Writer info:
If any of the readers have an idea that he/she wanted to see in any story that I'm currently writing, please, feel free to write a comment, send PM here, or via Twitter: /White_Dawid. If I ended up putting the idea in the text, the person who suggested the idea will be mentioned.
And, here I'd like to present to you the 2nd chapter.
An hour later:
„Please, Tobias, don't say that there was another attack," Matt said, covering his face in hands.
"Unfortunately, there was," Amanda spoke. "The small ramen shop was the target this time. The attacker was probably the second hunter, again the bodies were half-eaten."
"Don't tell me that I need to check it," Matt whined.
"Mate, I understand that you don't want to see the guts spilled on the floor, but it's our task. The faster we locate that new threat, the quicker we should be able to kill it," Arthur stated. "If we gonna keep doing nothing, there will be more casualties, more dead people down there."
"Unfortunately, Arthur is right. The situation is speedy getting out of our control," Amanda summed up.
"Yeah," Roger agreed. "The huntress that we met seemed to stay low for now. I wonder if she isn't waiting for bigger prey, what' ya think?"
"It's possible," Irelia responded. "The huntress stopped attacking when the new attacker appeared. It's pretty safe to assume that it's her new target."
"These are only speculations," Tobias spoke. "We can't keep waiting or another move of our enemy. We won't be able to respond in time. There are too few of us to cover the entirety of slums. I think that it's high time, we inform the Government. We need more men to deal with it."
"Captain?" May asked. "What are the orders?"
"Jason, inform the command center about the situation." The officer said slowly. "The rest should go to that bar, we need to check whether the attacker left some kind of clue for us."
"Fuck!" Matt coursed.
"Matt, I don't like the view either, but it's something that we must do." The pink-haired woman said.
"I know, Cap, I know."
"How many dead, or at least confirmed?" Roger asked.
"At least 6, but I fear the number can be higher, a way higher. It was a pretty popular and busy place in slums, lots of people were visiting that place," May responded.
"Why can't we just blow up this place?" Mark asked.
"If you want the entire city to crumble, go ahead. I remind you, we're currently underground. That place wasn't meant to be a part of the city, it was meant to be a prison," Leona growled.
"I keep forgetting about that detail, sorry," Mark apologized.
"Jason, did you manage to establish a connection with the HQ?" Tia asked.
"Yeah, the message was sent. For now, there is no response."
"Hmm, a bit suspicious," May stated. "But, it can be caused by the massive rock layer that is the backbone of the upper city and our ceiling."
"Yeah, it can be that," Jason agreed.
"Ok, guys, let's move out." The Captain ordered.
20 minutes later:
"What the fuck is that smell?" Matt coursed.
"The mixture of urine, blood, cheap alcohol, and many more things that you don't want to know," Marris replied.
"Jesus, the thing that did it, was hungry," Tobias said, pointing at the body of a nearly 2 meters heigh man, or something that was left of him.
"The hunter ate his guts," Tia informed them. "It seems that it prefers to eat the organs instead of raw meat."
"It doesn't give as much feedback!" Matt shouted.
"Shut up, Matt. Look, not all of the corpses' guts were eaten. There are a few that look like were tortured."
"Agggh, you're right," Roger gasped. "Their fingers are either cut off or bitten off. The wounds on their back look like the hunter was stabbing them with something blunt. It seems like it was toying with them, watching as they struggle to escape."
"Let me look at it," May spoke.
The woman quickly closed the distance to the corpses. She kneeled beside them, inspecting the wounds that covered nearly all of the remaining skin. The first body that the commando-trooper decided to investigate belonged to the man, probably in his teens. He was of average height, slim. His whole left hand was chewed. In the right thigh, the woman found the pieces of wood. The tibia from the other leg was ripped off and could be located a few steps from the rest of the body. The wounds on the back looked like someone thrust the blunt object into the flesh with brutal force. The whole frame of the young man was massacred, based on his still open eyes, he died after prolonged torture. After the woman was finished with the first dead, she focused on the rest. To be frank, every single one of them looked terrifying.
"Have you found something useful in the bodies?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, in one of them, there was a long, sharp fang that could belong to one of the great cats. It seems that our hunter is even less human than the huntress we met before," May summed up.
"At least, for now, there were no additional attacks," Leona added.
"If you're talking about communication, Jason, have you received any response from the HQ?"
"Let me check," Jason replied. "It seemed that they dispatched two additional teams, they should be there shortly."
"Thank God, at least, we got so help," Matt whispered.
"Any info which teams were assigned?" Irelia asked.
"Negative, there is no additional information."
"Shame, but we need to keep moving." The officer spoke. "We're moving to the safe-zone. Once we're there, we need to analyze the data we gathered."
"Yes, sir." The team responded.
20 minutes later:
"Another attack," Amanda informed.
"Where this time?" Irelia asked immediately.
"Sector A16, the entrance to the sewer."
"Casualties?"
"Ehhh …"
"Amanda, what are the casualties? How was attacked?"
"According to the intel, six members of Bravo. They were cut into small pieces." The woman replied slowly.
"The huntress?" Matt asked.
"Most likely. No of the bodies were touched or consumed."
"Wonderful, for the fuck sake, wonderful," Tobias coursed. "She butchered six of ours in a single skirmish? How many troopers are needed to take her down?"
"Can't say for sure, but according to their viziers, she was wounded. Nothing serious, but still."
"You know what it means?" The officer asked.
"Yeah, we need to check it up," Amanda said. "We need to find out whether the huntress left the trail of her blood."
"Why do I feel like it's a bad idea?" Tia asked.
"I feel the same," Roger agreed. "But, this time we'll be there all together, I hope she won't decide to attack us all. To be frank, we don't know her limits."
"It's true, but we need to check it. Maybe the trail will lead us to the huntress." The Captain whispered.
"Do we have established communication with the leaders of Bravo and Gamma?" Leona made a question.
"I think so," Jason replied. "The leader of Bravo is Darius, while the leader of Gamma is Xin."
"Connect me with them," Irelia ordered.
"Ay, Captain."
"Captain Xan, what a surprising call," Darius spoke ironically. "What do you want?"
"Drop that attitude, Darius," Xin said stoically. "We know that you lost your men, but it isn't the reason to snap at us."
"I'll have the head of that butcher handed me on the silver plate," Darius growled.
"I'm sorry, I feel sorry for your loss," Irelia said.
"They were the soldiers, they knew the risk," Darius responded. "Xan, what do you want from us?"
"I'm moving my squad to the place where you men were found. It seems that the huntress was wounded during the skirmish, maybe we'll be able to locate where she's hiding."
"Affirmative, I'll assign my men to cover the sectors A5 – A10," Xin added. "I think we'll need a lot more people to deal with those hunters."
"I agree. The problem is that there aren't any additional command squads in the city. All of them were assigned for some other tasks, the best we could hope as for reinforcements would be military, and we know that they'd just make the whole mission nearly impossible to complete for us," Darius stated.
"Unfortunately, I must agree with that." The woman replied. "Xin, inform the HQ that the situation is far worse than we thought initially, and we need them to prepare the military, we might need them. As for now, I think we should investigate once again every place the hunters attacked."
"I'll have my men checked them. You can focus on your task, Xan," Darius responded.
"Ok, if anything happens, inform the rest."
"We know," Xin replied. "Good luck."
30 minutes later:
"The smell here is killing me," Mark spoke as soon as they reached their destination.
"What would you expect, it's the sewer entrance after all?" Tia asked.
"Couldn't the huntress choose another place for herself?"
"I doubt that it's the place she's hiding, but it's easier to hide the bodies there."
"She doesn't give a fuck about that."
"Mark! Calm the fuck down," Irelia growled on the soldier. "We're all under a lot of stress, you don't have to add up to it."
"Sorry, Cap."
"Where were they found?" The officer asked Amanda.
"A couple of steps further into the tunnel, we aren't far from there."
"Good, lead the way."
"Sure."
It didn't take them long to locate the place of massacre. They didn't have to search the bodies, they were covering the smallest spur of the entrance to the sewer. The corpses of the command troopers were cut into small pieces. The huntress didn't spare any of them, she dismembered every single one. The floor and the walls were still dumped from the blood that was covering them. Around the butchered flesh, the flies could be spotted. Inside of the guts, the insects had the feast. It seemed that the soldiers didn't stand a chance against the huntress in such a narrow choke-point. On most of the armors, the small cracks could be seen, the marks of their own rifles. The woman must have landed precisely in the middle of the squad before she started to wreak the havoc. Amanda kneeled in front of the only untouched helmet she could find.
"Does it still works?" Roger asked.
"I think so, but I need to test it before I am sure."
"Go ahead, we'll cover you."
The spur was an extraordinary place. It was isolated from the main branch leading a long, narrow tunnel to the lower parts of the sewer. No sound from the outside world could be heard there. In the dark tunnel, the silence ruled, making it even scarier to dwell deeper. Currently, the only sound that was filling the small space that the soldiers occupied was a buzzing of the helmet console.
"It works," Amanda announced after a few prolonged moments. "We should be able to see precisely what the man saw before his death, and shortly after."
"Before you put it through, did anyone find the blood of the huntress?" The officer asked.
"Nothing there, Cap. It's only the blood of ours," Matt replied.
"Did you check the next segment? The one that starts right past that corner." The woman pointed.
"Nah, your orders were to stay grouped," Roger reminded her. "We'll check it after we watch the ambush scene."
"Fine, Amanda, put it through."
"Ay."
It took less than a few moments for the software to pick up the transmission and to display it before their eyes. The tunnel that the members of Bravo squad were traveling was even darker than it was currently. The soldiers seemed to avoid using their flashlights. Instead, they were using the night-vision equipment that was built in their armors. Their voice coms were disabled, they were traveling in complete silence. Then, suddenly something changed. The sound similar to the scratching could be heard above them. They averted their gazes from the darkness, focusing on the place the sounds came from. Then, they saw a flash of red. Something heavy fell onto the ground. When they switch on their flashlights, they spotted the huntress. She was standing still right beside them. This time the mask was discarded, and they all could see the wicked smirk that was playing on her plump lips. The soldiers shouted and started to shoot. It was futile. The woman seemed to be able to dodge nearly all of their bullets. She drew her blades in a matter of a heartbeat and struck. It'd be tough to describe what was going on in the record. There were screams, gunshots, cries, it was just chaos. It didn't take long for her to kill five of the commando troopers. The sole survivor was the owner of the helmet that the record was being transmitted from. The man was scared, all of the suits alerts were popping off on the vizier. He emptied the last mag and drew the short sword that was hanging on his side. The soldier knew he was dead, his desperate, quite prayers were recorded. The commando trooper waited for the woman to take the first move, he knew that she'd probably counter every attack that he could muster at that moment. Soon enough, the killer lost her patience. She started to slowly approach the man, her blades splashed with fresh blood of his comrades. The mischievous smile was still visible on her lips. She was sure that she had already won. The strike was performed lazily. The attack was much slower than everything that she has done previously. The slash was dodged. By the time the man regained his balance, he had struck at the arms of the butcher. His blade reached the huntress and pierced through her skin. The fresh, thick, dark blood started to spill from the swallow wound. The eyes of the color of blood went dark in a fraction of the second, the teeth exposed.
The woman was furious, and she wanted to end the encounter as soon as she could. Without any warning, the white-haired threw herself at the soldier. They fell on the slick floor together, but they knew exactly who was in control. The shouts and cries of the command trooper filled the next seconds of the record, but not for long. Approximately a minute later, it was all over. The huntress rose up. Her frame was barely scratched, the lone trickle of blood was flowing out of the wound. The white-haired was ready for another kill, she didn't seem affected by the fight at all. The record ended when the huntress disappeared.
"Fuck!" Matt coursed. "She's even more deadly than we thought. She wasn't even injured. And she killed six of us."
"We don't really know what we're fighting against," Roger whispered. "The only thing we know is that she is superior to us, presumably in every aspect."
"Matt, check the corner," Irelia ordered.
"Right away, I wish we could just leave and forget about the whole incident." The soldier was nagging.
"You aren't the only one who would want it," Tia warned Matt.
"Yeah, I know. Let's do our job. The faster we finish the task, the faster we can get the hell out of there."
The man was furious, no, he was scared. The whole situation was getting worse and worse by every moment that past. Matt switched on his flashlight and ran straight to the corner. He didn't give a fuck to even look at the soundings, he just wanted to get the hell out of there. The soldier leaned out of the corner, checking if the huntress wasn't there. To be honest, he didn't expect her to be there. It was just a stupid order that must be fulfilled. As soon as he made sure no-one was there, Matt turned around to face his team. Something wasn't quite right, the commando trooper felt immediately. "Nah, it's just my fucking mind." He told himself. Then, something small and red dripped on his shoulder.
In a heartbeat, Matt closed his eyes, he was so dead. He tried to run, but it was futile. The soft, but god-damned strong hands reached him, stopping him from taking another step. He was lifted with ease. Only a fraction of the second passed, and he was immobilized. Less than a few inches from him, the face of the white-haired could be spotted. She licked her lips, exposing her small fangs. With a quick flip of her kunai, the huntress removed the helmet, exposing the neck of her prey. She smiles widely, looking at the man in front of her, who would die soon. Without any warning, she leaned in, biting the neck of the soldier, and drinking his fresh blood. Matt shouted at the top of his lungs, stopping the action of the woman. She looked at him once again, before the blades were drawn. The commando trooper didn't even have enough time to scream one more time. He was dismembered a few seconds after his head fell onto the ground with a disgusting bubbling sound. In the end, the white-haired got what she wanted, the blood of the still-living human. With a mischievous smile, she disappeared in a matter of seconds.
"Matt!" Irelia cried out once she spotted the massacred body of her friend.
"Oh, shit, retreat, retreat. The huntress is there!" Roger shouted.