Clenching his jaw and biting down on the bunched-up cloth in his mouth, he let out a muffled scream. After he heated up a stone using a boulder, he seared what remained of his left arm. He remembered seeing a fellow Outskirt rat do the same, but only with a finger rather than an entire arm. Unluckily for him, he seemed to underestimate the amount of pain it would bring. By the time he woke up after passing out, it was night. The smell of burnt flesh still hadn't gone away, even after all those hours had passed.
He was in pain, he was exhausted, he was hungry, he was thirsty, and most of all, he was lost. He was lost in multiple ways—lost in what to do next and lost in the physical sense as well. Crawling his way out of the cave, he was just barely able to stand up. The pain in his legs from them being most likely fractured kicked in as soon as he took a step, causing him to fall. Across from him was the half-eaten dead body of the fat old man. He remembered that his aspect allowed him to take the teeth from the abomination, and teeth were bone, right? Attempting to harness the same feeling he felt when he took the teeth of the monster, he tugged the string at the lower half of the old man, only to feel nothing there. So it only works on living creatures? That's a problem because, sadly for him, in this snowy land there wouldn't be many animals.
---
"So what did you think? He seems to be telling the truth."
Looking at his supervisor, Myrion finished the story the boy who recently came to their kingdom told him.
"If it is true, then that would explain a lot… all the missing hunters who went after bears in hibernation. Originally, we thought they must have woken up the bears, but now…"
His supervisor, Tharion, scratched his slightly stubby chin. He was a man with a strong face, but he had soft features—and those features weren't just for show. He was a kind and compassionate man; that's what he knew, as long as he'd been working with him.
"How long has it been since he's been here, and why did it take so long for this to find me?"
"He's been here only around a week, but from what I know, the guards wouldn't let him in for that week. They thought he was a beggar, so they sent him away until eventually they swapped shifts, and the next batch of guards let him in."
Tharion clenched his teeth. He was someone weak to injustice. After his daughter was killed by a noble's son, only for him to get off free of punishment due to his father, he dedicated himself to helping others. Standing up and throwing his cloak on, he grabbed the spear hanging on the top of the wall and began to march. The smile that always put Myrion at ease appeared as Tharion laid his hand on his shoulder.
"Well, what are you waiting for? We've got a monster to kill."
---
"Now I have no doubt in my mind… it must be true, and from what I can see… by the gods, that kid was lucky."
In front of Tharion was the half-eaten and squished corpse of what seemed to be a lanky man. Around it, blood was splattered. It didn't seem to be fresh blood, though, but rather as if the lower half of his body had been thrown and left to rot.
Behind the bushes, Myrion began to retch. He had been on murder cases dealing with monsters before, but never has one been this bad. It was a horrific sight he knew he would never forget.
Tharion looked back at him and muttered under his breath,
"I guess it's a good thing I skipped lunch…"
Once more, they began to climb up the mountain until they arrived at a large cave. The first thing they noticed was another half-eaten corpse—this one belonging to a man on the heavier side.
"This must be the man who betrayed those two, like the boy said. But still… I'll pray the Gods show mercy."
Tharion, despite knowing what he did, could only hope he found himself in the Gods' embrace. There were some, including him, who still believed the Gods were alive, though the proof coming out every day that they were indeed dead did eat at his faith slowly.
"Let's check out the cave."
Walking into the cave, which seemed to have a black carpet made only of dried-up blood, he saw possibly the most horrific thing they had seen today.
The body of the monster they were hunting was there… dead. But even worse, most of it was missing, the ribs exposed as it seemed to have been partially eaten.
"Sir… let's turn back for no—"
Before Myrion could finish, he felt his legs give out as if the bones in them vanished. The next thing he felt was his head being stomped into the ground as someone or something fell from above. The last thing he felt was the foot raise and the feeling of wind right before it fell down once more on his head, killing him.
Gripping his spear and raising it, Tharion screamed out,
"WHO ARE—"
Suddenly, his arm seemingly vanished, a fountain of blood pouring out. Before he could let out a scream, the lower half of a broken sword flew straight into his skull, killing him instantly.
A rugged man with disheveled black hair fell down—or at least it was black from the dried-up blood. Squeezing and unsqueezing "his" left hand, he approached the two dead men, taking the older man's cloak and spear.
Walking away, the young man's beast-like teeth shone as he let out a small smile. His eyes, hidden underneath the matted hair, glimmered with the insanity of hunger, pain, and desperation.
Was it truly Sunny who walked out of that cave?