Part II Bucky sat in the tall grass, wind blowing his poncho and long hair back behind him. He grabbed the handle of his revolver out of habit before he recognized its uselessness against what he was hunting. His eye narrowed as he stared through the thrashing grass just outside Shade Ruins. Once in there, the wind would be completely gone and there would be nothing to give him an advantage against this beast. Luckily for him, he didn’t even need to find the place himself—this Man-of-War guy did it for him. Now all I gotta do is wait till this beast shows itself to the soldier. Then once the soldier’s dead, I come in and kill the thing myself. No! I won’t sacrifice this man for a bit of gold. Why not? It’s not like anybody would ever know. That’s not the point! I’m better than this. Not since losing my eye I’m not. I am a bounty hunter. The soldier would expect nothing else. I don’t care about his expectations! I have honor. Honor is dead. Bury it. Let him die. Take the money. I deserve it! But this man doesn’t deserve death. How do you know? Besides, only the honorless become a bounty hunter. It doesn’t matter. I must be better! Bucky shoved the voice into the back of his mind and looked up at the scene before him. The beast had shown itself. Bucky could see the black monstrosity wrapping itself into a circle around the soldier. Bucky cursed at the thing’s massive size. This was most certainly spawn of the Enemy. Bucky slowly drew his scimitar and prepared to rush forward. Don’t waste this gift! Let the man die! Bucky’s head started swimming and he tried to shake away the sudden vertigo with little success. That voice had been haunting him ever since… Bucky pulled a joint out of his pocket as quickly as he could. He wouldn’t let the voice get this soldier killed. He snapped his fingers and a tiny green flame erupted from his left forefinger. He used the flame to light the joint before he stuck it between his teeth and breathed in the fumes. The feeling was amazing and immediately drowned away the voice. Bucky could feel his head returning to him and in an instant he tossed the joint before sprinting towards the monster, scimitar trialing in his right hand behind him. His immense speed blew his hat right off his head and tossed his long, golden hair back behind him. Faster than any man was capable of, Bucky leapt through the air and rocketed right into the monster’s huge scorpion tail. Bucky could see the soldier—Man-of-War he called himself—through his peripheral vision frozen with shock. Bucky swung his scimitar at the beast’s tail with all his might and felt very little resistance as the blade arced through. Bucky landed just past the monster and spun around quickly. The creature was flailing, swinging black blood all across the ruins. Bucky smiled when he saw its tail lying on the ground beside him in a pool of blackness. Bucky pushed his advantage and rushed at the beast again. The flailing creature through itself backwards just before Bucky swung at its head. Bucky followed the attack by throwing his arms into a high guard, holding the scimitar with two hands. The monster glared at him with deep, red eyes and roared. The sound was deafening and seemed to shake the very ground upon which Bucky stood. He flinched backwards and the beast thrust one of its gaping, clawed hands at Bucky. Bucky parried the claws away from his guard stance and countered with a quick slash at the monster’s face. The creature caught the blade in its mouth, fangs glistening around the blade. Bucky’s jaw dropped and he swore that he saw the beast smiling. A clawed hand stuck Bucky square in the chest and sent him flying. He imagined that the pain felt like ten men all hitting him in the same spot at the same time with war hammers. Bucky was completely unconscious when he hit the grass, blood flowing from multiple punctures on his stomach. When his eyes finally opened, he was on the ground covered in his own blood which flowed all around him. He moaned and looked up to see, surprisingly, Man-of-War facing the beast. He was shooting at it with his automatic rifle and bellowing a great war cry all the while. The beast was holding its forearm in front of its face, black goo spraying from dozens of spots along its hand and arm. The monster finally reared onto its back two legs and screeched at the soldier. Man-of-War stopped firing and dropped his weapon from the horrors of the sound. Bucky was too tired to understand why he reacted in such a way. Bucky looked shockingly at his chest to find his wounds healing, covered in green fire. He was getting stronger. His mind started to clear and he forced himself to his feet. Let him die. He deserves it. He’s a bounty hunter. Leave him…… Bucky grabbed onto his forehead and cursed at the voice’s return. He was out of joints and didn’t have any more Mindbane to use for more. Bucky glared at the monster who was on top of Man-of-War, digging its fangs into his torso armor. He dashed towards his scimitar which lay at least twenty feet away. It was far closer to the monster than it was him. He sprinted as fast as he could, stomach completely healed. He reached the blade at the same time as he heard a scream come from the soldier bounty hunter. Bucky slammed the scimitar down into the monster's back left leg. He gripped the handle with both hands, and tore the blade through taking the beast’s leg clean off in a shower of blackness. The scream that followed sent Bucky sprawling to the ground, hands shoving hard against his own ears. But suddenly the screaming stopped. It didn’t fade away or quiet down, it just stopped completely. It was cut short. Bucky looked up to see Man-of-War holding a great battle axe which was shoved deep into the creature’s head. Bucky slowly stood and smiled at the dead monster. He walked all the way across the field to grab his hat and the partially smoked joint. He couldn’t deal with the voice right now. He placed the wide-brimmed hat over his golden hair and turned to see the soldier walking over, axe resting on his right pauldron. The man’s torso armor and gauntlets had been completely shredded by the beast and his helmet was lying near its corpse, torn in half. His hair was short and black, looking very military-like. His face was hard with very defined features that really jutted out. There were multiple scars across his cheeks and forehead as well those some of them were covered by his neatly trimmed goatee. He had definitely been a soldier at some point. Bucky sheathed his scimitar. “A good hunt. Thanks for the help,” is all Man-of-War said. Bucky frowned at the man and then turned to the dead creature. Those cold dead eyes seemed to stare right at him. He shivered. “A pity. That truly was a beautiful creature,” Bucky muttered. He didn’t understand the great feeling of sadness that bore down on him. It was just a monster...wasn’t it? Man-of-War snorted. “My, you are one pathetic bounty hunter. Even the worst of us can at least handle a dead animal.” “You see but you do not understand.” Bucky sighed. He glanced at the other bounty hunter who seemed completely content. “I think this is just proof that I need to do what I’ve been planning on doing.” The soldier raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that?” “Retire,” Bucky said. “This is too much for me now. Every death feeds my inner demons. The voices get worse with every bounty.” Man-of-War laughed. “In that case, yes, you definitely need to retire. By the way, I’m getting the bounty for this beast. The king’s bounties go before the prince’s. Sorry.” The apology was obviously not felt. He turned to leave but Bucky smirked. “You misunderstand, soldier. There is something I must do before I retire. A last hurrah, if you will. There is someone in particular that deserves to die possibly more than anyone I’ve ever killed, and that’s really saying something.” “And who’s that?” Man-of-War asked. Bucky could see that he was gripping the axe tighter now. His smirk grew into a grin at that. “The king.” Man-of-War’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. He was far too slow to react to Bucky’s next move. Bucky stuck the joint between his teeth and in one smooth motion ripped his revolver from his side holster and pulled the trigger. The explosion echoed throughout the forest and beyond. He replaced his revolver and turned away, but not before relighting and inhaling more of the burning Mindbane. Bucky found the powerful hallucinogen a necessity at this point to deal with the constant voice.