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Author's guide:
This is narration
This is a character's thoughts
"This is a character speaking"
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On the bloody midnight of June 19, 1789, on the south side of Eichenheim's residential district, a fairly large hunting party comprising of Black Heart hunters, soldiers and knights are on the look out for an Eldritch type Anomaly. Each step they take is methodical and careful to ensure maximum safety from the Anomalies in the area.
"Halt", Captain William Wolfgang ordered the hunting party when a horrific beast-like scream is heard.
The hunting party collectively crouches down and looks to the source of the scream. The experienced Black Heart hunters who have already become used to the violence and horror remain unfazed and focused, but the soldiers and knights, experienced in combat; they may be, but they are no Black Heart hunter and become unnerved by the scream, and so they whisper amongst themselves.
"What the hell was that?", a younger soldier inquired the hunters.
"Was that even human?", another soldier asked.
"You fellas think it was an Anomaly?", a soldier asks a Black Heart hunter.
"Quiet down, all of you", Captain Wolfgang ordered his men who did as was told.
Fredrick Grant, being one of the most experienced Black Heart hunters in the entire hunting party moves up to the front of the formation to talk to Captain William. The armored man nears the Captain, William Wolfgang, in a quiet tone, begins speaking to Fredrick.
"What do you think that was about?"
"I am not completely sure but I doubt it's anything good" Fredrick responds as he knelt down beside the Captain.
"Do you think it was an Anomaly?", the Captain inquires.
Fredrick thinks deeply for some time:
That could have been anything, it could be a human screaming in agony, either that or it's an Anomaly making some noise as bait. It could also be an Eldritch's trick.
Thoughts run throughout his mind, but would be interrupted by Henry Jaeger and another Black Heart hunter who knelt down with the two men.
"Fredrick, that thing might be a Siren" Henry says with confidence.
"A Siren?" Fredrick thinks for a few moments, "What makes you think that?"
Henry points to the Black Heart hunter beside him, "This here is Adam Smith, he's had experiences wiwitSirens before"
Fredrick looks to the Black Heart hunter named Adam smith to see a dark haired, blue eyed man in his twenties, he wielded a thompson and had a silver longsword on his waist, the man puts his hand on his chest and introduces himself, "I am Adam Smith, a Black Heart hunter from the naval division"
"Pleased to meet you Adam Smith, forgive me for my lack of knowledge about water dwelling Anomalies but what makes you think it's a Siren?, we're not exactly on water are we?", Fredrick said.
"Well uh... you see sir Fredrick, there are rare occasions where a Siren grows legs and is able to walk on land", Adam explained just as another scream is heard.
"I've never heard of anything like it" Fredrick says and thinks for a moment. "How'd it get here though?"
"It may have gotten into the city through the sewers", Henry explained, Fredrick thinks.
It sounds plausible, but I'm not sure.
"You folks reckon we should kill it?" Captain William asked the three Black Heart hunters.
"I believe we should move on and continue with our hunt, that thing is mostly harmless, although that scream may have attracted many of the Anomalies in the area" Adam confidently explained to the Captain.
Captain William Wolfgang is deep in thought for some time, suddenly he looks to Fredrick then to the rest of the hunting party.
"Alright then let's go" Captain William stands up and orders the hunting party: "Stand up!, let's go everybody, we have a target to kill"
The hunting party continue walking down south where the Eldritch Anomaly type was reported to be seen. The still unnerved soldiers walked carefully with their weapons readied and prepared.
After some time of walking in the darkness of the bloody and unnerving night, some of the soldiers in the hunting party become anxious, thinking there was danger at every corner of the darkness.
At some point in time, the silence of the night would be interrupted when a soldier in the hunting party at the very back of the formation looks to something into an alleyway in distance before beginning to scream loudly. Dropping his gun onto the concrete, he begins to scratch his face before clawing his eyes out with his bare hands and bashing his face into the cold concrete ground, causing it to become painted red with blood. Fredrick's mind raced.
It's here, that thing is here. This is most certainly one of its tricks.
As the members of the hunting party watch the man in horror, Fredrick, Henry and a few other Black Heart hunters run towards the frenzied man.
"Knock him out!" Fredrick ordered just as Henry and another hunter reach the frenzied man. The two hunters attempt to calm the man down, in turn the man attempts to hit at the two hunters with his fists, the two hunters manage to dodge the man's attacks and hold him down onto the ground. The two hunters put the frenzied man into a chokehold and put him into a state of unconsciousness. The night falls into silence once more as the members of the hunting party remain in a state of shock.
Captain William Wolfgang approaches the now unconscious man and looks at his bloodied face, "Oh god, what the hell happened to him?"
Henry and a few other hunters tend to the man's self inflicted injuries, Fredrick looks around with a worried face.
"That's phase one down, we found our Eldritch Anomaly" Kanako Ayanokoji remarks.
Captain William looks to Kanako and then to the unconscious man, "You're telling me this was the doing of an Anomaly?", Captain William points to the unconscious man.
"Yeah it is", Fredrick answered then looked to everyone in the hunting party, "Everyone! Gather around now!"
The members of the hunting party do as what they were ordered to and move towards Fredrick.
In the unnerving quiet darkness of the night, a loud noise which sounded like metal crashing on metal echoed inside a restaurant near the hunting party. The many members of the hunting party stopped their movement and turned. One of the soldiers, the one nearest to the source of the noise, turned around and pointed his bolt action rifle toward the doors of the restaurant in an instant.
"Get over here now!" Fredrick ordered the hunting party. The members of the hunting party moved towards Fredrick but the soldier near the restaurant remained silent in place, he just stood there, staring into the darkness that seemed like an abyss.
And in a moment's notice, that abyss became a blinding light. Many of the members of the hunting party shielded their eyes from the blinding light but the soldier continued staring as if he was enthralled by something.
"GET OVER HERE NOW!" Fredrick tried to speak to the soldier, but his words would fall on deaf ears.
And then the light vanished. A few moments later, the soldier dropped his gun to the concrete below his feet and begun covering his eyes.
Two Black Heart hunters charged towards the soldier as just he began to smash his head into the concrete floor. A few other soldiers also moved towards the frenzied man.
"Edie, stop!, calm down!"
"Edie calm down!"
The soldiers attempted to calm the frenzied man down, he continued to bash his face into the concrete. The soldiers then had to hold him down to stop him from hurting himself any further.
"Edie snap out of it!"
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The frenzied man screamed loudly, his screams were beast like, nothing like the scream of a human.
Kanako, in the corner of her eye, saw a dark figure that was hard to see. It appeared to be like a shadow, but also three dimensional. The thing came out of the restaurant where the light was moments earlier. She aims her bolt action rifle to the figure.
Fredrick looks to Kanako, "What are you aiming at?", he looks to where she is aiming.
"There's something there, it's hard to see, I can't tell what it is" Kanako says as she begins squinting attempting to understand what she's looking at.
Fredrick begins squinting aswell and after a few moments of silence, his eyes widen and looks away.
"EVERYBODY CLOSE YOUR EYES!!" Fredrick ordered the members of the hunting party.
The hunting party become confused and looks toward Fredrick before a blinding light shines from behind them. Kanako, Henry, Adam, William, Fredrick and a few others close their eyes and look away from the light. While many others failed to look away and stared into the light.
Once the light had disappeared, the members of the hunting party who had closed their eyes, begun looking around. The dark figure had disappeared into the darkness of the night without a trace...
Meanwhile the members of the hunting party who had not looked away, within a few moments of the light disappearing, they fell into madness and begun clawing their eyes out, bashing their face into the concrete and scratching themselves...
The members of the hunting party killed themselves. Fredrick's mind raced with countless emotions but he could only think of a single word to describe the situation:
Hell
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Relentless Slaughter
Chapter 7: Still shaken by the madness...
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The heavens which had gone silent for two hours, would weep heavily once again. Lightning fell onto the earth in the distance followed by loud thunder which echoed throughout the darkness of the night. The animalistic screams of the frenzied hunting party echoed throughout the cold whistling air, creating an indescribable symphony of madness and insanity.
"What the hell do we do?", one of the remaining sane hunters begins to panic as he watches the lives of his comrades be snatched away.
"ĤƏŁP MƏÊEEƏ3", one of the many frenzied soldiers wail out in agony before driving his head into the cold blood painted concrete ground, ending his own life right then and there.
The remaining sane members of the hunting party frantically scramble to think of an appropriate plan for the situation.
"What the hell do we do?", a soldier asks with fear in his voice.
"We ought to hall ourselves back to base", one of the soldiers remarks.
"HELL NO, WE AIN'T LEAVI'N E'M BEHIND!", a soldier says, pointing to his frenzied comrades.
A Black Heart hunter attempts to mediate the situation, "Everyone calm down, this arguing ain't gonna solve nothi-"
"HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN HUH HUNTER?"
"ONLY YOU BASTARDS CAN CALM DOWN AFTER SEEING YOUR COMRADES KILL THEMSELVES!", the only sane knight in the party says with a powerful rage.
As the only sane individuals begun to drive themselves into madness aswell, two of the still sane soldiers attempt to hold their friend down to save him.
"CAMERON!, WAKE THE HELL UP!, SNAP OUT OF IT DAMMIT!", one of the two men scream out.
The other soldier, panicked, unnerved and in fear, attempts to call out to his frenzied comrade, "Cameron, buddy, you have your wife waiting for you, come on now"
Cameron, the frenzied soldier, halted his attempts to smash his face in, he looked to his two comrades and wailed out animalisticly before biting one of them in the throat.
The soldier begun to bleed, he fell to the ground and started to choke on his blood.
"CAMERON WAKE UP DAMMIT", the other soldier said as he attempted to hold the frenzied soldier down.
"EVERYBODY BE QUIET", Captain William Wolfgang orders the other remaining sane members of the hunting party, as the rain poured onto the earth, they came to a realisation that the frenzied hunting party members had stopped moving and were completely silent as if they were statues.
Kanako saw they were all staring in a single direction, she looked to the direction they were staring towards and saw a soldier attempting to hold his comrade down whilst another bled from his throat.
Kanako points to the two soldiers, "They're in trouble over there", she says as the other sane hunting party members look on.
Kanako charges towards the two soldiers when Fredrick grabbed her arm, preventing her from moving towards the two men, "Don't move", Fredrick said in a serious and authoritative tone.
"ARE YOU BASTARDS JUST GONNA LET THEM DIE, DAMN YOU ALL!", a soldier said before running towards thr two men.
"STOP MOVING!, NOBODY MOVE!", Fredrick ordered the sane members of the hunting party, but his orders would fall on deaf ears as he watched many of the remaining soldiers attempt to help the two men.
"What the hell is happening here Fredrick?" Captain William asked, seemingly becoming more frustrated with the situation, "What do you mean don't move while my men die?"
Fredrick looks to the Captain with cold and focused eyes, "If you move, the frenzied bastards will kill you"
Captain William, with a face of confusion, calls to his men with an ounce of hesitation, "All of you, get yourselves back here now!"
The soldiers looked back to their frustrated Captain with a look of confusion. And as a flash of lightning fell into the earth, the thunder which followed it would be accompanied by the animalistic screams of the frenzied hunting party members. They charged towards those who had moved.
"Dammit, weapons ready just in case!", Fredrick ordered.
The hunting party members who were still with him did what they were told as they watched people who they considered comrades viciously attack the soldiers that had moved.
The soldiers screamed in agony as the frenzied hunting party members bit into their throats. Within only seconds of the attack, the soldiers had all perished, once the frenzied party members realised that the soldiers had died, they turned their heads to the cold concrete and with another flash of lightning, the madness had stopped, all the frenzied hunting party members had died by their own hands but not of their own will.
The only ones alived looked at each other in silence with a mix of shock, sadness, fear, concern and confusion.
Adam looks to Fredrick, "Hey, that was a winter lantern wasn't it?"
Fredrick looked to Adam and said, "Yeah, that was definitely a winter lantern"
The only living knight left looks to Fredrick with a look of rage and frustration, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU BASTARDS TALKING ABOUT?", he makes a fist gesture at Fredrick, "DAMM THIS STUPID MISSION, I AIN'T SPENDING ANOTHER DAMM SECOND WITH YOU!!!'
Fredrick grabs the knight by his wrist and looks to him with authoritative eyes, "You're not going back to camp by yourself, when that thing first set it's eyes on us, we became its target, we are no longer the hunters here, we can't just back out because it'll hunt us down until it we die"
The knight stumbles back and doesn't speak a single word. Fredrick looks to the remaining hunting party members and performs a head count.
Out of the 63 members that came for the hunt, there were only 12 left:
1. Fredrick Grant-Black Heart hunter
2. Kanako Ayanokoji-Black Heart hunter
3. Adam smith-Black Heart hunter
4. Henry Jaeger-Black Heart hunter
5. Captain William Wolfgang-Soldier
6. Sir Alan Black-Knight
7. Edward Colt-Black Heart hunter
8. John Morgan-Black Heart hunter
9. Jack Pearson-Black Heart hunter
10. Sergeant Sam smith-Soldier
11. Derrick Williamson-Soldier
12. Lawrence Fletcher-Soldier
Once Fredrick and Captain William had calmed the remaining hunting party members, they begin talking and planning.
Fredrick begins, "That scream earlier, that wasn't a siren was it?"
Adam thinks for some time, "Yeah, that might have been a victim of the winter lantern"
"What's a winter lantern?", Captain William asks.
"It's a type of Anomaly that can manipulate it's surroundings, it can also drive people to madness, causing them to die by their own hands. It got it's name from the light it produces whenever it drives people insane", John Morgan stepped in to explain.
"I've heard it's heart is also separate to it's body", Edward Colt interjected.
"What does that mean?", William asked Fredrick.
"If we kill its body, it'll just come back with a new one. It'll stop only when we find its hidden heart and destroy it", Fredrick said with a defeated look in his face.
"Great, how the hell do we kill something like that?", Sir Alan Black remarked as he walked away in frustration.
"What do you mean by manipulate it's surroundings?", Sam smith inquired.
"From what I've heard, it can make buildings shake and crumble using it's will power", Adam explained.
As the heavens continue to weep and as lightning falls to the earth, the buildings around them suddenly begin to shake and crumble. Cracks begin to form on the walls of the buildings around the hunting party.
William prepares his bolt action rifle before looking to Fredrick, "What do we do?"
Fredrick readies his greatsword, "Get your weapons ready, be prepared to close your eyes"
As lightning fell into the earth, a piece of a nearby building comes flying unnaturally into Jack Pearson, hitting him in the head and killing him instantly. The attack is followed by consecutive attacks where debris is thrown into the members of the hunting party.
"SCRAMBLE", Fredrick ordered and everybody did so.
Debris was flung into the hunting party viciously and violently, the Black Heart hunters dodge the debris with ease but the soldiers and the knight weren't so lucky. Lawrence Fletcher was impaled in the stomach with a metallic pole, leaving him to bleed to death. Derrick Williamson and Sam smith are hit by debris to their legs leaving them unable to walk. And Sir Alan Black was hit in the head with a brick, causing him to black out.
As thunder raged, a spike formed in the ground and impales Adam Smith in the leg, causing him to become immobilised.
Henry runs to Adam with a great haste, "Dammit, come on" Henry cussed as he tried to remove Adam's leg from the spike.
Fredrick looks around and sees a dark figure on top of a building, it moves it's arms around like a puppet master controlling a puppet, Fredrick looks to Henry and Adam and rushes towards them.
As Fredrick reached the two Black Heart hunters, a piece of debris came hurling towards them. Fredrick readied his greatsword and protected the two Black Heart hunters from the flying debris by blocking it with his greatsword.
"KANAKO, SHOOT THAT THING NOW!!", Fredrick says, pointing towards dark shadow figure.
Kanako points her bolt action rifle to the shadow like figure and prepares to fire. And as lightning struck from behind the dark figure, the winter lantern created a blinding light which blinded the hunting party.
"DAMMIT, EVERYONE LOOK AWAY!!", Fredrick shouted out.
After a few tense moments, the light disappeared and looked to the members of the hunting party to see Kanako Ayanokoji, William Wolfgang and Edward Colt have fallen into insanity, they begun to shake violently and scratching themselves.
Fredrick, with a face of rage and anger, glared at where the winter lantern was and sees that it had remained there.
With eyes filled with rage and determination, Fredrick dropped his greatsword and ran towards Kanako. Holding her down to the cold concrete below her, he grabs her gun and a grenade from her ammunition pouch. He loads the grenade into the grenade launcher attachment on her bolt action rifle.
With eyes filled with rage and determination, "PERISH YOU FOUL THING!!", he fires and hits the shadowy figure. A few moments later, the grenade explodes, and when the smoke cleared, there was no longer anything standing there.
Fredrick looked around and analysed the scene. Edward Colt had completely smashed his face in a killed himself, William Wolfgang, while his face was bloodied, his body unconscious at the very least was still alive. And Kanako was lively, animalisticly screaming.
"Fredrick!", Henry called out as he helped Adam stand up.
We need to leave, now", Fredrick said as he put Kanako into a chokehold and knocked her unconscious, "That thing isn't dead yet, I may have blew it up but it'll regenerate in around thirty minutes, we need to leave"
The remaining hunting party members sit in the rain, they prepare to leave but can they do so? Afterall, they're still shaken by the madness...
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Relentless Slaughter
Chapter 7: Still Shaken by the madness...
Chapter end
To be continued