Interlude I Goodbyes

A man sat down on a wooden bench. He was a tall Caucasian man, middle-aged with long brown hair that fell on both sides of his head and sporting a rather unruly short bear. He was smoking a cigar while looking rather detached and dressed in a black suit, which hunters only wear when they are about to take out a target or bid farewell to a companion.

''You're doing just fine, Mr.Vlad?'' Mr. Sanchez, an elderly white-haired gentleman, approached him, wearing the same black suit. Both men just smiled at each other as if they were just joking around.

''I still can't believe Mr.Cao was able to close my wounds. I have such a nasty scar now, is really a miracle that I am not just plain dead. He looked past the old man and into the wall of the labyrinth, where dozens of graves stood solemnly with dog tags nailed to the old wall above them. There were hardly any corpses on the graves. When a hunt went wrong, there was simply never enough time to go back.

"I wish I could have gotten Veronica out of there sooner; I only ended up falling out of the way of that monster by accident, but the wolf crashed right into her."Maybe the captain could have healed her in time then. I never thought the captain would take so long to take down a woman only armed with a pipe. But then again, he still saved my life, so I can't be too upset. " Vlad crushed his cigar as he looked at his coworkers. Only the team of blue pheasants remained. Cao had already given his farewells and quietly left back to work, as usual, letting his team have their time.

"Veronica was always so cool and sure she rejected me every time I tried to date her, but she was still such a cool friend. Jack, one of the twins, returned from the grave, having taken it upon himself to prepare the grave. He had a happy expression and a jocking demeanor as usual, but it seemed to falter a little today.

"Right, she was way too cool to date a knucklehead like you." His brother Hunt had finished nailing Veronica's dog tags and joined them on the benches, but he looked exhausted, unlike Jack.

"Veronica never liked the captain. She was our squad's only trained sharpshooter. So he, of course, worked her to the bone. Honestly, putting her to attack a demon was extremely risky, if not outright suicidal. " Olga was on another bench near them. She was crying, and sobbing since the funeral began, but she had such an expression of anger that no one around her dared get close to her, except for Janice, who was sitting on her side with a palm on her shoulder.

''I know, I was unsure about the plan too. We may have underestimated our enemy too much. This was the first time we hit a demon with so many people around her. Hell, we are no longer just hunting random people who make contracts, things are only going to get worse from here onwards, especially for us with no demons, maybe I should have stayed with the warlords of the east, as inhumane as they were at least you never had to see any demons with them,'' Vlad interjected with his own grievances. It was rare for him to mention anything about his past and the team never asked him.

"We are still soldiers. We all know we are expendable. Our role has always been to make an opening for the captain. We are just too frail to go against monsters like them, but I'm quite sure the captain doesn't want any of us to die, and he is the only person around who can heal people with magic or whatever that is, so our chances of survival on this team aren't that bad. " Mr.Sanchez sat down with Vlad, looking even smaller than usual. His words made sense, of course, but they did not make the mood any lighter.

"Mr. Sanchez, you have been working for the captain longer than us. I know we shouldn't speak ill of our captain, but do you think he is trustworthy? " Janice asked him while still looking at her lap. The taller woman at her side closed her fists. Sanchez breathed as he pondered the question for a moment.

''I think we are just tools, but he takes it very personally if any of his tools break. Even when we are dead, he is not going to stop using us to take care of his job, but I do believe he wants to make sure his victories are clean and without sacrifices. He really goes the extra length to keep everyone alive when possible, even if we all know he is at his strongest when one of us dies. " He crossed his arms. Vlad just nodded.

"I hope she didn't feel any pain after the captain's demon burned her for power," Olga said, clearly irritated.

''She was just a corpse by then. If anything, Mr.Cao gave her a chance to protect us and carried out her cremation, or at least that is what I like to think, at least for now'' Janice spoke and the team stayed in a cold silence without knowing what to say.

"Well, whatever happens, I am glad I am here now. In my previous job, the boss would have executed people for speaking negatively about him. Cao barely cares. You can insult him to his face and he will shrug it off. People like us are only good at shooting people, so this is definitely our only place. "When he felt like saying something he had just said, Jack shrugged, barely reading the atmosphere.

"I think it will be worth it, especially if it means we can reach the city," Hunt said, and all of them stared at him. There was but one way for them to escape that struggle after all.

"Yeah, we will reach the city for Veronica too, so let's keep each other alive till then. If anything, I really don't hate you guys at all, not like the last losers I worked with. " Vlad smiled bitterly, as they all gave one last farewell to the graveyard before leaving it behind once more.