The man who could not be killed - hunter story part 1

She was young, half dressed and hysterical walking down the highway. It was cold and a fresh layer of Decmeber snow had fallen on the ground. I repressed the Memeory of a a winter 20 years earlier when I heeded the call for revenge. First mission was to get her out of traffic. Careless humanity honking horns speeding passed. Some men slowing down asking if she wanted a ride. Well ride something at least. I pulled over said a short prayer and thanked my truck for holding itself together. The police would come soon and I knew she was either a vic or bait. The bites were apparent and there was a nest nearby. I could hear Calice talking to me her voice, an echoing vibrato like she was talking through a fan. Indistinct at first it became clearer and clearer.

CHALICE – Save her.

RONIN – What do you think I’m doing boss.

Traffic started to screech to a halt. A few choice words were spoken by some young touch until he saw me and promptly learned the value of silence. Sinatra Blue eyes beneath a face that looked like 10 miles of bad road. My hair blonde and graying cut short to keep out of my eyes. I wasn’t undercover so I was me for the first time in a while.

I scooped her up, she weighed nothing. She was tiny. About 24, hispanic. Tan skin peering out of a red lingerie. She was babbling in Spanish. “Feo”

I forced down my inate lechery.

CHALICE – Repress that.

RONIN – Already on it boss.

My truck is named Roxanne for the heroine muse of another ugly hero. Roxie has always treated me well. I put the vic or bait in the back. She hadn’t turned.

Chalice appear differently to every hunter. Some of us have even speculated she’s a kind of shared hallucination. But you always recognize her. She gives you some assignments. She puts people in your path to train. I have an idea of who she is. But I ain’t telling just yet.

She appeared to me, Emma’s face. White face, blooded lips and dead eyes.

CHALICE – Get her someplace safe and warm.

RONIN – Yeah boss, I figured.

CHALICE – As much as you are one of my favorites. You need to start training again. The average life expectancy of a hunter is five years. You’ve been doing it twenty. You know what the other crews call you.

RONIN – The man who can’t be killed.

CHALICE – Let’s not make liars of them, Shall we my knight.

She always called me “My knight” as a harsh reminder of Emma. To me we hunters were always somewhere between Knight, Viking, Samurai, and Gladiator. Fighting to earn our spurs and freedom from the madness. We travel fight the wars and are as much her vassals as part of her stable. Sometimes it was as much about the story of the fight and the roar of the crowd who’s cheers and boos we could hear.

Some idiots believe that humanity is secretly under the thrall of alien lizards and radio waves are a form of mind control controlled by a pro Zionist conspiracy. These bastards are perfect fodder for the shades. Yes the governments know there are monsters and yes they have been in bed with some of the more civilized shades for some time. Don't trust anyone unless they're your crew of they've been vetted Chalice. Her intelligence ops keep eyes on everything. She can give you reconassaince and targets. She also is not adverse to giving orders.

Not to get her someplace safe and warm. And I need a drink.

a little prep - Prologue 2

The thing about hunting monsters is that you have got to be scarier than they are. When the Shades tranforms and the veneer of reality melts away like a cheap candle, When you are facing some unknowable thing straigtht out of nightmares the best you can do is listen to your amygdala. Fight or flight.

Trust no one but your crew. Your team and contacts are what keep you alive. Chalice is good for that. Putting red herrings in the way of Shade and servitor alike. Do not get caught. Torture is an ineffective means of getting information but it is an even worse way to die. If you get caught, this isn't the movies where your crew can launch a rescue operation and get you home safe and sound before the commercial break. If you get caught and it's a choice between you and your crew. Have you crew put a bullet in your head. No one withstands torture and you will give up everything to save yourself.
You have to know what your facing and always be prepared. Always have a gun. They never work against the big bads themselves or their servents but they tend to put down those annoying humans. Mr. Colt made everyone equal. For the Shades your best bet is steel and wood. You have to know how to fight with weapon and fist. And even more annoying some of the shades don't disintergrate in sunlight. So you have the added problem of corpse removal and evidence tampering. You do not get caught. It's always good to have a legend prepared to through the human autorities off the scent. I'll get more into that later.

The madness of the job creeps in. The horror bleeds into your psyche. It’s unavoidable. We all cope in different ways.

Understnading is key. I carry a few hunting kits in my truck for just such occasions. Do not make too much of a show of yourself. Do not stnd out, until you have to. When stalking the shades it's best you make yourself the target.

I will elaborate more on preparations and the cultivation of assets later. You will learn to use money, ideology, cpmpromise and ego to extortion to turn the human against their best interest. Know your prey. Find the chinks in the armor and peel away the well designed masks. Everyone has secrets.

We are just flesh. Chalice knows this. But we made the descision to fight and they can keep you going with intel and safe houses. If there is even a suspision of being turned, crew or not. I'll kill you myself.

As you put together you gear remember. This isn't about justice, it's about revenge.

Rules of the game

Rules of the Game - The Rule of 3

I hate those idiots who think that vampires are romantic and tragic creatures. They dress in black and complaint about life as if Nihilism was an original concept. It's too damn easy to bitch and complain. But that nonsense stops when you are balls deep in blood. Vampires ,which we in the profession call shades, exist in some many different forms. There are as many types of Shade as there methods of predation. They've been with us from time immemorial and will outlast us until the sun goes nova. I give you this warning. If you take up the fight realize you will die violently, emotionally scarred, insane and invariably alone. When Chalice asked me to write a guide about "Monster Slaying" I relunctantly took up the challenge. I'm Ronin a masterless hunter. I broke my ties with order years ago. Sacrificing a support network for autonomy.

Rule 1 - All Shades must feed on something, it could be blood, flesh, strength, beauty, intelligence, youth, heartache, fear or a myriad of other things. Each is unique and what kills one won't necessarily kill another.
Rule 2 - Hit it with cold steel or wood till it stops moving, remove the head and heart, then burn it. In my experience this will kill 80% of the Shades out there. The method also kills humans 100% or the time, just incase you are wondering. Other weaknesses specific to them may become apparent. Do your research.
Rule 3 - Stay alive.

The following tales are from my journals.

Stay alive and Keep Hitting.

to phil, my teacher

the time never changes
drifts in fields of snow
a scope to find the ranges
of who and what I know
my own self unforgiven
...and facing the times black
a word once given
turned to an attack
but on I go to the chill
blood falling to the white
my loss a winter's kill
and thus the hearts delight

Shakespearean Insults and fights

Directions:
Combine one word from each of the three columns below, preface with "Thou" and thus shalt thou have the perfect insult. Let thyself go -- mix and match to find a barb worthy of the Bard

Or

Convert it into a fight using the alphabet

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
artless base-co...urt apple-john
bawdy bat-fowling baggage
beslubbering beef-witted barnacle
bootless beetle-headed bladder
churlish boil-brained boar-pig
cockered clapper-clawed bugbear
clouted clay-brained bum-bailey
craven common-kissing canker-blossom
currish crook-pated clack-dish
dankish dismal-dreaming clotpole
dissembling dizzy-eyed coxcomb
droning doghearted codpiece
errant dread-bolted death-token
fawning earth-vexing dewberry
fobbing elf-skinned flap-dragon
froward fat-kidneyed flax-wench
frothy fen-sucked flirt-gill
gleeking flap-mouthed foot-licker
goatish fly-bitten fustilarian
gorbellied folly-fallen giglet
impertinent fool-born gudgeon
infectious full-gorged haggard
jarring guts-griping harpy
loggerheaded half-faced hedge-pig
lumpish hasty-witted horn-beast
mammering hedge-born hugger-mugger
mangled hell-hated jolthead
mewling idle-headed lewdster
paunchy ill-breeding lout
pribbling ill-nurtured maggot-pie
puking knotty-pated malt-worm
puny milk-livered mammet
quailing motley-minded measle
rank onion-eyed minnow
reeky plume-plucked miscreant
roguish pottle-deep moldwarp
ruttish pox-marked mumble-news
saucy reeling-ripe nut-hook
spleeny rough-hewn pigeon-egg
spongy rude-growing pignut
surly rump-fed puttock
tottering shard-borne pumpion
unmuzzled sheep-biting ratsbane
vain spur-galled scut
venomed swag-bellied skainsmate
villainous tardy-gaited strumpet
warped tickle-brained varlot
wayward toad-spotted vassal
weedy unchin-snouted whey-face
yeasty weather-bitten wagtailSee More

Hippocrates had once said
As Galen gladiators tended
Where sensation and though were wed
When head injury went unmended

......Tis some mystery why neurons fire
In thoughts both stern and ecclectic
no wonder why we describe desire
In terms of the electric

Like Venice we have ion channel,
Gondoliers wade not in vein,
Neurotransmitters span a great well,
For both pleasure and pain,

So daring in this electric maze
where phantasmal dragon dwell
The seat of souls are where wit plays
When you have it’s tale to tell.