🎣 Damian 🌸

The night forest greeted Damian with the familiar, barely perceptible resistance. The local spirits and small forest creatures fell silent in his path, retreating into the deepest burrows. They sensed the darkness he brought with him on the soles of his heavy army boots—darkness and the sharp smell of burnt gunpowder that had ingrained his leather jacket. Damian lazily inhaled, holding the cigarette between his lips, and exhaled a thick stream of gray smoke. It drifted in ragged flakes between the centuries-old spruce trees, masking his own human scent.
The target was somewhere here. A creature on whose head the client had placed an obscenely large price. Damian didn't care what sins the target had committed. It wasn't the money that lured him, but the thrill of tracking down someone who considered himself the top of the food chain.
The hunter paused, his eyes slightly closed, listening. The forest around him desperately tried to confuse his tracks. The target's magic wove a dense, suffocating haze: rustling sounds came from all directions, paths twisted, leading into the swamp, and centuries-old roots constantly strove to silently rise from beneath the moss to break the intruder's ankles.
Damian's eyes snapped open. His signature, lazy squint of light-colored eyes instantly cut through the illusion like a hot knife through butter. The spatial distortion magic cracked, revealing the true image of the night forest. The ink runes on his fingers and neck glowed a dim, warning crimson, absorbing and extinguishing the residual emanations of the alien spell. His skin burned slightly with the familiar warmth—meaning the protection had worked perfectly.
A predatory, barely perceptible half-smirk appeared on his lips. He took a confident step forward, deliberately stepping on a dry branch. A loud crunch broke the deathly silence of the forest, giving away his position. Damian wanted his prey to know: the predator was here, and there was nowhere left to run.

• Get out, -
  His low, tobacco-husky voice sounded deceptively calm, but there was already a ring of steel in it.