Faithful Hearts: The Wanderer
A fanfiction based upon the work of Andrea Avrett
by John P. Fadeley
Part 6-Chapter 8
Hunter...or Hunted?

I went deep into these woods, these protected-by-law woods...looking for every possible sign of the poacher who stalked this forest.
It just boiled my blood to even think about it...killing a doe and letting the dogs feast upon the unprotected fawns?!  What kind of sadistic maniac would do that to wild animals?!
One thing disturbed me about this...why did my left arm start aching?  Recently, that only happened around Nightmares or near a Maiden of Purest Heart...why was I getting that kind of "signal" from some trigger-happy lunatic and his mongrels?
I stopped when I felt a small, but sharp pain near my calf muscles...I looked down...and saw the trip-wire for another razor wire trap.  I very carefully stepped back...then brought my Gunblade's sharp edge down upon the wire, cutting it instantly!
This guy was REALLY asking for it!!!
I heard a rustling in the underbrush...someone or something was close...
Chosing to view my potential opposition until it was time to strike, I took the form of a squirrel and climbed up a tree...then changed back into my human form when I was on a sturdy-enough branch.  I carefully peeked downward...and was shocked at what I saw...this Hunter...WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!
The Hunter looked like a dried up corpse that was dressed mostly in black with a wide-rimmed hat on top of his dried-up head. Thin, withered, grey hair drooped down from the top of his head like Spanish Moss. His gnarled arms and fingers held a long rifle with a hunting dog's head (with it's open mouth at the end of the barrel of the rifle) carved into the front of the muzzle.
His face was the most gruesome part of him. His nose was completely missing or barely resembling anything that would remotely look like a nose. His yellow, rotting teeth (even showing though gaping holes that used to be his cheeks) grinded together, making a very unpleasent clicking noise when they did...and his eyes were the most terrifying part of him...they were red and black...and each eye evoked the look of a bullseye!
All of a sudden, he leveled his rifle and fired!  A loud screech was heard...as a bald eagle hit the ground!
"Hmph...hardly a challenge..." I heard the Hunter snarl in a whispy yet gravelly voice, "C'mon, boys!  Eat up!"
Appearing at his side were five or six quadrapedal Nightmares.  Their heads looked like razor-toothed, skeletal versions of a dog's head, with two pairs of bat wing-like ears.  Their front legs ended in three-toed (clawed, too) feet, with their hind legs ending in (oddly enough) dromaeosaurid feet.  Their backs not only held the typical Nightmare dorsal fin, but several lines of boney spikes that flexed out at times like a lionfish.
The ends of their tails was another thing that concerned me...their tails ended with five long spikes, one sticking out at the tip of the tail, with the other four around it in a cross-like fashion.
As they tore into the killed eagle, they made growling sounds like dogs...but it was mixed with the unmistakeable sound of a Nightmares unsettling croaking noise.
I redirected my attention towards the Hunter himself...his charred-corpse appearance was puzzling...but then, I remembered that there was a forest fire in this area some time ago...maybe this creep and his hounds died in it...
Then, I remembered a bit of translated text from the Nightmara Codex that I had studied in high school...that if a person dies, and there's nothing but pure malice, pride, anger, or any sort of negative emotion in them, there's a one in a million chance they'll come back as a Nightmare!
And right there, having his "hunting dogs" devour that bald eagle he shot down, was living proof that sort of occurance could happen!
Well, I was already here, so there was no turning back...I had to put an end to this guy's animal-killing spree.
"You know, boys...it'd be nice if one of these stupid critters actually would put up more of a fight or a challenge when I hunt 'em..." the Hunter said to his pets.
I leveled my Gunblade at his head and took careful aim, muttering, "Be careful what you wish for...now, smile, you smug son of a..."
I stopped...what was I doing?  Sniping is for cowards who prefer to hide in the shadows...like this creep...no, if I was going to dispose of him, I would do it man-to-freakjob...
Before I could make my next move, a round of gunfire hit the branch I was on...making it break and send me falling to the forest floor!
As I slowly began to recover, I found those "Hunter Hounds" surrounding me, with their master aiming his rifle in my face!
"Well, well, well...what have we here?" the Hunter mused, bringing the barrel of his rifle up to my chin, " 'Don't look like a ranger...or any sort of lawman...who are ya, boy?"
"What's it to you?  You'll just kill me, no matter what I'll tell you." I snapped.
The Hunter chuckled, which sounded like a moose being gutted...slowly.  "Ya got spunk, kid...I HATE spunk...but I do like that fancy piece ya go there.  Looks lethal..."
I knew what he was talking about...my Gunblade!  I couldn't let him have that...it was one of the few things I had left to remember my dad by..."You want my Gunblade, slimeball?  You'll have to rip it from my cold dead fingers..."
"I plan to..." the Hunter said, aiming his rifle at me again!
I swung my Gunblade upwards and knocked his rifle up when he pulled the trigger.  His shot broke a few branches, but it didn't hit any more animals!
He just looked at me wide-eyed for a second...then he narrowed those insane eyes of his and growled, "You...you made me miss...YOU MADE ME MISS!!!  I NEVER MISS A SHOT!!!"
"First time for everything..." I hissed as I lunged and tried to slice off his hand!
However, my Gunblade went right through it like a fog.  Uh-oh...
I then felt the butt of his rifle hitting me in the jaw!
"Stupid kid...my rifle's recoil has hit me harder that you just did..." the Hunter taunted, "I can't be killed..."
"Like I said...first time for everything!" I growled as I plunged my blade right into his chest cavity.
That didn't even do the trick...what the heck?!
I quickly withdrew my blade, realizing that this was getting me nowhere...then did another upward swipe and knocked the Hunter down!
All he did was laugh...this guy was really scaring me...
I then decided to put some distance between me and this psycho...just as a gunshot grazed my right leg!  I tumbled on the ground...and soon found his hounds bounding towards me, leaping from shadow to shadow!
I tried to get back on my feet...just as another shot plowed into my right arm!  I screamed in pain and landed on my back...just as the first of his mongrels emerged from a shadow close to my right foot.
"Chow down, boys!" the Hunter commanded.
More of the hounds appeared, their jaws dripping with drool in anticipation of the feast before them...ie, ME!
I tried to get up...but the pain in my leg and my arm was almost too much...within seconds, those nightmarish mutts would be fighting over my bones...
I then heard that murdering monster sniff the air...I heard him chuckle, "So...got some friends with you in the forest, eh?  Hmm...especially a young lady...hmm hmm hmmm...I wouldn't mind making a trophy wife out of her..."
When I heard that, nothing else seemed to matter...except this growing rage within me...the first of his pets leaped for my throat, its jaws wide open...I couldn't hold it in any longer...I swung with my blade and chopped top of the Hunter Hound's head off, then sidestepped to let it collide with other of its kind and take them both out!  
Another Hound jumped at me, this time bringing its clawed feet up to score any direct hits...only for me to unload a round of shotgun-fire  and launch it away...in two halves!
The other hounds jumped at me from behind...only for me to whip around and slice them apart!
"What's the matter, boy?  Anymore fight left in ya?" the Hunter taunted, coming right at me...bringing up his rifle, levelling it at my head, "If not, good...I'd want you to see your lady friend become my latest prize..."
I angrily growled, brought my Gunblade and aimed it at his head, yelling, "YOU STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER, YOU MAGGOT-INFESTED, FOREST-FRIED, PSYCHOPATHIC MONSTER!!!"  I then fired five times, hoping against hope that I finally brought this vile spit-in-the-eye-of-God down....
Much to my horror, he laughed as he got back up, shook himself...and had my bulllets fall out of him!
"No...bloody...way..." I muttered fearfully.
"My turn." the Hunter grinned as he aimed and fired upon me again, this time catching me in my right shoulder!   The impact practically had me do several 360 twists before I hit the ground again...
But when I did, the Hunter groaned in pain and clutched his head...what the...?
I then realized there was something in the soil underneath me...I used my own hands to dig up the object...it was a skull...a human skull...with charcoal sediment on it...
I then hit the skull really hard with my right fist...the Hunter screamed in agony, clutching his head as if someone swung a chair at him....
Aaaaaaaaah...so that's it...this area where I was standing was his manifestation point...the very spot where he died and was thusly resurrected as a Class 1 Nightmare...and if that were the case, then his bones were the only things keeping his very malignant form tethered to this forest...
Or, in layman's terms...if I destroyed his bones, I might actually destroy him!
"GET AWAY FROM THAT, YOU...!" the Hunter snarled, lunging at me.
I just brought out my Gunblade and aimed at part of the dirt...where the base of his skeleton's spine was...and fired!
He actually looked like he bent himself backwards near his pelvis and that his torso completely broke off from his legs!  His legs then dissolved, not having an attatchment to the rest of his body.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  YOU SONUVA...." the Hunter yelled angrily at me.
I then shot at his skeleton again...this time, where the neck would meet the shoulders...and his head popped off from the torso, which then disintegrated.
"You can't do this to me!" the Hunter (well, his head) shouted, "Who do you think you are?!"
"I am a Knight of Hollow Bastion...and on the charges of trespassing, and illegal hunting and trapping, I thusly sentence you to death..." I said, putting his skull right in front of his head...then pointing my Gunblade at it.
"There oughta be a law against what you're doing!" the Hunter screamed, "This is inhuman!!!"
"I know...but, then again...so are you." I coldy remarked as I pulled the trigger and practically obliterated his skull!
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the Hunter's head wailed as it then dissolved as well.
I then breathed heavily...thank God that was over...now, I had wounds to attend to.
I felt pretty weak, though...I looked and saw that I was bleeding pretty badly from where the Hunter shot me.
Damn...
With that, I decided to make my way to finding Marina and the others...hopefully, I could make it to them before I would bleed to death...in my weakened state, I didn't dare try to attempt a healing spell...since those tended to take a bit out of me to use them in the first place...
But no matter what, I had to keep going...I had to...
*****************************************************************************************

I don't how long I was walking through that forest...halfway through it, I had to use my Gunblade like a walking stick just to keep me up.
I thought about what Marina had said earlier...that, because of my affliction, I was no better than the Nightmares...what if that was true?  Even though I used such power to undo some of the evils I had encountered...what if she was right that it could make me more like the very creatures I had come to hate with a vengence?
I saw what had happened to the Hunter...I sure as heck didn't want to turn out like that...he let his foolish pride and cruelty get the worst of him...what if my own anger and rage made me into something worse than him?
No...I had to keep going...I had to take out Magnus...then, hopefully, my condition would be rendered null and void...
As I reached an empty meadow, I thought, "Oh, who am I kidding?!  I don't even have a transport to go looking for him!!!"
With that, I just collapsed to the soft, grassy ground, my Gunblade clattering to the ground close to side...I just felt so weak...before I lost conciousness, I just looked up at the sky...and wondered about how badly I wanted to live...