14.

  Seven Students arrived at the southern end of the campus caverns. Cole, Benny, and Gregor showed up together. Penny, one of Angelica’s friends was there, along with Walter Vasco, and Obadiah Oren and the last one to arrive was Tav. Cole noticed her hiding at the back of the line as Professor Marcus arrived.

  “Gather students, Gather,” he looked over the bunch, “Let me just double check, are you sure you’re all here for the Annukag? There’s an easier A waiting for you at the north stairs,” he said.

  “We’re here for the Annukag,” Tav said.

  Professor Marcus lit up, “Ms. Cosgrove, something to prove?” he asked, smiling.

  “We get to keep the loot from it, right? It’s ours, to sell or do whatever we want with?” Tav asked.

  “Yes, yes, of course. The dispersion of the loot will be determined by your performance in the hunt, get the killing blow and you get first dibs,” he said, “Don’t let that worry you though, this Annukag has over a hundred teeth, plenty to go around,” he said.

  “A hundred teeth?” Benny asked, “How do these things stay hidden again?”

  “It’s a Lurker Demon, they mostly stay underground and in the wild, they kill prospectors, lost hikers, and wanderers. They know from the Demons higher than them on the chain to stay hidden and behave,”

  “Lurker?” Benny asked.

  “Yeah, Demons come in four groups. Tricksters are demons that subtly influence the mortal world, like an Imp that misplaces your keys so you run a little late, drive a little recklessly, and end up getting into an accident. They’re easy to fight but they’re really hard to find in the wild. Lurker demons are what Hunters mostly fight, they’re the things that go bump in the night, they’re the reason you don’t go into the woods after dark, they’re the reason it’s dangerous to be alone on a full moon,” Cole said.

  “What else is there?” Benny asked.

  “Tempters is where we get to the advanced Demons, Possessors, Succubi, Demons that aren’t afraid to make themselves known to the Mortal World. They sign deals, fulfill empty promises, the push more and more evil into our world through subtle actions. The Demon that had your mom was a Tempter, they do the works of their fathers, the Archdemons,” Cole said.

  “And what is an Archdemon?” Benny said as Professor Marcus had them line up.

  “They’re the Devils, the agents of the below, who the other demons answer to. They coordinate the movements of demons, they work all over the world, they sit on thrones in the depths of the below and slowly push this world closer and closer to the final battle,” Cole said, taking a deep breath, “They’re the Devils in charge, up to and including the Head Honcho himself,” Cole sighed, remembering the often told story of his father facing the main event in one on one combat.

  “Head Honcho? You don’t mean?” Benny asked.

  Gregor chimed in, “Yes, he does,” Gregor sighed, “He goes by many names, Satin, Lucifer, Lightbringer, in our profession we’ve taken to calling him the Morning Star, he’s the oldest of the old demons, the father of Predation, he is the father of all of them, both by way of blood and by way of rule, a third of angels fell to the darkness of his temptations in what we call the first victory when the loyal angels rebuked the fallen and drove them to the below, it was actually quite easy for them, the darkness will always fall before the light, the Head Honcho as our friend calls him, is a new moniker for him. Something that lessens the worry of the power of our enemy. While he can be beaten and beaten easily so long as the Divine still sees reason to protect humanity even after the fall, his threat is always looming over us, from the first victory to the last battle,” Gregor said.

  “Angels were corrupted? A third of them? How many is that? Like, how many angels are there, and how many fell, how many demons are standing between us and winning the last battle?” Benny asked.

  “That’s actually classified,” Cole said, “How many angels there were, how many angels there are, and how many demons are fighting for the below. Even the High Order isn’t sure just how many enemies we have. My dad says they don’t tell us because they don’t need to tell us. No matter the number is, it’s only a third that are demons, however high the forces of the below are, we have more,” he said.

  “There is one interesting theory,” Gregor said, “It’s laughed at by most of the master Hunters, but there is the fact that the creator in all his glory is infinite, so he would of course have an infinite number of servants, and if you’re familiar with more than basic mathematics one-third of an infinite is, well,” Gregor shrugged his shoulders.

  “Wait, this is hurting my brain, so if there are an infinite number of angels, and a third of them fell, that means that by way of math, there are an infinite number of Demons? That’s messed up,” Benny said.

  “That’s why we’re here,” Cole said. Unfortunately, all this talk of Demons had him thinking of Tav, much as he hated it. He looked over his shoulder and stole a look at her, he could see her in all her glory, not as much glory as seeing her naked just out of a shower, but with or without clothes she still carried this aura about her. He thought for a moment if Angelica was right about Tav using her Demon ways to seduce him, that she was here for nefarious purposes and put her charm on him just to keep him from exposing her. No, that couldn’t be it, Cole’s father taught him all the signs of Demonic charm, he had at most one symptom, nowhere near a true example of a charmed human.

  Gregor rested a hand on his rapier, “Infinite or not, it’s our job to hunt them just the same,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Cole shook his head, trying to shake out any thoughts of Tav putting some kind of demonic charm on him, “We kill them,” he said, “Come on, the class is getting ahead of us,” Cole said.

  Professor Marcus led the class deep into the lower basement, of course, they were nowhere near the deepest basement, where Tav’s Uncle lay. “Summon weapons,” Marcus held out his hand, and after a pause, and a dodge from Vincent and Tim, his Damascus sword landed in his hand.

  “I’m still amazed that people aren’t getting hurt all the time by us doing this,” Benny said as he held his hand out and summoned his War Hammer

  “Hunter Weapons have divine guidance, people may feel the need to dodge but a weapon can’t hurt anyone, it knows how to weave around crowds to get to the one who uses them,” Cole said.

  “Ow!” Penny called out, dropping her mace as Tav’s trident flew to her hand, just barely scraping her, “Tav, your stupid pitchfork cut me!” she said.

  “You should have dodged,” Tav said, gritting her teeth, and you’re not even bleeding,” she said. Rolling her eyes.

  “Angelica is right about you,” Penny scowled as she raised her hand and summed her mace from the floor.

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  “Shut up,” Tav said, “We have work to do,” She turned forward and headed to the front of the line.

  Cole saw that, but wanted to pretend he didn’t, “You heard her,” he said, as he raised the claymore that flew into his hand, “Work to do,” he said as Benny and Gregor followed him.

  Professor Marcus led the teams of students into the basement, drops of water fell upon them from the hanging stalactites above them. More of the glowing orbs of light that propagated the great caverns of the academy gave light and cast shadows around every corner.

  “This is creepy,” Benny said, “I thought I would have gotten used to living in a cave for the past month, but this deep, this much earth above us, this is creepy,” he wrung his hands on his weapon’s hilt.

  The students began to split up into groups, Gregor led Benny and Cole with a torch in one hand and his rapier at the ready in the other. Cole reached into his pocket, “Got a little something to help us out,” he pulled out a wooden root and snapped it in half, a puff of pollen wafting into the air.

  “Oh man, that’s rancid,” Benny said, waving his hand in front of his nose, “What is that?”

  “Urkown root, a rare tree, picked it up from Professor Malsauve. It’s a little trick that the first Hunters in America picked up from a Comanche tribe, they grow it and use it in ceremonies and have been using it on Demons for longer than anyone could know,” Cole raised the broken root up and waved it around, throwing more of its pollen into the air, “It’s believed to simulate Demon pheromones, can attract certain breeds of them, one of those breeds being an Annukag,”

  “I see you’ve certainly done your research Longdren, commendable,” Gregor smiled.

  Meanwhile, Tav, broke away from the group and moved alone deeper into the caverns than anyone else, She held true to her trident, “Heart and Fang and Claw,” she said to herself. An Annukag was said to at least have a hundred teeth. When she got the kill, and she would get the kill, she would have her fang. With the heart she obtained in Etymology class, currently sitting in an air-sealed bag hidden deep in her dresser, that would be two down and one to go.

  Tav put her hand on the wall and used her demon-born ability to sense her own kind, an ability she would no longer have once her work was done, but she wouldn’t need it anymore. Soon she would leave this academy as a human, a real human.

  As she stalked through the caverns, she wondered what she would look like, what she would really look like when she no longer needed her glamor, no longer needed to lie. Her hair now was a dark shade of violet, when she became human the things her mother told her made her special, the things that made her ugly, would be gone. She wondered if she would have blonde hair. She both lusted for and was terrified about the idea of having blond hair. In all honesty, she hopped that she would look like what her glamor projected to the world. A dark-haired mousy girl, not unique or striking in any way. She wanted to be a face in the crowd, subtly moving into the human world looking no better or worse than any average girl.

  Then for some reason, she thought about what Cole would think of her new look. He had seen her demon form and for some reason still carried this attraction towards her. He didn’t mind her hair whether it was violet in its natural form or black with her glamor. One thing she was excited about most was losing her horns. Those accursed horns made it so hard to comb her hair, and they were so garish and obvious. Even if her hair and skin were normal shades, she would always have those damn horns on her head that would make her an outcast for life.

  She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, “Focus,” she told herself, stalking deeper into the cavern.

  Cole took the lead, walking ahead of Gregor. The smell of the Urkown root didn’t bother him as much as it did his companions. In all honesty, he had smelled Urkown root since he was at least five years old. He held up his hand, “Wait,” he held his claymore up and wrapped both hands around its hilt. “It’s close,” he said.

  “You can tell, wait,” Benny said, “Yeah, yeah I think I feel something too, it’s like spider sense or something,” he said.

  “Hunter instinct,” Gregor held his rapier up, “Concurrent exposure to demons can impart a sixth sense of sorts to hunters, what you’re feeling is a natural phenomenon,” Gregor said.

  Cole tilted his head up, and saw it, the Annukag, clung to the ceiling, a dollop of drool fell from its mouth and landed on Cole’s shoulder.

  The Annukag had a long black tubular body, two gaping jaws facing up, with rows and rows of teeth, and another mouth, its true mouth, facing the other way. A gaping hole with two long incisors that let out a shriek as they scratched together. Its back mouth had rows of teeth embedded in the stone ceiling, and its front mouth, looking down at Cole, was wide open and ready to attack. The monster had two eyes that seemed to rotate around the edge of the front mouth, moving back and forth as it looked over its prey.

  “Get ready to rock Benny,” Cole swung his hands up and flung his blade to the ceiling, piercing into the air and stabbing the side of the creature, putting a gash in it as it screamed and fell to the floor. Cole jumped back and summoned his falling sword back to his hand. The Demon began to roll up, its back rows of teeth giving it traction as it lunged toward Cole. Cole sliced his sword to the left and got a hit with the broad side of the blade, knocking it back. It rolled around like a tire and lunged for Benny. Benny jumped to the side and whipped his hammer up, catching the creature right in the jaw and flipping it backward. It was as long as the boys were tall. It flipped over and righted itself landing on its other mouth and bending back to flip towards the three. Cole grabbed his sword with both hands and slashed his sword across, slicing into the body of the demon as its center mouth let out a great shriek, its pincer teeth grinding against each other and sending a screech echoing out the cavern.

  Gregor stabbed his rapier forward and with his expert precision was able to strike an eye, “It’s angry now, we have to go for the kill,” he said as he got back into a striking stance.

  “Fall back,” Cole raised his blade in a defensive cross position, taking a step back as the monster reared on its hind mouth and lunged forward. Cole went to strike it, and as the Annukag leaped through the air, Cole saw a blur to his right.

  Tav, trident out, soared through the air from a tunnel leading to the cavern, landing the points of her weapon right on the monster. It shrieked and rattled as it was forced to the ground, pinned under the points of the trident.

  “Tav!” Cole said, shocked and honestly impressed.

  “My kill!” she said as she wrung her wrists on the haft of her weapon, twisting the tip of the trident around and cracking the carapace of the monster open. Blood spurted out of it and stained Tav’s jeans.

  “Hey, we had that handled,” Benny said.

  “Should have been faster,” she said, looking at Benny with a stern determination, a grin came across her face, “Don’t worry, you can split the little teeth,” she said as she pulled her trident out, throwing it on the sling over her shoulder and bending over, reaching for the center mouth of the monster. She grabbed its incisors with her bare hands and started to pull and tug at them.

  “I’ll alert the professor of the kill, the rest of the class will be here soon,” Gregor said, “Do save me some of the smaller, I’ve got a recipe for a certain vigor that could prove quite useful,” he said.

  Tav struggled and tugged, and finally got the two incisors ripped from the creature, “These will do,” she said smiling.

  “What are you going to do with them?” Cole asked, legitimately curious.

  “It’s for a…” Tav paused, trying to think of something, “It’s for a custom weapon job, I know a guy, these would be perfect,” she said, looking at the bounty from her hunt, “These are exactly what I need,” she said, drying them off on her jeans and slipping them into her back.

  “You’ll have to introduce me to him,” Cole smiled, wanting any excuse he could find to spend time with Tav as he was completely ignorant of the true reason she was collecting these regents. “I’m looking for a custom job myself, does he do good work?”

  “He’s a friend of my family, I’ll be seeing him after the term ends, not at the market,” Tav said, trying to think of the easiest way to avoid giving up her lie.

  Professor Marcus came upon the students, “I see you found one of them, I thought it would take several hours for the first one to be killed, who finished it?” he asked, looking to Cole assuming that the Seventh Son was the great hero this day.

  “Tav did, she was amazing,” Cole smiled.

  Professor Marcus went to the creature, “Oh, I see you’ve already claimed your due reward,” he turned to the boys, “Go on, if you had a role in this hunt collect your bounty,” he said.

  Benny, Gregor, and Cole went to the creature. Gregor pulled out a pair of plyers, “We have a lot to get through,” he turned the dead monster on its back and brought his tool to one of the teeth, “Just a moment,” he rocked his wrist back and forth, prying the tooth out, “Ah, that’s a twenty-dollar bill,” he said holding the tooth up and smiling.

  “Good kill students, we’ve another one of these creatures in the caverns, I must see how the rest of the class is fairing against them,” he said, “Take your loot, divided however you think is fair, and pat yourselves on the back,” he said.