by Tom Harem
"And how the hell are we going to do that?" Elisa asked her.
"Well, on the count of three, we'll start running towards there." Vic replied, "Unless someone has a better idea," she added sarcastically.
"Not really. We've done crazier things than running with a beast behind us," I told them and laid my hand on the holster. I had two acix bullets left.
"One... " Victoria said and we all took a deep breath.
"Two." We rotated half of our bodies and placed our arms next to the trunk. The beast spun in the air, horizontally, like a motor about to be turned on, ready to go off at high speed, slicing whatever was in front of it.
"Three! Now!" Victoria screamed.
Nobody looked back. We started running as fast as we could. I noticed Maggie was getting left behind, slacking off because of her shaved knees. I went back, put my hand around her hip and helped her until we reached the ledge before the beach.
"She's coming," Victoria said. She didn't even need to look back. We could all hear the rattling of a fissure being opened as it drew closer. The waves crashed on the shore and that salty sea scent grew ever stronger.
"Get down!" I screamed and we threw ourselves into the sand, covering our mouths and our eyes. Maggie landed on top of me, her knees over my kneecaps, trying to avoid contagion and infection.
The beast brushed over us, stopping meters ahead of us, with both feet on the sand. It took a step forward.
"We have to flip her over. It has to stick one of the tips in the sand. Let's give it everything we got." Victoria said and took out three more arrows, "Here it comes again."
The beast spun horizontally once again. The tips shaped into one, luring the sand and creating a grain hurricane with it in the middle. Maggie threw a fireball but as soon as it hit the sandy wall it fizzled into the air. At the speed at which he was going, he was as strong in attack as in defense. An impenetrable wall that could also counterattack. Zigzagging along the beach, sometimes surrounding us, sometimes trying to hit us head-on. We lost almost 10 minutes drifting, back to back, spinning, anticipating the monster's movements. Our feet were also being buried in that sand and it took some effort, almost as if we were bearing a brick with our feet, to dodge it.
"This way we won't get far," Elisa said, "it's time to strike hard."
"Fireballs don't even scratch it, how do we do this?" Maggie asked her.
"Hm, I think I know a way," I told them. Watching him spinning and drilling Elisa's ice had given me a rough sketch of an idea, "Elisa, freeze the whole ground around him. You two attack him until he's distracted."
"But he'll break the ice again," Maggie said
"I'm waiting for that." I said, "If it breaks, there's only sand left. He doesn't have the brains for more. He won't expect it."
"Well, let's do it." Victoria said, putting three arrows on her bow, and deflecting her legs, "I'm going to shoot over the hurricane."
"I burn the edges. Let's make it burn from the inside too," Maggie added, the thirst for revenge gradually manifesting itself.
Maggie burned the tip of Victoria's metal arrows until they were so brightly red that they could be used to cicatrize the skin. For a moment it smelled like burnt metal until the sweet aroma of the seawater dissipated it. We followed the arrows up the clear sky until they entered the tornado from above. They also twirled, the fire spreading across the sky and the sand, engulfed by the beast's pressure. Elisa knelt down and after putting her hand on the sand, the ground froze in every direction.
The fire vanished, and with it also the sandy tornado. The beast landed on the ice and wasted no time. He jumped, turning upside down, and perforating the ice with two of its extremities, while his feet were turned upside down.
"This is it. All or nothing." I said as I watched it, the ice about to shatter.
It cracked, the opening stretching all the way to our feet, and it snapped. The beast did not have enough time to equilibrate itself and without arms it became impossible to get up. He ended up falling into the sand, two of the extremities getting buried. He tried to spin, twirl, but he could only move a few inches to the side.
"I'm going to end this," I told them. I pulled my gun out of the holster and walked to the beast.
The ice melted and the sand wetted. I aimed the gun from above to below and before pressing the trigger I thought about how I would only have one acyx bullet left. And yet, I wanted to end it all as soon as possible. Other missions were waiting for us and one a day was not enough. Maggie was right about that. I fired. The bullet went through the beast's body, destroying all the filaments, chips and everything else it found in the way. The beast's eye closed and it stopped moving.
"It's done," I added. I knelt down, took the Hunter APP out of my pocket and collected the experience points for the whole team.
"Congratulations! You have defeated a level 7 monster. 175 experience points have been given to each, as well as 350 hunter points. Do you want to continue as a team?"
"The acix bullets are in the end, aren't they?" Maggie asked, "I've been meaning to ask you that, but I didn't know how to bring it up after Gordon..."
"Yeah, I got one more bullet. There's a way to get more, but I don't know if they'll let us."
"You're thinking about talking to Lipa, aren't you?"
"Yes, it's the only way. Tom gave me 3 bullets that Ashen had given him, but he was very clear when he said they wouldn't get me anymore. They're spending everything searching for evidence of Shimmer and looking for the rest."
"Will you include me in the talk? Lipa's not that criminal who ran away a while ago, right?" Victoria said while we were still on the beach, chatting and gazing at the horizon, the light blue of the sky mixing with the blue of the sea that the farther it got, the darker it became.
"Yeah, you're right. A quick summary will do. Acix is a special metal. Much stronger than the normal ones like the one in your arrows. But it's expensive and rare, only a few on the black market sell it." I replied and took a break. I thought it would be better if she digested it all slowly, "Yeah, she is. And she's also Kendra's sister, the other girl in our group. She helped us in the past, Elisa has also worked with her, I don't think she will deny us help this time. If anyone knows where there's acix, it's her."
Victoria looked thoughtful for a brief moment before answering, "I see. But do you think she can be trusted? Are you sure she won't betray us?"
"She may be many things, mostly wicked, but she's not a traitor." Elisa said, "We better wait for Kendra to return. They're both their weaknesses. I know Kendra hid her from the police."
"Ashen really told you everything, then." I said, "How about you? You don't know anyone who sells acix? After all, you stayed in the underground for a long time."
"Maybe, but none of them will be available for a meeting with me as soon as they will for Lipa. Either I'm very wrong or as soon as the news spread of what happened on the council all the big vendors went into hiding. Lipa must now be the most sought after."
"Why the most sought-after?" Maggie asked her.
"The whole council is dead. All that's left is her and Albino, and no doubt he won't want her alive for long. She is the only one who has enough weapons, security, and reputation to prevent him from taking control of the entire underground network." Elisa explained to us.
"Things aren't really working out." I said, "You're right. We better wait for Kendra to return. Let's just warn the population that they can leave and return to the headquarters. With a little luck, the protest is already over."
"I miss Kendra. She could be rude sometimes, but she would never let us down." Maggie said and clenched her fist.
"Maggie... It's not your fault. We've been over this." I told her, "Come on, no more wasting time."
"I know, I know. Sometimes it's hard not to think about things, you know?" She answered me.
I felt like she was about to say something else before Elisa straightened out her brown leather jacket, "enough with the sentimentalism. Let's
go."
Chapter IV
The lighthouse was in a small corner of the town. A man-made road, with both sides sheltered by different colored stones, salt water splashing over them. We opened the door and dozens of men took up a fighting position, protecting the women who covered their children and pulled them close to their chests.
"The beast is coming!" One of the men at the front spoke and the rest extended the wooden spears with the tip being a sharp triangle-shaped rock.
"Calm down, calm down. We're Hunters. We've already destroyed the beast. Somebody's going to come and get her." Victoria told them before we were accidentally gutted.
"Hunters? The beast killers?" The same man said, "This time they showed up before we were left with nothing. We have nothing to give you in return."
"We don't want anything from you. We don't do it for the money." Elisa answered him, feeling offended by the way he spoke, almost as if he was accusing us of being something that we were not. At least I wasn't that kind of person anymore.
"Lower your weapons." An older man with a long white beard and a red tunic said, stepping out among the men, "We apologize. We appreciate your help. We're not exactly used to being helped. Even the local cops aren't willing to come here more than once a month. They have richer cities to protect." The man said.
The men left first. Then the kids and finally the women. Most adults had wrinkled fingers, dry skin, and bruised toes. I didn't talk to the girls, but it was impossible not to notice that apart from the children and the older man, the others didn't wear shoes. The children jumped, smiled, hugged, and celebrated being alive. The parents ordered their children to be quiet and to avoid going to the beach. The beast's body was still there. The orange stood out in the arenal's light brown.
"Do you need help with anything?" The man asked us.
"No, thank you. We're good. We should get back to the city now."
"Before you go, what do you think about lunching here? The city has no fish like us, and it is lunchtime," he said. The words were received with frowning glances from the men who strove to disguise that they were circling the man.
"I don't think everyone is happy with that idea." I said, "We don't want to cause any trouble."
"I can't judge every Hunter by the actions of some. All that matters are the now. And right now, you've saved us. It's the least we can do." He said and signaled to the man who had spoken with us earlier to get closer, "Tell Justina to make lunch for 4 more people. She must use the freshest fish she has and not hold on to the entrees. We're having a feast today. Tomorrow we start rebuilding the houses that were destroyed. Make room for the families in my house too." He added.
We were taken to the biggest house in town. It was three times the size of any of the others and the wooden poles that held the roof were thicker than theirs.
"Are we really going to have lunch here?" Maggie asked.
"Well, we'd have to have lunch somewhere, wouldn't we?" I said, "And I bet you've never eaten fish as good as this."
"Why not?"
"This is not the fish your father's cooks bought at the supermarkets. It's fresh fish. You'll understand when we eat."
We were taken to the man's dining room. We walked in through the sliding fine woven curtain windows after climbing a few steps onto a smooth wooden parapet.
A wooden table for 10 people, five on each side, was in the center. The background was the serene sea, the waves that now only drifted into the hot sand and the sun that awakened amidst the clouds on the shore. The walls were of fine silk, adorned with green and blue mandalas, and tapestries rich in cold colors. Five bowls of salad, tomato, and chopped onions were all over the table. There were also small dishes with coarse salt and other empty ones.
"It's for the spines." The man explained it to us when Maggie asked him.
We sat at the table. I sat where I could observe the sea while eating. I've always felt calm around it. I saw the waves contours as they rose just before crashing into the lighthouse's protective rocks and the shore. The white foam lingered on the seashore before the next wave dragged it along and so on.
"It shouldn't be long now." The guy said, "It's your first time here, I assume."
"Yes, I had already been to a village similar to this one when I was younger, but never this one." I replied, "How can you survive here?"
"We have had rough months, but we always find a way. We sell some of the fish we catch, and we have fruit farming and the like, a few meters away. The worst months are the winter ones. It's cold, you know? But we start a bunch of bonfires and the government provides us with those technological bonfires, where the fire is inside a little box but heats us anyway," he explained.
"Don't you get bored of living here the whole time?" Maggie asked him. She had sat next to me and her eyes brightened as she watched the sea.
"Sometimes. It's an exhausting life. But it pays off, you know? Helping our family, our people, seeing children grow up and replacing their parents, caring for them and for the rest of the elderly. I'm not saying there weren't times when I wanted to move, but I'm glad I stayed," he replied, "Oh, lunch is coming." he added and rubbed his hands before putting the napkin, which was next to the silverware, on his lap.
Five pieces of codfish, still fumigating, with the skin gleaming and white rice to go with it. The man thanked us one last time for the help before he allowed us to eat. Three of his security guards were still scattered around the room, their arms crossed, dressed in white suits as if they were going to a jiu-jitsu competition, aware of our every move, from the stabbing we gave to the fish to the way we carried the fork to our mouth. No one spoke at lunch. We devoured the fish as if we had not eaten for days and, truth be told, what we had had as meals in the last few days was nothing. We always ate in the secret base canteen. Every day it was a different kind of mixture, which I'm pretty sure if I flipped the plate, it would be glued to it. Only Victoria and the man ate the fish skin while me and the others left it in the corner of the plate. Maggie wiped the edges of her mouth with one of her napkins. Elisa laid the cutlery on her plate and cracked her fingers. Our plates were empty except for the sauce trail that had persisted all around the rounded plates and a few grains of rice that had slipped away.
We spent a few minutes watching the sea. Even Victoria and Elisa, who once had their backs to him, looked at him now, with their eyes half closed due to the strong sun rays that collided on the roof and reflected before us, still captivated by the natural beauty of the landscape.
"We better get going," I said, getting up.
"There are others in need of help, aren't there?" the man asked me, signaling to one of his security guards to help him get up, by grasping one of his arms, "I understand. I'm glad you stayed for lunch. I missed the company already. It's good to talk to different people, you know? Before you go, just tell me, how are things in the city? You haven't defeated the Reapers yet, have you?"
"If we had defeated, we wouldn't be here, would we?" Elisa said, "Well, this was good while it lasted. Time to get back to the hustle and bustle of the city."
"The girl is right," he replied, "He hasn't opened his eyes yet." The man whispered.
"Excuse me? What do you mean?" Victoria asked him.
"Did you hear that? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to. You may not know, but have you ever heard of a boy named Damien?"
"Damien? The Reapers' inventor? We had a colleague who worked with him. But... he was... kidnapped." I answered him.
It was still hard for me to talk about it, and I still wondered if I should tell him that, but something in me told me that we were safe there.
"Gordon, is it? I heard. Don't make those faces. Just because I'm an old man at the end of the world doesn't mean that I've never left this place for a short time, or that I've never made friends."
"What do you know about Damien?" Elisa asked him and approached him. The security guards quickly came between them, ready to fight, arms up to their chest and fists in the a
ir, "Damn. I'm not going to do anything. I just want to know," she added.
"Have you ever wondered why most beasts look like animals?"
"We talked about this before, didn't we, Maggie?" I asked, remembering an exchange of words we had had almost a month ago
"Yeah, against that beast that looked like a spider, wasn't it?"
"Exactly, we never asked Gordon why," I answered her, and the man laughed.
"Forgive me. I shouldn't laugh. I was remembering how Damien used to get into trouble when he was younger. You know, he's always been a very smart boy. He had his particularities, of course, but we all have our own when we are children, don't we?" The man started and walked to the small parapet from where the breeze was flowing, "His parents were born here but they followed different paths than their grandparents. They ventured into the city and they had him but kept bringing him here every summer. I don't think he was happy there, you know? Even here he was lonely, always by himself. He liked to walk around and gave names to the animals. Seems to me they were the only ones who didn't treat him badly. I tried several times to talk to him, but he never gave me much talk. He ended up in a lot of fights to protect those animals. I even patched him a few times."
"Very nice talk, but how did you know it was him?" Elisa asked.
"After everything that happened, Gordon visited me. He wanted to know what could have led someone like Damien to not care about the deaths of thousands of people. I wish I had a good answer for him." The man said and stretched his arms. The skin was dry and flaky, but he still had some genius left over.
"You're saying we can't stop him by talking him out of it, right?" Victoria asked. She licked her lips after speaking and began to remove the strands of hair that had fallen on her forehead.
"I don't think so. Not all situations can be peacefully handled. It's the downside of a colored world. There are many options and not all of them are good." He said, "Well, you got to get going, don't you? At least take a bottle or two of fresh water. Looks to me like you're going to need it." He said, looking up for a few seconds. The sun glowed like a white star in an all-blue brushstroke landscape.
