Chương 6: Bloodsucker

The creature's proportions and details became clearer as its measured gait became slower; its casual stance became combative as it got closer to June. It's an archaic breath, sounding like a heaving ancient old beast. The first detail June was able to see was its face, its inhuman face.

It looked vaguely humanoid except for the fact that its features were stretched and skin was dried like a raisin; its eyes were large spheres of black, its nose was long and pointed, and its mouth jutted out in an unnatural fleshy tube, seemingly connected to the butt end of its spear.

The second detail June heard was the creature's stance changed the closer it got to June; its footsteps became more rhythmic, the rubble under its feet was crushed to dust, yet the marble floor made a mix of soft skin against a surface noises and sounded like a grinder tearing against it as the creature's gait occasionally dragged a limp foot. The creature was injured. The third and final detail was the deciding factor in whether the creature was friend or foe.

June felt this one in his bones; his instinct told him that the creature was a hunter; its poise, its size, its essence, and its aura all screamed it, and another part of June felt it in his body: goosebumps... He was the prey. In a flowy yet snappy movement, the creature's stance changed from a mix of combative and defensive to an aggressive one. The spear disappeared from the creature's hands, and a violent, deafening pop was made as the spear flew past June, narrowly missing him.

Time felt like it slowed as he perceived glimpses of the spear flying past him, a tentacle attaching the butt of the spear to the creature's mouth, and the barbs on the spear. The cloth near the tip was not cloth but a hide, a human one. June fell down, and the spear glided off course towards him. The creature was using its mouth tube to make the spear, its proboscis slashed nearly right above June, right through him if he didn't fall over.

June gritted his teeth and fell on his arm again; it was his non-dominant hand, but still it was battered enough. He swiftly grabbed the gun; he had left the safety off. He only found 7 bullets while scrounging around, so the gun wasn't at its full capacity, but regardless of its capacity, it was time for it to be used. June aimed the gun with his one dominant hand; his other battered arm held against floor and was readied so he could jump up and run, and June shot every round into the creature.

The first bullet missed, and the second, third, and fourth did as well; the dust was obscuring his vision still, and his vision was blurry. The fifth bullet landed, but the creature did not react. June could have imagined the clink of the bullet bouncing off, but today his reality outdid his imagination; the bullet bounced off the creature. June continued to fire; the sixth bullet was aimed at the head instead of the torso, and the creature moved its head instantaneously to avoid the flying bullet.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The final bullet was aimed back at the creature's body, but by then the spear had been returned to its owner, sucked back to it with its mouth tube, and the final bullet was deflected back at June, grazing, but still taking a piece of his ear off.

June let out a stifled scream but still got up to run, pushing through the pain of his reopened wounds, using his broken arm to lunge up, and ignoring the fact that most of his ear had been ripped off by his own bullet. June staggered away with feverish speed; the creature did not run after June but simply walked at a measured pace. Each step covered 3 of June's; it was catching up. June grabbed the communicator, cursing through the pain.

The cohort of 5 was led by a stalwart giant; the debonair man looked as if he were cast from bronze. He carried an alloy tower shield larger than himself, which was in itself an impressive feat. He looked like a god-chosen champion, and the air around him seemed to have been wreathed in a holy light. He wore an archaic suit of armor, its helmet fully enclosing his face, and a long plume almost as tall as most people fell from it.

His fists were large enough to put a bear to shame, and they looked as if they could topple mountains. The bronze deity had two shadows, one of his own and another that seemed to have its own mind. There was another younger man following behind; he was far less imposing but carried himself and a longsword with diligence and a gleaming sense of pride. His armor was on the lighter side, but his sword seemed to be heavy enough to crush armored vehicles.

His gait was precise, with no deviation whatsoever; the young swordsman walked like a machine with no other purpose but to walk, and he was executing that task with such effortlessness that the next member of the cohort seemed to stumble trying to imitate him. The member trying to imitate him was much shorter than the swordsman and the bronze giant. He carried a large, rotund backpack on his back. He had round goggles set on his brow. His arms had gauntlets with knickknacks of the sort.

One gauntlet had a crossbow, and the other gauntlet was clunkier but had several buttons and intricate designs engraved on it. The shorter man, on a closer look, was showered with eccentric gadgets; his armor was a bit heavier looking than the swordsman's, almost clockwork-like, having several moving parts within it in constant movement.

The final member of the cohort was a woman who was nearly as tall as the debonair man; her hair was let out, she wore little armor but had her own share of gadgets strapped on her, she carried a large bone bow, a spear, and a large sniper rifle, and she had knives and daggers sheathed in several places around her body. She had a large scar that streaked against her cheek that seemingly opened along with her mouth. She carried and studied an odd device intently.

"The survivor is in that office hive." She pointed at a tower; it alone was wide enough to encompass a small town, and it was tall enough to scrape against the heavens. Similar buildings around it were collapsing, but even with grievous damage to this seemingly barren yet massive set of buildings, it stood almost like a testament to human avarice. The city was massive, but most of the surrounding buildings were fully collapsed or covered in snow; only a couple of massive towers stood.

Bodies of giant masses of flesh and creatures sprawled around the city; none fully competed with the megastructures, but apart from those, some of the carcasses stood hundreds of meters into the sky. The debonair man gave an order.

"The beast is still alive; we collect the survivor and meet at the rendezvous in 12 hours."