Braum had always felt like he was watched. Every second. Every hour. Every day. This feeling always stayed with him for the past few weeks. He could never shake off the feeling that someone, or something, was watching his every movement. But oddly enough, he never really felt any threat from them. Rather, he felt that he was being somehow protected by his mysterious 'watchers'. Nevertheless, the fact that he was felt like someone was watching him brought him extreme unease to the point that his rigid daily routine was being disturbed.

'It's that feeling again…Goddamnit, when will this end!' Braum screamed inside his mind.

Braum was on his way to the forest right on the outskirts of his hometown, Brent, in the kingdom of Lancester. Brent was the capital city, an economic and diplomatic hub full of activities. It was such a town full of happenings that occur every day

He was a Lancester-sanctioned hunter, someone hired by the government to protect the walls of the city from beasts and also bring back materials collected from them to be used in various manners. It's a glorious occupation which has brought fame and wealth towards the top hunters. As good as they may be, Braum was still stuck in the Bronze rank, the lowest rank.

His path today brought him to a cave that had been infested by Night Stalkers. They are ferocious, flightless, and terrifying, leaf-nosed bats that used echolocation to hunt their enemies. The Night Stalkers also possess two hands instead of wings that they used to catch their prey. They are quite small so even a farmer with a pitchfork could deal with them alone but their strength lies on the fact that they hunt in very large packs that could consist of dozens of them. In truth, you'd need an entire team of bronze-ranked hunters to deal with them without any fatal injuries so Braum was taking quite a risk here.

'That's because my friends didn't invite me…'

Braum was stood up today when he waited for his hunter friends near the city gates. After asking the city guard, he discovered that they found other party members and ran off on a mission before him.

'Is it fit to still call them my friends?... But still... I don't really have any other connections in the Hunter Association since I'm still low-rank.'

Braum sighed after contemplating his matters for a while but stood up from the ground with resolution in his eyes. He had arrived in front of the cave.

"Alright. I'm ready." He muttered before entering the cave.

Braum was wearing a mix of chainmail and leather armor. He looked like the typical low-rank hunter as the uniform was standardized and given for free by the association. The only thing unique about him was his weapon. While the usual hunters would use swords, bows, or daggers; Braum's weapon of choice was a one-handed Axe. That's not the only thing. In his left hand, long chains were coiling around his entire arm while his hand was holding a sharp spike. This mix of two contrasting weapons had made him somewhat famous within the low-ranks but nevertheless, he has a long way to go.

Braum entered the cave with small, silence steps. The Night Stalkers have very sensitive echolocation and could sense even the smallest vibrations. In fact, Braum figured he was probably already discovered and he just wanted to delay things a bit before he had to fight.

"Stealth is not really ideal with these beasts," Braum muttered.

He started swinging the spiked chains above his head and he suddenly shouted.

"Hey! Come here!"

SHRIEK

Right after he said that the sounds of dozens of Night Stalkers could be heard from the inner depth of the cave

Within a few seconds, the rumbling footsteps of the beasts could be heard approaching Braum. Finally, the night stalkers came into view. Dozens of them were running on two legs with their sharp fangs out.

SWOOSH

Braum threw the spiked chain straight towards one of the night stalkers.

"Get over here!" Braum shouted with power.

The spiked chain stabbed towards the night stalker. Braum pulled the beast towards him and then using the Axe on his right hand he swung it at the victim. The slash managed to split the beast into two.

The other night stalkers witnessed one of their own being killed and they went rampage. The speed of their approach was now even faster.

Braum also charged ahead, not willing to just wait for their inevitable approach anymore.

"HYAAAH!" He shouted a battle cry and started swinging at the night stalkers.

The night stalkers were vicious. They surrounded Braum completely and attacked every part of his body. If he weren't wearing his equipment, he would have probably been torn to shreds.

But Braum was not that shoddy either. He skilfully slashed his Axe and also used the swing of the chain to reach every night stalkers within 360 degrees around him. His movements were already quite amazing by Bronze-rank standards. If it weren't for the lack of strength behind each movement, he would have already been promoted to Silver.

It took Braum fifteen minutes to go through the dozens of night stalkers. Braum did not win unscathed. Some of the leathers in his armors had been eaten away. His chainmail broke which left which meant that few of the night stalkers bit his body as well. His face was bloody and full of scratches. Braum sat down and took deep breaths for another thirty minutes to rest before he could go on to the next step.

Braum sighed. "Now comes the tedious part."

He crouched down and started to dismantle parts of the night stalkers. He cut off the parts that would be sold to the association. The legs are quite a delicacy around these parts and the leaf-like flaps on their head that function as their echolocation device was used as an ingredient to a stamina potion.

In the end, it took him over an hour to carefully dismantle everything and keeping it in pristine condition. The blood on Braum's armor and face had already dried up by now which made him look like a zombie.

SCREEEEECH

All of a sudden, another screech of a night stalker entered the ears of Braum. This time, the screech was much louder and hallowing. Unlike the multiple layers of different screech like before coming from multiple beasts, Braum knew there was only one of them this time. And yet...Braum was now intimidated.

"It can't be…"

Braum prepared his weapons again. But now, his hands were already shaking as he was already worn out from the battle before.

From the inner darkness of the cave came a much larger Night Stalker. The fur on it was black instead of the usual brown. Its height reached Braum's; over 180 centimeters tall.

"An Arch Night Stalker!" Braum exclaimed in utter shock.

'There were no reports of this from the association…'

An Arch variant of a beast would bring its ability one rank higher than before. While Braum's previous feat was incredibly impressive as he could defeat the night stalkers which usually require an entire bronze rank team to complete; this was an entirely different category. It would require a team of silver rankers to take on an Arch Night Stalker.

"Fuck!"

Braum threw away the huge bag of dismantled night stalker parts as he bolted for his life. He knew this was not a battle he could fight. And carrying such heavy luggage as he ran was ill-advised.

SCREECH

The night stalker gave chase. Its speed was tremendous and within seconds it had caught up with the limping Braum. The night stalker bit the shoulder of Braum with a terrifying force.

"AAARGH!" Braum screamed in terror.

Braum took the Axe in his right hand and swung it backward. The Axe managed to hit the night stalker but it only managed to cause it to flinch. But a flinch was enough. It had loosened some of the grips on its mouth and Braum was released from its grasp.

"Uuurgh!" Blood started to gush out of his injured shoulder. The wound seems quite severe. Fatal even.

Braum stumbled back in pain. The Night Stalker knew it was going to win so it only walked slowly towards Braum as if toying him.

Braum scanned his eyes for any opportunities for escape he could use but he couldn't find any.

'...I guess this is it….' Braum lowered his Axe. 'I hope the children will be taken care of….'

Braum raised his Axe again and assumed a battle stance again. He was going to fight until his last breath.

"Bring it on!" Braum shouted.

SHRIEEK

The Arch Night Stalker charged forward. Braum was about to brace for impact when suddenly…

BANG

The Night Stalker hit an invisible wall. It became frustrated as it kept using its arms to bang on the wall. But the wall was too strong. Or rather, the wall was impossible to breach.

"W-what?"

Braum was struck with surprise as he saw a transparent wall forming in front of him. Braum noticed something floating above him.

"Huh!?"

He saw a white sphere the size of his fist flying. The sphere has a black hole smack dab in the middle which might be its eye.

PING

The white sphere's black eye turned red and a red line of shining light gushed out. The red line pierced through the head of the Arch Night Stalker.

SHRIEEEEEK

The Arch Night Stalker didn't even feel that it was about to die before suddenly falling down to the ground lifelessly.

Braum stared back and forth between the dead Night Stalker and the mysterious floating sphere. Braum took a few steps back in fear after seeing what the small sphere could do to a mid-rank beast.

"Y-you...are you an enemy?"

Braum asked the sphere with his shaking voice. The sphere as if hearing what Braum said turned towards him. Its black hole was now aiming at Braum.

Braum reflexively raised his Axe in front of his face to protect him as he saw what the red line of light could do to a being. But contrary to his expectation, what came out of the black hole was not the red line of light but rather rays of blue light. The blue rays went up and down Braum's entire body as if engulfing him before returning to the black hole.

"...." Braum did not know what to do so he still put up his guard.

PING

The sphere made a similar sound to when it killed Arch Night Stalker but oddly, Braum could tell the 'ping' just now was not harmful. Suddenly, the sphere changed into a liquid form mid air and shot itself towards Braum's right wrist with such speed that Braum couldn't properly react before realizing something was amiss.

"Shit!!! What!?" Braum saw his right wrist and hand was enveloped and it turned into a white gauntlet. The mysterious entity took in few seconds before covering his entire hand and formed a black hole on top of his hand.

PING

Blue light shined from the gauntlet's hole.

Night Stalker:

https://speculativeevolution.fandom.com/wiki/Night_Stalker