Inktober Day 2: Wisps

Day 1: Fish

The man was calm and collected as he thought about how to approach the boy. Part of him wanted to just chop then boy's head off, seeing as he'd been eluding them for the past 12 years.

He'd have to wait for just a little while longer. Night gave the best cover for this sort of mission.

******

He didn't smoke cigarettes.

Cigarettes killed. They were bad for the lungs, which meant he couldn't take them. He had too many survivalist instincts to just risk his life for a cheap smoke.

Which is why he couldn't understand why he was detecting the faint odor of cigarette smoke. Animals didn't smoke. At least not the ones he'd seen.

Which meant there was a human in the vicinity.

Humans really didn't come to this part of the forest to have a cup of tea. The last five times men came here, it was the savages, men who ravage other humans and then salvage what they could from the dead men's belongings.

He really wasn't in the mood for a fight, and he had no ammunition for his gun. But he had to fight this one out, it was part of surviving. He didn't know if his sanctuary had been detected, but even though they wouldn't get past the barrier, he had to stay low-profile.

Picking up his empty gun and a set of six knives, he went to his control box. The entire area around him within a 3km radius was booby-trapped. He did this using a manual left in ab box he'd always had with him throughout his life. He didn't know where it came from, or how it got into his possession, but the secrets in that book had helped him survive.

He went for the very button he knew would do the trick. MVR spray would release a huge spray of MVR from 30 sprinklers whose range covered the entirety of that 3km radius. Everything outside his barrier would get soaked in it.

And MVR was the one thing that attracted the giant dragonflies - firebreathing flies with dragon wings that had sharp talons on them. They were almost extinct, about only 1o existed in the world.

And they were all found here.

They weren't carnivorous, but they would burn down any moving object that smelled of MVR.

Sayonara, losers, he thought as he sprayed pushed the button.

Soon, the loud buzzing he always associated with them was heard. And then he heard their loud howls. They had gotten their targets and would soon erase them.

After a few more howls it was all over. No buzzing, nothing. Just silence.

He went out of the shack and opened the barrier, using his binoculars to look around.

Nothing.

Then he decided to take a walk around, scanning the entirety of the radius. He had reached the last part when he saw the most horrific thing he'd seen.

In an open clearing laid about nine dragonflies, all having been butchered. Green blood was splashed everywhere, and the grasses and leaves were burnt. As he turned, he saw the last dragonfly, half-dead, with its wings still trying to flutter. soon it gave op and fell to the ground, dead.

There was a monster on the loose.

Quickly, he ran to his shack, getting through the barrier and securing it. Just as he turned, he heard the voice.

"Don't you think that would be a stupid idea? What if the enemy was within the barrier already?"

Chilled to the marrow, he turned to see a silver-haired man in a white cape with a long stick protruding from the collar of the cape. He had glasses on and smoked a cigarette casually, the wisps of the smoke trailing upwards. The man had been just beside him as he was activating the barrier. The man had a dark goatee that sort of contrasted with his silver, almost totally white hair.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked, firmly gripping the gun.

"You act like you don't know?" the man asked back with an amused smile.

******

WIPs

I first started with this crazy sketch here, I'd been experimenting with a lot before I decided it was it.

Then I knew I still had to add at least a wee bit of landscape, but I wasn't rushing anything so I finished the tracing.

All I had to do was shade and add the grid-like stuff for the barrier to make it look more realistic.

Thank you!