Travelling through the Mirror World, Aubrey entered through another empty bathroom on campus, going out and riding home on his motorcycle. He reached his house, and took a shower to get all of the blood off of him.
The warm water felt interesting, but he made it cold. With that cold water covering his body, Aubrey breathed a sigh of relief, finding it much more satiating than warmth.
As he rubbed soap along his body, he got a look at his hand, seeing a noticeable change on it. The nails were black.
Hm? Ew, what the heck? Why is it black?
Well, maybe it's because I'm fabulous? Yes queen, slayyy~
Chuckling to himself, his eyes honed in on the rest of his hand, seeing cracks.
"E-egh, what the fuck?"
His skin was cracked and dry. He rubbed it with his other hand, seeing that both hands were like this.
Maybe I oughta use some moisturizer or something… seriously, what is this?
Aubrey checked, seeing that the cracking was entirely on his hand, not even touching his wrist. He didn't feel any pain either, so he assumed it was not serious.
He summoned the Bloodless-Knife, finding that once more, he received the weapon as the Trait rather than anything interesting.
Though, unlike the Slit-Mouth-Scissors, since I ate more of the Library Guy, I imagine these weapons actually have special effects. Not to mention, being able to summon two weapons at once does sound pretty good.
Unsatisfied.
As Aubrey went to his bed, he felt deeply unsatisfied.
Even if he managed to gain a new Trait, it wasn't flashy enough. Definitely not the kind which could keep him happy for long.
When a monster like Sam existed, just the barebones of enhanced strength, temperature manipulation, Stealth and the ability to summon 2 weapons, one of which leaving no blood behind—such things would not be enough.
Though his physical appetite had been satiated for a bit, his mental hunger was not. Absolutely, it was not.
Sam can beat any monster he wants, no problem. Meanwhile, every time I fight a monster, I struggle for a bit. Even the weaklings like the Bloodless Library Killer give me trouble. Even if I won in the end, I still got hurt badly.
And in the end, I needed to kill that guy to avoid being caught.
Extending his hand into the air, Aubrey, who was not sleepy in the slightest, narrowed his eyes.
Sam has it so easy. I need to get stronger Traits. If I could freely control temperature and freeze people, or entirely disappear from sight, or anything like that—wouldn't I be stronger?
If it's like that, then I wouldn't have to plan around them. I could fight them head-on, just like Sam.
Aubrey clicked his tongue.
"Lucky bastard."
He got out of bed, laughing to himself and shaking his head. "Nah, good for him, though. But I'll get stronger than him. After all, Sienna wouldn't want a bitch as a boyfriend, would she?"
Going onto the internet, Aubrey did more research into the monsters of the world.
As for perhaps the most famous of them all,
I'll kill it.
…
"Oh, where are youuuu~?" Aubrey sang, walking through the woods. Hatchet in hand, he sang tunes, trucking through the snowfall he produced.
The moonlight bright, Aubrey had already decided to take the day off school. He kept moving forward, until finally,
"What do you want?"
Sniffing the air, Aubrey smelled the dirt and stench of hair. He turned back around, seeing a 10 foot tall, bipedal ape looking down on him.
"Yeesh, you'd even make Sam look up. That aside, Bigfoot, I must say it's quite an honor. After all, you're so well known it's honestly marvelous."
"...You're getting annoying. Answer me already—what do you want?"
"Ah, that's right. Well, in all honesty, I simply want to get stronger."
"Oh?"
"Yep. See, if I eat you, then I'll get stronger. Mind giving me some DNA to consume? And nothing nasty, please."
Bigfoot looked down and scoffed, shaking his head.
"Get lost, hybrid."
Bigfoot brushed him aside with his giant hand, easily brushing Aubrey off to the side as he kept moving forward.
"And also, stop making it cold; it's annoying."
Bigfoot kept walking, leaving Aubrey behind. Aubrey sighed, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, guess that's that." Aubrey walked away, hiding behind a tree and stalking his future victim.
Over a period of several hours, Aubrey had found the general location of Bigfoot, as well as his home. Bigfoot slept inside of a cave. Aubrey watched for 10 minutes.
Behind a tree, Aubrey's eyes stared intently at the sleeping ape, who rested on a pile of leaves and dirt.
Monsters are scary. But when I'm the one watching them, it's exciting.
Aubrey licked his lips, taking out his hatchet.
The Black Wraith silently went over, creeping closer. From then, the figure of an all-black humanoid in the shadows watched over the beast. He did not waste the energy to smile, as smiling was something which he felt was quite hard for him.
The only times he thought it befit a smile was when he had to, or when he could not control it. Unless either of those two conditions were met, he did not like smiling. It was something which tended to draw attention, after all.
Raising the hatchet into the air, Aubrey's fingers lacing the handle, Aubrey looked down on the beast.
Bigfoot isn't supernatural like the other monsters. Well, he's supernatural—but he's more akin to a failed extinction rather than a monster. Therefore, I'll aim for the heart.
Once he crushed the heart with the hatchet, it was only a matter of time before Bigfoot died. It was all planned out.
A lethal blow to the heart would wake the monster up. Aubrey would lick the blood off of the hatchet and secure the Trait, and would keep Bigfoot alive for as long as he could, eating and eating to further strengthen his newfound—
"Ooh, ooh!"
"Mister WendigoWalker,"
"You came to visit Mr Monkey Man too!"
His eyes widening, Aubrey turned around, seeing three children in the darkness.
"Hk, sshhhh, you little—"
"ARGH! YOU!"
Not even having the time to turn around, Aubrey had his wrist grabbed and tugged on with excessive force, breaking it. The sound of his bones shattering and the prompt grinding of bone against bone, his arm angled horrifically wrong, those senses rang through Aubrey's mind.
"A-uaagghhhh!"
His body was lifted effortlessly, and he was launched out of the widely-open cave, his body crashing into dirt and sliding roughly. He only came to a stop when his body smacked into a tree, forcibly stopping him.
Aubrey climbed to his feet, seeing the rampaging beast before him. His chest was punched into, his sternum creaking and ultimately shattering underneath the immense might, as he collapsed to the ground, letting out an intense gasp for air.
He held one hand over his chest, as the kids surrounded Bigfoot.
"Easy Mr Monkey Man!"
"Wendigo-Guy,"
"Ain't gonna hurt ya!"
Aubrey looked up, seeing Bigfoot back away. The footsteps plainly audible, Aubrey felt only faint relief from his pain, as he looked at his wrist.
How wonderful, yet terrifying, the strength of Bigfoot was. Aubrey forced himself to stand, looking at his own flopping, messed up wrist. His eyes honed in on the three giddy children.
Silently, he abhorred them. Deeply, he wanted to get rid of them.
But I can't. Not right now.
Making the sound judgement that he should not enter a physical confrontation with the giant gorilla who broke his sternum with one violent impact, Aubrey fled through the forest to escape.
…
"...Annoying bastards."
Sniffing the air, Aubrey got a whiff of the familiar scent of a wendigo.
The temperature plummeting drastically with breakneck speeds, Aubrey looked to see a tall, bone-thin creature with incredibly long antlers atop its head.
"Heyheyhey, can't we talk this out?" Aubrey asked, holding his broken wrist together.
"...Hybrid…"
"Yeah, that's right. But listen, I don't want to fight. Can't you see I'm in a bit of a nasty situation?"
The snow piling up quickly, the wendigo walked forward through the sea of white, frosty breaths emerging.
That familiar fearful sensation arose in Aubrey's chest, as he couldn't help but make a face of utter disgust.
Obtaining a knife in his hands, Aubrey gave a rough growl before the wendigo charged him. It was incredibly fast, annoyingly so.
Yet, Aubrey manifested as a bear, squaring up to increase his height before taking the hand of a human. His body braced for impact, he was stabbed through the stomach. Yet, in spite of that, his human hand grabbed the wendigo's antlers and forced it to the ground using his strength and weight advantage.
Getting on top of the creature, Aubrey bit into the wendigo with his overwhelmingly strong jaw, ripping an entire chunk of its shoulder.
I knew it.
Swallowing the flesh, his body began to heal as Aubrey finished his thought out loud.
"—There's no way those antlers aren't a major weakness for you guys."
Aubrey pinned the wendigo's head down by its antlers into the cold dirt, as he took the knife and began to saw into its throat.
Actually, I should take advantage of this.
Aubrey stopped in his attempt to behead it. He continued to devour it, aiming for its stomach to get as much bang for his buck as he could, crunching ribcage and inner organs inside his jaw.
Eventually, this became the manner in which the wendigo died, its body disappearing from the world. Aubrey returned to his normal shape, letting out a soft sigh as he got back up.
Wasn't much of a fight, but that's only because I turned into a fucking bear. I can't afford to do that in public.
Even a Library Killer causes me trouble. Probably shouldn't get arrogant.
Because the meat was in a colder climate, the Wendigo side of him got stronger, which in turn acted in unison with his Skinwalker side, improving the Trait he gained even further.
From just this Wendigo, he dropped the temperature even further, to the point where it got cold even for the WendigoWalker, as he quickly warmed it up and nodded his head.
Yet, still no Fear Aura. If it's like a video game, then that's probably a Legendary Trait, while the Cold Air is a Common.
Though, since it makes even the Common stronger the more I eat, I don't mind. I'll hone it.
"Mister, mister,"
"We're sowwy for,"
"Almost getting you killed!"
Hearing those three annoying voices, Aubrey turned around, seeing the black-eyed children.
"Is that so? Well, I've got some candy or whatever. Want some?"
"We'd love it,"
"But we know,"
"That's a trap!"
Aubrey clicked his tongue.
"Whatever. What do you want?"
"Nothing,"
"Any,"
"More."
The children held hands and walked behind a tree, vanishing from sight. Aubrey sniffed the air, figuring out that they truly, genuinely vanished from the world.
…What scary little shits. Though, if they've left that big ape alone…
Aubrey rushed back to Bigfoot's cave. He watched from behind a tree, seeing the ape wielding his hatchet.
"Hey, hey, I'm just here to get my weapon back."
Aubrey did his best to look friendly, as Bigfoot looked at him dead-on.
"You… you tried to kill me with this, didn't you?"
"Ah? No, no, you got it mixed up. Plus, that punch really hurt my chest, y'know? You already got your payback."
The temperature plummeted overwhelmingly. The inside of the cave, which should have held the warm air of the spring, had become overrun with cold, forcing Bigfoot outside and into the elements even further as heavy snowfall began to beat against his forest.
"Uh oh, are you upset? Easy, easy. Just give me my weapon back—or else I'll rip it from your hands once you're a corpse."
This strategy likely would've still worked, even if I didn't run into that wendigo. But I'll be honest, it's speeding things up a lot quicker.
"Know your place, brat."
After all, in regards to cryptids, Bigfoot had been one all his life. In comparison, Aubrey was practically still a fetus, The Black Wraith only having been born a few weeks ago.
Aubrey tilted his head upwards, causing his dark hair to sweep to the side slightly, exposing his left eye.
That look infuriated Bigfoot to no end. For a creature so much smaller than this 10-foot behemoth to look at him with such a nasty glint,
"How absurd."
And as such, the battle between the monsters began.