“What the hell was that?”
“I mean what I said. The longer we take to prepare, the more his chance of survival drops. I can’t let that go.”
“No, I mean, I’ve never seen you act like that before.”
“We’re wasting time.”
“Can you just…”
He raised his arm and grabbed onto her shoulder, forcing her to stop in the middle of her run.
“…stop and explain first?”
She turned back and stared at him with a furrowed brow and an irritated expression on her face.
“Listen. This isn’t the time for explaining things you do not know about. An innocent man is dying out there, and we need to save him! We can focus on the trivial things later, now please let go of me so we can hurry!”
“I get that, but…”
“But what?”
“Umm…”
He had a small feeling he was going to regret his response, but he let it all out anyway.
“Wasn’t the reason you asked me to join you to fix everything? Why are we spending time trying to save someone who might already be dead?”
“…”
She stood in silence for a while before forcibly jerking her shoulder off his hand.
“Fine then, suit yourself.”
With those words, she unfurled her wings and took off into the sky without a single glance back at him.
“…”
He watched her fly off for a split second before kicking the ground and running after her.
Why the hell did I even say that? What’s wrong with me?
**********************
Luckily, because his stamina was on par with hers, he was able to keep up the same pace as her flying. In just under a minute, they had both reached the location the wounded hunter had mentioned at the same time.
The Great Lake.
Like with most other places, the area, which had most likely once been an idyllic, peaceful environment filled with beautiful sceneries, charming wildlife, and clear water, had now been reduced to a shell of its former self thanks to the end.
The lake water was a radiant red, looking not too dissimilar to blood. The shores surrounding it was covered in black mounds of sand. And above all else, there was an unpleasant smell that seemed to be emanating from the lake itself, giving a subtle hint that whoever was foolish enough to go for a swim would meet a quick and painful death at the bottom.
As he came to an abrupt stop on the black shore, just a few meters away from the lake, Anten slowly floated down to the ground in front of him.
“I thought you were quitting,” she sulked, clearly still angry at his careless statement.
“You misunderstood me.”
“And what did you mean exactly, huh?”
“I meant, if we focused too much on the small things, we can lose sight of the big picture. You said it yourself, we were chosen to carry out a great task, that’s our responsibility, and that’s the one you made me believe in. If we keep focusing on trying to save hunters from beasts, we can’t get the task done.”
She sighed and shook her head.
“You really don’t get it, do you? This was not just about getting things done. This was about doing what we can. This is why I wanted to help the villagers. This is why I’m focusing on saving Charlie right now. If we save our powers to focus on our big task, we’re ignoring things like this. I’m sorry that we diverted away from what I promised you, but this is how I operate. Do you understand?”
The expression on her face as she admitted her perspective was that of confliction, uncertainty. Seeing that expression, he bit his lip and raised his head.
“I understand. Let’s go find that Charlie guy or whatever.”
In response, she gave a slight smile.
“Thank you.”
With that small argument largely resolved, the two of them began their search.
“Charlie! Charlie! Where are you?”
“Why are you yelling? The beasts will find us.”
“That’s why I’m yelling.”
Using his stamina to run around the shores of the lake, and her aerial perspective to see everything else in the vicinity, they combed the whole area, but aside from a few broken weapons and patches of blood, most likely from the other hunters, they couldn’t find any trace of the missing hunter.
“Maybe… he really is gone.”
“Don’t talk like that! He has to have left a clue behind! No one can just disappear like that!”
“Ok then…”
He stopped and tapped his foot on the black sand as he pondered.
“Tap, tap, tap.”
“…what about the beast though? It seemed to be a very dangerous creature, so it must have been big. But we can’t even find it.”
“Tap, tap, clunk.”
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“Huh?”
Suddenly, the sand quickly shifted and bulged. Before he could react, he was thrown high into the air as the ground below him collapsed, revealing a giant form.
“What the helllllllllll?”
As he flew without any support, he could see a panicking Anten trying to reach him with her wings.
“Clack!”
But the beast got him first.
It looked like a crab, but it was much larger than the wolf-thing he had fought a few days ago. Several times larger in fact, almost as big as a small house. On its back was an oddly smooth, metallic-colored shell that covered almost its entire body.
It had grabbed him with one of its two giant jagged claws, and its ridiculously small antenna eyes were slowly rising up and staring at the new prey it had caught.
“Gh!”
As he felt the claw tighten, he could feel a sharp pain in his abdomen as it began to squeeze the life out of him, possibly even dismember him in the process.
So this is what caused all those injuries, huh?
“Too bad I’m not as easy to hurt!”
He quickly created a fire sword and plunged it into the claw that was grabbing onto him. The beast roared, but it did not catch on fire, and it continued to maintain its tight grip on him.
“Damn it, you just don’t give up!”
“Hold on!” he could hear Anten shout as she approached him from above, “I’m going to try something, but you might not like it!”
“Oh? Have you finally learnt your power?”
“Take that!”
Coming out of a speeding dive, she turned and kicked the claw with extreme power, causing both it, and his body, to twist violently to the side. The crab-thing, which had obviously not been prepared for that sudden movement, released its grip, and his battered body fell straight down to the ground with a loud thud.
“Oops.”
“Screech!!!”
He groaned and sat up as the crab-thing thrashed and flailed around, clearly upset that it had been hurt by a thing it couldn’t comprehend, before diving back into the sand again.
“Next time, could you kick somewhere else? I thought my body was going to break into two.”
“Sorry about that. Let me help you up.”
He grabbed onto her, and she pulled him a short distance away from the crab-thing such that it could not reach him as easily now.
“So, we’ve found the beast, but where is Charlie?”
“Hold on,” she answered as she set him down on the ground, “I think I might know where he is.”
“…he’s not inside it, is he?”
“I hope not. Let’s just hope my theory is correct.”
With that, she flew into the air again, this time looking around for something. After a few seconds, she fixed her gaze onto one area and dived down to the ground once again, seemingly preparing to hit it with full force.
“Found you.”
She stopped just before impact though, and she began to dig.
“Fuck! Ow! Hey!”
It did seem like she was right, as she soon pulled out a grown man from the sand. He was dirtied and slightly bloodied, carrying what looked like a high-powered hunting rifle, and thankfully, as he stared at him, he didn’t appear to be missing any important body parts, and seemed to be largely fine.
He watched as she flew back to him and lowered the man gently to the ground before continuing.
“I’m guessing that you’re Charlie?”
“Yes, but who wants to know?” the man replied curtly.
“We’ve been looking for you.”
“Oh boy, I must be so lucky. To have an angel and a devil save me.”
“Your friends are worried about you.”
“They shouldn’t be. I was worried about them. They could have ruined my plans.”
“Oi,” he interrupted, “sorry to disturb your little rant here, but you might want to tone it down a bit. In case you haven’t realized, we’re trying to help you.”
“Ha!” Charlie scoffed and pointed at the crab-thing in response, “help me? Look at what you guys just did. You made it angry. You guys completely ruined my plan!”
“And what kind of plan was it, may I ask?” Anten innocently questioned, seemingly unbothered by his rude attitude.
“You see this?” he pointed at the rifle in his hand, “the bastard was hiding and resting underground. I was going to dig below it and fire my gun at its belly. Since its shell and claws are too tough, it can only be hurt there. I only had one shot left so I had to make it count. But now that it’s out and moving, I have to wait again. So, thanks for that.”
“Look, maybe you could just, I don’t know, come back another day?”
“Uh, no. As long as I can still move, this creature will die, I swear on my last bullet. It has escaped death for too long and cost me too much, I won’t leave empty-handed today!”
Crazy guy.
Deep down, he knew he couldn’t be stopped at this point, so he stepped forward.
“Then we’ll help.”
Both Charlie and Anten blinked in disbelief.
“Huh?”
“You’re serious?”
“Both me and the girl have special powers. I can create fire, she can fly, and do some strong kicks, I guess.”
“Hey!”
“And both of us are quite durable. You can consider them and make a new plan. We won’t be burdens to you, I guarantee it.”
“…”
Charlie fell silent for a few moments, before he cracked a sly grin.
“You have to promise that you won’t regret it.”
“I promise.”
“Then, here’s what we’ll do.”
**********************
“Hey, you big dumb crab monster! What’s the matter, too scared to come at me? Come get me!”
After the crab beast finished throwing its little tantrum and flinging sand everywhere, it emerged from the sands again and turned its attention on the source of the noise.
There was just one person, or rather the weird looking creature that did not look like a human that it had almost eaten a few minutes ago, in its field of view, waving, yelling, and jumping. Its small eyes narrowed, and its claws gave a few warning clicks.
“That’s right. Look at me! I’m the one you want to get!” the strange creature continued to yell as it slowly began to build up its charge. This time, he would not be getting away from its claws.
First, it took one step towards him. Then another, and another, faster and faster, kicking up even more piles of sand as the ground shook under its movements.
In just a few more seconds, he was going to be inevitably trapped inside its mouth with no possible escape. Its claws were poised to strike, its eyes focused on him and him only, and it was ready to do its worst to him.
Alright, here goes nothing.
“Go!”
“???”
Confused by the sudden loud noise coming from its prey, the crab beast temporarily paused in the middle of its planned strike, its outstretched claw hanging in the air.
“Hahhhhhhh!!!”
It was then that Anten seized the opportunity to act. Quickly swooping down from the sky, she grabbed onto one of its parts and began to pull as hard as she could.
That part in question was its smooth shell. Finding an available handhold, she tightly held on and began flapping her wings furiously in order to get it to move in the desired direction they wanted: upwards.
“Hold on!”
Now that his job as the distraction was done, he rushed in to help her. Jumping high into the air, he landed, somewhat clumsily, on the shell, and grabbing onto the same handhold, both of them pulled with all their energy and strength.
“!!!!!!!!”
Slowly, bit by bit, the crab began to rise. The sands shifted, and more of its body was being exposed, including its softer underside.
“My turn.”
Lastly, the mound of sand in front that it hadn’t been paying attention to the entire time crumbled without warning, and the stubborn hunter emerged from it, his rifle loaded and ready to fire at point-blank range.
“Say good night, fucker.”
Pointing at its underside, he pulled the trigger.
With a loud cracking sound akin to the rumbling of thunder, the rifle fired its shot, and it went straight through its target.
“SCREEEEEEEEECCHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The crab beast stumbled and swayed. Its claws shook and its eyes drooped. A lot of blue blood began to gush out of its new wound.
“Ha! That’s what you get, you monster!” Charlie gloated as he stared at it, savoring the sight of its dying struggle.
“…”
But that was it.
“You’ve got to be kidding meeeeeeeeee?!!?!”
After seemingly stopping for a few seconds, the crab beast suddenly shook its back, causing the two holding onto it to get flung off with extreme force.
“Guh!”
After a few seconds in the air, he once again landed painfully on the sand, this time getting the wind knocked out of him as he doubled over and winced.
Damn, it still hurts like hell even though I can regenerate!
“Screech!!!!!”
Oh no.
The crab beast was still very much alive, and very angry now, and it was about to take it out on the person who had caused it the most pain. The person who was standing in front of it, unsure of what to do about this unexpected development.
“Fuck, so one bullet wasn’t enough?”
That was all he could say as it charged towards him.
“Charlie!”
He tried to get up and run towards him, but the crab beast had thrown him quite a distance away and he still had to recover from his painful fall.
“No!”
In the end, he could only watch as the beast closed in on the hunter, who had already closed his eyes and was waiting for his inevitable death.
“…”
“Screech!!!!!!!!”
The claw swooped in, and everything became silent.