One Day Later.....


    During the night:


    Marissa was sitting in the fetal position, trembling. All the memories from what happened at the farm to the inn, all clear as day. She knows deep down that everything was out of her control, everything changed so much, so fast. But still I..I killed that family, and I ate them..... I enjoyed it so much. It''s not me, it really isn''t, but it''s definitely going to be in the future. It''s knawing at me from within, swallowing the weak, powerless me. It feast on my mind, spirit, and heart, but I need it to make them pay. I need this beast, me, to challenge the church and other enemies. I just need it....


    I''ve learned a few things about myself since everything went up in flames by church. First is: I''m a lot more informed about how blind and naive I was growing up. I always thought that if we followed the path of a devout believer, everything else would fall into place. Who would''ve thought they were so greedy and controlling, that they would kill innocents over a small disagreement. Now looking from the outside in, they''ve probably done similar acts before to spread their influence. Now I know better, I know I can''t go in blind, I can''t be softhearted, and I definitely can''t regret any of my future actions. The only way to do this is.......TRAP AND ISOLATE!


    "HeHe" Marissa chuckled as her eyes glinted


    **************************


    *Twic Twic Twic*


    Marissa climbed up to the top of the tree thats covering her burrow. No matter how you look at her, she looked she lived in the forest for years. She was crouched on a tree branch, looking towards a direction of a certain smell, carried by wind. It was a unique smell, diffferent from the animals in the forest, a lot...cleaner. After smelling for awhile, she determined that it was humans coming from Ruby. She squinted her eyes knowing that it wasn''t just them, many different scents were coming from all over the forest.


    "Hah, I''m becoming more inhuman by the day. Thanks to this, I know I have to leave now! They''re spread out, so it''ll be easy to follow them from a distance and avoid at the same time."


    Marissa jumped off a tree and sprinted toward a direction with a smaller group of people


    **********************


    Three hours ago....


    Ruby was placed on lockdown, not allowing any civilian to leave their houses.


    In the central market area, Irschel and Froeder were on a stage in front of a crowd of people, 27 to be exact. The people were mixture from the church, hunter''s, and general population. This is an official gathering of the ones participating in the elimination of the Crypt. If you looked out in the crowd, you could men and women in leather armor, carrying swords, shields, bows and arrows. They were ready to dart into forest at any given time. Irschel looked into crowd, breathed deeply in and said:This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Quiet down. As you all know, we are here now to eliminate a Crypt, a threat to the general populace. This creature murdered the family that owned the inn on the tributary route. We believe that it is a smart, humanoid type, which makes it more dangerous. Any of who don''t want to participate after hearing this information, may leave now. Anyone?"(Irschel)


    *Silence*


    "Alright, now I need you to break off and form into teams of five, if possible. The Hunter''s Corporation will give each team a messenger pigeon, pen, and paper for constant updates to the mission and safety of the participants. We will also give each person a whistle to blow for any sudden dangerous situation, that way we can immediately respond and locate the team in trouble. With the mission briefing ove, I''ll be passing this stage to Father Froeder for prayer."(Irschel)


    Froeder came to the center of the stage and asked everyone to bow their heads:


    "Dear Almighty Elohim, our creator and protector. Please bless everyone of these individuals as they embark on a dangerous journey. They will be following your teachings and protecting what we learned from you. They will be confronting a betrayer of your virtues and love. OH ALMIGHTY, PLEASE BLESS THEM. AMEN!"(Froeder)


    "AMEN!!"(Crowd)


    "Head out!"(Irschel)


    The crowd, marching in teams of fives begun marching to the forest with torches, chanting prayers and death threats.


    The forest was no longer quiet as the crowd of hunters entered the forest and heading into different directions. All the animals were scared off.


    ***********************


    "I think we should rest, we''ve been traveling for a few hours now, with all this equipent."(??)


    "Yeah, let''s stop here and refuel for a little while. We also need to send a update off to the chief as well." A man with a special hunters outfit and a badge with a falcon insignia on his left breast said.


    They lit a small fire using their torch, started eating jerky and drinking water.


    "I can''t wait to get this over, I have a bar maid waiting for me back in town, haha."(??)


    "Is that all you think about?! How about we just try to survive the night and gain achievements?"(??)


    ""HAHA"" Two other members laughed along.


    "Stop bickering, let''s get ready to search again. The sooner this is over with, the better it is for us all."(Leader)


    ""Aye, Aye"" The team members responded


    "Before we leave, I need to drain the vein, if you know what I mean, Captain, heh." A team member said


    "Don''t go too far, stay within distance so we can hear you."(Leader)


    "Aye"(??)


    The man takes about forty steps in, checks the surrounding, settles near a tree, sets his equipment and starts to urinate. While urinating, the man hears small branch break by the nearby bushes. He picks up his two-handed sword, goes towards the bushes, and releases a powerful thrust. As he pulled out his sword, there is a racoon, twitching at the end. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he turns around to walk back to the rest site, As soon as he did....


    *Whish*


    Something appeared in front of him, before he could reach for his whistle, he felt something warm dripping from his throat and chest. He looked down, horrified to see his neck and chest gouged out before forever blacking out...


    "It seems I need to be more careful, hah."


    The creature said before disappearing into the forest to bide for more time.