Alexander took a deep breath and filled his lungs with the hot smoky air engulfing the city of Sesia under his feet.

Of the most beautiful city in the continent of Etora, nothing but a torched wreckage had remained, and it was all because of the two-hundred-foot-tall daemon slowly making its way toward the center of the city.

Alexander started walking slowly and as quietly as possible using the torched buildings as his cover. They haven’t had a chance to test the abilities of this particular daemon and He didn’t want the big guy to notice him in case it had keen senses.

In his current condition, there was no way that he could defeat this monstrosity and the humans weren’t much help in these situations.

He tried to be on alert, but he couldn’t help remembering the last time he was there.

At that time, the soft breeze was filled with the delicious scents of food and the strong smell of oil paint. Sesian people were generally senselessly proud of too many things, but everyone would agree that their pride in their food, art and women was justified.

The memories of a wonderful young lady named Becca made his mouth twist into a snarl that experts might have called a smile.

As he was reminiscing about Becca and the small studio that she was staying at, a sudden shadow from the corner of his eyes made him jump.

Some larger daemons could make smaller clones of themselves as spies to keep an eye on things on the ground but that was very rare. It was the squad’s job to find these things out before he got here.

“stupid humans, they can’t even do such a simple job properly” he raged inwardly.

After a more careful look, to his embarrassment, he discovered a large mirror reflecting himself from inside one of the less wrecked shops.

As he got closer, he noticed a blood trail from outside of the store making its way to somewhere deeper inside. The hair products spilling around indicated the shop used to be some sort of beauty salon.

Whoever the owner was, didn’t abandon the ship since his half-melted torso was peaking from behind one of the chairs with a name tag saying “Hi I’m John” next to the pin showing he was the owner slash manager of the place. There was no sign of whoever bothered to pull the poor torso inside.

He reverted his eyes from the torso as he made a mental note of the possible acidic ability of the daemon and instead stared at his reflection in the broken mirror.

He loved this form. With those yellow cat eyes and body, twice the size of any normal jaguar with dagger-like teeth sticking out from his mouth and four twenty-inch horns on his head- two at the front and two at the back- he would terrify anyone.

He turned his back to the reflection and began stalking toward the daemon, glad that Liam was not there to see his previous reaction. He would never live this down. He used to fight daemons size of the cities with ease but now he was so on edge because of this tiny fly that he got terrified of his own shadow.

“This is all her fault,” he thought to himself as a growl escaped from his teeth. If only she hadn’t gone missing, he wouldn’t be in this mess.

As he got closer Alexander tried estimating the boundary of the daemon. Liam’s team had estimated it to be the whole city and he agreed.

That meant he had more space to hide but also that it was going to be more difficult to find the seed. Good thing Liam had ordered the evacuation of the residents.

During these types of missions, he preferred being in his Jaguar form and using his sharp senses to locate the seed, but it would’ve been a big annoyance if other humans saw him. It would be even worse if they saw him change form.

The last time a human saw him change his form, A new religion started with him as the god. They still worshipped Panthera the god of the wild in some of the smaller tribes of Ewor.

Those were the days. They gave him all the food and women he wanted, and he didn’t have to lift one finger. Having that experience he decided to let other humans see him change forms throughout the years only to be chased out and tried as a witch.

The pesky humans with their inconsistent annoying behaviours which didn’t make sense most of the time. He groaned in annoyance as the device around his neck started vibrating again. Among all pesky humans, this one was the king.

-“Black cat, this is the command center. Over.”

A voice talked out of the walkie-talkie around his neck. Below the device, a sliver chain holding a dull emerald ring rattled to his movement.

He hated the damn device. Not only did it constrain his movement and breathing, but also forced him to listen to Liam’s annoying voice whenever he wanted. As if he didn’t have to listen to it enough every day.

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Alexander looked at the daemon to see if it had noticed the sound. To his relief, this species seemed to not have sharp senses and its back was on him.

He decided to ignore Liam and started running-he wasn’t stupid enough to try contacting him twice in a row-, he was almost at the center of the city and could see the daemon more clearly.

The creature looked more hideous than he expected with slippery boils all over its body oozing green liquid which melted anything that it touched. He was right about the acidic ability.

He couldn’t see any arms or legs instead it seemed to be sliding on thousands of centipede-like legs. That was good news. The more a daemon looked like a human, the smarter and stronger they were and the harder it was to fight them.

-“Don’t make me go there, Lexy!”

The voice yelled at him louder. Alexander stopped on his track and hid behind a half-wrecked building and growled.

He continued growling as his paw turned into limbs, his tail grew shorter and the dark black hair covering his body grow inwards revealing an intricate tattoo on the left side of his chest.

under the light of the dancing fires, the complex lines and writings inside the circle came to life and looked as if they were moving and dancing to a specific rhythm.

His growling turned into swearing as his throat changed to that of a human.

-“Shut the fuck up! do you want me to get caught?!

He surveyed the daemon with caution. The creature was still far enough and seemed to not take any notice of him at all. He sighed in relief.

-And I told you that my name is ALEXANDER, not Lexy, or Lex or any stupid nickname you give me, little Lili!”

-“Stop calling me that!”

The voice responded with anger.

-“You started it, what do you want? I should’ve never agreed to wear this damn abomination. I’m tired of listening to your stupid voice”

Alexander said with annoyance as he pulled on the radio considering pulling and throwing it in one of the surrounding torched buildings.

-“You think I like talking to you?”

-“Spit it out already! You know I’m busy trying to not get detected by this huge ass Centipede”

-“That’s why I’m calling you, our people found the location of the seed”

-“People? I thought everyone had evacuated”

He groaned as he continued his transformation back into his human form.

The band that held the radio to his neck also tightened to fit his muscular neck again.

“They could’ve made it a little bit larger but no it has to fit my neck perfectly and throttle me to death,” he angrily thought to himself.

He was slower in human form, but it was worth not dealing with people seeing him transform. He took out the ring from the chain around his neck and carefully put it on his finger.

The green stone shined to a bright green colour for a second before turning back to the dull and lifeless emerald green to his disappointment.

-“They did. these found the seed by accident.”

Liam said proudly. During situations like this, the only thing he and his team were capable of was evacuation and observing boundaries. But this time they were assisting in the actual fight against the daemon.

-“You humans and your luck. What would you’ve done without it?!”

Alexander replied mostly mockingly. Teasing Liam was one of the few activities that brought him joy in this day and age.

-“By the looks of things, you’ll find that out soon.”

Miles away Liam winced at the remark he made himself. This was a touchy topic and as he expected Alexandre went quiet. His remark was hurtful but true.

According to his grandfather, Alexander used to be a strong warrior fighting daemons the size of cities with his lighting that lit the sky. But the recent diminish in the number of daemons had taken a toll on him.

If his search was truly fruitless like everyone else said he would eventually become as powerless as an ordinary human.

-Where is it?

Alexander asked stiffly, ignoring the comment he had made.

-What?

Liam asked taken back by his nonchalant tone.

-The seed, you moron

Alexander replied angrily.

Liam decided to let the insult pass him by. He was glad that his remark didn’t impact him as strongly as before.

The last time he made a similar remark was 14 years ago when he had just become the director of ADA and it made Alexander so depressed that he holed up in his room for weeks and ignored every mission.

-“Ah, yes. She was sighted on the roof of a restaurant called Beehive next to the Sennethon Tower, the big, tall tower on the west. It’s coloured in yellow and black like a bee and has hexagons windows”

Liam read from the report he was holding trying to extract the most useful information from the jumbled words written by frightened people.

-“What kinda weird building is that?!”

Alexander asked with curiosity.

-“Well, honeycombs are hexagons so…”

Liam replied without giving it much thought with a smile on his face. No one cared about just details except him.

-“I meant the whole building! What do they sell? honey?”

Alexander asked baffled.

-“Apparently, it’s a pizzeria.”

Liam replied trying to hold in his laughter.

Alexander hated things that turn out to be different from what they looked and Liam could imagine his face looking even more puzzled and furious than he sounded from miles away.

Alexander contemplated arguing more about how stupid this description was but decided to let go with a sigh. There was no point to it.

-“Okay, I’m on my way”

He looked around to locate the tower Liam was talking about.

Fortunately, the tower was still proudly on its feet as if making a last stand against the monster that was approaching it on behalf of the town.

“I need to find her soon,” he thought to himself nervously. He did a quick stretch and got ready to run toward it.

-“And Alexander?”

Liam’s sudden call made him swear under his breath as he stopped mid-sprint.

-“What is it now?”

He asked frustrated as he yanked on the band one more time.

-“Don’t forget to put on some cloth.”

Liam said unable to hold in his laughter.

Alexander looked down at his naked body in confusion. Between the awoken anxiety and the alert of the large daemon, he had become a bit of a scatterbrain.

Embarrassed about forgetting such a simple thing he touched his ring and thought about the clothes that he had placed in it previously. A simple black T-shirt, army trousers, and a black katana fell on the ground out of thin air.

After he put on the cloth and fastened the katana to his back, he ripped the radio off his neck and threw it into one of the burning buildings. As the radio made a satisfying cracking sound due to the heat, he started running towards the tower.

This was all her fault. If she hadn’t gone missing for such a long time, he wouldn’t be in this mess. He just needed to find her, and this time make her break this stupid pledge of his.

Then he could retire to one of the warm nice islands southwest of Vatia and spend the small amount of time he had left enjoying the beach life as the retired people did on television.

But first things first, it was hunt time and he was starving.