The sounds of stomping in the grass sounded out into the night. Lionel had used his head start to put a decent distance between himself and the duo, though they were certainly on his tail in hot pursuit.

  “He hasn't teleported away as the Inquisitor did. That ability must need complete focus to use.” Felix was always taught at the academy that nearly every ability, magic, and even Astral Technique had a weakness, and that pinpointing them would be key to survival. In this case, his assumption about the Procul spell was indeed correct.

  In their chase, they had wound up well away from the craggy area and in a location with a forest nearby. After his experience the night before, the vampire couldn't say he particularly enjoyed the sight of yet another collection of trees.

  Lionel came to a stop ahead of them, finally turning back around to face the pair once more. His breathing was quite laboured, and many beads of sweat graced his face.

  Felix and Mason came to a stop about 25 feet away from the hunter. With a burst of well-timed speed, they could close it quickly if necessary, but they opted for the more cautious approach, reassuming combat stances once more.

  “Finally decided to stand and fight, coward?” Felix’s tone was harsh. If there was one thing he could give the puppet user Ven, not once did he ever think to turn tail and run away so readily.

  “What you call cowardice, I call strategy.” The ginger human grinned confidently.

  “MOVE!” Felix shouted to Mason, and both were just barely able to dodge backwards as a powerful blast of air whizzed by them, carving chunks out of the ground that it grazed over.

  “What speed! I only sensed it coming when it was nearly on top of us!” Felix thought as they both turned their attention to the direction of the attack.

  From out of the forest stepped a new figure. It was a man wearing a white tracksuit with green and orange stripes on both shoulders. A brown buzz cut on his head topped off his tan skin, with a tattoo on his neck that read ‘Dream’.

  Where Felix’s eyes fell, however, were his hands. On each was a red glove which formed something resembling a fist. While the Vampire wouldn't be familiar with the concept of a boxer, it wasn't a tough stretch to assume that those were these newcomers' weapons.

  “Lionel…you were supposed to be covering the other half of here, so why are you dragging your quarry to my side?” The man spoke as he walked out of the forest, never taking his eyes off the pair of monsters, even as he addressed his fellow human.

  He looked young, not considerably older than Felix himself, yet there was a confidence that he carried himself with which wasn't present in his compatriot.

  “Don’t underestimate these two, Callum. They overcame the Facsimiles I had. The Golem also has at least one Astral Technique.” Lionel’s speech was ragged, his lungs still burning from his long sprint.

  “That does sound troublesome…for a slacker such as yourself.” Callum’s voice was tinged with disapproval.

  Lionel could only bite his tongue at yet another hunter insulting his competence directly to his face. He’d always been an easy target for his perceived lack of effort among both veterans and up-and-comers alike.

  “Me finish both quickly!” Mason exclaimed suddenly.

  The Golem curled into a ball and spun in place, building momentum. Now that he had gained the technique, it could be unleashed at his leisure so long as he had the stamina to do so.

  “Astral Technique: Stone Catapult!”

  As Mason propelled his frame forward, Lionel’s eyes widened. The Golem was going to plow straight through Callum and then himself, and there was no time to move out of the way.

  The younger human, however, took a deep breath, planted his foot forward, and reeled his arm back. The limb began to vibrate violently, the red boxing glove looking like a mirage.

  “Astral Technique: Mach Force Punch!”

  Mason’s body and Callum’s fist collided with each other with tremendous force! A shockwave blasted out from the impact, causing every tree in the nearby forest to rustle! Both Felix and Lionel shielded their faces with their arms from the billowing air that was being produced.

  The clash concluded with both the human and the Golem being blown backwards, their attacks having cancelled each other out. Callum skidded across the ground in front of his teammate, and Mason his.

  “Not bad at all!” Callum exclaimed as he shook the feeling back into his arm.

  “He strong…” Mason was unharmed, but clearly unnerved that the boxer had countered his Astral Technique with the raw power of his own. Felix tensed up; this human would pose a greater threat than the unrefined Facsimiles they dealt with before.

  Callum talked to Lionel, still not making the mistake of turning his head. “Does the Vampire have anything special up his sleeve?”

  The ginger man, a bit dazed after witnessing his life flash before his eyes, refocused and managed a response.

  “Nothing out of the ordinary, I even had him dead to rights before the big one broke out that Astral Technique.”

  “Then you can handle him on your own…that Golem is mine!”

  Before anyone else could react, Callum punched forward, and the air rippled and blasted toward Felix just like it did earlier! He was just able to block it with his sword, yet in the window of opportunity, when he was knocked off balance and unable to intervene, the boxer rushed forward and punched Mason in the side!

  The force launched the rock monster through the trees, snapping each one he collided with without losing any momentum!

  “Mason!” Felix cried in a panic.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  However, the human rushed off after his ally, and before Felix could halt his advance, he had to duck one incoming chain only to jump as another went for his legs. After coming up empty, they retreated to their source.

  Lionel’s chains wrapped entirely back around his arms as he readied for battle once more.

  Felix could only watch as the human named Callum eventually disappeared behind the trees which Mason hadn't crashed through after he was launched.

  “Alright, subhuman trash, let's settle this one-on-one!”

  Felix needed to end this fast, while his odds against the chain-wielding human he figured were alright, Mason’s were much less favourable based on just what he saw from the melee-focused foe.

  “You should be more concerned with yourself.”

  Felix froze, his expression betraying shock that it seemed Lionel had read his thoughts.

  “It's written all over your face. You just thought about how you need to beat me so you can help your buddy against Callum. You…you’re yet another motherfucker looking past me! I’ll break you in two, bastard!”

  “This human might be way more dangerous than I expected.” Felix thought to himself as a bead of sweat dripped down the side of his face.

  ————————

  By the time Mason came to a stop, he had crashed through innumerable trees. A long path of deforestation indicated how far his trajectory brought him.

  As he sat up, he brought a rocky palm to his side where the blow landed. It had been cracked slightly. He was fortunate that the material was now vastly stronger than when he fought Felix, the moon empowering his core to harden it, making it tougher than any naturally occurring ore that existed.

  “Mason…that was what the Vampire yelled out when I sent you flying. I take it that's your name?”

  The Golem’s head shot upward. The human who hit him had pursued him at an extraordinary speed and was now standing across from him, almost like he was waiting for him to return to his feet.

  “Yes, and you is Callum? That what human named Lionel call you.”

  The young human nodded his head. There was a strange atmosphere between them, neither rushing to launch an attack quite yet.

  “Why you no hit me when me on ground?”

  “Wouldn't be very sportsmanlike, would it?”

  Mason scratched his head. Whatever Callum was talking about was beyond his comprehension. He wasn't the only one who questioned such tactics. While Callum had been one of the top rookies last year in most aspects, he drew criticism for his quirk of extending fair play even to monsters, a habit which led to him barely passing with two strikes to his name.

  Such was his nature: the honourable, pride-filled career of boxing he once pursued shaped his actions accordingly. This made him the opposite of Lionel in many a hunter's eye, a star that burned bright with potential yet was likely to be extinguished sooner rather than later.

  “Fight me. If you want to help your ally, you’ll have to defeat me first.”

  In response, Mason almost immediately and instinctively squared up, his stone fists clenched tightly.

  “Me beat you, then help boss!”

  Callum had grown to expect that there was no loyalty among monsters, only temporary alliances that ended when whoever outgrew the other in power stuck the proverbial knife into the back. That was what all the training manuals and the High Priest's sermons got across. There was no reason to think this was any different, and yet for just a moment, a shred of doubt crept into his mind.

  It was all the opening Mason needed to charge in immediately, going for a lariat with the intent to take the man’s head off!

  Callum ducked beneath the blow, following up with a swift flurry of rapid-fire punches to the midsection, so fast the eye could barely see, which staggered the Golem!

  He finished by punching upward, the air, weaponized from the sheer force of the motion, blasted into Mason’s jaw, lifting him off the ground and sending him crashing back to where he originally landed several feet away!

  “I let my guard down too much. This thing might be big, but he’s deceptively quick.” Callum thought.

  Mason got back up once more. While the onslaught of attacks had dazed him, there was no visible damage to his exterior, unlike the mighty blow which had separated him and Felix.

  Even the simple-minded Mason could tell something was off. It was like the human had somehow traded away his previous power for an even greater burst of speed.

  The rocky monster roared and grabbed hold of a nearby collapsed tree. He hurled it towards the human like a javelin!

  The boxer punched into the tree, bursting apart the plant into a hail of splinters. Mason took the opening to rush forward into a straight punch!

  However, right as it looked like his fist would land true, Callum tilted his body to the side, avoiding the hit by what had to be inches.

  Mason began to throw his own series of rapid-fire attacks, but Callum dodged each with a pace slower than his own recent attack, which was still enough to outmaneuver the series of swings.

  Mason grew increasingly frustrated, the simple act of hitting his foe as annoying as trying to grasp something slippery firmly. This eventually manifested with a particularly sloppy left hand.

  WHAM!

  Callum’s fist collided with Mason's head, the monster overextending himself on his last attack and bringing his cranium in range to his shorter opponent. His stone legs stumbled backwards, cracks forming from his rocky jaw to the top of his head. Luckily, this was more cosmetically damaging than anything.

  “Tch, I instinctively went for the face.” Callum lamented to himself.

  “You is like three fighters…how?” Mason’s voice rang out, breaking the several minutes of intense silence they maintained in their skirmish.

  “In my sport, there are many styles. Slugger for power, Swarmer for speed and Out-Boxer for range, to name a few. Most people only ever get good at one or maybe two. I'm the rare breed who can go between all of them whenever I need.”

  There was no need for Callum to actually give this information to an enemy. However, he wanted to intimidate the Golem; he'd even dumbed down the intricacies of boxing styles so Mason would understand exactly what he was up against.

  Surely this would reveal the monster's true nature; he'd surely attempt to flee in self-preservation, giving up all pretense of wanting to rescue some other creature of the night. Surely…

  “Me just have to fight three times harder than you to make up!”

  Despite himself, Callum let out a low chuckle. Memories of all the fools with too much confidence and not enough sense that populated his former local gym flooded through his brain. Those were simpler times, ones he found himself missing in his new line of work.

  Cracking his neck side to side, Callum only gave Mason one more brief response.

  “Let's start round two then.”

  ————————

  Felix deflected yet another lashing of the twin chains away from himself. The battle that had ensued between him and Lionel had progressed at what could be called a cautious pace.

  Rather fitting for his personality and reputation, Lionel made no fancy or imaginative moves, primarily focusing on keeping that Vampire at a distance while feeling out openings to strangle him with the chains as he did earlier.

  “I have to break this deadlock, otherwise it's only a matter of time until he wears me out.”

  Felix’s next move was unexpected. He stopped dodging and stood still. The chain from Lionel’s right arm wrapped around his neck and pulled taut, unimpeded.

  “Did you just go brain dead? Or maybe you think strangulation is preferable to me tearing out your limbs one by one? Sorry, pal, but once you're down to your last breath, I'm going to take it nice and slow.”

  Felix let his sword drop from his hand, the blade embedding into the earth. The chains began to constrict as they had on him once before.

  It was now or never.

  Felix gripped the length of the chain in front of him tightly with both hands. Lionel raised an eyebrow before returning to an arrogant smirk.

  “Struggle all you want, I'm never letting this go.”

  “Just…what…I wanted to hear!” Felix sputtered out.

  The Vampire jerked with a sudden movement driven by adrenaline and determination. The action brought the ginger human off his feet!

  Felix began to rotate in place, picking up velocity until he and the enemy he was swinging around looked like a miniature tornado! Lionel’s cries of panic were muffled, his free chain desperately shooting out to wrap around Felix’s legs.

  It missed completely, the dizziness and disorientation making it impossible for the human to aim properly.

  Felix finally stomped his foot down and swung Lionel above his head in an arc, bringing the man crashing back to earth! Lionel’s back collided with a sickening crack, and he spasmed violently before going still, the chain finally unfurling from Felix’s throat in the process.

  The Monsterkin fell to a knee, the sweet relief of air rushing back into him. It was a risky maneuver, but he had pulled it off.

  Felix stood and plucked his sword from the ground, turning around to face the line of broken trees nearby. Now was the time to aid Mason.

  “W-where the fuck do you think you're going?!”

  Felix flipped around, startled. The human attempted to sit up, but collapsed once more. His back and spine must've been ravaged by the blow to the point he could barely move, and yet he was still chomping at the bit to attack.

  “I'm tired of taking shit tonight. From Biggs, from Callum and especially from you, subhuman.”

  His chains burrowed into the ground before emerging beneath his back, pushing him back upward onto his feet. They wrapped around his upper body and, with a series of nasty pops, realigned the broken bones into place.

  Lionel’s eyes seemed to gleam with hatred, the chains now glowing a light orange.

  “I’M GOING TO SHOW ALL OF YOU! NO ONE FUCKS WITH LIONEL DUBOIS!!!”

  “Astral Technique: Bird Cage!”