarf remained silent for a while before answering, "you really need to ask? You just ran up a vertical surface, using only your physical strength! And that's after you sealed away over half of your bloodline power! If you must know..." he hesitated slightly at this point, eventually he continued "... your father sent me to negotiate with you, also to test your strength. He wanted you to become his pawn on earth, his elite soldier."

I snorted, "and did you find my strength adequate enough?" I asked.

Now it was his turn to snort, "who would have thought a bit of probing would entice such a violent reaction!" He stated.

"But instead of taking that as forewarning, you decided to come back for more?!" I asked incredulously.

"Okay! I admit, I went a bit far... but you don't realise the temptation! The thought of being able to control all of that power! It was simply too much for me." And finally I seemed to have a vague understanding of the real situation.

I sighed and tried to get more information out of, however, he had fallen back into his usual pattern of avoiding my questions. I knew he wasn't lying, after all, although his kind love dishonesty, they sure do hate lies.

Soon, well over an hour had passed. I furrowed my brows. 'What the hell is taking them so long?'

*

I was huddled under some stinky old blankets, right in between my two comrades.

'Just find the demon... lure it outside... don't give away your identities... ugh! As if it were that easy! How the hell are we supposed to now which person, is in actual fact the demon in disguise?!'

I looked around sourly. 'Maybe it's easy for a master hunter like Luka to spot out the demon, but...' I was starting to realise just how inadequate a hunter I was.

Suddenly, a little red haired girl approached us. "Hey, I'm Leyla! Your new here, aren't you?" I nodded, horrified, 'to think a little girl would be in a place like this!' I thought sadly, 'she should only be nine years old.'

"Hello Leyla, I'm Emilie. What's a little girl like you doing in a place like this?" I asked, showing her worried expression. I felt Craig nudge me, but I ignored him.

Leyla looked sad, she the pointed at an exhausted looking woman lying quietly on the ground, "mummy got fired, then she couldn't pay 'Bill', and then she and I were chucked out on the street." Leyla gave me a teary eyed look, I felt as though my heart would break.

I wondered if should explain to her that, her mother probably hadn't been paying a guy called Bill, but in actual fact the house bills.

I decided it wasn't too important, 'she'll understand eventually...'

I looked sympathetically at the little girl, before suddenly remembering the mission. I thought back to Luka's words, but I simply couldn't stand the thought of leaving the little girl to such a cruel fate.

There was just one thing bothering me, "why do you and your mum choose to live here?" I asked curiously, I didn't know wether she knew about the dead bodies, so I omitted that part as to not panic her.

However it seemed to be unnecessary, as she seemingly immediately caught on, "mummy says that as long as we behave, it won't hurt us. It only killed the ones who were mean." Leyla said this with a solemn expression, an unusual occurrence on a child's face.

"It?" I asked.

"Mmhmm!" She nodded and let out a faint hum of agreement. "It is like our guardian!" She said happily.

I thought back to Luka's previous description of the demon, 'It's an abnormal lesser demon,' Luka's voice rang through my head, 'its behaviour and intelligence diverges of that, of a regular lesser demon. This particular type of demon has been codenamed: Shepard demon, for obvious reasons. Unlike most demons that are entirely and single-mindedly, focused on slaughter and destruction, Shepard demons like to hoard humans like livestock. They like to breed them, feed them, guard them and then finally reap them. They are far more intelligent and cunning than an average demon, and like to play mind games. Beware, once the demon notices you infiltrate it's nest, it will immediately try to incorporate you into the "herd". Each Shepard demon has it's own methods, however, they always personally approach their victims.'

I thought about this for a while, whilst looking over the girl in front of me, 'clearly the demon has this little girl and the others duped into believing it's their guardian, and it silences all protesters!' As I came to this conclusion, I was suddenly filled with a great sense of injustice! I was going to make sure that, that demon paid! But first I was going to explain to the girl why she shouldn't trust this "guardian" of hers.

If Luka knew what was currently going through Emilie's head, she'd be ripping out her own hair in frustration...