The air reeked of fear, the truth finally setting in.

My would-be killer, yet another sent to end me for being a mix breed. Had come to the realization that it would be he, and not I, who would die this night.

Breathing heavily, too weak to flee, he stood there in the light of the moon. Hallowed sword, barely kept aloft in his weary grip.

“Stay back.” The man said.

“It’s not so fun, is it?” I replied, slowly approaching. “Being hunted by others desiring your death.”

I have lived with it most of my life. It’s more of a nuisance now, rather than a crippling fear it had been. Back in those early years, when the truth had been revealed to me, my parents confessing their supposed sin, and that I had to be prepared for the days to come.

“You’re a monster”. The man breathed out, even fearful and cornered, he was on the brink of collapse. Maybe an hour ago he would have been filling with new found strength, but that had already come and gone.

He was spent, and the gods he worshipped didn’t seem interested in blessing him with strength.

The man began to shiver. “My brothers will find you, will see that my oath is fulfilled.”

I spread my lips, revealing all my pretty teeth. They never like that, seeing how I can devour them, If I were inclined to, and after this long fight, I was.

“The last one said that,” I voiced as I slowly circled the man. “And the one before him, and on and on.” I chuckled, my voice echoing off the rock. Such a useful place, something about it weakened the blessings they used, and tired them out faster. “So far none of their threats have proven true, so why do you think yours will?”

I was close now, forcing the man to raise his sword, to ready a swing. “Because no matter how long it takes, or how many you murder. One of us will get you, you will make a mistake, and our gods will turn their attention on your atrocities.”

Conviction filled the man, his body readying for one last and futile strike. “We are unrelenting, we are pure, and we will purge the lands of you-

Faster than I had moved during the whole fight, I lunged forward. By the time the man’s eyes widened, his body moving, it was over. The claws of my right hands slid across his face, while my left hand grabbed and shattered the man’s sword arm.

The weapon clattered to the floor as I bared my fangs, exposed his neck, and ripped his throat out.

The body twitched violently as I held him, drinking down the blood pouring from the hole.

I held him that way for a full minute, just to be sure, then I ripped off his head.

Some had been granted very annoying blessings, such as resurrection. That one had nearly gotten me killed.

I was thorough now. Flexing, I shattered the corpse’s ribcage, then the rest of the ligaments, only then, the corpse a ruin, did I relax and sigh.

That was the third one this week, normally I went months without a visitor.

“Unrelenting,” I said lifting the corpse over my shoulder. “I’ll show them.”

Being condemned came with its own boons, one I felt react again, some force seeping into my skin, making me stronger, faster, hardier.

“I will be unrelenting.”

A monster to be feared, and a force that will make even their gods gaze elsewhere.