8. Hunters Of ARK

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ARK Bearer Of Curse

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***

Before I knew it, I instantly jumped out of the abandoned house and gave in to his taunting. With dagger on my right hand, I never cared if my speed would look superhuman to this man.

It was dark so I didn't realize right away that it was one of those military bureaucrat.

"What the-!" I nervously thought as I tried to pull my hand away from the grip of this man.

I didn't hold back yet he effortlessly grabbed my wrist, stopping the dagger just an inch away from his face. My speed that put both a beast-man and a vampire to shame was useless against this man.

"I-I can't move!" My instincts were already on high alert. This must be what animals felt when they were getting hunted.

"Dagger? Sick choice, but I didn't come here to fight, boy", he said. When the moonlight lit his face, I noticed he was only twice my age. Still in his teens. He didn't have his military uniform which seemed to make him look younger, yet his demeanor was completely different from what he emitted during the day.

Despite only looking as a teen, his presence screamed that this man had killed a lot of people. Based on how he easily stopped my attack, maybe even monsters.

"Where's Ali?! What did you do to her?!" I angrily said while struggling. I didn't wait for an answer.

By jumping and spinning, I forced my way from his grip and kicked him in the face. He was quick enough to block but I had the momentum! With another spin, I managed to cut him a little with my dagger. In order to avoid significant damage, he quickly jumped away.

"This is bad", I thought. This man had fought countless battles more than I did. He knew what he was doing. By jumping away, he basically cancelled the momentum I had, so I'd to start an attacking pattern anew.

Using my green flame was an urge I fought hard to suppress. This guy was not an ordinary person. It's highly likely that the other two men with him back at the station were same as him.

"I have to save my best trick for when I need it most", I said to myself. In my experience, I could only use the green flame once a day. Once activated, it would stay on for 10 seconds. Then I had to recover in order to use it on the next day.

"Try as you might, you won't win kid", he said when I ran to his side in hopes to confused him with my speed. "Trust me, if it's up to me, I would have enjoyed cutting your meat slowly and painfully."

Another vicious monster who enjoys inflicting pain, I thought. But his cruelty and sadism would be his downfall.

When I got to his side, I started my attack! I lunged to stab him and he was quick to dodge and deliver a counter punch. That was calculated. I was still accelerating so I only had to crouch and I slid past him.

"You're nimble-", he tried to compliment my maneuver but it was cut short as I used the wall as a stepping stone and kicked it to boost my advance.

For a second time, I was able to land a cut and it was on his cheek! Had I been a little faster, I would have gotten his eye. He had a look of disbelief as he finally understood I was not a regular kid.

Once again, I had to jump and spin to land my feet on the wall and kick it for the boost I needed. When I looked at the guy, he brought out a dagger of his own.

"Now you've done it, kid!" He said, though he actually sounded more happy that angry.

I only had a second to react. As I reached for my pocket hoping to distract him, I threw my dagger to his face. His taller body would put me on a reach disadvantage so I had to play dirty.

"Idiot! Petty tricks won't work on me!" He shouted as he kept his eye on my flying dagger to avoid it and aimed his own weapon for my face. I managed to crouch and slid again but he memorized my movements and was able to cut me!

"Ugh! Shoot!" I thought, suppressing a moan of pain. His attack was similar to the fiends I fought. Common attacks should be easy for me to shake off, but this one, I could hardly endure. It's like he cut beyond flesh.

Fortunately, he only hit my arm. If not for the continuous momentum that built up my acceleration, I would have been slower and he would have cut me with a fatal strike.

"You're dead, kid! HAHAHA!" He laughed maniacally but I ignored him.

Focused on my goal, I rushed to pick up my dagger and mustered by strength for my next dash.

"Come on! Let's have some fun!" He shouted, licking my blood off his dagger.

My next dash must have caught him off guard. Much to his dismay, he didn't expect that I would escape.

But I wasn't as stupid as he thought. Had I tried to escape earlier, I know he would have caught me. And if I continued to fight him, he would eventually tire and kill me. Now was the perfect time to escape.

"You have got to be freaking kidding me!" It took him a couple of seconds to snap out of disappointment. Which was all the time that I calculated and needed.

BOOOM!!

The dagger was the distraction, that, he didn't know. Sleight of hands really worked for me.

I rushed my way back to the station to save Ali, leaving the guy behind whom I hoped died from the grenade explosion which I sneaked out of my pocket during my last strike.

***

"What the hell is taking Cecil so long?" A man who's probably in his late 20s or early 30s asked.

"You know him, Captain, that rookie Hunter has a taste for blood", the other man who looked younger replied.

"Cecil", I thought. That must be the name of the guy I fought.

I had sneaked around the backdoor of the station again. As expected, they still didn't know that I came from this way. That meant Ali did not confess about our heist.

"But how did they see through her?" I wondered. To be able to see through Ali's expression, that was supposed to be an impossible task. These guys were no joke if they were that skilled.

"Ugh! Shoot", I covered my mouth to suppress the sound of my moan. If I got found out, we're both dead. But the wound on my arm made it difficult for me to focus.

I still had not discovered how my body recovered from the wounds of torture back in the orphanage. Since that day of the ritual, when Sister Ann said it to the occultists and made it known to me too, it's as if that unknown power I had suddenly ceased to exist.

My vision was starting to blur and my breathing was getting heavier by the minute.

"That Cecil guy must have poisoned me when he cut me", I assumed. And quite strong at that. Before the poison consumed my life, I had to move fast.

I shifted my position from my hiding place. The two unsuspecting men were still discussing about their "friend's" whereabouts. They even thought that I managed to kill him.

"Ali!" My mind screamed when I saw the unconscious body of my friend lying down on the office table at the opposite side, dozen meter away from where the men were standing. Strangely, I couldn't feel her existence. If I wasn't looking at her directly, I would never have known she was there.

Fearing that her lack of presence was because of death, I narrowed my eyes to examine her better.

"She's breathing!" I almost said out loud. That gave me relief, knowing that she was safe. "But why is she not restricted or anything?"

It was odd that she was just lying there free, like sleeping.

"Did these bastards knock her out?" A surge of anger burned in my chest to the thought of Ali getting hurt. Until a glimpse of flickering light hit my eyes.

I had learned to see spirit energy. By this time, I knew that spirit energy lingered everywhere and I could feel it. But there were times when spirit energy was used, it became visible to the eyes like my green flames.

And this time, I could see it surrounding Ali.

"What the hell is that thing?" I thought. It looked like a barrier that's preventing anything from coming in and getting out which was the only logical explanation why I could not feel her presence.

I silently crept to their location. My movements were that of a ghost. Confident with the barrier they erected, they weren't even guarding her.

As I got closer to my friend, the two were still unaware of my presence. My stealth skills were solid. I was confident they wouldn't detect me, which to this moment, I still wondered how that Cecil guy found me.

"Did Ali sell me out when she got caught? The guy even knew my and her name", I thought. However, I was certain she would never betray me. I shook my head for thinking something so stupid of blaming my friend for this crucial situation.

My face was only a feet away from the barrier. The closer I got, the more solid and denser that barrier looked. But even at that distance, it was as if everything inside the barrier didn't exist.

"Huh?" I didn't know what came to me when I touched the barrier. Maybe I just wanted to make sure it was solid. Which it was! My finger felt like it hit an invisible yet unbreakable force.

But I knew what that meant.

"I wil kill these bastards to get you out of here!" My mind screamed with full conviction. I somehow knew that killing the caster was the only way to remove this barrier.

With a silent deep breath, I prepped myself into entering battle mode.

"No you will not, but you're free to try."

"What the hell was that?!" I almost panicked from hearing that voice. In fact, I didn't hear it. It just rang in my head.

Then I felt pain as if nails were drilling my skull.

"AAARGGH!!" I screamed in pain, clenching my head.

Psshhw!

A whistling sound quickly brushed past me which hit the strand of my hair. How I managed to avoid that flying arrow in the midst of this agonizing pain, I had no idea.

"He's extremely quick, Captain! So he must have defeated Cecil if he's that skilled", the man with the bow said.

"Still, that rookie's talented. Maybe he just got lazy and slacked off again. How he passed as a Hunter of ARK, I have no idea", the archer continued as he knocked another arrow.

Hunter? ARK? What the hell are those things? My mind was plagued with those questions while I tried to avoid the next shots.

One look and I knew this man was as strong as that Cecil guy, if not stronger.

"Wohoah! You're really quick, kid!" I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or whatnot. It took a lot of effort just for me to crawl out of his line of fire.

But the other man.. The man that's called Captain..

"You're good. In fact, you're stealth skill is exceptional. You managed to get past two Rangers without getting noticed", he said while I flailed in pain and kicked to move away from them.

He was on a totally different level!

"But do you know where you made a mistake?"

Only then did I realize he wasn't really speaking.

"Your mind spoke too loud. You were consumed by your rage that it overwhelmed your rational thoughts as it screamed your intentions, telling me that you've arrived to kill us."

His voice was ringing directly inside my head and with every vibration, my mind bled.