Monster Hunter Bloodlines - eARC Larry Correia (all ebook reader .txt) 📖

It wasn’t something I liked to blab about to strangers, but these were exigent circumstances. “Sometimes. If the stakes are high enough to concern the big cosmic beings who’re calling the shots, I can.”

“Good. I bet this qualifies.” Gutterres smacked one bloody hand against the side of my face. “Then witness.”

* * *

The evil that moved through the jungle below was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The entity filled the valley, flickering in and out of our reality. Everything touched by its tendrils became tainted . . . plants, animals, even people, all cursed and twisted into horrible parodies of what they’d once been.

“What is that thing?” I asked Fedele.

The ancient warrior crouched next to me, carefully watching the distortion in the distance. “I don’t know its name, if it even has one. But it’s of the Great Old Ones, Michael. Of that much I’m sure.”

Fedele would know that better than anyone. I was sure he could feel their presence in his bones.

We had tracked it from its lair, through ruined villages picked clean. We’d found the spot where it had fought the Brazilian Monster Hunters, but all that had been left of them was bloody scraps. The trail was easy to follow. Simply look for death and then go in the direction that damaged your sanity the most. The creature was collecting biomass, growing, but for what purpose we did not yet know.

The squad of elite Swiss Guard who had accompanied us deep inside the corrupted zone were dead. Our priest had committed suicide during the night. Fedele and I were the only ones of the recon party left. I hadn’t slept in days. Fedele didn’t need to sleep, but even he had been pushed past the breaking point. We needed to return and report, to beg for help, to gather resources and assistance, but still we watched, hoping to figure out some way to damage the thing.

Our minds could barely perceive it, let alone harm it. How do you kill a color?

At the end of the valley was a small town. From the look of things, it hadn’t been fully evacuated yet. A military encampment had been set up there. The troops were unaware that this danger couldn’t be stopped by bullet or bomb. There was no way for us to warn them what was coming, and that made me sick to my stomach.

I had seen how it took its victims. Some it took quickly, warping the very fabric of reality, bending biology and chemistry to its whims, to remake them in its image. Such spawn were what had killed most of our escort. Yet we’d seen that it could be insidious as well, gradually influencing minds with dark thoughts, subtly changing people for its mysterious purposes. We’d learned the hard way that it had sunk its tendrils deep into this region long ago, converting many of the locals to worship it in secret. Our expedition had been beset with treachery, sabotage, and murder from the cultists.

Only instead of flooding in and consuming all the living matter like it had last time, this time the thing crept in and settled into place—almost gently—around the encampment. Its latest victims didn’t even know it was there.

“What’s it doing?” I asked.

Fedele was somber. “It’s recruiting.”

* * *

I slammed back into reality. Only a few seconds had passed in the real world.

“Did you see it?” Gutterres asked.

“You should’ve told me.”

“Oath of secrecy. You know how that goes. But if I die, someone has to stop it.”

“I thought you weren’t going to die.”

The warrior monk looked down at his wound. He should’ve already been dead. “It might be fifty-fifty. What you just saw, that was almost a week ago. It’s still spreading, but very slowly. I went for help. Fedele stayed to observe. He’s not like us. He’s incorruptible. Our wisest scholars think a Ward Stone might be the only thing that can destroy a being like that.”

“Did you figure out what that thing was doing to those people?”

“It’s building monsters.” Gutterres coughed again, so hard that I cringed in sympathy. “Only then its creations vanish into the jungle. We don’t know where they’re going or what it is using them for, but it can’t be for good. Now go. Please. Get the Ward to Fedele. He’ll know what to do.”

I left him there bleeding and went after Sonya.

Chapter 23

The tunnel got narrower and narrower until I was really struggling to fit. The bricks stopped and it was just dirt and rocks and tree roots, but there was night sky ahead. I noticed something white on the ground and snatched it up. It was a piece of notebook paper with a map on it, like what Atticus had told me about. Sonya must have dropped this on her way out. I’d gotten lucky.

I shut my light off to not give away my position. There had been a metal grate over this exit to keep the racoons out, but Sonya must have knocked it open because it was lying in the weeds. The tunnel exit was on a little hillside covered in bushes. I crawled out and gasped in a lungful of fresh air. Blessed, blessed air.

Standing up, I got my bearings. I was about ten yards on the other side of the fence, but at the far end of the compound, out of sight of the main building where all the Hunters were. However, if the cameras were still working, they’d see me for sure and send help.

It was cold. I’m talking that same unnatural super cold as when I first ran into the Drekavac. It was like we’d come full circle. He was close. At least there was no fog this time, but that was because he’d sucked it all in to become crazy powerful. On the bright side, his still being here was a good sign. If Stricken’s succubus had already whisked Sonya away, he was too mission-oriented to stick around. He’d go after his