《Monster Contractor》


 Chapter 1

    A house, or remnant of the house stood in ruins in a devastated land, with scrap wood scattered everywhere to the point that one would wonder if a natural disaster had occurred.


    The remains were suggesting that the area once flourished with people. One could tell several years had passed from the various trees and vines that had longwrapped themselves among the abandoned buildings. The truth was that this land was abandoned over a hundred years ago, and might even vanish after a few more years of weathering. It wouldn¡¯t be weird to see this scene and think of it as a ruined civilization.Regardless, everything that could still be seen would fade with the passing of time.


    A perfect, clear blue sky, reached across the heavens where it disappeared into the gleam of a hazy horizon. Thesea of sand and dust absorbed the light andcovered the vision with obscure coloursof brown, overflowing with lifelessness. The majestic scenery was magnificent to the point one would forget to breathe when they saw numerous amount of animals skulls showing themselves as the winds blew the sands.


    Someone once claimed, "Humanity is this planet cancer." Well,they weren''t wrong, as that statement could be perfectly applied here. The reason for all of this could be traced to the appearance of a grotesque and unnatural organism that managed to appear on Earth.


    The arrival of those grotesque apparitions was like the plot from the middle of a fairy tale. While the mysterious creatures that appeared had caused the land to reclaim its original form, their arrival also marked as acountdown to the destruction of humanity. Those mysterious monsters were not like something out of a book, but rather an existence much crueler and sinister.


    The mysterious monsters could be said to be the natural enemy of Humans. Those mysterious monsters were called Aeons by humanity.


    And we, thehuman had the power to capture and weaponize them.


    "Oh, it''s already here?"


    Ophiuchus, the twin-headed snake reminding a single young boy as they sensed something. They had dark purple skin adorned with large orange-yellow plates on its back. Their body was covered with small though fully functional fore. The first headhad a large beak-like mouth similar to that of a parrot, while the second one, who was located on the tailhad a small pair of tusks, though the researcher still debated which one was the head and which one was the tail.


    As the young boy stopped reading the story from his phone, he was about to engage in a fight against a wild Aeon. His target was a giant chicken like creature, that was covered in light brown scale and only had mohawk like feathers in its head. It was holding a boulder on its front hand, the official name was Cockatrice. Its body height was5 meters and its body length was somewhere around 8 meters, this was a medium sized Cockatrice.


    "Alright...Lime...Lemon. Shape up." The boy muttered as he grabbed his Ophiuchus, whose he named as Lime and Lemon.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    A magic formation was circling around at the snake''s body, scanning them from the centre to thehead and toe. Soon after that, their body was covered in bright orange light and now, a purple chain was circling around his arms and hanging on his waist. In addition, the chain had a grey and a purple gem at each end. the knife¡¯s shape was distorted, almost as if it was fleeing from fear. One could also say that it was a weapon to take down these monsters.


    There was a reason for how human could tame the beast. It was because of the Mark. Along with the appearance of Aeons, people starting to born with Mark on their right palm and under their left wrist, or vice versa. Mark was the most important factor to determinate the Aether disposition of a person, it was classified into four marks in accordance to its function.


    The boy that crept his way toward the Cockatrice was named Kofi Latte. He was the bearer of the Shaping Mark. Which allowed him to shape any Aeons he contracted to become his personal weapon.


    And just when Kofi was about to engage the Cockatrice.


    Ring~ ring~


    Kofi stopped his steps and bit his lips in panic. It was theringtone from his phone, and he forgot the rule number one for hunter: Always turned your phone off before engaging the target.


    He only cringed out for a second, and yet, the Cockatrice already turned its body toward him. It lightly lifted up theboulder in its hand and threw it toward Kofi.


    In one slick acrobatic move, Kofi leapt into the air, his jet-black hair swayed in rhythm as theboulder had passed rightbeside him, only just missing. Thesands underneath him scattered like a geyser from the impact;one attack fromit meant certain death.


    Ring~ Ring~


    With ashrill, piercing shriek, the Cockatrice pounced on him. As theCockatrice approached him, its shadow blocked out every ounce of light making it seem as if it was night time. Then suddenly, theshriek of the giant went silent. Something from the left and right flashed for a second and smashed in on the Cockatrice''s head.


    The Cockatricevomiting out dark green blood, but it refused to falter. That was understandable, after all, even an Aeon had their own pride. As such, Kofi gently gripped his chain and continued topummel the Cockatrice.


    Ring~ Ring~


    If you look carefully, Kofi wasn¡¯t even moving his finger that much. Every time he retracted it, The chain that he was holding in his hand flew out in a second. Chains flew all around supporting the movement of the knife. It didn''t go in a straight line, but rather in a zipping zigzag pattern. The only sound that could be heard was the metallic ring of the chains as they flew around.


    At the end of the chain,the gem was pummelling down the Cockatrice''s body and agonizing death shriek could be heard every time the gem pummel its head. The boy then slowly opened his mouth.


    "Lime, Constrict it."


    The grey gemstone shone out and the chain flying forward, already circling itself around the Cockatrice''s neck. Clenching his fist, Kofi pulled the chain and a snapping sound was created from the Cockatrice''s neck.


    As Kofi retracted back his chain, showing off the Cockatrice''s neck that weirdly bent. "Release." He said.


    The same magic circle as before appeared again, this time, it was from each end to the centre and the twin-headed snake was coiling around at Kofi''s arms. "Go eat it, but leave some for me, and don''t touch the head." Said Kofi as he put down Lime and Lemon to the sand.


    As the twin-headed snake was gulping down the Cockatrice. In the middle of it all was the boy, standing there without a speck of blood on him.


    Ring~ Ring~


    He took a glance at the surroundings and sighed, reaching out to his pocket, he answered the phone call.


    "What? I''m already sending you the money." Said Kofi in annoyance.


    "Mom is dead." Said someone from the phone before it got cut off.

 Chapter 2

    I looked towards the sky. The sky was beautiful, The pure white clouds filling it were each a different shape. It was ironic that this scenery was seen in my mother''s funeral.


    Fatherless at age 5, leaving my home at age 7, 3 years faster than the other kid.


    Unlike the common saying "The true value of anything is only understood after it''s lost" I didn''t have any ill feeling nor I felt any particular bond toward her except for the fact I was her son.


    And while I was staring at the limitless unending sky, the funeral had ended.


    All that troubles and money to come back home and the funeral only lasts for a moment. Ishook my head to get back to the reality and stared at the two girls in front of me.


    I remembered or at the very least, some part of my brain recognized the short 13 years old girl with tan skin, triangular shaped face, jet black eyes and long silky black hair with a side bang and metallic piercings on the both of her ears. Yeah... her golden coloured pupil clearly told she was my little sister, Coco Latte.


    And the one stood next to her was... I moved my head up and down but I still didn''t recognize the kid in front of me. Her age might be somewhere around 3 or 4. Chubby round face, chin length light brown hair, and emerald coloured eyes.When their eyes met, the small child in front of him gave a big, wide and innocent grin.


    In her hand was the supposedly small, avian Aeon called Hatchicko.Itresembled a chick with a round body and had short legs, but hers was fatter and rounder than the usual. Itsplumage was white,whiter than the whitest snowfall, I could see clearly the food stains on its feather. I only wondered whether or not this one was asleep or this one eyesnaturally appeared to be closed but one thing that I sure of was that it had a stubby yellow beak. Its feet had two forward-facing toes and one backwards facing toe; they were the same colour as its beak.


    For now, I just decided to ignore her for a moment and turned around to Coco. "So... what will you do then?" I asked, as my eyes transfixed to Coco.


    "Who knows...." said Coco uninterestedly. "Maybe stopworking with theresearcher and become an independent hunter."


    "You? A hunter?" I snorted. "You can''t even kill a cockroach."


    She glared at me, frowning a little. "T-that''s like 7 or 8 years ago you know. FYI I''m strong enough to catch an Axe Beak without getting any help."


    Insulting each other had become and always be our habit since we were a little, and even when we hadn''t seen each other in a long time, we still opening our conversation with an insult. This wasn¡¯t exactly a meaningful conversation to be proud of, but there were no words that could express how glad I felt at that moment when we traded all of the insult and retorts.


    "Leaving the hunter things aside, why don''t you justgo to the school, it''s free and you don''t need to worry about lodging and food, right?"I askedcuriously.


    Coco moved her eyes downward, looking at the girl next to her.


    "Hah..." I sighed, walked forward, gently touched Coco''s shoulder and whispered at her. "That''s why you need to use protection."Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "The hell are you talking about?!" She furiously protested as she punchedme right in the stomach... yup... still as violent as usual.


    While I was holding my stomach in pain, Coco pushed the little girl''s back. "Vanille! Introduce yourself!"


    "Um?! Uh, yes!!" Vanille wobbly moved forward and seemed to be flustered because of the scene she just saw.


    "I''m Vanille Latte! This one is Pouspous!" And you must be my long lost big brother, right?!" She shouted while clenching the sleeping Hatchicko in her hug in excitement. While I,finally getting over the pain raised my right eyebrow, wondering how the story from me getting kicked away turned into her long lost big brother.


    As the side note, even though her...our mother had just been buried a few minutes ago, she seemed to be in a high spirit. Perhaps because she didn''t harbour any particular feeling toward their mother, just like me and most likely Coco, or perhaps she just didn''t understand the concept of death yet.


    Sighed inwardly, after giving some consideration at my motherhabit, I already had some vague idea about what was going on. "Yup!" I said. "Now, why don''t we just go to the car and talk in the way?"


    "You have a car?!" Coco said with dropped jaw.


    "You have a car?!" Vanille said with starry eyes.


    Pointing my thumb backwards, the girls sawa dark green open jeep, large enough to hold four people. The driver''s side was on the right and it was a stick shift. It also had a spare tire, water container, and collapsible shovel placed on the back.


    As the girls got closer, they could see Lime and Lemon peacefully sleeping on the back chair, basking under the sunlight.


    While we were still in the middle of our journey to their house, they asked a lot about the city''s life. Well... It wasn''t at all common for someone from a rural place like me to be able to live stable in the city, so I guessed everyone at the car was extremely interested in hearing all about it.


    Coco seemed most interested in hearing about all of the things thatthe city girl wore and the kinds of things they owned, so her questions were all about the city''s girl belongings... In which I couldn''t answer her as I never actually had a girlfriend to share that kind of knowledge with me. Vanille was curious about thefood and snack they ate in the city andshe also seemed to be interested in the decorative tapestries and cushions they had... but why?


    After a much more exciting journey than I thought we¡¯d have, I parked my baby next on the two-story house.


    Yep, it still the same house. My eyes were greeted by a wooden wall painted in white while its rooftop was red. When I opened the door, it created an uncomfortable squeaking sound. The floor was all wood and when I walked it created the ''krit krit'' sound, almost as if the wooden floor had already reached its maximum tension.


    The ground floor was only 4m in width and 3m in length. And it was clear my mother never had the intention to change the decorations. Even from before I parked my car I already knew the items on the ground floor. It was a wooden table with four stools rested in the centre of the floor. Right in front of the table, directly facing the door was abox TV, then a bookshelf, and a kitchen area containing a refrigerator and a sink, located next to each other from the north-centre to the north-western side of the room, the rest was empty space.


    Three windows were located on the ground floor, one in front of the sink, one on the north-eastern side of the room, near thestair to the second floor and the last one was on the south-eastern side.


    When I checked the room under the stair... yup, it still the same bathroom, so big thatI must lower my head just to enter the room.


    I took my things to the upstairs.Two doors were greeting me, both had the same size.


    I put my bag to the first room... I scanned the room. It had green carpet located in the centre, a bed located on the south-eastern, the smell of cigarette lingering on the wall and as I used my finger to examining the table, it showed that the items in the room were collecting dust as if they hadn''t been used for a long time, except for the bed.


    The farther one from the stair was formerly mine and Coco room. When I checked it, it still only contained a study desk with a wardrobe located next to in, three bookshelves, and a single bed in the south-western corner.


    "Dang... 8 Years and this place haven''t changed a single bit," I muttered to my mom''s ghost if she still here.