Demon Hunter 5

Alex and Ashley walked down a dark street in the nearby city, on the east side. Though both of the girls lived on the south side, they knew a lot of demon activity had been reported from here.

Most people considered this side of the city the slums. The name was quite well put since abandoned apartment buildings and stores were now occupied by homeless people. Since they were, in fact, homeless, they were thought of as either drunk or crazy.

Who would believe bum's stories about demons popping out of nowhere? What're a few dead homeless people; they did nothing but take up space, right?

Alex looked around, but saw no people.

"Definite hot spot," she commented. Most of the homeless people moved out of areas of suspected danger and waited awhile to come back.

A dirtily clothed person shuffled out of an alley pushing an old shopping cart in front of him. The cart was full of trash bags filled with cans, the form pushing it hunched over.

Ashley nudged Alex to alert her of the unusual movement. The chain around her waist suddenly became loose as Ashley unwrapped it, holding it like a whip. From under Alex's leather jacket appeared a long machete that she had bought at a sporting goods store. She had sharpened it to a fine edge with the sharpening stone that had come with it.

"Hey," Alex called, "Who are you?"

The hood of the person lifted up and let the girls see the dark hole in its middle. However, it was dark so the girls thought nothing of it.

A whooshing sound came from the top of a nearby apartment building, and accompanying it was a fierce demon, identical to the ones Jeff had fought, but quite a lot more muscular. Its eyes glowed a dirty yellow, its horns rounded like a ram's.

With a roar, it set its aim on the homeless person.

Ashley took action first, sprinting forward while the monster scratched at the ground with its leg, getting ready to charge. The monstrosity charged while Ashley was only halfway to the homeless. The homeless wasn't nearly fast enough to dodge the bull-like demon before it hit. Ashley leapt high into the air, her eyes already the pearly white of the Chosen. At the climax of her jump, Ashley took careful aim and heaved the chain spinning through the air. The force made her spin as she started to fall. As Ashley hit, she rolled forward and dashed to the homeless.

The chain had slowed the beast down; it had wrapped around the thing's ankles and made it stumble. But instead of stopping it, the chain had slipped off to the ground and the demon just started all over again.

Seconds before it hit the homeless, Ashley slammed into the homeless and tackled it to safety. The demon rolled past like a train, its head down, shoulders hunched.

The demon's night did not become better. He was met by a five-foot six-inch compact human of destruction. Alex's looks deceived one of her other side. Although usually sweet, Alex had years of intense training in martial arts in her.

The demon charged straight into Alex; probably the worst mistake of his life. Alex hopped straight up, her eyes glowing with the same intensity that shone in Ashley's eyes. She shot back down, one foot slamming into the top of the demon's head. The demon went down hard. Alex immediately proceeded to hack at it with the razor-sharp edge of the machete. Vicious kicks accompanied the hacks, and after awhile, the demon tried getting to its feet. Alex stepped back a bit, her back to a building. She sheathed the machete and stood in a ready stance; her knees were slightly bent, her fists in a fighter's stance, her eyes unblinking. The demon bull charged. Again, Alex leapt into the air and somersaulted, bringing the heel of her tennis shoe down on the demon's head. Its head was pushed lower, and it smashed into the wall. The wall gave almost no quarter, and at the speed the demon was running, it had managed to smash its head flat.

Captured souls poured from the blood and journeyed up to heaven.

Alex turned around to see Ashley having her own problems. The homeless person wasn't a homeless person at all, but yet another demon. They were struggling on the ground, arms and legs wrapped around each other, each trying to attack the other. Alex watched as Ashley rolled backward and pulled the demon on top of her. Her feet pistoned up under the demon's stomach, sending the horrid thing flying through the air. It slammed violently into the wall and then crumpled to the ground. Ashley rolled back onto her feet and waited for spirits to fly up, but it never happened.

"We got a live one!" She called. Ashley walked back to her chain and picked it up. She immediately started tightly wrapping up the demon. As the two dragged it away, the thing came back to consciousness.

"Lemme go you-" the demon let loose a few choice words before Alex punched it in the face, thus knocking it out.

"Why can't they just keep their stupid mouths shut?"

Dillon tapped on the computer while Bob pumped iron at the workout bench in the basement.

"What are you doing?" Bob asked as he benched two hundred pounds.

"Filing statistics on some of the demons we've met."

Bob gave one final heave and then set the weight on the bench prongs.

"I always said you got the brains and I got the looks." Bob sat smiling. His muscle shirt was drenched with sweat; he had been working out for about an hour now.

Dillon turned, smiling back. "Hey, brains beat brawn."

"Touché"