Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 96

Xun ran towards the beast, as fast as he could, drawing its attention away from the people before it. As it turned, it swung its left arm at him, and everything seemed to slow down.

Xun could see the sharp claws at the end of each finger, flash, as the light caught and glanced off each one. Each finger curled, in anticipation of landing the blow. Its left foot shifted forward, placing even more power behind it, angling its body into the hit.

Ducking under its arm, as it swung over him, he shoved his sword up through its middle chin, watching as it slowly pierced the skin. The beast went to draw back, away from the pain, opening its mouth in another scream, but he shoved it even further, watching the blade come up through the tongue, through the mouth, and into the roof of the mouth, forcing the mouth shut.

The scream was contained, causing its lips to explode outward, over Xun’s head as he saw it flying through the air, and ducked, splattering all over the wall behind him. He pulled the sword out, and sliced sideways, cutting through its neck to the spine, where his blade caught on the bone, coming to a stop. Blood was splattering everywhere, and he jumped back, out of the way.

Then everything seemed to speed back up to normal. He was bȧrėly breathing hard, holding the sword off to the side, where blood was dripping off of it, onto the floor. It was gurgling, and turned, running back down the hall, away from him and the people behind him. He was afraid it was going to heal and come back, so he chased after it, to finish it off.

The fact that the world had just slowed, threatened to distract him from what he had to do, but he refused to think about it. These people were counting on him, and he had to do what he could to keep them safe.

Dr. Achak, appeared next to him, as he paused next to the door where it had dodged out of the hall.

“That was impressive. I believe we may have more to discuss after this is over.”

Nodding, Xun kicked the door open, to reveal the thing squirming on the floor, with blood everywhere. Its neck had already half healed. It tried to hiss at him, but the middle mouth was still horribly disformed, and the wind pipe was still not healed.

Rearing up, it swung at him again, and he jumped forward, as the world slowed again. Dr. Achak ran behind it, grabbing the arm as it went to swing at him. He dodged under it, cutting at the leg nearest him. As his blade bit deep into its flesh, it tried to scream again, but it only succeeded in spraying blood at him.

Xun sidestepped the blood and swung again, as it started to tip to the side, pulling his blade the rest of the way with a jerk. The leg buckled as the tendons were cut. He couldn’t cut through the bone, but he didn’t need to.

As it fell, Dr. Achak backed away, letting go of the arm, before it could try and grab him. It fell heavily, screeching as its neck had finally healed enough for it to do more than gurgle at them. The look of hatred it turned on him, made Xun quickly forget the small amount of sympathy that was trying to arise in him at its misfortune.

He watched as it opened all three mouths, and started to suck in a large breath, in preparation of screaming at him. Darting in, he slashed across the face, cutting off all three chins. That didn’t stop it from trying to scream, so he returned his slash back the other way, putting as much force into the blow as he could.

Everything stood still for a moment, frozen in time, then the top of its head slid off, to the ground, and it slumped forward, blood pooling across the floor.

“So, care to explain how you can move like a vampire?”

XxxxX

Xun sat in a chair watching the doctor prepare tea again. He was amused, because he was able to keep up with the slight moves the doctor made super-fast, that he had missed before. Everyone had made it into the underground city before full dark hit, and he had informed his dad that he would be there as soon as he was done talking to Dr. Achak.

His dad had thought he was insane, arguing with him for a full twenty minutes before Xun managed to get out the full story of what had just happened. The implications were scary enough, that his dad gave in, swearing that if Xun didn’t return by dawn he would hunt the vampire down and kill him slowly.

“When did you notice the ability to move at vampire speed?” asked the doctor, setting the cup down in front of him.

“When I went to attack the monster, your ȧssistant,” he said, stirring the tea, but not drinking it. He’d had enough weird things happen that night all ready, and it had only just started.

“I don’t suppose you would be willing to let me have a sample to examine?” he asked, tossing the empty blood bag he had just consumed, into a trash can.

“Nope,” he said, cheerfully.

He sighed, sitting down. “Doesn’t it interest you, what’s going on?”

“But it could! What if something were taking you over, about to kill who you are, and the only way to stop it was a treatment of some kind?”

“Then I will die.” Xun shrugged. He honestly didn’t think that was what was going on at all. He was almost certain, he was an experiment, and each virus he encountered, only made him stronger. It was affecting everyone around him too, and he was just waiting to see what would happen with the doctor. Would he really become a human again, or something else? The last thing he wanted, though, was for him to find out who he actually was, and make him into a new experiment.

The only reason he hadn’t thrown him into a cage to dissect, was because he could move as fast as him. What other abilities could he do? They both knew that his arm, which had been completely broken only a short time ago, had already healed to the point you couldn’t tell. His strength was greater. No normal human could have cut through somethings head like that.