The man came forward and stood in front of the three students, he looked them over slowly and they couldn't help but feel like he was weighting them on some kind of scale.
"I don't like any of you" he suddenly said and Damian narrowed his eyes at him.
"B-Bro -"
"Silence," the man said, cutting Persephone off brutally, "Know when to speak"
"Hey!" Damian shouted while taking a step forward. The man simply looked at him for a moment before he scoffed and turned around.
"Get in the car. All of you"
He walked up to the car and Adrian followed after him. Damian looked at Persephone and saw her looking down. Her hands were clenched into fists and her shoulders were shaking.
"Perse-"
"W-We better go," she said softly before she began walking towards the car as well. Damian sighed and then followed behind her.
They drove away from the empty area and into the main city of Tokyo, passing by the tall buildings and billboards brought back a great feeling of nostalgia in Damian.
"My name is Thalus," the man suddenly said while still facing the street. He pressed a button on the dashboard and the armrest in between the two front seats opened up, revealing three guns, "Take one. We're going to be facing a real monster out there. So you better be prepared," he then looked into the rearview mirror, right at Persephone who was sitting in the middle chair, "And you better not mess this up"
Persephone bowed her head meekly before she took a gun and holstered it. Damian felt like punching Thalus, but he instead simply took a gun with grit teeth. Once Adrain had taken one as well, Thalus pressed another button and a screen lowered from the car roof, right in front of the three of them. It turned on and a picture of a tall school building showed up.
"This is our target today. There was a complaint from the students of this high school that their class pets were suddenly acting up. This had been going on for three weeks and nobody thought anything of it, maybe they were just going into their mating season or something, but what brought the issue to light was when one of the hamsters bit off the finger of a young girl."
Another picture came up. It was of a hamster looking menacingly at the screen. It had red eyes and a bloody mouth.
"It turns out that negative Karma had been gathering at the school and infecting the animals there. It's our job to take care of them"
"Uhm, Thalus," Adrain called, "What class are the daemons?"
"Between D-class to C-class at most. They shouldn't be an issue for a properly aimed shot from your guns"
Damian breathed a sigh of relief as he heard that. He patted the gun at his side, relieved he didn't have to fight that thing on the screen with his bare hands.
"You'll be dealing with some of the D-class monsters," Thalus said as he finally drove through an open gate and stopped the car in front of the school building, "But if I tell you to do something, you do it. No running around and no trying to prove yourself nonsense. Do you understand?"
He waited for all of them to nod before he opened the car door.
The school building was tall with four stories and had a dark gloomy feeling to it. Damian thought it was haunted.
"The students stopped coming to school after the incident with the pets," Thalis explained as he took his gun and attached it to a holster behind him, "So there's no knowing what's going to be meeting us in there. Stay on your guard"
Damian felt his anger reaching even higher heights. It wasn't what Thalus said that got him angry - he couldn't deny that it was valuable information - but rather it was how he said it. Condescendingly. As though they were children he was forced to look over. It made his teeth grind in a way he didn't know it could.
"Let's go," Thalus said before he began leading them into the school. They entered the main doors of the school and immediately knew there was something wrong with the place. The feeling of wrongness made both Persephone and Adrian shiver in dread.
Thalus frowned and held his gun tighter, "Don't go dying on me just because you felt negative Karma. This is something you'll feel on every single one of your hunts. Get used to it"
The two of them forced themselves to calm down and then they continued moving deeper into the school. The entire place was dark and dreary, the classes had their lights shut off and Damian couldn't help but notice how cold it was inside when compared with how it was outside.
A noise came from in front of them and Thalus brought his gun up and pointed it forward, he put his hand to his mouth in a 'shush' gesture, and then he led them forward slowly. The rattling around the corner increased in intensity.
They finally turned around the corner and came across a giant rat with its back turned to them. It had its head inside of a can and seemed to be eating something inside it. Persephone locked up once she saw it and even Thalus seemed to shiver a little. Adrian brought his gun up but the rat immediately straightened at the noise and turned around quickly, its eyes widened on the sight of them and it screeched loudly.
Click!
Bang!!
The rat's head blew up into a million pieces and Adrian holstered his gun once more. Thalus nodded at him and they continued moving forward.
Just like that, more and more creatures were found at various places around the school. A hamster, a giant roach, and even a frog that had grown as big as a dog. They were all dispatched just as quickly by either Damian or Adrian.
Persephone seemed to be hesitant to do anything with her gun. It hadn't even come out of her holster since she came into the school.
"Persephone," Thalus suddenly said and Persephone jumped slightly, "The next one is yours. You're not here to watch the other two do all the work are you?"
"N-No Brother! I-I will!"
Thalus looked down at her for a moment, "Well, at least even you cant ruin something as simple as this"
Persephone's enthusiasm died an ugly death at his words and her head went back down. Damian stalked forward in anger, "Hey!" he said, surprising both Persephone and Thalus, "You don't talk to her like that!"
Thalus' eye narrowed at him, "And how do you suggest I talk to her?"
"You're her brother aren't you? Try being a bit nicer"
"She is a failure and therefore isn't worthy of being shown any form of compassion," Thalus turned around, "And besides, why would I allow scum to tell me how to address scum?"
Damian's hands tightened as he saw Persephone begin shaking, "You -"
"Shh," Thalus suddenly put his hand to his mouth and shushed Damian, he held his hand to his ear, "Hold on," he said while trying to listen for something in the distance.
"Why are you -"
Thalus' eyes widened, "Get down!!" he shouted as the wall beside them suddenly exploded outwards.
BOOOM!!
The three of them threw themselves to the ground and covered their head with their hands as rock and debris rained on them.
"Stay down," thalus shouted, "No matter what don't - ARGH!"
SLAM!
Damian looked up in time to see something slam into Thalus and send him flying. Thalus crashed through a window on the other side of the hallway and flew straight out of the school.
"Brother!" Persephone shouted.
Damian saw Adrain scrambling to his feet and he did so as well, only for his eyes to widen as the dust in the area began to clear up.
"W-Why?" Adrain stammered as they looked up at the eight menacing eyes of the giant spider now standing in the hallway with them. It opened its slimy mouth and hissed at them. Damian tried to take a step back, but a hand suddenly landed on his back, holding him in place.
"Don't you dare move," Adrian hissed while holding Damian, "Don't you fucking dare"
The spider looked around the room and moved one of its eight legs over Persephone who was still on the ground with her hands over her head, she was breathing very heavily and Damian wondered if that didn't count as moving as well.
"What is this?" Damian whispered.
"Arachnid," Adrian said from his side and then his hand tightened on Damian's shoulder, "It's blind, so it depends on its other senses to catch prey. B-class,"
Damian looked back at the daemon with a newfound sense of fear. This was a B-class? They were so fucked.
The daemon brought its face close to Damian and almost seemed to sniff him. He flinched, but Adrian's hold on his shoulder became almost painful, making him stand still once more. The daemon moved its head over to Adrian and did the same thing, sniffing him like a dog. Adrian swallowed lightly but didn't dare make any other noise.
After a while, it retreated and began to move backward, only for Damian's eyes to widen as he saw that one of its legs was about to stab into Persephone.
"Look out!" he shouted.
The spider screeched and moved faster than he or Adrain could even begin to follow. It stabbed one of its legs into Adrain's shoulder and pierced through Damian's hoodie with another one. Then it fled outside the window it had thrown Thalus through and began scaling the school building to the top.
Persephone stood up quickly and stuck her head outside the building.
"Adrain! Damian!"
"Get help!" she heard Adrian shout in a strained voice, "Get help!"
Persephone stuck her head back into the building and looked around. There was nothing she could use on the monster, the only thing around was her gun.
'I-I can help them,' she thought, 'I can…'
But won't you just mess it up again? Give it up.
Persephone held her hand to her head and slumped against the wall, her eyes were tearing up and her hands shaking, "B-Brother. Please, help me"
"ARGH!!"
A shout sounded from the top of the building and Persephone jolted up in shock. She quickly moved to her feet and ran through the school. There was a staircase a few meters from the hallway and she took it two at a time to reach the roof. She burst the roof door open and suddenly stopped short.
Webs. A large maze of webs covered the entire roof, and right in the middle of it, hanging in cocoons of webs that covered their entire body were both Adrain and Damian.
"Persephone!" Adrian shouted, "What are you doing here!?"
"i-I came to help!" she shouted as she took her gun out from the holster. Damian's eyes widened.
"Look out!"
The arachnid suddenly appeared from the edge of the roof and slammed into Persephone. She brought her hands up as she flew back and rolled on the ground.
"Persephone!"