The moon hung high, silvering the brush and vines. No one had time to admire it.
Since humans began, the hunt has existed; it played out again beneath the trees. By moonlight, torches, and shouts, the Collinsburg cult sprinted after Rai's trio, led by the bald guy.
Jonah, yes, the stationkeeper(bald guy) was annoyed. He'd planned to take them one by one without hurting the "offerings," snag Queenie first, then the two at camp.
Instead, something went wrong with Queenie, and the group bolted early and shot Vincent(horse-faced guy) dead on top of that.
Students? Really?
But the "revelation" they'd been given said the god craved these three more than any offerings before. The job had to be finished. Jonah's face twisted. "Faster! Faster! Blood is blood!"
"Blood is blood!"
It hit the mob like uppers; they surged.
They were close enough to glimpse Rai's back now. Jonah called, smiling, "Ladies and gentlemen, nighttime isn't safe. Stop running! Come back and we'll give you a warm welcome!"
Rai didn't bother replying.
Madison did. "Welcome? As sacrifices for that ugly pervert?"
Jonah bristled. "That is the Lord of the Swamp, a god made flesh, the greatest miracle! Chosen as vessels to bear His noble bloodline, is your highest honour!"
Madison blinked. "The gator-man can do that? Greatest discovery of the century."
Zoe looked sick. She'd thought they were headed for bloodletting; turns out the plan was even worse.
"Hold tight."
Rai burned ten containment points. Physique reached 1.6; his strength increased; he picked up Zoe and Madison both and got even faster.
"Rai, how are you this strong?" Zoe shouted, hair whipping.
"He's amazing," Madison whooped, now blissfully not running. "Your physique is visibly getting juiced. What are you, a dragon like Jake Long in the cartoons? Awakened bloodline?"
"That's a secret," Rai said, while smiling.
—
Jonah watched their quarry pull away and panicked. If he was pressed, the others were worse. With the prey about to vanish, discipline snapped; rifles and shotguns cracked through the trees.
Lots of noise. Zero results. It was too dark, too many trunks, and Rai moved too fast. If they hit at that range, that'd be the miracle.
Just as the "done deal" slipped from sight.
A massive shadow, tail thick as a log, flashed past them and tore after Rai's group at terrifying speed.
To Jonah and the rest, it was as if the Lord Himself had descended. They lifted their voices, feverish and devout, in a harsh, uncanny hymn:
"Walk with God."
"We save her soul."
"We control her head and hands."
"This is her honour."
"We will bring her new birth."
"We will welcome a better life."
"We are still alive."
"It has always been His will."
"O great Lord!"
"We will control her trunk, her head, her limbs."
"How glorious we are!"
"We will bring Him life!"
"We will forever obey His will!"
…
Ahead, they could hear the racket.
"What are they even chanting?" Madison asked.
"Sounds like… a prayer to an evil god," Zoe said, uncertain. She had been to church a few times.
Rai opened his mouth…
Then his face changed.
"Careful!"
Razor hooks scythed over their heads like a viper's flicking tongue.
If Rai hadn't rolled on instinct, dragging Zoe and Madison down with him, the thing would've popped their skulls like lids.
They scrambled up, and a massive shadow dropped in front of them.
By moonlight, Rai saw it clearly: a hulking, man-shaped reptile, crocodilian head the size of a drum, hide plated in scales, a thick tail swaying behind as its blood-stained jaws yawned wide to show rows of teeth.
"So there really is a gator-man," Zoe breathed.
In Rai's head, the Grimoire flushed a deep crimson new "entry." He didn't feel thrilled. There were still dozens of guns behind them.
"Madison use Mind Control!"
"On it!"
Madison locked eyes with the gator-man.
For an instant, its mind snagged; it froze, stupid and still.
Rai snapped his Glock up and fired at its head.
Bang!
Scales burst; dark green blood spattered.
One good thing, one bad.
Good: the bullet hurt it, this wasn't an evil spirit or that bull-headed voodoo doll shrugging off firearms.
Bad: The gator-man managed to break free almost immediately, raising its arm to take the shot instead of its skull.
"Its mental resistance is way higher than a human's," Madison said, frowning.
"Again!"
If she could buy a second, he'd use it.
But the gator-man slipped back into the dark, spooked by that exchange yet not fleeing far. Sensing these offerings weren't normal and a solo rush was risky, it prowled just out of sight, harrying them, waiting for the cultists to close in so they could take the trio together.
"Cunning beast."
Even though Rai had read the plan, it was difficult to give a clear answer in its home territory, where visibility was poor.
The one upside: after a long chase, the cult line had strung out; fatigue split them into a long, thin tail. No more facing dozens of muzzles at once.
"Time to thin them out."
Rai ran blindly into the wilderness without any supplies. He knew that if he was caught, he would only end up dead. He stopped, turned, and chose to hit the cultists one by one while they were all spread out.
"Should've started there." Madison's smile went cold. She crooked a finger at the loudest, closest zealot.
He jumped up and ran to her.
"D–demon!" he stammered at the beautiful "demon" in front of him, face bleaching.
"A cultist calling someone else a demon. Cute."
Madison flicked her hand.
Crack.
His neck spun a full circle. Dead, dead.
"Can you use a gun?"
Without blinking, Madison stripped the shotgun from the corpse and passed it to Zoe.
"Of course."
Zoe glanced at the ruin at their feet, then worked the action with neat, practised hands. She looked soft, but this was the girl who could play jigsaw with cadavers in a morgue.
Kill or be killed doesn't require debate.
Rai and the young witches counterattacked.
Under bullets, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, and the pricking glare of Mind Control, the fastest cultists dropped without a sound.
Before the rear even processed what was happening, the three had already surged forward, crashing into the line while the duped bravos stared like fish that had leapt into the net on their own.
Moments later, one survivor finally found his voice: "Witches! They're witches with demonic power!"
"Good guess." Madison's eyes slid to him.
He went white, flung his gun, and clamped both hands to his neck to keep it from turning itself pointless.
Crack.
Down he went.
"You got one thing wrong. Witches are witches. No demon in the mix."
"Now feel a witch's anger, trash."
The killing peeled back Madison's social restraints, letting something wild and exultant bloom.
Her gaze swept the brush.
And flame roared.
An enormous inferno raced across the ground, swelling and spreading.
It didn't stop there.
Beside her, Zoe flinched then focused. Fire bloomed at her will as well.
Screams rose as the nearest cultists failed to dodge and went up like torches.
AAAAAA!
They were covered in flames, and they were in so much pain that they collapsed.
Farther back, the ones who'd escaped the first wave stared, terrified, at the wall of fire and their shrieking comrades writhing within it.
The guy who'd spun alligator tales at the station stared at the glare, numb. "God… what have we provoked?"
It was like a bucket of ice over the mob. No one had expected to run into real witches.
And this is strong?
They still had numbers, but courage was already cracking; the urge to bolt rippled through them.
A thunderous bellow slammed the night.
Faces changed. Feet that had started to retreat stopped dead.
"The Lord is angry! He rebukes our cowardice!"
Jonah, the bald station owner and head of the cult, snapped, "Where is your loyalty? Do you mean to defy His will?"
Heads shook frantically.
"No retreat! Raise your guns! For the Lord! For our better future! Take those witches, they are the finest offerings!"
"Blood is blood!"
"Blood is blood!"
Faith layered over the years beat back raw fear. Praying at the top of their lungs, the remaining cultists rallied under Jonah and charged again.
At the same time, the gator-man that had ordered them on… moved.
The gator man had meant to wait until his faithful finished taking the "offerings," then step out to tidy up. He hadn't expected the flock he trusted to nearly break at the seams. With the line steady again, he couldn't risk the prey slipping away. He had to move.
Since mutating into what he was now, the reason of the man once called Grimley Bawting had been ebbing fast, replaced by an endless hunger for flesh and for breeding. The gator wanted to breed, and the last of his human character wanted to keep his family alive. The pain of losing his unborn children and the desire to continue his family line kept him motivated to have children, even in his new form.
But none of the women he'd seized had ever carried his child.
This time was different.
These offerings scared him and excited him at the same time. They had power; they could make more of their kind and might make their children stronger.
So he could not let them go.
He moved.
In the woods, full of bushes and trees, he moved quickly around the witches' line of sight. His strong, scaly legs moved quickly and suddenly, and he jumped at the women, who were not expecting it.
A black blur cut in from the side and slammed him flat.
"Been waiting for you," Rai said.
Pinning the gator man, Rai ripped out the kukri and brought the heavy, wide blade down hard.
During the counterattack, while Madison and even Zoe were throwing their weight around, Rai had spent most of his time guarding against the creature in the dark. For all their power, if an enemy got in close, the girls were soft targets witch bodies were still human bodies. And the school taught control, not how to be hitters.
Steel flashed in the moonlight.
The gator man threw up an arm.
Crack. Scales shattered; green blood sprayed. The edge bit deep.
"So that's all you've got?" Rai grinned.
If it could bleed to steel, it could die.
[Physique: 1.6] → [Physique: 1.8]
Not the time to hoard points, Rai locked his grip and drove more force through the blade. A parang that could bite through saplings would take the arm clean.
A vicious whistle tore in from behind.
Rai rolled on instinct.
A thick tail scythed through where he'd been, slammed a tree, and blew a hole through the trunk. The bole shuddered, then toppled with a crash.
The gator man surged up, claws like meat-hooks, and pounced in a gust of rank wind.
Rai snorted, snapped the Glock up with his off hand, and stitched fire. The creature jinked, checking its rush, and Rai was already on it, closing, hacking, chopping, all speed and weight. He had no "style"; killing with a blade was three words: fast, clean, final. With a body past human limits, that was enough.
"Hey! Rai, give us an opening!"
Madison and Zoe swung their aim over. They'd wanted to help, but man and beast were a blur, tangled tight. No shot.
"Is that something I can just 'give'?" Rai shot back.
If he peeled off, the thing would bolt. This wasn't one of those dumb cultists; after getting burned by Mind Control once, it wouldn't freeze again. And the smarter cultists still alive had stopped stepping into the girls' sightlines results were thinning.
Gunfire crept closer. A ricochet kissed dirt by Rai's boot.
"You two handle the cultists!" he barked. "Ugly guy here is mine."
The gator man didn't like that at all. He wasn't here for Rai; he was here for broodmares. Spotting a seam, he whipped his tail; Rai slipped the worst of it, and the creature broke contact, coiling to sprint for the witches.
A hand like a clamp locked around its tail.
"Nice try. Beasts don't outthink people," Rai said.
Moonlight flashed; the blade fell.
Half the tail hit the ground.
The creature screamed raw and bell-splitting, then forgot the witches entirely. It reared, a two-meter wall of scale and rage, and barreled at Rai.
Rai was ready. He sidestepped at the last beat and shoved, letting its own mass carry it past. Its next step found air; the slope behind Rai fell away.
It tumbled.
The stump of its tail whipped as it went, catching Rai's legs. He stumbled, missed footing, and went with it.
They crashed downslope, tearing brush and branches, thudding through mud.
The moment the world stopped spinning, the gator man heaved upright. A few paces off, Rai spat grit, snatched up the fallen blade, and rang it against incoming claws, steel on keratin.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He brought the Glock back into play with his free hand. The creature slithered aside. A few hits wouldn't kill it, but enough pain added up, and going in already chewed wasn't smart. Not against Rai.
Which was exactly how Rai wanted it.
Just as the gator man slipped sideways.
Rai ditched the Glock, stepped in, twisted from the waist, and whipped his left arm forward with the kukri.
"Skkkreee!" Steel tore the air with a high, skimming screech.
Under the gator man's startled stare, the moon-curved blade traced a neat arc and slashed for its chest faster than it could dodge.
Not just that.
The instant pain flared, the blade-light flared red.
Pyrokinesis.
A spark flicked in Rai's eyes.
The power he'd held back all fight finally roared out, fire surged to sheath the blade, and as steel split scale and bit into flesh, tongues of flame snaked off the edge and burrowed inside the gator man.
Its scream was far rawer than before, ripping the trees, the creature thrashing madly, smashing at everything around it.
Rai yanked the blade free and stepped back.
Its chest now held a long cut, and inside that slit was a charred-black cavity where the fire had done its work.
Good. Worth the wait.
If he'd started flinging sparks earlier, with his low Spirit, he'd have done little more than singe it. This way, the burn went inside.
Luckily for the thing, it was built like a tank; a human would've been dead on the spot.
The frenzy passed. When the gator man sagged, panting and weak.
"Round two," Rai said.
Silver flashed as the blade came again.
The creature's pupils pinholed; it fixed on the kukri. There were no flames now, but it didn't dare take the swing lightly. It guarded carefully.
But a Physique of 1.8 versus a badly wounded body…
Another cut shaved down its tail, then a hard kick put the creature on its back with a crash.
Now.
Rai gripped the hilt in both hands and drove the blade straight down.
Rip!
Green blood sheeted up.
Claws clamped the steel; eyes crazed, the gator man threw everything into one last lunge. Its jaws were wide enough to swallow half a person, yawned to the limit, rows of teeth far denser and sharper than any normal gator, snapping for Rai's head.
Rai didn't even blink. He'd been waiting for this.
[Spirit: 0.3] → [Spirit: 0.5]
"Your breath stinks. Lemme brush," he said.
He sighted straight into that gaping maw.
Whoom!
All his Spirit energy poured into the spark; a blast of fire bloomed inside the creature's mouth.
The gator man jerked, convulsed… and then went slack.
Thud.
Silence.
"Done," Rai exhaled, letting go of the kukri still locked in those dead hands.
Exactly as planned. To keep the night from getting any longer and to get back to Madison and Zoe, he'd baited the creature's hands with the blade, forcing it to commit and use its one true weapon: the gator bite.
Salem's pyromancy follows the eyes; at this range, a wide-open weak point was just asking to die.
A thread of spirit-light lifted off the corpse and sank into the Grimoire. Pages turned.
[ID: 004]
[Name: Grimley Bawtin]
[Type: Mutant gator man]
[Status: Contained]
[Abilities: Gator Morph; Control Gators]
[Notes: To avenge his sister-wife and unborn child, he ate the flesh of a fabled giant gator. In that frenzy of rage and bloodthirst, he mutated into a gator man and replaced the beast as the swamp's new terror.]
New containment adds ten more days to the timer.
And a surprise haul: 150 containment points. Way more than Heather or the bull-headed stitch-job.
He hadn't felt the gator man was stronger than those two. So if points weren't purely "power," what then body count? On that score, the gator man won easily; years of offerings, more blood by far than the others.
Maybe it was a mix of strengths, sins, and other weights. Hard to say. Too little data.
He shelved the theory. The immediate problem wasn't solved yet. Points hoarded don't save lives, power does.
Abilities next. Both of the gator man's showed as learnable.
[Gator Morph] would turn him into something neither man nor monster, with no way back. Hard pass.
[Control Gators] was underwhelming, just commanding gators, nothing like the "see through every gator" sense that old John had bragged the gator man possessed. Useful for a swamp hunter, not here.
That left what mattered: [Telekinesis] and [Mind Control]. With armed cultists to deal with, and to complement Pyrokinesis rather than overlap it, he chose..
[Mind Control] (–80 points).
The Grimoire taught; the skill clicked into place.
Points left: 70.
A third awakened ability would cost 120 later. For now, push the basics.
All remaining points went into stats.
[Physique: 1.8] → [Physique: 2.0]
At that threshold, something new unlocked:
[Healthy]: With Physique 2.0, you're immune to most diseases.
Nice. Not a flashy combat boost, but priceless. Anyone who's lost a week to a bad illness knows.