Red stood at the center of the town ruins and looked out into the darkness. He could barely see his hand in front of him in the oppressive darkness. Despite the low visibility though, numerous pairs of red eyes dotted the area and stared at him unblinking.

Red thought to himself, “There’s a hell of a lot more than sixteen, and their auras are unbelievable. They make that Dogu that almost killed me look like a cockroach.”

He closed his eyes while he opened and closed his hand repeatedly. He took deep breaths, as he felt the flow of arcana all around him. It was all-encompassing, surrounding his body like a warm blanket, the arcana near the sea seemed to be significantly different from the arcana near the cities.

After a few moments of continuing like this, Red summoned a small blood knife to his hand and made a deep horizontal cut from one end of his hand to the other.

He let the wound gush out blood for a little while, dripping down his arm and onto the ground. Red stared out into the darkness one more time and took note of each of the leering eyes.

“Alright, you beasts!” Red yelled aloud, “If you want me, come get me! Special technique: Thorny Storm!”

In an instant, blood rose up from the ground and from Red’s wound and shot up into the sky. It expanded and separated, starting as many amorphous blobs but quickly taking shape into the blood spears that Red would frequently summon. After a few seconds, the sky was filled with these spears, all pointing down toward the ground.

As the spears rained down, numerous fire and ice spells were fired off from the sky into the air. While Red was mostly unable to see, he was easily able to sense the mana of a few beasts fading away.

Red began to hear unintelligible and garbled screams all around him, nearly sounding like human language. This continued on for a while, gradually becoming louder and louder. Red stood back from the front gate and began to ready another spell.

“Stop!” A decisive voice cut through all the noise and immediately silenced everything.

As Red looked with his mana sense to see the source, a giant black cat bounded onto the top of a crumbling gate pillar. It stood up on two legs, and stared down at Red.

“Human,” The cat’s voice was extremely deep and monotone, ”Identify yourself.”

Red crossed his arms and said, “Wow, seems like you speak a lot more than your friends there. So you must be the leader.”

Red took note of the cat’s immense magical energy and long drooping ears.

The cat spoke again, “Identity yourself. Now.”

“Oh right, sorry. My name is Red, and I’ve been tasked with eliminating every single one of you loitering in these ruins.”

The cat tilted its head, “Why would you be assigned with such a task? How have we slighted the humans?”

Red shrugged his shoulders, “Unfortunately I just don’t have that answer for you, big ears. Maybe one of you hurt somebody important. Or maybe they just thought you were an eyesore. Or maybe you did absolutely nothing at all. Either way, a job is a job. I’m not in a position to refuse,” Red grinned from ear to ear and shouted, “And if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t refuse even if I could!”

The cat looked at Red, puzzled, “Big Ears? Is that the name you are assigning me? You humans are quite strange. Still, we have not caused any undo harm to the humans. We simply act according to the law of nature.”

Red and Big Ears stood in silence, staring at each other for a long while. Big Ears continued, “I think I am familiar with the situation that would have caused this request to be thrust upon you. If I bring the heads of the Cait Sith responsible, would that be sufficient? Would you leave us?”

Red laughed hardily, “Do you honestly think I’m here to avenge some stuck up snobby nobles or to rectify whatever stupid situation caused them to put in that request? Look at me, Big Ears,” Red let his aura flare up, causing the wind to rush around him, “I’m only here because I like to fight. The pay is just a bonus!”

Red looked around and noticed all of the Cait Sith in the area now surrounded him.

“Damn, I only took out a few with Thorny Storm. I need something more.”

Big Ears opened his mouth and screamed out in Red’s direction. The sound waves visibly pierced the air, and were strong enough to crack the ground below Red’s feet. Red reached up to cover his ears, and in the moment he did the surrounding Cait Sith unleashed a barrage of fire spells onto Red.

After the smoke cleared, Red stood defiantly in his blood armor, holding onto a large blood kite shield and lance.

“Is that it? Did you think those rank one spells would do a thing against me? The only one here worth a thing is Big Ears.”

The cats began to growl and speak in unintelligible, garbled language. Some of them began to ready spells independently.

“Do not let the human aggravate you!” Big Ears rallied them, “Look at his ragged breathing, he’s already taken substantial damage just from our first attack!”

Red attempted to hide his labored breathing to no avail. He thought to himself, “This isn’t good at all. Those aren’t just basic fire spells. They must be using Dark Fire, every hit from them seems to be sapping my mana away.”

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Red noticed a small amount of blood leaking from his lip and laughed aloud. He snapped his fingers and numerous blood spears began floating in the air behind him.

Red jumped and charged forward toward Big Ears while letting the spears fly toward the other Cait Sith. He landed on the top of a small building and thrusted his lance, with such force that everything in the area shifted slightly.

Big Ears jumped onto the lance softly with all four legs. He unleashed another screaming attack onto Red, significantly stronger than the first one. The sound waves greatly distorted the air and easily crumbled the ruined structure they stood on.

Blood erupted from Red’s ears as all of his blood weapons and armor dissipated. He attempted to bring his arms up to his head in an effort to cover himself, but he did not have the strength to do so.

The color in Red’s eyes slowly faded as he struggled in vain to protect himself.

Through the continued sonic barrage, Big Ears spoke, “I derive no pleasure from bringing death and destruction upon others when it is unnecessary. However, yours is a life I could not allow to continue. Please die, knowing that we bare no ill will toward you.”

Just as Red’s knees began to buckle and he nearly tumbled face-first into the ground, he stuck his arm up into the air and whispered something. Big Ears scream attack drowned out Red’s words.

“Didn’t you hear me? I said you can’t kill a killer you filthy animal!” At that moment, the sound waves lost their potency. Big Ears screaming no longer distorted the air and pierced the ground, it was simply a low monotone scream.

From the same hand Red held up, a blood tendril shot out from his palm and stabbed Big Ears in the chest.

The other Cait Sith now all bared their teeth at Red and circled him. Big Ears attempted to say something, but the words did not come.

One of the Cait Sith shot out another fireball, which Red now recognized was black and pink.

“So it is Dark Fire…” Red thought to himself.

He raised the same hand toward it, causing it to disappear the moment before it reached him.

The Cait Sith looked in awe for a moment, before returning into their battle mode, now even more aggressive and feral.

Red turned to them, now donning a less bulky version of his blood armor and holding his lance in one hand without the shield. He threw his lance at one of the Cait Sith, running it through and pinning it against a nearby ruined structure.

He surveyed the area around him. The blood spears he summoned earlier successfully struck down a number of the Cait Sith; he counted at least six. Due to the continued darkness, he couldn’t verify how many he took down with his beginning surprise attack.

He thought through his options for a moment, “I’d love to use Thalassic Assault here and end it off, but we’re way too close to the town. They’ll never give me enough time to use Thorny Storm again, I guess I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

Red clasped his hands together and yelled aloud, “Blame your dead friends for this one!”

In a few moments, the blood from the Cait Sith he struck down expanded into large tendrils, protruding out into every direction.

The nearby Cait Sth attempted to dodge the tendrils to no avail. The tendrils snaked and turned in the air, chasing them and striking them down.

Red surveyed the area again. He struck down every single Cait Sith in the area, except for Big Ears. He checked the area thoroughly with his mana sense to confirm this and verified there were none in hiding.

Red walked back over to Big Ears and stood over him with blood spear ready.

“Don’t hate me too much. Just like you, I’m just following the law of nature. I’m not evil, it’s just the job of the just and righteous to stomp out the embers of evil when they appear.”

Red felt a throbbing pain in his head, intense enough that he grabbed his head and winced in pain.

Big Ears lay on his side panting, his eyes barely able to stay open, “Can someone truly be good, if they not only turn a blind eye to evil, but commit evil acts themselves?"

The pain in Red’s head only intensified, and he stabbed Big Ears without bothering to answer.

Red fell to his back and shut his eyes tightly, trying to examine the mana in his body and discern the problem. The blood armor melted away from his body as he concentrated everything into his mind. After a long while of this, the pain subsided, if only slightly.

As Red was finally beginning to feel a little relief, he was suddenly jolted from his meditative state. The three men from earlier stood over Red, one pointing a sword directly at his head and the other two readied spells to fire.

The large man with the sword, who Red recognized as Nadel, spoke up, “Finally, we can teach this prick a lesson!“

Red cut him off, “I need you to leave right now! I’m going to come into town in a few hours with the cores of these beasts, and after that I’ll submit to your questioning or interrogation or whatever. But if you don’t leave right now…” Red looked up at Nadel and smiled, “You might get hurt.”

Nadel took the opportunity to swing his sword, and Red raised his hand up.

----------------------------------------

In an area not far away, four figures stood in the trees and watched the scene intently. A man in a white coat adorned with gold jewelry kneeled before a masked figure in a small fur jacket.

Desmond La Frante held a sword made of light at his side and stared at the scene intently with a focused but unhappy expression across his face, “He is truly ruthless. What do you think Charan?”

Charan shook his head at the older man, “Desmond, I don’t know how you can still enjoy watching fights after all these decades. Isn’t being in them enough?”

Desmond shrugged, “I don’t love every fight kid. It is satisfying seeing those bandits traipsing around pretending to be knights get their comeuppance.”

Charan, still kneeling, turned back to the masked figure, “Your Holiness, give me the order and I will have Desmond accompany me to retrieve the desired one. It should be particularly easy for us since he is in this weakened, berserker state.”

Another individual, an exceptionally large man wearing an animal pelt scoffed at the statement, “You’re a little full of yourself, huh foreigner? You couldn’t handle this Red even if he had both hands tied behind his back.”

The masked figure snickered and placed a hand on his hand, “Reiko, please don’t taunt him so much. And Charan, thank you so much for always being such a devout and efficacious follower, soon you will be rewarded for all your effort.”

Reiko growled and shouted out, “Where the hell is that boy, Alucard?”

The masked figure put a finger on her cheek, “I let him stay on his mission for the time being. He would be the last general tasked with bringing in Red so it’s not as important for him to watch and gauge his strength."

Desmond turned back to two figures sulking in the darkness, “Future King? Xenos? What are your thoughts on our prospective member?"

Neither of the individuals said a word, and continued to stand obscured in the shadow of darkness.

Charan bowed his head deeper, then turned to Red’s location. The masked figure grabbed the waist of his coat, stopping him and nearly knocking him off his feet in the process.

The masked figure sucked their teeth, “Not so fast, my dear. We can’t capture him now. He’s still an immature fruit, he needs time to ripen and grow into his powers in this natural environment. And by the time that happens, we won’t even have to capture him forcefully, he’ll come to us of his volition.”

Charan turned back to the masked figure and bowed once again, “Yes, cleric. Please excuse me for my hastiness.”

Reiko turned his head from the scene and looked out into the sky.