'How?'
Was Ian's first thought.
The red-eyed monster seemed to have track him down despite covering his scent.
Unless it randomly decided to go in the same direction as him then Ian would truly be unlucky. Nevertheless, he already covered his scent so he simply needed to wait it out.
Only the red-eyed monster above him never moved from its position. Ian frowned but decided to wait patiently.
But then, he heard stomping from the earlier monster coming back in his direction. The stomps were getting closer and closer until it was right outside the building. Ian wanted to peek outside but his fear overtook his curiosity as the red-eyed monster seems to finally make a move.
Above him, Ian can hear the weight shift as if the red-eyed monster was pressing down on the wooden rooftop. Then a certain thought popped into his mind:
'Are they going to fight right next to me?'
Before he knew it though.
"AHHHHHH!!!!!"
"RAWWRR!!!!"
A banshee-like scream and a beast-like roar pierced his ears causing Ian to clamp on them. Right outside the front door, Ian could hear the sounds of fighting between the two monsters. Ian immediately backed away from the door and hugged the back wall as much as possible. There was no way there wouldn't be any collateral damage from this fight.
And he was right, as the fragile front side of the small house immediately broke down from an unknown monster crashing into it. In front of him was something too difficult to describe yet it was etched onto mind. The creature laying in front of him had eyes everywhere and from what he could tell it had eyes everywhere from head to toe. At least the cover of night hid most of the monster's appearance.
Ian shivered at the unholy sight in front of him and even more when he looked up to see a tall humanoid monster covered by very long jet black hair. The figure seems to be wearing rags for clothes while having long razor sharp nails as a weapon. At first Ian was confused by who that monster was until the black hair swayed a little to reveal the same red eyes from before.
"Miiinnneeee..."
Ian widened his eyes at the revelation before drawing his wooden club to defend himself. Yet the downed monster from before rose up and tackled the red-eyed monster with all its strength. A window of opportunity presented itself right in front of Ian and he gladly took it as he sprinted outside towards his original direction.
The sounds of fighting was still present behind him but he never looked back. Ian kept on running and running until the sounds were distant until...
"MIIIIINNNNNEEEE!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!"
....a shout was made followed up by a banshee-like scream.
Once Ian reached his fiery destination without running into anymore monsters, he took a chance to collect his breath. It was another close call as to say. The screams from earlier brought a little hope to Ian that his hunter was gone but not seeing their death suggested otherwise.
Still.
Ian finally reached his destination relatively unharmed. He was lucky enough to not encounter many monsters in a dead city but was unlucky enough to attract one particular monster. Now he had to walk through a part of the city that was on-fire. He put on his make-shift bandana to block out the smoke and breathe deeply before walking into a fiery hell.
***
From the dawn of time, humankind's greatest invention was fire.
Fire was very versatile for humans especially early humans as it provided warmth from the cold nights, made their foods tastier by heating them up over the fire, and it even warded off their predators so they can sleep safely at night.
The same was happening for Ian as he walked amongst the burning flames. The air was thick with black smoke and the fire was still spreading from one shabby hut to another. Ian's eyes stung from the thick smoke and it was difficult to even breathe but he was safe. So far there were no monsters in sight.
But Ian still kept his guard up, he didn't know who started the fire whether it was man-made or some sort of fire related creature.
Like a dragon maybe? Or fire elementals?
There were too many what ifs going on in his head as this world was unknown to him. He only knew that everything he encountered so far was trying to kill him.
Ian marched forward through the smoke as breathing became more difficult and the heat was searing his skin a bit. He marched until he stumbled upon a burning makeshift barricade. He frowned deeply at the predicament but chose to take an alternate route. Walking down a burning alley, Ian noticed how poor of a state these buildings were before the fire. Many of the untouched buildings looked as if they could collapse any moment now from the rot on the wooden foundations.
Curious, Ian pondered if the fire started because someone lured monsters here in hopes of burning them using these buildings as fuel. The barricade from earlier was clearly man-made to contain something here. Then his thoughts drifted on the amount of planning to slay a group of monsters by luring them to the poorest part of the city.
Or better yet.
To slay a monster.
Ian shivered at the thought of a single monster giving the former people of this city enough trouble to sacrifice an entire district to kill it. He silently hope the beast was slain already.
After exiting the alleyway which lead deeper into the fiery slums, Ian noticed something different from usual. There were corpses wandering around everywhere. He could tell they were corpses from their stiff movement and the bright fire revealing their unlively appearances. Ian clenched his teeth at encountering the worm zombies again. Last time, he barely escaped after attempting to kill one of them by bashing their head in.
This time though, it was going to be different. Ian pulled out the unused torch from his belt and lit it by pressing towards a nearby fire. Ian looked for the closest zombie and immediately move towards it with quick steps. He couldn't afford to run in this smoky environment unless he wanted to breathe in more smoke.
Upon a closer look, the zombie seems to barely notice him as if the fire was messing with its senses plus Ian still smelt of rotten meat. Then Ian press the flaming torch against the most likely flammable part of the zombie's body, its cloth clothes. Instantly its clothes caught fire prompting Ian to back up while making sure no others were drawn to him. The zombie soon caught fire and ignored it before flaying around as the worms tried escaping from their fiery tomb only to catch on fire too.
It kept flaying around making no noise until it finally fell to the ground and continued burning.
The fiery glow reflected off of Ian's silver eyes sparking only relief that these creatures could be defeated by mankind's oldest invention.
Finally, he felt like he wasn't the prey anymore as Ian looked in front of him only to see more zombies blocking his path. Only this time, Ian was going to be the hunter in this situation.