Lily's bark was a loud one and it echoed clearly throughout the silent street. Hao Ren was however not worried if they would be discovered. The husky's bark was so authentic that if you did not see her do it, you would have taken it for a normal dog's bark.
A black Tugou ran out from a corner not far from the street. Hao Ren supposed that was the scout that Lily placed. The mongrel was looking at Lily's general direction and started sniffing about to look for her. Vivian's Shadow Veil had disrupted the poor dog's senses. It did not even realize that its boss was just right in front of it.
Vivian noticed the dog's predicament and tore a small tear in the veil, direct at where the Chinese Field Dog was facing. The sudden change in perception startled the dog for a bit, but the moment it saw Lily it ran towards Lily with it's tail wagging and it's head nodding. Hao Ren noticed that the dog had a rather pronounced limp on it's hind leg and looked a wee bit unstable as it ran and realized this was one of Lily's most trusted comrades: Green Bean. Of course, we should be calling it Sergeant Green Bean. The dog looked even dirtier than before. Its' habit of playing on the coal pile was still going strong. The injury of its' hind legs was caused by a fall from the same coal pile. Some things never change.
Lily squatted down to speak with Green Bean. After a while, she got up to relay what was told to her, "The demon hunter is still alone, and was circling around the area. There are no signs of other hunters in the area. He should be at alley in front of us any time soon. Lets get over there quietly."
As she spoke, she let Green Bean lead the way, all of them trying to stay as quiet possible as they headed towards a narrow alleyway.
Hao Ren was concerned if the amount of people present would blow their cover. It's not that Hao Ren doubted Vivian's spell, but his past encounters with the demon hunters suggested that they probably had more abilities that are still unknown. Heck, some of them even looked like they were hacking in real life, weapons with unlimited ammunition, ninja-like swift-steps, super strong physique, cockroach level of hard-to-kill... they even have resistance towards spells and venoms used by vampires and werewolves. Almost as if they were otherworldly creatures draped in human skin. Vivian was however unconcerned about them, her vast experience with the demon hunters had accorded her knowledge on their strengths and weaknesses and her Shadow Veil was designed to exploit said weakness. A demon hunter's senses were much weaker than that of a supernatural, and that was pretty much the only 'human' part of them.
Being a nobility of the night, this was Vivian's stage. Under the cover of the night she had every confidence that she could use her shadow spells to take down most demon hunters, as long as it's not the one who made Fenrir into a pot of wolf stew.
The old street had many other small alleyways along it's stretch, but there were nary anyone living there any more. Green Bean led the group to one of the alley's entrance and it dug up a small pile of earth. Under the rock was a piece of runic card that was clearly buried on purpose.
Lily patted Green Bean's head in praise and signaled it to leave the area. This was not a place for a stray to be right now.
Under the cover of the Shadow Veil, Hao Ren and Vivian led the group into the alley way with the rest following behind with utmost care. It didn't take long for them to spot a silhouette decked in a black long coat not too far from them. The attire gave away the person's identity, a demon hunter.
The demon hunter was digging holes with a small spade, his back facing the alleyway. He was so engrossed with what he was doing that Hao Ren was amused. Most demon hunters gave off a stylish aura from head to toe, even in combat that they could be plastered on a movie poster and none would be any wiser. This however was so unlike them, guess you can't expect anyone to put up a smart look 24 hours a day.
Vivian slowly retracted the Shadow Veil's radius, both to increase the potency of the veil, and also to not let the hunter detect any subtle changes in the atmosphere. Hao Ren was looking for a weapon from his pocket, and only then realized he forgot the MDT. He had left it at home to play nanny to the little mermaid!
Hao Ren aside, someone had managed to find a weapon that she was very comfortable with. As they went into the alleyway, Lily had grabbed half a piece of brick along the way. Her claws clutching the solid brick hard. As the demon hunter rose, his awareness at it's lowest point, she flung the brick at shrieking speed towards his head.
Of course, she had controlled her strength. Vivian had emphasized on the need to capture the hunter alive and her throw was meant to incapacitate, not kill. Otherwise, at full strength, she would probably tear the poor sod a new hole.
As the brick streaked towards the demon hunter's head, something unexpected happened - he sneezed, and the brick grazed his head as it smashes into the lamp post on the far end.
Startled, the demo hunter turned tail and run. As she saw the sneak attack failed, Vivian dispelled her Shadow Veil and deployed her wings. With a massive flap, she took to the air and charged straight at the demon hunter, screaming "Take him alive!" as she went.
Lily grunted in ascent and charged forth as well, her claws shone for an instant as she summoned her Frostfire Claws. Her speed was almost blinding as she dashed ahead in a flash of white, her momentum was much, much more ferocious than when she tossed the brick. Y'zaks simply just took a step and appeared almost instantly at the other end of the alley, blocking the demon hunter's escape route. Hao Ren also leapt out with his shield yelling, "Hold! You conniving knave!"
Everything happened almost all too suddenly and the silence of the night was broken. Vivian, Lily, Y'zaks and Hao Ren all took their positions to surround the demon hunter, not intending to let him escape. Hao Ren's sudden jeer took the demon hunter by surprise and in his sudden stupor Lily leapt forward with a vicious swipe. As he felt a killing intent behind him, the demon hunter snapped out of it and rolled away just in time... into Vivian. The vampire was already in the middle of a kick when he rolled in front of her and the demon hunter was sent tumbling a couple of meters away, right into where Y'zaks was standing. The great demon simply just grabbed the hunter in his hands and pressed him against the floor, rendering him helpless.
The execution was almost flawless, and even Hao Ren was surprised by it and rue the fact that it takes a bad guy for them to cooperate this well.
The demon hunter thrashed in pain as he was held in place by Y'zaks. "It hurtsss! Can you guys be a little gentle?!"
"Wait a minute... this sounds very familiar..." Vivian said as she descended.
Hao Ren was also stunned, as the demon hunter was taken down he caught a glimpse of his face, a look that was very familiar. He quickened his step towards Y'zaks as the great demon lifted the demon hunter up. He yelled in surprise as he saw the face, "It's you?!"
As the demon hunter also caught sight of the rest, his face had an incredulous look of surprise on it.
"It's you guys?!"
The person held in the air by the collar by Y'zaks was none other than the same demon hunter that Hao Ren had met in London. They even fought shoulder to shoulder before... that half-baked demon hunter, Nangong!
Vivian had wondered why this particularly demon hunter was such an easy prey, that he had not used the swift-step so well used by his kind. It was the half-baked one..
"Why are you here?!" Lily exclaimed as she saw Nangong. "So the one messing around our turf for the past two days was you?!"
"Your turf?" Nangong blinked. "You guys live here?"
It looks like the demon hunter had no clue at all that Hao Ren's tenants were a bunch of supernaturals, and his surprised look was as genuine as you can get.
As the demon hunter calmed down, he only then noticed the bat wings on Vivian's back. Lily's werewolf form and the shimmering shield in Hao Ren's hand. A shocked look appeared on his face again but as he slowly understood the situation, he gave a resigned look. "So all of you are supernaturals... It looks like my skills are not up to snuff... Seeing that we were comrades before, can you make this quick?"
Vivian had a conflicted look on her face as she looked at Hao Ren. She never thought such a development to happen. If it was a normal demon hunter, she would have ripped his head off without second thought... but this Nangong, even the venerable vampire was conflicted on how to handle him.
But as they were fretting on what to do with their captive, Wuyue's voice broke the silence. She headed towards them aggressively as she yelled, "Big brother, it's really you!"