Contractbound

He looked at Groen and Oranje and signaled that he heard a sound coming from upstairs. They swiftly climbed up the stairs to the second floor of the house to find the source of the sound. In a room on the second floor, even Groen and Oranje could hear the human activity coming from inside.

"This is the Police! Stop whatever you are doing and get on the floor. Now!" commanded Rood with a domineering voice.

The five people inside the room, who were busy searching for valuables, were shocked to find out that the Police were there. They were even more shocked to see the floating crimson sword and the yellow lizard that looked like it could breathe fire.

"All of that preparation just for a bunch of burglars?" said Oranje annoyedly.

She looked at the five people who were now on the ground from fear. She felt like lecturing them right there on the spot. A murder had just happened nearby and they had the audacity to commit a petty burglary. She didn"t do so, however, because of her personality.

"It"s better safe than sorry," said Groen casually.

"Let"s quickly detain them and go back to the crime scene," said Rood coldly with his rough voice. It was clear that he was also annoyed.

Groen and Oranje approached the four men and one woman and handcuffed them while Rood was overseeing the whole process. The moment they made a sudden move, his sword would cut them without hesitation.

"Why are we so unlucky. First, that guy, now the Police!" said the man with the ferocious stare with an annoying sounding voice.

"Shut up!" said the woman.

"I told you guys to call off the operation tonight, but hey, we"re already here, it"s too late to go back now, eh?" jeered the cautious man.

"Well someone here said the Police would be too busy with whatever is happening over there," said the annoying man mockingly.

While the five intruders were busy fighting among themselves, Oranje and Groen swiftly handcuffed one of their hands to the window bar, effectively detaining them. Rood was about to call for someone to bring them back to the station when suddenly his danger sense was triggered. He looked at the other two and they felt the same way. Something very dangerous had just entered the house and as the Police, it was their job to make sure whatever it was wouldn"t hurt the homeowners-- wherever they were currently. Even through that noise, they didn"t wake up.

"Something"s here!" said Oranje with a very serious tone.

"Their back up?" guessed Groen.

The three Sergeants left the handcuffed burglars in that room and went outside to see who or what had come. Their intuition told them that the danger was coming from the main hall on the first floor.

"Be careful. My intuition is telling me it is not something normal," said Rood.

They went downstairs carefully and saw something standing there in the main hall. It was a humanoid creature that had an elongated mouth with sharp teeth. Its skin, which was covered in b.l.o.o.d.y wounds, was all black and its red eyes reflected hunger and ferocity. Instead of feet, it had a pair of hooves that should belong to a goat or a donkey and on its back, its spines were clearly visible.

"What is that?" asked Oranje.

"That looks like a ghoul. What is that thing doing here?" answered Groen, puzzled.

"A ghoul?! Isn"t that a powerful supernatural creature?" exclaimed Oranje. She had never encountered ghouls before because they were rare to be seen in a city.

"Whatever it is, we cannot fight it inside the house. Let"s lure it outside!" said Rood decisively.

The house was too small for the three of them to fight against such a dangerous monster effectively. It was already past midnight, so the street outside shouldn"t be as busy now. Rood shot his sword to the ghoul and managed to stab its chest. The ghoul got angry focused its attention on him while the other two safely ran past it and got out of the house. When it was about to charge at Rood, something hit it.

Bang!

Groen fired his gun at the monster and hit it in the head. However, the gun didn"t seem to do any damage to the monster. His intention was not to damage it in the first place, so it was not a problem for him. He just wanted to attract the ghoul"s attention so Rood could get out of the house safely.

"Growl!" the ghoul roared loudly and charged at Groen who was outside in the street.

A flying crimson sword protected him from the charging monster, giving him the time to step back to a safe distance. The ghoul was now outside the house and Rood used the chance to swiftly slip past.

Upstairs, in a room, the band of burglars heard the terrifying roar and became very scared. It sounded nothing like they had heard before.

"What the heck was that?" asked the man with the calm stare who was now clearly panicking.

"I don"t f.u.c.king know. We need to get out of here or we are dead meat," said the man with the annoying voice.

They then started to get busy trying to open the handcuffs binding them.

Meanwhile, in the quiet street outside, the three sergeants had regrouped successfully and were now facing the lone dangerous ghoul.

"Tomio!" shouted Oranje at her lizard familiar.

The lizard opened its mouth and breathed fire at the ghoul; the latter protected its slender body with its two arms. Hot flame came out of the lizard"s mouth and engulfed the ghoul, burning the blood on its wounds and hurt it. Its covered skin, however, was not hurt by the fire.

"Growl!"

It roared again and charged at Tomio the familiar, lunging forward with its sharp claws.

Clang!

Rood deflected the ghoul"s attack with his blood sword. The War Drum made him able to move his sword around faster, so he was in time to save the familiar.

"That thing has no thinking capability, so I think my Contention abilities will be useless in this fight," said Groen casually.

He reloaded his gun and shot at the ghoul again just to have the same effect as before. His bullets didn"t hurt the creature. He then took something out of his coat and inserted it into his gun chamber, and then shot again for the third time.

Bang!

His bullet pierced through the air and hit the ghoul in the head, which caused it to be pushed several meters backward. The ghoul seemed to be paralyzed as it didn"t move from its spot.

"At least I still have these expensive bullets," he said.

What he had shot was a gemstone embedded bullet that had a paralyzing effect on its target. As a Jeweller, he had a vast knowledge of valuable gems, including those which had special effects. However, they were very expensive to buy, and as a Police Sergeant, he didn"t have the time to go into the wild to mine them.

The effect of the paralyzing bullet only lasted for two seconds, so they had to take action fast.

Rood, seizing the opportunity given by his partner, directed his blood sword, and tried to behead the ghoul.

Clang!

The ghoul had recovered from the paralyzing effect in less than two seconds and managed to defend against the sword. However, its right hand was heavily injured in the process. Rood"s blood sword was effective against it!

"It is weak against your blood, Rood!" said Oranje after seeing it being injured twice by the sword.

The ghoul now looked agitated. Its wound was healing rapidly, but it was still injured badly. It looked at the three humans and one lizard in front of it and picked the one controlling the flying sword. The ghoul raised its two hands.

Bang!

Groen shot another paralyzing bullet at the ghoul. He didn"t give it a chance to do whatever it was planning to do because it looked dangerous.

"I don"t think so!" he jeered, and then turned to his partners, "It"s paralyzed. Now!"

The effect of his bullet was shorter against the ghoul, so they had to move very quickly. Without even waiting for Groen to say anything, Rood"s sword had moved in for the attack and Oranje"s familiar had opened its mouth and red hot flame came out of it.

Whoosh!

The flame enveloped the paralyzed ghoul and the red blood moved in for the kill.

Slash!

It pierced through the ghoul"s neck, separating its head from its body. The blood that came out of the wound boiled instantly because of the familiar"s fire.

The ghoul quickly stood up headless and moved away from the fire, which stopped a second later. It was still not dead even though it had been decapitated. The ghoul raised its two hands quickly and a dark aura came out of it, quickly spreading to the surrounding area.

"Don"t breathe it in!" shouted Rood, but it was too late. Even he himself couldn"t react in time and breathed in some of the aurae.

"What is this? I don"t feel anything..." asked Oranje, puzzled, then turned to her familiar, "Tomio, burn the aura away,"

The lizard familiar quickly breathed out fire from its mouth and aimed it at the area around them. The flame seemed to be effective because the dark aura became thinner and thinner.

"Achoo!" Groen sneezed loudly, snot coming out of his nose.

"Cough! Cough!" Rood started getting a coughing fit, but he tried hard to keep focused because his war drum and flying sword were vital in the battle.

Oranje felt her body becoming hotter and hotter, so she commanded her familiar to stop, but once it stopped breathing fire, she suddenly felt cold.

"It"s a Malady"s disease spreading!" said Groen with difficulty while wiping his nose.

The group had caught common illnesses that hindered their performance, although the effect was greatly mitigated by Rood"s War Drum, so they only caught mild illnesses; otherwise, they might have contracted something even more troublesome.

Clang!

Bang!

The headless ghoul tried to attack the group while they were weakened, but Rood was still able to deflect its attack with his flying sword, thanks to his War Drum strengthening him, and Groen had managed to shoot another paralyzing bullet at the creature.

Groen had taken out some folded papers containing blue powder inside from his coat. He quickly threw them at his companions and inhaled one that was in his hand. It was a herb mixture that he had created in case of something like that. As a Jeweller, it was one of his specialties.

"Thanks, Groen!" said Oranje as she inhaled the blue powder. Her body temperature gradually lowered and she was no longer shivering from the cold.

Rood also took the powder and his coughing fit stopped little by little. He could now focus again to destroy the headless supernatural creature in front of them.

"Buy me some time. I need to prepare something," shouted Rood.

Groen and Oranje moved in front of him while the latter grabbed Rood"s blood sword. Since he needed to concentrate, he couldn"t control both the sword and the drum at the same time. Oranje charged at the ghoul with the sword in her right hand while Groen was ready to provide support at any time.

The ghoul now moved purely based on instinct since its eyes were no longer attached to its body. It still moved agilely, however, and was able to defend itself against Oranje"s sword attack. It moved its right leg and launched a powerful kick at her.

Bang!

Groen shot a normal bullet and hit the ghoul"s chest. It prevented him from doing a follow-up attack on Oranje, who was recovering from the damage.

"Thanks," she said without moving her eyes from the headless creature.

They kept exchanging blows for a while, and Groen was always ready to cover for her when things were looking bad for her. With each pa.s.sing moment, Oranje became more and more wounded and her stamina had almost depleted. She was not used to hand-to-hand combat, after all, and all the while, she was too preoccupied that she couldn"t issue a command to her familiar.

At the back, Rood, who had slit his wrist previously, had collected quite a lot of blood. He quickly applied a green powder that Groen had also made on the wound and the bleeding stopped instantly. Now there was a pool of fresh blood underneath him, which was needed for purification. He concentrated and started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Wit and Blood, let my blood cover the Earth,"

The blood on the ground started boiling and the surrounding area"s temperature gradually rose. The atmosphere became very tense and a suffocating feeling descended upon the creatures there. It was as if a very strong ent.i.ty was about to come down from the sky.

"May it burn wicked beings that are not welcome in this world!"

The blood continued boiling violently and it rapidly flowed towards the headless ghoul, enveloping its whole body, including the severed head. The blood exuded an aura of purification, and it quickly burned the ghoul with its boiling heat. The ghoul was writhing and howling in pain; however, it stayed ferocious.

Clang!

The ghoul charged at the wounded Oranje with its sharp claws ready to shred her to pieces, but Rood had taken control of the sword again and deflected its attack. Slowly, its body melted into nothingness, and from where it was standing, a peculiar object began to form little by little.

Rood, who had been weakened by losing too much blood, quickly took out the last blood pouch from his pocket and gulped the content down.