The moment Duk saw Crimson, he froze like a dead man. Sweat came down his face and his arms were shaking. After they had direct eye contact for a few seconds, he slowly stepped backwards. A face full of fear and desperation, which was never seen before flooded him. If Loyd’s worst nightmare was him, his worst nightmare was the man who was standing in front of him right now. Before he could even turn around and run, Crimson quickly dashed towards Diego in a blink of an eye. Suddenly, he was standing in front of him, pointing his sword directly at his throat.

“Where do you think you’re running huh? Are you seriously scared of me?” Crimson laughed while knocking down Diego. “Come on, let's fight! I know that’s your favorite thing to do.” Suddenly, his face turned cold and his voice was deep and dark. “Am I wrong? You fucking jester.”

Without noticing, his shadow monster form was disabled. He was back in his human form where he was vulnerable. Creeps started growing on Duk when Crimson knocked him down. He was scared. He was scared that Crimson would kill him.

“Wait Crimson!” Diego spoke hurriedly, “You don’t have to do this to me. We were friends right? You don- Agh!”

Blood shattered all over Crimson’s face. Not even letting him finish, Crimson cut one of Diego’s arms. He suffered in pain and screamed. When Crimson committed such violent actions, his face didn’t change at all.

“Yeah you are right, we ‘Were’ friends.” Crimson cleaned the blood off of his face. “But the important thing is that you almost killed people that ‘Are’ my friends. And since you used to be my companion, you know what happens if you mess around with my people. You remember the blood hunt arc? Let’s replay it shall we?”

[Sin of Wrath, Crimson activates “The Hunt of Bloodbath”.]

[Hunter is Crimson!]

[Prey is DuknotDuke!]

[The night of wrath will overflow inside the district. Exiting and entering is restricted from now on!]

Duk knew very well what this ability was. The ability ‘The Hunt of Bloodbath’ was an unique ability made for Crimson when he was getting hunted down by the townspeople. Back in the ‘Exiled Era’, Crimson was kicked out of the town and the government put bounties to kill him. That was when Duk was the ambassador of the town. He found and visited Crimson’s house with the town’s elite squad after searching for months. When he and the town’s army surrounded him, they shot him in the leg, arm, and chest multiple times where it got to a point he couldn't move. When he finally fell, the anger and wrath inside him exploded. That was when his ability was activated for the first time. His ability chose preys and the hunter to start a game. The game wouldn’t end until the hunter was satisfied killing all the preys. When the ability was first activated, Duk was the only survivor from the hunt. That nightmare haunted him everyday. And now, the hell he survived came back to hunt him down for sure this time.

While Diego was running, the two swords that Crimson brought were shaking and ringing.

[Sword, “Hell’s Endpoint” searches for even more blood to take to hell.]

[Sword, “Eternal Rest” calls for a new victim to make them fall asleep.}

“Well, let’s start the hunt.”

*

I ran as fast as possible, searching for Diego. I destroyed any debris getting in the way and tried to scan every place that he could hide. Although the mark of blood will appear soon, it’s better if I get rid of him as fast as possible.

[Sword, “Hell’s Endpoint” searches for even more blood to take to hell.]

[Sword, “Eternal Rest” calls for a new victim to make them fall asleep.}

My 2 swords were pressing me to kill him. The reason it took me so long to catch up was because of the sword, ‘Eternal Rest’. The sword kills any soul the blade touches. Even if I use my ‘Hell’s Endpoint’ to damage him, I must finish Diego with ‘Eternal Rest’. Every type of returning as the catastrophe requires a soul contract with its guardian since the return is caused by reviving a dead body’s soul into a new one. If I can’t kill the soul of Diego right here, he will return to the town as a different kind of catastrophe.

[Sword, “Eternal Rest” complains it hadn’t consumed a soul in a while.]

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The sword was asking for another soul to be his lunch. I was able to hear the sword’s messages because I created a link between me and the sword by applying my wrath to the blade. I did this a while ago back when the first catastrophe in the town appeared. Back then, me and Loyd didn’t take it seriously and caused some trouble. After simply killing the catastrophe, it returned even stronger because we weren’t able to end its soul. It brought absolute chaos to the town. That’s when Loyd created this sword to kill him. Although we successfully killed the soul, the damage he caused was so great that it led to many other conflicts even after his death.

[The first blood mark is shown to the hunter!]

The blood mark appeared right behind the large rock. I ran and slid towards it. When I brought my sword up to slash it, nothing was there. That was when I felt a strange feeling from my gut. I dodged the scratch attack that came from my back. I then recovered my position and struck back at the shadow monster that regenerated after my first attack. I was able to cut one of its arms this time. When the monster howled with anger and pain, I quickly stabbed ‘Eternal Rest’ through his chest without hesitation, hoping that the main body of Diego was somewhere there. Although it is called a shadow monster, it still is just a shade of armor that covers the main body. If I can kill the body inside of the shadow, he should die.

[The hunter has missed his attack! The prey gets stronger.]

There is 1 more rule to this game. If this game is just a one way attack between the hunter and the prey, it’s unfair so there are some penalties for the hunter. Every time I swing my sword, I have to damage the prey. Every time I damage the prey, it will make him weaker but if I miss my shot, the prey will grow stronger and stronger. And when it gets to a point where the prey becomes stronger than the hunter, the sides flip and the hunter becomes the prey and the prey becomes the hunter. Explaining my current situation, I just took a risky shot and missed it completely. Although Diego will get stronger and stronger when I miss my shot, I was still confident since I am way stronger than him. At least that’s what I thought.

[The catastrophe’s unique ability awakens! The prey will be allowed to use their attack skills now.]

If the prey and the hunter can attack each other at the same time, it means that both of us are on the same level. So the person who hits more shots on each other becomes the hunter. I can’t let that happen. I was zoning out too much. I jumped high and dashed towards Diego while spinning with my swords. When I finally hit him, he disappeared into ashes. Luckily, it didn’t count as missing my shot. I turned around and saw 3 more of the shadow monsters. Diego was using his unique abilities as a jester. He has 3 abilities that he uses. The first one is manipulation and gaslighting. The 2nd one is illusions and the 3rd one is mind corruption. The ability that Diego used to take town Loyd was mind corruption. It normally causes the victim’s worst trauma and slowly destroys their mind. The only way to get out of it is for Diego to stop using the ability or for them to fight out their trauma. Since Loyd is unconscious, it means that Loyd couldn’t escape the dream yet. I have to kill Diego or he will kill me.

The hallucinations of Diego’s monsters started running in different directions. I tried to keep track of the blood mark on one of the shadows but I wasn’t sure if I was even chasing the real Diego since the last time I tried to kill the shadow with the mark, it was a hallucination. There has to be something different compared to the real Diego and the delusion. While I was chasing the shadow with the blood mark, the other shadows chased me and tried to scratch again. I deflected its attack and barely slashed off its skin. Although it was just a small scar, it pushed the monster off. But the other one was still coming after me. I struggled chasing the blood mark and defending against the one trying to kill me so turned around and tried to stun the other shadow following me. As if the monster didn’t expect for me to stop there, he looked surprised and missed his shot towards me.

[The prey has missed its shot. Crimson becomes the hunter again!]

I didn’t miss my opportunity here and quickly stabbed my blade through its legs. This time, it didn’t make a loud scream but rather, it stayed silent and started bleeding. The monster was stunned and wasn’t able to move. I soon noticed the difference between Diego and the decoys.

‘When the decoys miss their shots, Diego doesn’t get penalized. And also, the shadow with Diego in it bleeds. I have to kill this one.’

To test my hypothesis, I stabbed the monster in front of me into the arm one more time.

[The hunter hit its target! Weakening the prey.]

So I was right. The real monster will bleed if I harm him. I relocated the blood mark and locked it on to the shadow in front of me. When Diego realized that I set the blood mark on him, he started running because he knew what was going to happen now.

[Now approaching phase 2. Whoever is tagged with the blood mark will receive twice the damage.]

Diego ran with fear while recovering the damage he just took. He also absorbed the other 2 fake shadow monsters. When he did so, he doubled his size. When I saw him running towards the tree, I threw my ‘Hell’s Point’ and stunned him. Because of my sword’s unique ability, he will have to cut off his arm or his entire body will burn. But not as I expected, he just continued running towards the tree. I chased him but he was just too fast. When finally reached the tree, he started eating all the dead corpses.

Fuck. I forgot that his source of power was from the trees and the dead corpses. The more dead people there are hanging on the tree, the stronger he gets. The tree slowly absorbs all the power from the person and takes away all the unnecessary impurities. But if he is eating all the corpses, it means that he is ignoring all the bad effects it could give him and only cares about the power he could get.

When I got close enough to attack him, I jumped as high as I could and dashed towards his nape but he reacted faster than I thought. He grabbed onto my neck right before I reached him. He was grabbing my neck really tight so I was choking. At this rate, I will pass out in less than 10 seconds. I had to react. I glanced around me trying to find what could help me but there was absolutely nothing. The only option I really had was disabling the hunt but I wasn’t sure if that would help me either. I tried to cut his arms but my swords were already off my hand. I wiggled to get him off but that didn’t work either. Right when I was about to faint, Diego let go.

He was yelling and screaming in pain. He was tweaking out. The side effects of eating raw corpses finally came in clutch. When I was released, I grabbed both swords on the ground and swung them. The ‘Hell’s Endpoint’ cut Diego’s head off. Obviously it was the head of the shadow but when I cut the shadow off, his true head was visible. Right when that happened, Diego panicked. His shadow was disappearing and his body was visible. Right when I found him vulnerable, I swung my ‘Eternal Rest’. Blood splashed all over and a sphere looking object was rolling on the ground.