There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)

"Why is there an Umbra's dog here?"

An agitated shout reverberated through the hill, pulling people's attention towards the guiding tent.

Zen, in the middle of walking out of the tent to take a breather, paused to look at the source of the voice. It had been a while since someone called him Umbra's dog, not since the guild raised to be one of the rulers of the red-zone.

He had expected to see someone he knew, probably one of the people who lived under the guild's oppression—which were a lot, honestly. But he didn't know this man, who looked like an Esper from the red-zone. Since all the guilds here were almost as shady as Umbra, Zen could only infer that he came from a mercenary group. One which wasn't Alma's.

Zen glanced at the mercenary guide who sat in the corner. She flinched at Zen's gaze, and he knew which group the agitated man came from.

"Fuck! Are you ignoring me?!" the man stepped even closer, stomping his feet on the ground as he walked. "What are you doing here, you piece of shit?"

Zen threw him a look. The man definitely tried to be intimidating, stomping his feet while his spear raised menacingly, as if he wanted to skewer Zen instead of the miasmic beasts.

How cute.

"Guiding, obviously," Zen answered nonchalantly, looking at the man straight in the eyes. He tried to remember who this man was, but he just couldn't. Zen wasn't good with putting names on faces in the first place, and he would only remember people that interacted often with him.

The man stopped a few steps in front of him, glaring. He was still young, probably no older than Zen. His gestures showed how he wanted to assert dominance, but it was quite hard since Zen wasn't small to begin with, even slightly taller than the Esper.

And the blue eyes were as deep as ever, unwavering.