Hunted
2058 Words
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Staring at the sunrise above the canopy, Jasper puffs out smoke from his mouth. He's holding a cigarette between the fingers of his right hand with his elbows on the wooden hand railing. Hiroki just woke up and sees him smoking first thing in the morning when he goes out to get some fresh air. He looks suspicious behind Jasper as he has never seen him smoking before.
“Good morning, Hiroki,” greets Jasper.
“Good morning,” Hiroki greets back and stands in front of the hand railing but far from Jasper. “I didn't know that you smoke,” he remarks.
“I do and I started smoking when I was eight.”
“Eight?!” Hiroki exclaims.
“Yup.” He puffs out smoke, watching it as it rises slowly in the middle of the humid morning air of the swamp. “I'm not a chain-smoker though. I stop from time to time. The longest time I stopped was when I came along with Lady Sayuri and you. Besides, I just wondered what smoking tasted like. So...”
“Lady Sayuri will be furious with you if she knows,” Hiroki said like he doesn't care.
“It's okay. She won't kill me for that.”
“I sure hope she won't.”
They laugh for a moment before Viktor behind them says, “So, I believe you got something to collect from me.”
Jasper turns around and smirks. “If you don't mind,” he says.
“Well, then,” he nods. His hands behind his back. He looks at Hiroki. “Pardon me,” he bows slightly.
“Oh, sorry,” Hiroki smiles nervously, bowing back. “Go ahead. I'll go back inside.” He walks smiling until he passes by Viktor. Then he narrows his eyes, wondering what they're up to.
“Alright,” says Jasper, throwing the cigarette filter to the swamp below. “tell me everything I want to know.”
“Don't,” says Viktor calmly and catching it with his vines. “We don't throw cigarette butts everywhere in this swamp. You might accidentally set the whole place on fire.”
“Oh,” Jasper chuckles nervously. “sorry about that.”
“It's fine.”
There is a moment of silence between them as they prepare for this exchange of information. Jasper is widening his eyes, listening to every word that comes out of Viktor's mouth. Jasper could almost rip his hair out of his skull, feeling the greatest excitement he ever had.
Suddenly, the air becomes heavy. Everyone on Mars feels as if their hearts are being squeezed inside their chests. Jaws start to quiver. Shoulders start to slouch. They feel like a watchful eye is looking at them where ever they go. No one can hide from it. The whole planet gets covered with red clouds like bl**d is about to fall from them.
Jack, Prisha, and the others on the ship try their best to calm the refugees but they feel this too. They couldn't act calmer as they wish they could. Hyun is on the cliff, wrinkling his nose and baring his fangs as he watches the red clouds.
“What in the Realm is this?” he asks.
Somewhere on the planet, Sayuri and Gwen are flying. They feel it too.
“What is this, my lady?” asks Gwen.
Not answering, Sayuri is looking serious. She steers their course to where she senses it's coming from.
“Jasper!” Hiroki yells, barging out of the door. “What is happening?”
Jasper is still laughing even after Viktor is done telling him everything.
“You're gonna like it, Hiroki!”
“WATCH OUT!” Viktor screams protecting all of them with his vines including those inside the house.
A large blast of force decimates the whole swamp, including the whole village. Trees, mud, and living beings get flung up into the air and away to the west. Thousands of birds from the trees of the jungle fly away. Bugs and other critters scurrying in panic.
Viktor removes his vines and finds out that the tree they are living on has been taken down. Although, the house is still in one piece as well as the people in it.
“Arina!” he cries, going inside the house.
Hiroki is dizzy. He hit his head. But that grave incident couldn't thaw Jasper's excitement. Both of them are covered in mud.
“What the heck did you do?” asks Hiroki, standing up.
“A f*******n knowledge!” he cackles. “I was waiting for this my ENTIRE LIFE!!!”
They look in the direction where the blast came from and find out who caused it. It's Zoya, from a mile away. She's walking on the mud like the undead. Her wounds have healed and the aura of murderous intent is spewing out from her.
“I thought you ended her!” Hiroki panics.
“We could never kill her that easily, Hiroki. It was just to buy us time. Also, I didn't expect that she's the one who'll come after us after Viktor told—”
She explodingly dashes from that distance. A wall of vines form to stop her but like a hot knife in butter, she goes through. Philip and Icarus step in to stop her. The explosion destroys the village even more. The three of them get blown away by the force they made. Icarus and Philip land upright before Hiroki and Jasper.
“Get out of here!” Viktor yells from the house, holding Arina by her arms. “Take her with you!”
Jasper and Hiroki didn't hesitate and took her but she refuses.
“I'm gonna stay and fight!” she insists.
“No!” Viktor refuses. “you're pregnant!”
“That doesn't mean a thing!”
“Just go, you id*ot!”
He pushes her away and Jasper pulls her as he transforms into a dragon.
“Let go of me!” she cries
“Both of you, go!” Viktor refers to Philip and Icarus.
“We're going to help!” Philip argues but Icarus is already climbing on Jasper's back.
“I'll handle her!”
Zoya comes back again, charging towards them. Viktor boosts everyone up using his vines. Jasper wasn't even ready to fly but he recovers easily when he is now in midair. Just in time for that, Zoya's fist meets Viktor's arms. She sends him a mile away but he's still standing. Then up she goes to reach Jasper. The vines pull her down and slam her back to the ground.
Philip, as the one who failed to climb on Jasper, is flying with his boots to catch up. He grabs Arina from Jasper's dragon claws and carries her on his back together with Hiroki and Icarus.
“Let go of me!” she cries.
“No, we won't,” Icarus says, helping Philip stop her.
“Lord Viktor said he will do it,” Hiroki reasons with her. “And you're pregnant. You will endanger your child's life if you—”
“Curse you!” she cries. “Let me go! I'm a warrior! I don't need anyone's protection! I trained every day for the rest of my life so everyone will acknowledge that I'M A WARRIOR!!!” She pants very hard and tears flow from her eyes. “That's all I wanted...”
“Well, you can fight another day,” says Icarus. “Or you'll be a disgrace if you let the child of Warlord Viktor die inside your belly. No one will recognize you as a warrior.”
“Icarus,” Philip says. “that's not—”
“It's true and she knows it. I'm just reminding her. We don't get to chase everything we wish. Sometimes, you just have to give up and see what's more important. So, I ask you, Arina, is proving that you're ‘a warrior’ more important than your child?”
She's still struggling but not saying anything until she calms down. Hiroki and Philip could not say anything more thought-provoking question than that.
“Alright,” he says, loosening his grip on her arm. “sit down and don't fall off. Jasper is gonna fly a little bit faster now.”
They let go of her and she sits on Jasper's back and grabbing onto I'm one of his spikes. The three boys do the same. Then it's all clear for Jasper to fly faster. He roars and flaps his leathery wings faster.
“You think he'll survive?” asks Arina to Hiroki. She's sobbing but she's trying to stop it.
“He will,” he answers.
“No, you're not honest. You,” She refers to Icarus. “What do you think?”
“No,” he answers easily.
“Icarus!” Philip scolds him.
“What? She wanted an honest answer.”
“I know but... *tsk* never mind.”
The survivors in the village start to evacuate in haste. Some cry in despair for their dead and some run away for their lives. All is nothing but chaos.
While he has time, Viktor yells to his people, “All of you, get out of here!”
But there are those who want to fight alongside him. They're mostly demigods and a handful of fauna deities.
“We will fight by your side, my lord!” a goddess says, stepping beside her.
“No!” he refuses. “This is not some random deity we're gonna fight! We can't win this!”
“If stalling is what you want to do, my lord, then we'll help you stall more time.”
“No, don't be stupid! Go! That's an order!”
“We deny!” they say.
Someone screams, “LOOK OUT!!!”
Zoya charges towards them, thrashing anyone standing in her way. There are people behind him, so his conscience tells him not to dodge. He takes her punch head-on with his own. The impact is like a meteorite, catastrophically exploding. Except those with Olympian Strength, perished.
Viktor gets knocked back two miles away, splashing on the marshes. After stopping, he stands up. The bones of his right fist are broken. Some of it is protruding out of his skin. Breathing hard, he tries to ignore the pain, forbidding his nerves from feeling the pain. He uses his vines to wrap it to stop the bl**d. Even so, it's still flowing out.
“This is a shame,” says Zoya upon landing at the place where he landed. “In your first year of becoming a Warlord, you're gonna die. Not only did you sabotage me, but also did something horrendously forbidden.”
“So...,” he says, panting and glaring at her. “you're the hunter...”
“I am. I'm going to end your life here and that man who you spilled the beans. And as an extra, I'll kill that witch that's carrying your child. She didn't deserve it. I was going to be the one who'll be the mother of the next God of Chaos.” She points at him. “You stole it from me.”
“As if that power belongs to you,” he mocks. “I've known you. You have done nothing but drink. You can never raise a child.”
Those words got on her nerves. “Die!” she growls.
He summons thousands of needle-like vines below her. They pierce through her body and limbs but she gets out and heals instantly. He retreats to a safe distance with his vines. It only takes a single leap for her to catch up to him. A mass of vines gets in her way. She punches a hole in it and Viktor is nowhere to be found. However, she knows where he is. The swamp explodes with her single stomp, exposing him out into the surface. He was digging down in his attempt to escape.
“You can't escape from me!” she roars. “No matter where you hide, I WILL FIND YOU!!!”
“I'm not going anywhere!”
Amassing tons of vines, Viktor's eyes glow green. He goes all-out against her. Their battle is shaking the marshes.
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- Writer
