Chapter 111 - 109

Like a little devil whispering on my ears my thoughts keep coming without control, of the many possibilities that could befall, of Asher being overwhelmed by their numbers, or running out of bullets mid fight and being chopped to pieces, or even being turned by one of those filthy Fungus Ghouls and their contagious ever flowing puss.

Fucking stupid, what had I been thinking to agree to this stupid plan?! I should have never let him leave my side!

Worry fills my thoughts as I dash forward only to hear louder and clearer every bang Asher's gun makes, filling the night's air with the smell of blood and crystal powder. 

And even though I know that the smell of his blood comes from the bait we made and is actually intentional, the moment that sweet smell reaches my nostrils and mix with the sounds and odor of fighting, they fire me up and like a shot of adrenaline it goes straight to my heart, infusing my blood with its heat and setting my body ablaze with the boiling lava swiping through my veins as I increase my speed, stretching my muscles to the limit as I leaped and dashed.

But, this time, is not because of the fancy meal waiting ahead nor any hunting instinct, but actually extreme worry and somehow possessiveness that makes me miove forward even faster, carrying less about the open path my huge body is making as it breaks bushes and branches effortlessly, focused own him more than any prey on a hunt made me. 

Those slippery annoying fucks could be really fast and actually fared to stay right behind my trail, but once I went on a mad dash they barely manage to keep up, having to track my path down at that point on.

So once I reach where Asher is I have some time to take the situation in before those two reach our location… and my three pupils narrow at the scene that unfolds before me.

Because I see is the Snake Queen with a smug smile showing on that face of hers and a conceited look upturning her hundreds of eyes dotting the upper part of her head as she coils her long lower body around Asher, arms stretched out already, anticipating the victory, ready to crush him here and there, break the skin, gush the blood out, crush the spines, bones, flesh like a twig.

I growl, showing off my rows of sharp teeth, then howl my cougar scream, so out of place in my scaled body, but as I'm about to rush forward and avoid the catastrophic, Asher proves to me just why he is the Captain of his troop and why, after all these years living as if the world bared some grudge against him, despite all that, he had survived and triumphed until this day.

That is when he pulls the trigger of his gun, the nuzzle resting against the snake skin inside her own deadly embrace, giving her a point blank shot that carves her skin with a spoon and finds no resistance as the bullet flies out in a gush of blood, burning the skin on its way out.

And filling the night with her howl of pain.

In reaction to the extreme pain she is at she throws her head back, arms moving blindly towards the wound and scratching the air on the way, trying to stop the blood that flown like sand particles past her fingertips. 

"Aght! You…You filthy human!" I can barely make words and curses out of her howling screams, but soon even that is overtaken by the sound of gunshots as Asher does not wait to see the result and, focused on completing the task at hand, is fearless in emptying the barrel of his gun at her.

And I watch with satisfaction as her grips over him loosens up and she flops down on the ground, body turned over so I still could not see the results of his attacks even though my gaze quickly goes to Asher's proud standing figure left with a smoking empty gun in his hand.

As I see all of that unfold with my own eyes I don't think twice before stopping on my tracks and turning around, unsheathing my swords along with the rotating movement at the same time the blades meet the two upcoming enemies that shadowed me thus far.

The Starfish one manages to avoid the slash when my sword descends in an arch as I turn, but the second blade sinks into the slower fox body in a satisfying cut that gushes more blood out than I thought it would as the fox steps back from the fight while the other still annoyingly tries to coil around my arms coming from my side, aware that he could not pierce my armor no matter how much he tried ad could only use such tricks as to at least affect and stall me, bumping his thorns against my skin only to have them bouncing back. 

I growl at that, tasting the air and the upcoming victory, so close to it that I almost want to savor this fighting slowly but surely. 

Only that something is off, out of place, a situation that should not be as is, and yet such worry only rasps its claws at the back of my mind, the thrill of the hunt obscuring any complex thoughts out of me as I take a step closer to my shivering prey, ready to squish his insides out.

And yet such prey is the same creature that opens my eyes to the odd situation at hand when suddenly it screams in pain and rolls on the ground, tentacles coiling and shrieking on themselves in a painful hard grip, until its skin truly starts to darken and wrinkle out of nowhere, almost as if bearing the after effects of being burn to a crisp.

And that's when it hits me, that if me and Asher shared fate and wounds like this as I absorb his injuries, why wouldn't they have the same powers too?

Which only meant that the Starfish monster is truly the abomination of the Stallion Gigantic Ghoul from before, and is probably trying to bear the wounds made by the flames the other team was sent to make and are apparently succeeding.

And it only means that the fox abomination must be doing the exact same to the Snake Ghoul Queen.

With widening eyes I turn around only to have enough time to shout at Asher, but as no words came out and only an animalistic cougar scream resonated through the night, I do not think twice before dashing forward.

But as I give a step closer I only have enough time to see the Snake Queen awaken and, without wasting time, shot out her deadly claws in Asher's direction once again.

Only that, now, there were no bullets left to stop her.