9 Closure (1/2)

Lurmon treaded silently, his footsteps barely making any noise. His broad shoulders slightly lowering as he took a cigarette from his front pocket and put it between his lips.

”Does anyone have a fire?” Looking very unconcerned, he barely glanced at the restricted mutant before asking around while scouring through his pockets. ”You can't spect me to fight like this, Dante.”

Is a fire required!? Aren't you able to fight without having a smoke!? Two people died, have you ever thought that maybe you should be a little more considerate?... Garett complained, his lips twitching as he resisted the urge to use his materialized knife to stab at the Executor.

”You can have all the fire you want after you get rid of it.” Dante spat angrily but otherwise appearing very accustomed to following on the Executor's antics. ”Come on, blast it while the beast is restricted, it's getting late.”

”Huh, you can take your toy chains off, it's been a while since I fought an A-grade.” Lurmon took off his vest, and a muscular chest full of scars came into view; apparently, it wasn't the first time he fought a strong mutant hand-on-hand. ”Come on! I don't have all day.”

Grumbling some unintelligible noises, Dante followed the Executor's whims. The chains slowly dissipated back into the mists, as everything should eventually return to the realm of the Gods.

”Do your piece.” The hunter's captain stated as he turned around and marched to the closed gates. His steps emanated grief and helplessness; evidently, the loss of a close friend had shaken him.

”Captain...” The red-haired woman spoke, only to be stopped by one of the remaining hunters, her companion already having white hair, eliciting his status as one of the most senior members of the group.

”Let him be, you know he was very close to Burdren.” He spoke, it was evident that the captain wasn't the only one in grief, and every single one of the Hunters had a saddened expression.

”H-How do you trust Lurmon so much? He'll be okay fighting that thing alone?” Garett's shaky voice cut in at that moment, his eyes fixated on Lurmon's back. He couldn't understand how that man could take a beast that an entire team of Hunters failed to kill.

”Oh, even if Dante is a capable captain, his abilities are more related to restricting and trickery. An A-Rank mutant has a huge power of regeneration, so even if we did damage it, we couldn't kill him. As for Lurmon... His ability should be enough to decimate an A-Rank mutant to ashes.” The Red-haired woman clarified as she took off her gigantic gloves. Her slim arms looked peculiar when paired with the gargantuan gauntlets. ”That doesn't mean he is stronger than the captain, though. Every time the two of them sparred, Dante was able to restrict him before Lurmon could discharge his burst of power.”

She forced a smile at that, evidently trying to hide her emotions in front of the recruit.

'A strong person always hides a soft interior', mom said that. Maybe I should stop blabbering with the Hunters for now... Garett thought to himself after coming to this realization. Shutting his mouth, he took a few steps back and kept on looking to Lurmon's direction.

This battle was Garett's first, and his first time seeing such a high concentration of blood and death in one place. Even if he had seen corpses before on the College's morgue, it felt very different when on the battlefield! Corpses provided by an institution are just cold pieces of meat, whether, on the battlefield, a corpse used to be your companion!

Even if Garett tried to remain impassive, his trembling legs and pale face gave in his true thoughts! He felt magnificently worthless, as even Hilren had been of help during the conflict, while his only assistance amounted to running from point A to point B while shrieking.

Maybe my warning helped them, even if just a little... He couldn't be sure if any of them had some expertise similar to Perception, and if they had, his prediction was as good as nothing!

”Maybe I'm not fit to be a Hunter, after all...” Truthfully, he felt inwardly relieved! Who'd be the insane person who'd voluntarily enter a team like this, and more so, battle beasts like those!

The powers I received from that weird book seem to be a lot more effective on weak targets, like humans, should I become a bounty hunter? There's a lot of bounties that can make me rich overnight... He then lost himself on the fancies regarding wealth once more; evidently, everything could be settled with capital.

”You don't need to fret. We've all been rookies once, and nobody anticipated you to have such a reliable intuition. You'd make a fine Hunter one day.” The red-haired woman somehow heard his muttering, and even worse! She showed her support! That's not something Garett wanted to see!

BOOM!

The collision of the battling duo disrupted their discussion as the ground quaked as a consequence of the brutal clash! The surrounding mists were evacuated when the air turned into waves of wind, and the pressure elicited them to take a step back!

The brute had actually clashed frontally with the beast!

”Heh! Let me see if you can resist this, you freak!” Lurmon's excited voice followed, with his body spontaneously exuding light as he took a couple of steps backward.

As his whole body radiated light, he directed the fiery energy into forming a sphere of light, its appearance resembling a miniature sun that hovered above his palm!

”Oh, crap.” Hilren lost his composture for an instant, as he let out a small curse, his eyes staring intently at the pulsating miniature sun.

Why do I feel like this energy is so familiar?... Garett felt chills climbing up his back for a reason he couldn't understand. His memories bringing him back to the insides of that ancient ruin; when the fire suddenly intruded the ancient chamber, and almost ended his life!

”So it was you!” He couldn't help but cry, his indignance reaching new heights while he intently stared at Lurmon!

”Oh, you can remember that?” The Executor laughed, brushing off as if it wasn't worth it to make a commotion out of it.