A monstrous tarantula emerged from the forest, camouflaged by the greenery. It scanned its surroundings, pedipalps quivering as it tasted the air.

The trail itself had no traps, but the forest floor all around it was littered with all sorts of things meant to first and foremost keep Ruby safe from an ambush but also acted as a convenient way to catch anything paranormal that dared to wander here. And it sometimes conveniently caught her food as well since the traps couldn't always discern furry woodland mammal from demonic force that needed to be stopped.

One of the most common traps within the forest were blessed metal chain nets that were covered in leaves and placed in a way that the surrounding shrubbery and trees hid most of the mechanisms lying in wait. When a mechanism located in the center area of the trap was nudged, metal chains would spring up around its target and suspend them in the air from a very thick branch (And even if the branch happened to break there was little hope for the creature to untangle itself). The chains would be loose enough to not restrict its prey too tightly, but the blessed metal would sear their victim's skin assuming they were something of an unholy nature. Bells were also attached near where the metal chain wrapped around the branch and loudly jangled with the struggling of the trap's occupant.

These traps didn't work all too well in the daylight, but at night unless one were to pay very close attention to their surroundings, they were easy to stumble into... especially since some were placed together in clusters just in case one was seen the other trap would capture the monster once they felt they could let their guard down, after all who puts two traps back to back to one another? Ruby. That's who.

The woman had too much time on her hands as it was and was a good enough hunter of paranormal entities that she had plenty of money to toss away on high quality equipment for traps. Really, she lived well below her means, but she didn't have a desire to move into the city and give up her life as it was. She wasn't sure she knew how to live anywhere else anymore...

The aforementioned woman at the moment was trudging through the forest, keeping her eyes and ears out as she checked her traps and mentally mapped where new ones could go. That was until she heard the telltale sound of rattling bells in the distance. She picked her head up and looked in the direction of the sound. It was too far to see anything yet and it could very well just be a deer or rabbit, but she felt the familiar, yet loathsome prickle of excitement at the prospect of possibly having a new thing she got to pull apart.

@a-target-acquired

S-Shit…!

Szavir swore very rarely. It always felt too vulgar for him. If he ever had to swear, it would be whenever something just wasn’t going his way. That, too, happened very rarely.

Tonight, unfortunately, was one of those times.

The moth demon struggled against the metal chains as he hung, suspended. He had gotten too cocky. Forests were, ironically, Szavir’s element. He would race through trees, zipping this way and that, his cool turquoise colour a rather fine bit of camouflage.

He didn’t know what he did to trigger this trap. Perhaps a brush of a wing, or too much weight on the tree… but here he was, and as powerful a demon Szavir was, he couldn’t turn back time. He also, as powerful a demon he was, couldn’t produce gusts powerful enough to destroy metal chains.

Which, of course, just had to burn, too.

The chains dug into his body, not too deep into his neck or limbs, but the searing sensation against his fur was painful. Especially against the moth demon’s abdomen. The chains, or rather, whoever set them up, didn’t account for the thickness of Szavir’s perhaps most prominent feature. Nor its sensitivity. As the chains pushed against the abdomen, the burns would change from painful, to somewhat pleasurable, then back to painful again. It was a horrific, cruel tease of sensations.

@a-target-acquired

"Ehh? That woman who ripped my wing off and stomped on my antennae?? Tch...! She's not attractive at all!!"

His ears and abdomen twitch in annoyance at the question, and there is a long pause.