Chapter 8

William saw it in his red visions as similar to the man glaring at him. Tinged with red, his eyes were crazy like that bow. His body was tiny compared to Dreznar, but it was much denser and great for that bow. And he was closer, while his voice was normal and human, yet William wasn't entirely convinced what he was hearing was right or wrong.

He backed away even further, unsure if this was a man or a nightmare.

“Oy, don't run away for fuck's sake...” Adam cursed and released his bows, killing a new batch of Darks behind William. They tried to seize his head or whole body when they could.

Adam breathed, stepped closer, and looked at this itching Emblem and weird things that were occurring before his eyes.

“Are you fucking Awakening right now? Jesus, how old are you?”

Adam knew this was no normal Awakening since William looked way too young. The current age had a lot of research about Walkers and their powers. Seventy years of it already proved many experiments, advantages, and science right. Adam wasn't even sure about half the things he knew, which was barely a page into a large book, but he was a strong Walker, thus he knew a lot of things.

Walkers were complicated; Awakening and growth were something unique to most of them, and if someone understood half of it, they might be geniuses among geniuses.

This boy before him was abnormal. Those eyes, those... what was he even looking at?

“Rank 0?” Adam realized it was something brutal, yet due to William's messed up appearance and things he knew, this whole picture was nonsensical. Age slipped his mind soon enough, and he watched a kid no less than seven years old live through this hell. Unfortunately, Adam wasn't familiar with any Gale. His boss was, so some age or wonder in the middle of this beating Incursion was excessive.

Adam was about to touch him and do as Dreznar ordered, but the world turned red for him. Something clicked, jerked him, and he even lost his voice when something smacked the ground, shook his core, and demolished the air. It was even worse when he hiccuped and bent and… coughed up blood.

Something picked him up from the air, and a large spike went through his chest, or it was a hand, hindering every speck of control he had. His Cycles were completely broken and crashed. “What... the fuck... where...” Adam mumbled and looked aside, obviously confident in his Perception and Spatial Awareness. Did it fail him, or did this boy cause it to malfunction?

In any way, he tried to fight back with half of his torso in shambles. Not dead, but lacking, he failed in all regards. That was the difference from normal people who would die quicker deaths. Walkers could hold on longer even if they were looking as if they were dead. Loss of arm? Not much of a problem. Sometimes even split bodies lived for a long time, and a Healer could save them.

Adam held his bow and was unable to even Mold a simple string. Looking for help didn't help either, for it was no longer possible. Adam froze, noticing his whole squad was already in pieces when a nasty figure behind him angled him aside. Even Dreznar collapsed to a building, bloodied and barely breathing. He should be glad to be alive, but Adam had no such thought. Behind him, so close to feeling its faceless head, a fiendish Dark was ''smiling'' at him, looking like a complete nightmare.

Just a single one did this much in a few heartbeats. No one else was there. There were even numerous corpses of those savage Creatures around, munched, or in pieces. It killed everyone, had it not? Infighting was extremely common in Darks whose hunts were their lives, instincts were pride, and fun was law.

Sizable like two people stacked on top of one another, its features were mostly smooth and collected, looking as if it was an unnatural perfect human being mixed with an artificial doll. The skin was smooth, thinly glowing in purple mist. Its head had a vicious smile, no eyes, and its arm had fingers, but made of flickering tendrils the width of rice. There were millions of such tendrils making its body, and one hand shaped up to make a spiked weapon.

Adam figured that some very nasty Dark had come to hunt them. The kind that might have done this much wasn't some mere Rank 7. This might be Rank 8.

He gulped the blood, but the spike flickered and started crushing his insides. These little tendrils were like thousands of little needles and swords, cutting into him from the inside out.

William watched that picture as he knelt, doubtful and looking for a way out.

Run

A law. It was his task set by his mother and his own lie.

A rather high-ranked Creature before him had its fit, so would it be interested in a small desert?

It licked Adam's face, before turning its eyeless face to William.

“Chiiiiieeld...” It said in shrieks of English words.

Adam cursed. “This thing!” It was a bigger threat than he thought. This sort of Dark with intent and intellect was terrifying and made into a Hazard Level 4 Threat. That meant unique Darks that were impossible to comprehend.

William waited for nothing. He didn't even care for drops or flashing shining red light plunging from Adam. He didn't hear anything concrete, nor did he notice those Walkers wanted to rescue him. He was far too busy being lost in this world and crying in his head.

Then, he imagined it when the buzzing returned and something in him moved. Crimson vision shifted and he saw that room. Then, a monster. Crimson spread like heat and he felt very wrong to imagine it. He was standing as if it was possible and even leaped at Adam, piercing his skin with his right arm that turned into a strange drill thanks to those mysterious snake lines. Then, he bit the neck and pierced the flesh with his arm some more. Nonstop, he gnawed, cried, and winced his head and shoulders, leaving Adam in a pool of blood.

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William shook as he knelt, watching how that Creature held Adam above the ground, still alive, still breathing, and in no pool of blood.

William touched his face, mumbling. “No. Nononononononono.”

The main issue was the noise. It bore no stops whether it was natural or not, giving him a basic lure and premise where his thoughts became mushy. His mind became so intense, that he couldn't think straight. His feet moved, head hunched as he turned and he couldn't even see the corpses of these people.

Beyond the blood and headless corpses, the surrounding horror left the corner of his vision, turning, mashing, and disappearing in the glorious shining crimson.

[Let me…]

His blank mind wasn't looking for others. It looked for something. Anything.

Adam watched how one passing Creature got to its feet, shaking its head with a big spear in its chest. It was alive and strong. It came to barely walking William, grasped the spear in its chest, and snapped it to mist. Its smile spread when it got great permission and its hand moved like a spear, coming for William’s head.

It hesitated, stopping its arm an inch from William’s head. Those eyes looked from below, and something turned odd. The hand dropped to the ground and turned to mist. The Creature shivered when it fell in halves to the ground, dying in colorless Madness. William stood above it this time around, and pure red eyes looked at this Creature as if it were an insect. A red storm moved and William’s right arm plunged into its head, killing it in a split second, guided by deep red lines around his right arm that cut the previous hand.

William looked at Adam afterward and he watched this kid and that act with astonishment on his face. That was Rank 5 Creature at minimum, wasn’t it? He forgot to think and noticed those deep eyes in that young yet indifferent inhuman face. Blood droplets indicated nothing good. William’s hand was seized like the rest, crying in a bloody picture, yet it was brutal and forced.

For safety, or a way to see the promise and lie of the word, William blinked and saw no change. He wasn’t sure where to go next. He turned and ran away, leaving bloody footprints and droplets coming from his hand. The only face he wanted to see at the moment was his mother’s.

He went aside as if he walked into the wrong classroom, walking from the chuckling Dark that still held Adam up in the air.

Then it winced, looking at that red young storm walking away, smelling delicious.

“Innnntereesting...” It whispered and stepped in, almost gnawing Adam's head off when a large crimson spear smashed at its chest, pinning it to the ground. The force shook the ground and forced Adam away from its spike, leaving him grunting in shock on the ground. A hole in his chest tried to heal, but it was deep, affecting not only his thought process but his flesh and Inner Cycles.

Was what Adam watched even half-right? That thing was no child.

Wheezing for breath, he looked at the other insanity. Just a spear appeared. Nobody else, though even this little was enough to save his measly little life.

The Creature chuckled, letting out hilarious shrieks, and began to convulse as if it were cold or aroused. “Ah. Ahh! You come. You come. Come at me! Let's dance for ol' sake!” It began to kick the ground and laugh.

It clasped the spearhead the size of its body but couldn't move it at all. It was through it, pinning it way too tight. The spear was also rotating on its own, churning up in the Arcana of quite some weight, cycling, and resilient annihilation. Whatever this red spear was about, it sizzled its insides, but the Dark Creature enjoyed it nonetheless.

The thrill of this hunt was getting strong with this one.

It forgot about that running red child that disappeared around the corner and cackled in endless joy. It looked up, its eyes sizing whatever was in the Dark Fog.

This spear will enjoy itself tonight.

***

Running through buildings and tight corridors, William couldn't figure out his thoughts or acts. Where was he or what was he doing? He decided to leave wide places alone, and he wasn't sure about where he was anymore, or where to even step or look.

His thoughts assumed safety with quietness, so he was running and looking for anything like that. Not his mother. Not anymore... She hadn't come before, so she probably won't come again.

Wet, sticky, and tired, the red hues followed his sight and his right arm was limp like a broken toy. It was trying its best to no avail, for this camp was no more. William was dull, feeling empty and barely feeling pain or noises.

There were other kinds of noises.

Right around the many corners and buildings, raging stomps revealed Carnijaw, who had been struggling to catch up with its prey for quite a few minutes. Due to its size and speed, it struggled in this camp. Buildings and many ants were in the way, so it was still enraged and stomped against the buildings and ground, looking to fix that humiliation. It disregarded some Hellgars and smashed numerous people to pieces alongside them. Its size was at least fifteen feet tall, but its four limbs were quite big and worked like proper arms. It had its main knee-like knuckle, thus its size could be even taller if it tried to stand straight.

Still, Carnijaw was enormous, and its tendrils grew back, so it shot them around in a fit of rage and tried to look for that red brat. They flew like arrows and whips, smashing things apart whether they were alive or not.

William didn't turn. He wasn't even thinking about these incoming loud distractions. However, they came to him even from hundreds of feet away.

Dozens of tendrils disintegrated into the dust the moment they reached a handful distance from him, leaving thin afterimages and barely tangible sounds in their tracks. William kept going anyway, unhindered by the pain or enraged Carnijaw.

Perhaps the last bit of the light from his forearm saved him since its range and hues were becoming less and less coherent, strong, and quick. It was like a worm right now, let alone a snake. William was similar, as his fatigue, pain, and mind couldn't keep up with anything. At least his eyes calmed down after there was no intense sight ahead. There were just dead people, crashed buildings, and some beasts that whined in his presence.

William didn't realize that something kept saving him when he kept going. Tendrils shot at him, scrapping way too close to him, and some even scratched him because the red hues were losing this battle.

Most imminent ones disintegrated, leaving Carnijaw absolutely infuriated, and others missed or became half-destroyed.

Not like the boy cared.

Run... Run… Hide... HIDE! William... Voice. Listen.

Some words of his mother reverberated within his mind, fueling his intuitions to a minor degree. A five-year-old was still a five-year-old, and even his mother's voice fell short when she was nowhere near.

His stamina had its capacity, even though the process of the Rank 0 Awakening did leave its mark. Such a kid couldn't run over the entire camp for the possible, albeit unrealistic safety. There might be some a few streets away. Maybe.

It was a small possibility because the Incursion's end was approaching, while the camp was emptying. Some corners were barren of them, revealing Darks gradually eating what they could.

For now, he ran and ignored the shrieks and noises behind him similar to the pain, heat, or drifting vague whip from his right hand.