4Ryolan Takahashi walked along the small country street, headed for the tiny hamlet that was now visible on the horizon. He hated these country jobs, but every village with a tiny haunt messaged the local demon- killer insisting they send the master hunter, right away, there's no chance of a simple, easy exorcism performed by the locals, and don't send the apprentice, oh no, not even if he could handle it. Not that that last affected Ryolan much-he was to inexperienced to have any apprentices yet, and had to handle everything himself. That didn't make it any less annoying, though. As he walked down the dirt road of feudal Japan, he thought back to the message he had received at his home a few miles away. "House lit up town terrified...please help!" It was the same old story, nothing unusual. So why did he have this uneasy feeling? It didn't make any sense. He put it from his mind, and walked on.
He got into the town near sunset. He went to the town leader, who received him gratefully when he revealed he was the demon-hunter. The man pointed out where the haunted house was a looming shape on the hill. Ryolan waited in his house resting, meditating, and re-enspelling his sword to be able to harm demons as well as material beings, before he headed up to the hill to the house at midnight. He went fell into a pit! As he hit the ground with a thump, he heard the door close and lock behind him like a coffin lid. He pulled himself up from the ground and looked around, annoyed with himself for being so careless. The room used to be the inside of a well-to-do Japanese house, but now the wraith's inhabitance had morphed it into something entirely different. There was blood running down the walls, everything was broken-down and looked disused for years, and there were strange shapes in the shadows-but Ryolan knew these were just secondary, weak demons, come to feed off of the main one's power. All the same, to have attracted these, this must be a powerful demon. Ryolan thought he may have underestimated would have to be more careful from now on. He continued through the house, searching for the demon and the recently dead spirit it had harnessed in order to get into the real world, piggybacking and eventually enslaving in return for maintaining the spirit's life-or at least, its existence. Suddenly a wall smashed in beside him, and a small dog came through. The dog had obviously died and been possessed by a lesser demon, but even if the demon was weak, it could grow off of the soul of the dog and become stronger-it had to be removed now. He unsheathed his sword and slew the demon, as gently as he could to spare the poor dog-it wasn't his fault. He walked on. Eventually he came to a room where the demonic ambience was strongest-he went in and sat down to wait and meditate. After a while there was a swirling in the air around him. His eyes snapped open and he eased his sword from its sheath, readying himself for battle. The demon/spirit swirled into being in front of him. It took the form of a corpse, rotting flesh dripping off yellowed bones.
"Go away." it moaned. "Go away, and never come back."
"No," said Ryolan. "I have come to exorcise you, demon! Let go of this poor soul and let it go to its rest! Begone!"
"Leave." it replied. "This is your last chance."
"No! Prepare to go back to the realm from which you came, demon!" He surged to the attack, a long roundhouse slash that would have bisected the demon-had it been there. But it had jumped out of the way, knowing the power of the enspelled blade to destroy his bond with the spirit like a harvesting machine separating the grain from the rest of the wheat. He whirled and sent the blade slashing down straight at the demon, his victory assured-but suddenly all that was there was a skull. The demon had vanished away, but not back to the realm from which it came-its influence was still on the house. Ryolan charged through the house-now that it knew he was here with an enspelled blade, it would do anything to stop him. He jumped into a room-a room with a strange stain on the floor, and a corpse. This was where the spirit had been killed. This would allow him to separate the soul from the demon, so the demon would be here to stop him. Sure enough, it appeared. Ryolan panted, sweat dripping off his forehead into his eyes as he stood.
"Goodbye, demon!" he screamed, jumped, and slashed down, splitting the demon-corpse clear in half. The sound of the soul and demon as they separated was a battering ram of noise not heard but felt, and they flew off in separate directions. Ryolan sighed. This had been a tough kill, but he had managed it. He could feel the demon's essence diffusing already. He walked towards the exit and left. He had won, and would live to fight another day.
So? How much do I suck? If I get, let's say, 5 good reviews (fat chance) I'll do another chapter. Tel me what you think!