Before Hunter Corp, we never really needed protection from those flesh-eating hellspawns. They just didn’t exist. The first flesh-eater to walk on earth was only reported twenty years ago, in the great US of A. That’s only two decades of hunting, two decades of the most dangerous predators humankind had ever faced. They came from nowhere, emerging from the shadows, horrible parodies of the human form that fed on us relentlessly.

When the first sightings were reported, they were dismissed as nonsense: drunken hallucinations, elaborate pranks, even mass hysteria. Who could believe in such monstrosities—creatures that hunted and consumed humans? But as the reports multiplied, and gruesome evidence began to pile up, denial became increasingly difficult. Sightings of shadow-walkers became all too common. It was clear that they were growing in numbers and strength. It started out with one or two incidents: someone would claim to see a werewolf, others, a gargoyle. Humanity took those claims lightly at first, until people started to go missing by the dozen. It escalated quickly from there. In a blink of an eye, the shadow-walkers began a campaign of terrorism.

The world had to face a terrible truth: we were no longer alone at the top of the food chain.

The birth of Hunter Corp was out of necessity. We had to fight back against our new predators.

Luckily, humankind already had an answer for them. It all started about 50 years ago, where stories about babies being born with weird powers began flooding the press non-stop. About 2% of the population in our small little town, Xion, were gifted. Exclusively. That tiny two percent quickly grew to 10%. At first, no one knew what to make of it, and thought the best answer was to stuff them all into a facility where they could be studied further by the big brains of society. But even they didn't know what was going on. No amount of studies or tests could crack the code to their design. Things were very black and white then, you either had a meta ability or you didn’t. Regulars started to become paranoid of what they didn’t know, and like the human beings we were, what we couldn’t understand was a threat to us.

So in an answer to control the ambiguity, our governing body established The Institution, a place where the gifted were confined, ostensibly for their own safety, along with the safety of ‘normals’. For some time, there was a quiet calm while the gifted were regulated, and the gifted learned to control their abilities, each one extraordinary in its own way.

But what started as controlling soon turned authoritarian. Many laws and rules that The Institution began developing were clearly anti-gifted, and many meta humans began feeling segregated from the rest of the world. Instead of embracing meta humans, we were systematically casting them away. Again, out of fear, we adapted. Regs didn’t want a revolt, so to make the gifted population happy, our government introduced talent to various avenues of enforcement. Police, military, you name it. Those who resisted were termed as renegades and seen as potential threats. As you could imagine, that didn’t go too well. After all, the gifted were still free-minded human beings, so just like comics have super heroes, they also had super villains.

At that point, no one knew how to process the gifted. The majority of regular humans started to fear them even more. Meta-humans wanted to be treated as gods, and they made that request known throughout the globe. So, to snuff the chaos before it got out of hand, Organization VII took control of things.

VII was a top-dog collection of seven gold-masked elite gifted people. They forbade meta-humans from using their powers so the rest of society could live comfortably again. They were pulled away from enforcement and forced to live regular lives. Any meta reported using their powers would be promptly persecuted. This strict regime seemed to work, up until the first shadow walker was taken seriously.

Organization VII didn’t waste any time. They sprang into action, challenging this unprecedented conflict. They began with containment, cordoning off affected areas and deploying talents in the hopes of neutralizing the threat. But it was clear that these measures weren’t enough. The shadow-walkers were elusive prey, and they loved to hunt at night—hence the name.

The elite order of super-humans then took it a step further and established Hunter Corp, a branch that organized and oversaw talents everywhere. Hunter careers were made a worldwide concept, funded to end the reign of monsters around the world. Supported by sponsors like average folk, hunter fame was something everyone wanted. Because, why not? The payout was more than generous, and the life-changing experience was a page straight from heaven. The Hunter Corp was designed to solve two issues, like killing two birds with one stone—to satisfy the growing talent population by making them popular, and to neutralize the shadow walkers worldwide.

Between the fame, the prestige, the wealth, and the popularity, being a hunter sounded like a no brainer. The Hunter Games was a big contributor to all of the hype, where squads would fight against each other in tournaments for even more fame points and recognition. Recognition meant more sponsors, and more sponsors meant more money. It was a favorable domino effect that was similar to being a celebrity, but as a hunter, you took an oath, which crushed all the other aspects of your career…

I pledged my life to constant danger. The world was full of beasts; otherworldly creatures that defied logic and tested the limits of human comprehension. From blood-thirsty fiends that lurked in the shadows of the city streets to gargantuan behemoths that lived deep inside uncharted territory. No one really knew what they were or what their ultimate goal was. Some theorized demons, others, evil spirits and other crazy paranormal nonsense. It didn’t matter what they were, it mattered more where they came from. Knowing that was the only way we were going to stop them for good.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I wanted to be part of a team who searched beyond the surface for answers. After garnering enough experience as a hunter, I had plans of going on my own missions to discover the truth. Uncover the veil and dispatch the secrets. For some reason, I felt it my duty to dig deeper, so I could stand between humanity and these abominations. It was a calling that resonated within me, like a burning desire that needed to be fed. But how the hell was I going to do that if I couldn’t understand what was going on with my own meta?

I couldn’t help but feel that something was off about it. Even though I wanted to put that incident in the park behind me, my mind wouldn’t let me.

My body was drained, throat dry, head muddled. I’d been in a limbo between reality and dream, stuck in my own thoughts mulling all of this shit over. I was so physically exhausted that I didn’t want to get up from the dewy patch of grass I was lying on. With no idea where I was, I should have been more eager to get my ass up, but I wasn’t. I could sense Naomi was around, and her company confirmed that I wouldn’t be eaten alive out here.

Even so….

“Hey,” I said softly, finally opening my eyes to the blanket of stars in the sky. “How long was I out for?”

She didn’t answer me right away, Naomi putting something down on the ground before she admitted, “Twenty minutes.”

“Felt much longer than that.”

“Be glad that it wasn’t.”

I managed to summon enough energy to sit up, and the first thing I noticed beside my sore muscles was the ivory maiden chowing down on some noodles.

“What?” she asked, looking at me dumbfounded.

“I’ve been out for only 20 mins, and you’re here eating takeout?!”

She gave me a comical glare. “I was hungry.” She slurped between her chopsticks, the smell of the sweet and spicy noodle broth suddenly raiding my nose. That food was making my stomach growl as I got up on my feet, my body feeling less sore when I finally got off the ground.

“They don’t look red. Good sign,” Naomi commented as I took a seat right next to her on a log, the popping and crackling from the campfire she built drawing my attention.

I sighed, rubbing the side of my right eye, realizing Naomi was talking about them. “Still can’t believe that bitch caught me off guard like that.”

“It happens.”

“Yeah? Do zombie kids happen, too?” I paused. “You’ve fought flesh eaters for a living. How common is shit like this?” I furrowed my brows, feeling disoriented. “That fight was the biggest reality check. For the first time, I feel like I’m way over my head about this.”

“About what?”

“Fighting monsters I can do… but… the victims. Just seeing them like that. That girl in the trash bag was bad enough. We are talking about children here, Naomi… infants to kids barely breaking their pre-teen years.”

“Prey and predator are part of the hunter package. You have to learn to separate your emotions from the job.”

“How the hell can I do that? I felt terrible for them. Alive, dead, didn’t matter how they looked. Their fears, their cries for help, it was all I could think about when I looked at them.” My shoulders pent up. “No child should experience that kind of helplessness….”

“Desensitization happens over time,” she said, her gaze steady on the flames licking at the charred logs. “It’s a real thing….”

“Don’t tell me you’ve gotten used to it,” I said, clenching my fist. I could still see the horror etched into those young faces, their haunted eyes stirring a rage inside me again.

Naomi shrugged, setting her chopsticks down on the plastic container. “It’s not about getting used to it, it’s about understanding that this is our reality now. This is what we have to face. And you can’t let your emotions get in the way, or it’ll destroy you.”

“Easy for you to say,” I muttered, picking up a pebble and scratching its shiny side, my reflection looking back at me. “You weren’t the one who had to put down a four-year-old today….”

Naomi couldn’t answer.

“I burned them until nothing was left….”

“They were already dead, Nero.”

“How many is that now?” I said sternly. “Four? Super strength, mental immunity, physical invulnerability, and now what? Explosive flames?” I sulked. “Ones that I couldn’t even control.”

“You will learn to control them.”

“I want to confide in you, Naomi. I’m a little shaken up about this. One meta is the norm. Two, you’re special. Three, you’re rare. Four is unheard of.”

“Maybe for you. I’ve heard of legendary grade talents with four gifts.”

“Okay then, ultra rare. You know, it hasn’t been a full three days and it feels like my arsenal is growing every passing minute.”

She furrowed her eyebrows at me. “Why does it sound like you see this as a bad thing?”

“Don’t get me wrong; I want powers. I’ll appreciate as many as I can get. But….”

“But what?”

I broke out in a modest chuckle, throwing my hand over my nape sheepishly. “I don’t know, it just feels all off, especially this last meta, you know? Like there’s a glitch in the system. And I’m the glitch.”

Naomi gave me a sidelong look and shook her head, her long ponytail falling over her shoulder. “You’ve always been an oddball though, haven’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I shrugged. “In school, when every reg was dreaming of becoming a meta with one power, maybe two if they were ambitious, I was obsessed with the idea of having as many as possible. That’s crazy talk though, I never thought it’d happen. Hell, I’d feel special with just one. But now that it’s my reality... it doesn’t feel like victory. It feels like a ticking time bomb.”

“Don’t say that,” Naomi said sternly. “You feel that way because you’re jumping to conclusions. Yes, it’s unusual. Yes, it’s scary. But have you ever considered that maybe this is happening for a reason? That you have these powers because you’re meant to do something important with them?!”

Out of nowhere, she started being extra serious for some reason. I drew a blank to her question and asked, “Like what?”

Judging by the sudden lost expression on her face, I could tell that Naomi felt like she might have overexpressed herself. After being so passionate about the topic, she reeled those emotions in a little, and gave me a basic and bland answer, “I don’t know.”

I smiled. “Would be nice to figure it all out.”

“I don’t want you worrying, Nero…”

I turned my head to her. “Huh?”

“And as long as you have me, you won’t have to.”

“Naomi?”

“I promised I’d take you to the top. So quit worrying about the details and focus on being the best hunter out there.” She got up, put her food back in the bag, and hauled the rest of our meals with her after she took out the flames of the campfire with her powers. “It’s getting late. We need to head back now.”