THE PALE MOON LOOMED over the cityscape. Its soft light cast a gentle shade of blue over the buildings beneath it, the tops of the skyscrapers reached high into the sky as if trying to respond to the incandescent emotion felt from above.
I sat atop one of these glistening towers, taking in a moment of tranquility. I wanted to relish the moment because I knew it wasn't going to last for much longer. The city seemed to stretch on forever in every direction. The cold night blanketed the sounds of the city beneath me. Crying, laughter, and ramblings of the people who have lost themselves to the bliss of some narcotic.
Below, a group of rough-looking men entered the abandoned building I was standing on.
"Looks like that's the end of my peaceful night."
I left the beautiful scene behind me as I headed down to meet my next target.
Life in the city wasn't particularly easy for most. Many turn to crime just to keep up their sad excuse of a meaningful life. I really shouldn't complain though, it was because of people like them that I was able to make ends meet.
I spent my nights working as a bounty hunter, hunting people exactly like the ones I was complaining about.
I ran down the flights of stairs, landing as softly as I could to avoid being heard. The criminals I was hunting tonight were a group of low-lives going by the name Blood Ghouls. They had started to gain a reputation not too long ago because of a new pastime they enjoyed. They would roam the streets and find an unsuspecting bystander, sometimes it was a drunkard, others a skimpily dressed prostitute. They would take their victim somewhere to torture them. Their torture was brutal, leaving the victim abandoned to die of blood loss, hence the name of their group.
I reached the room they had intended to use before they did. I hid in the room's darkest corner, waiting for the ideal time to strike.
I could hear them laughing as they entered the room. There were five of them, the biggest holding a man, who was far too drunk to understand the gravity of his situation, over his shoulder.
"Throw him down over there!" One of the men shouted.
He must've been the ringleader. I could tell by how ugly he was.
He wore a deep red leather jacket that was tattered all over, with hair to match. He wasn't the most muscular of the group, but he wasn't small by any means. Either arm had curse words painted across them. He had a series of lines tattooed across his right forearm. This must have been his kill counter. There had to have been at least thirty lines.
They threw the drunkard on the floor as he let out a yelp.
"This is how it's gonna' go, old man. You're gonna' cough up all the credits you got, and maybe we'll let you go."
Although the ringleader said that I knew it wasn't true.
"P-p-please!" The drunkard stammered, "t-t-take it all!"
The drunkard threw out a mix of iron and copper credits on the floor in front of him. One of the men leaned forward as if to get the credits but used his knee to slam the man's jaw knocking him over. The gang laughed hysterically at the man as he soiled himself from fear.
"That all you got!?" The ringleader shouted as he shoved his foot into the drunkard's stomach.
The man held his stomach as he curled over in pain.
That kick must have been pretty hard if he felt it while being that drunk.
The criminals continued their hysterical laughs as they each took turns beating the man. I couldn't bear to keep watching.
I slowly pulled out one of my ether blades and held it at my side. The blade itself was only a little longer than my forearm, but they suited me well. I stood up and slowly walked out of the darkness where they could see me.
"What do you want, you piece of trash!?" the ringleader snarled at me.
Criminals like this didn't deserve a response, so I ignored him as I slowly moved in closer. I could see one of the men start to tremble.
"B-boss," he shuddered, "ain't he that rumor that's been goin' round? The one about the masked hunter?"
"Rumor or not he's ruinin' my fun" the ringleader snarled while pulling out a small dagger.
I slowly continued toward them as I ignored their idle chatter.
The man fell back as I inched closer, fear gripping him with every step.
"He's the Faux! I heard about that mask and those markings, the ruthless hunter that's been goin' round killing criminals! He even got to Tord's gang!" He shouted as the fear made his teeth rattle.
The ringleader growled while pointing his blade toward me.
Looks like I had made a name for myself, although the rumor had gotten skewed. I didn't just kill any criminal, I still had some morals. Either way, it wasn't about to change what was going to happen.
I swiftly dashed towards the ringleader, holding my blade tightly in my hand. I decided to take him out first in hopes that his goons would fall more easily into submission. The ringleader swung his dagger in a wide uncoordinated attack for my shoulder. I shifted my body and dodged while bringing my blade up to his wrist.
He screamed in agony as I sent his right hand flying into the air. He dropped to his knees, blood pouring out of his severed wrist. I could see the panic spread across the faces of the rest of the gang. Most were frozen in silence, but the largest of the bunch decided he would take me out. I kicked off one of the other men to aim my momentum toward the giant gorilla. He stepped into a wide stance and placed both of his arms in front of his face. But that wasn't where I was aiming.
With one fluid motion, I dashed between his legs slicing off one of them just below the knee. I leaped back onto my feet as he tumbled onto the floor. He fainted almost immediately. I don't think he'd ever suffered any real injuries before this, so this was quite a shock to him. As I stood up, I plunged my blade straight into his heart. That takes care of one of them. I looked at the last three remaining murderers.
Breaking free of the fear that had them frozen in place they all surrounded me. But this was actually more beneficial for me, I could get them all in one clean strike. They all nodded in unison and lunged forward at me with small pocket knives. Their movements were incredibly slow and lacked any kind of skill. Chances were they had never been in any real fights but had only ever picked on people weaker than them. I thrust my blade into the throat of the one straight in front of me. I spun around and used him to knock one of the other two down. With the blunt end of my blade, I knocked the last one unconscious. He wasn't a part of the original bounty, tonight must have been his initiation into the gang. I didn't want to shed the blood of someone who hadn't been a part of their brutal killings. Plus, I wouldn't get paid for it.
I turned to the one I had knocked over as he was scrambling to get back to his feet. I sunk my blade deep into his back. I didn't enjoy killing, but if I let any of the others off, they'd go right back to killing innocent people. If the bounty had said I could bring them alive, then I would've tried to. But I didn't get to decide that.
"S-stop right there!" The ringleader screamed at me.
He had managed to get a hold of the drunkard and now was using him as a hostage. His face contorted with rage. With his left hand, he was holding his knife against the drunkard's throat. The drunkard sobbed uncontrollably.
"If you don't wanna' see him die, set down your knife and walk on out of here."
He's got tenacity, I'll give him that.
I was too far away to make it to him before he could slice the man's neck wide open. I dropped my blade and let it hit the ground. The sound of the ether blade hitting the hard concrete made an unusual squeal.
"And the other one! I ain't stupid."
Well, I had hoped he didn't see the other one, but I didn't want him to kill the drunkard, I wouldn't get a reward for it. I pulled it out and dropped it onto the floor next to the other one.
"Good boy. Now kick 'em over here." He grinned with yellow teeth stained from all the drugs he'd been using.
I kicked my blades over to him. I hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would keep his word.
But I was wrong.
As soon as the last blade slid to a stop in front of him, he made one clean slice right through the drunkard's artery. His blood started pouring onto the concrete as the ringleader pushed him over.
The ringleader began laughing hysterically, dropping the drunkard as he bent double.
In his moment of ecstasy, I lunged forward with all my might. I hurled towards him before he had even realized I moved. My right fist slammed into the left side of his jawbone. I could have sworn I heard a large crack with the impact. He flew down onto the concrete with a loud thud.
I picked up my blades and slowly walked over to where he lay. He struggled to turn and face me but instead was met with my blade. I had plunged my knife all the way through his neck, from one side to the other.
I stared down at his lifeless body, his face no longer contorted from rage. He was still just as ugly.
Now that the job was completed, I needed to take back proof of the work. I went to each body and removed their cores from the tops of their spines.
Every person born in this city has a core implanted in them. This was a regulation passed by the rulers of this city. These cores have numerous purposes that the city abuses. It is also used for identification. While these cores can be modified, when they are first implanted, they release nano-machines into your body. This makes it very difficult to disrupt the identification process of the core. Basically, you can't hide your identity from your core.
Once I had collected all the cores, I needed to redeem my reward. So, I headed to the district guild to collect it.