The next day we all traveled to one of the Brotherhood's safe houses. It was located in the forest just like the first hideout I saw, during my first contact with the guild. Back then I was a weak regular human, afraid of everything and oblivious of the real world I lived in. Those days were long gone.

The safe house looked like an old, abandoned wooden hut. The interior was a wreck, full of old cans and rusty saws. The floor was covered with wood residues and dust.

Adrian moved an old shelf and opened a trapdoor under it. One after the other we went down the ladder to arrive in a vast underground chamber. The chamber was furnished with only a wide and round table.

The chamber was quickly filled with people I've never met. Probably hundreds of Brotherhood's members.

With everyone present and ready, Emily placed a map of the forest on the table. She started explaining and marking on the map where the group of possible Weirdos was sighted, according to the anonymous tip.

The tip pointed to three locations. Emily drew a triangle by tracing a line joining the three location points.

"This is the presumable area of action," Emily stated. "We will surround the area and start closing on them. Team A will go from the northeast, Team B from the northwest and Team C from the south. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their head.

"Great, then let's go people. Good luck brothers!"

"You're with me and Levy," Igor whispered in my ear.

We all left the chamber and the hut in a row and start walking towards the zone we were assigned to.

We were almost reaching our zone when a voice came through the walkie-talkie Levy was carrying.

"Brothers, this is team C. We arrived at the starting point. Over."

"Team C, this is Team B. Roger that. Over," Levy replied.

Team A reported their arrival a few minutes later and was followed by us.

"All teams, this is Echo one. Initiate the action path. Over," Emily's voice spoke.

We formed a horizontal line and start walking towards the area where the Weirdos were seen.

The directive was simple, anyone who spotted a Weirdo should communicate it to the team captain. Other than that, we had to remain in silence to avoid giving out our positions.

We kept walking and closing in the area without finding any signs of Weirdos' presence.

Fifteen minutes passed.

Nothing.

Thirty minutes.

And still nothing.

After an hour Levy gestured us to stop.

"Roxanne can see the other teams already, but no sign of Weirdos," he whispered.

"It was a lie then. Either that or they already moved," I thought out loud. "Do you think we can track them from here?"

Levy simply shook his head in response.

"These ones are smarter, they don't leave tracks. Besides, we contaminated the air so tracking them through smell would impossible," Igor explained.

After receiving confirmation from Echo one, alias Emily, we started walking again, only this time with no hope in finding our enemies.

Apparently, we gave up too soon as a weak cough caught everyone's attention. It came from behind a big tree in front of us. Levy signaled us to keep our stances as he walked closer to the tree with Igor.

They walked around the tree, Igor through the left and Levy through the right. They stopped as soon as they could see what was on the other side while we kept waiting for instructions.

"We need a medic!" Levy called out loud.

Soon someone from another team arrived, followed by Adrian and Emily.

"It's him..." I heard Emily whisper followed by another cough.

She looks at me with concern and I decided to join them despite the initial orders. When I passed the tree and looked down at the mystery being that was coughing, both my brain and body burst. 

Fear. Anxiety. Repulse. Anger. Hate. Revolt. Revenge. So many feelings... Too many feelings coming together at once.

"I'm going to kill you!" I said as I took out my sword and lunged at him, only to be stopped by strong arms.

"You can't," Emily said while retaining me. "We need him for questioning."

"He might not even survive Lisa. Just look at him," Levy said, trying to calm me down.

I looked at him once again as I struggle to get away from Emily's grip. He sure looked like he was going through hell.

Good.

His face and body were covered in blood that was clearly his. I couldn't help but smirk as he miserably tried to apply pressure to a wound in his abdomen.

I hope that hurts.

"If you want to stay and hear everything you need to calm down," Adrian's voice broke my psychopathic thoughts.

As I was about to accept the conditions a weak sarcastic laugh came out of the enemy's mouth, making me want to jump at his throat once again.

"You want to kill me, uh? You..." He winced in pain. "You should be thanking me."

"Oh really!? And I should be thanking you for what exactly? Aggressing me? Kidnaping me? Or just torture me?"

God, I was mad.

He tried to move so he could face me but ended up groaning in pain.

The medic started to make some kind of spell to help him with the pain. I didn't understand why though. He should suffer for everything he had done.

"Do you really... Argh... Think they would..." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Have found you if I didn't tell them where you were?"

"Oh, so now you're the one who tipped them and saved me? Please, what a joke."

"I'm a victim here too you know? I was a simple human, living a simple life, going back home from the gym when I was kidnapped by those creatures. Eleonor made me into this... Into this monster and I- I had to do as I was told if I wanted to control the beast inside."

At this point, he was crying. Completely broke. And I didn't understand why, but a new feeling arose in me. Pity.

"I-I didn't want to hurt anyone but I couldn't help it. I thought that one life, your life wasn't a lot to pay for the thousands of lives the beast inside of me could take. Your blood would allow me to control it and stop killing. But then I heard about her plan. I didn't know she wanted to erase humanity and once I knew I started helping the Brotherhood secretly. I even told you about this location."

"Where are the others?" Adrian asked.

"Somehow Eleonor figured out that I tipped you about this and her secret lab. She punished me before leaving. She let those creatures of hers behind so they could try to kill you all, but she left with thousands more. She's done it. She managed to create the ultimate weapon. I've seen it, he was the one who did this to me."

"What creatures? We didn't find anything nor anyone," Levy said and Captain Weirdo looked at him dumbfounded.

"The trees..." he whispered in thought. "Have you looked up the trees?"

We all quickly turned around and inspected the trees around us. The members that were still keeping their stances noticed that and started doing the same.

Out of nowhere, a scream was heard. We look at the sound source to see a weirdo biting off the neck of one of us from behind. Then another scream came and we only got time to see the head of the victim rolling on the ground.

It was like the time had stopped for a while. None of us moved until we were completely surrounded by weirdos and had to defend ourselves.

We were more, but they were stronger. I took my blade and it lit up on fire when I activated my hunter's instincts. 

I ran towards Roxanne who was about to be attacked from behind and pierced the body of our enemy with the sword. All of his body started to burn. The bright flames danced at the sound of his screams.

We kept fighting. They were stronger, but disorganized and impulsive, which gave us a big advantage. After an intense battle, we manage to achieve victory.

We were out of breath. I looked around me to assess our losses. At least a third of us were laying on the ground, lifeless. I started searching for Adrian. Once I spotted him I ran to him.

He was kneeling next to the body of one of our companions, trying to find a heartbeat, unsuccessfully. He let out a sigh and I tried to comfort him as much as the all situation let me.

When the counting was done, we created groups and called other members to pick up the injured and the dead. We burned the bodies of our now dead enemies and left once everyone was safely taken home.

Adrian and Levy personally took Captain Weirdo. It was decided that he would be treated at the mansion and help us defeat Eleonor. He said he wanted revenge, however, he had one condition – we would try to find a cure and help him go back to normal.

"How about we don't kill you if you help us?" I proposed.

"How about I don't help you, you kill me and put an end to my misery?" he replied.

"Enough!" Adrian ordered. "Lisa, I know it's difficult to forgive, but remember that he saved your life. And don't say that we have no proof of it because there was no way for him to know that we received tips."

"It could all be part of the plan Adrian. He could be a Trojan horse."

"We will see that at home, once Beth brings the truth serum. For now, you respect our decision. You don't have to like him or be his friend you, just let him be."

Once again, I did as I was told, but still having a bad feeling about all of this.

We got home and Emily called Violet so she could help the wounded that came with us. She quickly came down the stairs but stopped abruptly when she saw Captain Weirdo.

"Don't be scared, please. I know I look like a monster, but I won't hurt you," he pleaded.

"I'm not scared. I wasn't expecting to see you here that's all," she stated while approaching him to help him sit on the couch.

"You know each other?" I asked.

"He's the one I told you about the other day. The one that saved us."

"Right, after attacking you."

"He didn't attack us."

"Of course. Forgive my mistake. He brought others to attack you. I guess that's what he does. He puts people in danger and then saves them. Is it a god syndrome?"

"Oh shush, Lisa. Just go fetch me the first aid it," she ordered and I complied, again.