Hunters' Club

Blood & Garlic

"Everything smells blood for a hunter... There is no good smell or bad; only alive and dead"

After the Third Wave of the Apocalypse, hunters found new ways to track down hell-breakers who went loose around the globe, big or small, hiding in mountains, villages, cities, ruins. One of those ways was using the sense of smell. Witches, demons and other lesser freaks had one common point, which was carrying the smell of the Hell. Even the witches, although once human, had that foul and disturbing smell. But that smell was mostly not in range of human senses. Therefore, most hunters were made drink the freak-blood taken from some Imps, Fairies or simple Goblins in order to open their nerves to a darker painted world.

"World became simpler for the most..." says the Head Chronicler of the hunters, Avalon Garnizova, nicknamed "the Immortal" after living through all three waves of the three-hundred-years disaster, and he uses a strange yet most acclaimed description like "Blood and Garlic" for the smell those monsters carry on their flesh.

"World became simpler for the most in terms of classification. Now there are humans and the nature that simply had a neutral smell and there are the hell-kind bearing the disturbing smell of some blood and garlic mix. That is most likely due to what we drank to achieve this kind of sense. The freak-blood took away our sense of smell and gave us something completely different and non-human..." 

Of course, not all hunters were so eager to change their body this way. Most of the volunteers were the demon carriers, who already were the born as the abominations of the society. The rest was simply in no need for staying "normal" in this wretched world or had the sense of duty big enough to be willing such mutation. What the freak-blood gave them was a keen sixth sense replacing their sense of smell by dominating and overloading that part of the brain. Depending on the freak and the freshness of its blood, the strength of this sense varied. Some hunters were brave enough to drink from forest Imp they caught even before killing it. Though, most of them committed suicide because they couldn't stand the incredibly heavy smell in the air wherever they went. The ones who are still alive states that its strong enough to make anyone blind and deaf if they just get close to a witch. In this condition, they were forever sentenced by their own brains to stay away from any freaks, big or small.

The strength of this sense also depended on the source of the smell. It can be easily assumed that stronger and darker creatures have the heavier smell. Like a Fire Fairy, a small but vicious freak, living near volcanoes, can only be smelled from a few steps of distance, which is already in eyesight while a Water Witch - maybe the weakest and less affected of the witches - spreads its smell across a mountain. Some witches, however, can always hide this smell for protection or to easily approach hunters. Blood Witches, known to be extinct for some years now, were best known for looking very normal to any eye, trained or ordinary, and living in close relation with humans until it's time to act. There was no way to recognize a Blood Witch from the crowd when they hide their presence despite having a strong enough smell to be sensed from a near city. Demons, on the other hand, surely surpassed any witch or freak with their smell. From the least and the weakest to the fierce Overlords, they had such distinct and hard to forget smells, being the origin of all the freaks. They carried such smells, so dark and unheard of... It was so strong, even the ordinary humans could feel it when it's close enough. And it was so strong that they say when a Higher Demon steps down on earth, a hunter can feel it from across the world. Afterwards, it's his choice to follow the smell to his own death or get even further away from it...

So this is the part of a hunter's life. Blood and garlic... Spending a lifetime with no other smell. Living with such curse till the day of their last breath. But again, it's the hunters who keep us safe in our warm beds. It's their sense of duty and hatred against the hell-kind. It's the sacrifices they all make for the good of the earth.