Mark stood before the target, silent and deep in thought. He scowled, the blistering cold eating through his skin this deep into the afternoon. At this moment, taking in the clean mountain breeze, Mark’s mental serenity collapsed into a chaos of vile thoughts, and his blade collapsed.
It crashed into the ground beside the target's head in a splendid cleave, splitting the earth and sending a cloud of dust rising. His hands trembled, and Mark stood silently, staring at his hand that refused to obey his commands. He turned to the sleeping monster and then sighed.
“This strength, all directed into the wrong cause.” Mark laughed, trying to comfort himself as he struggled with his trembling hands, pulling the blade out of the ground then striking again, this time directly at the sanguinexus’ arm, causing sparks, yes flaming bright sparks, to fly from the clash.
He thought of throwing her body in the maws of a hungry volcano, imagining the sanguinexus in a pool of lava, drowning as she attained nirvana in hell, bringing an awkward smile to his face. “I am not in a state to carry this thing to a volcano metres away. Or, I could bring her to the facility.”
Mark thought it over seriously. Bringing such a threat with him to the facility was not the wisest move, but it had a greater reward with an equal to a slightly greater level of risk than trying to throw a creature of this technological calibre into a volcano. He still needed to hurry back to the facility.
Once he got back, he would hand her over to the authorities! The founder would know more about sanguinexis than he ever could. As for how he would transport her in this deteriorating state, all that he had to think of was to persevere. Even though he wanted to drop her and run here and now.
“I do not know how long it’ll take for her to complete her healing so leaving her here and then returning later to a more elaborate trap is suicide. It was of a lower risk carrying her on his back to the base, as there was a greater chance her healing would not complete before they reached it.
He could try and kill her, stabbing and slashing with his blade until she died. But, then again, was he really strong enough to kill something like this? She ate his sword then laughed it off like it was nothing! He was too young to make jest of details like that, thinking it best to leave it to the pros.
Mark lifted the unconscious target and threw her over his shoulder. Of course, he would have gladly piggybacked her up the mountain, but thinking back to her fangs again, he thrashed it. The chances of survival for Mark were higher if she bit his back than his neck.
Now that he had secured the target, Mark frowned. She was not as heavy as he expected, causing him only a slight strain which was good. She seemed so delicate in his grasp, it was as if the monster that nearly severed his head from his body was a different person, “To make those technologies fit in such a small body and maintain a good weight in the process, it was shocking.”
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He heaved, climbing up the mountain to the other side. Once I get to the facility, I’ll have to study the mechprint to discover in what ways I can make use of it. After Mark reached the top, he secured a sleeping sanguinexus on his back, then scaled down. In the piercing cold, his wounds burned harder.
Soon, his mind wandered to the expenses and Mark’s eyes watered up. The bills from advanced medical care would eat him alive since the facility won’t take responsibility for actions like these. He would also need to fix his armour and chipped blade, and as these numbers piled, his head spun.
The temptation to join the other descendants with his uncle grew since he would no longer need to worry about these material things with their salaries. He drooled thinking about how much better he’d get if he had the necessary resources, but his sanity, whatever was left, kept him in check.
——
"So, you are saying you got lost in the mountains — which is kilometres away from the facility — and found a homeless stranger collapsed near a shipwreck? Please, Mark, I do not care about those sketchy lies now — you will need serious medical attention and serious demerits for these actions,”
Mark stood, shocked. He had explained it so beautifully, yet he still earned demerits! Any more of these and his allowances would be cut off and he’d get thrown into detention. Merits were the model student’s backbone in this institution, and losing them was not something Mark could ignore.
“I am just covering for you as the cool guy that I am unless you’d face worse consequences. I’m a lot more interested in this thing you found. I have no information on her race, but I believe the great authorities should.” The guard sighed, his emerald hair fluttering in the wind. He paused in thought.
His name was Balder: the closest guard to Mark in the facility. He had imparted his knowledge upon the young Mark, teaching the ways of this part of the world. Balder was the first summoned upon the facility to receive any distress signals from Mark — for example, signals related to a child getting lost from a faulty direction sensor. So, he had been quite busy lately.
"Tch. Lookout for me my foot." Mark muttered to himself as he gazed at the unconscious target lying in a bed beside them. They were inside the guard barracks built beside the main gates, and the interior was quite boring like any other. Plain bed, plain furniture, plainer walls, plainer floors, plain ceiling, plainest — well — everything.
“What did you say?” The guard narrowed his eyes with a gleam inside them, he heard what Mark said clearly and was very worried about those words, “I know that there are a lot of things you aren’t telling me but be careful with these things. I do not want anything happening to my younger brother, because that would not be good for my reputation.”
“It’s nothing to be worried about. It’s just you have better issues to deal with than look out for me — some random stranger.” Mark clicked his tongue, and then he held his chin in thought before opening his mouth to speak, “Anyway, I was thinking of what I’d do once I get released from here.”
Balder frowned. He had also been tasked with facing the same question years ago and he had chosen the simplest path to grow his great cool factor. He had chosen the path of a Stellar Guard, a defender of the weak and beacon of strength! It was such a cool thing, and he knew it.
“Well. You can think about that all you want — after your wounds have been treated. You can wait here for the medical team to arrive. As for this thing, we can leave it with you until we are sure of what we can do with her.” Balder smirked, “At least you won’t feel empty and lonely without me, your cooler brother by your side.”
Mark wanted to roll his eyes, but he wore a wry smile on his face. He had greater issues to face now — he turned to the sleeping target — he had already made his choice. Now, he had to take all the responsibility for it. Well, that did not include paying heed to Balder’s jabs.