The pair charged through the forest, the smaller of the two nimbly dodging through trees and obstacles while the larger tramped everything in its path underfoot. Red compound eyes narrowed in fury as it tracked down the black and white mutt. They shined in the light like gleaming gems filled with fury.

Finally, the game of tag between them came to a stop as they burst out of the tree line and into a clearing. Seeing the Husky collapse onto a large log in seeming exhaustion a wicked grin grew on its fanged face. It slowly stalked forward upon its helpless prey with maddening glee, yes, it was going to enjoy ripping apart this wretched hound that dared to attack it.

However, as it got closer it noticed something strange. There was no fear in those blue eyes as they stared at its approach. No, in fact, there was only boredom and a hint of mock. For a brief moment a flicker of apprehension filled it, but it was far too angry to care anymore. What need does it have to fear from such a small and weak thing?

With a bloodthirsty roar, it pounced towards the dog, seeking to tear its head off in one blow.

The never made it even close. As soon as it was within 3 meters of the log the ground beneath it collapsed!

The last sight it saw was blue orbs full condescending mirth and a playful wave before everything turned black, large twisted metal spikes acted as spears and skewered it within the hidden pit trap. It was shoddily made, but the creature's immense size and weight acted against it.

"Good job, Woof."

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"Another one? Seriously? How the fuck did you manage to kill this thing?" A guard with a rifle asked in amazement as he stared at the lion-sized creature lying dead in the back of an old pick up truck. This was the 4th one thing week that the kid everyone called the hunter managed to drag back. At first, he scoffed at the title, but after seeing one monster after the other being hauled through the gates he found himself agreeing. He wasn't sure what was scarier at this point, the monsters in the forest waiting to rip him to shreds, or the killing the monsters.

"It's pretty simple. Just took a good old fashioned pit trap, these things might've evolved to be big, but they're as stupid as ever." Charles laughed as he rapped his knuckles against the thing's head. The guard shook his head in disbelief.

"Only you would think to use a pit trap on these things."

After all, ever since the Message from God a few months ago, the world has been thrown into chaos. Animals and plants started mutating into monsters, tears in the sky pouring out creatures of nightmare. Everyone thought it was the end of the world. An emergency meeting was held by the world leaders and eventually, every country in the world joined forces to create The World Alliance to defend against the hordes of unknown. Every country that still existed that was.

Bullets rained from the sky in an endless torrent the first month. The U.S's policy was simple: If it moves, it dies. Most smaller countries without a strong military or those near the coast were obliterated within days. Southern Africa and areas with a large amount of wildlife were turned into monsters nests. Those not in the U.N suffered crippling damage as they ignorantly refused help. Russia was the first to use humanity's ultimate weapon, Nuclear bombs.

It managed to clear out swaths of the monster tide, however, a terrifying revelation was discovered that day. The remnant radiation gave birth to some terrifying monsters far above what had been previously observed. As the weeks went by, humanity managed to observe the creatures and released the information to the public as the military could not protect all regions, the people would have to fend for themselves. Most monsters provided highly hostile to humans and manmade structures and with the fact that anything besides the weakest of them was immune to conventional injuries such as bullets, humans quickly found themselves at the bottom of the food chain for the first time in millennia.

Which is why it was all the more impressive that a boy and his pet dog could manage to take down such a thing even if it was one of the weaker species around. Even most armed grown men would piss their pants when faced with such a beast that wouldn't lose out against a lion. 

"Well, I won't delay you anymore, go ahead bring it to Dr. Minamoto."

The guard stepped aside to let the boy, no, young man pass through. As he silently watched the truck drive through the entrance his grip tightened against his Ruger American hunting rifle, taking small comfort in the security he felt in the polished wood handle. Yes, watching the sunlight gleaming off those bloodstained claws and alien insectoid eyes, he knew he would've been on that list of men despite having such an advantage against the boy's bow.

A bitter smile crossed his face as he turned back to face the forest, eyes alive and full of alertness. He really was a useless man it seems, relying on women and a kid that was young enough to be his son to survive.

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The beat up truck drove on a beaten dirt road. As Charles looked out the open window he still could hardly believe sometimes this was real. Everywhere he looked there were people milling around hard at work to survive. Most of them seemed to be sitting outside small huts made of twigs, working on making clothes or helping prepare dinner. Hopefully, the thing he brought back was edible, they hadn't meat in a while because the game around here was far too dangerous, and while he was good, he could hardly provide for over a hundred people by himself.

They have taken to calling themselves, Artisans. They mostly helped make everyday things for people and were entitled to the minimum amount of supplies the village had, but it was far safer than Hunters like him who had to brave the dangers of the forest, of the gatherers which had to either roam the outskirts of the forest or scavage from the abandoned cities. He had actually come from a nearby town, Summerville. When the monster outbreak started, the monster rampages hit large cities and population centers first. Smaller towns and communities like his got off relative well off. After learning that they seemed intent on destroying artificial structures the town committees decided to branch off into smaller groups and take their chances on rebuilding elsewhere.

His seemed to have a higher ratio of children and elderly than the others, but he didn't mind. He chose to join because he owned some people here. He had lost contact with his father who was serving in the military, while his mother had died when he was a kid. It was only him and his sister, Lily, now and she had been taken care of by his father's friends during the chaos. 

"Hey, look! It's Charles!" 

"Woah, what kind of monster is that? It's Huge!"

"Amazing..."

Poorly hidden whispers were heard as he passed them by, at first all the attention made him uncomfortable, but he was used to it by now. The only reason he was "parading" the body by using the main road was that he knew the kids would enjoy the excitement and it would help calm some of the fears the villagers had. Humanity wouldn't go down without a fight, we weren't helpless yet!

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He parked the old trunk to the side of a small house. It was strange as it was the only one made of mud and had an actual door. That and the fact it was at a far off corner from the other houses in the village. Charles knocked on the door twice and just as his knuckles left, it swung open with a bang.

"Well, well! If it isn't the "Great Hunter", I'm honored that you've come to grace my humble self with your presence." The woman who opened the door placed her right hand over her well-endowed bosom, just above the heart, and gave an exaggerated bow at the waist. It didn't help hide her shit eating grin.

"You may rise," he replied in a pompous tone as if an emperor giving leniency to a servant. They stared at each other for a few moments before bursting into laughter. He took in the sight of her, Cassandra "Cassy" Fairchild, his best friend since high school. She was wearing a blue nurse scrub and white gloves stained in blood. Her blonde hair tied into a messy bun while blue eyes peered at him from behind thick red-rimmed glasses.

"So" She stretched out the word in a sing-song voice, bouncing on the heels of her feet in excitement, "Whatcha got for me to play with today?" As if a kid on Christmas waiting for a new toy, rather than the corpse of a man-eating monster.

"First of all, it's for Mr. Minamoto, for important research purposes" and maybe Dinner... This was left unsaid of course "Second, I haven't the faintest idea of what this is. Nothing like it has been posted on the World Alliance Bestiary either, so hopefully, we'll be the first report it and claim the reward."

After realizing the truly enormous amount of new species growing every day, the government realized it needed the people's help to gather data on these strange new creatures. Hence they've offered rewards to those who can capture, research, and record them. All the information are then compiled onto their website so that people all around the world can access the data and better fight back against the growing monster threat.

Considering he could injure the thing with regular bow and arrows it was just a low-class monster, not worth much, but the information was still valuable regardless. So far he had earned quite a few "merit points". A type of universal and special currency that was in the process of being implemented. He didn't have a clue how much 350 was worth, but damn if it didn't feel awesome watching it bump up every now and then after he brought home some weird critter.

"Yo!" A loud boisterous voice caught their attention. It was a tall man in a white tank top. His hair was dyed a neon green in a crew cut, he was a bit over 6 ft tall with bulging muscles and a piercing on his left lobe, and cuffs around his right. He had a necklace made of rope cord and the fangs of various monsters he has hunted. Over his broad shoulders was a long spear, the tip had recently been replaced.

Gone was the heavy layers of ducktape and kitchen knife, now it was replaced by strands of vine-rope and a jagged black shard. It was larger than his palm and no doubt weighted a hefty amount when the length of the shaft was taken into consideration, yet the other man twirled it with ease in battle. He was Shawn Thornton, one of the best Hunters in the village. He called out to them while sitting on a large log.

"How did your trip go, caught anything good?" He waved his right hand that was laying on the log to reveal blood, before not so subtly shifting to unveil the fact that it wasn't a log at all.

"A snake..?" Cassy whispered in slight awe. The thing was so huge! It must've been over 25 feet long. As someone who was aiming to become a biologist technician and researcher, nothing fascinated her more than figuring out how such a thing was possible. Nobody could blame her, because it wasn't every day that a member of the Thamnophis sirtalis grows to such immense size. How the hell did a garden snake turn into such a beast? She couldn't wait to dissect it and find out.

"Python, to be exact" He pointedly ignored the slightly creepy look on the "Mad Scientist". She was really hot, but damn did she scare him at times.

As a wise man once said, "Don't stick your dick in crazy."

Truly words to live by. The hunter gave a large grin while staring at Charles and it was all teeth, the challenge clear in his eyes. Honestly, Shawn was a swell guy, funny, nice, handsome even. Unfortunately, he suffered from "Chad-syndrome". Everything has to be a competition to him, it is actually quite annoying having a self-proclaimed rival. The worst part was... He was great with kids! His sister loved playing with the dude, the grass haired bastard! He was so not bitter.

"How about you just hand over your title to me? After all, I'm pretty sure this thing beats anything else we've ever hunted." He eyes were sharp and fierce, not losing out at all to any wild animal, as he knocked his knuckles against the side of the beast, a solid echo was heard as if he was rapping against wood rather than flesh. How hard were those scales? They looked so thin and yet clearly they were powerful. 

The younger boy scanned its body over briefly wondering how Shawn even managed to kill it. Its body seemed to be miraculously intact. Not a single blemish on to be found on any of the scales. He inched closer until he found the answer in the form of a bloody eye socket. A blow through the eye and directly to the brain then? He had to admit, the skill and courage it took to do something like that were worthy of pride and admiration. He had just opened his mouth when he heard a familiar bell-like voice coming from inside the mud hut.

"Shawn! Shawn! Look, I did it! Here, this is for you." Lily came running out holding on to a poorly made crown of flowers and presented it to the man. His gaze instantly softened and he bent down so that she could put it on his head. It had flowers sticking out vertically here and there. The random mess of colors was actually quite ugly, and combined with the fact that his hair was already green it looked as if wildflowers were sprouting out of his head. Charles couldn't help the pang of envy he felt for it.

 "Wooow~! What's this?" Unlike other kids her age, Lily was a brave one and didn't shy away whenever the hunters brought back their preys, in fact, she was brimming with curiosity and even came closer to inspect the dead snake.

"We've decided to name it an Earth Serpent, isn't it cool?" He answered with a smug grin, just begging for Charles to wipe it off via fist to the face. "Do you want to touch it? Don't worry, it is safe, the thing has been dead for some time."

"Can I?!" She practically bounced when he gave her permission to touch the cool snake thingy. He ran up to the thing and reached out, however before he touched it her small face scrunched up in thought before she hurried away towards a tree towards the side. The trio watched her in confusion, but she quickly came back with a beaming smile, waving a small stick she had picked up as if a holy sword as she prodded and slashed at the "Evil Dragon."

It was as adorable as it was oddly disconcerting that such a small and young child was having fun basically beating on the corpse of a monster. She was having endless enjoyment just poking it from all angles, the sheer happiness radiating off her made them hold back from saying anything even as she stuck her weapon inside its nostrils. They'd let her have this, after all in such hard times it was rare to see such simple joy, her laughter was a refreshing breeze.

However, how could Charles stand to let someone one-up him? Especially in front of his sister?! Where would his pride as a big bro go then? So he sneaked towards the truck and with Woof's help, they managed to drag the Cat-Bug's body so that it laid limply next to the building. He cleared his throat loudly to get their attention.  

"Lily! Do you want to see the surprise your big brother got you?" 

"Huh..?" She tilted her head in befuddlement. It wasn't her birthday yet, however she hurried over regardless. She was never one to say no to presents or surprises!

"Watcha get? what is it? What is it? Tell me, tell me, tell me" She tugged on him insistently, but rather than get annoying he would felt a fondness for the little squirt that barely reached his hips. He went down on a knee to and mock-whispered to her, "Do ya really wanna know?"

"Yeah! Yeahyeahyeah!" Her head nodded rapidly like a woodpecker and he gave a soft laugh before moving aside and revealing the lion-sized monster he had placed just out of her sight. Shawn openly gaped at the sight of the girth of the thing. It must've weighed half a ton! While Cassandra only gave a sharp gasp before crackling at the fact that she would also get to "Play" with it after Lily was done.

She barreled into him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He hugged her close to his chest, his right hand ruffled her hair. 

Little did she know that as she leaned into his embrace, that same hand slowly flipped Shawn the bird behind her back.

Suck it, Moss Head.