Monster Hunt NYC 3

by Harmon Cooper

  “You are the type of player, and I mean player, not Alpha, that causes trouble for the rest of us,” said the guy with a bit of a paunch. “You’re just a hobbyist, not someone to take seriously.”

  “I don’t know, I think I take it pretty seriously.”

  “Have you even competed in a tournament?” the seated woman asked.

  “Yes, several. In fact…”

  “Of course he has competed in a tournament. Most Alphas have competed in tournaments,” the British man said. “It’s not that bloody hard to join a tournament.”

  “Sounds like an amateur,” the man in the horse mask said.

  “Are there actually professionals?” I asked, just to be snide.

  “Of course there are Monster Hunt professionals. There are people that dedicate their lives to building their dojo, cultivating a good team of mythcrea, and competing in and arranging tournaments that will be remembered for years to come. Keegan, you can see him out. He’s not ready to join us,” said the man with the paunch. He had a white, phantom of the opera mask on and a T-shirt that read Cyber Noir: 2085 Reboot.

  “I’m not just an amateur,” I told them. “In fact, I won Kingdom Lume’s recent tournament for levels four through six, and last night, I placed second in the EverLife-wide tournament.”

  “Did you now?” the woman asked, cocking her head at me. She had a kitsune mask on, glasses underneath.

  “And one more thing. Just in case you are continuing to question my legitimacy. I’m assuming all of you have dojos in EverLife.”

  They nodded, all aside from Keegan.

  “Then you are also looking at the owner of the Steeple of Litur and Industria.”

  The British man gasped. “So it is true? Someone actually solved the puzzle? There are rumors floating around that it happened. But… No. You must be lying. You must have confused yourself with someone else.”

  “You can check with Ray Steampunk’s estate if you don’t believe me. And you can look up my dojo by my name, Chase Knowles, if you want proof of my status. Anyway, sure, let’s get out of here, Keegan. I don’t need this shit.” I turned away, placing the beanie over my head and pulling it back over my eyes. “Ready when you are.”

  “Wait,” the woman called after me. “It’s… I think it’s true. There have been inquiries recently regarding the Steeple, and investors have already been contacting my organization about the owner.”

  I paused. “Your organization?”

  “I’m a member of a Proxima realty group, the largest one,” she explained. “But that’s all you need to know. Just being a winner and lucky doesn’t get you access to our club. You must also prove that you have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with one of our mythcrea. Who’s up?”

  “I am,” said the British man, who wore an executioner’s hood. He cracked his knuckles as he stared me down.

  “So it’s like a Brawl?”

  “No, you need to select a mythcrea to fight whatever mythcrea he goes with,” Keegan said under her breath.

  “But you clearly have rarer ones, and you are likely at a higher level than me,” I told the group. “What’s the point in this fight?”

  “It is part of our ritual,” the woman explained. “The first part. The second part comes after you have successfully won, or successfully lost the first part.”

  “So I can lose then, right?”

  “You can, and you will,” said the British man as he walked towards the larger space, stopping at the very end and turning to me. “Well? What are you waiting for? Let’s get on with it!”

  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  The British man smiled, or at least I thought he was smiling under his executioner’s mask. I could tell by his eyes that he was either smiling or glaring, which only made this more awkward.

  I wished Iris were here.

  I didn’t take Monster Hunt as seriously as she did, and had she been there, she would have been the perfect opponent for the British executioner guy.

  I’d already scrolled through our list once, not quite sure of who I should select.

  Some of our mythcrea were rare, but there was no telling what this guy would select, and I needed someone who could actually fight, not someone like Joe Camel or Yaksha. I thought for a moment about choosing Hiccup, but decided otherwise when I saw what the British man brought to the table.

  “I’ll even give you a chance by revealing my mythcrea first,” he said as a terrible looking creature rose from a portal in the ground. She had a bird’s face, bulging eyes, the nose of a reptile and stringy black hair.

  The mythcrea locked eyes with me, her arms swinging at her sides as her handle appeared.

  [Momo, Level 15]

  “I even chose a lower-level one, just to be fair,” said the man.

  Momo? I thought, and just thinking the words triggered a GoogleFace explanation, telling me that the rare mythcrea stemmed from an Internet hoax, and was based on a sculpture of an ubume, which was basically a Japanese ghost.

  And since I was going against a ghost, I went for my undead mythcrea, Magnus, who just so happened to be at Level Fifteen as well.

  “I suppose I am to fight her,” he said, unsheathing his sword just as soon as his form took shape. Magnus wore leather this time, with buckles across his chest and arms, his face pale, his jet-black hair pulled into a ponytail.

  “A fext?” the man in the horse mask asked. “You are supposed to bring a rare mythcrea!”

  “You want to see me battle, right? Or better, you want to see if my mythcrea can fight, right?” I said over my shoulder. “Well, here’s your chance.”

  “I don’t bloody care what he brings to the party,” said the British man. “He won’t last long against Momo. Isn’t that right, Momo?”

  The terrifying woman turned to him, still not blinking her eyes.

  “Aren’t you a cutie?” the Brit asked in a cooing voice. Once she didn’t respond, he continued. “Not very full of beans today, are you? It doesn’t matter, you know what to do, my dear,” he said, nodding to Magnus.

  “She will be a formidable opponent,” Magnus said, flourishing his blade, green fire radiating off of it and settling.

  “Try to end it quickly,” I told him, “I have this feeling that the longer she’s alive, the harder it’ll be to take her down.”

  Magnus advanced toward the woman, bringing his blade back and thrusting it forward, Momo dodging by literally cracking her neck to the side, in one of the most uncomfortable postures I had seen. He swung at her again, and she simply moved her body the other way, her bones cracking in her body as she avoided his blade.

  Magnus spun around to give himself momentum, his blade coming in for a swipe across her chest.

  Suddenly, Momo slapped her hands together in front of her body, catching his blade between her palms, still with that dead look in her eyes, still not blinking.

  She shifted her arms to the left, flipping Magnus onto his back.

  Even as he tried to pull his blade free from her hands, and simultaneously scoot away from her, he was unable to, her grip incredibly strong.

  When pulling his sword away wouldn’t work, Magnus tried to kick her feet out from beneath her. But as he connected with her, her ankles broke off to the left, and the woman fell to the ground, her eyes still open, her hands still in a prayer position, holding his blade.

  She lay on the ground like that for a moment, licking her lips as she looked at Magnus. Realizing he wasn’t going to be able to pry his blade from her grip, Magnus kicked away, back to his feet, drawing two sharp daggers from sheaths on his belt.

  Momo also righted herself in an awkward way, her bones cracking back together as she stood upright, still with his sword in her hands. Her mouth started to open, and as it did, she lifted the sword to her face, devouring it whole.

  In that moment, I fired off a message to Iris, telling her that she needed to meet me ASAP, that something quite interesting had come up.

  And that I had just seen a Japanese ghost
eat Magnus’ sword.

  Not sure of how he should address her, the fext stalked the woman for a moment, his shoulders low, daggers at the ready.

  “She’s so creepy,” Keegan said, startling me.

  I looked to my left to see the teenager watching Magnus take a few swipes at the Japanese ghost woman. Momo avoided each attack, moving her body in an unnatural way, Magnus never able to land an attack.

  “Have you seen her before?” I asked Keegan.

  “Only in a video; never in person.”

  I felt the urge to coach Magnus, as if I were on the sidelines at a tournament. But the British man was completely silent, and I took this to mean that I should be completely silent as well, that I should let my mythcrea do the talking for me.

  Momo finally swiped her claws at Magnus, the fext barely able to roll out of the way in time. As he jumped back to his feet, Magnus launched one of his blades, the dagger stabbing right into the center of her forehead, all the way up to the hilt.

  The woman staggered forward, her eyes still locked on Magnus until they finally shifted, both bulging peepholes now looking up at the dagger jutting out of her forehead.

  Even as Magnus came in for another swipe, trying to bring her down with his other knife, she parried his attack, cracking her body left, curving right, all while using her free hand to take the blade from her forehead, and devour it.

  A message came in from Iris, telling me that first, she had no idea what I was talking about; and second, that she was definitely interested and was down to meet up.

  She suggested an early dinner, at a Korean place in Midtown.

  The address appeared on my pane of vision, as well as an RSVP button, which I mentally selected, returning my focus to the fight.

  Magnus tried an HP draining skill, energy swirling around his hand as he launched his palm forward, sending the spiraling blast in Momo’s direction.

  It hit the woman, who continued to stare at Magnus with that weird bird grin of hers, a trickle of blood trailing from her forehead to her chin.

  Even as the blast hit her, she only twitched a bit, showing clearly that this type of attack wasn’t going to affect her.

  As a last Hail Mary of sorts, Magnus charged her with his blade over his head, moving just in time to avoid her swipe, and bringing his knife into the side of her neck.

  And that’s when she turned her head and used her beak to bite his arm off, Magnus pulling away immediately, blood squirting out of the bloodied stump of his arm.

  Suddenly, Momo was standing in front of him, her hand around his neck, that same twisted look on her face as she licked the blood off her lips.

  Magnus started punching her with his free fist, her body still shifting just in time to avoid each hit, no matter how close he got.

  Even as he tried to punch her, she started bending forward toward him, opening her jaw wider and wider, eventually snapping her beak shut on his face, killing him instantly.

  I shook my head, not knowing how to feel in that moment.

  I knew that all this was fake, but seeing it play out like that, and knowing that Magnus was a good guy was causing a strange reaction in me. I wanted to run forward and tackle the woman, to do my best to fight back, but I knew that that wouldn’t do anything.

  I knew that she was a digital hallucination, and that Magnus was okay, that he would just reappear at the dojo, where he’d be comforted by Ophelia.

  Still, it was weird, and I was glad when both Magnus’ body and Momo disappeared.

  “Are you happy now?” I asked the group of Alphas behind me.

  “It wasn’t a bad fight,” said the man with the paunch. “Your fext was a hell of a lot better than I thought he would be.”

  “But we still have things to discuss before we make our decision. And besides, you are still missing one important piece of membership in our group,” said the woman in the kitsune mask.

  “What’s that?”

  “A truly rare catch. Come back with something unbelievably rare, and we will go from there.”

  I shrugged. “And what makes you think I want to be part of your group anyway?”

  “You have another Alpha that works with you, correct?” she asked.

  “I do.”

  “Well, see what she thinks about it. She may know more about our type of group than you do. But I can tell you this, by joining our club you will have access to information that a normal Alpha would never have, and you will also be invited to exclusive tournaments and other Brawls. It’s really up to you. But let’s not jump to conclusions. First, you need to return with a rare catch. Show us what you can do.”

  Chapter Twelve: Lick Stickficker

  “Don’t you just love this place?” Iris asked as the waitress brought us more Korean side dishes.

  We were in Koreatown, at a place off Thirty-Second Street and Fifth Avenue. I still hadn’t called the Huntresses back to New York; I’d literally rushed over here after the rare monster club meetup, which I was stoked to tell Iris about, but hadn’t started yet, mostly because she was going over menu options.

  “The food is definitely interesting.” I said as I used my chopsticks to pick at a dish that consisted of bean sprouts and a little red sauce. It was spicy, but not the same type of spice I was used to, the flavor robust in a way, fermented.

  “Just wait till the main course comes,” she said. “All these Korean restaurants serve small plates before the meal, sort of like an appetizer. I guess it is kind of like chips and salsa at a Mexican food restaurant.”

  “Nice,” I told her as I finished the small plate of bean sprouts.

  The waitress saw that I was done and came over with another one, refilling our small ceramic glasses of green tea.

  “Okay, so now it’s my turn to catch you up,” I told her.

  “Okay, what’s up?”

  Iris seemed more chipper than she had been last night, after we’d lost the tournament. I was glad, too. I knew that I could have done better, but then again, I also knew that we were both new to this, and that the two fiery sisters we had faced earlier seemed to have trained a lot longer than us.

  Still, I wanted to walk carefully around the subject if possible.

  And rather than tell her about the humandroid sitting in my bedroom back at my home, I decided to go over the rare monster club, their masks and general bullshit, and the requirements if we wanted to join.

  “Actually, I don’t know if they will let us join, but I’m pretty sure I impressed them,” I said as more side dishes came.

  “I wish I could have seen that fight between Magnus and Momo,” she said. “It’s always a pleasure watching him fight. He’s so intense, so focused.”

  “And he probably would have won too had you been there.”

  “You don’t know that,” she started to say.

  “I don’t know. It wasn’t the kind of environment that one could give out commands, I got that vibe, but maybe I just assumed that. Maybe I could have shouted something to Magnus. And if that was the case, you would have been great there.”

  “Okay, so their next requirement is that we capture a truly rare mythcrea, correct?”

  “Yes, and I sort of had an idea about that. Actually, I had this idea earlier, but it seems like it would be something we could rope in.”

  “What idea?” she asked, smiling as the waitress brought a grilled fish over and set it between us. The Korean restaurant was bustling and steamy, filled with people from all walks of life, the waiters and waitresses squeezing in between crowded areas, holding trays over their heads.

  “Newport, Rhode Island. Let’s go tomorrow.”

  “You want to go to Rhode Island?” she asked.

  “I was thinking of places that we could find rare monsters, and then I thought of those famous mansions in Newport, Rhode Island. It would be an adventure.”

  “Yep. I’ve been before too, and it’s great. So a road trip?”

  “Sure. Why not? And did you like the city?”

/>   “I definitely liked it. Going there is like stepping back into colonial America or something. I mean, they have adjusted for modern-day life, but some of the homes, and the way the streets are set make it pretty unique.”

  “And you have class tomorrow, right?”

  “I do, but I could just make up for it through the digital version that will be posted to the Proxima Galaxy. So I’m not too worried about that. I could even do that while we are taking the train up.”

  “Sweet,” I said with a smile.

  “It will be cool to hunt in some abandoned mansions.”

  “I think that’s going to be the tricky part,” I told her, focusing both on Iris and on the information on my iNet screen. “A historical society runs the tours now, and I think they own all the mansions. So we will have to be a little bit careful.”

  “Okay, that’s easy enough. Just don’t let them see we’re hunting.”

  “Like we did back at Mood Fabrics?”

  She snorted. “Hopefully better than that. Have you forgotten that you can use some of your money to buy a rare mythcrea locator? You could just add that onto your app, and it would be much better than the one you already have.”

  “I haven’t used that one for a few days now,” I told her, recalling my monster locator app and how it allowed me to more easily locate mythcrea in New York. “But yeah, of course I would buy that. And I would get us a cool hotel too. Something with an ocean view, or maybe in like a historical hotel.”

  “Sounds like fun,” she said as she picked at the fish. “So we leave in the morning then. I can purchase some train tickets.”

  “Let me book everything,” I told her. “And I know that we haven’t talked about it yet, but I still remain serious about transferring funds to you.”

  “I told you, Chase, I don’t want your funds. Honestly, I don’t really need it, well, who doesn’t need money? But it’s not something that I really care about. Does that make sense?”

  “I know that you said that, which is why I have made you co-owner of the Steeple, so you can’t stop me from transferring this money.”