In search of trubles

It was a normal day for Sascia, he was thirty-two years old, and worked in the military, at home, he already had a wife, and a two year old son waiting for him.

His work, was that of monitoring the gates and defend the civilians in case of an outbreak, however that was only in name, his actual work was registering wich awekened passed through tha gate, and, in case of an outbreak he would just die, powerlessly trying to struggle to stay alive.

Almost every day, he saw someone venture into the gate without ever seeing them come back, he always tried to warn them, but who would ever listen to someone like him.

Even if it wasn't his fault, all the deaths of the guys, sometimes even younger than him, weighted on to his shoulders making him unable to sleep the night.

As already mentioned, it was a normal day, he was just sitting in front of his desk, slowly sipping his coffee from his red cup, until, he saw something strange, a guy started walking towards him, well nothing strange for now, ~damm, he looks like the one from a couples of days ago~, ~ f*ck they are really similar~.

He grabbed the guest's awekened card, since his colleague, that was supposed to do it in his place, today was "sick" and had to take a day off work.

"F*ck", ~am i dreaming, maybe I'm drunk, no, maybe I'm straight up high, strange i don't remember assuming drugs~ were his thoughts at the moment, standing in front of him, was the same guy he didn't see coming back from the gate for two days, "weren't you dead?!" he asked with a shocked tone while raising his highbrow as high as his voice tone.

Bruno, standing right in front of him answered with a confused voice:"excuse me, WHAT?!"

~Oh, damm, i think last time i just ran home as fast as possible to get to bed, and,

with the dark, the guys in the outpost didn't see me come back and just took me for dead~, bruno, quite embarrassed, started to sweat and then said:"oh yea, sorry, last time something urgent came up and i had to leave in a hurry, since it was nighttime, you must've missed me while i was rushing out".

Sascia watched him with a piercing gaze and replied:"mhhhhh, well it's all good since you're alive, still, next time, remember to warn us when you exit the gate, or else, you will be taken for dead".

~huff, that Giulio guy sure is strange~ muttered sacia in his mind.

Bruno, was now in the gate for the second time, and, knowing what was waiting for him, he took out his dagger before venturing in the endless fog.

Judging from the terrain, and the monsters elements, he already had an hypothesis about what the boss monster could be: a bludnik.

According to the slavic mythology beliefs, the bludnik was a demon spirit, that often manifested as a gnome, he led his preys into his abitat, a swamp, and then attacked them while they were lost and confused, it fit the description perfectly.

After about thirty minutes, he found himself surrounded, this time, he could hear way more of them even if he couldn't see them.

This, gave his theory another strong point, since unintelligent monsters like the hauks would never wait so much to regroup, and, they would just attack at first sight, someone must've been behind their movements.

This time he was way more experienced at handling mana, and, thanks to the mana conductivity of the dagger, it took him less than a minute to imbue mana on his dagger, and slaughtered about a hundred of them.

Seeing that the boss wasn't showing any intetion of coming out and battle anytime soon, and was just waiting for him to tire himself out before attacking him, Bruno dismissed his aura and continued slaughtering them with his bare strength,

Even though their skin was resistant, his high 8th rank body coupled with his new blade just tore them apart like paper.

It only took ten minutes for him to finish his work, and, at the end, he found himself sitting on top of a pile of bodies.

The smell was unbearable and the dark purple blood flowed down from the bodies, as rivers descending from a mountain.

It was at that moment, that a dark silhouette appeared in the not so distant fog, it was quite skinny and about a hundred and twenty cm tall(about 4 feet)

When it finally came in the light, Bruno immediatly recognized his opponent, as he predicted, it was a bludnik.

His black skin camouflaged in the blinding dark of the swamp, on his head, were attached a pair of gogles kept toghether by a brown bandanna, he was also wearing a single piece of clothing that looked like a rag.

He slowly walked towards Bruno, getting closer and closer, before stopping about four meters(13 feets) away from him.

It was a moment full of tension, they both glanced at each other, one while standing on his feets, waching up, the other while sitting on a little hill of bodies, watching down.

Bruno started enveloping his dagger with mana, while the bludnik, covered his dark wooden hammer with a pitch black veil, it wasn't mana, he could probably only do it thanks to a skill.

They exchanged one last gaze before sprinting one towards the other, the hammer and the dagger were about to collide, and, in only a blow, the outcome of the battle would become clear.

….