Broken Threads, Darkened streets [Spirit hunt/Carlos/Closed]

Carlos yawned a bit, less from boredom and more from exhaustion as he carefully climbed his way over a broken down wall of rubble, Dio following close behind. They had been wandering around the Ruins of the Western Flatlands for what felt like hours, though admitedly it had probably been slightly less than that. What where they even hoping to find in here, one may wonder? Frankly, not even they were entirely sure. It just seemed like a good idea overall, a nice place to explore and gather data for the Club's analysis.

The dust filled ruins had a depressive feel to it, not unlike that of a ghost town. Despite it clearly being abandoned a long time ago, there was something different about this place compared to the other ruins littered across the Digital world, or at least different to those the duo had visited. As if something really bad had happened here to cause it to be abandoned. 

After taking a quick sip from a plastic bottle of water he carried on his backpack, the man threw the bottle in his partner's direction, the imp skillfully grabbing it before drining a bit from it. Fo such a windy day it was certainly pretty hot. At the very least the ruins were...well, as obvious as that sounded, abandoned. It was a nice change of pace to simply look around without having to worry about  something jumping at them, even if that was always a possibility on the Digital World.

Of course, it wouldn't take long for even Carlos to notice that they weren't exactly alone in the ruined city, as a lone humanoid silhoutte walked on its own along the dusty streets in the distance. Quickly yet as quietly as possible the man leaned closer to the imp, gently prodding them on the side whilst pointing at the shadow.

"Hey, you think that's a digimon?" He asked, squinting his eyes to try and make out the figure in the distance. I mean, it would make sense for it to be a digimon right? From where they were standing at least the shape looked tall. Not impossibly tall for a human, but it was certainly taller than the average. However Dio shook his head, and spoke up.

"Not sure. It kinda smells human but...there's something odd about them." The imp said, frowning a bit, unsure on what to make of this.

"Odd how? Are they dangerous?" Carlos asked, a hint of concern in his tone. His partner simply shrugged as a response, he simply didn't have enough info to give a better answer yet. Without more knowledge on what was out there, that only left them with two options: either hide and wait for them to wander off, or confront them head on. For now however, he simply sat back and waited for the figure to do the next move. Only dependeng on what they (or it) did afterwards would Carlos settle on a plan or what to do...

As they gazed at the figure in the distance, Carlos was eventually able to make out more and more details from it: for one it seemed to be carrying a backpack, its contents were obviously unknown to them but the man seemed to have prepared in advance for the journey, which was more than what could be said about the duo. Additionally they seemed to be completely on their own, so they were either a partner less digimon (not impossible judging by how tall they seemed to be) or perhaps a spirit user? It was hard to tell from this distance.

However they weren’t in the clear yet, as Dio could feel something else from the figure. Almost like…a stench not too dissimilar from rot and decay, something definitely not human about them…something vaguely familiar. But as much as he tried he couldn’t really place said smell.

Just as he was about to say something he froze, his body tensing. Carlos, noticing this sudden change shot a side glance at his partner. “What is it-”

“Shh.” The imp was quick to silence the man, never taking his eyes from the figure. There was no visible change on the individual in the distance…but the stench however, it felt as if….no, it was getting closer. In fact, it felt as if whatever was making said smell had suddenly closed in the distance in a split second.

Before Dio was even able to warn his tamer his suspicions turned out to be true, as he noticed a rather ominous shadow forming on the wall next to them, in plain view of the two. Needless to say this was enough to make both human and partner take a quick step (more like a small jump really) backwards, Dio’s hands lighting up with energy (fire in one, ice on the other) as he positioned himself in front of the human, his defiant gaze trying to mask his sheer worry.

From the shadow soon emerged a most ghastly looking figure, a tall dark bipedal creature slowly approached the two. Dio wasted no time, chucking both a fire ball and a chunk of ice in the shadowy creature’s direction. This proved to be useless, as the attacks harmlessly went through the skeletal reptile as if its body was made of smoke. Intangible.

The two partners froze however, when the tall shadow began…talking to them, its calm and somewhat soothing voice making a rather off putting contrast against his grim look. Apparently it worked for the figure in the distance. Well, the digimon’s behavior seemed to fit that of a spirit, so that person was most likely a human, if Carlos understood how Spirits worked in here. While it didn’t seem to have ill intentions in mind, his treatment of the two was…off putting to say the least, circling the nervous duo not unlike a hungry predator.

As if to add insult to injury it reached forth, his ghostly pointer finger not so much tapping their heads as much as going right through them, sending a chilling cold through both partners bodies. It felt as if someone had dunked them with a bucket full of ice…except that ice had somehow gotten inside of their bodies.

This, coupled with his odd choice of words was enough to make Dio snap out of it, fear momentarily replaced with anger.

“Who the hell are you calling a lordling, ghost? That’s some big talk from someone without a body!” He snapped, indignant over what he perceived as a very roundabout way of calling him short…along with everything else really. Carlos simply stood silent, both out of small fear and respect for the creature. After all, if it had wanted to attack them it would have done so already.

However, the words uttered by the ominous apparition were quick to send a cold shiver down Dio’s back. “One of them”? So this creature knew of his Demon Lord heritage? That was definitely not a good thing. Before he could even stammer back a reply the creature turned his attention to Carlos, offering the two the option to help out the Kryptmon’s master.

“What would this teacher teach me in exchange though? And if we were to refuse then what?” He asked, somewhat hesitantly. While this didn’t seem like that great of an idea…it didn’t seem like a bad one either. Another teacher in the human world…what could that possibly entail?