Whenever Vigil enters a seriously life-threatening confrontation, he is unable to fully grasp and understand what is going on around him.
He developed this style - if you can even call it that - of fighting over the years in order to fully maximize his lethality and increase his chances of survival.
However, as a result of every battle that he has taken a part in pretty much being him against the world, he has fallen into the habit of seeing everyone and everything as an enemy.
To him, it was just second nature.
So it was only when he heard the sound of a familiar voice call out to him that Vigil was able to fully see, as well as comprehend, what was going on around him.
In front of him was his outstretched arm with his gun in hand. At the moment, said gun was pointed towards a mercenary that was fighting off a creature of war.
Firmly grasping onto his handgun was a large blood-red gauntlet.
From how it looked, the gun's slide was just slightly being pulled back, just enough for the trigger to not be able to engage with the firing mechanism. That was also the reason as to why the gun did not go off, and why the random person that had almost fallen prey to the boy was still alive.
Currently staring at the hand clasped attached to his armament, slowly but surely, he traced the hand back to the person that was its owner. From the arm, to the torso, all the way to the head.
It was then that Vigil saw the face of the man that he had just familiarized himself with earlier on in the day, Rune...
And he did not look happy.
"I asked-!"
Just as Rune had begun talking, his eyes quickly shot up - past where Vigil was currently standing.
Not even half a beat later, he outstretched one of his arms and wrapped it around the boy's head, pulling him into his chest. As he performed this action he had begun to spin counter clockwise while raising one of the two free arms on his left side.
Unable to see anything past that point, all that Vigil could do to understand what was happening was listen.
As he did so, he could hear the faint sound of cracking followed by meat getting crushed.
Only after those specific sounds, out of the many like them, had stopped was he finally let go from Rune's embrace.
When he was, he was met with the familiar sight of Rune's angered expression.
"After this is over..."
Rune began to speak as he looked away.
"... come and find me. We need to talk."
That was the last thing he said before running off in the opposite direction, killing enemy after enemy in the process.
Quickly understanding what had just happened, Vigil immediately determined that it would be best to come back to the subject of what he had just done - or better yet what he had almost just done - when time would allow it.
And that time was not now.
After all, he was still standing in the middle of a battlefield.
So after returning to his senses, Vigil started up his killing spree once more.
However it did not last long as soon after he had built up some momentum again, the same thing that had happened just before - almost killing an ally - happened again.
This time however, he was able to stop himself just short.
... Albeit barely.
As the battle raged on, the same scene kept occurring again and again.
Sometimes Vigil would stop himself right in the nick of time. At other points, his allies would get lucky as Vigil would be interrupted by another monster appearing.
One person, however, was not as lucky as the rest.
Although the unlucky recipient of his murderous tendencies had survived, it was not without a severe wound that had crippled them for the rest of the engagement. Because of this, Vigil was forced to fight in a defensive manner as he led the injured mercenary out of the front lines.
That short escort mission had caused him not just physical harm - as he had gotten slightly injured on the way - but also a great deal of mental anguish.
This was one of the few flaws that Vigil knew would get in his way as he fought...
It was also one of the few flaws that he wanted gone as soon as possible. After all, he hated this part of himself.
You see, Vigil was naturally a very kind child. What with how he was brought up as well as the work he had done as a kid, it was only natural. Because of that, the people around him, including Vigil himself, thought that he would never intentionally cause harm to another person.
But when he had been thrown to the fires of War Field, every preconceived notion about him began to change. After all, not only was Vigil kind, but he was smart as well. Too smart for his own good one could say. So, he quickly knew what he had to do.
He had to hunt in order to eat. Fight in order to drink...
... Kill in order to survive.
The boy knew that he would never want to cause harm to another being... Not people at least. But he quickly learned that he had to, all in order for him to survive. Because of that, he had to come up with a way for himself to not get caught up in his useless sense of kindness.
That was when he decided to start viewing both Creatures of War and people the same way.
So the more he fought against people while viewing them as no different than Creatures of War, the more accustomed he became to inflicting harm on them. So much so that at one point killing people just became yet another menial, everyday task to him.
With that being said, Vigil knew that this way of thinking - that this way of seeing the world - was incorrect.
At least it was now.
After all, at this point in time, Vigil was no longer alone. He now had allies, people that he could be relying on.
However, due both to how he had lived for the past two years as well as his insane trust issues, he quite quickly reverted back to how he had been when he was all alone. When he thought that it was just him against the world...
And in doing so, this flaw had proven to Vigil that it was nothing but a hindrance. Not only to him but to the people around him as well.
***
As Vigil was finishing off a Creature of War by stabbing it in its throat as it was convulsing on the ground, he had taken a look around him.
Noticing how most of the enemy was either dead or being finished off, Vigil slowly looked around while taking deep breaths to satiate his worn out lungs.
When he had found what he was looking for, he slowly removed his weapon from the now dead monster's corpse and began to walk over to the location in which he was currently staring. With no sort of haste in his step, almost as if he was reluctant to even go over to where he was looking towards, Vigil began to slowly but surely make his way over to his destination.
Only after a few minutes had passed did he finally make it to where he had been looking all this time.
Standing no more than two-dozen steps in front of him was a tall man with three dark red leathery wings and four large arms. Protruding from his head were four deadly looking horns, all with blood cascading down from their highest points, same as his armor.
As of this moment the tall demon, Rune, was currently looking down at a person's half-eaten corpse lying at his feet, someone that had presumably died during the battle.
While looking at the body, Rune slowly opened his mouth and began to speak in a light tone, almost as if he was afraid he would wake the corpse from its eternal slumber.
"You fought well my friend, but your time has finally come. May we meet in the afterlife... War has taken you, now rest."
When Rune had finished speaking, he let out a slow yet audible sigh and slowly turned around. Stopping his head just enough so that out of the corner of his eyes he could now see the young boy standing behind him.
Rune then fully turned around to face him, all while taking side-long glances.
"From the looks of it, it will be a little before we are called back to the convoy... Take a seat, we need to talk."
As Rune finished speaking, he crouched down and planted himself on the carcass of a large beast, intending to use it as a chair. However, that was not before he grabbed the dead creature by its head and crushed its skull into an unrecognizable blob of flesh.
Better safe than sorry as they say.
When Vigil saw his actions, he soon followed suit. Except instead of crushing the things skull with his hands, he instead buried it under his grieves.
Vigil then sat down and looked towards Rune who was sitting directly opposite of him, fully intending to accept whatever comes his way.