Survival is Crucial

Altered Beast I

Maxim removed his foot from the guard's broken hand, still planted onto the wall, the gun loosely hanging from his mangled grip. The guard went to grab it with his other hand, grabbing it and attempting to fire at Maxim once again. One glancing away for but a moment, quickly noticing that Maxim was not in front of him compared to before as his left arm is lopped off, both arm and gun falling onto the floor. Blood spurts onto the wall next to him as he sees a small glint passing past his now missing arm.

The guard screamed loudly, falling to the floor whilst grasping onto their stump of a shoulder, blood staining their fingers. Maxim smiled, "No guns, sorry." Maxim finished them off, cutting off their head with a smile on his face before escaping into the ventilation as the thumping of shoes echoed throughout the hallway.

After clambering through vents for a few minutes, Maxim found a lone guard within a hallway - a young man with a killer's stare, hands in his pockets with slicked-back brown hair. "What's your name?" Maxim asked through the vents while bursting through feet first. The guard blocked with both of his arms, jumping backward as Maxim landing onto the parquet wood flooring. The guard overlapped his lower lip over his top one, his grimacing expression becoming even more deadly than before.

"f*****g, Tom or something, f*****g psychotic cunt!"

"Alright, Tom!" Maxim chuckled to himself, "Let's see what you're capable of."

Tom sighed, "Right... so, I've been wondering."

"Hm?"

"Why is someone like you here? I know you wouldn't care much for any old bounty, so why?"

"You know me!?" Maxim almost seemed ecstatic at the thought.

"Yeah, I do, and I know you wouldn't get involved in something like this, so why?"

"Because there are a lot of strong people involved."

"Just to fight strong people, can't help but not believe that answer."

Maxim chuckled, "Too bad."

Maxim lunged at Tom with a knife, missing his stab as Tom moved out of the way - Maxim loosened his grip on his knife some, whipping his arm upward, still missing, but narrowly, managing to graze Tom's cheek slightly, a bit of blood trickling down from it. Tom knee'd Maxim in the ribs as the knife came along his face, extending his leg so he could push Maxim into the wall across from him. Maxim flipped the knife to be pointed downward, bringing his arm down onto Tom's extended leg, who had already brought their leg in, keeping his knee close to his stomach.

Maxim once again flipped his blade around, swinging it towards Tom but purposely missing, instead opting for a punch that missed, denting the wall that Tom had pressed his back onto, throwing out his leg again, and kicking Maxim in his gut. Maxim clicked his tongue as his back slammed against a wall once again, "I f*****g hate knives!" Maxim yelled chucking it across the wall before once again, going to punch Tom.

Maxim's punch stopped midway through as Tom jumped out of the way as he swung his other fist, hitting tom in the face. As Tom's face is slammed into the wall, he kicked Maxim in the stomach again.

"You like my stomach, huh!?"

Maxim grabbed onto Tom's collar as he swung his leg around to go behind, tripping Tom and bringing him to the floor with a slam. Tom gasped for air as his feet skidded across the flor grown below, "Got you!" Maxim yelled, c*****g his hand back before being interrupted by a cascade of sounds coming down the hallway, "s**t!" Maxim clicked his tongue, running away and slipping through another vent.

"f**k!" Tom screamed, "He's like a f*****g snake!" Tom coughed a few times as he got back up, a group of guards down the hall beginning to pour in.

"Are you okay!?" One of the guards screamed.

Tom sighed, leaning against a wall, "Well... you came at just the right time, but no, I'm not okay," Tom spun on the balls of his feet to look at them, "He's in the vents, we should gas 'em as we wait on the porch of the boat until all of the gas vents out."

"Should we also evacuate the captain and such?"

Tom clicked his tongue as he realized what he had just said, "Nevermind, for not, stay out of the hallways."

The guards nod, leaving for the deck, Tom followed.

During this time, Nixon was with both of his guards, Marshall, and Saul on the deck, all of them either sitting in chairs or leaning against the ship's railings. Marshall sighed, biting down on a snack that he had stolen from the captain's quarters, "That fucker is slippery."

Saul made an uncomfortable expression, "They still haven't caught him?"

Marshall clicked his tongue rhythmically, "No, the cruise just f*****g started and we already have casualties."

Nixon sighed, "I don't wanna meet him... sounds like a monster."

"Yeah, 10 people dead within one day, all by one man and all he has is a knife and his bare hands... at least, we think."

"How many people were dead in that forest?"

"Well, three died here, so that'd be seven."

"He killed seven people by himself... were you able to tell if it was at the same time, or was it individual?"

"Doesn't matter, it'd be impressive either way."

Saul took out a cigarette from his pocket, placing it in between his lips and lighting it, "This s**t sucks..." Saul kissed his teeth, "You're gonna have to pay me more for this s**t, Marshall."

"I know."