VERNER: The Devil Hunter

My first devil hunt Part 1

Pine grove valley, Current day;

Pine grove valley was another settlement of people within the Green crest mountain range, the largest and longest mountain group of mountains in the Celestra Empire and the whole world as it spanned almost Ten thousand kilometers. The mountains in this range had valleys in between them filled with lush green forests and scattered human villages. Sun flower village, willow valley and pine grove valley were all in this mountain range, but Sunflower village was in the far east and willow valley and pine grove were far west.

Rodric and Verner got to village in the pine grove valley at night. The sun had just set and the streets were gradually emptying. Lamp lights lined the roads to help people see, but they also made the streets look very pretty at night. Rodric and Verner stood on the roof of a building and watched the locals move around. Rodric seemed to be deep in thought, Verner just stared at him cluelessly.

"So uhm...what do we do now?"

Rodric rubbed his chin, still thinking "I picked up dark energy residuals from two different devils around this village yesterday. It was hard for me to pin point their location but my guess is they'd be showing up here today"

Verner was stunned "Two devils?"

"Not just that, they should be red grades as well" Rodric said it like he wanted Verner to be scared, and it looked like it was working.

"There are four classes of devils ranked by power. The lowest, white grade, are usually just faster and stronger than your average human, lack definite body structure and even intelligence, most of them have teeth and claws to eat flesh, those ones are light work for any good hunter, then there are red grades, red grades are much faster than stronger than white grades, most of them have body parts modified into different forms of weapons, a few can use special techniques just like we hunters, judging by the kind of dark energy residuals I sensed, the two devils in this valley must be red grades"

"Two red grade devils?" Verner thought

"Then there are black grades, black grades are extremely powerful and rare devils, all black grade devils have very powerful techniques and will easily overpower even hunter majors, most of them can take on sentinel hunters on their own, and then, at the top of the class of black grade, there are the primordials, the lords of devils, devils that have lived and acquired power for so many thousands of years".

Rodric stopped talking and continued to watch the streets. Verner was still curious.

"Have you ever fought a primordial devil?" he asked

"Nope, but I hope to one day, there are only four primordials known to Guardian society; Belzara, the devil of lust, Phobius, the devil of fear, Damorak, the devil of darkness, and lastly, Malachar, the king of devils"

"Malachar..." Verner murmured, he grabbed his sword, his face had a stern look as he immediately remembered that night, the reason why he's doing everything he does. "Never again..." he thought.

"I'm going to leave you now, this is your battle, find the devils and get rid of them" Rodric started walking away, he gave that instruction like it was so easy.

"WAIT!!!" Verner screamed

"What?, you want to quit?, it's fine we can go home now".

"No...no, it's not that"

Rodric looked disappointed

"I don't have any Qi, I can't sense dark energy like you"

"Hmmm...then use your senses, smell, sound, anything, devils either smell like burnt meat or berry fragnance, if you perceive any one in odd places, be alert". He jumped to the roof of another building then looked back at Verner "If you were a devil hunter, you'd still need your senses to track devils, so it's the same thing, I'd be leaving you now, I don't want to be tempted to save you" Verner just stared at him.

"Good luck boy, I hope I see you tomorrow" he leaped off until he he was out sight, Verner kept staring at the direction he went into, then he closed his eyes briefly and took deep breathes

"I'm ready for this, I've trained for this, it's ok to be afraid, I'm ready for anything" he looked back at the street and grabbed his sword. "I'll be a devil hunter...no matter what it takes".

Most stalls were already closed except the ones in a particular street, the busiest market street in the heart of the village. Traders and businesses usually stayed up till very late in the night since their homes were close by. Verner walked through the beautiful lamp lit street, people eating, laughing and trading. He saw a store that sold ramen noodles and he couldn't resist it. "I'm pretty hungry though". He walked to the store and ordered for some, he had some change in his pockets to pay. There was no sign of a devil anywhere, this night might be a lot better than he thought.

Meanwhile, a few buildings away from him, Litira sat on a roof top with her legs crossed. "So many human crawling around, so many children too" she licked her lips, her tongue was so long it wiped her nose too.

"Litira" Gustor landed on the rooftop she was sitting on and walked to her side. "I've searched the entire valley, no devil hunter in sight, we are good to go". Litira smiled deviously, they were going to eat so much this night that they wouldn't need to wake up for another decade. Devils don't need food to survive, they're immortal, but if they don't feed on human flesh or blood they'll remain in a state of starvation and will become extremely weak, devils can eat as much food as possible as long as there's food to eat, their stomachs can never get full.

"Let us begin then..."