40 minutes later:
Returning to their temporary HQ took them more time than Irelia planned. The morale of the squad was low. To be frank, she has never seen it as low as it was currently. Ever since she became the Captain, none of her subordinates were killed in action. To be honest, they were rarely wounded. All of their missions were marked as successful. It was so easy to believe that it'd last forever. Sadly, today they were faced with a brutal reality. Commando-troopers could be the best the Government could offer, but they were still human. They had their weaknesses and limitations. The enemy, the squad was forced to faced, was different. The huntress looked very similar to the human being, but the similarities ended there. The white-haired woman was killing without emotions. She was graceful, perfect.
"Do we have any idea how to deal with the butcher?" Roger asked, after at least half of an hour of silence. "For now, we know that we can't fight with her in melee range. She's too agile, and to be frank, I have never seen someone moving that fast."
"The problem isn't how to fight with her. The problem is how to kill her," Matt spoke. "We can safely assume that she can deal with at least 4 soldiers at the same time and kill all of them. It isn't like she didn't do it before."
"What's the point of fighting, then?" Mark asked. "We can't kill her. If we stay here, she'll kill us all."
"Mark, for the fuck sake, shut the fuck up!" Arthus shouted. "Your endless nagging doesn't help us. I know you're scared, but man, control yourself."
"If you want to stay, fine. I'm not waiting for the huntress to behead me. I want to live."
"Cap, what do you say?" Roger asked.
"Let him go," Irelia stated. "Mark, I hope you understand what consequences your decision brings?"
"No, I frankly don't, but I don't care." The man replied.
"Ahh, the moment you leave this room, you're released. You won't be the part of this squad anymore, and you won't have a chance to rejoin in the future. The HQ will be informed about that. Sooner or later, they'll assign you to another unit." The Captain explained. "Does it change your mind?"
"No, I want to leave this place behind. I value my life more than the slot in the squad."
"Aight, you can leave. Take care of yourself, kid."
"Get the fuck out of here, coward!" Jason growled.
"Fuck you, mate!" Mark shouted back.
"Let him go," Irelia repeated.
The rest of the squad allowed the deserter to freely leave the room. They didn't say a word, there was no farewell for the man who betrayed his team. The silence lasted a couple of moments longer after the soldier took his exit. Tia was the first one to speak.
"Cap, why did you let him go?"
"He chose to leave. There was no point in trying to convince him to change his mind," Irelia replied.
"You think that he won't reach the upper city?" Tia asked.
"Yeah, I think so. I don't want Mark to die, but he'll most certainly choose the shortest path to the passage."
"Hmm, you think that he'll lure the second hunter from its hideout?" Tobias curiously asked.
"He'll travel through its hunt ground, so it's possible. In the end, Mark can save more lives this way than if he stayed here."
"Cap, you willingly sacrificed him? Did you?" Amanda gasped.
"I think so. Amanda, please, turn on his camera and put the transmitted video on the wall."
"I don't like it, Cap," Amanda replied. She was shaking her head.
"I know, but I didn't have another choice. I wouldn't be able to convince Mark to stay."
"We understand it," Roger assured. "There are many difficult choices that you have to make as the officer and letting one of your teammates die, is probably the most difficult one."
"Roger, you don't have to remind me that. I've sent him right to his death." The officer whispered. "I'd love to promise you that there wouldn't be more casualties, but I can't."
"Cap, there is nothing to promise. We're all soldiers, we knew what was the risk when we signed up," Tobias spoke. "We're the team, and we'll do everything to keep each other alive. But … in the end, we're mere humans. If we're to die, we'll put a hell of the fight before dying."
"Yeah, Tobias for once said something right," Leona chuckled. "We're no longer the set of individuals, we're a team. We must focus on our task, it's all we can do."
"Agree," May spoke in lowe voice. "Amanda, did you manage to connect to looser's suit?"
"Nah, give me a couple of seconds more," Amanda replied, typing on the nearest keyboard.
"Okay, it isn't like we haven't got some time to spare," May replied.
"We won't be able to get to him quick enough if we stay here, Cap," Roger hummed.
"We won't try to save Mark," Irelia whispered. "Our only chance to take down the second hunter is to let him start its feast, then we'll attack."
"So, Mark is basically dead," Jason summed up.
"If he manages to avoid the hunter, he'll live. Otherwise, he won't stand a chance in one-on-one combat with that monster."
"Do you hope that the huntress will appear and start fighting with it?" Tia asked shyly.
"It'd be the best-case scenario, but we can't depend on it. As soon as the action is over, we're going to move out. It'll take time for the monster to consume Mark's corpse. The hunter should be distracted for a couple of moments, which can give us the edge we need." The pink-haired officer explained.
"This plan has an awful number of ifs inside of it. I don't like it," Amanda responded. "Should I inform other captains about our plan, once I'm finished with establishing the connection?"
"Do it, their help can be handy," Roger ordered.
10 minutes later:
"Connection established," Amanda informed some time later. "It seems that Mark hasn't even reached the passage yet."
"I assume Darius and Xin are informed?" Roger asked.
"Yes, Roger. I've contacted them."
"Good, put it through."
"Aight."
The massive monitor that was hanging on a wall started to flicker. The signal seemed to be clipped. They were able to see a few moments without any interference. Still, overall the quality of the visual was pretty low.
"Why is the visual so bad?" Irelia asked.
"I don't know, Cap. If I were to guess, I'd say that there is a pretty formidable source of an electric or magnetic field nearby," Amanda replied instantly.
"Hmm, we didn't have any problems with coms before. Is it possible for the hunters to have some kind of device able to interference with our signals?"
"It isn't impossible," May spoke. "But, we didn't encounter any problems when we were fighting against the huntress earlier. It can mean that the second beast is near Mark."
"Amanda, can you access his suit's analyzer?" The Captian asked out of sudden.
"Sure thing. Let me change one line of code." The technician was whispering. "And, done."
Indeed, the analyzer metrics appeared on the screen a moment later. Based on the high heart rate, shallow breath, and slightly risen body temperature, Mark was scared. Possibly, he was aware that the butcher or the monster were watching him, making a trap. The fact that there were no people nearby wouldn't calm anyone's mind.
"If he keeps this pace, he'll reach the elevator in a few minutes," Leona informed the rest of the squad. "Of course, if he doesn't meet any of the hunters."
"Look at the surroundings," Tobias spoke. "It looks as if someone pulled the scene out of the horror movie. The few lamps are flickering, it's safe to say that it's twilight there."
"Yeah, it's like a horror movie. The passages are empty, there is no one there aside from Mark. Look, there are marks on the walls. They look like scratches."
"There is some kind of liquid streaming on the wall. It's so thick and dark," Tia pointed out. "It looks like blood, but … fuck!"
"The hunter is above him, it's eating," Amanda gasped. "Now, it's just a matter of time before the beast decides to kill Mark."
"It's so strange, the whole scene seems like a battlefield," May whispered.
"How so?" Roger asked.
"I swear, I saw some puddles on the ground. I think it was blood. Some of them were red, some blueish."
"Wait, Mark started to run. He must have spotted something, or someone," Irelia told. "Can you rewind? Amanda, can you rewind?"
"I think so." The squad technician replied. "Yeah, how much?"
"Last minute, slow it as well."
"Got you. And it's done."
The screen flickered a few times before the video stabilized. As it was requested, the play speed was halved, allowing the squad to focus on the small details they could otherwise miss. It didn't take much time to find what they were looking for. In fact, May was right. The ground of the passage was covered in fresh blood. There was no doubt that some kind of fight must have happened here recently. Who fought, they didn't know for sure. They were confident that someone engaged the beast, but whether that person survived or not wasn't known.
"What the fuck, who has the guts to hunt for that beast?" Shocked, Tobias asked.
"I think it proves that the Cap was right," Tia replied. "The beast can be the ultimate prey for the huntress. The blood on the ground is similar to her. We found some of it in the sewer."
"Okay, but based on what we can see there, she lost that fight," Jason added. "How can we fight against something that defeated her?"
"I have a feeling that she wasn't the one fighting," Amanda stated. "It looks like the primal hunt or some kind of execution. I think there are more huntresses there. The lesser ones must have clashed with the beast. Even though they might not be as strong as the huntress we met, they're still formidable foes. They certainly inflicted some wounds onto their target."
"Hmm, it makes sense, but I feel like you haven't said everything yet," Roger replied.
"Because I haven't. The things I've mentioned already are highly possible, the rest is just my speculation."
"Tell us what's on your mind, Amanda," Irelia ordered.
"Okay, as you might have noticed, the huntress blood isn't that different from ours. I feel like she can be human."
"What?!" Mike shouted. "Do you expect us to believe that the huntress is, in fact, human?"
"She can be human, we don't know that yet. I just merely stated that she can be one of the kidnapped children from one of the colonies. It isn't uncommon for a few children to disappear a year." The technician explained.
"Okay, I can agree that she looks like us, but she can't be human. She kills without blinking, not to mention that I don't know anyone who could move the way she does."
"I understand your concerns, but I'm just mentioning the possibilities, nothing more. It scares me as much as it does to you."
"Mike, give her a break," Irelia rose her voice. "It's a scary possibility, I must admit. The mere thought that the huntress was once a human child that was taken away from her family, and then trained to be a killer, scares me."
"Isn't it that impossible? If you think about it for a second, the galaxy is really vast, and our kind is spread throughout all of it. There are billions or even hundreds of billions of humans living in it. We wouldn't even notice if thousands of people gone missing," May said.
"Sadly, I have to agree," Tia replied.
"Maybe stop discussing, the video hasn't ended yet," Tobias stated. "Maybe we'll learn something from that."
"Yeah, let's focus on it once again." The Captain agreed.
It wasn't surprising for them what had happened next. Mark spotted the puddles of blood that were covering the streets. It scared him, but it wasn't the reason he started to run. The thin stream of blood that was presented on the wall caught the attention of the soldier. The man averted his gaze from the ground, following the trail of the red liquid. After a few seconds later, his sight was focused on the very top levels of slum's buildings. Something was there, there was no point arguing about it. In the shadows, the massive frame could be spotted. It was slowly moving, as if it was chawing something, eating. The ex-commando-trooper didn't waste any time, he started to run for his life. To be frank, it was probably the reason why the beast interrupted its feast. Mark was running as fast as he could, but everyone was all too aware of the final outcome. The sounds of the chase started to reach the man no longer than a few short moments after his panic attack. The beast was on its way to hunt him down. Without turning back, the soldier knew that he didn't have a lot of time before the hunter would reach him. The man chose to turn to the nearest alley. All of his metrics were elevated. His breath was shallow, clipped. It was only a matter of time before Mark's body would refuse to run anymore. As soon as he entered the passage, he froze. Two women were standing there. They were so similar to the huntress, they were so beautiful. Before the soldier could do anything, one of them with dark brown hair put in dreads, ended his life. The seven-feet long spear was thrust into Mark's throat. The man was able to hold on for a couple of more seconds before the blood loss forced him to fall.
The sounds of the beast were coming from ever closer. Soon enough, the feasting hunter revealed itself. Their speculations were correct, the creature looked like the massive cat. It was clothed in a mixture of rags and bones. It seemed that the hunter was collecting the bones of its prey, then using them to show its might. The monster looked surprised when instead of the soldier, it met two huntresses. It took two steps back, but women had already started their onslaught. The brown-haired one ran at it, while the second was started to shoot from the strange-looking rifle. The hunting officially began.
"Fuck!" Roger cursed when the connection was cut. "Cap, what do we do?"
"I don't know," Irelia whispered.