Hunting

The night in the metropolis was darker than usual today.

The moons were hidden behind the dark, thick clouds in the sky.

If not for the numerous sources of light in such city, it would have been shrouded in completely darkness at this time.

But even with so many lights, some places were still left barely illuminated, creating spots that one could easily exploit of the darkness to go with their nefarious deeds.

Such was the case for this specific alleyway that had only three souls in it.

One of those souls was surrounded by the other two...

Joseph was just a normal looking 15-years-old boy, a high schooler.

He had blue hair and dark eyes, a slim body figure and almost no muscle at all since he was more of a nerdy type that liked to alone.

It was all because of his social awkwardness, he was never good when talking with people. After some years, he finally isolated himself and learned to like being alone.

Today he got class until late on the evening, and when he was on his way home, he was surprised by some thiefs on the way.

He tried to run away but he was backed until he was dead end alleyway.

"Stop right there, punk! Or else..." One of the burly man said menacingly. He had a tall build and muscular limbs, which coupled with the scars visible on his body, give him a very threatening appearance.

Despite the flourish and lively showed during the days on the city, this concrete jungle was still filled with crimes, but they were kept in suburban and darker areas, mainly occuring during night time.

Joseph never expected that he would meet with this type of people this close to the city center, on his way home.

Fear enveloped his mind as he crumbled backwards to create distance between himself and the two menacing-looking ruffians.

Joseph searched his pocket and retrieved his wallet while dropping his backpack on ground in front of him.

"T-t-take it. It's all I have I have." He placed his wallet on top of the backpack and said fearfully with his quivering mouth.

The two ruffians looked at each other and sinisterly grinned.

"Hehehehe... Kid, you're out luck, being set as our target." The second man spoke. He threw a disdainful glance at the backpack and wallet before saying, "We don't your stuff, we want...you."

Joseph glanced down and saw the cold gleam of the steel blade belonging to the small knives that appeared in the hands of the two men.

"Ah..." Joseph flinched at the sight and backed away even more until his back met with the concrete wall that was blocking the other end of the alleyway.

"HELP!!!!" He screamed, "Somebody help!!!" Seeing that he had no way out, he decided to scream on top of his lungs.

He screamed until he lost his voice and his lungs felt like burning.

The two ruffians stayed rooted in their spot with an evil smile hanging in the corner of their lips.

As soon as Joseph stopped screaming, silence reigned over the dark alley.

This time he realized that there was something wrong.

Silence... not a single noise or sound could be heard beside the ones that he, and the two men, were making.

The eerie situation that he found himself into made his hair stand on it's end and drench his back with cold sweat.

With one quick look at the two ruffians, he realized that they haven't took a single step since he started screaming and they had evil smiles on their faces the whole time.

"Scream..." On the two men said, "Scream as loud as you can. No one will save you..." He took a step forward while toying with the knife in hands.

"No one will hear..." The other one said as soon as the first finished speaking with the smile on his face widening.

"No..." Seeing the opposition walking forward, Joseph tried to back away, but he was soon reminded that he was on the dead end of the alley.

He hurriedly looked at his surroundings, searching for something to defend himself or a way to flee from his situation.

As their prey fell on despair, the ruffians gleefully laughed while licking their lips.

This wasn't their first time kidnapping someone, they have done it before multiple times. Without a doubt, they enjoyed their job, they enjoyed being feared, the look of dread and despair in the face of their victims.

Unfortunately for them, this night they weren't the hunters, but rather nothing more than simple preys.

"Found you~"

"Who's there!?" Hearing a playful voice coming out of nowhere took the three people by surprise and one of the ruffians acted faster by looking for the source of the sound while shouting.

What fallowed his shout was silence and a sound of the cold wind passing through the dark alley.

"Help!!" Joseph that fallen in despair found some hope after hearing that mysterious voice.

The two men thought they were hearing things, but when Joseph shouted for help once again, they realized that someone really spoke and it wasn't only their imagination.

"I didn't expect to find two delicious souls this soon~" The voice sounded in the alley once again.

"Show yourself!" The man shouted as he readied his knife.

"Okay~" The playful voice said before gleefully laughing.

*Whoosh*

"Garlghl" One of the men opened his mouth only to release dying gnarling noise coming from his throat. It happened way too fast for their minds process what happened. With a white flash, a metallic object found its way and lodged itself in his throat.

Joseph and the other man blankly stared at the blood gushing out from the throat and the man slowly falling in the ground.

He tried to struggle at take out the knife in his throat, but it was all to naught.

As soon as the corpse hit the floor, the other ruffian woke up and dreadfully glanced at the corpse before scanning his surroundings.

He didn't see from where the knife came, he didn't even catch a single glimpse of the enemy before his brother was killed.

Seeing that he might die today, he turned around and decided to run for his life.

It was not worthy to continue his mission, his decision of running away would probably get himself killed once his boss get to know, but he rather run away now and possible live a little longer than to stay and immediately die.

"Leaving so soon~?"

The ruffian stopped on his track when he was just about the alley's exit.

He didn't have a choice but to stop because right in front of him, a figure appeared out of nowhere.

It looked like man from his figure, about 1.80 meters tall. It was wearing a blue jeans and black hoodies

But what really caught the ruffian's attention was the creepy white happy mask, the ones that usually you see only on theaters.

From the two sockets on top of the mouth, he was able to see a bright cyan eyes filled with bloodlust staring at him like he was his prey.

His back broke in cold sweat when his eye met if the other party's eyes.

"Urgh..." He groaned in pain as an invisible pressure fell upon him, completely locking him up at his place.

Even if he tried with his upmost strength he was unable to move a single inch.

"Heh~" The masked man inclined closer and took a close look at the burly ruffian, "You sure have an interesting toy with you~"

The masked man's fair hands extended towards the pocket in the ruffian's jeans and retrieved an object from inside.

"Now, now. What do I have here~?" He asked playfully while examining the strange looking piece of paper he took.

There some strange symbols and words written on both sides of the paper, upon closer examination, the masked man identified it as been the usual Ancient Tongue that Mages use to cast magic.

The word written was "Silence" a simple spell that almost every mage can cast.

It basically create an area of effect which isolate the sound created inside from the outside.

While the masked man also knew how to cast the spell, he never knew that something like that could be written in a piece of paper and used by people without a single talent for magic, like the ruffian in from of him.

"I don't think you mind me taking it, right~" The masked man casually asked while squinting his eyes and glaring at the man in front of him.

"Yes, yes...you can have it." That thing didn't really belong to him and if his employer get to know he gave it to some stranger he might die, he rather take the chance to give it away and live a little longer than simply to reject and die by the hands of the creepy guy with the happy mask.

"Thanks~" The masked man happily said, "You deserve a reward because of your decision~"

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dare." The man immediately rejected the prospect of reward, after all, all he wanted was to to as far as possible from this dangerous person, "You letting me go is more than enough for me." It took some effort, but he managed to lift his lips and form a kind of friendly smile.

"Tehehe~ I can't let you simply go, you now." The masked man said regretfully before smiling brilliantly, "But as a reward I will give you a quick, and somewhat painless death~"

"What-"

*Swish*

Without giving any more chance for the ruffian to speak, the masked man moved his hand swiftly and penetrated the ruffian's chest.

Blood gushed everywhere and drenched the masked man's full arm that entered in one of the chest's side and left on the other.

The hand in the other side was holding the ruffian's heart that was still beating.

"*Cough* You..." With his eyes wide open, the burly man coughed a mouthful of blood at the white mask and hatefully glared at the masked man before dying.

"*Blergh*" Joseph vomited at the gruesome sight of how the ruffian died in the hands of the masked man.

"Oh?" The masked man exclaimed and turned his sight at Joseph, "What do we have here~?"

Joseph instantly shuddered when the eerie cyan eyes behind that white mask drenched in blood focused at his body. He felt like nothing more than a powerless prey that fell in the sight of a predator. His body stopped moving and even his heart skip a beat.

The horror, the fear clouded his mind. It felt like a mysterious power was slowly corrupting his mind and soul.

The masked slowly approached Joseph with light steps.

"You're lucky, you know~"

The mysterious man crouched by Joseph that had fell in the ground by the sheer fear and pressure he was feeling from the man in front of him.

With his fair hand, the man pinched Joseph's chin and lifted his head so that their eyes could meet each other.

Joseph's hear instantly raced even more his eyes met with those pupils filled with bloodlust and the metallic smell of blood entered in his nostrils.

[Am I going to die here?] That was his only thoughts at the moment.

The masked man grinned when he saw how afraid the young man was of him.

"Don't worry, kiddo~ Your soul...is too pure and not delicious at all, I have no reason to kill you~." He said with a slight smile that was hidden by the mask.

With a swift motion, the masked man hit the back of Joseph's head, making him fall unconscious on the cold ground.

Done with the young man, he stood up and walked by the first ruffian he killed with a knife in the throat.

"Now~ Time to eat~" He said gleefully.

He crouched by the body and pressed his hand at the corpse's chest.

Then he slowly lifted his hand again, but now, there saw a small sphere of light that constantly flickered in his hand.

The color of the sphere was mostly grey, almost black.

It was the man's soul.

Undoubtedly, he had done a lot of terrible things for his soul to get this dark before he was even in his thirties.

The masked man clutched the sphere and it was crushed at small specks of grey light that swiftly entered inside the masked man's body.

As the specks of light entered in his body, he shuddered with delight and licked his lips.

"That was good~" He said with a obvious happy tone, "My first meal in ages~"

"Now..." He turned his head to the other corpse that has a gaping hole in his chest and the heart that was on the ground, "Let's get it done with this one as well~" He grinned.

His eerie laughed echoed throughout the dark alley before it died down and it returned to complete silence.