Lunar Soldier

Underneath a bright full moon, a forest would have its sleep interrupted by loud footsteps. A couple soldiers chased an elusive young man who had escaped after getting caught attempting to smuggle himself onboard a ship. It had rained the previous night, which proved to be difficult for the soldiers to continue the chase through the wet mud as the gap between them and their target widened. Eventually, it was recognized that the chase was impossible when they noticed they could no longer see him among the shade of the trees. Upon realizing his pursuers had given up, an exhausted and hungry Kovalski Lietchsnkov found himself a spot to rest underneath a tree. The wind remained cold, and he positioned himself underneath the rather bright moonlight for even a little bit of heat. 

Within seconds he fell asleep. The weight of his exhaustion became unbearable and a moment's rest had lulled him into a deep slumber. However, his dreams of late had not been any kinder than any of his days, and this particular one had been recurring quite often.

“It’s all a dream”, he muttered to himself over and over again. This does little to calm him, as every sensation was still so vivid. The chill of the cold wind as it blew his hair into his face was not anymore alleviated as the moon above was convinced to stop shining. Despite it seeming to be night, the moon was more of a red sun, the only difference being the visible craters and its distinct deep red color. Looking around, all you could see was clouds, as where he stood was elevated high up into the sky with the moon seemingly right in front of him.  On the platform at which he stood, there was a figure that stood between him and the moon.

The figure turned around to face him. “The moon welcomes you for another night, it seems.” 

“I’m welcome anywhere, magic man. You guys are the ones that won’t stop inviting me here.” He clapped back..

“As much as I wish my master was clearer on their criteria of selection, but it seems there's something special that I personally do not see within you.” 

The figure’s voice is warped and distorted, and his words only seem to be comprehensible through the idea that those around him simply just understood what he said. With a gust of wind covering Kovalski’s eyes with his hair, the figure’s face is suddenly inches from Kovalski’s within the time it took Kovalski to wipe the hair from his face. Kovalski tried to protect himself, stepping back, but nothing would’ve been able to stop the figure grabbing him from his neck and carrying him to the ledge of the building and into the clouds. 

“My master has notified me that you are finally ready” the figure says as he tossed him off the building.

Kovalski jolted awake, jumping up to defend himself against nothing in the middle of a beach.

“Damn, ‘could've sworn I fell asleep in the forest.” he thought, confused. Now in front of him lay an ocean of which he had seen many times before that seems to look completely foreign. Though its original form remained, it was as if he could see another world, as if one were overlaid on top of the other. In this second world the colors were different and the light was dimmed, but most importantly he could see a wolflike creature traveling the world. It was transparent and ghostly, and moved without direction, as if it were lost. As he gazed upon it, the creature turned to match him.

What the hell is that? Wait is it running at-

Within seconds the creature was on top of him, trying to claw at his face. Kovalski’s attempts to hold back the creature's claws fail, slashing his face. Blood is everywhere, even getting in his eyes. left without options, he tries to headbutt the creature, stunning it. With the creature still close to him, he pummelled whatever he could feel. He threw the creature, making enough space to give himself time to stand back up. Kovalski was ready for another round, but the creature was still on the ground and knocked out.

Suddenly, a painful hunger is fired up within him. His body violently shakes and before he knows it, he is already standing over the creature. Snapping out of it for a second, Kovalski tries to step back, but everything in his body tells him he must consume the creature. It was no longer a request from his body, feeling as if it were threatening to kill him. As ghostly as it was, the flesh was succulent and savory. The hunger consumed him until the beast was entirely gone without a trace. As Kovalski came to, he was filled with satisfaction. After being hungry for so long, a full meal gave him strength beyond anything he’s ever felt before. He checked his face for the slash across his face, but there was nothing. The wound had completely healed and closed up.

Kovalski let out a triumphant roar. A sound that was well deserved having been well deserved after the bloody fight and days without decent food. This scream did not go unnoticed, however.

“Looks like you did my job for me.” A man in a military uniform had appeared before Kovalski. The military uniform was decorated in gold and crosses, denoting that he was from the church. At his hip he carried a sword and shield, showing that he was a young paladin who specialized in combat. Sporting short black hair and a tall, wide frame, he towered over Kovalski.

“Unfortunately,” the man continued, “I seem to recognize you from one of the bounty posters. Not your lucky day huh?” 

“Officer, officer, Come onnnn. We can talk this out” Kovalski pleaded half-jokingly. “I did your job right? Let me go just this once.”

“Sorry, but I’m paid by the hour. Looks like you’re coming with me.” the officer concluded, readying his weapon.”

Kovalski then witnessed a feat of speed that he had not seen come out of a human before. Faster than the figure in his dreams, faster than the creature earlier, but not faster than he could react. His newfound strength allowed him to move faster than ever. Sidestepping the shield charge, he jumped far away from the paladin, shocked from his own speed. The paladin seemed frustrated being left outstretched for a moment, but quickly regained his composure in order to ready his next strike. His eyes however, seemed to widen in intrigue.

“Whew. You almost got me, too bad you won’t get another chance.” Kovalski attempts to turn and bolt to get away from the paladin, but is quickly struck from behind. The paladin had chucked his shield, launching Kovalski to the ground. The blow did not hurt, but as much as his strength increased, Kovalski could not stand. Seemingly left immobile, Kovalski watched the Paladin saunter over towards his latest catch.

“Some holy magic I learned recently. Something about binding chains yeah? Normally I don’t really use this stuff against humans, but it looks like you’ve got something going on here.”

Kovalski’s body was held down to the ground by ethereal chains in his arms. As Kovalski struggled to pull his hands off the ground, he noticed that he had obtained rather large and sharp claws. The paladin stretched his arm out and flicked at Kovalski’s head, but where nothing should've been, there were large wolf ears. All of these new appendages seemed to be made out of dark mist, as similar to the creature Kovalski had fought earlier, and yet they behaved as if they were flesh and blood.

“A half human half spectre thing? Didn’t know those could crossbreed.” the paladin remarked.

“I’ve never seen these before.” Kovalski began to reply. “And I’m 100% human you-”

Before Kovalski could finish, the paladin slammed his fist across Kovalski’s face and knocked him out cold.

For Kovalski, getting knocked out was not a rest. Soon, he found himself over an elaborately patterned platform. “I knew this idiot would be incompetent.” a gurgly voice stated with disgust.

Kovalski had once again dreamed of the place in which the moon shined a brilliant red. Despite remaining covered in clouds, the world seemed a bit clearer. The details of the figure’s silhouette were slightly more pronounced, but nothing was truly revealed out of the murky nature of the dream.

“You managed to get one. That's more success than I had predicted. Yet it is not at all satisfactory.”

Kovalski thought back to the creature he ate. “Asshole. I killed that thing with my bare hands. What more could you need?”

“As an elementary prelude, if it weren’t obvious enough, the gift my master had bestowed upon you was to absorb the strength and form of daemons such as those. Clearly you were supposed to move on to the next, and the next. Yet you came back only having consumed one.”

“It's because of this new power I got clocked by some church soldier, and now I’m pretty sure they're going to kill me”  Kovalski spat.

“I thought so too, but if he really wanted to, you’d be dead by now” The figure turned back towards the moon. “You may have a chance to continue.”

As if on cue, the world began warping and distorting. The figure turned to Kowalski and said “Oh, and here’s a formality.” as he raised his hand with his palm open.

Kowalski woke up sweating and gasping for air. Kovalski was now bound to a chair in chains, and the room where he resided was empty except for a small fireplace. The sting of the slap remained despite waking up, and he looked up to see the paladin standing over him.

“Yeah, that binding spell doesn’t actually last very long, I had to knock you out.”

Kovalski once again struggled, but the chains that bound him remained unbreaking. They seemed to be enhanced with magic.

“The hell are you gonna do with me? I thought you wanted that bounty?” Kovalski asked.

“I saw you eat that thing. I already knew you were something else, but then you dodged and grew claws. I knew that the church would kill you immediately if I turned you in, so I’ve decided to keep you alive.”

The paladin paused for a moment, as if he were expecting a response. Kovalski however, was taking a moment to process everything.

The paladin continued. “I’m a bit of a prodigy, you know? Divine powers come to me easier than most. Recently, I had learned a spell while watching how one of the High Medics treated one of the soldiers. Unfortunately, I needed a test subject.” He poked at Kovalski’s forehead. “Looks like I’ve found one.” 

Kovalski’s eyes are wide and fearful. Any quips he had run out in the face of his current physical and mental state. A lot had happened in the last few nights, and he wasn’t sure if he deserved any of it. Kovalski was wanted for theft of an object owned by the church he planned to sell, placing the bounty on him, but the dreams had started long before he was stuck in that predicament. Theft had been his primary source of income so far, especially as he worked with a guild. Kovalski thought that maybe this was retribution for his actions.

“Relax, it’s nothing crazy.” the paladin reassured, noticing Kovalski’s expression.

The paladin waved his hands in a strange yet beautiful pattern and then pressed them against  Kovalski’s chest. Kovalski felt a violent stinging sensation run throughout his body. The paladin brandished a knife and held it to his arm. “Now, time to test it.” he muttered, and jabbed it into his forearm.

Kovalski screamed in agony as the flesh on his arm split alongside the Paladin’s. “It works wonderfully,” the paladin remarked. “This is called soul-bond. It is used to share damage and effectively halve it for an individual. The Medics usually bound themselves to a warrior so the warrior can take double the beating in the field while the Medics are capable of healing themselves as they get more wounded. My use of it, however, will be more towards controlling you.” 

The paladin put his hands on Kovalski again, this time healing the wound and his own. The paladin, being much larger and much more familiar with combat and magic, was able to sustain much larger amounts of damage than Kovalski, allowing him to use this technique for his benefit. The paladin continues, “Now that I’ve got you on a leash, I’ve got a job for you to do.”

Kovalski, still gasping from the pain, glowered.  “After that? Like I’d do anything for you” he scoffed, spitting into the paladin’s face. 

“Don’t lie to me. I’ve seen how you react when your life's on the line. The last thing you want is to die. What would you do if you don’t work with me anyways? Once anyone else finds out that you exist you’ll be hunted by people who hate daemons more than me. I can make you stronger than any of them before that happens.”

“Fine then,” Kovalski reluctantly agreed. “At least get me out of these chains.”

The paladin untied Kovalski and let him stand up. He reached out to shake Kovalski’s hand.

“As future soul-bound partners, allow me to introduce myself. Zaros Silver, at your acquaintance.

Not long after, Zaros drags Kovalski to a camp. This camp was very blatantly for the purpose of training, but was now being used as a rendezvous point for paladins on duty. Zaros addresses everyone and introduces Zaros. He claimed that he found someone that, without training, could see daemons. Normally, you would need an introduction to divine magic from a priest to be able to see daemons. He immediately suggested that he shall perform training with the Liberators, the branch that specialized in the search and elimination of daemons, as Kovalski “possessed a natural gift in combat.” Zaros seems to have incredible pull within this organization, as no one questioned these decisions. Kovalski’s incredible strength from earlier seemed to persist, and though he was not adept at learning spells, Zaros convinced others that he was able to kill daemons with his bare hands. During this time Kovalski continued with the dreams with the figure. While there was the occasional daemon, there was not nearly enough to satisfy them, and every dream ended with a hit to the face. 

The Liberators were given info that there was a large Daemonic energy sighting near a village in the area. While Daemons will occasionally appear in small quantities or even solo, the majority of appearances occur a period of time after a large detection of Daemonic energy is made. They are not aware of how they appear, only that they seem to rip through air.

They did not expect that the Daemons would appear earlier than expected. By the time that the Liberators showed up, many people were already killed. While Zaros commanded the majority of the Liberators to deal with evacuation and killing fodder, he left himself and Kovalski to target higher priority targets. 

“You know what to do when I kill these things right?” Zaros asked.

“Eat them.” Kovalski confirmed. “Eat every last one of them”

Zaros and Kovalski were ruthless and efficient. They were able to quickly clear hordes of daemons. Kovalski was able to restore his strength through eating, and Zaros seemed to have boundless energy on his own. Their might was unstoppable. Kovalski continued to feast and he simply seemed to only grow stronger. Kovalski’s thoughts however, did not reflect that.

Kovalski was losing himself. Every time something was killed, he would be filled with intense hunger, regardless of how many he had eaten. At some point he was left permanently hungry, always searching for more Daemons to kill. As the hunger piled up, his visions of the world seemed to merge. No longer could he see a difference between reality and the world in which Daemon’s resided. Eventually he was looking up at a rather large creature. It was murky as if it were stuck outside of reality. The creature was horned yet humanoid, and moved closer to Kovalski.

“So youre the one that’s generating all of this power huh?” The Daemon cackled.

“What?” Kovalski snapped out of it for a second, and realized that around him, reality was starting to warp. The air was wobbling and the sky was turning red. The energy of the daemons he had eaten still resided inside of him, and created an area in which their power was condensed into one spot. The Daemon continued forward towards Kovalski, and it seemed as though the air ripped out for him to cross over, same as how the other daemons would get through. Suddenly the large Daemon swung forward. Kovalski, frozen in fear, gets hit full force by the attack.

“Ah, you’re back with a much better count.” a gargled voice echoed. “Let me send you back with a little gift.”

Kovalski awoke to daemons surrounding him. Karos, heavily injured from taking half the hit for Kovalski, was able to enchain the Daemon.

“Damn it Kovalski! Get up!” he roared.

Kovalski did not hear him however. Kovalski was focused on his prey, as he found himself a new form. A complete transformation into a large wolf. This transformation did not seem to come to him for free, as the energy around him would be completely absorbed by his new form. Barely able to sustain it, Kovalski is driven by his violent hunger to pursue the large Daemon.  In a flash, Kovalski severed the head off. Immediately Kovalski began to consume the creature, and when it was done, instead of regaining his strength, Kovalski returned to his human form and slept.