Chapter 2: Burning Hatred

After eating the recent prey, the monster turns his head slowly towards its back.

Looking at this, Rex decided to run downstairs with all his might.

Thud…Thud…

Rex can hear that the monster is walking behind him, he wanted to run outside but suddenly the monster leaped to the door blocking him.

Rex falls to the floor but immediately gets up and runs in the opposite direction with tears in his eyes.

He found a cabinet in the living room and hid there,

Rex closes the cabinet and also his eyes,

‘Happy Thoughts’

‘It will go away’

His head keeps on repeating the same words over and over again trying desperately to calm himself down.

Thud…Thud…Thud…

Rex can hear the monster’s step getting closer and closer to him,

Thud!

The monster’s step stop right in front of the cabinet, Rex held his breathe while covering his mouth with his shaking hand. ‘Mom…Dad… Why did this happen to me?’ Rex starting to question his situation.

The cabinet door slowly opens, the monster’s claw taps on the door while slowly opening the cabinet.

When suddenly, “AAAAHHHH!!”

Another high-pitched scream was heard, its voice is familiar to Rex but his head can’t think in this state.

The monster glance calmly towards the source of the scream, it smacked its lips in delight looking at another meal that comes knocking on its door.

Ms. Greene slid to the ground in shock, ‘What is this?! What is that thing?!’ she screamed inside her head, shocked by the sudden appearance of the furred monster.

When the monster wanted to strike, a loud howl that sent a shiver on Rex’s spine was heard.

AOUUUUUU!!

The monster stopped abruptly, anger mixed with fear can be seen in his expression.

The monster punches the wall in anger before it decided to jump out of the window destroying everything on its path, it also didn’t forget to cast one last look towards Ms. Greene who is still frozen in fear totally disregarding Rex who is inside the cabinet.

Rex walks out of the cabinet and looks in the direction where the monster left, bloody path was made everywhere the monster goes.

It kills every people that unluckily meet on its path,

Rex looks at the bloodied path with hatred before turning his back towards Ms. Greene.

Ms. Greene was taken aback after looking at Rex’s expression, that is not the expression a kid should have!

—–

CLANG!

Rex wakes up from his dream sweating, the sound of an RV military car stopping wakes Rex up from his sleep. Pure hatred can be seen on his face, but it returns to normal in a blink of an eye.

”Just you wait you, filthy creatures, Today is the day I will start massacring supernaturals and finally you!’ Rex thought of the furred monster that killed his parents with fierce determination flashing through his eyes.

The seed of eternal hatred emerges when the supernatural decided to kill his mother and father without a reason which still haunts Rex until today.

Rex scratches his eyes and sees to his sides, there are two more people strap on military gear all over their body including Rex himself.

The war between the humans against the supernaturals started fifteen years ago,

Out of nowhere, the supernaturals announce themselves and forcibly takes half of the world for themselves.

Many types of supernatural work together to attack the human, they are ruthless and spares no human. In response to the sudden threat, the human countries join forces to wipe them out which results in this war.

The Supernatural is better in every aspect than humans, they have super-strength, super-speed heightened senses, some even have out-worldly abilities which put even the elite forces of humans to shame.

The supernatural is winning the war when things started to balance out when the human started gaining power. We call these humans the ‘Awakened’, they are humans that are gifted with magic. With the help of the Awakened, the tide of the war starting to look better for the human but nevertheless the war is still not over.

Because of desperation, the human is forced to bring teens into the war.

Rex is one of them, he is only twenty-two years old with no parents. He joins the military since he was twelve years old and has undergone training ever since, he is in the Special Reconnaissance Unit, an expert in scouting and stealth.

Before joining the military, Ms.Greene felt pity towards Rex that had to see his parents died in front of his eyes. Ms.Greene finally decided to adopt Rex which is now becoming Rex’s guardian.

Today Rex is going on his first mission with two of his team members.

“Yo, you alright? You seem to have a nightmare just now” asked the guy next to him, Edward.

“I’m alright, I just can’t wait to raze those bastards to the ground” replied Rex with a disturbing smile on his face.

Edward replies with a dry laugh and leaves Rex alone.

“I can’t believe we are given the worst kind of job,” said Kyle with a dry laugh, laughing to himself.

“I know but it is the most sensitive operation, and unluckily we are the one chosen for it” replied Edward with a hopeless expression.

Just as they are talking, a fierce-looking man with a scar on his face with eight lines on his shoulder signing him as a Sergeant Major of the operation walks out from the front seat and stops in front of Rex and his team.

“Stand up Soldier!”

Without a second of hesitation, Rex and the others stand up straight in order.

After giving a nod, the Sergeant Major continues, “Today you are tasked to scout the den of ghouls, the objective is to report to the air force the location of the den so the air force can bombard them. This operation is very important, if you succeed the fiercest war in Dwight City will be our victory. The ghoul is giving trouble with its endless horde, so you must succeed in this operation no matter the cost. When I said no matter the cost I mean nothing, Even if it cost your life, get that soldier?!”

“Sir yes sir!” replied Rex’s team in a union.

“Edward and Kyle are a rank 2 awakened, so failure is not an option! And Rex, although you are not an awakened, you have been training for this moment, so guide both of them. Also, your hatred towards the supernaturals, use it and see that this operation is a success” Said the sergeant major with a warning tone.

“Sir yes sir!” replied Rex’s team again in a union.

After reminding the importance of their operation the sergeant major left the three of them, not long after the lights on the RV door glow yellow.

Rex, Edward, and Kyle get up from their seat and started to gear up. They put on an all-black uniform, black boots, black vests, black headgear, and a black night google.

Kyle brought a black saber on his back that is incredibly sharp judging by the looks of it, Edward brought a dagger that exerts a slight amount of red aura, while Rex brought many backpacks that are strapped all over his body and also a long sword on his back.

When the lights turn from yellow to green, they immediately open the door and rush off to the woods while the RV left them without making any noise.

Just after Rex’s team jumped out of the car, the ground seems to suck them and the smell of rotten walking corpses filled the air.

The woods are dark this night hindering their vision, Rex and the others immediately use their night vision goggles like they were trained before started to dwell in the forest.

Their boots are made of a material that makes no sound, their gears are all black. Like a ghost in the night, they keep searching until they met a landslide that’s a perfect place for their hideout.

With a hand sign, Rex tells Edward to take out the bait and put it in the open while Kyle keeps a lookout for any sudden threats to the operation.

Edward takes a big chunk of human meat from his bag, rotting smells immediately enter everyone’s nose but the three of them seem to be unfazed as if they are used to it.

Edward throws the meat as they quickly hide on the landslide after strapping themselves with a black rope to keep them from sliding while also keeping an eye for the meat.

The next step is to wait for the ghouls to take their bait, but it is easier said than done.

The three of them lie flat on the ground without even moving an inch, the ghouls like to eat fresh meat but their sense of smell is dull so it can take a while.

Five Days pass and the bait is still not working. The three of them have some doubts but the military already confirmed the bait. They started to feel itchy and hungry because of days of not taking a bath and only eating ration.

The bulging backpack that Rex brought started to get thin, the three of them started to think of a way to find more food.

The forest is humid, it is really theoretically impossible to make fire, and also they cannot attract attention which might bring the operation to a failure.

During these five days, they can hear the sound of other supernaturals such as banshees, nymphs, dark pixies but all of them are quickly dealt with when they got near, by Kyle’s and Edward’s fire magic.

Although, yesterday night the area’s temperature is colder than before,

Kyle is on a night watch when suddenly he sees a floating hooded figure with blue skin, its eyes glow red and the temperature continues to drop the closer that thing got.

Looking at the creature, Kyle’s eyes widened in fear.

Rex and Edward notice the changes and proceed to wake up, during this operation they are very alert so they wake up rather quickly.

Before they can even adjust to their surrounding, Kyle already takes out a big pouch of water before he pours it towards the three of them. Kyle then signals to both of them to be quiet.

Rex and Edward is confused,

Just before Rex wanted to ask Kyle, he saw the Lich from afar that seems to lead a horde of ghouls and decided to remain as silent as possible. It’s not long before Edward notices it too.

Lich is a middle-rank supernatural that the three of them can’t hope to compete, they are blind but is sensitive towards heat and mana. Before humanity gain powers, it took a barrage of bazookas to kill one lich.

Thankfully, the lich is too far away to notice them.

Another week passed,

The sun is already starting to engulfed by the vast sky, Nothing happened during the week except for low-level supernaturals. The three of them are starving, they can’t hold on much longer.

“I can’t hold on much longer, We need to find food,” said Edward that looks much thinner than before.

“I agree, let’s devised a plan” replied Rex with a helpless expression.

At this time, the food has already run out for two days and the three of them can no longer contain their hunger.

After making a strategy to find food, Kyle volunteer to be the one to hunt.

Rex and Edward keep their eyes on the bait, ‘the bait is supposed to not be this ineffective, it’s either the ghoul are just not on this area or there is someone commanding their movements’ Rex thought.

Rex really has the intention to just find the ghoul’s den and just ransack it but his logic doesn’t allow him to.

The ghoul is on the low rank of supernatural, Although Rex can easily kill a low low-level ghoul, If Rex really finds the ghoul’s den and meet a high-level ghoul, he will surely die.

After a while, Kyle comes back with a dead deer.

The three of them look at each other, after nodding in agreement they started eating the raw deer. At first, they really wanted to vomit but if they do then they will be left with no energy left.

The taste of raw deer meat is not something normal people can eat, the three of them driven by their hunger and duty able to forcefully eat this raw deer meat.

Edward looks at Kyle and Rex can’t help to sigh, “If they don’t give us a fuckin medal, I’m changing sides” joked Edward to lighten up the mood followed by a round of coughing and gagging.

Rex and Kyle chuckle when suddenly, they hear footsteps coming from their right. Kyle with his fast reflex lift the deer easily and tossed it away fearing that the ghoul will instead smell the deer’s carcass.

Thud, Thud, Thud.

Not long after, the sound of many creatures approaching was heard. Four ghouls approach the meat, eating while fighting amongst themselves.

Even with their training, the smell of a ghoul makes the three of them wanted to puke but with determination, the three of them can hold it in.

The ghoul is walking on four, they have hunchbacks with spines sticking out from their back, bloodied claws that sent a shiver to an untrained soldier, with dark black eyes. Their guts are dangling on their body, and their rotten scent can even be smelled from a mile away.

Looking at the eating ghouls, Rex’s hand started to tremble, and his eyes turn red in anger.

Kyle notices Rex’s expression immediately put his hand on Rex’s shoulder while whispering, “No direct contact, report and leave”

Hearing this, Rex decided to hold in his hatred while gripping the dirt beside him when suddenly.

Snap!

Rex accidentally broke a twig that is buried in the dirt, one of the ghouls looks in their direction. The three of them held their breath trying to lie as still as possible.

The three of them loosen the rope to slide back slowly to avoid exposing themselves,

Although ghoul is a low-rank supernatural, they have a good vision that is almost as good as a dog.

The ghoul that is looking around finally gets back into eating when one of the ghouls collides with him because of the fight.

After Rex peeks and saw the ghouls are back to eating he sigh in relief, Thankfully the three of them are unnoticed by the ghouls. Kyle and Edward look at Rex with warning looks before they start following the ghouls.

The ghouls can be considered as low intelligence creatures, so after they ate, they started to go back to where they belong.

Rex’s team then started to follow the ghouls while trying to keep a good fifteen meters distance from them, after following the ghouls for fifteen minutes or so they arrive at an abandoned cemetery.

They saw a couple of ghouls wandering the area and some of them enter some kind of tomb in the center of the cemetery. Before they can even formulate a plan to throw the red flare to signal the air force, a wandering ghoul noticed them from their right.

This ghoul looks more menacing than the others, its muscle is bulging out of its body, it has fangs coming out of its mouth, and its body is covered with bones that act as armor. The ghoul then started to walk to them slowly as if it’s unsure if what it is seeing is right.

Rex noticed the approaching ghoul but just when he is about to warn Edward and Kyle, the ghoul leaped to them.

Edward and Kyle noticed the ominous feeling behind them, they started to emit a red aura.

Before they can even turn around to look at the approaching figure, Kyle’s head even though covered with a red aura is slashed by the ghoul’s claw.

The red aura proves to be useless in front of the menacing ghoul!

Rank 2 awakened can channel their elemental affinity to cover their whole body to make some kind of aura that enhances their physical strength, but the menacing ghoul treats it as a mere joke.

“KYLE!” Edward shouted panickily.

Kyle recovers from his daze and takes out his saber, The menacing ghoul looks at Kyle and throws out another slash aiming for Kyle’s neck. In the nick of time Rex pull Kyle avoiding the fatal blow but the slash slice a huge chunk of Rex’s shoulder.

“Arghh” Rex grunts in pain but his eyes still show signs of survival, Kyle red aura grows intense as he kicks the ghoul back and started to run while helping Rex run.

The three of them are no match for the menacing ghoul,

As the three of them are running, Kyle with his bloodshot eyes says, “Go to the cemetery without me! I’ll play with this big bastard”

Edward and Rex saw the resolution in Kyle’s eyes so they nod their heads and head towards the cemetery, Kyle stops abruptly and shouted, “You bastards! Come and get me, you disgusting creature!”

After taunting the menacing ghoul Kyle gritted his teeth and run the opposite direction of Edward and Rex with all his might, luring the ghouls away.

The menacing ghoul looks in Kyle’s direction, “HUMANS!” it roared with its gruff voice and started to go after Kyle with all four.

Rex looks to his back to only find Kyle running while being chased by the menacing ghoul and other ghouls, from the looks of it, Kyle will certainly die.

Rex mutters, “I will remember this and make sure to tell your heroic act”

Almost all of the ghouls are all lured away by Kyle, the remaining one is dealt with by the combined attack of Rex and Edward.

GRAAH!

Grrr!

Roarr!!

Edward releases his red aura, the aura is getting stronger and with a flick of his hand, a fire explodes on the ground beneath each approaching ghoul sending them all flying before Rex jumped and slices them all with a sword.

Shriinggg!

The ghoul is all sliced on their necks making them fall lifelessly to the ground.

Although Rex is not an awakened, his physical and hand-to-hand combat is the best of the best in his class. He can even beat the veterans.

The ghoul is not dead even if their neck is sliced, the only thing that can kill them is to sever their head but Rex has the luxury to sever all of their heads.

Just as Rex is landing, a ghoul raises its sharp claws and slashes them towards Rex.

Rex was caught off guard, so he raises his sword to block but the power from that claws is too much for Rex and sends him flying away.

Edward reacts and helps Rex by gripping the ghoul’s face and slamming it to the ground, the ghoul’s head was instantly crushed by Edward’s sheer force.

“Rex you okay?” asks Edward hurriedly after watching Rex launched by the ghoul’s attack.

Rex struggles to stand, “I’m okay let’s go to the cemetery” replied Rex although his shoulder is bloodied all over. ‘This is nothing compared to the pain I felt when I lost my parents’ thought Rex with fierce determination in his eyes, he is determined to make this operation a success.

“We need to blow up the entrance so they can’t escape the bombardment,” said Rex while taking explosives from his backpack.

Just when Edward wanted to reply, he saw many ghouls started to come out of the cemetery.

Without wasting a second, the both of them rampage through the horde of ghouls that comes out of the cemetery.

Rex hacked his sword to every ghoul he sees, he stabs right on their head, eyes, neck while Edward also massacres the ghouls way faster than Rex with his enhanced physique.

“Edward! This cannot continue! Set this explosive on the entrance!” Rex tossed the explosives towards Edward.

Edward caught it and using a small explosion on his feet to launch himself towards the entrance, while Rex slowly hacks through the horde of ghouls.

Rex is surprised that Edward can be that fast, ‘He’s probably nearing rank three’ Rex thought after assessing Edward’s skills.

His body now is soaked with ghoul’s blood, the stench he exerts will make normal people vomit a thousand times.

Just as Rex was fighting with the horde of ghouls he heard a scream from the cemetery entrance direction,

“ARGGHH!!”

Rex glance towards the direction and saw Edward spurting out blood after taking a hit from another bulky ghoul that releases a more terrifying aura from the big ghoul before,

‘King of Ghoul’ Rex thought helplessly after he realizes the creature they are dealing with.

But after crashing for about ten meters Edward although bloodied shouted towards Rex, “BLOW IT!”

Hearing it, Rex immediately press the detonator then

BOOOMM!!!

A big explosion destroyed the entrance of the den, stopping the horde of ghouls to come out.

The King of Ghoul was also sent flying away, it looks like the explosion hurt it a lot.

Rex decided that it is the perfect time to contact the air support, just when he was about to contact the air support he saw the King of Ghoul run towards Edward that is still coughing blood.

“Edward!!”

Rex immediately run in Edward direction trying to intercept the King of Ghoul,

Edward snapped out of his daze and looks toward his surrounding but to his surprise, The King of Ghoul is targeting him with immense killing intent.

The King of Ghoul leap and slash his claw downwards, its claw glow red intending to finish Edward of but suddenly,

“I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU DO THAT!” Rex intercepts the King of Ghoul by wrapping his hand around the King of Ghoul’s neck choking it.

The King of Ghoul and Rex flung sideways but Rex’s hand still desperately wrapping on the King of Ghoul’s neck, his shoulder wound started to tear wider and bleed faster.

Although the ghoul is strong, its neck is its weak spot.

Rex with his extremely-built body can definitely able to become a threat to the King of Ghoul by choking it but the King of Ghoul will not let it easily happened.

The King of Ghoul struggles to free from Rex’s grip, crashing his body around.

Rex spits a mouthful of blood, as his backpack was tossed away because of the berserk ghoul.

“Edward! Light the flare-up and contact the air force!” said Rex still struggling to hold on to the ghoul’s neck.

“But you…”

Before Edward can even finish speaking Rex said, “LIVE!”

Edward was speechless while holding his ribs that are broken,

Rex continues, “you are an awakened, you can kill more supernatural than I do for the rest of my life so, LIVE!”

“Private Rex, No. Rex Silverstar, I will tell the others of the brave actions you did today. I swear! You and Kyle will be remembered as heroes!” replied Edward with a resolute expression.

Hearing this Rex smile, “Private Rex signing out!” almost all of his bones are broken at this point but Rex still held on giving all his life into one final moment.

Edward left after taking Rex’s backpack, he opened it and contact the air force.

“Hawk 89, this is USR 08, the flare has been deployed” *Beep*

*Beep* “Copy that USR 08, I see the flare. But, what about Private Rex?” *Beep*

“Hawk 89, Proceed with the call, Danger Close. I repeat Danger Close” *Beep*

“Copy that USR 08, Danger Close. Good Luck Sir!” *Beep*

Meanwhile, the King of Ghoul whacks his body onto another boulder destroying Rex’s body.

Rex falls to the ground with a smile on his face after looking at the sky, missiles are heading towards him.

“HAHAHAHAHA” Rex laughed.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

The King of Ghoul looks at Rex with immense killing Intent, It walks towards Rex slowly.

“REX SILVERSTAR! REMEMBER THE HUMAN THAT DRAGS YOU ALL TO HELL!” Rex roared with all of his remaining strength, The portrait of a broken human can be seen by looking at the bloodied gear and unyielding eyes of Rex.

If humanity saw this, they will label Rex as heroes of humanity!

After roaring, Rex closes his eyes while holding the necklace that he wears and mutters, “Mom, Dad, I’ll be soon joining you with a story”

The Roaring sound of a jet was heard coming from the sky, The King of Ghoul look up and started to run the other way while Rex laughs maniacally.

“HAHAHAHA IT’S TOO LATE! YOU WILL ALL DIE!”

BOOOOOM!!

The missiles explode the cemetery into pieces leaving nothing behind, the air force strike hit the tomb directly.

The force of the explosion sent Rex flying away and his skin burnt, Rex’s body crashes into the woods before stopping when he hit the ground. Just by looking at things, no human can survive that crash.

At the other end of the forest, Edward can feel the ground tremble when the air force strike.

*Beep* “USR 08, Target has been destroyed, Over”

*Beep* “Copy that Hawk 89”

After Edward inhales a mouthful of air that smells burnt, he takes out the communication device, *Beep* “Sergeant Major, Objective Completed, Two Casualties over”

*Beep* “Report back to the pick-up point, an RV is waiting for you. The retrieve team will find the other’s corpse” replied the Sergeant Major.

*Beep* “Roger That”, after saying that Edward takes one last look towards the forest before heading to the pick-up point.

Unknown to Rex, This event will be remembered for as long as humanity exist.