First Blood

After the fire and smoke had cleared, it became immediately evident that the explosives were more capable than the party had initially estimated. The only one who could have predicted such carnage was the one who created the bombs, who just so happened to have a grin from ear to ear after witnessing the destruction wrought by his deadly creations.

Many of the corpses were blasted to bits by the explosives, body parts strewn across the field which had been scorched black by the detonation. There were a total of three intact bodies, but their skin was heavily burnt, while shrapnel wounds bled profusely across their bodies. If they were not already dead, they soon would be

Vincent was in the same condition as others, and it was difficult to tell which body was his. As Alex was thinking about which one to kill first, he heard a blood-curdling scream as he saw a man roughly Vincent's size grabbing ahold of his bloody and scorched wrist, which was currently missing a hand.

Deep down, Alex had hoped the blast would have killed the man, so he would not have to do the dirty deed. Yet, his prayers were unanswered and instead was faced with the task of removing the head of the warlord's right hand.

As Alex approached the man whose facial features were practically unrecognizable, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the hand which was still intact grasp ahold of the two-handed battle-ax which lay partially shattered beside the body. Immediately his reflexes took control, and he dodged the lightning-quick attack.

After missing the attack, the scorched man had used the weapon to prop himself up as he stared viciously into Alex's eyes with murderous intent.

"I'll fucking kill you!"

With that, the man who could barely be identified as Vincent charged at Alex, startling the youth as the appearance of Vincent was that of a dead man. Alex quickly regained his composure and began to engage in combat with the walking corpse.

Truthfully Vincent was still alive, albeit barely; he had decided in his last moments to take his enemies with him to the river Styx. As such, he ferociously attacked Alex with a complete disregard for his own safety. As if he truly was a dead man who could feel no pain.

Alex skillfully dodged the clumsy attacks of the figure before him and returned each flurry with a well-placed strike of his own. With every punch, the crack of a bone-breaking could be heard, and a grotesque expression would appear on Vincent's melted face.

It was not long before Vincent had used the last of his body's energy; as such, he knelt before Alex. His grip loosened, and the shattered ax fell to the floor as his body no longer had the strength to hold onto it. Alex staredown at the pitiful excuse for a man and sneered with disdain.

"Any last words?"

The weary eyes filled with hatred glared menacingly at Alex struggling to breathe his last breath.

"Fuck you!"

Alex shook his head and sighed as he chastised the fallen killer

"Come on, is that really the best you've got?"

Vincent said nothing; rather, he simply spat a wad of saliva and blood onto Alex's face and smiled in the face of death. Enraged by Vincent's actions, Alex grabbed ahold of him and placed him in a front headlock, quickly snapping the man's neck with a neck crank. The scorched corpse fell limply to the floor with a loud thud.

The others appeared behind Alex shortly after his public display of murder and cheered him on. Brandon, in particular, was quite enthusiastic as he slapped Alex on the back and hugged him.

"Way to go, killer! Haha!"

After uttering that phrase, Alex shook Brandon off of him and glared at him with an intense gaze of killing intent. Brandon flinched at the sight of Alex's chilling glare as he felt his scalp go numb; he had never seen the kid react that way before. Instinctively, Brandon tried to defuse the situation. He was certain Alex was on the verge of a mental breakdown at this point.

"Hey man relax, I'm just kidding. We're all friends here."

Alex shifted his gaze to Cassie, who had failed to assist him in the brief skirmish, and glared at her as well before turning away from the party and walking towards the direction of the airport. After walking a few steps, he stopped in his tracks and cleared his throat.

"We need proof that we killed the bastard! Take his head."

A look of disgust appeared across Derek's face as he heard the phrase "Take his head" There was no way he was going to decapitate the corpse. That was just too unnerving. He quickly resorted to childish games as fitting for his age and rapidly declared

"Not it!"

Before Cassie could react to what was happening, Brandon reacted to the childish challenge and responded

"Not it!"

Cassie was convinced she was in a party full of childish idiots after hearing the two of them resort to such playground behavior. However, she refused to vent her frustrations as she knew Alex was at this moment a powder keg with a lit fuse, and she wanted to avoid setting it off.

Thus she took out one of her daggers and cut off Vincent's barely recognizable head. Hopefully, the person who posted the bounty would be able to recognize it. She couldn't imagine the difficulty they would face if they could not verify the decapitated head's identity.

Afterward, she placed the head in an empty satchel and glared menacingly at Derek and Brandon as she hissed in between her teeth

"Come on, the Bastion will have heard the blast; they could be here at any moment."

she then rushed off to catch up with Alex leaving the two knuckleheads behind, staring at each other with an intense look of fear. Simultaneously the two yelped like frightened children

"Wait for me!"

Rushing after their two comrades who had already made quite the distance between the two. The last thing they wanted was to get caught by Captain Hunter and dragged back to his stronghold to face the tyrant's wrath.

The small party rushed towards the Airport, if they were lucky they could make it back safely before nightfall. Though things rarely go according to plan...