The Record of Unusual Creature

“What?!” Hessiana was flying when she heard the message and nearly fell from the sky. “Come again?!”

“Demon hunters!” The voice on the other end was frantic yet clear and there were sounds of combat in the background. “They have penetrated the Shadowy Divide! I’m not sure why the Divide shut down! They are all over the place!”

“Hold your ground!” Hessiana roared as she conjured up a group of bats and sent them towards every part of town. “Quickly! Check the crypt! Inform teams with less than five men to group up with the nearest team and head towards the Shadeling’s stronghold!”

Hessiana then immediately hung up before she began to contact other teams for tactical information on the ground. After gathering more information on the main areas of combat, she quickly contacted the homebase. “What’s the situation now?”

“A breach has appeared near the rose path and about 20 hunters came through. Massive casualties.” A steady voice could be heard from the communicator. “We’ve used artillery strikes to seal the area, and deployed poison gas as well as acidic incendiary bombs. From the reports we’ve got so far, there are 10 more breaches around the city. Many streets are now lost.”

“Secure our stronghold first. Help anyone nearby if possible. Those that we can’t help… It’ll be up to their own luck!” Hessiana quickly threw out orders. “Thank god we haven’t deployed the Tigers… Use the tanks to block the roads. Man the HMG nests on the stronghold! And deploy the Poison Mist Barrier as well. I’m trying to reach all the other Ancient Ones. Hold the damn line until I get them to mend the breach!”

Streams of reports and orders came and went. Thankfully, these vampires were in with the times and they had portable communication devices to relay messages. Thus, they swiftly recovered from the initial shock and awe of the attack. Other parts of the city were not as lucky. Facing the relentless onslaught by the demon hunters, a good half of the smaller clans and families in the city could not even muster any form of resistance. Besides, the war between the two vampire families and the shadelings was initially thought to be “business as usual” so, most of the small clans had decided to turtle in their own strongholds until the storm passed. When the demon hunters came crashing in, most of them were not even prepared to draw their blades and suffered heavy casualties as a result.

Yes, a war between the bigger clans in the shelter was not an uncommin thing. Hessiana’s initial rampage against the established families was merely one of the many conflicts and the smaller clans were so used to it that they resorted to hiding until things calmed down once again. But to everyone’s dismay, the demon hunters had decided to strike in the most inopportune of times.

“F*ck! The city’s in chaos.” Hessiana clenched her fist. “How did the demon hunters get in?”

Hao Ren frowned as something came to mind. It sounded almost impossible yet, very probable. “Can’t it be Bethano—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a big explosion and war cry came from the shadeling’s stronghold. From the flames, a group of shadowy monsters charged forward, their killing intent almost palpable.

The shadelings who had been cowering inside their hideout all this while took the chance to counter attack now that chaos had ensued; their timing was almost impeccable.

“The Shadowy Divide…” Hessiana looked towards the shadeling’s stronghold as fire lit up in her eyes. “The Divide was designed by the shadelings! Bethanos, you f*cking lunatic!”

More and more demon hunters were pouring into the streets from the breach. However, by then, a good portion of the unusual creatures had gotten grips of the situation and formed a steady line of defense. The shelter that had previously knew peace for a century was now a scene of smoke and debris. In just a few minutes, a titantic event that would change the place forever unfolded. But Hessiana did not dither. She was even more motivated as she led the group towards the stronghold. She only had one goal in mind, and that was to drag the old lunatic out and flay him alive.

Just as the stronghold was about to be within their sights, the group was assailed by monstrous creatures covered in black smog.

They were big, almost two metres tall at least, and were humanoid in shape. But, their skin was pitch black with traces of runic laylines running through it. On each one of their backs was a pair of gigantic, almost ethereal bat-like wings. Perhaps, demonic wings would have been a better description.

About 10 of these half-human, half demon monsters were blocking their path and it just so happened that the street was a narrow one—almost too perfect for a blockade. Hessiana lost her temper as soon as she saw them. “Shadelings!”

Hao Ren elbowed Y’zaks who was standing beside him. “Your relatives.”

Y’zaks cracked his knuckles as a firey aura started to envelope him. “Too ugly. There are shadelings where I come from and they have beautiful hooves.”

“Finally, time for some payback…” Becky gripped her enchanted longsword as a small vortex formed around her. The mercenrary lass almost loss her life in the energy vortex and had been nursing a grudge against the shadelings. As a seasoned mercenary, she had seen all sorts of hideous monsters and the ones in front of her did not faze her. She only had one thing in her mind: sink her blade into each and everyone of them.

“Hessiana!” The shadelings facing them reacted in shock as it caught sight of the petite vampire. “You’re not dead?!”

“Of course I’m not dead.” Hessiana raised her hand as her Daredevils aimed their RPGs towards their foes. “I’ve even brought toys for you to play with! Fire!”

Ten blessed warheads flew out from the launcher as they shrieked towards the shadelings. In a blinding mix of flames and purifying light, the warhead slammed against the shadelings. Hao Ren even caught sight of one taking two warheads straight in the face and he was blown miles away for his troubles.

But many of the shadelings reacted in time and they deployed their magical shields or escaped the blast zone. Before the dust settled, they charged out like darting shadows towards Hao Ren and his group.

The Daredevils (that will be their official name from now on) quickly threw down the rocket launchers and drew their blessed silver swords with one hand. With the other, they held the assault rifle and started spraying bullets. Their unique style of fighting was a sight to behold as they countercharged the shadelings.

The unusual creature were indeed a tough bunch. After eating a barrage of RPG bullets (and those were blessed with holy water), a good half of them were still unscathed as they continued to charge. The two groups quickly clashed and the fight turned into a chaotic melee.

Hao Ren had no time to see how the others were faring. At any rate, all of the people present were competent fighters at the very least, even the—hide in a corner in a ball—siren was impervious to attacks for a good while. He now had to focus on the enemies in front of him.

A strong looking shadeling shrouded in black smog was charging towards him. Everything the smog touched had turned into dust so, Hao Ren quickly deployed his Steel Membrane Shield to weather the attack. However, something amazing happened.

The lethal smog dissipated the moment it came into contact with him. The shield did not even flicker.

Hao Ren’s shield was not activated and yet the black smog was nullified.

The charging shadeling did not have time to even digest what had happenened before he crashed head first into Hao Ren and the latter quickly grabbed the shadeling’s arm and slammed him into the ground. While the shadeling looked bigger and stronger than Hao Ren, Hao Ren’s physical capabilities had already been enhanced to the point that his outer appearance was just a ruse. He had secretly tried out his newfound strength before and he could use his thumb to bend a standard DN40 steel pipe into all kinds of shapes. This was clearly outside a usual human’s physical ability and this had something to do with the stuff that was co-existing within him. Well, the shadeling was indeed strong, at least Hao Ren felt that was the case anyway.

He was surprised too when the black smog was nullified and it took him a few seconds to recover. Hao Ren grinned wildly as he tapped the dazed shadeling in his hold. “Look up, I’ve got something nice to show you.”

The shadeling looked up naturally and saw a gleaming, bone-chilling object closing in on it…