Art by lukathekingapple on FurAffinity
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Out here in the wildlands, life was simple, the towns were small and quiet, the aspect Ion loved the most about being out here, far away from the large and loud cities like Eios where he is from. Ion could move away from all of that to living in a place like this, though in these parts, these towns do have their dark secretes. Besides, it wasn't something to think about now, he was not here to relax, he was here on a mission. There have been many disappearances and strange deaths in these parts, most notably healthy people just being found dead in the streets, with no signs of trauma or any other reason why. But one of the main aspects of the deaths were that it looked like these people would just appear at random dead on the streets, there was no evidence that they have even been to the town where they were found, like whatever happened to them, happened elsewhere and their bodies were just being scattered around in random villages in the country side. Thought the locals seamed to be denying these things were happening, reports from some visitors kept coming in, this attracting the attention of the Hunters to investigate, after all, maybe these towns were not so random after all. Sure there was no pattern of which town one of these incidents would be discovered next, but there may be more to these locations then once thought. Then after some of the Hunters that were sent to investigate started winding up missing or dead themselves, in the same condition as all the others, the Hunters thought they were on to something bigger going on. Those suspicions became a reality once they were able to fully examine some of the dead found, some of the regular bodies the locals denied the Hunters from examining but recovery teams were able to recover the bodies of the Hunters that had perished even with some push back. This called upon the Hunters to send out their special members, the Ravagers as they were called, to put an end to things, for you see, dark powers of the mystic and the forbidden were now confirmed to be at play here, with the Ravagers being the only Hunters that are aloud to have knowledge about these things, they are the only ones who stand a chance of defending themselves against these types of rare attacks.
Ion, who is a rather newer Ravager Hunter, has been on missions like this before, possibility tracking down other sectors of the same group that was doing things here, under the guise of his master Narche, but this was the first one he was fully taking the lead on since he was appointed to the Ravagers by her. He set his sights on one small town in particular, not because it had the most cases, but because it had the fewest, it was close to a location he had a hunch to where the incidents were really going on but Hunters were not aloud to go there without special permission, Ion would need to find evidence first and here was his best shot. This group needed a place fairly close by to control those who were in charge of throwing off the scent so to speak, if there was one town were that would be headquartered, it would be here and having less incidents occurring at this place would put it off the radar mostly, but they still needed some to not arouse suspicion. As Ion walked through the streets of this small town, he kept his hood up to help blend in with the other wanderers who were around, he could not help but look around and sense all the dark things going on around him in what is suppose to be a colourful and quiet little town. There were small alleys everywhere, with shady dealings seaming to be coming from them all, these small towns were the perfect cover for the group he was searching for, as a normal person without their senses as finely tuned as a Hunter's would be, would not notice all this going on in the background, noting would seam suspicious or out of place. Besides as Ion and the Hunters suspected, these towns were not the main focus of this group, there were not many travelers to these parts and going after the locals would put too much heat on them. No these places were most certainly to mask the actual area of their operation, they may have gone after some random bounties here to further throw off the trail but mainly from what Ion could sense, their main goal here was to gather information about those they deem valuable or unwanted that were coming into the area, buying off the rouges that would sneakily scout the countryside, looking for some quick coin. But again all this was just a hunch Ion and the Hunters had, a good one though and one that was seaming more realistic by the minute, as Ion could feel an uneasy presence coming from the farther west, from that location of that forbidden city, a sensation that only a Ravager Hunter would be able to make out. Scouting this small town in the right way could get Ion closer to his goal but he would need to be smart about it.
For days Ion scoured about, pretending to be one of those wandering rouges looking to sell information but that was not getting anywhere, all the members that would meet any "informant" were not very talkative, all they wanted was to hear what you had to say and then pay you the coin they thought you deserved, before scurrying away. But since the "meeting places" were always random and the "takers of information" would always be fully cloaked, hiding their faces, Ion decided he would impersonate as one of these members, to buy some of this information himself, making sure not to arouse too much suspicion. Finding an un-taken alleyway was not too difficult as he could keenly sense were most of the members were operating, where as the rouges seamed to have to be guided somewhat to a buyer's location, though there were some that had heightened senses, something Ion would have to watch out for. These rouges could sniff him out as an imposer, which would only be a matter of time anyways, he knew putting up the rouse wouldn't last overly long, all he could hope for was to gather the right pieces before time ran out. He gathered that most of the townsfolk was in on their operation, that they turned a blind eye to the group's operation, paid off to allow the activity to continue without intervention and to make sure the town was seen as a quiet unsuspecting place to anyone that visited though they would guide wandering rouges to those "hidden" alleyways. But this was not good enough, he still was not getting anywhere close to what he wanted, so Ion decided to take some more drastic measures, he started shadowing some of the takers of information, silently and secretly following them as they would scurry away after getting what they need and meeting up with a few others at an uncrowded back corner to discuss more inner workings of their network, keeping unseen and trying not to alert anyone's senses to his presence. Continuing to shadow them, Ion was also able to gather that the group's main base of operation in this town was in the catacombs of the cathedral, as the clergy seamed to shield them from harm, but as Ion was on the brink of finding out more about the group that was here, like the names of some of the members or their leader, he started to overhear them talking about someone that was trying to infiltrate them, buying information from the rouges like they were one of them and something needed to be done about it. More evidence that the group was on to what Ion was doing and the possibility he had been discovered himself, were that the rouges he had been buying information off of, had now stopped talking to him, not even taking any amount of his coin for any information, mostly one look at him and they would quickly turn the other way, trying not to be seen near him. The higher sense rouges probably already figured out he was the impostor, most likely selling that information to the group, to which in turn would warn and pay off their other "informants" to not talk to him. Now that his time was mostly up, Ion thought now might be the time to strike and make his move, as the group would undoubtedly come after him anyways.
After some preparation, Ion set off towards the cathedral but as he got closer, he could sense something was going on, the streets were emptying at a fast pace, as he walked into focus of anyone, they would hurry inside and lock themselves within. Even the rouges were quickly fleeing the area they were in when he approached and the takers of information were quickly paying off any rouge that approached before whisking them away from the area. "So now they are deciding to act" Ion chuckled as he entered the town square, it was empty except for a few rouges still in the area, with only the sound of water from the fountain filling his ears. Then there it was, Ion cracked a small smile as he could now sense bloodlust coming from all streets and alleys in front of him before suddenly those streets began to fill with an army of hooded and cloaked figures, banishing all types of weapons. As they started to confront Ion, one of them, cloaked in a more garnished apparel, stepped forward and spoke out "so your the Hunter that has been sticking his nose in the wrong places, I will admit that you have been the most skilled one so far with how long you have been able to stalk us, but your luck has run out. Surrender now and your death will be quick and painless, otherwise..." as the hooded figure motioned to all the others around him, all of them seaming ready for the spilling of blood as bloodlust was just oozing from them, "...your death will be most brutal." Ion didn't say a word as he grabbed the handle of his sword with his left mechanical arm, getting in a stance to attack. "So you have chosen the hard way..." the hooded figure replied back but before he could finish his sentence, Ion started to conjure lightning in his right hand as the sky darkened, bolts of lightning cascading across them with the sound of booming thunder. The hooded figure taken back a bit by Ion's psynergy display, quickly snapped back to his senses, showing an expression that what he was up against was nothing to fear, before speaking out again, "so you are the Stormfox, no wonder you were able to get this far, but you are dealing with forces beyond your reasoning, you know nothing about the powers we have at our disposal."
All Ion could do was smirk at that declaration, as he pulled his sword off of his back, fully wielding it as he let a bit of his bloodlust out. The leader full of confidence, ordered the group to charge in and attack Ion, but as they started moving towards him, Ion suddenly closed his right palm causing his conjured lightning to disappear as his bloodlust started fully enemating from his body. Some of the attackers stopped in their tracks at Ion's move and the sensation he was giving off, but the rest continued on with their attack, ignoring the sudden cries to stop from those who had halted, though it was too late. Suddenly Ion bared his fangs, snapping his fingers as multiple large bolts of lightning came crashing down and striking all those that approached, frying them from the inside out, instantly killing them. As some looked on in horror at what just happened, the leader quickly motioned to parts of the large group to snake trough the alleyways and surround Ion, as coming at him from all sides, he thought would cut off Ion's ability to fully unleash his powers of the storm on them. With Ion now confronted on both sides of the square, the leader boasted confidence that now there was no way out for him, that his powers wouldn't be able to handle all their might, but all Ion could do again was let out a small laugh before suddenly vanishing from sight, reappearing almost instantly next to the leader, cutting down the member that was standing next to him before skillfully vanishing again and moving on to the next member and then the next. The leader called out to full on attack, to overwhelm the Hunter and take him down by any means necessary, but to his horror, he could also see Ion moving faster then anyone should have the ability to do, quickly killing off his men from what it seamed like two places at once, jumping back and forth from both side of the battle. "There was no way this was possible, the Stormfox was said to be fast but not this fast" the leader thought to himself as the moral of his men started fading from seeing all those that were cut down around them, as a lot of them now started to flee for their lives heading back towards the cathedral, to their sanctuary.
It was at this moment the leader realized something was off about Ion's ability, that there was something more going on that he just couldn't put his finger on yet, but now without the full crowd of his men around, he could see the truth, that there were actually two Ions that seamed to be doing the attacking, it was not an afterimage. "A twin?" the leader thought, no he was sure it was only Ion that was walking through the town, that there was only one Hunter on their tail, it had to be something more in the mystic variety. "A cone then, he can conjure a clone....." the leader continued, but the way his was working is impossible, there is no mystic power in this world that can conjure a clone that can do what this Hunter's was doing. "Well, maybe that is because you don't understand the forces you are dealing with" the leader could suddenly hear Ion saying to him from behind, almost like he was inside his head and reading his thoughts. The leader paused for a moment, shocked at Ion's sudden appearance at him since he seamed to be actively avoiding him during the battle and after composing himself, he took a closer look at the clone that finished cutting down a large group of his men and was now slowly walking towards him. He could see it now, they almost looked the same but there were a few differences, most notable the ears were a bit larger and the eyes were blue instead of orange, otherwise the clone looked exactly the same. It was not another Hunter that had similar characteristics as Ion, as he could not sense a living presence from this being, then it hit him as fear started to engulf his body, Ion was not some ordinary Hunter, he had a rare power of the forbidden, something that was just suppose to be a fairy tale, something that was said you have to cross over to the other side to obtain and only if they matched so well, Ion had a twin soul. "A familiar, ...you can call upon a second soul inside of you as a ...familiar" the leader quivery spoke as he turned his head towards the "real" Ion. Ion then smiled before vanishing and suddenly appearing directly in front of the leader, grabbing his neck, fully immobilizing him. Any of his remaining men in the square now just froze now in fear at their leader's capture, as the blue eyed familiar now also stood next to the real Ion, with them both looking in to the leader's eyes full of fright. "So you really do know about the forbidden secretes of this world, I thought you were just a pawn, blabbering on about a secrete power your 'masters' have, but I have to give you more credit then that" Ion spoke. "They didn't tell me much, only enough to make me help keep people like you off their backs" the leader replied, struggling a bit from Ion's grasp, "I... I can make you a deal, you let us go and I will tell you where they are hiding, we can even be your eyes and ears on the inside."
"Tempting offer, I will see, but first, tell me where are they operating out of?" Ion answered back in a cold tone as the leader could now feel a overwhelmingly powerful bloodlust coming off of him, a lot stronger then before. "In the far west, in the city people go to make their dreams come true, where any fantasy can come to life, they operate out of ...Corral." That was it, the piece of information Ion needed to confirm his suspicions, the place where you can win big or loose it all, makes a perfect location for them to collect as many as they needed or wanted, under the guise of people drowning out their sorrows literally. But this group was getting to advantageous and dangerous, they needed to be stamped out at the heart of their operation or the lives of many could be in danger. With Hunters not normally being aloud to visit "Fantasy Town", this information would be the key to let them in, into one of the few places where they had almost no presence, though they would have to still be careful going about it and there was still one problem Ion had to deal with about that. "So... we have a deal?" the leader asked Ion, to which he coldly replied, "No, not a chance, keeping any of you alive would hinder our infiltration, you are more likely to alert them to our presence then to help conceal it." "You can't do this, you just can't..." the leader responded before a large bolt of lightning came down from the sky striking him in full force, to which after, all could be heard was silence. Ion then let him go as the leader just fell hard to the ground, slumping over dead. Ion then turned his head towards the remaining attackers, with his eyes still cold and murderous, causing them to all get up and flee. Ion went to chase after them but before he could, his blue eyed familiar grabbed him on the shoulder and just shuck his head, pointing towards the large cathedral that could been seen in the distance, the direction they were running towards for their sanctuary. Ion smiled before saying "I guess you are right, Zephyr has this, after all it wouldn't be fair to let him out of the the fun." "Besides" Ion continued as they both looked towards the west "there is a more pressing matter to attend to" as the strong presence coming from that direction could now be felt more clearly with his suspicions confirmed. "I guess it is finally time to pay a visit to Fantasy Town" Ion said as he looked back towards his familiar, who let off a soft smile before disappearing as they merged back into one being. "I am glad that you can now be a part of this" Ion though out loud, putting a hand over his chest as he turned around and started walking towards the exit of the town. He would reconvene with Zephyr at their meeting place first, hoping that he would soon be done with his fun.....
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Keywords
male
1,168,956,
fox
243,329,
fantasy
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magic
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story
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sword
10,057,
arctic fox
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city
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detailed background
2,601,
lightning
1,753,
birds
1,715,
story in description
1,552,
grey fox
1,124,
town
800,
shadows
606,
fountain
309,
mechanical arm
234
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4 years, 2 months ago
15 Aug 2020 14:30 CEST
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