As Arno practiced trying to shoot the training dummies that were in Terrance’s training hall, I tapped my foot impatiently. They should be starting their little play any moment now. What’s taking them so long? Don’t tell me they got lost on the way. Now that I think about it, they probably did.

“HEEEEEEEEEEELP!”

HA! PERFECT!

“That sounded like Anna! She may need our help!” I put on my best acting performance as I hopped out of the window.

“Wait! Shouldn’t we call the police first?!”

I couldn’t help but look at him with an appalled face. All of a sudden, now he chooses to be a voice of reason?!

“There’s not enough time, Arno! We have to stop whoever’s taking Anna!”

“I guess you’re right!” Arno gripped his training pistol and jumped out of the window to join me. Once he did, the both of us ran off in the direction we heard the scream.

Once we came to a crossroads, we saw a hogtied Annabelle over the shoulder of one of the two “kidnappers.” It was very easy to tell that the bigger one was Gollie and the smaller one was Rono. The only difference in their outfits that they made was changing into black attire with black masks.

“Let go of Anna!” Arno shouted out.

“A-AS IF WE WOULD, YOU DAMN FOOL! YOU’LL HAVE TO CATCH US! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Rono let out a maniacal laugh as he ran off. Talk about overselling a bit…

“Get back here!” Arno ran off after both of them and I followed.

Under normal circumstances, Arno would easily catch up to both Gollie and Rono. Thankfully, I had the smart idea to convince Arno to wear weights at the base of his legs. He’s so slowed down by them, even I could keep up with him. It’s probably now dawning on him that he still has them on, but he truly believes that if he slows down any, he’ll lose them. The backstreets of zone one are very narrow, after all.

This was our grand plan. With a good distance between the both of them and a sense of urgency, Arno has no choice but to land a shot with the training pistol.

“Arno, use the pistol!”

“R-right!” Arno hesitated for a moment, but the severity of the situation allowed him to push through his doubts. He took aim with the pistol and pulled the trigger!

And nothing happened…

Damn! We’ll have to move to plan B.

“Arno! Shoot these menaces to society!” I yelled out the code word Rono and I agreed to use. Gollie turned as he held onto Anna and Jack yelled out their demands.

“Leave us be or else we’ll slit her throat! You’ve got three seconds! Three!”

“Alright! We’ll leave!” Arno yelled.

Wait what?!

“Uh…Two!” Rono let out an uncertain declaration.

“We already have their builds and voice types. Instructor Matthews says if you can’t win, get as much info and leave.” Arno whispered to me.

“Who in the world are you? You’re definitely not Arno…” I muttered.

Why isn’t he rushing in to do vigilante justice? Isn’t he a surface-level goody two shoes? Why is he such a methodical thinker all of a sudden?!

“One…Imma do it…I’m gonna kill her now…” Rono drew out the standoff as much as possible.

“Hell no! We gotta save her now! Shoot that bastard!”

“Wait a minute, don’t you have the highest aptitude score here? Wouldn’t it make more sense if you shot him?”

I’m going to rip my hair out…

“Zero! That’s it! We’re gonna do it—”

Gollie immediately threw Anna and pushed Rono towards us. As he did, he jumped back to us and fell. Arno seized the opportunity by jumping on Rono.

“Wait, Arno! It’s me, Rono!” Rono took off his mask to reveal himself.

“Rono?! Wait…If you’re Rono, then who’s that?” As Gollie put his back to the floor, he removed his mask. As they were doing this, I cut Anna loose.

“What’s going on here?” Arno asked.

“Awwww man. I wanted to immobilize all of you in one cut, but the fatso must’ve seen me coming. That was a good call, putting the lives of those two before you…maaaaaan I should’ve just shot your head off. I would’ve at least guaranteed a kill…”

The boy was just a bit shorter than me. Because of his white hair, we could tell he was a Holian. Well, calling it white was a stretch. It was very dirty and unkept so it had a sort of gray color to it. He also wore a ragged brown cloak that covered his body. I wasn’t very sure who it was until I saw the crystal on the side of his bayoneted rifle. This isn’t some lost child…we’re dealing with Hives!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I read news reports that stated in zone three, bodies have been found with an excessive amount of bullet holes in them. There was no money or valuables taken from these bodies. The only thing they all had in common were these countless bullet wounds and a single cut from a blade. Zone three had a serial killer on their hands.To make matters worse, a CT was sent to hunt him and kill him, but they went missing.

It makes no sense, though. What the hell is he doing here?!

Before I could further question the situation, I noticed that Gollie had an open wound across his chest. Anna immediately ran over to assist Gollie. As soon as she took a first aid kit out of her satchel, Hives wasted no time by setting his sights on her.

“ARNO! THE PISTOL!”

“Right!” Arno tossed the pistol to me, but because of the dire situation, I didn’t stop to think that that was a wrong move.

As soon as the pistol left Arno’s hands and was flying in the air towards me, A blast of precise air shot the gun and sent it flying out of sight. While Arno and I were shocked at what just happened, Hives took the opportunity to begin his assault on Gollie and Anna with a charge.

“Arno, get Anna out of there! Rono, start running away for help—” I glanced over at where Rono was and saw him running away at record speeds. What a coward! He didn’t even run that fast during the obstacle course training!

Meanwhile, Arno trusted my split second decision-making and ran to save Anna.

The next part of this struggle happened in a near instant. Arno got to Anna and Gollie before Hives and swept Anna off of her feet. As soon as he had Anna, the two were in slashing vicinity of Hives. Hives went for a vertical slash, but Arno dashed backwards and just barely avoided contact with Hives’s bayonet. Hives sucked his teeth at the encounter.

“Maaaaaan. You’re pretty smart, lady. Just from that one swing on the fatty, you figured it out, huh?”

“It was before that one swing, if I’m being honest.”

The one deep cut, the countless bullet holes without any resistance from the victims. No one in the papers seemed to question it. Nobody except for me, that is.

“Listen up everyone! The secret to the serial killer Hives’s high kill count is that bayonet! It’s tipped with a poison that’ll paralyze you! He’s only going to kill all of us if we get paralyzed.”

Arno set Anna next to us. “One thing I’ve learned while growing up: always trust Ori. She may act scary sometimes, but she means well—” Before Arno could finish his sentence however, he collapsed onto the floor.

Yeah, I figured that was gonna happen. He got cut saving Anna, after all.

"I may be at a disadvantage because you know my secret, but you guys are at a disadvantage too. I'm certain that those two on the floor were your best fighters." Hives mentioned.

"Hah! In that case you're mistaken, little one. Our best fighter is right here!" I slapped Anna on the back and pushed her slightly forward. As I did so, I whispered to her "We need to stall him for as long as possible. Just until Rono comes back with a CT." She nodded in agreement.

"Let's go, Anna!"

"Sure thing!"

Stematas are made in a way in which it gives its wielder a huge advantage over someone without one. That's why a law was passed forbidding the selling of stematas to the general public. Whoever has a stemata in a fight has an extremely high chance of winning. With that being said, the goal is painfully obvious: We have to take Hives's rifle away from him!

As the both of us rushed towards him, he did something that I didn't really foresee in my plans.

He threw his rifle into the air. This is obviously just a distraction. A sleight of hand. The very moment I look away, he'll reveal another weapon that'll possibly paralyze me. Why else would he throw that rifle in the air?

I understood this, but I couldn't convey his scheme to Anna quickly enough. In a flash, Hives revealed a knife and swung in an arc at us. I just barely dodged it, but Anna got slashed right across her chest. It didn't take long for the poison to kick in and for her to fall onto the ground. That left just me and him. He caught the rifle as it was landing and proceeded to slowly stride over to me. With each step he took forward, I took a couple of steps back. I'm as good as done for and Hives knew this.

"This was reaaaaaaally fun! I've never had so much fun with people! Ever since that day I left my home, I've been drilling holes into people."

As I was pacing backwards, I tripped over Arno's body and crawled backwards from then on.

"That pops of mine…in his drunken fits always waving that damn gun around…always saying he'd shoot me and my mom. Funny enough, when he finally broke that day and started hurting her, I did the one thing he never bothered to do! I filled that bastard with lead until the life left his body! Even after that, I kept shooting until the walls were a different color! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Hives laughed hysterically at the fate of his own father. These were the ramblings of a madman and for the first time since the Fall of Haustoria, I was scared for my life. As my back touched a wall, Hives asked me a question.

"Hey, this entire fight you've been like a kind of commander. That means you're pretty smart. Let me paint you this picture: when I ended up killing my father, my mother called me crazy! She called me a monster! Why do you think that is? Why am I the way that I am?”

Why is he asking me this question? Regardless, it’s giving me enough time to see my plan to its completion. To stall him out, I answered his question.

“With today’s research, it is said to be a mix of genetics and environment. I obviously can’t tell from a glance what that balance is with you…”

“Hm…my bet is genetics! There’s something in me that just enjoys seeing a good crater or hole. If my own mother had the nerve to call me a monster, it must be true! So respectfully, this monster is about to win this little game! Any last words?”

Any last words? Yeah, I have a few…

“I tend to be a very logical and analytical person. I leave my emotions out of the picture in favor of thinking of things within reason. HOWEVER! There is one exception to that rule of mine. That exception… is ARNO!” I called out.

Arno towered over Hives. Hives tried to turn around and stab him with the bayonet as soon as possible, but Arno grabbed the weapon mid-swing. As Arno ripped the bayonet from Hives’s hands, Hives unsheathed his knife and cut Arno across the stomach with it. Arno had another dose of the poison in him. He can’t use the rifle because it’s a stemata so he has no choice but to paralyze Hives. If he doesn’t stab Hives with the bayonet, It’ll all be over. Everyone here will die.

“AHAHAHAHA! Of course! I never needed to paralyze multiple people so I never really knew when the poison would wear off! But fatso over there is still down and he got stabbed before you! What the hell are you, parasite?!” Arno ignored Hives’s comments and continued to try to land a hit. “Guess it doesn’t matter anyway, you’ll get paralyzed soon! Then I’ll take my time blowing your head off until I can see your brain matter!”

All Arno needs is one cut! Come on!

That’s when Arno did something I wasn’t expecting. He pointed the rifle at Hives. He’s actually trying to shoot him! Even though he knows about his aptitude score of one, he’s still going for it! Arno, you better not let me down here! I put all of my chips on you!