Tristan was in the zone as he used the seemingly never ending stream of Hunters to perfect his killing arts over and over again, with different forms and styles.
If at the beginning it was just beastly savagery painted in a gory red background, now it was masterful strokes of gore in crimson essence painted over a background depicting the nightmarish savagery of beasts and monsters.
But no matter how much he reveled in the feeling, he didn't allow himself to be intoxicated in it as he knew for certainty that a few specific people were waiting for that opportune moment to take him down once and for all, so instead he just played the part for as long as needed until they were satisfied.
His left hand ripped open someone's throat and sprayed him with the fresh blood which he gladly opened his mouth to receive.
Done with the sample, he picked it up and pulled it apart with just his physical strength.
In the eyes of the Calavera, this young teen was exactly the very picture they could imagine of a devil's child.
Up on, and hidden among the leaves, of a tree was Severo holding a rifle with its sights on Tristan who was enjoying his bloody feast.
"Muere, ser malvado." *Die, you evil being*
He took the shot. Not one, not two, not three, but four quick shots in succession at Tristan with all of them finding home in his body with how he staggered with every shot.
Every devil has a holy object that kills them without fail, and with vampires being the closest thing to the ultimate evil, they also had more than a handful of theirs and just like every other supernatural creature, forging it into a bullet was the most effective way to go about it.
"Mijo, he's d—"
Severo felt himself spasming violently on the tree but couldn't feel anything off in his body until he looked down.
From his neck down to his waist were blood spikes jutting out of every part of his torso, but the most surprising thing was the blood tail that had sprouted the smaller branches that turned him into a pincushion.
"–Severo…"
He heard people calling him but he couldn't pay attention to them as his mind was looking at the impossible scene of just how far the blood tail had to travel in order to reach him.
He could hear gunshots going off and some even hitting a few of the branches around him but he ignored all of it for the boy— no the being in front of him.
"—how?" He asked amidst his muddled brain.
"What do you think I did with all those blood I took from your men? I've had eyes on you from the beginning. I was just waiting for you to make your shot so I can kill you in the same time frame." Tristan pulled out two of his bullet magazines and took a whiff of them and scowled at the smell.
"Vervain. I was looking out for it the moment I became aware of a circle of Hunters. Don't worry, you won't value it in a few seconds."
Oh, that's right. He had numerous holes in his body, meaning he's going to die any moment from now.
'Mama, run. He's the devi—'
"Even drinking vervain into your blood. Fool." Tristan said and threw the shrunken body like a piece of disposable trash.
With their leader and future patriarch dead, the Calavera Hunters became increasingly unsure of what to do.
Tristan though didn't care about that and had already killed the guy closest to Severo and swiftly decapitated the one who had been shouting Severo's name. A good friend perhaps?
Someone shouted something desperately which spurred the remaining handful of Hunters to turn tails and swiftly kicked their retreat into gear.
Tristan wanted to let them go since this had been the objective from the start but when he looked at the bloody neighborhood, all he saw was an irrevocable war with the Calavera Family.
"Which means no need to be courteous."
From the few dozen men they came with, the ones retreating were less than ten in total, retreating in ten different directions. Had this been any other time, Tristan wouldn't have bothered except that now he did because he could keep an eye on all of them.
"Come." The first thing was fog flowing in from the nearby shrubs before the caws of crows became heard. "Keep an eye on all of them, and slow them down if you can."
The crows cawed loudly and flew in opposite directions to carry out his orders as Tristan went after his first prey.
...
"Is it… is it finally over?" Allison asked as the gunshots stopped, her answer coming from the shouts of retreat.
They were about to say their thanks when a sudden cold washed over them, making them shiver and look at each other in confusion as they all felt it.
The caws of crows drew their attention to Tristan who was off in the distance with a murder of crows surrounding him before they suddenly dispersed, with Tristan following after a certain group.
"What is that?"
"He's commanding the crows to track them. Don't ask me how, I'm just as clueless as you are." Malia winced as she looked over the dead neighborhood and the bodies littered everywhere.
"We'll need Tristan for the clean up to make it quick and to make sure no one knows about it." Chris remarked and stepped outside to examine one of the nearer and intact corpses.
Rummaging through the man's minimal effects, he pulled out a ring, a necklace and some unimportant passport photos.
He glanced at Victoria behind him and nodded resignedly, causing his wife to frown in apparent concern and also a flash of uncertainty.
Allison who was already feeling relieved that it was finally over glanced over with the edge of her eyes and saw the frightening figure of the Nogitsune just standing still and was fuming furiously.
–"Time and time again. He keeps ruining my games."–
The way it snarled sent a fearful tingle down Allison's spine, especially when it started walking in an inebriated sway towards her.
–"If I can't finish my game, then no one gets to play."–
"Allison, are you alright? You're shivering." Malia walked towards Allison who shook her head in panic and tried moving away from her. "Now you're worrying me."
To Allison, the black miasma leaking from the Nogitsune's mouth and its body, along with the gnarly voice it spoke with, made it looked like she was finally seeing the malevolence of the Nogitsune, and it frightened her to her soul.
–"Time is up, Allison Argent. Game is over."–
It grabbed Allison's head strongly and held her jaw in a harsh vice that left her mouth open for the black miasma to flow in, and then the cloth around its head started unfurling.
At the sight of that, Allison's heart froze.
She might not know why but her instincts told her that when it completely unfurls is when the girl known as Allison Argent will be completely gone.
Tears ran down her eyes and she stopped struggling which only served to make the dark spirit cackle loudly in mad mocking laughter.
While Allison was losing the will to live, on the outside Malia and her parents were panicking as her eyes had turned black and rolled into the back of her head.
"Allison, come on dammit! We managed to survive the night and you're suddenly pulling a timeout. Get the fuck off your high horse, Ms. Prim and Perfect." She yelled angrily at Allison but the girl remained catatonic.
How could she know that at this moment Allison couldn't find a strong enough reason to live so she just gave up. Well if she had known, it would have only made her more angry.
All her anger and frustrations at her best friend, along with the relief and dashed hope she felt after they made it through the storm of bullets meshed together and bubbled over the lid of her emotional control that it all just flowed out in one yell.
Malia's eyes furiously glowed red that her fangs too came out. "OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES, ALLISON!"
It was a shout mixed with an angry Alpha's roar, one powerful and pure in intent that it shook Allison's subconscious so roughly that it responded in reflex to Malia's shout.
Malia suddenly found herself in the woods behind her house but she either didn't notice or outrightly ignored it, none of which mattered as her eyes were currently on Allison's frame that was being possessed by the Nogitsune who was almost done with unfurling the bandages around its body.
"Allison!" She ran and ran but no matter how fast she ran she couldn't cover the seemingly unending distance between them.
That was when she smelt it; despair and hopelessness, pain and self-loathe, resignation and sadness. Allison had given up.
It was such jarring thought, one she never thought she would associate with Allison – someone who was equally as headstrong as she was if she wanted to be.
"You're giving up? You have nothing to live for anymore?" Malia whispered to herself in disbelief, completely dumbfounded.
"You're giving up?"
"After everything?"
"Just like this?"
"…"
Her eyes stared at Allison who was looking back at her with tears running down her cheeks, a silent apology in her eyes.
Malia saw red.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT? YOU FUCKING OWE ME, ALLISON. YOUR SORRY ASS OWES ME AN APOLOGY, BITCH!"
Malia herself didn't know when tears started running down her own cheeks. She couldn't even tell if her eyes were red because they shifted or because she was crying.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOUR PARENTS? THAT YOU JUST GAVE UP, AFTER EVERYTHING?"
The tears in Allison's eyes glistened even more but instead of sympathy, all it garnered from Malia was anger – at who specifically, no one knows.
"IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT ME TO TELL TRISTAN?" At this point she didn't even know what she was saying as she was just saying everything coming out of her heart.
"AFTER HE WENT SO FAR AS TO CARE FOR YOU MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE. YOU ARE JUST GOING TO DISREGARD EVERYTHING AND SAY THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING IMPORTANT TO LIVE FOR?"
"HOW DARE YOU, ALLISON?"
They both stared at each other, one glaring with tears running down her eyes while the other had wide opened shocked eyes with her tears having stopped.