Kongsgaard Hunters

Hell
2. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-87-430-1843-8
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 266 Seiten

During a routine investigation into a demon attack, a hunter in training, Yadin, and his mentor, Ralf, come face to face with an unexpected, dangerous and powerful foe. After sustaining an injury, Yadin must come to terms with what line of work he is currently being trained for and the cost of it, while still investigating what really happened in that attack and what involvement a mysterious girl named Amelia had in all of it. Their investigation takes them deeper into an intricate plot with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. They must use all their power and training if they are to save it.

Programmer by day, and enthusiastic gamer, wargamer, roleplayer and writer by night. I just want to tell some of the stories coming into my head and hopefully have the readers enjoying themselves along the way.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kongsgaard, Peter

Leseproben

Ablinding flash followed by a deafening explosion lit up the entire sixth floor in the lower street apartment complex. A moment later the front doors of the building burst open with panicked people rushing through.

“What was that?!” Shouted one of the women as she ran out the doors.

“I don’t know, but just keep runn...” Another answered.

A second explosion sounded from the floors above, followed by a figure coming flying out from one of the windows. It flew through the air, followed by a trail of smoke. It hit the ground a couple of meters in front of the fleeing crowd with a big thump, throwing up dirt and rocks. The crowd stopped, waiting in anticipation to see if anything was going to happen.

“Is... is it dead?” Said a man from the crowd a few moments later.

“I don’t know... why don’t you go check it out?” Said another man.

“fi.. fine.”

He started walking towards the small crater where the figure had landed. He stopped about a meter from it, looking down into the hole. The figure had a small humanoid shape, about the size of a child. It had long half droopy ears and a flat face with no visible nose. Its skin was mostly grey with a reddish tint. It had two arms, both ending in claw-like hands.

“I think it's a demon. But that doesn't make any sense, there haven't been any reports of demon sightings near here lately?”

“But is it dead?” Mumbled a few of the men.

“I think so,” the man answered as he turned, looking towards the window the creature had come from.

“What in the hells was it doing all the way up there?”

The demon suddenly moved behind him, jumping back onto its legs. It snarled at the crowd in front of it, with fury in its eyes.

“Where are they?!” The demon said in a deep raspy voice, drawing out all of the words as if needing time to think what the next word was.

“Where are the hunters?!”

As the demon finished speaking the last word, it turned its hands to the sides. Flames ignited around its hands. They concentrated into its palm turning into small fiery balls. The onlooking crowd realized that it was no longer safe and started to run again, away from the demon. The demon looked towards the fleeing group and found a woman who had tripped and was now trying to crawl away from it instead. It raised one of its hands preparing to throw one of the fireballs it had created.

“Noooo!” Screamed the woman, who had realized what was going to happen. She covered her face with her hands, bracing herself for what was coming.

A loud crack split the air as something swooped past the women, hitting the demon. The demon paused and looked down at its body with a puzzled expression. A huge gaping hole had appeared in its chest. Its eyes rolled back into its head, its arms going limp, dropping the two fireballs. They hit the ground and instantly surrounded it in flames. The woman looked back towards the building. She saw another figure standing in the window where the demon had fallen from. The figure held a handgun surrounded by glowing spells runes.

“Sorry about that!” The figure yelled. It was a man's voice.

“You best keep running away from here, before it gets too messy.”

The man gestured for her to keep running, before slipping away from the window and back inside the building. She looked around, confused as to what had just happened. Why was there a demon in their apartment complex and who was the mysterious man in the window? She decided that those questions could be answered later and started running away from the building.

Yadin went back into the apartment building and ran down the hallway on the 6th floor.

There was another man, sitting next to an open apartment door.

“Next time, Ralf. I think you should be the one to chase down the demons that you accidentally blast out of the window,” Yadin said to him as he walked closer.

“Well you know me; I never do anything half baked. But in my defense, I was pretty sure I had hit it straight on to kill it. Besides, someone had to stay here and keep an eye on our friends inside this apartment. But I assume you got him, right?” Ralf answered.

Ralf was a tall man. Built to endure whatever the world could throw at him. And in their line of work, the world threw a lot.

His face had a calm expression, yet his sharp blue eyes were the kind that could dissuade anyone looking for a confrontation, and shy away instead. Not that that really worked on demons. He wore full body armor, complete with bracers and shin guards. Each piece was engraved with red spell runes, enhancing the armor with various enchantments.

“Yes, straight on, right down onto the street,” Yadin retorted as he sat down next to Ralf.

“And, of course, I got him. You should have seen the shot; I think it’s in my top ten. How’s it going in here?”

“Oh, you know,” Ralf said, just as a fireball exploded about a few feet next to him like it had hit some sort of barrier.

“I’m holding on,” he said with a smile on his face while another blast hit the barrier.

“Now, put up your shields and tell me a little about what we are facing here.”

“Really, right now? You want me to go through this now?” Yadin answered looking dumbfounded. A rune on the left side of his chest started to glow, followed by some sort of wave that expanded outwards, forming a sort of bubble around him.

“Yup,” said Ralf, looking serious.

Yadin sighed, followed by a short “Fine”.

“Spitter demons. While not very powerful on their own, there is an incredibly high amount of them both on Lantia and in the different hell plains. They are short creatures, about 1 meter tall but very sturdy built. Their heads and face are one of the most unique features about them. Long half droopy ears, but with a flat face. Their powers include being able to make projectiles of one of three elements, fire, earth, and water. The projectiles are created in the palm of their hands, where they focus their magic…”

While Yadin explained the spitter demon and its features, the other demons’ bombardment continued to rain down on their magical shields. Ralf kept his eyes on the small demon horde in front of them while listening to Yadin explain the kind of demons they were facing. Of course, he already knew all of this, but he had to make sure his hunter in training would remember things like this, for when he was not around.

The blasts kept hammering down on the shields and he could feel the energy being drained from him with each hit. He extended his shield to cover Yadin’s so that he could focus on his little lesson. The effort was not that taxing for Ralf, after all, they were not the biggest or most powerful demons around. Still, it was time to wrap this up before the entire floor blew up… Well, more than it already was.

“Alright, time to get a move on. What are the most common abilities of an abnormal spitter?” Ralf finally said as he got up from the floor.

“Mixing of elemental abilities. This could be fire and earth which results in the spitter being able to make projectiles made of lava. Even if they do not have mixed elements, their projectiles are generally more powerful. They also have enhanced endurance, toughness and higher intelligence. Most often they tend to be the leaders of the spitter packs they are in…. Do you want me to go on?” Yadin responded with a look of anticipation in his eyes.

“No, no, that’s fine,” Ralf said as he took a glance inside the adjacent room.

“There are three on the right and two on the left, but there might be more elsewhere in the other rooms.”

“So how should we do this?”

“I'm thinking of an attack from the rear, then split off to the sides and take care of the main shooters.”

Ralf took another look into the room to confirm the number of spitters.

“I’ll take the three on the right, that leaves the other two for you. Keep your shields up and don’t let them corner you. When you're done, see if you can find some cover to stay low.”

Ralf put out one of his hands as he said this. He started drawing a blood-red magical rune in the air, the rune for a teleport spell. He finished it, and it immediately started glowing, pulsing with power, signaling that the spell was successful. He pulled his gun up next to it. The rune started stretching, pulled towards the gun and merged with it. The rune vanished and the gun started glowing and pulsing in the same red color as the rune. He looked towards Yadin.

“Well?” He said expectantly.

Yadin drew his gun and started drawing the same rune. However, unlike Ralf’s, Yadin’s rune was pulsing in a bright teal color. He finished the rune, and like Ralf’s, it was pulled into his gun, ready for use. He held out his free hand and a moment later a giant two-handed sword appeared, resting across his shoulders. The sword, much like Ralf’s and his own body armor, had engravings that gave it various magical enhancements. These could be activated by sending a little bit of magic into the weapon, instead of having to draw the runes every time it was needed. The main difference between the runes on the armor and the ones of the sword was that the ones on the armor were mostly for defensive...