Deathstalker - Part One

Extreme heat, vast stretches of sand, and sparse vegetation.

This was the desert region, the largest desert in the world, hundreds upon hundreds of miles of shifting sands. Yet it was not the barren wasteland that it appeared at first glance. A good life could be had here, provided you were tough and adaptable enough.

For yes, the desert could give life, but far more easily take it.

And it was by taking lives that this desert dweller kept her own, for she was a predator. A predator of great patience, a predator that had waited in still silence for hours to get this chance.

Eyes were not needed, vibration alone was enough to track the hare’s position as it settled under the shade of a bush to shelter from the blazing afternoon sun. The huntress had chosen her location well, she was within striking range.

The hare sensed the attack coming a moment too late as a muscular, segmented tail burst from the sand near it. The creature had only started its first bound to escape when the pointed tip of the huntress’ stinger found its mark, jamming into the animal’s body so hard it was thrown to the side several feet. The hare went instantly limp, its twitching nose, panicked eyes and rapid breaths the only signs it was still alive.

A moment later the rest of the creature emerged from the sand with explosive speed, her blade ending the hare’s life with a single slash to its neck. The feminine pink eyes of the hunter never flinched, such hunts were routine for her.

But even as she began preparing the animal to be cooked, she sensed a new source of vibrations. She could tell it was very different from her prey animals, rather it could be a potential mate, traveling alone if she was reading the presence right. It could be a woman, in which case her hopes would be dashed, but all the same she could not afford to ignore this rare opportunity. She was so excited by the prospect, not that it showed on her stoic face, that she almost missed further vibrations that signaled a group of intruders, ones whose positions indicated they were pursuing her target. This she couldn’t allow, especially if they were who she suspected they were. She had to hurry.

Quickly burying the hare for later, she retrieved the cloak she had stashed among nearby rocks earlier and set off in rapid pursuit.

------

Kenneth Peregrine knew he was being followed. A bounty hunter tended to develop sixth senses about these sorts of things. All the same, simply knowing in this case was not too helpful. He was in the middle of nowhere in a part of the vast desert that covered so much of this portion of the continent. The dunes he was traversing offered little in the way of hiding places beyond burying yourself in the sand, but perhaps if he could reach the rocky crags that surrounded them he could find shelter. Provided he didn’t end up in an ambush. After all, his pursuers likely knew this area better than he did.

This wasn’t how he wanted things to go. Normally it was he who stalked his targets, finding out everything he needed to know to take them down and then choosing the time and place to do so. The raven-haired man was in his mid twenties, in great physical shape, bearing a piercing gaze in his dark eyes and was fairly adept in combat, but even so he wasn’t confident about his chances if he had to take on a number of well-armed desert bandits on their home turf.

This wasn’t at all like the jobs he had done in the past. Capturing escaped prisoners, gang leaders and other criminals inside cities gave him many resources he now lacked. He’d never worked in a desert region before, and despite thinking he had prepared himself he now realized you could only learn so much from books.

He had come out here to scout for the bandit leader. He’d been commissioned to take him, dead or alive, by a wealthy client whose shipments had suffered a number of losses to this man in this general area. Kenneth had gone alone, reasoning it would be easier to sneak around the bandit’s lair once he found it. This was a mistake as the sheer vastness of the desert meant it would be a miracle if he found the bandits before they found him, and being alone meant he was an easy target.

He had had confidence at first when he located a lair a few days ago, but subsequent investigating showed it to have not been used in some time. It seemed the bandits were nomadic to some degree, likely moving from one lair to the next rather than holing up in any one place for too long. Now that he thought more about it, it made sense given they were wanted by the law and setting things up so that a group of men could survive in one place in the desert for a long time would inevitably draw attention to them. Now it seemed he would suffer for his poor judgment, as if being low on water hadn’t been bad enough. Despite being low on rations his pack of supplies had never felt heavier on his back.

“Should have never taken this job…” he sighed as he neared the veritable fortress of rocky land that seemed to emerge from the sea of sand. He pulled his cloak tighter as the wind billowed it, then removed the hood. It protected him from the still blazing early evening sun but he would need his vision unobscured for what was likely to come.

He immediately realized there were many places here he could potentially hide including what looked to be large caverns, but hiding anywhere depended on getting out of sight of his pursuers first, and that seemed impossible as by now he was pretty sure there were a number of them and they had surrounded him. Spotting some shadowy figures atop a nearby ridge confirmed it.

Kenneth gave a frustrated sigh. May as well get this over with, controlling one’s fear in the face of death was something else bounty hunters tended to develop. He loosed the harness of the pack on his back and let it fall to the ground. He needed to be able to move as freely as possible.

“All right, I know you’re there so you may as well come out. That will make this simpler for all of us.”

The whistling sound of an arrow speeding through the air alerted him to an attack from the opposite side. As they had so many times in the past his reflexes saved him from a potentially fatal wound as he spun around and raised his right arm out from the confines of his cloak.

A moment later a clang echoed through the area and the arrow bounced harmlessly off the plated armor of one of the silver-colored gauntlets he wore. Despite being fairly light, flexible, and breathable in the heat it offered exceptional protection and was worth the distance he had to travel and all the money he had to pay to have them and the similarly-designed chainmail armor under his shirt made. The work of a cyclops didn’t come cheap after all, especially if she wasn’t interested in using mating with you as collateral.

“You see?” he stated in a mocking tone. “And this isn’t the only trick I have, so unless you want to waste more arrows come out here and deal with me face to face.”

Sure enough after a few seconds he counted about ten men emerging from various cover in the surrounding area. They moved toward him with some confidence, knowing that even if he was a good fighter they still had the obvious advantage. The one in front however, had a look to him and a confidence in his gait that attracted more attention. His commanding presence meant he was obviously the boss here.

Kenneth had a pretty good idea of who he was, namely the man he had come here to capture. The scar on his right cheek was a good identifier, albeit around here people with scars were pretty common. Still, may as well go with his gut. “Bandit leader Amad Namib I presume?”

“That’s right pretty boy,” the rough-faced man replied in an arrogant tone, “and you must be a bounty hunter. Not many people but them come out to parts like this all alone.”

Kenneth noted none of the bandits in front of him carried a bow, which meant at least one sniper was still hidden out there. Smart of them, but bad for him.

“Yup, that’s me,” he stated with false mirth, “Kenneth Peregrine, professional bounty hunter and part-time drifting wanderer. I don’t suppose you would quietly just let me place you under arrest?”

Amad’s smirk grew into a chuckle, then an almost deranged laugh that his cohorts deemed necessary to imitate. “You’re quite the comedian aren’t you? I like that, I really do. It’s such a nice change to meet somebody who can make a joke before they die. In fact, just because I’m in such a good mood now I think I won’t have you killed.”

“Now you’re joking,” Kenneth stated flatly. Amad’s most infamous quality was that he didn’t let victims of his robberies live. Indeed his identity was only so well known due to caravans who had managed to fight off his assaults, and through word of mouth in the underworld.

Amad sneered at him, “yup, but you haven’t heard the funny part yet. See, instead of killing you I’ll have you stripped of everything on you, including those fancy gauntlets, and set you loose to watch you wander the desert naked. Then we’ll take some bets on whether or not you die of exposure before coming over and begging one of us to put you out of your misery.”

Kenneth had by now assessed his foes, each of them appeared to be in fairly good physical shape, and each carried a curved blade at their side. Some likely had daggers hidden under their clothes as well. Amad himself carried a much larger sword than his men, perhaps a symbol of his status, or maybe he was compensating for something… Kenneth smirked at the thought.

“Still think this is funny?” Amad asked with a crooked grin, far too pleased with himself for Kenneth’s liking.

“No,” he replied, “just trying to estimate how many of you I can kill before you take me down. By the way, it’s about half of you, just a fair warning.” And a bit of a bluff as well, most of Kenneth’s weapons were better suited to taking people alive. ‘Best start with the sleeping powder,’ he decided, preparing to reach into the left pocket of his pants for the small bag of it he carried.

“Or you can all just take a quick nap!” he shouted, in one swift movement throwing the contents of the pouch toward the closest bandits. He was surrounded so he couldn’t hope to get them all but if he was lucky this would disable three or four of them enough to beat down a few others and make his escape while the bandits recovered from the surprise assault.

It was not to be though as the wind suddenly picked up at a fierce pace. Within seconds the sleeping powder had been blown and scattered too much to affect anyone. Kenneth was left standing with a frozen expression of shock.

“…You’ve never worked in the desert before have you?” Amad stated after several seconds of stunned silence.

Kenneth smiled nervously, feeling more than a little embarrassed. “Is it that obvious?”

The man laughed loudly once more. “You really are entertaining! I’m tempted to really let you go, but I do have a reputation to maintain. No hard feelings right?” he asked mockingly as his men now rushed Kenneth together.

“None at all,” the bounty hunter replied seriously before surprising the bandits by running toward the two that were closest to him. He flung himself forward, hitting the two men in the neck with his fists and using his inertia to send them to the ground with him, flexing his wrists as he did so. A moment later came the sickening sound of metal piercing flesh and bone, as a hidden dagger inside each gauntlet sprang out from over his wrists, severing the airway and spinal cord of both unfortunate men.

‘Can’t afford to hesitate, or play nice,’ Kenneth told himself. He did not enjoy killing but some situations called for it. And with the rest of the men still unsure what had just happened he needed to capitalize on the opportunity. If he could manage to kill Amad then his underlings might flee, with some luck he could still get out of this.

With another strong flex of his gauntlet-enclosed wrists the blades were triggered to retract back into the gauntlets. He hoped that would let him still have some element of surprise if he used them again, as what he had done was not immediately visible, given the speed he had moved and how the blades had been mostly hidden due to being buried in the necks of the two men he had just killed. Kenneth stood and spin kicked the nearest man in the face, sending him twirling to the ground. At the same time he reached into one of his pockets and opened another small bag of dust.

Turning back around he faced two men with swords raised about to strike him, but pouring the contents of his pouch into his hand Kenneth threw the dust at the men with all his might. This time it didn’t matter if the dust was dissipated by the wind, for this was pepper powder and would seriously impair someone if even a little got in their eyes or up their nostrils. The two bandits dropped their swords and stumbled back, clutching their faces and groaning in pain.

In the next instant Kenneth dodged a slash directed at his back and kicked his attacker hard in the stomach. He rolled under another slash before kicking the man’s legs out from under him. The path to Amad was now open to him and he pounced at the lead bandit, hoping for a surprise kill like he had done earlier. Amad proved ready though, and Kenneth was forced to stop short and leap backwards as the larger man unsheathed his sword and with an angry roar swung it at him in a wide arc, catching the front of Kenneth’s shirt and slicing it open. Kenneth was unharmed, but now the metallic gleam of his chainmail vest was plainly visible.

“Don’t bother stabbing him, he’s wearing some kind of armor!” Amad shouted, “just grab him!”

Kenneth saw only one shot left at killing Amad before numbers overwhelmed him He rushed Amad again, the man’s eyes widening as Kenneth raised his left arm, the gauntlet again protecting him as Amad swung his blade down with all his might. Kenneth took the force of the hit and then used his arm to push the sword aside and swung his right fist forward, aiming for Amad’s neck.

But it wasn’t a square hit, Amad had twisted away, causing Kenneth’s fist to slide across his cheek so that when the blade extended from the gauntlet it only sliced a bit of flesh off his nose. A moment later Kenneth was grabbed by two more of the bandits and had his arms forced behind his back, where they wrenched his gauntlets off in seconds.

Amad had hastily torn a bit of his cloak off and was using it to stem the heavy flow of blood from his cut nose. His eyes seethed in fury and he practically growled. “I’ve changed my mind, put him on the ground so I can kill him!”

Kenneth faced the recovering bandits with calm resolve at they advanced on him, the desire to give him a painful death clear in their eyes. So much for his tricks, he could probably escape the two men holding him but he’d be struck down by another before he could do anything else. He’d killed two of his ten foes, and the two he had used the pepper powder on were still disabled, frantically trying to cleanse their burning eyes with water from their supply pouches. But his efforts had not been enough to win or escape. If only he had been more prepared.

He was forced to his knees, his head pressed roughly against the top of a flat rock. It was an execution pose, proven as Amad stepped up beside him and raised his huge sword, still pressing the cloth against his wound with his other hand.

“I’ll have your head on a pike, pretty boy, and don’t think I’ll kill you quick either. Beheading someone with a sword usually takes a few good whacks.”

‘So this is it,’ Kenneth thought. It wasn’t how he would have chosen to die. He’d prefer that if he had to die in a fight then he’d go down taking his opponent with him. Still, at least he had put up a good struggle considering how stacked the odds against him were. He tried to focus on that and waited for the killing strikes.

But before the end could come, Kenneth saw out of the corner of his eye something being tossed casually off the top of a nearby rock formation to land in their midst with a thud. Turning to it he realized it was the sniper who had fired the arrow earlier, the quiver on his back still full. The man himself was facedown in the dirt and motionless.

All eyes turned up to where he had been thrown from, where a figure wearing a large cloak stood in silence.

Amad, keeping his eyes on the interloper, stepped over to his fallen minion and kicked him hard in the ribs, the man’s resulting pained groan confirming he was alive. “Useless fool,” he spat. “How could you let yourself be ambushed?! You knew she would be stalking us when we returned here!”

‘She?’ Kenneth wondered to himself from where he was still held firmly on his knees.

The heavily cloaked figure leaped from the ridge and landed right in front of them with surprisingly little sound, and what was heard was strange to Kenneth’s ears. It was not the sound of feet slamming into stone, more like the scraping of claws upon rocks. Kenneth noted how the nearest bandits all took a few steps back from her, except for Amad who merely glared. Apparently having landed in a crouch, she proceeded to stand up to her full height, a height that actually left her eye-to-eye with the towering Amad. From what could be seen of her slim upper body she in fact looked unnaturally tall.

Kenneth found the cloaked figure was difficult to discern ay details from, even as he turned his head to see her more clearly. Her cloak was larger and baggier than normal, and trailed a good deal further behind her than expected. It seemed as though it was covering some large object she had attached herself to and in fact seemed to be standing on. The shroud served to cover and obscure every feature save for the piercing, pink eyes that stared from the darkness of her cloak’s hood, and the glint of a small gem of similar color on her forehead. Kenneth wasn’t sure what to make of her, but whether she was here to save him or not the distraction she provided could be his key to escaping. He waited for the two men holding his arms to let up on their grip for even a moment.

Meanwhile Amad took a daring step toward the new arrival and pointed his sword at her. “Are you interfering with me again demon?!”

She made no move, not a flinch in her gaze, and when her reply came it was in a calm, strong tone. “Amad… I believe I warned you and your men once before… that these are my hunting grounds, and that I will not tolerate your encroachments. Your bowman is still alive, consider that my final act of leniency. Provoke me again and you will regret it,” her eyes narrowed and Amad flinched at the pulse of terror it drew from inside him. Yet he held his ground all the same.

“The caravans know that you and your kin drive bandits from this area. How am I supposed to make a living when they all divert through here?” he questioned, sounding more exasperated now rather than enraged.

The strange woman shut her eyes, her voice aloof. “It is not my concern if you find it difficult to live your petty life of raiding and looting. You bandits are not like the nomads who come for a time and leave the land as they found it, or like the caravans who merely pass through without stopping. You are even different from those who settle at an oasis and manage their resources properly. No, you want to hole up in the caverns storing and amassing your stolen treasures while you slaughter my prey and drain my springs. You fill the desert with fires and poisons and litter it with your garbage, I cannot ignore your excesses.”

Amad was already set with a comeback. “Only an ignorant savage like you could say that. You know nothing of what it is to desire wealth or power, compared to fulfilling those passions a few drained springs is nothing. All you have are your all-consuming lust for pleasure. I live for more!”

“More?” she questioned idly.

Amad seemed almost giddy at the chance to voice his aspirations. “One day I will be more than a bandit. I will be a ruler feared throughout this desert, and when that happens you will want to have earned my favor. In the meantime I cannot let myself be concerned with the demands of one mere mamono.”

‘Mamono’ Kenneth repeated in his thoughts. It was as he had suspected, the woman was not human.

“Then you will not heed my warning?” she said in an even, emotionless tone.

Amad laughed loudly at the question. “It matters not, for you see I am wise to your idle threats demon. I am not the same as when you last took advantage of my naivety. You see I realized something. You may be called ‘assassins of the desert’ and ‘deathstalker’ but those are nothing but myths, part of a front, a bluff you keep to intimidate others. You are just like other mamono, you’ll never kill a man, your instincts won’t allow it. It’s the curse your current lord has imposed on you for that insane peace she seeks.”

The man stepped forward, a smirk on his lips as he reached out his hand. “So you see? This farce of yours is over. Now I wish to see that sculpted face of yours that has flooded my dreams of late prostate itself before me!”

Kenneth could only watch in shock as Amad’s attempt to tear her cloak off was stopped cold, the back of the woman’s cloak billowing up as something large rose inside it, the tip striking out from under the hood of the cloak on the side of her neck.

The movement had been so fast that Amad hadn’t been able to draw his left hand back in time. It now bore a large cut, the cause of which could be seen still ready to strike from where it rested on the woman’s shoulder. At first glance Kenneth had thought it was a snake of some kind but it was clearly not. There were no scales, instead the body seemed to be made up of thick, articulated segments which continued on into the darkness under her cloak. And its head was unlike any snake head he had seen. There were no eyes or mouth, instead it was a strange, rounded bulb that narrowed and curved into a wickedly pointed tip. This was what had cut Amad, his blood could still be seen on it.

“Only men I choose may touch me,” the monster woman stated coldly, the strange appendage she had struck Amad with slowly snaking back under her cloak while she brought up one dainty hand to smoothly loose the ties that bound her shroud about her body.

“You really think you are worthy of me?”

She opened the top of her cloak, the hood sliding off of her head to reveal a beautiful face decorated by a semi-transparent veil, and dark skin of a gorgeous chocolate brown. Locks of light green hair spilled over her shoulders as the cloak slid further off, soon revealing an eye-popping pair of breasts barely contained by straps of purple cloth.

“You really think you can handle ME?!”

The back of her cloak billowed up much more strongly this time as the whole shroud was thrown off her by the strange appendage from earlier, revealing her full form.

“If so, then look upon me, you filthy excuses for men.”

And what a sight she was. She had not been standing on something, nor had she been dragging anything behind her. In actuality it was all the rest of her body. For below the sultry curves of her hips and upper thighs (clothed in the same sort of tattered purple cloth as her breasts), stood the body of what appeared to be a human-sized scorpion. The strange appendage was her tail, the tip now raised high and at the ready. Her odd height could now be accounted for, as her six walking legs, each jointed into three segments and ending in a sharp point, were stretched high and erect, making her appearance all the more imposing. Lastly, from the underside of her tattered sarong, from each side of where a normal scorpion’s head would have been, emerged a final pair of limbs, the equivalents of a scorpion’s palps, the third segments modified into grasping pincers that were snapping together with menacing speed and force.

“Look upon me, and know your place!”

Kenneth knew in an instant what she was, for she could be nothing else. A girtablilu. These mamono were as infamous as they were enigmatic. Rare and reclusive, even other desert mamono rarely interacted with them, as they usually lived well away from settlements and towns in the desert and were largely antisocial. Their fierce reputation ensured that few attempted to seek them out.

Much of what was said of them seemed as much myth as fact, but what was clear was that they shared the fierce personalities so common in the arachne family, and additionally they possessed the fastest-acting and most powerful paralyzing poison known among mamono.

And, he had to admit, this one at least was drop-dead gorgeous.

Amad’s bravado wavered at the girtablilu’s imposing display, but he soon continued in a boastful, confident tone. “Y-you dare insult us! Look at what you are! I know your kind!” He smirked, “You are a lustful whore at your core, and provided you behave yourself I and my men are willing to let you sate your desires in us,” he added, a perverse gleam in his eye. “Why if it weren’t for that hideous lower body of yours I’d take you for a wife. I’d imagine you can be quite the beast in bed…”

“I hate arrogant men.”

“W-what?!” the bandit roared back in apparent shock.

“If I desired you in the least I would have paralyzed you instead of only cutting you with my stinger,” she said dismissively. “Your presumptions have blinded you Amad, as would be expected of a man as foolish as you.”

Amad wiped at the blood that had pooled from his nose, the cloth he had used soaked in it and now being squeezed in his bleeding hand. “You will regret those words! Take her men!”

She shut her eyes, her voice still dismissive as the bandits surrounded her, their swords drawn. “Your imaginings are all you will ever have of me.”

“Hack her to pieces!”

The six men attacked in a coordinated manner, two stepping back and pulling out throwing daggers which they launched to cover the other men as they charged together. It didn’t matter though as the scorpion women proceeded to deflect the thrown daggers with ease, her tail intercepting both with lightning fast strikes. Some of the bandits struck at her jointed legs but found them to be just as well armored and indeed she was able to move them as if they were swords of her own. Her pincers further blocked attempts to strike at her humanoid portion, quick and forceful snaps of them snapping the metal blades off thanks to their incredible strength. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“My turn.”

Having rebuffed their attacks the girtablilu became a blur of movement. A sweep of her tail knocked three men to the ground before she leaped over the heads of the ones in front of her and proceeded to kick and jab at them with her sharp-edged legs, knocking away any swords raised in defense before clubbing and slicing at the men with her pincers. Stunned and bleeding, the six men were falling to the ground around her within seconds.

Kenneth was so impressed with the display that he almost missed his captors having loosened their grips on him as they wavered over whether to help their comrades, hang onto their prisoner, or flee. Kenneth chose for them, slipping free before bashing their heads against each other. He then delivered a flurry of kicks and punches to one and then the other in quick succession as they stumbled back in a daze.

Satisfied they were down for the moment, he turned back to the scorpion woman to find her taking a leap straight at Amad. The bandit leader aimed to impale her humanoid torso as he thrust his blade with all his might, only to have her pincers grab the sword and wrench it from his hands in mid-jump, the weapon being flung to the side to stab itself into a nearby skeletal tree. Landing in a crouch right in front of him, she gave Amad no time to react before tackling him to the ground, pinning his hands with her claws and pulling a dagger of her own from within her sarong.

Her breasts jiggling slightly as she lowered her upper body over him, Amad might have been aroused by her were it not for the blade point she had pressing against the skin of his neck.

“To be a ruler, you need to have a future. As for me, I have no mercy left for the likes of you save for the same swift death I grant my prey.”

With her dagger now raised high over his head Amad roared in futile fury, his final act of defiance silenced as she plunged the blade through his skull and deep into his brain.

An eerie stillness descended on the area as the monster woman calmly wiped the blade of her weapon clean with a bit of Amad’s cloak. She then turned to address the recovering bandits as they watched, frozen with fear.

“You humans use terms like ‘never’ and ‘always’ far too often. Mamono don’t kill the men we take as mates, but that doesn’t mean we won’t defend ourselves. Now your master is dead. Unless you desire to share his fate you will take your wounded and never return here.”

With a silence born of fear the men obeyed, rapidly gathering up the unconscious sniper and limping away with all the speed they could muster, leaving their slain leader and two dead companions to the desert scavengers.

“A ruler…” she repeated in a mocking tone once they had left. “Amad was a grain of sand compared to the real powers at work in this world.”

‘Guess I won’t be collecting that bounty…’ Kenneth mused solemnly as he stared at Amad’s corpse, not willing to take money for a job that someone else had done for him. ‘Not that I can complain. I thought I was finished until she showed up.’ A part of him considered making a run for it before the girtablilu decided he was a bandit that didn’t follow her order. But then again it was only fair to thank her.

“Uh, hi there,” he greeted with a hint of awkwardness, finding it hard not to be intimidated as her steely gaze acknowledged him. “T-That was pretty impressive how you handled yourself there. Thanks by the way for the help.”

“What makes you think I did it for you, human?” she asked coldly, now looking away dismissively.

Kenneth tried to find his nerve again, he could face death without flinching but this exotic woman was something else. “Uh, I don’t- I mean… it doesn’t matter right? Whether you did it for me or not I’m glad you showed up.”

Now she glanced at him. “A reasonable answer. You handled yourself quite impressively as well, considering your obvious inexperience in this environment.”

“You were watching me fight?” Kenneth asked, incredulous as he put his gauntlets back on and went to retrieve his pack.

“I do not enter any dangerous situation without observing it first,” she stated simply, continuing to look at him out of the corner of her eye. “It is my way.”

“Yeah, I get it, that’s pretty wise of you,” Kenneth replied. “But you don’t need to worry about me going after you. I may work as a mercenary, but I got nothing against mamono,” he assured her. ‘Especially one as hot as this…’ he added in his thoughts. “I don’t do any work I don’t believe in, that’s my way.”

“It is a strange way for your kind,” she sounded confused by his acceptance of her presence. “I take it you know mamono better than most.”

“Most humans have never even seen a mamono, most of what they know is what you were like before the era of the new Mamono Lord began, and the Order would like to keep it that way. But traveling as much as I do, one tends to figure out the mamono of this generation are nothing like their ancestors. My armor and my gauntlets are proof that it can pay to trust mamono, well… at least to a degree if you know what I mean.”

“Indeed, for you to have traveled and seen as much as you have and to still be… unclaimed… is unusual.”

Kenneth got the impression from her eyes that her interest in him was piquing. There was a growing fire in them, and he reminded himself that any talk with an eligible mamono could change tone very quickly.

“I suppose I should repay your trust with a gesture of my own…” she stated in a stoic yet sincere voice, the fire in her eyes the only hint she was feeling far from stoic. She proceeded to slowly remove the veil from her face, revealing kissably moist lips. Kenneth swallowed at the sight.

“My name is Chanda,” she stated.

“Chanda…” he repeated, then diverted his gaze as he caught himself staring. He pretended to cough. “Ahem, that’s a- that’s a nice name. I’m Kenneth, Kenneth Peregrine.”

“Well then, shall I call you mercenary Peregrine?” she asked, cocking her head slightly, “Or perhaps bounty hunter Peregrine?”

“Oh, you can just call me Ken or Kenneth if you like. No need for formalities among friends right?” he said with a smile.

“Friends?” she repeated, seeming almost amused. “You are presuming again.”

“Sorry,” Kenneth rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “but, I mean, I’d like us to be friends. Can’t have too many, right?”

He hoped this was the right move. Being too friendly with a mamono could be seen as an invitation, but then again many needed no invitation so genuine friendliness often kept them off guard at least for a time. Kenneth was telling the truth when he said he had nothing against them, but all the same he had needed some coping techniques to keep unclaimed. It helped though if one had other, willing men around to send their way.

This had been his technique, get the girl talking and out of a pouncing mood, then divert her attention to someone else he knew would appreciate her, all before she got too attached to him. Several friends and acquaintances owed their wedded bliss to his admittedly selfish matchmaking. But none of those mamono had been like the one in front of him, he honestly had no idea what she was thinking beyond her obvious interest in him.

Kenneth thought he saw her powerful gaze soften for a moment. “Many friends… are a luxury most of my kind cannot afford. We often do not get along well with other mamono, or even our own kind. I have lived alone all my adult life, and I will admit… it is… lonely at times.”

“Well I’ll be going back home before too long but if you’d like me to keep you company for a bit before that I’d be happy to,” Kenneth remarked in a pleased manner. “In fact, you could come back with me and I could introduce you to some of my friends.”

“Is that so?”

He didn’t even have time to ponder the sudden predatory gleam in her eyes as her tail struck forward from over and behind her. The stinger jabbed into his chest with so much force it knocked him to the ground and held him there, stunned. As he tried to make sense of what just happened he could feel the stinger moving uncomfortably against his undershirt of chainmail, probing it as if curious, as her own face seemed to be.

“As I expected, this is high quality armor. It is so flexible, yet my stinger can find no chinks large enough to penetrate. Course, I can always stab other places…”

Now Kenneth’s reflexes were on overdrive, and it was just enough for him to roll away in time to avoid another strike aimed at his left arm. The stinger struck the hard ground of the rocky land, cracking and piercing it, then tore free a second later, sending a cloud dust and debris flying.

“Wha- why did you do that?!” Kenneth demanded, holding his gauntlet-clad hands up defensively.

“I was quite curious to see how your armor would hold up.”

“Well now you know so why are you still- ah!” her tail struck at him again, his right arm narrowing evading the stinger’s sharp tip, which he noticed was now leaking a purplish liquid.

“I must admit,” she stated in a tone so casual that it all but belied the hungry look she now wore, “I have… not been completely… honest… with you.”

In a panic at her sudden change in demeanor, and having never fought an opponent like this before, Kenneth stumbled and fell on his back. “What do you think you’re trying t-!” he was cut off as he was forced to roll away from yes another agile stab from her tail.

“Obvious, isn’t it?” she asked, the look in her eyes seeming playful of all things rather than malicious. “I wish…” she slowly licked her lips and a heated look of lust accompanied her increasingly husky voice, “to pierce that handsome, virile body of yours and pump it full of my venom.”

“All right, I agree that is obvious,” he replied warily. “So how about telling me why?”

Her amused smile remained unchanged. “It will be more fun to have you realize that yourself.”

He held up his hands again, entreating that she pause her pursuit. He had to get her talking again, to get her distracted. “Wait… you said you weren’t honest before. Does that mean, you did save me on purpose?”

She cocked her head and put a hand to her cheek to support it, looking rather bored with his questions. “Yes, although I would have driven those bandits off regardless, you are the reason I hurried over. You see I’ve waited quite a while for a suitable man to show up.” She began to advance on him again.

Kenneth meanwhile kept backing up. “Suitable? Then you- you came here to mate with me, to make me your husband?!”

“Both, actually,” she remarked without hesitation.

Kenneth laughed a bit, the kind of laugh you give when you are really uncomfortable with something. “Look, if you wanted to fool around I’m all for it. I mean you are hot and I owe you for saving me, but can’t we just leave the stinger and the lifelong commitment out of it?”

“Silly boy…” The confidence in her tone rose as she backed him up against a vertical wall of rock and sandy earth. “You can’t expect me to hold back to that degree. It would be torturous, like asking a man not to cum.”

Kenneth had to admit it was a strong point. “I can sympathize, but still, if you just take a minute to think about this…”

“I know what you’re trying to do,” she interrupted, her tone turning serious, “so let me be clear, I have no desire to live in a town, nor to pursue another man. You are what I want, and so I will have you.” Hr eyes widened. “I have never been so sure of anything in my entire life. You are clever and quick, kind and open-minded, yet deadly and calculating. You are what I want as a mate, no one else!”

It was as if the intensity she had been holding back had been released, the longing in her tone, the conviction, it was beyond any of the mamono that had flirted with him or tried to claim him in the past. She was serious, truly and utterly serious. He’d heard of this of course, of how rapidly mamono could become bonded to a man they considered ideal, it figures he’d encounter one that felt that way about him eventually. What’s more she had seen through his efforts to distract her. ‘She’s pretty clever herself.’

She reached out and stroked his cheek affectionately with one finger. “Just trust me, you’ll learn to love my sting. As for commitment, once you’ve been with me no human woman will ever satisfy you again. In fact, I doubt you’ll have any interest in leaving once you experience what I have to offer. Are you not tempted?” she asked, now in a soft, sultry tone.

“Tempted…” he repeated, sounding unsure. “Yeah, actually I am,” he discretely dug his fingers into the crumbling rock behind him until he had a handful of grit, “but all the same I think I’ll keep my freedom!”

At that moment he made good use of his practice at throwing powdered weapons, this time hurling a handful of sand the girtablilu’s eyes. She hissed as she clutched her face in pain, and Kenneth took the opportunity to run, narrowly evading her tail as it struck where he had just been and then continued to lash out wildly. He headed into the maze of trails created by the rocky, eroding ground, turning at random until he was completely lost in the passages. Still, at least he had eluded the mamono.

“Sorry Chanda,” he sighed to himself. “It’s not like I dislike the idea of being with you, but I can’t just be nailed down in one place like that so easily. No mamono has been able to catch me yet and I don’t see why that needs to change any time soon. Now, I just got to find my way out of here…”

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Back at the ambush site Chanda had just finished cleansing her eyes with water from one of the containers the bandits had dropped while fleeing. But rather than anger her expression was one of heated excitement. Her tail was twitching with desire like never before. Her lips curled into a predatory grin. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t be that easy to catch bounty boy… it just proves my instincts were right. You’re definitely the man I’ve been waiting for.”

She suddenly moaned and swung her throbbing tail forward so that she could hold and caress it. “Mmm… I want to thrust it inside him so bad I can hardly stand it!”

Forcefully calming herself she closed her eyes and concentrated, searching for the unique vibrations she had already learned to associate with Kenneth’s movements. Before long she had discerned his current approximate direction and distance. She opened her eyes and smirked.

Now the hunt could continue.

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To Be Concluded

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