May 5, 2020

  After Waldo and Mara’s very first training session, instead of continuing to travel east, Waldo decides to go west from now on. When Waldo returned to the site with the cow, he made Mara rebuild the wagon herself using her own strength and technique. Down to the last wheel and plank of wood. Although it’s not as reliable and sturdy as the wagon Waldo created, it would have to suffice. Thankfully, the wagon was able to withstand the weight of the dead cow and anything that was still left. Of course, the weight of such an animal only made it harder for Mara to pull the wagon ahead. Waldo would often scold her for being so slow and make her pull even harder by threatening to crush her with the cow. Mara would just have to suck it up and go along with it.

  After reaching a stopping point, Waldo decides to venture into the town of Abilene while Mara stayed behind with the wagon. She felt her stomach growling for food and uses a makeshift knife to cut out a small piece of the cow’s flesh. She turns around again to see that Waldo has already turned into a simple dot in the distance, sprinting to the town. She looks back at the piece of meat that she cut out and gets out of the wagon with it. After taking a careful look around her surroundings, she tries to look for some wood or something flammable she can use to cook the meat. After all, humans eating raw meat isn’t the best for them.

  An idea then pops into her head. What if she doesn’t need material to cook the meat. She just needs to use her own technique to heat up the meat and cook it. And so, with this idea in mind, Mara finds a small flat rock to set her piece of meat on. She then concentrates her cursed energy and focuses on her technique. Her hands begin to glow, and sizzling sounds begin to be heard from the meat as it gets hotter. Then, Mara sees some steam coming from the meat.

  (It’s working. It’s really working!)

  Mara smiles with delight as she watches the meat quickly become cooked by the technique. After a couple of minutes, she releases her technique and goes over to touch the meat. Of course, like anything fresh out of the pan, it’s pretty hot and it burns Mara’s fingers. She instantly pulls back and decides to sit down, waiting for her meal to cool down. She looks back at the town, wondering what Waldo could be doing. Actually, that question should have an obvious answer: Nothing ethical.

  .

  .

  Waldo emerges from a cloud of smoke, his mouth and hands covered in red human blood. A smile grows on his face as he hears several screams in all directions. He turns to the right and sees several humans and children running away from him. He then turns to the left and sees more children with their mothers running away. There are sorcerers appearing and charging at him, attempting to take him down and save the town. Waldo turns towards the sorcerers and begins to stomp towards them.

  “A few sheep coming to challenge the wolf. It’s no different from running towards the gates of death. This resistance is meaningless. You shall satisfy my hunger for battle! Have at thee!”

  Waldo dashes towards the sorcerers, his speed immediately catching them off guard. In the eyes of the sorcerers, he seems to teleport. One of the sorcerers doesn't even get to turn around before their head is cleanly cut off by Waldo. The sorcerers watch as their comrades fall one by one as the curse continues its onslaught. This entire massacre, and he’s smiling throughout it all.

  “What the hell is this thing? Everyone, fall bac-“

  The sorcerer suddenly has their heart ripped away before they even finish their statement. Waldo brings the organ towards his mouth and gulps it down in one large bite. He notices that the morale of the sorcerers has considerably dropped and they all run away with their tail in between their legs. Waldo’s smile begins to fall and he gets pissed. The fight is running away from him.

  (The fight is supposed to be coming towards me. You’re running away from your opponent like a coward? Oh, that strikes my nerves…)

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  Waldo proceeds to condense a shockwave in his hand. Once enough cursed energy has been collected in his hand, he fires the shockwave from his hand and blows away all of the humans in its range. Any building or structure that was caught in the crossfire has crumbled away. Waldo smirks once more upon hearing the screams and picks a human body off of the ground. He grips one of the arms and tears it off forcefully, the ligaments and joints coming off as well. After devouring the arm, bone and all, he senses some people hiding inside one of the buildings. The exits collapsed so there was no choice for them but to stay inside. Waldo looks at the rest of the humans in the streets that are running away. He uses his shockwaves to create several serpents to block off the exits. They have also been tasked with killing off the rest of the humans that are trying to escape and the sorcerers that defend them.

  “Now that the pests have been taken care of, it’s time to enact this little game of hide and seek.”

  The sound of screams flood the town. It was the sound of these screams that causes Waldo’s drive to play along with meaningless games like Hide and Seek. He wishes to relish moments like this where he can torment the weak like playthings. This is truly what it means to live as the War Spirit. Waldo looks at his shockwave figures tearing apart the humans that are escaping. He specifically ordered them to leave the bodies mostly intact. Otherwise, there won’t be much meat or bones to snack on once this raid is finished.

  Waldo looks up at the top of the building for a few seconds and proceeds to step inside of the blazing building. He can immediately sense the humans inside of the building, but for the sake of keeping the game more enjoyable, he purposely dulls his senses so it’s slightly harder.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are! It doesn’t matter where you humans may hide, I will eventually find you. This is what you deserve for being such an atrocious species.”

  Meanwhile, back at the wagon, Mara enjoys the last remains of her cooked steak. She squeals silently with joy at the exquisite taste and texture of the meat. She hasn’t had anything decent to eat ever since Doomsday had started. Being able to cook something and smell the scent of smoke again was amazing. Wait… smoke?

  (I’m smelling smoke? But there’s nothing here. Is it the air? Did I accidentally burn something while cooking the steak?)

  Then, Mara looks to her right and finds her answer. She sees the town from afar now engulfed in a golden and orange light. That’s where Waldo went, and he’s destroying the town! Should she go and see what’s happening? No, he’ll probably kill her right then and there. There could be other curses attacking as well. It doesn’t have to be Waldo. If it really is other curses, could she take care of them when their power is that high? And so, despite her urge to run towards the town and check what is happening, Mara restrains herself and abstains from coming across another massacre.

  “For a minute, I forgot that he was a curse… a monster that kills and eats humans… how did I forget that? He’s cruel, so strong, and he’s crazy. Why… Why did he take me with him?”

  Back at the ruined town, Waldo bites into a human head. There are a couple of things that he has learned after being out and about for a good amount of time: Children taste much better than adults, the blood of adults has a much more appealing consistency, sorcerers are males 9 out of 10 times, and females have a much better reaction to bloodshed. The screams they release are like music to his ears. He finishes chewing the human flesh in his mouth and licks the blood off of his teeth. He watches as his shockwave soldiers come back and await further orders.

  “Continue to pile them up. They’ll make for brilliant appetizers in the near future. Perhaps I can even trick the child into eating her own kin without realizing. Say, that’s not a bad idea at all. Hehe.”

  And so, at the orders of Waldo, the shockwave soldiers continue to pile up all of the corpses that they see on the streets. Waldo hollows out the top of a human skull. He wrings out the blood of a random corpse and fills up the skull with blood. He drinks from the skull as he watches the shockwaves soldiers move the humans into piles. After a few minutes of piling and checking each of the humans, Waldo counted about 392 human corpses piled together. He smirks and laughs.

  “What a harvest. It was quite the entertaining hunt. I see that there were several children as well.”

  Waldo opens his mouth and begins to rapidly devour the pile of corpses. He tears through them greedily and bites through all of the bones. He continues to eat the human corpses for several minutes until only 5 remain. Once he leaves these last corpses untouched, he commands his shockwave soldiers to carry them along. The shockwaves comply without question and pick up the corpses. They follow Waldo out of the town with the corpses in tow. While Waldo and his shockwaves continue to march, Waldo smiles as he begins to come up with a plan.

  (Perhaps there is a way to trick the child into eating the flesh of her own people. I could use that as leverage in the future so she can no longer defy me. And it’ll be such a delight to watch her reaction!)

  Mara begins to hear some footsteps in the distance and turns around. She drops her stick that she was using to draw on the dirt. Her eyes widen as she sees Waldo coming out of the shadows along with several blue figures carrying human bodies. She feels something come up her throat and she tries to hold it in. Waldo grins at this, expecting such a reaction.

  “Well? Delighted to see me?”