When entering through the portal, what Quinn was having to face was nothing like he had expected. Meeting these strange creatures, the words out of their mouth, and the fact that they weren't hostile on the get go.
What he had heard about this place was that nearly everything in the world was out to kill each other. Yet, as soon as he met those that seemed more human, they hadn't attacked him on sight. Were they not as barbaric as he had learned, or was there another reason?
"What is this hunting ground you are speaking of?" Quinn asked.
He could sense that there was a bit of shakiness in their voice. In fact, Quinn had noticed that their hearts were beating fast before approaching him and each time they mentioned the word demon. Even now, it was clear that they weren't comfortable and their eyes behind their thick skulls would attempt to look back from time to time.
"This person doesn't know what the hunting ground is!" One of the skull men asked. "Is he faking it, is he trying to be cruel to us by pretending he knows nothing and the next second we find out he's a demon and he rips our hearts out from behind."
"Pretending to not know about the hunting grounds makes no sense though." Another said with his finger on his chin. "Everyone knows about the hunting grounds, and how could one not know when they're in it at the moment. The person would of had to have been living under a rock to not know, that's the only explanation."
The skull man that had first approached Quinn, standing in the centre, was silent, while wondering what to do, and eventually he had come to a decision.
"Can you fight?" He asked.
"What are you doing!" The other's asked in a panic.
"You're not thinking of bringing him with us!"
The skull man didn't know why, but if everything this stranger was saying was true, he had no clue where he was, or what was going on around him, then why was he not afraid?
Wouldn't most be afraid in this situation, and he couldn't help but think how one could survive a crash like he had, without having some type of strength.
"I am strong enough to protect myself, so you won't have to worry about me." Quinn answered.
"Good, my name is Anon." The skull man said and pointed to the right, the smaller skull man. "This is Ekeke and the bigger one is Tuni. For us to survive this, we are trying to group up with as many as possible.
"That is the best chance for our survival, which is why I am inviting you. If you can hold your own, or even be used as bait, then that would be good enough. We have to keep moving otherwise we will be found, I'm sure your entrance will have caused some interest in the area.
"Follow me, and I'll explain what the hunting ground is."
——-
In the same vast land in the forest, there were two more with skulls on the outside of their face running around. They were wearing the same type of armour as the others, barely covering any of their skin.
They were travelling through the trees sliding off the large branches, jumping from tree to tree without slowing down.
"Are they still on our tail?" One of them asked.
The next moment, a sharp red shard came flying hitting the trunk in front of the skull man. It was only a centimetre away from his foot. Turning around, several more red shards came out.
Lifting his hands, around his forearm, it looked like the bone was starting to grow out from the skin, it was thick and large but still attached, Swinging them through the air, it hit the red shards away.
The skull men were fast, and had good senses for fighting.
"Brother, we have to keep moving, with just us two we can't take on the demons!" the other shouted.
Out from another direction, red shards were shot his way as well. Rather than blocking them, he dropped down from one branch onto another avoiding several of the red shards.
"They've already caught up to us, there's nothing we can do, but fight!" The skull man continued to block the attack, and started to run forward.
His teammate, watching from behind, saw him run into darkness, and he soon saw red glowing eyes. There were a few clashes of noise, and grunts of pain, until there was no more sound.
"Nooo!" The skull man shouted, knowing full well that his ally had been killed.
Just in case though, through a desperate attempt he started to run forward toward his friend, as he took a few steps through, several red shards were shot out from behind, from the front, and from the side. They came from nearly all directions and it was useless.
They pierced the skull man's body and blood filled his mouth and he fell to his knees. Before his death, he could hear the echoing sound of laughter, that horrible high pitched sound that the demons would make after their kill.
"One day, you'll experience the same thing as us." The skull man said in his last breath.
——-
The skull men were moving incredibly fast, and as Quinn noted while watching their movements, he realised it wasn't as if they were faster than vampires, in fact their speed was quite similar, it was more so their movements.
It was so smooth, as if there were no thoughts needed and travelling this tough and tricky terrain through the forest was normal for them, they would just react to what was coming up in front of them.
Quinn was able to keep up, but it was because of his higher speed more than anything else, from time to time he would try to imitate them but it would slow him down just a little, pushing himself a little faster, though would make up the time.
"The hunting grounds!" Anon explained. "Is where we are right now. It's this entire forest. Us native inhabitants are either captured, volunteer, or are forced to take part in this hunting event. You might be thinking, what are we hunting?
"But you have it all wrong, we are the ones that are being hunted. Hundreds of us have been placed in random locations all over the forest, all to make the hunt that much more interesting, and the ones hunting us are the demons."
Quinn had heard the word native inhabitants. Which made him believe his guess from before was accurate, these demons must be the races that Immortui had created, and they were doing things like this.
"For each creature they kill they earn one point in the forest. Then for each one of us Skully's they kill, they earn five points. As you can see, we are involved in this cruel game, and now that you are in the hunting grounds as well, you will count as a single point for them if they were to kill you.
"The only way we can survive is by banding with the others in this forest and attempting to fight them back, one at a time."
Now it made sense to Quinn why he had been invited, this was Anon's only plan, but would it be enough, and just how strong were these demons that were hunting them.
While running good, red shards came right toward Anon, he moved his head swiftly avoiding each one of them, and the others jumped down by his side as they all stood still, Quinn coming up from behind.
"I thought we would have had more time before one of them found us… I'm sorry for dragging you into this. Before we die together, please let me know your name." Anon asked.
Quinn looked around, trying to sense the enemies, he could feel them.
"My name… is Quinn Talen, but I don't plan on dying here, not before I kill Immortui."
******
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