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Dan Heng was running out of stamina, the only thing keeping him upright was his pumping adrenaline.
The rain wasn't letting up at all, the grounds were becoming muddier and more dangerous by the second and the trail had all but disappeared in the pitch black darkness. But he couldn't afford to stop.
He kept going, occasionally stumbling and sliding a few feet, only to catch himself on the nearest gravestone and keep moving. His loud heartbeat synchronised with his even louder footsteps, and even that did nothing to mask the thundering stomps approaching.
The wind was icy and cold on his drenched body- Except for the back of his neck, where he could feel warm breath getting closer...
Dan Heng shouldn't have come here. Going cultist hunting? In a graveyard?? In the middle of the night??! That can only spell trouble. Seriously he shouldn't have let his classmates peer pressure him into this mess.
The whole town had been hearing about some cult performing demonic rituals on stolen corpses and of course his idiot college class wanted to play heroes... only for him to get separated from the group... Today truly was not his day.
He spots lights in the distance and redirects his sprint towards them, the far too large beast still hot on his heals.
He's never seen anything like it before, but he was sure it was no ghost. The thing could freely kick up the mud in it's wake. He's pretty sure he heard it topple a tree behind him as well.
He suddenly slides to the right, and only thanks to his screaming instincts does he use the momentum to switch tracks, continuing in the new direction, and feels the heavy monstrosity launch itself past where he was just a split second ago, no doubt crushing everything in it's wake.
He picks up his pace.
Dan Heng hopes the beast will keep going in that direction, that it will see the lights in the distance, accentuated by the weather, and maybe leave him alone to investigate... But alas, no such luck.
Soon, he hears the thing rushing after him once more, smashing the headstones in it's wake.
He swerves again, heading back towards where he came from, to where he knew stood a dauntingly large stone fountain with a life-sized angel statue.
He doesn't stop of course, but also doesn't slow down, doesn't look behind him to check the beast is still following and picks up his speed.
He throws the remainder of his adrenaline rush into this last ditch effort, sprinting straight at the fountain only to jump up at the last possible second and grab the angel's extended sword wielding arm, then braces himself for the oncoming crash.
Not a second later the whole structure shakes, from the corner of his eye he sees the beautiful engravings of some ancient scripture crumble off the sides and for the first time, Dan Heng finally musters up the courage to face the beast.
He slowly turns, manoeuvring himself on the small crammed platform with the stone angel pressed right next to him, hoping against all odds that the gargantuan thing has knocked itself out from the sheer power of the impact-
Only to see the most hideous monster he has ever laid eyes on starring right at him.
The thing slowly dislodges it's head from where it got stuck, giving him a few agonisingly slow seconds to observe what was about to kill him. Yeah, dead tired and with no more momentum, not to mention he was standing on a crumbling platform... They both knew he was screwed.
It looked as if someone had mashed a gorilla with... Something. He didn't know what but the result was a giant monstrosity straight from hell.
And that's without mentioning the fact it was decaying.
Random chunks of it were gone, many muscles and ligaments laid bare in the icy downpour. And yet it didn't flinch.
By now it's head was fully free, yet whatever intelligence or animalistic instincts it seemed to possess was making it stand there, stare it's prey down in a sick show of dominance.
And then the ground broke.
Or, more accurately, the enormous platform supporting the fountain shook and teetered underneath them, surprising both him and the creature of nightmares.
Startled, they both starred as what remained of the old fountain's engraved scriptures seemed to burst up in red flames, only to fizzle out in the pouring rain.
When a moment passed and nothing else happened, the thing snapped out of it's trance and wasted no time lunging at him.
With no time to spare for a plan, Dan Heng follows his instincts and sidesteps the angel statue, taking refuge behind it. Miraculously, and against all odds, the statue holds, it's large wingspan fully blocking the attack.
He looks down and gulps. On this side the fountain is facing a steep hill, if he were to jump he would definitely slip in the mud and roll down... That direction was also where the beast came from, whatever else was down there he didn't think he could-
Crunch
He did not like that sound- he did not like that sound at all. There was no mistaking the sound of stone shattering, and definitely no mistaking all the stone shrapnel that he could feel and see from the corner of his eye, getting launched away from the statue's position.
Dan Heng is just about to say fuck it and lunge when he hears a resounding sound. More specifically, the distinct sound of muscle and ligament being forcefully torn up. He looks back immediately this time, only to be met with the expanding silhouette of large wings, and the figure they were attached to repeatedly plunging it's sword into the now grotesque mess of a monster.
.
.
.
Silently, Dan Heng carefully lowers himself to the ground, minding his footing and quickly distancing himself from the hillside. He then drops to his knees and promptly empties the contents of his stomach. Not even bothering to figure out whether the now revealed living angel was an actual friend or foe.
Mere moments later, his saviour came to stand over him, sporting immodest white robes not leaving much to the imagination, with long silky black hair cascading down his back and ...
Dan Heng's eyes widened in the dim lighting, looking behind the "Angel". At it's wings.
They were fully black.
Belatedly, Dan Heng wonders if the ancient scripture adorning the fountain wasn't mere decoration after all.
He hesitates. "I'm not... Tasty?"
The being cracks a smile "Chimera don't hunt for food. It must have been ordered to dispose of you and your noisy little friends."
At Dan Heng's lack of response it continues "Or did you mean me? Don't worry I don't eat humans... Not in that sense at least." He winks.
He winks.
What is going on.
Dan Heng is too lightheaded and feverish for this nonsense, that's the only reason he flushes in such a situation. Definitely nothing to do with what this not-angel was implying.
At some point the rain must have stopped, and only now was the full moon peeking out of the rain clouds, somehow perfectly hallowing the-
"I'm sorry who are you?" Dan Heng asked, tired of calling him "the being" in his head, and not at all because he was very handsome and just winked at him.
"I used to be called Blade in my time," he said, with an almost reminiscent expression his eyes straying from him momentarily. "I was seen as a heroic warrior at the time... But that was in the past." He looks him straight in the eye, and offers him a hand and once he accepts, proceeds to pull him up.
"You may call me Ren." He raises his hand to his lips and places a soft kiss on his knuckles, not at all making Dan Heng flush even harder.
"... I would say pleasure to meet you, but I really hate this night..."
Ren laughs at that and Dan Heng ignores the flips his stomach makes. "Thank you for saving me though." Dan Heng mumbles, noting how Ren was still not letting go of his hand.
Ren smiles at him, but by now Dan Heng has noticed all of his smiles almost look like smirks. "Well I didn't really have a choice, when a cute one like you hid behind me, I just knew I had to hurry up and break free, loosing you to a Chimera would be such a waste."
Dan Heng does not short-circuit. Ren however, does fully smirk at him now- clearly holding in a laugh.
"You uhhh..." Dan Heng throws a glance at the exposed chest in front of him. "You must be cold... Let's get going, I don't live far." Dan Heng turns and starts dragging a compliant Ren behind him.
"No need to make excuses now." Ren says with a small chuckle. "I would like to get to know you as well.
Hopefully anyone out at this hour would simply think Ren's getup is some cosplay thing, because honestly, Dan Heng wanted nothing more then getting home quickly for a hot shower and sleep, and just maybe after that, he could get a bit closer to his very good looking angel(?) saviour.