Chapter 14

  William saw the destruction in his red visions and the man glaring at him with green eyes, which were...there. It wasn't red, so wasn't it weird? Stained with red, Adam's body was crazy like that bow. His body was small compared to Dreznar, but it was much denser and great for speed and bows. He was compact, yet his voice was normal and human, and William wasn't entirely convinced whether to trust that right now.

  He backed away even further, going slower than a wounded beast, unsure if this was a man or a nightmare.

  “Oy, don't run away for fuck's sake,” Adam cursed and released more arrows, killing a new batch of Darks behind William. Small fries supported those young Creatures. They tried to seize his head or whole body before they couldn't.

  Adam breathed, stepped closer, and looked at William's itching Emblem and the weird things that existed right before his eyes.

  “Are you fucking Awakening right now? Jesus, how old are you?”

  Adam knew this was not a normal Awakening since William was too young for any of that. The current era had a lot of research and Walkers had their powers and multiple settlements. More than seventy years provided many experiments, advantages, and science.

  Adam wasn't sure about half the things he shouldn't know, which was barely a page into a large book. Still, he was a strong Walker, thus he knew a lot of things.

  Awakening was a subject like law. It amassed growth and stability. It wasn't something unique, but if someone apprehended its depth, they might be geniuses among geniuses.

  This boy before him was abnormal. Those eyes, those... what was he even looking at?

  “Rank 0?” Adam realized it was something brutal, yet due to William's messed up appearance, this whole picture was ridiculous. Age limits slipped from his mind soon enough, and he watched a kid no less than seven years old live through hell. Unfortunately, Adam wasn't familiar with any Gale. His boss was, and worrying about age and similar wonders in the middle of this beating Incursion was excessive.

  Adam was about to touch him and do as Dreznar ordered, but the world turned red for him as well. Something clicked, jerked him, and he even lost his voice when something smacked the ground, shook his core, and demolished the air. It was even worse when he hiccuped, bent his head, and coughed blood.

  Something picked him up from the air, and only then Adam noticed a large spike going through his chest. It might be a hand, restricting every speck of control he had. His Cycles were completely broken and jammed.

  “What... the fuck... where...” Adam mumbled and looked aside, obviously confident in his Perception and Spatial Awareness. Did it fail him, or did this boy cause it to malfunction?

  In any way, he tried to fight back with half of his torso in shambles. He wasn't dead, but lacking. Either way, he failed in all regards. Normal people would've died quicker deaths, yet here he was, dying yet alive. Walkers could clinch onto their lives for a long time, even if they were looking as if they were dead.

  Loss of arm? Not much of a problem. Sometimes even split bodies lived for a few minutes, and if a good Healer came over, they would be whole again. But the main? Oh, the issues of some wounds wouldn't have pretty ends.

  Adam held his bow and was unable to even Mold a simple string and arrow. Looking for help wasn't possible. Adam froze, noticing his whole squad was already in pieces when a nasty figure behind him angled him aside. Even Dreznar collapsed to a building, bloodied and barely breathing.

  He should be glad to be alive. Adam had no such thought. Behind him, so close that he felt even breath of a faceless head, a fiendish Dark was ''smiling'' at him, looking like a complete nightmare.

  Just a single one did this much in a few heartbeats. No one else was there. There were even numerous corpses of other Creatures, pierced, belittled, or munched to pieces. It killed everyone, had it not? Infighting was extremely common in Darks, whose hunts were their lives, instincts were pride, and fun was law.

  Sizable like two people stacked on top of one another, this Creature's features were smooth and collected, looking as if it was an unnatural perfect human being mixed with an artificial doll. The skin was like silk, thinly glowing in purple mist and curving muscles. Its head had a vicious smile, no eyes, and its arm had long fingers, but made of flickering tendrils the width of rice. Millions or billions of such tendrils made its body, and one hand made a spiked weapon that was embedded in Adam's chest.

  Adam figured that some very nasty Dark had come over. Not Rank 7. This should be at Rank 8 considering how it treated everyone.

  He gulped his own blood, but the spike flickered and started crushing his insides. These little tendrils were like thousands of little needles and swords, cutting into him from the inside out.

  William watched that picture as he knelt, doubtful and looking for a way out.

  Run.

  A law. It was a task set by his mother and his lie.

  A rather high-ranked Creature before him had its fit, so would it be interested in a small desert?

  It licked Adam's face, before turning its eyeless face to William.

  “Chiiiiieeld...” It spoke in shrieks of English.

  Adam cursed. “This thing!” It was a bigger threat than he thought. This sort of Dark with intent and intellect was terrifying and made into a Hazard Level 4 Threat. That meant unique Darks that were impossible to comprehend.

  William waited for nothing. He didn't even care for drops or flashing shining red light plunging from Adam. He didn't hear anything concrete, nor did he notice those Walkers wanted to rescue him. He was far too busy being lost in this world and screaming in his head.

  [We have been here before.] A firm voice called in a reminder.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Then, he imagined it when the buzzing returned and something in him moved. His vision shifted and he saw that room. Then, a monster snatched at him, pushing him away. Crimson spread like heat and he felt very wrong.

  He was standing as if it was possible and even leaped at Adam, piercing his skin with his right arm that turned into a strange drill thanks to that mysterious whip. Then, he bit the neck and pierced the flesh with his arm some more.

  Nonstop, he gnawed, cried, and winced his head and shoulders, biting and killing. He left Adam in a pool of blood on the ground.

  William shook as he knelt over him. Then he finally opened his eyes and watched how that Creature kept holding Adam above the ground, still alive, still breathing, and in no pool of blood.

  William touched his face and mumbled in denial. “No. Nononononononono.”

  The main issue was the noise. It bore no stops whether it was natural or not. It gave him a basic lure and premises where his thoughts became mushy. His mind became so intense, that he couldn't think straight. His feet moved, head hunched as he turned and wanted to ran away. He couldn't even see the corpses of these Walkers.

  Beyond the blood and headless corpses, the surrounding horror escaped the corner of his vision, turning, mashing, and fading in the glorious shining crimson.

  [Let me…]

  His blank mind wasn't looking for others. It looked for something. Anything.

  Adam watched how one young Creature got to its feet, jerking its head and regarded a big spear in its chest. It was alive and strong. It came to barely walking William, grasped the spear in its chest, and snapped it to mist. Its smile spread when it got great permission to touch this one. Its hand moved like a spear and came for William’s head.

  It hesitated and stopped its arm an inch from William’s head. Weird eyes looked from below, and something turned odd. The hand dropped to the ground and turned to mist. The Creature shivered when it fell in halves to the ground, dying in colorless Madness.

  William stood above it this time around, and pure and emotionless red eyes looked at it as if it were an insect. A red storm moved and William’s right arm plunged into its head, killing it in a split second, guided by deep red lines around his right arm that cut the previous hand.

  William looked at Adam, who observed this act and watched this kid with astonishment on his face. That was Rank 5 Creature at minimum, wasn’t it? He forgot to think and noticed those deep eyes in that young yet indifferent face. Blood droplets indicated nothing good. William’s hand was seized like the rest, and something must be crying, yet could it? It was brutal and forced, but Adam feared it was not.

  He heard one rumor...

  He feared it was true.

  For the safety or a way to see his promise and lie of the word, William blinked and saw no change. He wasn’t sure where to go next. He turned and ran away, leaving bloody footprints and droplets coming from his hand. The only face he wanted to see at the moment was his mother’s, no matter how much acceptance, curses, and noises it would take.

  There were no losses. Just pain.

  He walked away as if he stepped into the wrong classroom. Away from the chuckling Dark that still held Adam up in the air, it was a good choice.

  The big Creature winced and looked at that red young storm that smelled delicious.

  “Innnntereesting...” It whispered and stepped in, almost gnawing Adam's head off if it hadn't been for a sudden shift from above. A large crimson spear smashed at its chest, pinning it to the ground. The force trembled the ground and forced Adam away from its spike. He grunted in shock and fell to the ground. Blood leaked, though a hole in his chest tried to heal, it was deep and affected not only his thought process but his flesh and Inner Cycles.

  He omitted all of that! Was what he watched real, or were his eyes already delirious? That thing was no child.

  Wheezing for breath, he looked at the other insanity. A spear remained without anybody else. However, even this little was enough to save his measly little life.

  The Creature chuckled, letting out hilarious shrieks, and began to convulse as if it were cold or aroused. “Ah. Ahh! You come. You come. Come! COME! COOOME! Come at me! Let's dance for ol' sake!” It began to kick the ground and laugh.

  It clasped the spearhead the size of its body but couldn't move it at all. It was inside of it, pinning it way too tight. The spear was also rotating on its own, churning up in the Arcana of quite some weight, cycling, and resilient Annihilation.

  Whatever this red spear was about, it sizzled its insides, but the Dark Creature enjoyed it nonetheless.

  The Thrill of this hunt was getting intense!

  It forgot about that running red child that disappeared around the corner and cackled in endless joy. It looked up and eyes sized whatever was in that Dark Fog.

  This spear will enjoy itself.

  ***

  Back at running, buildings and tight streets gave no goals. William couldn't gather his thoughts after what he caused. Where was he or what was he doing? Why was his hand bloody and that whip closer? He decided to leave wide places alone.

  Where to even step or look?

  His thoughts assumed safety with silence, so he was moving and looking for anything like that. Not his mother. Not anymore. She hadn't come before, so she probably won't come again.

  Wet, sticky, and tired, the red hues followed his sight and his right arm was limp like a broken toy. It was trying its best to no avail, for this camp was no more, but William was not. William was dull, feeling empty, and barely feeling pain or those noises.

  There were other kinds of noises.

  Right around some buildings, raging stomps revealed Carnijaw, who had been struggling to catch up with its prey for quite a few minutes. Due to its size and speed, it struggled. Buildings and many ants were in the way, so it was enraged and looking to fix that humiliation.

  It disregarded Hellgars and smashed numerous people to pieces alongside them. Its size was at least fifteen feet tall, but its four limbs were quite big and worked like proper arms, so they could strength and move and could become a lot longer and taller.

  Carnijaw was enormous anyway, and its tendrils grew back, so it shot them around in a fit of rage and tried to look for that red brat. They flew like arrows and whips, smashing things apart whether they were alive or not.

  William didn't turn. He wasn't even thinking about these loud distractions. However, they were coming for him even from hundreds of feet away.

  Dozens of tendrils disintegrated into the dust the moment they reached a handful distance from him, leaving thin afterimages and thin sound in their tracks. William kept going anyway, unhindered by the pain or enraged Carnijaw.

  Perhaps the last bit of the light from his forearm saved him. It was weak, its range low and red hues were becoming less and less coherent. It was like a worm right now, let alone a whip. William was similar, as his fatigue, pain, and mind couldn't keep up with it.

  William still didn't realize something kept his life safe. Tendrils shot at him, scrapping way too close, and some even scratched him because his whip was losing this battle.

  Most imminent ones disintegrated, yet Carnijaw became even more infuriated.

  Not like the boy cared.

  Run... Run… Hide... HIDE! William... Voices... Listen to them and read if they come. You have it inside of you, but it can be a devil. Who and where, you ask? Mother can help but it is up to you to listen.

  Some words of his mother reverberated within his mind, but a five-year-old was still a five-year-old. Even if his mother's voice dropped hints, she was nowhere near him when he was in pain.

  Stamina was dropping, even with Rank 0 Awakening near. Safety was unrealistic anyway. There might be a way to silence. A few streets away, perhaps, or even closer?

  It was a small possibility because the Incursion's end was approaching and the camp was almost empty. Some corners were not even that, or full of others. Darks hurriedly ate what they could.

  For now, William ignored Carnijaw and followed the pain, heat, or drifting vague whip.

  Carnijaw was getting closer and closer.