Chapter 2: Chapter 2: On The Hunt

As before, this fanfiction story is set in the world of Becoming Monsters, written by Ai Loves. It is not canonical to the series, any continuity and mechanical errors are mine. There is a bit less focus on sex this time around (don’t worry, it’s still there) and more on what’s happening.

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Chapter 2: On The Hunt

The morning came fast, as we slept the sleep of those who passed out physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted. It was a very good thing that I had a backup alarm set fifteen minutes after my first one, because the first utterly failed to rouse me. With an unwilling groan, I dragged myself into a shower that stayed hot for almost exactly half of the amount of time it took to get decently clean, put on my business casual, applied makeup to remaining exposed skin, and went to grab something to eat from the kitchen. No matter the state of my Hunger, I still got hungry the normal way.

Lucy met me there, looking tousled in an alluring kind of way. Some cereal was what we had, but it was the company that made it good. She’d take her own shower once she gave the tank a chance to recharge. We had figured out a LONG time ago that showering together led to inevitable delays as we both obsessed over each others’ bodies, which often led to me feeding upon her. Right now, she couldn’t afford that.

Speaking of, I was at 2% on that particular meter. Enough for the day, but if I went to sleep tonight without feeding on SOMEONE it would be likely to end badly. I did not have the time today to rent a room again, especially since it was no guarantee I’d find someone who qualified. My wallet was not doing particularly much better, yesterday’s gains going almost entirely towards obligations. Both were issues that would need solving. Thankfully, I was far enough ahead at my freelance coding that I’d be able to make it to the submission deadline the next day, even if I got almost nothing done today. My mana pool still recovered fast enough, so despite the fact that I had expended half of it yesterday, that was good to go.

*PING*

The person who set Wide Accessibility Phone’s default text tone to be identical to Status bells deserved a place squarely inside a Dragon’s second stomach. So did the person who ensured that it kept resetting whenever updates pushed. I’d fix it later, though. This particular message was coming from the hospital’s Curse Annex, there was a particularly tenacious debuff that was keeping a patient down hard. They were sending a call out to anyone with relevant abilities publicized. The reward offered would make sure we made rent next month. I got typing immediately.

Confirm call, Jeremiah Kithkin, Mirror. ETA 20 minutes.

“You got a bounty? Need backup?” Lucy was already stretching out. Distractingly. She saw my expression and rapid typing and got the right conclusion immediately.

“Not this time, love. Someone needs a Cursebreaker for once, hopefully it’s something I can actually attack.” I was digging through drawers for my Delver ID and hospital worker card. Neither was useful all that often, but today was an exception. There was a tap on my shoulder. My wife, holding both cards and wearing a smirk in addition to her pajamas. “Thanks.”

“Get going, love. You told them twenty minutes and you’re not flying today.”

Ugh. Forgot about that detail. Flying took energy that stemmed from the same well as my Aura… which just so happened to be what my Hunger drew from. Unless I wanted to be attacking people at a hospital (which was not how I wanted to spend my day, quite the opposite), the wings were off limits. Cars were an expense that was well out of reach, even if we had a reliable place to park them, so it meant I’d be either hoofing it five miles or getting on a bus. Bus it is. 

Riding the city bus is always a bit of a menagerie. Everyone always has to be somewhere. Young headed to school, old headed to hangouts. On this particular route, there was a preponderance of folks who needed medical attention of some kind, which made sense given the most notable stop. People with bags under their eyes and face masks. One with a band on his wrist from the Emergency Room. Another, a harpy with a sling on her wing. We passed a small park, children playing on playground structures, and turned into the stop. This stretch, I’d take at a trot.

The main structure of Central Cascadia Hospital was a bit of an imposing structure, a standout even in a city like this. Between sheer population density, monster attacks, and just the variety of things that could go wrong in any body, it took a lot of people and equipment to handle. It was also a notable research hospital. The Change had only happened five years ago, and new data was being gathered all the time. It took humanity thousands of years to understand its one form even obliquely, before the Change. Cataloging the third of it that was now wildly different was a vastly greater enterprise. The main hospital was not, however, the destination today.

Across the road was a smaller building, connected by a crosswalk to the main complex. The facade was designed to look the same, but the discerning eye… or someone who was familiar with things… would see that the walls were built significantly differently. Twice as thick, made of enchanted materials and running a Thaumium equivalent of a Faraday cage. It was designed not just to resist explosions, but to contain them. Them, and all manner of possessions, mystic maladies, transformations, and other such. This was the Curse Annex, and it was here that I badged in.

The doctors and clerics wasted no time, a Human nurse with a name tag reading “Johnson, Emily” leading me directly to one of the central rooms. She was cute, the view from behind one I could appreciate, East Asian with an almost vulpine cast to her features despite her name. We arrived at the room. There, alone in the bed, was a young blonde man wasting away. He looked like he would have been a large and well-built fellow if he were not in his current state. Emaciated, pale, and clammy. Covered in scars both old and new. He looked like the pictures of people liberated from torture camps, completely unconscious on the bed. To his left, a well-dressed older woman was sitting exhausted in a chair. To his right, a middle-aged man stood in scrubs, wearing a pin in the shape of a goat that had a red headband. 

A Scapegoat. Someone who either volunteered or was paid to stand in and accept a transferral of a Status condition if needed. He looked healthy, this was not someone volunteering the end of their life. Not him, the salt in his hair stood opposed to a lightly-lined face and alert eyes, a build that looked more powerful than most of his peers might otherwise be. Either he had an ability somewhere that granted resistance, or he was being paid exceedingly well for this. You never could tell which, and this man was Human as well. “What do you know?”

The nurse pulled up the poor man’s chart. “Subject is a Human male, 24 years old, and has been an official Delver since registration first opened. He is not coherent enough to give us Status information. He emerged from a shallow Dungeon delve at 5 PM this past Friday, and has been slowly deteriorating since then. Nutrients not being properly absorbed by his body, and Thaumian energies are reacting oddly, preventing all healing and causing significant tissue breakdown.”

Potentially Dungeon-sourced, and three days under the condition. Not a typical wear-out time, which meant either permanent or an unusual close out criteria. “Sir, Ma’am, I need you to take a few steps away. I am about to analyze him, and I do not want to accidentally catch your information.”

They both moved with alacrity. Everyone has secrets, simple as that, and nobody wants a random magical spell revealing them. Mine was subtle, others not so much, but the usage of them in public was tightly controlled. Technically, if anyone had noticed what I was doing yesterday, I would have had to justify myself in court. Wasn’t precisely worried about it at the time.

The Scan pulled up his information successfully, but none of it made sense. I was looking at him, and his Status summary, but they didn’t match. It wasn’t formatted right, looking like a dungeon monster. His Health, Stamina, and Magic were all near-zero. There was a Condition showing, a “Curse of Reversion.” There was also one other detail.

“Nurse Johnson, I need to speak to you, the doctor assigned to this man, and the Scapegoat. Privately. We do not have much time.”

The well-dressed woman flew into a rage. “I will NOT be separated from my son! Not when he is like this! How DARE you!” To be honest, understandable. However, treatment protocols that I had been taught when I registered the ability could not be broken that easily. The nurse silenced her with a shake of her head. Something more was going on. Had to be. You just don’t calm that kind of emotion with a brief gesture.

The woman left. A doctor entered, a Mediterranean Human woman much shorter than me with light brown hair pulled back in a severe bun. She was also in scrubs, but these were reinforced. There was a mesh of some kind of lightweight metal under them, extending all the way to her hands. It seemed likely that it went to her feet, as well, but I could not directly see that. Her name tag read “Dr. Amar.” She was nervous, the emotion pressing against me as clearly as my own could when projected. Nervous doctors make me nervous. She nodded at me.

“Doctor, I believe I have a chance at being able to attack this curse. However, there are severe abnormalities on his scan. Most importantly, he is registering as a Dungeon monster, and Giantkin.” All three of my listeners reacted, in significantly different ways. The Scapegoat, who I still had not gotten a name from, collapsed into the chair in the corner. Nurse Johnson looked with utter horror at the various foods and medicines that they had been trying on the victim, a terrible understanding behind her eyes as their failure to sustain him suddenly made sense. The doctor looked at me with some suspicion.

“Are you sure? That does not seem plausible, even for this facility.”

“My Scan has never yet returned false information. It can be vague on occasion, it can refuse to give, but it has never once been false. He is registering a condition that might account for it, something called Reversion. It is a curse, I might be able to remove it, though I do not know what effect it will have on your patient if successful.” I looked at the Scapegoat. “Informed consent requires me to tell you that, as soon as I begin to attempt to break the curse so noted, I have no guarantee of your safety and cannot predict its effects on you, or even if it will need to transfer to you.”

He nodded at me, shakily. “I signed the contract knowing that we couldn’t know any of that. Do your worst.” THAT was an interesting tidbit, and an oddity even in the relatively rare niche.

I nodded. “Doctor, with your permission.” She thought for a moment. It did not take long. There were not particularly many options remaining. 

“Get a protective suit out of the cabinet, at least.” I did not argue this point. The manashed suit I pulled out was nowhere near as comprehensive as her mail, and likely would not have fit if I tried to put on the whole thing, but it would be a lot better than nothing if something untoward happened. Bright orange and loose-fitting, it looked like a prison jumper were it not for the medical icons. It worked almost like a raincoat, but for Thaumium energies. Wouldn’t stop something directed at me, but should keep incidental splashes off.

The Scapegoat, of course, did not put on any such thing.

I checked my own Status one time before starting my assault. HP near-full. MP full after ticking across the finish line the last couple hours. Hunger… best not think too hard on that. Cursebreaker sounded amazing when I picked it, but I learned soon thereafter why it was so rare. It could only affect purely-magic things. If it was anchored to physics directly, be it microbes, poison, or any of a number of other such, I could not banish it. It also had to be on a person, not an area, which again limited things. Still, the curse in front of me seemed to qualify, coming up as an intricate sigil of glowing red-orange lines over the body of the victim, snapping lines down into his body like fine chains. Many of them. The sigil was, itself, looking oddly like an old drawing of an eye. Concentric circles inside of an almond shape, with lines radiating out. This would be a tenacious curse, the hospital would be getting their money’s worth out of me today.

I’d be able to be of use, after all. Feeding some of my MP into the ability, I visualized my own efforts in blue-white. The key to this one would be to sever it from the body, not to directly obliterate. It was too tied in, otherwise. One by one, ghostly appendages summoned by my mental efforts snapped and shattered the connecting lines. 

The floating eye did not go quietly into that good night. It started by trying to reestablish the lines. When I outpaced it, it looked around for an unprotected target, meeting more of my own blazing force as it dove at the unseeing Scapegoat. It weakened, lunging at me the same way. With one last snap, I severed it fully from the victim’s body, then pushed everything I could into a pure blast of thaumic light, scrubbing it from this world.

I snapped back to physical reality, sweating hard and breathing harder. The doctor seemed impressed, she must have some kind of mage sight. The Scapegoat didn’t even realize I was finished. My mana pool was down to 10%, much more and I might not have been able to cleanse it. Which would have been a first, I didn’t even think to ask if they had potions for backup. “I… think that’s it.”

“I certainly hope so. He seems to be breathing easier. Can you scan him again?”

I nodded, trying to not give away just how spent I was. I obeyed the request, trying my best to ignore a Status headache forming back in my skull. The results were vague, but encouraging. “Alright. I can’t get much of a read, but things seem to be shifting around again. The screen is at least formatted as a person, and I can see his Knight class now. The rest is hashed something fierce.”

Both doctor and nurse nodded. Nurse Johnson spoke up. “Is he at least registering as a Human again?”

I shook my head. “Can’t see it, but that’s an improvement.” A glance at the clock caught me off-guard. “15 minutes ago, he was very securely Giantkin.”

“Alright. We can monitor him and see if he improves. Doctor, shall I keep both Human and Giantkin materials here?” This was said with the air of endless experience keeping seniors in line. Easily recognizable to anyone who has had to deal with irate seniors.

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“Can I make one request? Well, two, but I expect you to refuse the second. Aspirin for a Status headache, and possibly a mana potion? That blew the back end out of my reserves, and I’ll be on fumes for a while otherwise.”

The doctor laughed. “Nurse Johnson, you can get him the medicine. I’m not supposed to offer it, but if any of the potions are getting ready to expire, it’s better that they be used.”

Nurse Johnson nodded, and while I was removing the safety suit went to check on the patient again. He was sweating profusely, now, and I could hear his stomach growling from nearly across the room. Breathing seemed easier, though. I’d take what I could get, it looked like I had managed to do some real good today. That familiar spark of satisfaction was coming back in some small way, hopefully it would keep my own inner flame going for a bit longer.

The walk was short in the small building, the large closet where such things were kept in an out-of-the-way nook and locked securely. As she opened it, another thought occurred to me. “Ma’am, I do have one other thing to request if available. It’s… a bit embarrassing.”

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “You just cleared off a curse that had us stumped. I’ve seen things here I’d rather not remember and which you’d probably not want to know. Try me.”

Couldn’t help it, I laughed. “Alright, you just might. I have a Status issue, a Hunger. It can only be fed by intercourse with Demonic Races, and pulls from their own Hungers to do so. Needless to say, this is difficult to fill with any regularity, and I am constantly low. Do you know of any people or locations that can help me with that?”

Her own expression didn’t twitch, though I could feel a hint of distaste in her. “Incubus? Took you for a Gargoyle.”

“I try. People tend to react exactly like that when I don’t hide it.” I could not keep the irritation 100% out of my voice, though I did keep it out of my Aura. She had the grace to look a bit abashed as she handed over two bottles. “You just watched me dump my entire mana pool into purging a curse from someone I don’t know. Not gonna pretend to be a saint, I don’t lie like that, but please give me some credit.” Hated when my voice got that whine to it, but there is only so much suave that could be applied to this particular situation.

“Alright. Good points. Have you tried the Red…”

“... Light Rooms, four bus stops away, with rent nearly equal to my apartment and no guarantee of a feedable hit?”

“Fair, that was rather obvious. We have patients with similar, though obviously not identical, Hungers fairly often. I will keep an ear to the ground.”

“Thank you. That’s all I can ask.”

She breathed in, deeply. I could sense a familiar feel coming off of her. Lust. Great. Just what I needed. Another chaser. And it happened to be the one person I actually asked for help with a certain issue in the last year. “There is… one more thing I can do to help for a bit. It isn’t a long term solution…” She reached over and pulled me into the walk-in closet, closing and locking the door. Efficiently, her hand traveled over her scrubs, removing pieces in rapid succession.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I can only feed on…” my voice drifted off as her now-bare torso started sprouting fine golden fur, light tan at her belly. It traveled outwards from her core, covering her pert breasts and moving along her legs. That vulpine face got much more so, complete with whiskers. Three tails appeared behind her, large and fluffy, almost taking up all the room we had left in the closet. “... oh.”

“You at least told me half of why your presence is almost driving me into Heat. Let’s help each other.” Without another word, her hands were at my belt, unbuckling it as efficiently as she had removed her own scrubs and rapidly releasing my rapidly hardening manhood. By the time she did, it almost smacked her across the face, only prevented by her reflexes. 

“Half? I know my Aura is doing this to you.” She had seized the freed member and was nuzzling it, breathing in its scent, her pupils getting wider as she got more and more aroused. She gave it a tentative lick, just under the tip, and it jumped to full hardness.

Her eyes stayed locked on the prize, resting on her heels, both hands starting to pump me. “You could have had my career, or tried to, less than a minute ago. You didn’t, and took the time to explain. Let’s face it, you’re hung and easy on the eyes, and when you add that together, here we are.” Further words would have to wait as she took me into her mouth, not really able to fully deep-throat me but giving it her best. Anyone with sane proportions down there would be a lucky man to get her attentions. I was enjoying myself thoroughly.

My hands came down to her previously-hidden fox ears, rubbing the edges that I knew were sensitive. Her soft whimpers around my cock were encouraging, and felt amazing. I was getting close before long. No intention of holding back, either. She sensed it, too, and with an effort as heroic as any I had made that morning, dove in and took me all the way to the base as I came down her throat. To her credit, she took it, too, swallowing rope after rope of cum until I was darned well finished. She looked a bit surprised at the sensation of being fed upon, as orgasmically pleasurable as if I were the one going down on her instead, followed by the less-pleasant one of her Hunger flowing out of her. She pulled back, gasping and coughing as she shakily stood back up and began to get dressed again. Not just the scrubs, but also her human face. 

I did not ask her why she hid. After all, we had just finished having that discussion. Once we were both decent, we went our separate ways. The day was still young, after all. That would keep me going for another day or two as long as no emergencies cropped up.

True to the Doctor’s word, the lesser mana potion was about a week off of decomposition and tasted like it had been stored next to gym socks for its entire shelf life, but it worked. Ish. On most casting classes it would have been worth about 10%, on me it was over 30%. If I got attacked or a monster appeared the appropriate reaction would not immediately be to run like a civilian. The bus ride back home looked to be significantly less eventful than the hospital visit, other than the *PING* of a pending transaction notice and the mad scramble to fix the tone while I waited for the next shuttle. At least, it was uneventful for the first six minutes. Then, the screams started.

My head snapped up towards the source. The shriek was particularly high, coming from the vicinity of the park. My feet were pounding pavement before my brain even caught up to the input. Ahead of me, lightning pulsed. Upward. The screams got louder. I got faster.

I hit the SOS signal on my watch, preprogrammed to alert Lucy of danger and my location. She’d know what to do from there, but it would still take time. That, unfortunately, was something I was hideously short of. Hideous, as a term, was carrying a lot of weight on it, as I crossed into the park and looked at the playground with cold terror in my heart.

The screams were coming from children, their parents within view but unable to help. To the right, a charred body of a Human, still breathing. She’d need medical attention, and soon, but thankfully we were a 3-minute walk (or 1-minute sprint) from the ER. Just had to take care of one issue first. That issue? A humanoid covered in greasy black feathers standing eight feet tall, approaching the playground equipment from their exit. It had the wings and head of a vulture, and where it tread tiny but disgusting vines sprouted. A Vrock. Major demon. The way this one was acting, an actual Dungeon Demon. 

There were two simultaneous thoughts in my head: “I don’t know if I’m a match for this, but I have no choice,” and “the bounty for this is going to make our lives a LOT easier for a bit.”

So. Big dangerous nasty. Reinforcement en-route, unknown time. I was without weapons due to where I had just been working, my only armor was an undershirt enchanted with something similar to the hospital jumper, which I wore in case of this kind of emergency. I was solid on Health, relatively low though not critical on MP, and Hunger was best not to utilize despite the recent dose. One person severely injured, at least three children in a dangerous position, two adult bystanders who presumably were not Delvers or Surface Hunters, given that they had not acted to rescue the kids. Had to solve that part first.

“HEY! UGLY!”

Alright, so probably not the most creative or powerful thing I could have done, but I was short on time. Either way, it worked. The Vrock turned sharply to look at me, a hiss sounding like a steam whistle emerging from its beak, and started to walk in my direction. Mission accomplished, one of the women (who looked somewhat Beastkin, it was hard to tell from this distance) leapt up onto the playground and grabbed the children playing there. The other was circling around trying to get close to the injured, but not yet able to dart in to help. I was luckier than I had any right to be. Going two for two on bystanders able to assist defied odds reminiscent of lotteries and lightning strikes. Karma must have been saving up.

As soon as there was some distance, I threw a Lightning Net at it and followed it with a Purge, trying to clear out any mystical reinforcement it might have. I was spending my limited resources like water, but the first stages of the fight were always the most important. The Net was nowhere near as effective against this particular target compared to yesterday’s scorpion, but I’d have to take it. The monster’s beady eyes glared at what was now wrapping its arms and wings to its torso. It flexed its muscles, forcing the bindings off. I could see some electric burns, but nowhere near even slowing it down. Those wings weren’t being used to move, and it wasn’t exactly running, so maybe it could be kited.

I snapped off to the right, trying to draw its attention away from the direction of the hospital. It worked, perhaps too well, as those wings it hadn’t been bothering to use thundered. It lunged at me, only stopped by a reflexive thrown Net. This time, wrapping the wings did a lot more, as its momentum slammed it painfully into the ground. I took a deep breath and activated another old friend. One I earned the hard way the one time a young Dragon actually escaped into the city. Exhaling sharply, I bathed the demon in flame. It screamed, though perhaps not as loudly as I could have wished. Demons. Fire. Something about it not working too well crossed my mind, but I wasn’t exactly spoiled for options. As it struggled to its feet, I ran to get some distance.

I had a problem. I was running dry, rapidly. There was enough mana left in my pool for perhaps two more nets, and I didn’t have any alternative energy sources. I didn’t dare expend the energy to Scan, I didn’t have it to spare, but the Vrock was not looking as injured as I needed it to be. The Poison I had just acquired was not yet developed enough to be effective against hard targets, especially since this kind often resisted it. Translation: I had bitten off entirely more than I could chew. Absent reinforcements, I was about to meet an exceedingly bad ending. 

It got its feet under it, and did something I didn’t expect. It started to dance. A cloud of brown spores was flowing off of it, causing more of those hideous vines to sprout nearby, but I was outside of the area where this was happening. I observed intently, catching my breath, also seeing the injured woman being half-dragged away, thankful she was conscious enough to be able to help with it. My watch pinged, Lucy was close. I would just need to hold out a little…

*KAZAP*

I was blown backwards several feet by a sudden blast of lightning, the Vrock having stopped dancing a shaved second prior. Letting one’s mind wander when staring down a threat like this was simply not a good idea. My manashed shirt was obliterated, there was nothing it could do to handle this kind of energy flow, and though I was still standing I could feel every inch of my body twitching. Had it not been for Mirror Shield and my own favored lightning, that might have been the end. As it was, I got to my feet in time to see a glob of darkness engulf the thing’s face. It started clawing at it, unable to see, as my wife (wearing light padded armor herself) ran up and tossed me what the situation was missing. My pistol, a heavy-caliber job that was meant to take advantage of my frame. Major monster attacks like this were specifically called out to qualify as “in extremis,” and the Great Equalizer now in my hand was authorized for use. As I took aim, Lucy pelted the thing with rays of concentrated flame, again not doing as much direct damage as she might otherwise but definitely making progress. 

It finally tore the darkness away from its eyes and glared at us. I placed a bullet between its eyes, followed by two more to its chest. The thing had to be getting critical, But it was acting extremely oddly. Not like true demons, almost like it was forced to be here. On a pure hunch, I pulled up Cursebreaker again, and spotted a very familiar-looking icon in front of the thing’s chest. “Love! I need you to keep it away or contained!”

She gave me a glare. “Are you KIDDING me right now?”

“That thing is under a curse that I think I can undo. I need you to give me two minutes, I’ll know by then if it’s going to work or not.” The visualization of the sigil was blackened and looking rotten. Still, the chains looked similar enough, and I had just gotten a serious lesson in how to attack this one. “It’s a valid Cursebreaker target. I can explain later, no time now!” My hands glowed, this time pure white. I would not be pulling the chains apart this time, but slicing them like a scalpel. 

“Jeremiah Kithkin, you are the ONLY person I’d do this for!” Her own hands were surrounded by an aura causing the air to shimmer and distort. This was not her specialty, but I knew the one. With a screech, the monster charged at us. With one easily its equal, Lucy let loose an enormous blast of kinetic energy directed straight at its center of gravity. Thankfully, the blast proved the greater of the two, knocking it onto its back then slamming down onto it to keep it pinned. “Hurry!”

I was already firing lances of light at it, knowing that my wife could at least sense what I was doing. I didn’t have many shots, and couldn’t afford to have the curse reconnect itself. I used my pistol as a sight, taking the links down with as much precision as I possibly could. There was nobody within range for it to flee to, with the last of my mana I severed its link holding it to this world and obliterated it.

Under the shimmering field of sorcerous might, the demon suddenly caught fire. It no longer struggled. Lucy dismissed her telekinetic efforts and, panting heavily, pulled out her phone to snap a few pictures. “This. THIS is when you’re supposed to get proof, Jay.”

I ran up to the burning corpse to see what would remain, and was caught wildly off guard. A few gold coins and enormous black feathers were on the ground, but by far the most important was what was emerging from the flames. The body of a dark-skinned, tall, muscular woman. One with black feathers on her body instead of hair, and black-feathered wings. A Demonic person, not a full demon. She was breathing but unconscious, not seeming to realize I was there. The curse had worked in a wildly different way. This was about to get complicated.

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