This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/02321 on 2024-10-15 17:50:12+00:00.
I found myself sitting on the floor of my apartment, wearing three layers of clothing while cutting out coupons for tonight’s meal. Any money in the bank was put aside for my phone bill and rent. I didn’t even have enough for a loaf of bread. My work options had also dried up. Who would want to hire a guy with a resume like mine? For most of my adult life, I did a job where I couldn’t be upfront with new employers. If I said I had been a monster hunter until two years ago, I would be kicked out of any interview. I found myself at a breaking point.
I needed a job soon or else I would be on the streets in a few weeks. Or starve to death. Whichever came first.
A ping came from my phone. I’ve been ignoring the emails for a while. Even though I stopped hunting monsters, the job offers were still emailed. I needed to face the hard facts. If I didn’t accept a contract job, I wouldn’t be around for much longer.
Hunting monsters wasn’t easy. Sure, some are pretty harmless to humans. Those kinds of assignments didn’t pay much but you had a better chance of walking away with your life. The problem is, it’s hard to tell between the harmless creatures and the bloodthirsty ones. The dangerous creatures tended to randomly show up. I’ve heard of hunters in the middle of a job relocating pesky supernatural creatures to get ambushed by something they didn’t have the strength to deal with.
Starve to death or get eaten by some sort of monster. What a choice my life had led me to. I finally caved and picked up my phone, scrolling through to see if any of the open requests were suited for me.
I didn’t have any weapons left over from my hunting days; I sold those first to stay afloat. If I didn’t have such a massive debt I might have managed not to resort to my old job. Almost all of the requests required a partner, or equipment I didn’t have.
I spotted one that might be what I could handle. Some pale human creatures had been spotted in popular camping grounds. Some people have gone missing, with no traces of their bodies. I’ve heard of white creatures made up of mushrooms that imitate humans. Those were too risky to deal with. If you’re touched by them, they infect you. From what the job request listed, there was a good chance these weren’t the mushroom creatures so I had a chance.
I sighed wondering if I was going to come back alive after I sent an email accepting. I really let myself go in the past two years. My old injuries didn’t help. The cold made my knees and hips stiff. I did some stretching to get ready for what I just committed to.
Within the next few hours, I found myself at the start of a hiking trail, a heavy pack weighing down my steps. Since I didn’t have any gear, I rented some out. The Corporation that sends out these requests is pretty generous. If the items aren’t damaged, I could return the gear at the end of the job for no cost. But when it came to hunting monsters, you always ended up ruining your clothing and gear. Anything damaged would come out of my final pay. I rented out a cheap axe for a weapon. It was tipped with silver making it hit harder against creatures. Seeing someone with an axe in the woods wouldn’t raise as many eyebrows as a sword or other weapons might.
Most people think guns would be the best bet against monsters. Sadly, that’s not the case. Magic doesn’t stick very well to bullets and guns for some reason. It’s easier to bless a sword to make it more effective against a monster. For the most part, bullets just piss them off. It’s not impossible though. I’ve heard of special bullets. The material to create them cost more than I’ve ever made in my lifetime. So, no guns to hunt down monsters in my future.
I was given directions to the campsite that had been last attacked by the mystery creatures. My legs ached as I hiked, and I started to sweat under my heavy borrowed coat. Going right into hiking after not being active for years was a mistake. I pressed on wanting to get to the site before the sunset. My pack had been filled with some snacks and canned goods for the trip. It was a pleasant surprise. When I stopped to eat a granola bar, I reflected on an important fact.
I was lost.
I didn’t want to rely on my secret weapon so early on. It wouldn’t get me out of the woods, but it may lead me to what creatures stalked the forest.
I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. When I opened them again, the world was flooded with lights and colors normal people couldn’t see. Humans shouldn’t be aware of magic, let alone be able to see it. It was like how Mantis Shrimp could see color spectrums our eyes didn’t. Because I was pushing past human limits, looking at magic hurt like hell. Normally I used this gift to focus on one creature to see how much power they held. Looking at the entire flow around me nearly split my head open. In a few seconds, I was forced to shut my eyes again, pushing down the one talent that made me useful when it came to monster hunting.
Off in the distance I had seen a batch of light. Every living thing had a tiny drop of magic inside them. Supernatural creatures had far more than a drop. Since I saw a mass of light together, that meant the creatures I had been looking at were huddled in one spot. I bet when the sun set, they would all leave the safety of their home to go hunting. I hurried off in that direction praying I was going to face monsters on the weaker side.
I pushed through the woods and off the trail. I considered using my sight again to double-check check I was heading in the right direction. Finally, I came across a small cliffside. If I wanted, I could climb the rough, rocky wall. I followed it until I saw an opening just large enough to crawl through. A cave was perfect for darkness-dwelling monsters to hide inside.
I only had less than an hour of sunlight left. These creatures most likely would be asleep. You may call me a coward for wanting to slaughter creatures in their sleep. I didn’t have the power to deal with a hoard on even terms.
I guessed it was a hoard. The mass of magic I saw was either a lot of weaker creatures or one very strong one. If I came across just one, I doubted my axe could kill it even while asleep.
I left behind my borrowed pack. I only brought the axe and a water bottle attached to my hip. I double-checked that my phone was safe under layers of clothing. Even if I called for help, there wasn’t a good chance anyone would show up on time. The Corporation had the money and equipment for monster hunting, but not the manpower. And they always needed someone to hunt down monsters. I was on my own the moment I crawled inside.
I debated on leaving. I would get paid a small amount just for locating a monster den. My debt hovered over my head causing me to keep going forwards.
I used a small pen light to look around the small space. My feet crushed small bones when I stood up. Once past the opening, the cave was large enough for a person to take ten steps inside in any direction. There was another opening in the back that went even deeper. The layer of bones on the ground should have been enough to make me leave. I walked as quietly as possible, ducking down low through the other opening. The path caused me to hunch the entire way. I hated how loud my footsteps and breathing sounded in the small space.
Finally, I came into a large space. Drips of water echoed through the massive cave. And the sounds of breathing. I wished I hadn’t walked into that place. It smelled of the dead and unwashed bodies. I carefully used my small flashlight to scan the area. The piles of what I had assumed to be bones moved. The white shapes stirred in the dark.
A set of white glowing eyes appeared. Then another. I gripped the axe handle tightly in my hand for an attack. I thought I was ready but one of the creatures sprang up to latch into my back. I held back a scream as I slammed it against the wall to hear a terrible crunching sound.
I turned on my heel to bring down the axe on my attacker. Thankfully the teeth and claws hadn’t got past my coat. I heard more of the monsters in the dark. I swung my weapon in time to catch one in the head. To my horror, these creatures were nothing, but bones formed together in the shape of an animal-like body. This wasn’t good for me. It took a lot of magic to move the dead like this.
I hacked away at the bones at my feet, crushing a few of them. With more of those creatures coming at me in the dark, I decided I needed to keep moving. My light scanned the cave to show brief glimpses of the horrors it held. There were too many of these monsters. Teeth chattering in empty skulls. The clawed hands dig into the rough floor. Each sound echoed against the walls making it hard to tell where they came from. The only way out soon became blocked by a mass of bones.
I was scared. My heartbeat was so fast it overtook my hearing. I nearly dropped my axe when another creature jumped into the light and at my throat. No matter how many times I smashed them apart, the bones reformed ready to attack me again.
I risked using my Sight. My heart nearly stopped when I saw the true terror that had been hidden in the darkness. A mass of light sat on the back of the cave that had thin strings connecting it to all the other smaller balls of light. When I hit one of the creatures, they fed from the larger magic source to reform. …
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