Chapter Nine

"You dare speak that name in my presence?!" 

   Lee sighed almost apologetically. "Oh, I forgot you guys don't like people doing that." 

   "Wait, y-you know what that thing is?" Elena all but stammered in both shock and fright.

   He gave her a weird look as if she had asked something stupid. "You don't? Man, what're they teaching you kids nowadays?"

   Turning back to the enraged skinwalker, he spoke in a condescending tone. 

   "Now, I'm going to give you two choices. One: you remove all your curses and tell me what your plan here is. Or-"

   The skinwalker cut his words short by leaping over the entire space between them and lashing out with a clawed hand at his neck. The attack was foiled when Lee grabbed the limb inches away from his throat and smiled wickedly.

   "The hard way it is then. Bad choice."

   'Devon' struck again with his other hand which was promptly restrained by Lee. Then in a movement Elena could barely follow, the Hunter swept the skinwalker's feet off the ground and delivered a devastating ax kick to his torso to slam him back on the ground. A third kick sent the skinwalker tumbling across the clearing until he dug his hands in the dirt to slow his roll.

   "Who are you?!" 'Devon shouted angrily.

   Lee cocked an eyebrow in a dry expression. "Oh so now you wanna do introductions? Trying to rip out my neck isn't exactly how we say hello around here."

   His opponent literally growled at him in anger. He had not expected to be matched so easily by this human. His mission had been going smoothly and there had never been any mention of humans this powerful. Despite the fact that he himself had not attacked at full strength, the amount he'd used should have been able to decapitate a normal person at once. Yet this individual managed to not only react accordingly, but overwhelm him entirely in their brief exchange.

   The skinwalker frowned as he glared at the white haired man before him. Everything about the latter sent alarms blaring in his head. From his seemingly open stance to his lackadaisical behavior, he just seemed wholly wrong. The strangest thing was that he did not even entirely feel human. There was a hidden source of power in him, two in fact. But the skinwalker could not decipher what they were. 

   Looking directly into the Asian man's eyes, the skinwalker attempted to enter his mind to probe and possibly manipulate him. But before he could even scratch the surface of his enemy's mind, he was repelled by an impossibly strong force that sent him reeling slightly in the physical world.

   "Yeah your mind tricks are not gonna work on me. Nice try though."

   Despite his words, Lee had stopped smiling. His foe was able to perform mental attacks of quite a high magnitude, meaning that he was no juvenile. He would have to be a bit more careful with this one.

   "Elena's your name, right?" he called to the witch behind him who snapped herself out of her daze to nod shakily. "Get to cover. This guy's probably gonna target you once he realizes he can't beat me and that would make keeping you alive more stressful."

   "W-why are you helping me even after what I said to you? You're a Hunter-"

   "That's exactly why I'm doing this. We protect innocents, not just humans only. They just tend to fall into that category more often." He gave a half smile that was full of warm confidence. "Besides it's our duty to keep you guys safe. Letting you die here would be a bit troublesome, don't you think?"

   A strange feeling bloomed inside Elena. She could describe it but the warmth it spread in her was certainly welcome. But she choose to focus on the present. The Hunter was right. In her current state, she would be more of a nuisance and a liability to him. The thought was unpleasant to her but she had never been one to shy away from reality. Pushing herself of the ground, she moved into the surrounding trees for safety and continued to watch the scene.

   The two men stared at each other for all of five seconds before the skinwalker struck first. Running on all fours like a beast, he bounded across the clearing and thrust his claws at Lee's head. The Hunter deflected the blow upwards and aimed an elbow strike at the skinwalker's unprotected abdomen. Having anticipated the attack, 'Devon' caught the elbow in his other hand. But he had no way of knowing what happened next.    

      Flowing from one move to the next, Lee gripped the first limb above them and reversed the skinwalker's hold on his second hand. Pushing his shoulder into the other's guard, he used his grip on his opponent and the position of his body to lift him over his shoulder and slam the skinwalker into the ground. The tattooed man felt the air rush out of his lungs as he impacted painfully on the forest floor. Lee stepped back to allow the man space to get back on his feet then he went on the offensive. 

   The fight quickly became one-sided from there. Lee held the advantage in speed, skill and intellect. His knowledge of martial arts came to light as he systematically dismantled his adversary. The skinwalker was bigger in size and thus presumably had the upper hand in strength but that did not matter when he could not hit his opponent. All it did was make him a bigger target for Lee. The platinum blond man was not lacking in strength either. Each strike was aimed at debilitating his foe yet the skinwalker pushed on through sheer endurance and superhuman durability. 

   Even though she was not an experienced hand to hand fighter, Elena could tell Lee was not yet going all out, neither was the skinwalker. This was just the preliminary round. The two of them were still testing the waters with each other. Exactly how Lee was able to go toe to toe with this beast of a man, Elena had no clue. But she held desperate faith she had no idea from where it came, that he would win.

   Lee had mixed feelings towards this fight. Though he was holding back as the fight had not reached its peak yet, he was oddly amused and amazed by how much the skinwalker could take. His attacks hit vital points which would have dropped even a body builder on his knees wheezing if not outright unconscious. Yet this guy was taking them all with little more than a grunt before striking back. Lee ducked under a wild swing and kicked the back of the man's knee causing him to buckle down on the other knee. Another roundhouse kick to the side of the head had the skinwalker tumbling away once again. 

   Lee chased after him, intending to press on the assault. But the skinwalker had finally had enough. Righting himself midair, he let out a roar accompanied by an incredibly strong burst of wind that sent Lee flying this time around. His landing was far more gracious than the skinwalker's though as he flipped backwards several times until the wind dispersed. 

    Elena's eyes widened at the unmistakable feel of her own magic in that attack. Her affinity was Wind and that spell was one of her personal favorites. It looked like he had not only drained her magic but he could utilize it as well. An indignant look appeared on her face at the sight of her gift in the hands of something like that. She knew she was not a fan of the Hunters' methods, no one was actually, but at that moment she honestly wished a bloody death for 'Devon'.

   Lee exhaled audibly, his breath slightly visible in the light forest fog. Although it was a far cry from what he was used to, the fight had gotten his blood pumping at the rate it had been going. Now it was about to get even better. The skinwalker had decided to use magic, meaning that either it was getting tired or it had somewhere to be by now. A quick look at the moonlight sky told him that it was quite close to midnight now. 

    The skinwalker gathered more wind around his hands and legs as he watched Lee with pure rage. Swiping at the air, he released several invisible blades of compressed wind at the Hunter. Lee narrowed his eyes and lowered his body before dashing forward. When he reached the wind blades, he weaved his way through them in his unerring path to the larger man. 

    The skinwalker unleashed more wind based attacks but they were all dodged despite the attacks being invisible. Soon Lee covered the distance between them and immediately the skinwalker threw out a fist. Lee nearly caught the blow with his hand when he felt rather than saw, the rapidly spinning wind covering the fist. He had no doubt he would receive tremendous damage if he so much as grazed that. 

   'Clever' he thought with a wry smile on his face. 'As a close range fighter, I'll have to encounter his hands and feet often. He's making sure I'll take damage to matter what I do. Still won't be enough though...' 

   At the last second, Lee shifted his hand to grip the skinwalker's forearm just below the area where the wind rotated wildly. He dragged the man forward roughly, he himself turning around to grab the skinwalker's other arm at the same spot. With their backs together and his hands holding the tattooed man in place, Lee lowered his body forward slightly. Raising the skinwalker up a little, he used his own body as a wedge to smash the larger man neck first into the ground. The impact created a crater in the dirt and the noise sent more than a few birds flying out of the trees.