The Hunters Volume Two: War

  Starlight Central Academy was an elite institution that stood at the heart of the education sector of the entire city of Starlight Bay. Churning out even more revenue than was poured into it every year, the establishment had proven to be a pillar in the inner workings of the city. With such a high reputation to its name, it was little wonder that a good percentage of the student populace was comprised of the spawn of the beau monde of the society.

  But that was the thing about latter generation noblesse: they were far more prone to carelessness.

  No society was without its dark side however. There were various less than appropriate establishments that attended to the baser desires of the student body. Of course these establishments were kept afloat solely by the multitude of backroom deals that went on in the shadows. In one of these numerous establishments, a wild rave continued to rock the walls of the night club to its foundations. Within the building, a flurry of multicolored party lights from several disco balls hanging from the ceiling. Music blasted out at insane levels that remained ignored the dozens of young adults, in favor of partying as hard as they could before the midterms began in the coming weeks.

  A young man with stylish swept back black hair sauntered over to the large counter at one corner where a well built dark skinned man was throwing together several alcoholics to create a cocktail. Most likely for the blonde girl sitting at the bar across the bartender. The young man slid into the seat beside the girl with practiced ease and so began the age old dance of back and forth flirting. Whether the alcohol played a part on lowering her inhibitions, or it simply dulled her senses to the point where she missed the flash of red that crossed the young man's eyes during their conversation, the dance ended in favor of the young man.

  By the time Rick was leading the blonde out of the booming club, she was already too stoned to even walk on her own properly. As much as he would have liked to say that his natural charms had once again performed admirably, Rick knew that was not the case. The alcohol had certainly helped though. It was infinitely more simple to hypnotize an intoxicated human whose mind was already viable to suggestions. Being a vampire definitely had its perks. 

  He spared the girl hanging off his arm another glance and sighed inwardly. Her name, she had said, was Elaine and she was in the Arts Department. With her delicate features, even Rick would admit that she was definitely a stunner. It was unfortunate that he had very little interest in her beyond what he required from her at the moment. The laws guiding the Peace Program that had been enacted by the three main supernatural factions, The Holy Church, The Arcane Circle and The Vampire Council, specifically forbade intentional harm of mundane humans by any of the participants of the exercise. The Hunters themselves had been very clear about their intent to fully exercise their...disciplinary rights should anyone break these laws. But as vampires undeniably required a steady consumption of blood to live, they had been given some leeway in their activities. However several limits had been imposed on these permissions. For starters, they were not allowed to completely drain their target, to the point of putting the latter's health at risk. Neither were they allowed to turn a human except in severe emergency cases. It was already a given that hypnosis be used to ensure the human would never remember what had happened in order to keep the supernatural world secret.

  Rick and his 'date' soon arrived at his destination, an abandoned alley that led around the club district to just before the rest of the school. This was Rick's favored feeding ground, as he would be able to place his incapacitated victims in a position where it would be easier for them to return to the school when they regained themselves. This was not done out of any misplaced sense of honor though. He just did not want the Hunters gunning for him because of a stupid mistake.

  After lugging the half conscious lady into the darkness of the alley, Rick propped her up against a nearby wall and moved her hair over one shoulder to expose her supple neck. Eyes turned crimson and fangs elongated as Rick leaned down, only to stop several centimeters from her skin as his eyes focused on the strange figure standing ahead of them in the alley. As a vampire, Rick's senses were evolved to attain very high extremes, and yet he had been unable to sense whoever this newcomer was until they were a mere dozen feet away. That meant something was definitely not right.

  He placed Elaine to lean on the lower part of the wall and turned to face the figure properly. The figure's features were indistinguishable as they were backdropped by the well lit street at the mouth of the alley. Though that should not have mattered, considering vampires could see clear as day at night, but for some unknown reason, Rick could not even make out a single feature from the figure. It was obviously a male from the way it stood and when it began to approach Rick, he noticed that its gait was measured and precise with practically zero wasted movements. Whoever this was, he was definitely a well trained fighter.

  Seeing as this person had known to come here directly probably too confront Rick before he could feed, it was safe to assume that this individual knew of the supernatural. So Rick tried a classic intimidation move to throw the figure off balance.

  "The hell do you want here?" He snapped harshly, his laser pointer-like eyes focused on the figure. 

  When the figure ignored him completely, Rick growled in annoyance and began walking towards the figure. "Listen here buster, if you ever want to..."

  Right before Rick's left foot could touch the ground for the third time, the figure disappeared and Rick suddenly felt unbalanced. It was only after he had stumbled over to a wall that he realized why he had been so unsteady. His entire right arm, from the shoulder downward was missing, leaving a clean cut that immediately began to spew blood furiously. Then the pain hit. 

  Rick fell on his knees and screamed in agony as his left hand hovered tentatively around the bloody stump on the other side of his torso. His red eyes rose and he saw the figure now standing right in front of him, Rick's severed arm lying only a few meters away. Before he could even comprehend how fast the figure had been that even he a vampire had not been able to see him, Rick saw the long single edged sword that still dripped blood in the figure's hand, something that he was sure as hell the figure had not had earlier.

  An immense sense of foreboding crashed down on Rick and he glanced up, just in time to see the blade slicing down at his head.

  "No, wait—"

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  'Fall had come early this year' Michael thought as he looked down from the branch of the tree he had been sitting on for the past two hours or so. The great oak was like the other trees around that had begun shedding their leaves right at the beginning of August. Now it was September, and Michael noticed that the ninth month of the year had come with a special kind of fever among the students and staff of Starlight Central Academy. And if the colorful banners and signs strung up all over campus weren't enough to clue in on what was happening, then the occasional jock dressed in bright blue and silver whooping the school mantra every twenty five minutes in the school hallways would be more than enough. Football season had begun and it had hit Starlight Central Academy hard. 

  Michael could frankly say he never really understood the appeal of the sport. Not that he was not able to comprehend the game's nature, but it was more like he could not relate with the excitement it incited in the fans. Then again with how long lived he was, there was no way he could be on the same emotional spectrum as normal humans who were destined to only live up to just over a century at best. Such was the curse of creatures like him, he supposed.

 Still he wasn't going to judge. To each his own and all that. As midterms were still over a month away, everyone had both the time and the peace of mind to fully throw themselves into the fervor that the coming games incited. 

  Well, at least that was for the normal students. 

  After the events of the last month, the supernatural members of the academy had reveled in the normality of everyday college life, which pretty much translated to night-long parties, alcohol and a whole lot of typical hormone induced debauchery. To Michael's admittedly pleasant surprise, even the Hunters found themselves settling quite easily among the others. The fear was still present of course, albeit reduced slightly. The actions of the werewolf pack during the skinwalker crisis had definitely served to dull the tension and apprehension held against them. 

  Jade had made good on her initial intentions from the moment she had stepped foot in the academy much to her pack leader's dismay, and had already gone through three different relationships in the past month. As flippant as it might seem, no one attempted to judge her, mostly out of fear, but also because a lot of them were doing practically the same thing. As for Jade, well as far as she was concerned, if you knew what you wanted and you were hot enough to get it, why wait then?

  After the reveal of the nature of Dean's Variant Magic, he had moved to quickly surpass even Michael as the most feared Hunter. After all, so far as anyone knew, his Magic was basically a oneshot instant kill move that no one had any freaking idea how to block or counter. The wide berth had not really mattered to the Hunter anyway. He had expected it after all, just as much as he was used to it. Fortunately for him, it just meant he did not have to deal with the stupidity of human adolescence, which left him free to fully indulge himself in his new found pleasurable pastime: art. 

  Olivia had sought to integrate herself into the normal stream like most of the other participants of the program. Her almost perpetual optimistic demeanor had served to greatly diminish the aversion aimed her way and had made a sort of diplomatic ambassador to the rest of the Hunters. She interacted steadily with the mages and to a somewhat reduced extent, the vampires as well. The natural barrier between the two races still remained, despite the best efforts of the Vampire Princess.

  With Michael as the most respected Hunter, Jade being the hottest, Dean the most feared, and Olivia the most likable, that left Lee Shen as an absolute mystery. Practically nothing was known about the white haired Oriental Hunter whose pseudo-perpetual smirk had proven to be a most effective disguise to his true emotions. His Magic remained unknown as was his true power and desires. He sure as hell was not shy, easily being in fact one of the most social individuals in the entire school. The Asian young man had made connections with pretty much every major group and clique in the academy, mundane or supernatural. Just as his mysterious nature deterred some, it attracted others as well. After all, you can hardly fear what you don't know. 

  And as for the alpha of the pack, the past month had been full of adjustments and recollections. With the confirmed knowledge that the participants of the program were being targeted, Michael had taken it upon himself to try and decrease the distance between his pack and the other supernaturals. He was well aware of how reticent they could be in his presence. His show of cutting through a literal mountain had the slightly unwanted effect of increasing the apprehension the others possessed towards him and his team. His packmates however had found their own ways to overcome this issue, and in time, so had he.

  His training with Whitney had been a one time thing, sadly so since Michael had seen so much potential in her. However, the platinum blonde girl had definitely made it clear that she wanted to achieve her limits her way and Michael had no plans to disrespect her wishes. Mia on the other hand couldn't be any less the opposite. Somehow between her mundane studies and her magic lessons with Whitney and Elena, she had managed to squeeze out some time every three days to meet up with Michael. Unlike her peers, she harbored near zero conservations regarding interacting with the Hunters. After witnessing displays of their Variant abilities, she had continued to seek Michael out to further teach her about her own abilities. 

  Veronica Von Reize however, still remained as uncompromising as ever. There was a better chance of the sun freezing over than there was of her asking Michael for help training. The ambush she and her bodyguards had experienced over a month ago had sparked something in her though. It had reminded her of just why she had tried so persistently to escape her father's shadow. Veronica was not stupid. She knew that she still had ways to go before she could utilize her own power fully. Luckily for her, Aiden and Caen were both far older than they looked despite their roguishly handsome looks. Night after night, she pushed herself farther than the day before, growing stronger and faster with each session.