The slums of Vitir were like the slums of any other town or city. Just as many rotting buildings existed was an even larger number of rotting people dragging themselves around on the streets. However, if there was something that made it stand out from other slums, it was the large building that loomed over the decaying area, almost as if it were separate from the disease.

  In that building were men armed to the teeth with weapons, almost as if they were ready for war. Though they stood ready and focused, there was one individual, however, who was screaming.

  “What do you mean all of them were killed!” One person was taking the brunt of Vulf’s anger, hanging his head as low as he could.

  “T-the locals there said that they witnessed a man calling himself Ega start a fight.”

  “Ega? The Blood Hunter Ega?”

  “Yes sir, and judging from how that squad was… I’m sure it was him.”

  “That bitch is after me.” Vulf’s anger began to calm down as he started to realize that it wasn’t his squad’s incompetence that got them killed, but a powerful opponent. “Do we know where he went?”

  “N-no sir, we’ve sent out a few squads to search for his whereabouts, but he disappeared from the scene so fast that we couldn’t even pick up a trace of him.”

  Realizing the severity of the situation, Vulf sat down at the desk behind him, needing to think through this calmly. Picking up the dagger at his desk, he began to bite on the edge of it, a habit that he had picked up ever since he had started to rise in infamy.

  He had learned how to manipulate souls on his own. How to gather them, how to use them, how to create one’s own soul realm, he had learned it with his constant dances with death around the slums. People like him were often hot headed, but to survive in a place like this, no, to thrive in it, he had to calm himself. Move or speak too fast, and the dagger cuts you.

  There were scars on his lips from his habit, complimenting the other scars that littered his body, a testament to his work in the streets of Vitir. He wasn’t going to make these scars amount to nothing now, not even in the face of the infamous “Blood Hunter.”

  But just how would he bring this man down? Right now, they were in a game of cat and mouse, but Ega would have to show himself eventually to try and take Vulf’s Mithril Blood. Did he just have to wait or…

  “Sir!” Another man barged into Vulf’s office, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “An arrow was shot at our doorstep! There seems to be a letter on it from Ega.”

  Vulf’s train of thought was suddenly broken, but hearing that there was a letter from Ega, his gaze began to sharpen. “Give it to me.”

  He got up from his desk and quickly snatched the letter from the man, scrutinizing the paper. There were few words on it, but it got its point across.

  I have your “blessed soul.”

  Meet me East of the slums at the fountain tonight.

  Ega.

  “Ella! Where is that kid?” Vulf yelled out to his men, but all of them only looked at each other with confusion.

  Whenever Vulf brought up that child, his men could never understand Vulf’s interest in her.

  “W-we don’t know sir.” One of his men stepped forward, slowly picking his words in face of Vulf’s sudden flare of anger. “Ulier suddenly disappeared after his tavern was wrecked so we couldn’t even ask him.”

  “Shit…” Vulf slammed the letter onto his desk as he realized how Ega had killed so many others with Mithril Blood.

  He must have realized the value of Ella’s soul, but just how did Ega realize the connection between Ella and Vulf? How did he even find her in the first place? It was then that the realization had struck him, and he couldn’t help but curse underneath his breath.

  “Ulier that bitch.” Turning back to his men, he quickly gave them an order. “Organize a small squad to look for Ulier. Tell them to drag that bastard here alive, and if they can’t, tell them to make him suffer before he goes.”

  Though confused, they couldn’t ignore his orders.

  “Yes sir, I’ll organize a squad right away.” The person who gave Vulf the letter quickly accepted the command and left the room.

  “But sir, how are we going to deal with Ega?”

  “Give me a damned second will you?” He snapped at his lackey, causing him to hang his head down again.

  Vulf picked up the dagger again and started to fall deep into thought. Ega wanted his Mithril Blood, that much was obvious. He was going to use Ella and her blessed soul to probably make some sort of deal. If he took that exchange, his men would most definitely become suspicious of Ella’s value. He was trying to weigh his options and actions, biting harder on the dagger the longer he thought.

  Suddenly, it struck him, a way to get the best outcome out of this situation and to bring an end to Ega. A large grin began to form on his lips as the plan started to fall into place. It was a simple plan, fitting for a person from the slums. Why didn’t he think of it sooner?

  “I won’t let you have your way,” he muttered before turning back to his men. “Prepare yourselves for tonight, we’re going to be hunting down this bastard.”

  “Do you know where he’ll–” Vulf’s second in command tried to speak only to be cut off.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “This idiot gave me a time and place in this letter. Gather the best men we have, I’m not letting this bastard get away with anything.”

  The confidence in his words ignited a fire in his men’s eyes. They were going to do what they did best, and that was to cut down anyone who got in their way.

  …

  In an abandoned house located North of the slums held two people in its crumbling walls, Ega and Ella. Despite being so close to the enemy, Ega hadn’t seen any of Vulf’s men after huddling himself into the abandoned house. They were too busy either searching the normal parts of Vitir or the East side of the slums. Who knew they’d be right under Vulf’s base?

  There was a fire burning in the house, providing them with some warmth as dusk slowly fell on them. With some respite, Ega was cooking a stew over the fire in a small pot that he pulled out from his soul sack.

  Despite its small size, it could store up to a drawer’s worth of items. Made of the flesh and hide of some sort of soul bearing monster, its soul was still a part of the woven sack, creating a “soul realm” that could store physical items. It was an incredible tool that Ega had taken from the Order of Knights some years back.

  Though Ega was close to the fire focused on cooking, Ella was sitting off to the side, huddled in a corner.

  “What are you doing over there? Come over here, I’m almost done cooking.”

  She was hesitant, but after meeting his sharp eyes, Ella inched herself closer to the fire. Ega was worried that she was cold being so far away from the fire and wearing rags. Was she not affected by the approaching winter?

  Pulling out a wooden bowl and spoon from his sack he handed it over to Ella, only, she didn’t instantly accept it, leaving his arm hanging in the air. There was a strange look on her face, a mix of confusion, fear, and hesitance.

  “What’s with that look? Take it, we’re going to eat.”

  Hearing that command, she gingerly took the spoon and bowl. “Aren’t you… afraid that I’ll run away?”

  “Run away?” Now it was Ega’s turn to give a strange expression. “Now what makes you… ah.”

  Ega noticed it before when he was running away from the tavern, but Ella could barely even run properly, leaving him to scoop her up in his arms and run. Either the tavern keeper was forced to keep her malnourished so that she couldn’t escape, or it was of his own volition. Either way it left her in a very weak state.

  He was familiar with these types of practices, especially on the receiving end.

  “Just eat. I cooked enough for two so two people are going to eat. Besides, you won’t be able to escape from me anyways.”

  Although that last sentence was meant to be a joke, Ella had taken it seriously, tensing up at his words. He didn’t pay it any mind. Grabbing the ladle from the pot, he swirled the soup a few times before scooping some into her bowl.

  “Don’t you remember what I said? Just listen to me and we’ll be fine. Now eat.”

  She looked at the stew for a long second, feeling the whiffs of steam brush her pale face. Just as she was about to eat, Ega spoke again.

  “It’s hot, so don’t forget to blow on it,” he said, pouring himself a bowl of stew. “And hold the spoon properly, will you? Like this.”

  He stuck his hand out for her to see, a stark contrast to the way that Ella was holding it by the full palm of her hand. Mimicking his hold, she started to eat, blowing on the spoon a few times before having a taste of it.

  Her face instantly lit up at her first taste of proper food. She quickened her pace, devouring the stew quickly. Ega couldn’t help but watch and be reminded of when he was younger.

  “Good, isn’t it?” There was a prideful smile as he watched her eat.

  Ella furiously nodded her head before returning back to the stew.

  “Take your time now, the food isn’t going anywhere.” He poured her some more stew as she ate.

  As Ega finished up his meal, he started to take notice of his wounds and how they had fully healed. Putting the bowl onto the ground, he closed his eyes and started to focus on his soul realm. He moved through this land of darkness, catching sight of a few of the souls that he had gathered throughout his life until he found the most important soul of all, his own soul.

  Taking a deep breath, he began the procedure of separating his soul from the soul of the black salamander. Soul burning was the most basic way to use souls, a simple way to gain a quick burst of power. Soul mixing however, was a much more advanced and powerful method of gaining very unique powers.

  However, just as it was powerful, it was dangerous; for if one mixed their own soul too finely with another soul, they would never be able to return back to their normal form. Habits, instincts, even thoughts would begin to mix between the two souls, and in the worst case, it could cause a soul fracture.

  To avoid such outcomes, soul bearers had to manually separate their own soul from the souls that they mixed in after a certain amount of time.

  Taking a deep breath Ega began to take on that process, slowly pulling apart the salamander’s soul from his own. It was something he had done thousands of times before, but caution had to be taken every single time to not cause a tear in the salamander’s soul, or worse, his own soul.

  After some time, he had finally separated the two souls, letting the salamander’s soul roam around in his realm. Feeling the slimy skin covering his wounds slowly returning back to normal, he opened his eyes again, he noticed Ella was huddled closer to the fire than before.

  “Are you cold?”

  “N-no…” She turned her gaze away from Ega.

  He couldn’t believe that this child would just bluntly lie to him like that. Reaching into the sack, he pulled out one of his winter coats.

  “Here.” Ega leaned over, wrapping the oversized coat around her. “Sorry I don’t have any proper clothes for you, but you can do with this, can’t you?”

  “I… ah… thank you…” She squeezed the coat tighter around herself, enveloping herself in a warmth long forgotten. It was comfortable, and it was this comfort that was lulling her eyes shut despite her attempts to fight against it.

  Noticing this he told her, “Just go to sleep, everything is happening later into the night anyways.”

  Listening to his command, she lied down and quickly entered the land of dreams. Ega looked up through a hole in the roof, noticing the darkening sky. Despite his confidence in taking down Vulf in their confrontation tonight, he still needed to prepare himself for the worst. Being complacent wasn’t what made him known as a “Blood Hunter.”

  Even if everything could be resolved peacefully by exchanging Ella for the Mithril Blood, there was still a good chance that they were going to fight. Deals don’t usually go the way that one expects them to, especially when it's between people from the slums.

  He began to organize everything for a possible fight. Pulling out daggers, smoke bombs, fire bombs, his bow and quiver of arrows, he laid it all out in front of him. Even with all of this, could he really beat an entire gang?

  There was little information on them, especially since they were pressuring the weak ruler of Vitir from doing anything. At the same time, it worked the other way, they didn’t have information on him.

  The only thing they knew was that Ega hunted down individuals who possessed Mithril Blood. None of the stories that he had caught wind of had any details of his techniques, methods, or even basic things like his face, at least, not yet.

  Ega realized that the real tipping point of all of this would be Ella. It was the one differing variable from this entire situation, and he hoped that betting on her would work. Taking a deep breath, he began to steel himself for the upcoming confrontation. Either everything would be resolved peacefully, or he’d have to raze hell upon them.