Vigilante Part 2

Chapter 4

At the base of the mountain, miles away from the city of Serjvo, was a group of about thirty warriors of different shapes and sizes with one goal in mind. Rikter Smith must die. Some had a personal vendetta against him since he was responsible for the loss of their friends or families. Others had favors to fulfill that they couldn’t ignore. While the rest were allies of the one spearheading this assault. He wore grey power armor too thick for bullets to penetrate that covered him from head to toe. Three horizontal blue glowing lines stood out from the design of his armor. One on his helmet where his eyes would be. One on his chest. And lastly, one on his hip area. This was the Demon Butcher, Xander. The rest of his allies weren’t in such thick power armor. It was too heavy for them to bear. With Xander at the front, the morale of the group was high.

“Sir, we’re being followed,” a cat girl said clothed in a dark blue ninja outfit.

“Does it mean harm?” Xander asked.

“It has no killing intent. But it’s also keeping a distance away. My scouts are too wary to approach it since they suspect that it’s a shadow demon. It specifically requested to talk to you.”

Shadow demons. Killers and consumers of everything and everyone. Not only are the humans afraid to deal with them but also every other intelligent species. Although their primary diet is humans, they are also known to eat anything that moves. The truth is that there isn’t a whole lot of information about them. Why would one want to hunt Xander? Maybe it’s one of those who believed: the bigger the fish, the better the feast type of shadow demon. He wasn’t going to let it also take out his men for dessert. He held up his hand to halt the march. Everyone stopped in confusion.

“Let it come and tell everyone that if I should fall, get the hell out of here and fight another day. Dying to a shadow demon would be a wasteful death.”

After a few seconds, the shadow demon jumped out from the trees and onto the trail that they were hiking on. It blended into the dark, but its white mask could still be seen.

“Xander, the Demon Butcher,” Xander announced his name and title, holding up his big cleaver in his left hand and his butcher knife on the right.

“I’m not here to fight, Butcher,” Mr. Nibbs whispered.

“Huh? Speak up, I can’t hear you! Why are you whispering?” Xander was a little confused but still eager for a fight. He couldn’t wait to cut up the shadow demon and sell it to his customers. He’s never served its kind before.

Mr. Nibbs walked up slowly with no weapon in hand while Xander also proceeded to walk forward to distance himself from his warriors. After they both were within a few feet of each other Xander looked down at Mr. Nibbs and held his ground. No fear. Just adrenaline for the fight.

“Name’s Mr. Nibbs I’ve come to help,” he said.

“You’re also after Rikter?” Xander didn’t lower his guard.

“Yes. I’ve come to kill the man responsible of trying to harm one of my own.”

“Huh. Interesting. Say, don’t you have the capabilities to take out the whole mansion on your own? Or better yet assassinate Rikter? Why do you need our help?”

“It’s not that simple, Butcher.”

It really wasn’t. Couldn’t Mr. Nibbs just use the shadow dimension to transport to Rikter just like he did with James? Despite living hundreds of years as this horrid mix of human and shadow demon, he still hasn't fully grasped how his powers work. He knows that he was able to save certain landmarks like his home. He also believes that the shadow dimension's destinations work based on where you most desire to be. Which, for Mr. Nibbs, is somewhere between finding Rikter and staying with Elena. This half-hearted desire often results in appearing way-off his intended destination. Like the time he found himself in a room full of armed guards. But why is Mr. Nibbs so obsessed with Elena enough to mess up his dimension traveling even though they haven’t known each other for long? Perhaps there are internal forces troubling Mr. Nibbs’ mind.

“I suppose nothing's so simple,” Xander chuckled to himself.

The reason why he chuckled wasn’t that he only agreed to Mr. Nibbs but because he also thought of how this all started. Rikter wasn’t always such a radical. In fact, he was more of a moderate type of guy. That was until his daughter died. But who was responsible for her death and how is this related to Xander?

Well, Xander loves to hunt down corrupt souls. With his unique demon eyes, he’s able to tell the difference in people’s souls. Those are his usual targets, which he serves to his customers. It’s a moral code that he goes by, not because it’s ethical, but because that is the best kind of meat in the market in his eyes. The more corrupt the better the quality of meat!

One night, as he was passing by late in town he happened to see a young adult woman torturing a little fairy girl. Ripping off her wings and laughing. Xander thought to himself. Yes! A fine slab of meat, right in front of me! He grabbed the corrupt girl and dragged her down to his hidden butcher shop and sliced away! Of course, he gave her a quick death beforehand to ensure that the cutting would go smoothly. Her death caused a chain reaction that made Rikter lose his mind and target every monster that tried to branch out of their territories. She was his beloved daughter after all.

When Xander saw on the news that he had just killed a rich and powerful person’s daughter he thought to himself. Whoops! Naturally because of his reputation for killing the corrupt, people started to rally behind him to stop Rikter. To them the Demon Butcher was a hero, not a villain. He’s the one that Rikter is after so he might as well take him down so he can join his daughter in the meat market. After all, even the purest soul can become corrupt. But for Mr. Nibbs, his soul seems to be cracked in Xander’s eyes.

“Glad to have you with us,” Xander sheathed his weapons and put his hand out. His power gloves were big enough to squish Mr. Nibbs’ head. They both shook hands and walked together. Xander signaled everyone to follow.

“Do you have a plan?” Mr. Nibbs asked.

“The main force will be distracting most of the security while some of us will try to sneak behind and assassinate Rikter. I’d like you to join in the sneaking. It would give us a greater chance at success.”

“Where will you be?”

“Look at my armor and guess,” Xander smirked under his helmet.

****

Mr. Nibbs squad only had about 5 other members in it. The cat girl and her four tanuki scouts. They were waiting for the signal to jump out of the trees and break into one of the windows of the mansion.

“Ready, everyone!” the cat girl cheered softly to rile up the tanuki.

“Yeah!” the tanuki were excited and looked at Mr. Nibbs in anticipation to cheer too. The only thing he did was wiggle his tentacles on his back. Which disgusted the cat girl and made the tanuki feel uncomfortable. The cat girl laughed nervously. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the front of the mansion. That was the signal to go in.

They observed the windows at the rear and countless guards rushing to the front and freaking out. Once the area near the windows was clear, the cat girl climbed up calmly and quietly broke into one of the windows. The others followed behind, and once everyone made it in, they all split up to try to find Rikter. Time is of the essence. The main force could only hold out for so long.

Mr. Nibbs ran past many doors in the corridor and knew that none of them contained Rikter. He was briefed that Rikter would most likely be in six potential spots in the mansion. Xander's info came from some top-level information broker who calls himself the Diabolical Ironclad Beetle. Supposedly, he can control bugs, so he's got some super large information network going. Mr. Nibbs decided to try to get to the top floor of the mansion. As he passed some scattered guards, he killed them quickly with his double-ended scythe. It was as if death was walking along with him and dropping bodies left and right. Many of the victims were beheaded so they wouldn’t alert others nearby. Although, it would be useless with how quickly Mr. Nibbs was traveling. When he reached the top floor, there were about twenty guards who made a barricade in front of a metal door, which made him stop at the corner right before revealing himself. Annoying.