1: TO CATCH AN ANOMALY

"Could you describe the creature that attacked you?"

It was 4.56 PM at a police station in New Hope City.

The woman on the other side of the desk lowered her head, thinking. There were small cuts on the arm she cradled, and scratch marks were on her face.

"I couldn't see, it was too fast." She said, her voice shaking with recollection.

"It's okay, ma'am," said the officer, "Anything you remember could be helpful."

She lowered her head again. "Okay, uh...it had...it had red eyes, yeah. And it had a horn, I think."

"Alright. That's very helpful, thanks. Now I need you to follow Mr Linn. Your wounds need to be treated."

She nodded gratefully as she rose and Linn led her to the sick bay. Another half hour with her wounds untreated would either leave her with a nasty infection that would require amputation or lead to death.

The officer released the worried breath he had been holding since the woman brought her report. Hurriedly, he tapped the red button on his desk, sending a call to higher authorities.

It had been a year since the last Anomaly had been exorcised, and the reappearance of another at this time of the year was NOT good.

But that was where the higher authorities came in. That was where the Maegen was concerned.

5.50 PM, BLOOM VILLAGE, IN THE COUNTRYSIDE OF NEW HOPE CITY.

Neon Rudson surveyed the view in front of him.

It was a farmland in the countryside and he could see why it would pick here as a hiding spot. The place was removed from the public eye, was damn too quiet and well, there was the livestock which it could easily prey on.

"Something about this place don't smell right to me," said a gruff voice behind him.

He turned with a frown. That's right, he hadn't paid the driver yet.

Reaching into his coat, he took out a ten-bill note and handed it to him.

"You one of them Wardens, aren't you?" Said the driver as he collected the money.

"What gave me away?" Neon asked. He had taken care to wear the inconspicuous black coat instead of the official one with the crest of the Maegen Guild.

"I heard a Anomaly's escaped the Veil, so I figured you'd be one of them magic people sent here to deal with it." He leaned forward a bit. "Plus you got that dead look them Hunters got."

Neon nodded slightly. The man had a keen sense of observation and if given the chance, he could very well turn out to be a good Warden.

"Good hunting, then," said the driver as he ignited the engine and took off.

Neon watched the car disappear before he took out a cigarette and tucked it into his mouth.

"Good hunting," he muttered to himself, "Right."

He crossed the stile into the farm, flipping his coat after him, sniffing the air in a habitual manner.

The scents he picked were not heavy, but they weren't particularly pleasing either. Trampled soil, animal droppings, the rushing river behind the house.

He spotted two dead goats, both eaten in half, lying outside their pen...and then he caught a particularly stinging odour. It came from the barn, and that was where he went.

From the description the woman had given the officer, it definitely had to be a Horned Anomaly. Fast, strong, deadly, but he didn't expect any trouble. They were all that way until he had put them down.

He widened his senses, taking in the environment in one, brief mental sweep. He captured its presence even without his system alerting him and it was already creeping up on him.

So he waited.

The creature launched itself at him faster than the naked eye could catch, aiming for his neck.

It came within reach, bone sticking out of its outstretched palm, going for the kill...

He moved in a flash, driving his glowing fist into the Anomaly's exposed neck. Its eyes widened in dead shock at the same time it went crashing loudly into the stack of woods in the corner.

Neon straightened then, blowing at his palm. He had packed enough energy into that punch, so that ought to have subdued the Anomaly.

Then it moved.

Bits of broken wood slipped off its gray skin as it rose to its feet, fangs bared and throat growling. It was a Horned for sure, with three large bones sticking out of its head and eyes red as blood.

That wasn't what bothered Neon, though. It had resisted his punch.

It screeched at him and he stood back, poised for attack. But in a flash, it bolted outside, running on all fours.

He took off after the Anomaly, following its scent and gradually gaining speed on the vermin.

It was heading to the village, and that would be ground zero for its rampage as Neon would not risk casualties.

He focused his energies into the left tekhan and the red screen flashed across his vision.

¡ LONG RANGE CAPTURE PROTOCOLS ¡

STUN BEAM

SONIC BOOM

GRAVITY ANCHOR

ACTIVATE SPECIAL ABILITY

The streaking wind whipped his hair into his eyes, but he aimed anyway, honing his mark to follow its scent.

A red bolt shot out of his outstretched fingers. It zipped through the air with an electrifying sound, following the fleeing Anomaly, and it struck home with a loud zap.

It howled in pain, tumbling forward in a heap until it lay still.

Neon slowed down next to the motionless being. Anomalies didn't have heartbeats, so he listened for a breath. For some seconds, there was nothing and he began to worry if he had hit a bit too much…

Its breath came slow and weak, so it was not dead. He hadn't meant to kill it, anyway. Warden Hunters were allowed to kill, only if the Anomaly had taken human life. That in itself was rare.

He stooped and placed a large cuff on its neck, shutting down its body functions (In Maegen circles, it was called a Crippler). Then he held up his tekhan and spoke into it.

"Agent Rudson, reporting. The time is 6.08 PM and I have successfully captured the Horned Anomaly mentioned in the report. Requesting extraction team dispatch for immediate containment and transport back to the Veil. I'm sending in my coordinates now."

He tapped the tekhan, sending a blue screen into the air in front of him. He started typing in his coordinates when a high-pitched shriek pierced the air.

"Fuck!" He cursed, tuning down his senses, eyes darting towards the direction of the sound.

It came from the village, followed by a strong stench that he identified almost immediately as another Anomaly.

But there was something else to that scent.

Without thinking, he took towards the village, bolting through the streets like a comet, feet barely touching the ground as he covered the distance.

He came to a stop in front of a pub that was on fire. The smell came from within, villagers fled from it in terror, the smoke billowed around in thick fumes. No one assembled to douse out the flames that whipped and howled like they were alive, clawing and reaching for the skies.

"What the hell?" He muttered, taking a step towards the burning building.

ℹ️ ALERT: UNIDENTIFIED ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED ℹ️

In a second, he saw the creature shoot up into the sky in a ball of flame, wings beating a bright orange hue. It stared down as it rose and in a split second, their gazes met. He held up his hand, ready to take aim, when it screeched. His senses were already tuned to the maximum and he flinched in pain when the sound reached his ears.

Then it was gone, vanishing in another ball of flame.