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"I'll show y'fun y'piece a shi—aagh!"

West had been certain this was a dream. They had all been waiting for the last trial to begin, right? Wasn't this it? He didn't know anymore. Normally, pain was something enjoyable, something that assured him he was still alive. He could still fight. He couldn't fight this. This pain hurt, and this dream seemed all too real.

When he awoke for the third time that day, he was on his feet, crammed into a space that forced him to stand no matter how far from consciousness he strayed. He was separated from the group, and for a moment, anger and confusion rushed through him. Levi. There. Demi. Present and accounted for. But where was Bul?

His gaze strayed to the center of the room, to the glass cage that was so similar to his own, but so different too, its placement signifying something sinister before the half beast's screams could even begin.

West's fists pounded once, then twice against the glass as the other boil started to break up, but it was no use. He had never been physically present when others of his kind had been threatened with weaponization, and reading scattered bits about the process hardly did it justice. It was... fascinating. As much as he wanted to fight, a fairly large part of him just wanted to watch.

He rested his arm on the glass in front of him, then pressed his forehead to that, bearing witness to the proceedings with wide eyes and slightly parted lips. The pain he had felt since this nightmare began seemed like nothing in comparison to what Bul was going through. West thought he saw the boil crack, split, melt then come back together again, his huge natural form somehow fitting inside the tiny tube, but only for the briefest flashes of time. The demon saw Demi shouting out of the corner of his eye, but instead of looking at the boil, West turned to Levi, staring at the ghoul as if he finally realized it could have been her in that tube, screaming and dying. He finally raised his fist again, but by then it was too late.

Bul was gone, and West couldn't help but feel guilty. He was glad it hadn't been her.

Levi had woken up in time for the gruesomeness. When the hunter walked back towards her and her team mates left behind, Levi had no words.

She reacted with animal-like hissing, scraping at the glass with her fingers. Obviously, she wasn't going to tell them anything. Bul shouldn't have gone. She'd shove what was left behind of him in each and every one of these humans if she could. Adrenaline ran through her, ears back and tail filling the area of her container behind her. She'd jump out right now and give him a taste of Bul.

If she could.

But she couldn't.

But she wished she could.

One human retreating for another, Levi's eyes suddenly locked on Bul. Revenge was what she immediately craved. Her hellhound kin was not looking right to attack; West might be- but did she really want him to go against the hunters yet again? Yes. In the end, she'd feel better if just one of them could claw through the innards of a hunter and thrash them to pieces of flesh and bone like freshly cut meat. It was what they deserved after what they'd done. Every time she'd seen them, someone got hurt or dissipated ... or became a tool for them to use.

Levi's heart raced remembering the time that she was grabbed by the hunter with the scythe and thrown at Red like no more than a rag doll. Red had cared enough to shove her out of harm's way when the same hunter attacked. What did their professor have to show for it? Her own demise. When Levi had been caught in a net in the gorge, West had freed her when she couldn't seem to free herself from the nets that burned, singing her skin and his. Yet again she was saved when she and Demi had faced off against the nets and hunters.

They wouldn't have him; Levi would never allow them to take her brother if she had even a miniscule of chance of releasing him. Levi was able to do so for Xiu that one time; the baku had fallen under the attack of the hunters and was captured but- her attacks had done nothing to retaliate against the foes that threatened her new kin. No matter what, they just kept coming back like Halloween was their playground and they made all the rules.

Holding Bul's pin in her hand after their battle; Levi remembered it. He was like kin to her as well, really. The once-half-beast taught her to play snotball and gave her that which he'd made of his own hands and FEAR. To the ghoul, it was a treasure that she maintained for the respect of the boil. The half of the shotball he'd given her the first time they met was like giving her his recognization of their equality as opponents as well as a who of friendship. Never in her life had a boil done so with her back home. The blade that betrayed her eyes into believing Bul was still there in some form caused her to remember his laugh of all things then. This was enough to have Levi grit her teeth to the point of them feeling like thin glass against stone and near shattering. Would she ever talk to Bul again like this? Levi felt fueled by her rage.

They'd not replicate her previous experiences with them; these hunters. If Demi and West... and Bul were still around her in some form... they could still see Halloween if they got out. It wasn't too late yet. They could find a way to bring Bul back, right? Right. There were smart enough spookies for that surely back home.


She hated the hunters.


She hated having to even think of these choices and chance possibilities.


Levi would destroy whatever she got her claws into upon release without a doubt. With a heaving chest and boiling blood, her focus zeroed right onto the hand that released her then.

The milliseconds it took for the container she was held in to open felt like minutes passing by and the first face she saw was the one she lunged at. Immediately leaping at the trainee, the tatzelwurm's tail took on its regular snake-like properties, coiling around the legs of the nameless body she held and forcing her weight to make them fall back to the floor. There was no time for chatter, no time to allow for any comforts of position. As soon and Levi could, her fangs dug into the being's neck hard. The wriggling of the body was proof that she'd not been able to penetrate any venom this way into them. It didn't matter. All that this meant was that she'd have to work that much harder at the carcase. Scream and scream all you like. Are you scared? Are you frightened of me? You will be. Releasing their neck from her jaws would only occur by her pulling away still clenched with a chunk of hunter meat. She wasted no time simply allowing it to fall from her stained mouth.

The sickening sound of something juicy and solid, like a melon being split open by hand from one tiny crevice, was what followed the tatzelwurm's scraping into the wrists of her prey. They were seriously trying to get up and counter her methods of restraint, but Levi was scooping in and puling away at veins and tendons at the hunter's wrists as if pulling wires from a circuit board. Whether the blood was all theirs or some was her own from the carelessly brutal manner she was driving her nails into the body, Levi didn't care. Levi wanted so badly to change back into her draconic tatzelwurm form but this place... something stopped her from doing so. And it wasn't her skull pin. She could feel the effects in her springing ability earlier as she leaped out of the cage as well as when she'd bitten into the hunter. All she had was the physical force of her own smaller student body. Nothing would stop her from-

As a last resort, the trainee felt it wise to headbutt her to try and knock Levi out; nice try human. Their efforts met with an unsavory gurgling hiss from the ghoul, dots of blood from her lips spraying back at the creature underneath her as she did. Levi returned the favor by driving a clawed hand into the gushing opening at the trainee's neck and grabbing a tight hold on the squishy innards therein. Levi wasn't going to strangle her prey. This was more a way for her to silence them as well as punish. Can you feel it? She whispered with eyes aglow at the body laying in a pool of its own blood. Halloween. They were of Halloween. How did Halloween feel? There were clear coughs and the choking sound of collecting saliva and blood mixing in the mouth of the trainee in response. HMM? Desperate attempts to thrash at Levi, even if successful swings, were met with a stone expression until she went to work again.

The calls of Demi went unheard due to a blending of deafening symphonies within the tatzel. Levi heard the pounding of her own heart beat drumming away in a heated rhythm within her chest as well as the stream of a consistent buzz in her head. It was comparable to the sound heard on the skeeV when there was a dead broadcasting channel late. Levi could not and would not be reasoned with right now. Above everything else, she wanted to ensure this hunter didn't go on existing to help mutilate and captured more of them. She could not allow this one to gain an upper hand on her while she was finally able to a few pieces off them back.

Her feet kicked forward in her seated position over the human, stomping down to clamp the open wrists of the body while she ripped away at the clothing at their torso with both free hands. She did so until she found the meat of the fleshbag and then continued to gouge starting from the belly button up like a seam in a garment. Her clawed strokes marked the pink skin that remained, and internal organs began to make their way out from the opening Levi vigorously worked into. Was the trainee dead? Any twitching that she felt suggested no, but that didn't stop Levi from barbarically rolling off the body, coating herself in its blood, and flinging it onto one shoulder. The intestines of the human wormed out of the opening through gravity like sausage links collecting on the ground. She flung the remains at the other hunter just a few feet away. A shame. Levi had intended for the flesh of one to taint the other with the bodily fluids that poured out of so many open venues. Her humanoid face distorted by the crinkling of her nose and features in a snarling and blank glare.

Levi had gone feral for the first time in a long long time. Like any beast that found their home threatened, Levi lashed out ... and gained praise? The figure who decidedly hadn't bothered to assist his own kind continued to smile, clapping at hat she had done. He was actually clapping?! Her mind ran a scenario of her tearing those clapping hands clean off his arms in her tatzelwurm form, but this would prove only to be a lingering dream.

It snapped back into her head that she was not alone at that time. West and Demi were there. Making the mistake of turning away to glance at them quickly in panicked concern, Levi met eyes with the hound first. Never had she seen him look this way and it undid her. The two chunks of human still residing in the palms of her clutched hands dragged down her fingers and, with a liquidly -splish-, landed on the floor. Levi's concern now was to run for Demi when she stopped. Why was West...

Levi heard a crackling. She turned to see what caused it.

From out of the smiling man somehow appeared a weapon.




... and that was all she remember before turning her face back towards her kin with a mouth ready to speak but never did. She felt the same emotion that was meant to feed them then- fear. Whatever was about to happen, she believed there was not enough time to simply move away. There just wasn't enough time. Etched into her blackened eyelids for all of a split second was the wrath demon's face before fading out of thought.




Don't wait for me. STUPID BOILS, RUN.



At this point she had no idea of what was really going on with the demon and hound. All she knew was she was thinking again. She'd wished for them to run even when she had no idea how they could do so.


West ... please. Please take care of him.



Whether she was speaking to the demon or the monster was unclear even to her. Perhaps both.

Wasn't this supposed to make her family proud? Wasn't she meant for more than the simple life up on the mountain town where she grew up? Weren't her kin safe where they were? Her fear stained her thoughts with regret. She shouldn't have left them.

Opening her eyes, Levi returned to full consciousness. This came as a shock as she'd thought that was the last of her; yet here she was. What she woke up to was the machine and the sounds of it starting up.


Ma... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH


Just mere seconds later, the falling fury of electricity rained down from above. She screamed at the top of her lungs, wishing with her last plea, like a scarling, that her mother was there to sooth her fears.


The pain seared through her like something slicing her paper thin both mentally and physically while her nerves went numb.

In the blink of an eye with the turning off of the mechanism, a sound was heard like the pulling or cracking of vertebrae. She stretched in a manner her current body just wasn't meant to, disfiguring instantaneously to the process of the machine. That was all that remained; the disfigured thing now laying on the ground by the hunters who sought to use it.

The cage was unbearable, there wasn't enough room to move properly but just enough to make the hellhound feel like he could stand a chance at busting out. a chance to stop when they dragged Westus away and threw the courageous demon into the chamber, the remains of Bul, that b*****d beast sword thrown aside like scrap metal made the hound growl in dismay at the lack of respect for what was once there.

Watching the pink haired boil wasn't any better, from limbs and the perpetual scowl that seemed almost chiseled into the Boil's face. all of it, gone in an instant. it was a fate worse than death Demi had to guess. to be a weapon that could be used against its own kind. "So horrible." the hellhound whispered in his tube, the feeling of nausea creeping up from his insides and tearing at his heart.

It was no better when the next cage was opened and he was forced to watch as they contained the rampant Levi

"No jack no, JACK NO!" the panic that filled every pore of his body was buzzing in his ear. unintelligible words from Melas and Phos became a barrage of syllables. But the sense of panic and dread fueled the hound to try and break free again, pounding on the glass with every bit of might he could muster. "You let her go! Let go of my sister!" he screeched out from the tiny tube container, the sound bouncing around, drowning his ears in the awful cry that was his desperate plea.

another kick and punch, and few more kicks and the kicks only became more panicked and stronger with every meter that the tatzel came closer to the transformation chamber. "I beg of you, I BEG OF YOU, take me instead but not her. LEAVE HER ALONE!" he pleaded on his knees, pawing at the cage for the attention and hopeful mercy that these humans supposedly have. it didn't matter that he looked like a mess. eyes red and puffy from the tears that refused to stop falling, and the snot that clung to his nose like the petulant scareling he was at his very core.

Not one of them bothered to look back, not while Levi was screeching in pain. A sound that the hellhound could never forget, The tatzels painful cry.

She had a family, kin that would be worried about her. Were her kin even alive still, here in this barren wasteland? The thoughts contained to run through his head until the next larger question struck the hound silent.

What happened to his own clan?

Just like that, four became one, the weapon clattered to the floor with a dull sound, a thump and a rattle before it ceased moving. She was gone, his sister was gone. His best friend was gone, and so was West.

all gone. Green eyes turned a myriad of colors from the spectrum of green, a swirling torrent of jade and emerald to lime and neon green

and once the door to his own cage squeaked open, the demon dog's eyes settled on the shade fitting to the feelings that dwell inside.

Black.

Rage took over and the collective body of Damien lurched out of the chamber, teeth bared and eyes lit with a fire from deep inside. revenge. payback. vengeance. all of it for the humans that did nothing but detain and torture them. even as the whip nestled itself tightly on the boil's neck, the rabid ferociousness stayed present, snarling and foaming at the mouth. "Ill rip your ******** head off." came the low sounding rumble of the demon dog. "I will relish in the thought of tearing you limb from limb for what you've done to them, and chew the marrow from your bones before I'm through you disrespectful ********."

He was sure to make it a promise, even when the smiling hooded hunter grinned at him further. "This dog is no good for weaponization, he needs to be trained and put down." was the simple reply from the hunter, his voice calm, cool and collected without the hint of any irritation or fear, the only sense of emotion coming off from the human was a sense of superiority. even when he wrapped the necklace over the pup's head and the pendant began to burn.

"Speak, puppy." the smooth talker said casually.

And so Demi did, black eyes turned clear, pigmentless, and limbs went to his sides, and he talked without any emotion, talked on and on with every request made by the hunter. Broken, heeled, tamed.

The entire time, clear eyes continued to cry, the only hint of emotion came at the end of the inquiry, when the pendant began to glow brighter and scorched the chest of the non responsive Monster, embers of clothing turning to ash and fluttering to the floor around him. The hounds voice became scratchy and high pitched as he stared blankly at the weapons being put into a pile on the floor in front of him.

Even when the pendant shattered and sent the hound up in a blaze, he refused to cry out. the sound the built up inside him was painful but he grit his teeth and bared it. They were not going to get the joy out of watching him die, the first time where the familiar feeling of dissipation never came. He was set on watching them until the very end.

"I hope you can still here me in there." Damien tried his very best to sound strong as the flames began to sear and burn more and more of his body. "Please, remember me, and what we stood for. We are Halloween, and we cannot die." he managed to get out before the pain became to immense and broke his resolve. and resounding scream of pain echoed in the large room and just like that the boil was gone.

A collection of dust was left in his wake, no weapon, only dust.

With no plaque that read "Here lies poor, old Damien".