Chapter 3: A Hiss in the Dark
“I’m so tired, man…” the ward boy says as he closes the door of the doctor’s room. He looks at his wristwatch.
“1 AM, already? And I have to come back again at 8 AM!”
“Haa…” The thought of another hassling day, even before this
one has properly ended, fills him with immense fatigue.
Should I sleep here tonight? Man… I hate living this way… he laments while standing in front of the staff roster, thinking whether he
should clock out or not.
BANG!
He hears a loud noise from outside.
“??? W-What?!” The sound makes him jolt, and his heart
pounds like crazy. He rushes to the window but hides behind the window sill.
“W-What’s going on?”
He peeks out a little to catch a glimpse.
“No… way…”
The sight is unbelievable, so he rubs his eyes.
“Give up! You can’t win against us. Can’t you see? It’s
futile,” Zoro says as he recovers from the barrage of hits he just parried.
An arrow almost touches his ear as it lands close to the
three girls.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
It doesn't even give the girls time to react before the
explosive at the tip of the arrow goes off. The three girls get blown in
different directions, landing on their bodies, barely surviving the impact.
“Dude! That was close! Like, close close!”
“Sorry, if I hadn’t aimed properly it wouldn’t have worked,”
Nashi replies as he readies another arrow in his bow.
“Bro…” Zoro is left speechless by how nonchalant he is.
“Sorry guys, I’m of no help,” Altairen says as he presses
firmly on the wound in his stomach to stop the bleeding.
“Don’t worry about that at all, we’ve got this covered. You
focus on putting pressure on that wound. Once we’re done here, we’ll have to
treat you immediately,” Nashi replies with a gentle smile.
“Yeah, the poison in your blood is something we’ve never
seen before, but don’t worry, we’ll be done here in a minute. Looks like we
were wrong; these people look like they are about to give out,” Zoro swings his
katana and says with a smug look on his face.
Altairen smiles back, although his vision is blurry and he
is panting heavily.
“Alright, guys. I’ll leave it to you.”
“Roger that,” Zoro replies.
Miya stands on her feet; her clothes have become like rags.
She is bruised with scratches from the sharp weapons.
“You think this is enough to stop us…?”
She lifts her sword and points the tip at him.
“This is nothing…”
Raphael rushes to deliver another blow to Zoro but then gets
blocked by Shadow. Her fist meets the metallic Kali sticks in Shadow’s hand,
creating a ringing sound as if they were hit by a metal object.
“Not so fast, miss! Hehe, I’ll be your opponent,” his smirk
grows wider as Raphael’s face grows more expressionless. The bloodlust is
palpable.
Without wasting a second, she dives back to kick the sticks
from his hands and lands smoothly on her feet.
“Oh? Now, that was impressive, I must say,” he watches his
sticks fall on the hard asphalt of the hospital parking lot. The clanging
sounds ring in the air.
“But you know…” he removes his tactical gloves and looks
straight into the deadly eyes of his enemy,
“…I know how to use these too,” he says as he cracks his
knuckles.
“Very well,” Raphael responds in a cold tone as she takes
her stance, raising her fists.
“Do not disappoint me.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.”
Shadow rushes toward Raphael and sends a straight punch
right at her torso, the probable weakest part of her body. It looks like he
will hit her successfully since she is not moving or trying to block. But just
inches from impact—
She vanishes from his sight.
“Behind you,” a voice speaks from above. He looks behind,
but there’s no one. Then he looks up and sees Raphael coming down with a swift
dropkick.
“Shit!” Shadow is left with no chance to block, but he tries
his best to put his hands in front of him, making his forearms receive the
deadly kick supported by the weight of her body.
“Grr!” he groans as he takes the hit but soon recovers.
“Underestimated you, but that’s alright.”
He flips behind her after she lands. A dynamic change in
positions with no time to understand the stances.
“Behind you~” he says in an almost mocking tone. She knows
what is about to happen, so she puts her hands up beforehand and turns around.
“Eat shit!” takes time for him to say, but not a single
second is wasted as he comes down hard on her, punch after punch, and her hands
block them from landing on her ears, lungs, and face.
Pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow!
One hit after the other keeps landing on her thin but sturdy
hands. Taking hit after hit.
“Let me go easy on you!” Shadow says, but he does the
opposite. The force behind his punches increases.
POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW!
The smacking sounds of hits landing one after the other echo
in the area. It is so loud that it draws the attention of all the others. They
pause to stare at the intense fight going on.
“Feeling it? Are you feeling the pain? Huh?! Tell me! TELL
ME!”
Shadow’s eyes turn dark as well, the adrenaline rushing
through his veins, bringing his rageful emotions out.
The speed of the punches increases; it almost sounds like
the pistons of an engine. The point of impact between his fists and her
forearms suddenly starts to produce smoke. Shadow notices it but doesn’t stop,
although it looks weird and unnatural.
Soon after, he sees sparks flying.
“…wha—”
Raphael uses this chance to deliver a dropkick to his torso.
THUD!
He is sent back several yards from her because of the sheer
force of the kick.
“Argh!” he exclaims as he curls forward from the pain in his
abdomen. But his grip on the ground remains unshaken as his feet break through
the asphalt. Stopping him a few seconds later.
“Sparks?” Zoro mutters under his breath, confused.
“I don’t understand…” Nashi says to himself.
Shadow looks up, recovering from the panging pain in his
stomach. He breathes heavily and sweats profusely as he notices something
unexpected about Raphael.
“…metal?” he can’t believe his eyes as he sees metal peeking
through the burnt skin on her forearms.
“It’s bad manners to ignore the person you are fighting,”
Zoro hears a voice from his right. He doesn’t get time to react as he looks to
his right and Miya’s sword comes piercing through the air straight toward his
eye.
Right at that moment, the world almost pauses for him.
Everything goes into slow motion, even his own body. He has only enough time to
move his eye from the sword tip’s trajectory. Even in slow motion, the sword
approaches his pupil rapidly.
He grits his teeth, braces for failure, and forcefully tries
to move his head away from the sword.
The world has slowed down but not his consciousness, and
only that can help him now. He tries his best to move his head, but it feels
like it is buried in concrete.
He manages to get his eyeball out of the way, but the sword
touches his flesh and cuts through it.
“ARGHH! GRR!” he screams and groans loudly through gritted
teeth. The pain shoots through his nerves like electricity, feeling as if
someone is pouring molten lava on his skin.
Blood splatters across the asphalt. He keeps his eye closed;
at least it’s not totally gone.
But this makes him angry. The pain doesn’t make him cower
but drives him mad.
“You bitch!” he lunges forward with his dual katanas.
“Yes, that’s what I want! YES! Come at me, I want to feel
that FURY!!!” Miya laughs hysterically, escalating the situation beyond
absurdity. It was already a deathmatch, but now it has become a bloodsport.
“Crazy bitch!” he strikes his katana down straight at her
neck, but she blocks it with her own sword. The impact of the two metallic
weapons creates a huge cloud of sparks.
“Hahaha! Ahahahahaha!” Miya’s limiter is off. The two swords
grind against each other, creating a sharp, metallic, grazing sound. Deafening.
Nashi aims his arrow at Miya again.
“Oh my~ You look so dashing when you do that pose~” a voice
echoes from the back of his head.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he pulls the Bowie knife from
his tactical vest knife holster and stabs behind him without looking.
PSSHHH-CHK!
A cold, liquid substance sprays onto him. It continues for a
while before he tosses the object off his knife. He looks closely and sees it
is a soda can. The carbonated beverage had splurted all over him.
“What…”
He looks around but can’t find anyone.
“Think fast~” a hand taps his shoulder, and he jolts back.
Then—
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
“Fuck!”
BOOM!
A small detonation goes off on his shoulder. The sound of
the explosion echoes through the parking lot. The whole area has become almost
a mini-warzone.
“Fufufu~!” a whispering voice laughs from the trees
surrounding the hospital’s premises.
The ward boy peeking out the window snaps back and crouches
down.
“Oh my god… oh my god… what do I do?”
After a brief moment of thinking,
“…police. Yes, the police!”
He grabs his phone from his pocket and dials the emergency
number.
“Nashi!” Zoro screams for his friend, who lies motionless on
the ground, half of his torso gone. Shadow hears the loud shout and tries to
see what happened, but as soon as he does—
WHAM!
A punch lands on his right chest, almost stopping his heart.
“GUH—!!!” his breath leaves his lungs and he falls to the
ground.
His eyes, fixed on his injured friend, lose focus on his
enemy as Miya slides her sword free from the sword lock. “GO MEET HIM IN THE
AFTERLIFE!”
Zoro knew in that instant that he was done for, as he feels
the cold, cruel blade pierce his chest and cut through his ribs and out his
back.
The glint from the sword’s tip flashes in Altairen’s eyes.
He is almost out of energy. His whole body feels heavier than usual.
Damn… a helpless remark on the current situation. The
series of events leading up to this does not give him hope that they are going
to survive.
“What now…?”