3.2 Crusaders Book II - Dealer's Shuffle

2. Somewhere in the hills of Afghanistan and Pakistan

The black scorpion crawled along the ridge of the cold ground as it finds it way to the next boulder. Its antenna searched the air for the scent of any prey that it can grabbed. It picked up an unique scent and its tail went up in an instinct. The dark crawler was not that lucky that evening, as it find itself lifted up and thrown into the leather pouch. It stuck with the sting on its tail in the dark, but its not alone. Another creature of similar kind; a large centipede reacted with ferocity of its fangs, but the infighting was soon stopped when the owner of the pouch crushed the creatures with the hilt of the M14-A1.

Mileal Landon III or he prefer to be called Miles, as he sat back into the shadow of the covering ledge at a distance of one hundred and twenty meters. It showed him the road below which his target would be passing by soon. Mike doing freelance for anyone who was willing to pay for his services but this one''s for free. He saw them leaving the Camp yesterday, and came back late. Later he was told that they went for a raid on the nearby village and committed some bad deeds. He learned this from one of them this morning who was still drunk from the previous nights rendezvous. This evening they are going for another round again, but this time Miles would be putting a stop to it.

His eyes looked at the luminous watch hand, and noted that the boys are late. It was then he saw the robed figure who ran out of the cover of the rocks to the road. The figure crouched down and dug a hole. It placed something in it and then ran back to the rocks. Miles thought of warning his comrades and then decided not to since he knew of their bad intentions. The truck came down the road while Miles watched. Just as it passed the spot where the robed man had earlier laid something; it exploded causing the truck to be spring boarded into mid air. The truck landed on its left side before the shooting starts. Miles could count six shooters using maybe acquired rifles on the overturned truck. There were some return fire but it was probably one or two shooter. To my Miles' knowledge, the truck should be carrying seven men, meaning they are either dead or injured.

Then the truce flag was seen from the over turned truck and one men crawled out. He was holding a rifle in his left hand, and then threw it aside. Miles knows him; Sargeant Andre "Giant' Kursin, a tough service man with a bad temper. Soon another figure crawled out holding his left shoulder.

"We surrender. We have injured ones inside." Sargeant Andre shouted out. Miles could see the shooters appearing from the rocks. There are nine of them; the other three are holding long curved swords. They approached the two injured men and motioned to them to stand away from the truck. When the two soldiers moved aside, the three sword wielding robed figures went into the truck. There were some sharp scream but soon it was all silent.

"You killed them. Who are you?" Sargeant Andre roared his voice and move to the truck but he stopped short when he was shot in the left thigh.

"Aargh!" The Sargeant roared out as he laid on the road. "Get it over, you bastards."

One of the robed figure with the sword approached the fallen Sargeant. The robe was dropped to reveal the figure of a naked lady. She dropped the sword and raised up her arms wide. Then the wings appeared from her back and spread itself out in a fan.

"Furies?" Miles muttered to himself. He knows these blood suckers; they are the Furies, winged demons in the form of the woman who terrorized the eastern continent, but they are never seen here in these regions.

The Fury lashed out with her hands and grabbed the stunned Sargeant to raise him above the road, before hurling him to the road again. Just as the Sargeant fell on the road, the other robed ones came forth towards the other surviving one. The soldier tried to run but he was brought down by the Fury who grabbed him in mid flight. She hurled the soldier into the nearby boulder with the head coming into contact with it.

"Kill them both. Leave nothing to be found." The others all went for all the bodies including the Sargeant. The Fury then flew up into the air and approached Miles. It landed at the front of Miles.

"Crusader, you seen what we did and yet you did not help. " The Fury smiled at him. "You cannot escape your own destiny. We are your true enemy and not them. They have their own executioner."

"Why do you mock me, demon? I swore not to hunt your kind for years now." Miles took the oath after he witnessed the killing of one demon by mistake; the actual one who did the crime was a man of flesh. "I forego my upbringing to direct your skills to these other killers."

"Miles, why are you are denying yourself? Just because you made a mistake? Did you kill one of our young ones? We are demons; by nature killers and if we do not only do the killing, we get the man of flesh to do it. So either way we are the forerunner on the event. So why do you think you are thinking that you can be the judge to our behavior." The Fury laughed at Miles.

"Why do you tempt me, demon? Wouldn't you like to live longer without me killing you?" Miles asked back.

"No, Miles. You are the antithesis to our existence. We need you back. We need you as the current Crusaders are not up to par. We have killed more than half your numbers and none of us perished. We felt the lack of ....competition." The Fury laughed out louder.

"You do know if I come back.,you may not survive." Miles looked at the demon.

"Que Sera Sera, Miles." The fury looked at Miles. "But I doubt you would ever come back. You feared us like them. Goodbye, Miles."

The Fury flew off while Miles at there still holding onto his rifle. He really wanted to shoot at the Fury but he cannot bring himself to do so. Its not like he feared them. He had lost his fear of them but gain admiration for these killers. They are like him; a professional killer. He has grown to respect them. They just killed those man of flesh; the deserving ones, and maybe the demons had the same objective as his. It all began when they had the dropped on him; an ambush which he was not prepared for.

"Miles Landon, surely heroes have off days." Miles was lying on the hard bedding in the shanty motel in Shatin, Hong Kong. He just got in early morning after a hunt in the area for the demon he was told of. He killed the vile creature but he did not planned for the backlash of the claw which pierced his left forearm. That wound became infected and soon spread its pain to his left side of the chest. His heart went beating in a series of hurried beats while he laid on the bedding. Not that he was awaken by the presence of two demon hitters; the ones that works like him but they side with the demons but the nightmare he has been getting for months now.

The one who spoke was a tall man in an garish looking suit, while his obese companion sports punkish look with the red dyed Mohican cut at the foot of the bedding. They are both armed with a handgun, and are eager to get this done. They reminded Miles of the comedic duo Laurel and Hardy.

"Can I shoot his knees first?" The obese one asked of his elderly companion but the later did not answer. He could not as his neck was already twisted in a crooked manner. The elderly hitter fell on the flooring while the younger hitter looked at te newly arrived guest.

"What the..." The younger hitter gasped out as his heart was removed by the demon which appeared at the room. The demon placed the heart at its mouth and squeezed the blood out. Then it looked at Miles.

"Don't get up on my account. I am here to deliver you a message." The demon took a bite of the heart, and sucked in the dried out anatomy. "You are spared today. You owe us a life. Take a rest from your hunt on us for a year."

That was over two years now, as Miles find himself removing the second most vile predators to the demons; man of flesh. Now he sits here on the cold surface of the dried land watching the demons cleared the road of its feast. Miles threw aside the rifle and walked back into Pakistan land. He's going home to see Geraldine.