Eye for an Eye

"I can't believe Feng Po raised the rent again! This is getting ridiculous, I need to look for a new place to stay." Damian wanders through an abandoned mall. "Too bad places like these have been picked clean, now if it was a flash field I'm sure some things would still be here." Every bit of exposed metal was torn out long ago, when the gates of hell first opened.

Not even most doomsday preppers were ready for this, all the ones that made zombie killing weapons, couldn't even think of a way to kill the magical monsters. Who could blame them, magic was a totally forien concept to us, some people who get magic monster blood can use it, but not very well as they aren't naturally gifted nor have they trained for decades.

The life expectancy only goes to a maximum of sixty-seven, that was how old the first leader of this city was when he died. Most people don't make it to fifty, they are either killed by the monsters or other people.

Damian leaves the mall to an old main street shopping district. When he turns around a corner, he looks directly into the eyes of an Oni. He is stunned, and the creature smiles a vicious grin, blood dripping from its teeth. There's no way I could get away from this thing. He lifts his arms waiting for an attack. The giant monster leisurely walks closer to him, its blood lusting aura was almost too much for him, his lip quivered and his heart raced.

When it stops Damian makes his move, dashing forward with incredible speed, he swipes at the beast with his claws. The Oni lifts its hand, Damian is suddenly sent flying backwards with incredible speed, he crashes into a building sending dust and debris everywhere. He dashes through the smoke, moving around the beast. He leaps for the back of its neck. A drop of blood hits the ground and the Oni whips around slamming its arm into Damian's side, he crashes through annother building. The monster gives him no time to recover, crashing into the building, its massive size collapses the roof. The Oni thrusts its hand forward, the razor sharp nails certainly spell the end for Damian. Thinking quickly, he lifts his arms blocking the attack, but the mighty force is enough to break his bone, one claw digs into him.

The Oni moves off of him. The attack didn't kill him, but he's now bleeding profusely from his right eye.

He looks up with his remaining eye, vision coming in and out of blurriness, what he sees is the back of a giant man with even bigger muscular purple arms, holding the Oni back.

"Captain there's a kid there, I think he's still alive!" A voice comes from outside.

The large man quickly looks behind himself, noticing Damian. "Oh shit!" He turns back to the Oni, of whom he is in a grappling contest with.

He shoves the beast into the streets before picking up Damian. His massive hands wrap around Damian's body, he is lifted as if he weighed nothing at all.

"Are you alive kid?" This strange gargantuan man, with graying black hair and brown eyes, stairs into Damian's remaining eye.

Damian looks almost dead, his own blood pours all over his clothes. His eye flashes with a red gleam and he begins to breathe heavily.

"I must be going insane." Damian grumbles to himself as he tries to stop his bleeding.

"Probably are, trying to fight an Oni on your own." The man smirks at Damian. "That's alright, we're all a little insane out here!" He sets Damian back on his feet and hands him an adhesive eye patch.

"What the hell even are you?" Damian stares at the towering man, while pointing out his strange arms.

"I'm just a man, but I have grafted the arms of an ogre to myself." He strikes a pose that shows off the muscle definition in the arms.

"Hey boss! We need help!" A voice comes from the street.

"Gotta go." The man turns away and runs out of the building.

Damian stands still in disbelief, before following the man. Stepping out to the street he sees five other people, a blue robot, a black haired man with a mask and antenna, another black haired man but with rocky arms, a white haired woman with an icy eye, and a blonde haired man with skeletal arms and scaly pompadour.

Each of them are beating up the Oni, as it struggles to fight back. The woman slows its movements, the stone man and blonde man block its attacks, the masked man assaults it with a pair of arm blades, and the robot lights it up with ballistic weapons.

The monster causes a blast around it sending the close range combatants flying. The ogre man charges, ramming into the back of the monster and crashing it to the ground.

The Oni stabs itself, the wound instantly closes and blood coated hands begin glowing with powerful energy. The monster rips a chunk out of a building, spinning around it shatters the rock against the ogre man, causing him to be knocked back. It then quickly pulls a boulder from the ground and hurls it at the woman.

"No need to fear my darling, this weight means nothing to me." The blonde man catches the boulder as blood trickles down his face.

The Oni flicks at him, and one of the skeletal arms explodes. The boulder falls, crushing him.

"Cade, you dumb ass!" The woman yells at the boulder as tears swell up in her normal eye.

Blood. This thing can control blood? Damian looks up at the boulder as blood seeps out from under it.

"Get away from that!" Damian tackles the woman as the Oni clenches its fist, causing spikes to shoot out of the blood.

The bug man and stone man both are injured from the attack, Damian's fur stopped him from taking any damage.

"Get the hell off of me!" The woman shoves Damian away.

"Sorry? I was just trying to help." He lands in the pool of blood.

"I don't need your help, I can handle myself perfectly." She whips back her hair and gives a mean glare at the Oni.

"Hey what's this ungrafted doing here?" The robot slides over to the duo.

"Just some kid the boss saved." The woman doesn't break her gaze.

"It seems your arm is broken, would you like me to fix it?" The robot grabs Damian's arm, causing him to flinch.

"Sure, if you can." He pulls the sleeve off, revealing the graphic state his arm is in.

The robot takes a syringe of blood and sinks it into the arm, in a matter of seconds the arm has been restored.

"Okay, now what's the plan for taking on the Oni?" Damian looks out past the boulder.

"I think you two and the boss could be enough to take it." The robot kneels down and places its hand in the blood puddle.

"Me and the boss would be enough, this kid would only get in the way." She ignores Damian as she turns to the robot.

The Oni smashes through the boulder and crashes into a building. It climbs out and sprouts another pair of arms as it roars to the sky. Without a word Damian sprints towards it, he shreds the skin off one arm as it punches at him and he slides under. It reaches for him with another before the limb freezes. The ogre man runs up and grapples the last two arms. It goes to attack the ogre man with the shredded arm until Damian chops it off.

"Rip the head off kid!" The ogre man calls out to Damian, struggling to keep the Oni restrained.

Through the back of its neck, Damian pierces the head of the beast, killing it.

The monster falls to the ground with a loud thump. Damian looks at his hands, sitting in his palm is the Oni's eye.

"Alright! Time to haul the corpse!" The ogre man turns towards the robot, who healed the other two men.

"What even are you guys?" Damian pockets the eye and inquires the ogre man.

"We're blood hunters, but we've also grafted parts of monsters to ourselves to get even more power as opposed to just the blood. We often take down monsters to sell their parts for grafting." The ogre man explains his profession as he ties a rope around the corpse.

"How haven't I heard of grafting before?" Damian takes a seat on some rubble.

"Are you from HighSpire city? If so, they refuse to let any grafted who isn't loaded even in the city." The robot steps up to Damian and pats him on the back.

"Where do you guys stay, then?" Damian removes his sleeves, putting them in his bag.

"I can't just freely give out that information. However, you did handle yourself very well, and we could use a new member." The oger man puts one of his massive hands on Damian's shoulder.

Damian is stunned speechless. Looking around at this group of people they seem to share some sort of kinship, something he hasn't ever seen since after hell's gates opened.

"That's a big decision. Can I get your names before I decide?" Damian closes his eyes to focus on his thoughts.

"The box of bolts is Grant, bug brainiac is Henry, rock hard over there is Alex, cold shoulder is Natalie, and I'm Jason." The ogre man introduces his squad while pointing to each of them.

"Thanks, I'm Damian." He leans forward. "I think I could do with a change in my daily scenery. I'll join." He holds his hand out to Jason.

"I like your spirit kid!" Jason laughs as he takes ahold of Damian's hand. "Alright, you get to haul the corpse!" He moves Damian next to the large monster, it has been tied up with a rope that comes out from it to allow someone to drag the body around.

"Huh?" Damian has a confused and defeated expression.