It is unclear whether the medic really felt intimidated or simply didn't want to continue the unnecessary quarrel any longer, but overall, he actually yielded to Vince's demand. Without as much as another word, Henri hung his head low and stepped aside, leaving the clinic's door wide open.
Identically, the Hound passed right by him, forbidding himself from even a moment of further delay. As he was making his way back to the main lobby, however, he was appropriately made aware that his act sparked from overconfidence.
'Damn it.'
Vince cursed, feeling his head get light and steps all wobbly. Not without difficulty, but a second later he managed to stumble closer to the wall and hug it to avoid falling once again. The enhancers were capable of great things, but it seemed like the young Hound underestimated just how long he would have to wait for them to take full effect. Still, in for an inch meant in for a mile, and as such, Vince stubbornly pushed forward and eventually dragged himself to the reception desk.
"Sir?! Are you alright?"
In a worried tone, the priestess asked him. Reflexively standing up from her chair and extending a helping hand forward. Even now Vince did not take it. Instead, he just leaned himself slightly against the desk and tried his best to appear as if he was only a bit tired.
"I am, thank you"
He answered, giving the lady a friendly nod and a soft smile.
"The medic informed me that a new set of armor should be issued to me here since my last one was allegedly damaged beyond repair. Is it true? If so I came to collect it."
"Yes, it is here. Back in the storage room, but…"
She paused for a second, unsure if she should just act as if nothing is out of the ordinary and let the Hound follow through on his orders, or speak out her concerns. It was nowhere near the first time she saw someone in a similar state. She knew very well that thanks to the enhancers, Vince would be back to working condition shortly, but she was well aware too, that this would only be a temporary improvement.
"Excuse me Sir if I'm stepping out of line, but are you sure about this? Shouldn't you rest a bit longer, before heading out again?"
"I appreciate your concern, but there is no need to worry about me."
The priestess frowned, seeming not all that keen on accepting such shallow vouch. Still, making it harder for Vince to rejoin the hunt could technically be considered as an act of insubordination on her part. Leaving the clinic at his own volition meant that the Hound was once again considered ready for deployment. On paper then, trying to make him stay now would be the same as persuading him into disobeying an order.
"Wait here Sir. I'll get it for you… Keep in mind, however, that I warned you."
She sighed, turning gracefully on her heel and stepping into the storage. Shortly after a brand new set of armor was laid on the desk, right in front of Vince. Feeling better with each passing minute, he wore it rather quickly and stretched out a little. The leather was a bit stiff, but outside of that the armor fitted perfectly, and getting accustomed to it should take no time at all.
"I will sister. Much obliged."
He expressed, making a few final adjustments to the equipment and taking the first step toward the ornamented doors.
"Wait! One more thing!"
The priestess stopped him promptly, handing out a letter to the Hound.
"New orders."
She added an explanation, as Vince took a step back to take the paper and give it a quick read. Already familiar with the parts concerning the Beast's ability, he could skip over them and get straight to the main point.
The contents were mostly what he expected. Lockdown bells were tolled throughout the entire Bastion and headquarters in districts all the way up to the Outer City were ordered to mobilize. Above that, each leader was temporarily granted full authority and clearance to disperse his or her troops in whatever way they saw fit.
Although partially demanded by Zachary, the decision to extend the hunting range up to the Outer City seemed a little blown out of proportion. With Cathedral Ward itself being the size of a small city, and each subsequent district only growing bigger and bigger, chances of the Daylight Beast slipping out into the third region were next to none. At the end of the day however, since the orders made no real difference to Vince's modus operandi, there was no need to think about it all that hard. The Bastion was big, way bigger than Vince could ever imagine, and the wasteland beyond it too, was twice or thrice the size. In situations like that he liked to come back to this fact. It reminded him that some things are not worth pondering and should just be taken at face value.
"Let the Gods guide your way, Sir."
Seeing him finish reading, the priestess bid Vince's farewell. Like the gentleman he always was, the Hound answered bowing slightly.
"And let them forever watch over your safety too."
After exchanging the last pleasantries, Vince eagerly stepped out through the doors. Since the enhancer's effects still didn't fully kick in, however, he remained unable to break into a sprint right off the bat. Trying to effectively manage his time, he instead opted to focus his hearing, and with it, try to pick up something to take as a starting point. At first, his efforts were fruitless, but soon enough, he finally caught a faint sound of quick footsteps. From this distance, it was hard to distinguish whether it belonged to a male or a female, but the tempo left no room for error it was definitely a Hound.
After roughly ascertaining the direction, Vince began moving, and with each step, his condition slowly came back to normal. The feeling of dizziness was gone and every other minute, he was able to speed up a little. Eventually, the enhancer effects were in full swing, and just a few minutes later the Hound managed to catch up with the overheard person.
"Wait!"
He shouted to the hunter, who in turn halted abruptly and looked behind. Recognizing Vince, he welcomed him with a nod and turned towards him.
"Oh, you're that third-gen boy. Good to see you in… manageable health. What are you doing here? Were you allowed to split off?"
Vince stuttered, as being asked something like that came to him a little unexpected. With who he got to stop though, he shouldn't be all that surprised.
"Y-yes. Yes, I was… Me and Clarissa were sent to the headquarters."
"Yeah, I think I see that… With all these bandages, I guess you were injured and are just now rejoining?"
"That's right Sir. After leaving the central I heard and followed the sound of your footsteps. Assuming that a lone Hound would either be Zachary or Clarissa."
"Sorry to disappoint kid. I sometimes wish I was Zachary or Clarissa too."
The person who Vince caught up to was Cain, the leader of the first generation, and by far one of the most intimidating figures among the Cathedral Ward Hounds.
"Unfortunately I am not, and as such, I personally can't have you running around on your own. I'm sure that Zachary would allow it, but since he's not here you know the drill right? Come with me for now."
Saying that, the man turned on his heel and steadily picked up the pace. Vince of course followed right after him. Cain was known for being an uncompromising leader and an absolutely relentless, brutal hunter. No matter how he worded it, disagreeing with him naturally wasn't within the range of options the young Hound took into consideration.
Following the menacing commander for quite some time, Vince had an opportunity to take a closer look at him. For someone with such a heavy reputation, his appearance could be considered a little deceiving. Cain was rather short, about the same height as Vince himself. He had a rather slim physique and a young-looking, pale face with light, blue eyes. His white, neither short nor long hair was neatly slicked back, but his armor on the other hand, surely saw better days. All in all, he didn't look all that different from the other Hounds, but still, his looks were not the thing that made him so widely known and respected.
"Excuse me, Sir, I should…"
"Drop the Sir already. We are hunters, not some church officials right?"
"Right, yes. Um… I'm not sure if it is a good moment, but I should inform you… I came across and fought briefly alongside two of the first-gens. Your subordinates."
"And from the way you stumble over words, I guess they didn't make it huh?"
Vince felt a lump in his throat and in turn couldn't bring himself to answer properly, giving out only an approving grunt.
"Know their names by any chance?"
"No… I apologize."
"Unfortunate."
After that remark, Cain didn't really comment on the matter any further. His monotonous, almost emotionless voice made it kind of hard to decide whether he was deeply displeased with the provided information or took it as just another bad news.
"You don't happen to know where Zach is don't you?"
Seemingly putting the last topic behind, Cain asked after a few minutes of silence. In the meantime, he slowed down a bit, to even out his pace with the other Hound.
"No, after sending us back, he gave chase on his own."
"Guess that's sensible. We only have a few more hours after all."
Since he suffered from chronic nightmares, Vince's sense of time was always a bit twisted. As such until it wasn't pointed out to him like that, he didn't really acknowledge how late it was getting. As of now, it was around 4P.M, meaning that at best the Hounds had five more hours before nightfall, when a new Beast would crawl out of the shadows and join forces with the mutation. All this gave a grim outlook on the situation. Being spread so thin all over the district meant that the Beast would be found soon enough, but whether someone who was actually capable of bringing it down was in range or not, depended entirely on luck.
Vince tried to focus his hearing once again. He and Cain made some distance now, so there was a hope of potentially picking up something new. Despite his best efforts, however, nothing came up. Maybe Zachary didn't overreact when he expressed the necessity of extending the hunting range, and the Beast did, in fact, leave the Cathedral Ward?
"Hear anything unordinary?"
"Not really. I'm beginning to doubt whether it is really still in the district."
"Well, if it somehow got out, then technically it's no longer our concern. For now, though, keep listening in."
Vince did as he was told, but to no avail. The only sound he caught once in a while was other Hound's footsteps. Yet, when he reported them to his current supervisor, he decided not to deviate from the path.
"What path? Are we heading somewhere specific?"
"Letters said that the Beast can use its blood to teleport around. Logically it should be restricted only to its own blood, meaning that the monster should reappear at the site where it was first spotted and fought. I verified that to be false, so the next step is to assume that the Beast can manipulate all of the Beast-originated blood…"
"The underground!?"
"Glad you follow, yeah. That's by far our best bet now, and since I'm sure Zach figured it out too, he must have headed to the closest passage. With that said we will make our way to the other side and if the Beast is really there, we'll close in on it."
Closely following the explanation, Vince gave it a few understanding nods along the way. The plan Cain laid in front of him made a lot of sense. He even took into consideration already, what conclusion would Zachary come to and predicted what course of action The Reaper would take. The first-gen's leader quick-wits were truly impressive, even more so, when his assumptions were proven right.
***
As Vince and Cain got close to the underground passageway, the younger Hound could hear the muffled echo of water, being splashed around in a rather unusual way. Either something was there, or some part of the Cathedral Ward suffered from a flood.
"I hear it."
"Bingo then."
Cain remarked enthusiastically. A spark ignited in his eyes and a wide grin appeared on his face. He picked up an even higher pace and stormed down the stairs. In spite of catching up to him before, Vince now found it hard to keep up. A shadow of doubt about whether he really is in a position to follow crept up his mind. Will he be strong enough not to weigh Cain down in the most important moment?
The underground, although used this way now, wasn't really a fully realized sewer system. Instead, it was a small, buried city, used by survivors from seven hundred years ago. Although it is now forgotten, it was once the very heart of the Bastion, the last safe place on earth, from where the civilization was slowly rebuilt.
Streets here were narrow, with water lazily streaming down all of them. The architecture itself was no less cramped most of the time, but a few points of interest such as the market squares or church plazas came with more open spaces. Exactly what Cain needed to use as an arena.
Making their way forward and slowly getting used to the unholy stench of sewers and beast blood, the hunters reached one such arena after a short while. They both overlooked the peripherals, making sure that the area could be safely used for battle and prepared for it.
"Here you filth!"
Cain shouted, drawing his blade and in one fluid motion using it to make a small cut on the palm of his hand. As he dripped some of his blood into the water, Vince raised an eyebrow and wondered.
'Some ritual of his?'
From what he remembered, Beasts usually had no sense of smell or hearing. They could see clearly in the dark, something that thankfully was inherited by the Hounds, but in the end, they were guided mostly by an exclusive sixth sense. A kind of presence recognition, that made the monsters aware of all humans within a certain range and could navigate them to the targets.
Time for pondering Cain's pre-battle customs, however, ran out quickly. The water on the streets stirred and from behind a ruined house, the Beast suddenly lunged towards the ecstatic hunter, letting with it an ear-shattering screech.
Cain bent his knees and quickly jumped out of the way. Although even pushed into defense, he somehow found a split second to land a blow of his own. A shallow cut appeared at the Beast's arm and black blood dripped from it into the water.
Standing before the Hounds again, in full, the creature was different. For some reason, it got roughly a meter taller and longer. The arms on the back looked even more massive and muscular while the front-reaching ones received a considerable range increase. Seeing this, Vince felt a chill run down his spine. Yet, it was far too late to back down. He was not allowed to perish yet.
The young Hound drew his blade and prepared for the grand rematch.
The lives lost… They will all be redeemed right here and right now.
'Cass, Zach. Give me courage.'