Salt

Clang!

The cry of the heavy metal door closing shut made it seem almost as desperate as the simple creatures that closed them. 

Thud

A duller sound this time. The perpetrator? The bag, filled with random items and objects placed roughly in front of a burly old man, beard dyed white with age stress, and resentment but if you asked him he'd simply tell you he liked it that way. 

The old man opened the bag and rummaged through the bag quickly picking up each item and inspecting with a trained efficiency.

"Hmm, Good these fangs, tier 1 from the looks of it, will be usable as for the rest...the tech is old and damaged but maybe I can scrap it down for parts. The clothing will be handy especially with winter coming soon. As for this...." 

The words were directed at the man who had placed the bag as he took out the final item and placed it on the counter. 

"A magnum. The beautiful bringer of thunder and executioner of whoever holds it in their dominant hand. Ultimately..useless." 

The man stood silent listening as the old man continued.

"As you and I both know guns are...mostly useless on those things. You might be able to execute a tier 1 if you hold it point blank against its cranium but let's be honest by the time you're in that position your innards will just be nards" 

The old man was right these days guns were only really useful against other humans, for the formally inclined, as a paperweight or in the most dire cases, to be held against one's own jaw.

"I'll analyse the other things and let you know the details, for now, take this, [Fervour]" 

Grabbing the meal tickets from the old man [Fervour] headed down the stairs, passing an old colourful yet beat-up signboard that read "Desperato" 

Reaching the bottom of the steps [Fervour] scanned his finger and opened the 3rd metal door he had been faced with today, leading to the sunken city. A sunken city was the name for the type of frontier, humanity's last plea for survival, located underground. 

[ Location: Desperato

Type: Frontier

Population: 305 ] 

 Walking through the oddly bustling underground safe haven [Fervour] headed towards his home, number 3, located near the end of the main street. Normally you'd expect such a town to be all doom and gloom but I suppose people wanted any form of resemblance to normality that they could find. That being said, life in the frontier wasn't as awful as it might seem. Entertainment was readily available and with the dwindling population, there wasn't a housing crisis present. Most medicines were available and quickly manufactured so it wasn't as if people had to constantly worry about a health crisis. Not to forget one of the most important factors that prevented time from reverting back to the Middle Ages...a sewage system was still in place and functional. The sewage plant was located in a stronghold (frontiers above ground guarded by walls) so as long as it stands cholera is not a fear that needs to be had. In regards to the world above? The dangers tend to stay above and most people won't have to go as of the many professions in Desperato, huntsmen and scouts were in the minority. There were less than 20 hunters in total to be exact.

"""Its [Fervour]!"""

The sound of the yells disrupted his monotonous trek back to his home, annoyed at the extra human interaction but understanding he had a few seconds to spare [Fervour] turned to face the kids.

"How was the outside?" 

"Did you see any monsters?"

"Did you kill any!?!?!"

A relentless onslaught of questions, 1 followed closely behind by 3 more questions. The questions seemed endless until

"Okay guys calm down, [Fervour] can answer most of your questions later, im sure he's busy"

"Esmeralda." [Fervour] said, acknowledging the silver haired girl

"Welcome back [Fervour], I'm glad you are safe, how was the above?" Esmeralda asked quizically in a way not befitting of a girl barely even 12 years old. 

"The same old but I found something for you..." [Fervour] said reaching into his pocket and bringing out a container containing small pills

"Vitamin D tablets? Thank you!" 

"Has your fatigue gotten worse?" [Fervour] asked 

"No actually thanks to the tablets you have been bringing I've gotten quite a bit stronger" she replied flexing her bicep.

Esmeralda was one of the children under the care of the orphanage, a child of a doctor and huntsman. How she lost both is...tragic but I suppose tragedy is commonplace. As if luck wasn't cruel enough to her already she was born weaker. A perk of spending most of your life underground is the lack of sunlight which in turn leads to a whole bunch of fun effects.

"Is the sister home?" 

"Not right now, she went to the market to trade some of the tickets for ingredients, did you want to wait for her or for me to pass on a message?"

[Fervour] shrugged her 'no need' and left back on his trek home. 

"No fair we didn't get to play with him" 

The kids bickering slowly faded into the background.

Without a moment's breath wasted, [Fervour] fell into his bed. As quickly as he fell to bed he fell asleep. 

BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! 

Shooting his eyes open to the red siren...emergency alert. It hasn't been rung in years. 

Quickly, [Fervour] grabbed his new gun and his main weapon: Standard Issue Silver-lined sword. 

Yells of panic were clearly audible before he even opened his front door. Outside the people were running past towards the emergency holdout room. 

He scanned the crowd, none of the kids were present nor was the sister. Did they get to safety already? He wondered.

Thinking it best to not risk it, [Fervour] ran in the opposite direction to the crowd. 

Each house in the city had 3 colored alarms. The green light meant all clear.

The flashing blue light meant hide and keep quiet threat at the main door.

And finally, the flashing red alarm meant...Threat inside.

Running along the street the sound of the crowd grew quieter until there were only the steps against the pavement that could be heard. 

Calming his breath he tried his best to focus most of his attention on hearing, listening for the cry of a child, a breaking of furniture or a yell of a monster. Making it to the orphanage, it seemed empty, the body of a burly man lay on the ground, his name was Malik, one of the town grocers. Looking at the trail of blood he was trying to desperately crawl to safety. A majority of the monsters would kill and feast immediately so why did it let him live long enough to crawl. Why did it not feast on him? Why did it not follow after the crowd? How did the threat get in? 

CRASH! 

He heard the sound of breaking coming from the house behind him, he had run past it. Quickly taking out the magnum and loading the bullets, he tucked the gun close and tightened the grip on his sword. 

Even though most were mindless, the monsters knew to prioritise what they liked to eat most first. In this case...it had found itself near the home of its favourite meal. 

He carefully entered the house, furniture on the bottom floor had been clawed up and destroyed. 

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" 

The sound came from upstairs, the cry might've been human but the body the sound came from wasn't. Making his way upstairs, the creature slowly became visible. No bodies were found in the house so there are still probably survivors. 

There it stood, slightly taller than the average human, with a maw that opened 4 ways, claws each the size of small daggers, arms and legs muscular yet deformed and covered in fur.

There it was in all its glory, a werewolf.

It was hungrily clawing and banging a door as if it was being denied its most delicious meal. As [Fervour] stepped up one more step...creaaaak

The werewolf's ears perked as it quickly turned its gaze to [Fervour], each of its 4 pupils constricting. It was both hungry and frustrated. 

[Fervour] quickly pulled out a magnum and aimed down its barrel, by the time his crosshair landed on the wolf it had already crossed the distance between them, maw baring open it rammed into him causing a fire into nothing as they both tumbled down the stairs, [Fervour] placing the sword as the only thing between its teeth and his neck. Landing at the bottom of the stairs his gun fell out of his hands. He was pinned between a wall by the big ugly monster. Its breath still reeking of mindless slaughter. The creature pulled its head back to make room for a large swing of its sharp claws. Using this chance [Fervour] kicked out from underneath it whilst also swinging his sword at the creature's hand. Using the few seconds of thinking time he bought himself he looked around for anything he could use. The sword had cut deep into the creature's wrist, which now barely held on by a thread. 

"Disgusting" He muttered 

The creature once again lept at [Fervour], who quickly tumbled, dodging towards where the gun had fallen. The old man said it could kill at least a tier 1. It was mindless so it had to be one. If it wasn't this would be the day he would die. Picking up the gun quickly he took aim again. This time he managed to fire a bullet on target, the creature's shoulder was hit and a large chunk of muscle turned to mist. Still mid-air, the mist quickly returned to the area of impact. The creature fully healed the damage from the bullet. An unfair matchup.

He corrected his aim and fired another at the creature which was seemingly chuckling realising how in favour the fight was for it. The Bullet lodged itself in the side of its head before seemingly being pushed out. The bullets weren't silver. The creature charged again, [Fervour] stepped to the side whilst slashing, the slash wasn't deep enough leaving only a line along its neck. The creature changed its trajectory near the end of its jump by kicking off the wall. Quickly leaning back the claws ripped through the air above his face. The creature used the ripped-up sofa as a step and stopped itself quickly turning around to face [Fervour], before it could react, two slashes landed on each eye. It had been blinded. 

It yelled out its blood-curdling scream, slashing out frantically in front of it. Sniffing constantly for the human that blinded it. but it couldn't smell him? why, what had happened?? 

Then it felt it, Cold steel against the back of its skull, quickly turning to retaliate, it couldn't stop the inevitable. BANG! 

Another weakness' of tier 1 is that if its brain is damaged it can't regenerate.

Although it had been shot, the momentum of its last frantic spinning fist couldn't be stopped. 

It collided with [Fervour] who didn't have room to dodge. managing to block with his left hand, he was sent crashing against the broken-up furniture on the other side of the room.

His arm was numb but not broken (probably). The pain shook his whole body and the effects of his adrenaline started to wear off. He felt all the effects of the fight all at once. The body of the werewolf finally fell lifeless.

The problem that made these monsters an issue though wasn't just their regenerative abilities or superhuman senses and strength...

The body of the werewolf started to shake as its head ripped backwards and from its back, a flesh-covered snake shot out. As if under a spell the fresh corpse slowly got up again. It turned to face [Fervour].

They were simply Immortal  

A truly disgustingly unfair matchup.