Chapter 55

Somehow, and quite against her will, Mikan had gathered a group around her as she prowled the ship. It had started well enough. Twice she'd come across Rukh and killed them. The first was alone, stalking through a corridor. She'd managed to ambush it and end things without much of a fight. The second time, she'd found two Rukh assaulting three women in their room. That one had been nastier but she'd killed both of them with only a cut along her thigh taken in return. The women had agreed with her plan to barricade their door and given her a bandage to wind around her thigh. It hurt but after she concentrated ether into it, it stopped bleeding. 

The third encounter, though, had been where things started to turn. Eight men–five humans and three aliens of a species she was unfamiliar with–had been brawling with three Rukh and losing badly. Mikan had jumped into the fray and used the confusion to end all three Rukh without too much trouble. She'd told them all to head for the infirmary but only the two most injured along with two more to help them had gone. The rest had insisted on joining her when she told them she was hunting down the Rukh on the ship. One of the men insisted it was too dangerous for a "little girl" alone. Mikan had wanted to point out that she had saved all their asses but couldn't make the words come. 

After that, more and more had joined as she found and took down several more Rukh. Most of them were useless in a fight. A few were decent. Deni was one of the latter. He had been leading his own little posse but willingly subsumed it into hers when they met. He and all the others began taking her orders like it was the most natural thing in the world. As long as she was telling them to go scout or create distractions or whatever. If she told them she was fine on her own and they should go find somewhere safe until Wu restored communications, they ignored her completely. 

Which was how she'd found herself sitting with her back against a wall with a semi-circle of men screening her. She'd recently taken down her fourteenth Rukh and needed a rest. She felt like she was having some kind of wild dream, especially because she was having so much success. Besides the scratch on her leg and a couple of bruises, she was unharmed. It helped that most of the Rukh had been alone but still…'how powerful am I?' Maybe it really was a dream. If it was, she wished she had been wearing something a little more badass than a pair of sweat-soaked panties and a torn camisole. 

The semi-circle of men parted and Deni slipped through. He was only wearing a pair of loose trousers. Like her, most of the men weren't wearing much. They'd been sleeping too. Deni squatted down next to her. "We've located another one." Mikan nodded wearily. She was getting tired so Deni had suggested that she rest while some of the men scouted the area for more Rukh. It had worked well, letting her conserve energy and letting them find Rukh faster. Considering the things they were doing, every extra moment counted. 

Mikan took a step forward but Deni put a hand on her arm. "Wait," he said softly. "This one is different from the rest." Mikan glanced at him and thought he looked a bit sick, though maybe she was projecting since he wasn't human. "Me, Fabian and Niklos found him." Deni's tongue darted out nervously. "He was…doing what the Rukh do to…a young male human…with the corpses of four more nearby…" Mikan swallowed hard. "Niklos freaked and rushed at him." Mikan's eyes widened. Niklos was older and seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. He was also, like Deni, one of the ones who was actually useful in a fight. "The thing slapped him aside like he was a bug. He didn't even stop…what he was doing. He killed Niklos like it was a minor inconvenience." 

Mikan's belly swam but she tried to keep her face stern. "Take me to it." 

Deni nodded. "I left Fabian behind to keep watch but I don't think he'll be able to do much if the thing goes after him." The small group hurried through the corridors. Deni instructed her "guard" to stop when they got close and they reluctantly agreed after both he and Mikan insisted. Deni and Mikan went on alone until they reached the corner where Fabian was crouched. He was a human man with dark skin and curly black hair. Unlike most of the others, he was fully dressed in a jumpsuit with a long, green-brown coat over top and a flat-billed cap pulled low. He held a strange gun in his hand. Mikan had seen him fire a tiny ether beam out of it. 

Fabian put one finger to his lips and gestured for them to look around the corner. Mikan did so and nearly lost her dinner. The Rukh was different from any she'd seen before. He was tall but thin, with very long limbs and clawed fingers. His head was long as well, with a large mouth, no nose, a bulbous forehead and pointy ears. The eyes were large and all black. His skin was a dark gray and looked tough. The thing wasn't wearing any clothes and his cock was engorged and terrifying. 'Are those…barbs?!' The young man Deni had mentioned seemed to still be alive. He was crawling away painfully slowly, trailing blood. Mikan saw Niklos and the other corpses. She couldn't look at the corpses long enough for details to set in or she really was going to vomit. 

Mikan pulled back and leaned against the wall, taking several deep breaths. She wasn't sure if she felt more sick or more angry but she knew she needed to calm down. "We can't leave this one for someone else," Deni whispered. "It's a true fucking monster." Fabian nodded in agreement, hefting his gun. 

Mikan nodded her head, thinking of the young man who was still alive. "I'll do it. You two stay here." 'I just have to keep my head. I can do this!' Unfortunately, the thing was in the middle of a corridor and there was no option but to attack straight on. 'Just keep your head.' Mikan turned the corner and began to sprint down the hall. 'Keep your head. That monster. Keep your head. That monster! Keep your head. That monster! That MONSTER! THAT MONSTER!' She leapt into the air, intending to knee the creature in the head and send it into oblivion. Instead he swept up one of his long arms like a whip and smacked her out of the sky. 

Mikan instinctively hardened her body with ether and that was the only thing that saved her. The blow was so strong that she dented the bulkhead where she hit it. Even so, Mikan scrambled to her feet instantly and leapt to the side, expecting a follow-up attack. But the thing just stared at her. Mikan's whole body hurt but she didn't think anything was broken. 'This thing is in a whole different class than the others…' She risked a quick look at the retreating boy. He'd barely made any progress. Mikan cursed silently. 'I have to at least hold out until he can reach Deni.' 

"You're a little tougher than the others, I see." Mikan took a step back in surprise. She hadn't heard any of the others speak and she was shocked her translator could make sense of the crazy growling coming out of the thing's mouth. "Fucking ugly, though," he grumbled. "I'm going all soft here." He grabbed his cock and shook it at her. It was indeed at half-mast. Mikan flushed in humiliation and anger. 'Disgusting freak. I am going to rip his head off.' She charged forward again. "Dumbass," the Rukh laughed. 

He reached up both hands, clasped them together and swung them down with perfect timing to smash Mikan into the floor. Or he would have, if Mikan had still been charging straight at him. But she'd skipped to the side the moment his hands started to come down. She side-stepped back underneath his arms and uncorked an uppercut with every iota of power she could summon. Right into his testicles. She felt her fist crush something and the Rukh screamed. Mikan jumped forward, somersaulting between his legs and then spinning around with her fists up. 

The Rukh turned around slowly, clutching itself. His face was contorted with rage and pain. "You fucking whore. I am going to kill you." 

Mikan opened her lead fist and made a beckoning motion. She figured she'd do what he'd done to her; goad him into a reckless charge and hit him with a vicious counter. But when the Rukh came at her, it was faster and harder than she could have ever anticipated. He slapped her arms aside with one hand and punched her hard in the stomach with his other. All of the breath was driven out of her. Mikan stumbled back but managed to quickly get her arms up again. It was the only thing that saved her. The Rukh began to wail on her. Mikan was pushed back against the wall, reduced to protecting her head with her arms as the thing buffeted her with a typhoon of punches. 

After a few moments, he went low again, smacking her in the belly. Mikan automatically, unthinking, reached down to clutch her stomach. The moment she did so, the Rukh grabbed her around the throat with one hand and lifted her into the air. His hand constricted around her neck, choking off her air. And considering that all the air had just been driven out of her lungs, Mikan began to suffocate instantly. Black spots danced in front of her eyes. She clutched ineffectively at his wrist with both hands. 'I'm going to die!' 

A bolt of ether nailed the Rukh in the head. It didn't penetrate his skin but it did send him stumbling to his right. His grip slackened and Mikan's toes touched the ground. She didn't waste a second. Mikan summoned up all the ether she could and twisted his wrist. It snapped and the pressure was gone from her throat. 

Mikan's heels hit the ground and she fell back against the wall. She still couldn't see well so she lashed out a foot in the Rukh's general direction. Something crushed underneath the blow and the Rukh howled and staggered back. As much as Mikan wanted to kill him, she had no choice but to spend the next several moments trying to catch her breath. Her throat and back hurt worse than anything and it seemed like she was still suffocating, no matter how deep her breaths were. 

After several seconds that felt like they would never end, Mikan managed to straighten up and push away from the wall. The spots in her vision were starting to go away and Mikan saw that the Rukh was down on one knee, clutching his other leg with his one good hand. His other hand was pulled in protectively, the wrist hanging grossly. "You fucking bitch," he spat. "I don't care how ugly you are. I'm going to rape you. I'm going to rape the fucking shit out of you and then I'm going to find your mother and father and rape them in front of you. I'll make you take me to everyone you ever cared about, you whore! Then I'm going to impregnate you and rape your children!" 

"Really?" Mikan croaked. She took an unsteady step forward and then another. "And how are you going to do that…" she leaned forward putting one hand on his shoulder and the other on the top of his head. "...without a head?" She summoned up what power she had left in her and dug her fingers into his skull. Then she pulled. The Rukh started to screech and tried to grab at her with his good hand. Mikan pulled harder, her arms and back feeling like they would tear with the strain. Then, all at once, she ripped his head off his body. The sudden release of pressure caused her to stumble backwards and lose her grip on the head. It bounced down the corridor. The Rukh's body tumbled over. Mikan stumbled back and sat down hard against the wall.

"Holy shit." Deni came around the corner and walked up to her. Mikan turned to him, her stomach sinking. She had forgotten they were watching. 'What did I just do? That was horrible. Monstrous.' "That was fucking awesome." His big eyes were shining. "You are the raddest fucking woman I've ever met." 

Mikan blinked, unsure she'd heard correctly. Then a slow smile spread across her face. "Really?" she asked shyly. 

"Do you even have to ask?" Deni said. "Fucking…everything you've done since we first met has been cool as fuck." Mikan blushed. 'Could that be true? No, he was exaggerating.' But it still felt nice to hear. 

Fabian crouched down and picked up the young man who'd been violated by the Rukh. "I don't know what we would have done without you," he said. "I got a clean shot at that monster and nailed him right in the head. Fucking nothing." Not nothing. Mikan would have been dead without the distraction. She wanted to thank him but found herself all tongue-tied. "No way we could have killed it without you," Fabian continued. 

The young man who Fabian had lifted up gazed at her with tears in his eyes. "Thank you," he said, voice hoarse. 

"Oh, o-of course," Mikan said. 

Deni headed over and took the man's other arm and the four of them returned to her "guard." They passed off the young man to two volunteers to take him to the infirmary. Mikan was about to take a much desired sit when her chip pinged. It took Mikan a moment to understand the significance of that. But then it penetrated and she excitedly activated her hand display. Wu's face appeared in front of her. "Hey, kid." 

"You have the communications working again!" 

"Yup. The damn savages did a half-ass job luckily. More confirmation that they were just trying to distract and delay us." 

"They were?" 

"Yeah. This wasn't a full assault. The Rukh have enough out there to have completely overwhelmed us, the way they got the drop on us. They must be going after the fie. We were just a minor irritant." Mikan frowned worriedly. If this was just a diversion, what are the Rukh doing to the Shimayasumota? "Good job, by the way," Wu said. Mikan looked at him curiously. "Clearing your half of the ship. There are only two more Rukh over there. I've dispatched teams to clear them out." 

"Thanks…" Mikan appreciated the praise but she was too worried to enjoy it. "Are we going to help the fie?" 

Wu breathed out through his nose. "Well now, normally, I make it a policy not to get involved in other people's scraps," Wu said. Mikan started to feel sick but Wu continued. "However, seeing as how the Rukh invaded my ship, killed and assaulted my guests," Wu's normally easy going demeanor disappeared completely for a moment and was replaced by an utterly terrifying anger. "…well, I don't think I can say that it isn't my affair." Wu grinned wickedly and rubbed his chin. "What do you say, Mikan? You want to help me make the Rukh regret that they ever dared step foot on Tianlong?" A grin to match Wu's grew across Mikan's face.