15 A Timely Arrival

Barely two seconds later, a sharp pain spread from his right shoulder. He opened up his eyes, only to see his shoulder had been vaporized. His arm was left dangling from whatever small portion of skin and muscles left.

" FUCK!! " Henry yelled. " Jesus Fucking Christ! " God this hurts! " He added.

Jhonny looked at the results of his shot with wide eyes. When the image in front of him sank into his brain, he bent over and puked. The Commodore Britanny London was now but just a body without a head, being held in place by Henry, or what was left of him, with her neck fuming. Henry had his whole shoulder disintegrated by the force of the laser rifle at full power.

" Jesus Christ, kid! Could you not hit me that much next time! FUCK this HURTS! " Henry admonished him.

" I'm sorry! " Jhonny cried out, between two sessions of hurling. " I'm so sorry! " He apologized again.

" Dammit! It's okay. I asked you to shoot anyway. That'll teach me. " Henry said, calming down a little.

Henry then yanked out his kukris' from the bodies' shoulders and walked to the kid, his right arm still dangling about. Once next to him, he started pulling the branches apart with his remaining arm, to free Jhonny from the tree. After a few seconds off pulling, and some weird wriggling from Jhonny, he was finally free. Henry slumped to the ground, exhausted. He took a few deep breaths and looked back at Jhonny.

" Help me up, kid. This fight isn't over. " He said, his eyes getting sharper.

His inner radar had just shown blips coming in from towards the Tamarain camp. They had to flee fast because he was in no shape to fight anymore. There weren't many fighters left to kill, but he was almost amputated and tired as hell.

Jhonny hurriedly got up and helped pick up Henry from the ground. They started walking in the woods, towards the cave they had slept in. Jhonny hoped they would make it there before anyone caught up, but his hopes would soon be crushed. Shortly after they started walking, a laser beam hit a nearby tree, signaling they had been spotted by the remaining Tamarains.

" Duck! " Henry yelled, throwing himself to the ground.

They both crawled to the nearest large rock, sheltering themselves from the incoming fire.

" Shit! " Thought Henry. He knew he couldn't go after them in his condition and it would take him a while to heal back to normal. Jhonny then laid on the ground with the rifle and poked out of the rock, just long enough to pull off a shot and hid back behind their makeshift shelter. As he did, Henry saw a blip disappear from his inner radar.

" Nice shot kid. Keep doing that and try to get the most you can. If you can bring them down to two or three soldiers, I can manage to kill them. " Henry said.

He then pulled out his kukri and slipped it under his right arm.

" Fuck this is gonna hurt! " He said gritting his teeth.

And in one swift motion, sliced the remaining skin and muscles holding his arm in place. He growled in pain, as blood kept oozing more and more from the injury.

" What the fuck! Are you crazy!? " Jhonny yelped.

" Ohh stop it! How do you want me to fight with my arm flailing around? I needed to do that for the upcoming fight. Now, next time you fire, go at full power. " Henry said.

" Why? " Jhonny asked.

" Just do it! " Henry said. angrily.

Jhonny shrugged and lay down again, ready to take another shot. Before he did, he powered up the rifle to maximum, and then pulled the trigger to the nearest Tamarain. The rifles' nozzle became hot red, almost white. He pulled back behind the rock and then, Henry jerked the rifle away from him.

" Hey! " Jhonny exclaimed, only to realize in horror what Henry was about to do.

Henry turned the nozzle towards his bleeding shoulder, and leaned onto it, searing the flesh and cauterizing the wound. The bleeding stopped instantly, as a smell of burnt skin and flesh rose from the wound.

Henry ground his teeth in pain, waiting for a few seconds to be sure it was well cauterized, the tossed the rifle nozzle aside, heaving and wheezing. Jhonny took the rifle back and tuned the power back down. He gazed at Henry, then he went back to shooting the incoming threats.

" You're crazy. Do you know that? " Jhonny told Henry, looking at him from the corner of his eye.

" Been told that a lot kiddo. " Henry laughed. " How many are left? " He then asked, knowing he probably didn't see all of them from his radar.

" Around ten. " Jhonny answered. " Nine now. " He added, after another shot.

But then, shit hit the fan. On his next attempt to kill an incoming, the rifle stuttered, then shut down.

" Shit! " Henry swore. " The battery is out, dammit! " He said, despairing a little. " Can my day get any worst? " He added.

" Battery dead? " Jhonny asked. " What kind of rifle lacks battery mid-fight. That's some cheap tech. " He said, frowning.

" It's not cheap, kid. We fired two max energy beams with. There is only so much power it can hold and those shots are taxing. How many times do you think that sniper can shoot without recharging, huh? " Henry asked, shaking his head disapprovingly.

" Well then, we're screwed! " Jhonny said, collapsing.

Henry then saw more blips on his radar, this time, coming from in front of them. They were five, and they were not moving fast.

" Well! Looks like this is it, kid! It was a pleasure fighting by your side. I hope we meet in the next life. " Henry said, looking at Jhonny with a warm smile.

To him, this was it. They had enemies in the back and enemies in the front. He stared at his radar, waiting for his inescapable death to come.

" I'm sorry system. I couldn't help you live longer. I hope you aren't mad. " Henry apologized to his brain buddy.

As all the dots on the radar finally got into the 25-meter circle, shots were fired from the front. Not lasers though. Bullets. And they passed right over the hiding spot of Henry and Jhonny and right into the Tamarains. Those were semi-automatic rifles being fired. As Henry wondered what was happening, a man came out of the bushes in front of them and crawled his way up to Henry. He stopped in front of him, in a kneeling position.

" Are you alright friend? " The man asked, looking at Henry, who had his knife out in front of him.

Henry then recognized the man in front of him. He was one of the gate guards from Legacy Cave Town. He was with 9 other men, probably his squadron, and they were slowly moving up while firing at the Tamarains.

" What are you people doing here? " Henry asked loudly, amidst the gun firing.

" We heard sonic booms all the way from town, and we came here to check what was going on. You're lucky you were on our path, friend. " The man said.

" Yes, you're right. Sorry for being rude. Thanks for the help. " Henry said, lowering his weapon.

" No harm done. You look in crappy shape. Are you gonna live? " The man then asked.

" Yeah. I'm fine. Take care of the kid. " Henry said to him, pointing Jhonny.

"On it, chief. " Said the soldier.

" Back off! " Jhonny growled, menacingly, unholstering the second kukri from behind Henry's back. "I'm not going anywhere as long as my parents aren't with me. " He then said, a stern look in his eyes.

Henry sighed. He knew full well this could happen. He swiftly raised his left arm and slammed the hilt of his knife on Jhonny's nape, rendering him unconscious instantly.

" No hard feelings, kid. " Henry said in a low voice. " Take him away from here. He's done enough. I'll make sure his parents are alive. " Henry said, looking the soldier in the eye.

" Yes, sir. " The soldier said, grabbing Jhonny's waist and throwing him onto his shoulder.

The man then scampered off with the kid, taking him off the battlefield. Henry then picked up the kukri from the ground and sheathed it. He knew he still had work to do, thus he shot out from behind the rock, going around behind trees and into the backline of the Tamarains. Once there, he started killing off any who were paying too much attention to the humans in front.

The battle went on for half an hour before the forest finally went quiet. Henry slumped down to a nearby trunk, out of breath. He had been passing that whole half-hour running in and out of combat. Now that it was over, he could finally relax. With all this killing, his knives had gathered quite a lot of blood. Now he could assimilate it.

" System, how much time have I gotten from their blood? " Henry mentally asked.

" Extracting energy from blood. Please stand by. Blood extracted. From killing ten F-rank fighters, five E-rank fighters, one E+ -rank fighter, and one C+ -rank fighter, host has gained four years' worth of energy. Host now has four years, two months, and sixteen days left of lifespan.

" Damn, that was worth it. " Henry grinned. " How much time would it cost to re-attach my right arm? " Henry asked.

" Re-attaching right arm and regrowing vaporized flesh, bone, skin, muscles, nerves, and tendons would bring the cost up to four months with a two-month convalescence. " The system answered.

" TWO MONTHS?! " Henry yelped. " What the hell. I can't be done for two months! How much to shorten that to three days, system!? " Henry asked.

" Calculating. To shorten to three days, the cost would rise to two years and six months. " The system answered, plainly.

" What the fuck! Two and a half years!? That's way too steep a price, system. You have to be kidding me. " Henry mentally yelled.

" We never joke. We do not have that capacity. " The system said.

" Fuck! " Henry swore. " Fine. I'll pay up. Just let me go get my arm back first. " Henry grumbled.

He walked back towards the spot he and Jhonny had hidden before. His arm was still there, on the ground, slowly drying up. He picked it up and bagged it. A man came out of the foliage as he lifted his bag up.

" You're gonna need a doctor for that arm, sir. We have a good one back in town. He could probably build you a nice prosthetic to get you functioning again. " The man said.

" Nah. I'm fine, man. You can all go back to town with the kid. I still have to free the prisoners before going back. " Henry said, walking towards the Tamarain camp.

" Oh, you don't need to bother about that, sir. We already sent a team there to free the people. " The soldier said.

" Ohh? Ok then. In that case, I still have to disarm the traps I set up before leaving. " Henry pointed out.

He wanted to be left alone so he could re-attach his arm without having spectators. The soldier quickly caught on his need for solitude and saluted before leaving. As Henry contemplated going back to the town hotel to do this, he knew we would never be left alone long enough for him to heal properly. Therefore he decided to go back to his hidden cave and heal there.

After walking for a while, he finally let himself drop down in his little peace of calm. He pulled out a small generator, charging back all his equipment, before pulling out his arm and laying down. He laid his arm next to his body and ordered the system to get the healing started. With a quick notification flashing through his mind, he lost consciousness when the healing started.