The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

  "Little bastard!" Brian was angry. He was angered by Dudian's attack but also for his stupidity as he fall into a mere scavenger's trap. However, he was confident that there was no way for Dudian to get out of his hands so he still kept he cool. "I will unscrew your head! Squeeze out your eyes! You little bastard!", he roared.

  However, Dudian didn't panic as he saw that dagger had failed. He began to lift the keyboard, LCD screep, cup, picture frames, flower pot and any other object that was on the table to throw at Brian.

  Although these things will not cause any harm but at least could block Brian.

  Brian was aware of Dudian's intentions. However he took Dudian's actions as the last stand by his prey because of despair. He enjoyed the scene. He didn't even raise his hand to block the on-coming object. Even those cups or pots wouldn't have any effect because of the hunter's specialized armor that he wore.

  At this moment, Dudian vainly threw mass of fabric at Brian.

  This cloth was on the table, along with the other things. It seemed that Dudian was just grabbing anything that he could and throwing them at Brian.

  Bang! Brian kicked the hard object that was covered with the fabric: "Little bastard! I'll the way you think of these little cunning plans. But do you think that I would fall for the same trap twice? All the other things were covered in dust and moss but this fabric was clearly flipped over. What had you hidden inside?"

  Dudian's pupils shrank. He had understimated the observative skills of the hunter. Powerful physique played only small part in their overall qualifications. The real problem was in their culuminated real-life combat experience. Perhaps while hunting the monsters, they have been accustomed to tactics of making traps. Most probably they have long used every possible trap that could be thought of.

  "I had underestimated you," Dudian gasped, staring at him coldly.

  Brian sneered, "Do you any random person can kill a hunter? Since the other three little animals have escaped, you will bear all of my anger now!"

  Dudia sneered and said: "I had underestimated your foolishness, idiot!" Then he instantly jumped to the back of the desk.

  Brian was confused because of his action. However he smelled a burning paper. In his peripheral vision under a table there was a tube. There was a faint flame that reached it. The next moment.

  Boom!...

  A massive explosion happened which swallowed him.

  A loud noise echoed out and the whole room shook. The lights on the ceiling had shattered and falled on off.

  Although Dudian hide in time, but he felt the shockwave even behind the desk. He felt his body thrown out by the shockwave. He hit a hard object and fall on to ground. Pain spread throughout his body, while there was a buzzing sound echoed in his ears. In a moment, unimaginable amount of pain burst into his mind.

  He struggled to open his eyes. His line of sight was dizzy and constantly shaking. He bit his teeth, raised his hand and slapped his face.

  After continuous two or three slaps gradually his sight was restored. He struggled to stand up and looked up at the location of the previous explosion.

  He had incited the hunter's concentration on himself so that he wouldn't detect the gunpowder filled tube. He had used the fabric that he found in the office to ignite the gunpowder. But the proplem was that both paper and fabric were covered in thick dust. That's why they burned very slowly even though he had used the dagger to divide the fabric into strips. Because of slow burning he had covered the fabric with the paper from the side. From the beginning his aim was to camouflage the gunpowder tube.

  Moreover he had to take risks. Even though the lethality of the tube bomb was high, but if the hunter was away from it then it would not have much of an effect. So he took a gamble.

  If the fabric burned faster than he expected, he would be the first to be killed by the blast.

  If it burned out when both of them were close to it, both of them would die.

  It was a big gamble where his life was used a bet. There was no option but to make it.

  Dudian felt tired. He leaned against the wall and took big breathes. He grabbed the fabric which was near the wall. He untied it and saw more than a dozen dark blue balls in it. There was a trace of happines as he smiled, but the next moment he body suddenly froze.

  Hunter struggled a lot but at the end slowly stood up. His right arm which had faced the explosion had been blown off. The blood was oozing out. He clutched the dagger with his right hand while the hunter looked at Dudian ferciously.

  Didn't he ... ... die? .

  Chapter 64: Beast

  Dudian was horrified. He was struggling to stand still as his hands and feet were feeling very week. Even though he wasn't at point blank when the explosion occurred but he had been affected by the massive shock-wave that came up aftermath it.

  "Small...Small bastard!", Brian ferociously stared at Dudian. He was bloodstained and he was dragging his right leg while he slowly walked towards Dudian. He raised his left hand and threw the dagger at Dudian's chest.

  Dudian had expected the shot so made his best to avoid it by a sideway roll.

  Brian's right arm was blown away plus his right leg was seriously injured. As he throw the dagger his body lost the balance and he felt down the place where Dudian prevously stood. Brian struggled to get up again but his body had taken its toll so it was very hard for him to move. However, he was able to grab the dagger.

  Dudian saw that the hunter was not able to stand up again so his heart was relieved. It seems that although he couldn't kill the hunter but at least disabled him for good. He began to grab anything that was in his periphery and throw it at hunter.

  There was no protective gear at Brian's head. If it was normally, he wouldn't feel any pain because of the things that hit him. But now, as right side of his face had been injured, these pots and leftover's of chairs were inflicting great deal of pain. His body muscles were twitching and more blood was bursting out of his shoulder.

  He roared and waved the dagger. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't even reach Dudian's feet.

  Dudian was worried that the hunter would suddenly rush at him so he didn't dare to get too close to him. He thought of his own dagger which he had thrown earlier. Although its blade was not useable, but its tip was sharp. He ran back to the get the dagger. As he looked back he Brian had already climb over.

  The hunter's ferocious eyes were full of compelling chill. As if he would counter-attack at anytime but was hesitating about the timing. Bang! The floor began to tremble and collapse under Brian's foot.

  Brian fell to the third floor. Several desks were crushed by the collapse of the fall and Brian had fallen onto one of them.

  Brian's body shook from the pain as he he was lying on the broken pieces of the desk over the floor. The ground under him collapsed and he fell into the second floor.

  As Brian's body hit the ground on the second floor it ceased any kind of movement.

  Dudian with light footsteps came over the edge of the gap created by the collapse. He looked down to see that the hunter was not moving. Blood was slowly flowing out from his shoulder and staining the ground.

  Dudian was relieved. He slowly retreated away from the gap. He sat down on his butt and leaned against the wall to rest. This building had become useless after three hunred years of corrosion. An explosion such as that had collapsed two floors. If there was a bigger explosion then the whole building would be blown to dust.

  Resting for some time, Dudian felt that his physical strength was restored. He gently went to the other side of the office and grabbed the fabric with the dark blue balls.

  As he went to the second floor he thought that this explosion may attract undeads, the beast and most importantly other hunters from the consortium, So he had to be quick in his dealings. As he reached the office on the second floor he saw the hunter was still lying on top of the ground. The blood that had oozed out of his body was almost dry and hard.

  He walked around the office and grabb
ed all the scatter white paper he could. He threw them onto hunter and look for more. At the end, when he felt there were enough he went close to the hunter and squat down to use fire sickle to burn hunter's body. Suddenly the hunter, who was supposedly dead, made his last move as he jumped and stabbed the dagger that he held onto Dudian's chest.

  Dudian couldn't help but be shocked as all of this was completely contrary to his expectation. He felt the dagger easily pierce through his soft armor and stab into his chest. The first feeling that he got was extreme cold and then he felt severe pain coming off from his chest.

  His eyes opened wide in shock as he looked at the hunter. "Did he played dead? Was he waiting for him?", many thoughts passed by in his mind.

  He had rested for a while and it took him some time to get to second floor from fourth floor. The hunter was able to hold back and play dead for sometime. He was expecting Dudian to get close to him. What kind of faith and endurance does he have?

  "Bastard ... ..." Brian slowly raised his head. His face was extremely pale due to excessive blood loss. But there was crazy hatred reflected in his eyes. He had a self-depreciating, self-mocking smile on his head. His hand left the dagger's hilt and his face fall down.

  "He is really dead." Dudian saw the expressionless look in hunter's eyes.

  But ... ... the dagger was stabbed into his Chest.

  Dudian grabbed onto the dagger. His whole body shivered. He stood up unsteadily but fell onto his knees. Every move that he wanted to make would affect his chest muscles. Every second was filled with dramatic pain.

  "I can not die. Can not die ... ..." Dudian constantly repeated the idea in his mind. His consciousness gradually blurred, as if he was going to sleep for an eternity. But the voice and facial expressions of his sister and parents emerged in his mind. He remember the last words told to him by his mother and sister as the cold storage closed.

  Live well ... ...

  Live well ... ...

  Survive!

  He bit his tongue and previously dazed consciousness suddenly restored a bit. He looked down and found that the dagger hadn't thorn his heart. If it had pierced the heart, he should have died on spot. Perhapds if he could stop the blood outflow, he could survive.

  Suddenly strong feeling that urged him to survive poured into Dudian's heart. He clenched his teeth and got up. He took out the dark blue ball from the fabric. It absorbs heat but also could be used to analgesic and hemostasis the wound.

  He went to the back of the hunter and got the first aid kit from his backpack. There was unused gauze, some bottles and jars, some pills and powder inside the first aid kid.

  Dudian found the alcohol. While his hand trembled his ignited the fire by using the previously prepared paper heap. Although the radiation was high but he could manage.

  He drank alcohol, bowed his head and blew onto the dagger. Little by little he pulled out the dagger. The pain he felt was so hard that he felt his scalp burst and soul shake. There was an urge to stop but he fought back the pain and slowly took out the dagger. The blood suddenly poured out. It was as if strength was leaving his body.

  He began to wrap the gauze around his chest and tightly restrained it. At the moment he couldn't find needle and thread so it was impossible for him to suture the wound. For the time being his wanted to stop the bleeding.

  Soon the top of the gauze was colored red. He rolled few more times and put the dark blue ball on the chest to continue to roll the gauze. He hoped that because of hemostasis the blood flow would stop.

  Dudian looked at the hunter's body burning in the flame. There was a chill in his heart as he thought that hunters were not small timers who he could mess around with.

  He leaned against the wall to rest, while studying the bottles and jars in the first aid kit. None of the drugs were labelled so he didn't dare to use any of them. Because they were made according to hunter's physique. The effects would be strong. If used wrong it will bring more harm than benefits.

  Time went by slowly. Dudian was relieved that the blood outflow had been restrained by the dark blue ball. However he couldn't move around or the wound would immediately split again.

  God didn't favor him once again. Dudian was quietly watching out from the vegetation covered windows. The windows gently trembled as a growl which he was familiar with echoed out. It was the beast that he had seen before.

  Dudian's face became pale as he was sitting on the ground trying to recuperate.

  ...

  Chapter 65: hunting the prey

  The floors have been corrosed and rot after the test of time.

  At this time, the waves of sounds echoed out as stairs had demolished. Dudian looked ugly. He knew that the monster had come after him but it seemd to stay on the second floor for some time. Most probably hunter's corpse had caught its attention.

  Bang! Bang! Dudian felt the slight tremors coming of the floor. Seems the sixth floor was broken too. Obviously, five-meter long monster has an enermous weight and it is a big toll on the floor's ground.

  Dudian felt the ceiling almost fall off. The tremors caused by the monster was fatal for the long ramshackled building. He clenched the rope and stared to the front.

  Bang! He saw the giant black claws breaking the ground. The claw tips waved almost stabbing Dudian.

  Dudian was scared. Around five meters away from him the floor crashed and huge grim head stretched out. Big black eyes were staring at him. There was saliva flowing down its fangs.

  Dudian jumped out of the window in hurry.

  His body was rapidly falling.

  Dudian clutched the rope tightly and stopped the movement.

  He looked up and saw the beast has climbed out from the seventh flood. It's body squeezed from the narrow space on the seventh floor, looked down at him and was about to jumped out.

  At the moment, Dudian was hanging out near the third floor. There was four-story of height in between him and the beast. His hand was about to catch the glass that was in front of him. Suddenly, he felt as if his body and arm were torn open at the same time. He had been stabbed by the hunter which needed a lot of time for its effects to disappear. His finger slipped and he couldn't grasp.

  Tears almost flowed out because of the pain. He tired once more to grab. He lost control and fall of. There was a buffer on the second floor. He hit the windowsill and stabilized his body. He didn't dare to life his head, instead he punched the glass and crawled inside.

  The moment he crawled in a strong wind blowed past. "Whoosh". At the same time cracked growling voice echoed. Dudian quickly looked back. He was horrified at the sight. The windowsill which he was on moments ago had been torn by the beast while falling down. It had hit the ground floor. There were broken glass and meter long stones that were pressing onto its body.

  Dudian relieved. Fortunately this windowsill was not strong enough to withstand the beast's weight.

  Grim roar's echoed once again. Dudian was surprised and saw the beast going into the building again. Falling down from the seventh floor was not enough to kill it!

  Dudian's face was pale. Half of it was because of the fear, the other half because of the excessive blood loss. He was about turn around and run when he felt the tremors coming from the stairs. The monster had climbed up and was about to charge over. He abruptly grabbed the rope that was outside and kept climbing up the rope.

  While he was climbing the monster had leaped up and its claws were carving the outer wall of the building. They were directed at Dudian. It was roaring in anger.

  Dudian looked down and saw the body of the beast. Because of the fear he began to climb faster and faster while the chest pain was getting more severe. His chest was already covered in red.

  Soon, Doudian climbed to the fourth floor while the monster was leveraging by coming after him.

  Dudian was scared as he got into windows of the fourth floor in hurry. He rolled inside and didn't care much about the body pain that he felt. He clutched his chest as he quickly ran to the o
ther side of the fourth floor.

  The monster jump into the fourth floor. It's claws were deeply engraved into the wall so it didn't fall down. The rope that Dudian had used to climb was swept away by its giant claws.

  Looking at the direction Dudian ran it growled and went inside.

  However the was a 6-7 meters wide holy in the room. Only the edges of the room were barely enough for a human to walkd around. It could only crawl slowly but couldn't catch up to Dudian fastly.

  However, because of the strong bloodthirst it didn't gave up on its prey. It growled and used its claws to grab on to walls. It made few steps before the corridor's wall couldn't bear its weight and collapsed down. Its body fall down with the collapsing wall.

  Dudian didn't dare to stay and went towards the stairs to climb up.

  The only hope he had now was the cover of the building. The beasts size was enermous. So it would be extremely difficult for it to catch up with Dudian. Especially in such a building where everything was almost rotten to the bone.

  ...

  ...

  Chapter 66: trapped in the shaft

  A huge roar resounded close by.

  Numberous dust clouds rolled up. Dudian's sight was covered as he jumped up following his gut feeling. He heavily fall down and rolled quite a few times as the floor collapsed. Along the way he violently collided with large number of hard stones. He felt as if his body was going to break at any given minute. Suddenly his head knocked onto a heavy object and he lost consciousness.

  He didn't know how long time has past away as he began to wake up. He felt difficult in breathing.

  He opened his eyes but everything was plunged into darkness.

  He was startled.

  "I have not died?", he whispered.

  The next moment, the pain that came from his body made to completely awaken from the absent-mindedness. His back was touching something hard. By pushing on his hands he wanted to move his body but an enermous pain hit him.