Chapter 4- the first dose of vengeance
"Bad bloods." Ja'anya said, gritting her teeth.
Alaric looked on and a grin started to slowly form on his face. Ja'anya noted that Alaric was looking forward to this.
"Looks like it's time for some real action." He said. "The only true training is in combat."
He ran out of the bridge back to the bathroom to get his weaponry. Ja'anya focused on trying to initiate counter measures. She tried maneuvering her ship out of the other ship's trajectory. However, the opposing ship was matching her every move. 'This is going to be close.'She thought as she realized there was no escape. The only thing she could do was brace for impact. But Alaric went running off to get his gear.
"Alaric, brace for impact!" She shouted down the hallway.
Alaric had grabbed his axes from the floor on the way before rushing into the bathroom. He picked up his harness when the ship lurched violently to the side. He fell into the empty bath. hitting his head on the angled side of it. He clutched his forehead in pain, blood seeping from between his fingers.
He was beaten to the ground, clutching his side as one of the Yautja kneed him in the head. Blood went spraying and bones went crack as he fell back. He could hear the attacker laughing callously at his pain. The laughter echoed in his mind as he could feel his life seeping out of his head.
The other ship had launched a cable that hooked into the ship and towed it right towards it before latching to the side hatch. Ja'anya heaved herself from the pilots seat she landed in before heading back to the sparring room. Ja'anya had only time to arm herself with her glaive and she ran to the side hatch where it was already opening.
It opened and, before she had time to react, she was welcomed by a plasma blast that got her in the left shoulder. Before she could recover, a second blast shot the glaive out of her hand and that was quickly followed by a kick to her gut. She fell hard into the deck and she looked at the assailant.
It was a nasty looking Yautja, deep green skin with black spotted markings, wearing armor embellished with numerous skulls of varying size, a smoking plasmacaster on his right shoulder and had a long, curved Japanese style katana in his hand.
She recognized this Yautja from many a wanted poster and it was someone that she'd had no intention of ever stumbling across.
"Sil'cais the scourged." She breathed in horror.
Sil'cais was a notorious rapist and mass murderer that had a massive bounty for his head from the arbitrators and had evaded the enforcers many times. To put it in a simple sense, he was as about as low as a Yautja could possibly degenerate too.
"Ahh, the beauty of Lai'kairis, finally." Sil'cais said gleefully.
He walked over and grabbed her by her dreads before dragging her to her into his ship. She kicked and clawed at him defiantly but it only made him happier, and seemed to encourage him.
"Yes, I like them fiery!" He shouted in glee.
He threw her into his room, it was horrible sight with a huge mass of trophies on the walls of all the people he killed and raped and a separate section of next targets with Ja'anya's own image as the first one marked. She resisted his attempts to get her on his bed but she was wounded from the plasma blasts and was slowly being pushed on the bed by the Bad Blood's heavier weight. Sil'cais ripped off her top with his talons revealing her round breasts. His eyes went wide in admiration and he was about to lean down to lick them when Ja'anya gave him a punch in the face. To the sadistic Bad Blood, it only served as fuel for the fire.
"In case you didn't understand earlier, I like it rough." He said menacingly.
He stuck out his long tongue and gave one long wet lick on her face. Ja'anya couldn't believe the situation she was in. She was going to be violated and then killed, just for this twisted Yautja's self gratification.
"Alaric!" she screamed in desperation.
Before Sil'cais could begin the actual rape, he heard a loud voice behind him.
"Hey fuck-head! Get your filthy claws off her!"
The Bad-Blood raised his head.
"Who dares to call me that…"Sil'cais said turning, but suddenly stopped and a shocked look swept across his face, his mandibles flaring widely as he stared at the apparition before him.
Ja'anya looked past him and saw Alaric wearing only his fatigues, both hand axes in his hands with his blood covered face showing his disgusted expression. Alaric looked at the Yautja with question on his face. His eyes darted over Sil'cais' form, taking in his whole body. It was like Alaric had seen him before. Then his eyes went wide with realization and barely controlled anger when he recalled a previous sight.
The sight of Sil'cais lowering himself onto his wife.
"You!" He ground out in complete hostility, bringing his axes to bear and a snarl forming on his face.
"You!" Sil'cais said in shock, grabbing his sword and standing up, his towering form dwarfing Alaric. "You're supposed to be dead!"
"Obviously you Yautja are not effective killers, especially scum like you." Alaric spat back.
He turned to Ja'anya. He noticed how she was now topless and that she had a plasma burn on her shoulder. He knew exactly what had been about to happen and it sickened him to the core.
"Are you okay, Ja'anya?" He asked.
Ja'anya only nodded as she saw that Sil'cais was aiming his plasma-caster at Alaric. Alaric, anticipating an attack, raised his axes. The characteristic three red dots appeared on him as they aimed towards his head. He could only frown at the Bad Blood.
"Oh, come on." Alaric scoffed, raising his axes. "Are you that much of a coward that you're afraid to fight me face to face?"
Sil'cais grinned sadistically.
"No, I'd rather shoot you in the face." He smirked.
The shoulder cannon fired in a blue flash, sending a bolt of energy plasma streaming towards Alaric. Alaric blocked his face with his axes. A blue fiery flash erupted from the impact and Sil'cais snickered.
When the smoke cleared, Sil'cais' grin left his face momentarily. It turned out that his plasma caster wasn't very effective. In fact, it had done absolutely nothing as Alaric lowered his axes. He was not injured in the slightest and his axes were not scratched, melted, or even singed from the plasma. Ja'anya was so completely surprised at that event that she wasn't aware that her jaw dropped.
"I don't know how you did that." Sil'cais spat, aiming again. "But try and stop this!"
His plasma caster charged up, blue energy glowed within. Ja'anya was now concerned. Alaric's axes may have stopped a standard shot but they might not withstand a fully charged blast. Alaric didn't look that concerned as he readied himself.
"Coward." Alaric jeered.
"Say hello to the Black Warrior, Ooman!" Sil'cais roared as he fired the shot.
It looked like a miniature sun as the ball of energy shot streaming towards Alaric and he wasn't even flinching.
'If it hits him or the hull,' Ja'anya thought with fear. 'We're both dead.'
Alaric then did something very unexpected. He actually swung his axe, hit the plasma bolt with the side of the blade and sent it rocketing back to its shooter. The plasma-caster detonated in a blue flash with the BadBlood exclaiming in both pain and surprise. Ja'anya shuffled further up the bed and saw the result of that aimed ricochet. Sil'cais' weapon was completely blown away, leaving a sparking stump sticking out of his pauldron and the right side of his face suffering first degree burns. He was cursing in Yautja as he ripped off his destroyed weapon. Alaric juggled his batting axe.
"Now," Alaric said, in a serious tone. "I suggest you stop embarrassing yourself and fight like a warrior."
Sil'cais unsheathed his katana style blade with an enraged look on his face.
"You're dead!" He cursed, raising his sword. "Just like your bastard family before you!"
The Bad Blood stampeded forward, yelling a warcry and brought his sword down at Alaric's head. Alaric blocked it with both axes with a loud clang. A brief struggle occurred, and Alaric was showing a great deal of strength, causing Sil'cais to strain in effort. The struggle ended when Alaric pushed both axes and sliced through the blade cleanly, the cut ends were glowing hot.
"What! Impossible!" Sil'cais shouted in disbelief, looking at the glowing stump of the blade on his sword.
He threw the now useless sword away and extended his wrist blades to a length two feet long. He slashed at Alaric wildly, making large gashes in the walls as Alaric nimbly dodged and parried them.
"Stay still!" Sil'cais roared as he tried to gut Alaric with his blades.
"Pathetic! Alaric jeered, hardly breaking a sweat. "You could've easily sliced me into Swiss cheese if you'd been busy fighting real warriors instead of civilians."
The fight raged all around the ship, many things were being slashed and hacked into tiny shreds. Ja'anya was still lying on the bed as she watched them slug it out in the hallway. She had an inkling of suspicion as she determined that Sil'cais was the one who had raped Alaric's wife, given the Bad Blood's background. She watched as Alaric dodged everything that Sil'cais was unleashing. He wasn't even at full health and he was holding his ground.
'If he's like this when he's still recovering', she thought as Alaric kicked Sil'cais in the knee. 'I'd hate to fight him when he's at full health.'
Sil'cais still had no luck in even laying a scratch on Alaric. The human was just too agile. His mind went into a bend. 'How did this ooman get so strong and fast when he was barely able to fight one year ago?'
"You wanted to fight the Slayer a year ago, and now you face him, so fight me!" Alaric yelled, swiping with his axes, catching the wrist blades and slicing them clean off.
Sil'cais looked at his blades in shock. Looking back, he saw Alaric casually twirling his axes.
"Not so easy when he actually fights back, is it?" Alaric asked smugly.
Sil'cais backed off, trying to access the situation.
Alaric came walking up to him when he threw the axes to the wall behind him and stood there arms outstretched, apparently goading the Bad Blood into charging at him. It looked like he was trying to test Sil'cais' honor, if the Bad Blood had any.
"Come on then!" Alaric roared. "Finish the job, if you got a pair!"
Sil'cais took his chance. He charged at the slayer, arms out ready to strike him. He got within a foot in distance when Alaric punched both sides of Sil'cais' head with his fists. The Bad Blood reeled back holding his throbbing head before Alaric leaped up, grabbing the fazed Yautja by the head and delivering a mighty head butt.
Sounds of cracking bones filled the air followed by roars of pain. Ja'anya was off the bed in a flash and went out to see what happened and she saw Sil'cais on the floor holding his face in pain, blood spewing out between the fingers between pain filled grunts. Alaric was sitting on the floor cradling his head as if he had a migraine, bleeding from the head more heavily.
"You big baby." He snarled.
Ja'anya came up past Sil'cais with which she gave a strong sharp kick in his side, making him yelp. She helped Alaric up and noticed the gash on his head and covered in blood she saw the glint of metal on his skull. A titanium plate.
"Ouch" She said, looking back at the Bad Blood on the floor, the mere thought of having a plate of hardened metal slammed in the face made her shudder.
"That's gonna hurt in the morning." He said, staggering up to the target of his vengeance. "Not that this bastard is gonna have mornings anymore."
Alaric knelt down over Sil'cais.
"In an ironic way, I should really thank you for this." He said with a grin on his face.
Sil'cais looked at his with a puzzled look from behind his hands.
"If you hadn't broken my skull from kneeing me in the head, I wouldn't have this plate now would I?" Alaric said, tapping his head.
He got up and turned around to retrieve his axes and he picked them up. He intended to finish the job here and now when he heard a cry of warning from behind him.
"Alaric, watch out!" Ja'anya cried.
He turned and saw Sil'cais rushing at him, a serrated dagger clenched in his fist. Alaric was too late to dodge it and the foot and a half long blade penetrated deep into his chest with a sickening crack as it slid through his ribs, penetrating a lung and bursting out of his back, spraying crimson blood on the floor behind him. He was hauled up into the air and was held three feet off the deck, coughing up blood.
"DIE, DIE, DIE!" Sil'cais roared; his face was widening into his sadistic smile albeit with broken mandibles.
Alaric looked into his face, eye to eye and smirked.
"Attacking when I'm not looking, that's really very brave." He jeered. "Coward."
Alaric spat a gob of blood and spit into Sil'cais' eye. Sil'cais wiped his eye with one finger and smirked. The Bad Blood had Alaric right where he wanted him. He was going to finish what he had started one year ago but he decided add more salt to the wound.
"I will violate your friend after I kill you and she'll love every second of it." He said venomously. "Just like your mate did."
Alaric suddenly heard his wife's screams in his head.
Sil'cais drove and twisted the dagger in further, making Alaric strain as more blood seeped out of his body, dripping to the deck till he stopped moving. Alaric's head was swaying gently; his axes fell out of his hands and clanged onto the floor. Ja'anya gasped in horror as she saw Alaric thrown hard into the deck. Sil'cais roared in triumph and then turned his eyes on Ja'anya.
"Now to claim my prize." He said, grinning with his broken mandibles dangling limply. "Let's see how you like a kick in the side?"
Ja'anya positioned herself to fight back. She was ready to fight and die rather then let Sil'cais have his perverted way with her. She picked up a shard of the Bad Blood's shattered wrist blades and took up a defensive posture.
Sil'cais tutted mockingly.
"Now, now." He said, wagging a finger.
"Come any closer and I'll tear it off!" Ja'anya warned him.
"I can think of other things to tear off." Sil'cais mused, indicating Ja'anya intact skirt.
He took a step forward towards her, cracking his knuckles, when he heard several muted grunts. They came where Alaric's slumped body was and they was getting louder and louder. He turned around and to his stunned surprise; Alaric was picking himself up, and climbing to his feet.
'You have got to be fucking kidding?' The Bad Blood thought in utter disbelief.
There was something different about him, they way he was standing and grunting with his head down. His muscles were going into violent spasms, the veins were swelling up, and his muscles were growing slightly. His hair started to stand up on edge and his hands were twitching slightly as he reached and pulled out the blade lodged in his chest in one, swift motion, drawing an arc of blood in the air. He raised his head and there was a somewhat disturbing change. His eyes had changed from deep, limitless red to a penetrating bright crimson and Ja'anya swore that she could see they were glowing.
"I got one piece of advice for you and all the other dishonorable genetic mistakes of your race: NEVER underestimate a Slayer." He said, and his voice had changed into a more deep flanging voice, almost like the vocals of a Yautja.
With that, he snapped the blade like it was made of balsa wood before throwing the two halves to the deck. Sil'cais was now so frustrated at Alaric's defiance that he made a mistake that would cost him dearly.
"Don't you ever fucking die!" Sil'cais roared. "Like your fucking family!"
He charged at Alaric swiping out with a left-hook. Alaric caught the blow in his left hand and they both struggled. Alaric was showing no signs of struggle, in fact he was smiling with a toothy grin. Sil'cais on the other hand couldn't push forward with his attack and he was disturbed by the way Alaric only smiled. Ja'anya was surprised at this sudden show of strength.
Alaric turned his eyes to Ja'anya, like he was signaling her to run.
'Ja'anya', Alaric struggled to think. 'Run!'
His eyes flickered and what happened next would be a shock to the Ja'anya's system as Alaric turned back to Sil'cais.
"Especially... a Slayer... with the RAGE!" Alaric roared with inhuman volume.
His eyes flashed red, as if all the blood vessels in his eyes ruptured simultaneously, into crimson orbs and his long hair stood up on edge in sharp spikes. Just like they had on Floria VII. Ja'anya's eyes went wide and her mandibles spread out in surprise as she saw Alaric enter this heightened state. The flames in Sil'cais' eyes suddenly withered and died as he only now realized why Alaric kept on surviving, despite his injuries. It was possibly the one thing a Yautja was ever afraid of, and Sil'cais had been antagonizing him from the start.
'Berserker!' Was the only thing Sil'cais could barely whimper out.
Alaric clenched his hand, there was the sound of shattering bone and Sil'cais yelled in pain. Alaric was now delivering a series of high powered punches and kicks in various areas of the body, creating sounds of cracking bones and spraying blood followed by Alaric's roars as he gained momentum. Ja'anya looked on in awe as the tables had turned on the Bad Blood who could barely keep up with the steady barrage of powerful deadly blows.
'I don't believe it!' She thought in disbelief. 'I'm the first to see a Yautja getting the shit beaten out of him by an ooman!'
That wasn't entirely true as there had been other humans who stood their ground against Yautja and won, but never in a manner like this. Most humans would have to resort to cunning and wits in order to beat a hunter, whereas Alaric was using pent up rage and one hell of an attitude. Her thoughts were brought back to the present when Alaric rammed Sil'cais into an adjacent wall with a roar.
Sil'cais managed to block one of Alaric's blows and punched him in the side of the face. This had stopped Alaric for the moment. He just stood there, like he was slowly registering that he had been attacked. Then he growled with inhuman anger, vaguely in the manner of a Yautja. Then, faster then Sil'cais could move, Alaric delivered a punch that dug right into Sil'cais' gut, knocking the wind and maybe even the lungs out of his chest. Alaric had punched so hard that glowing green blood went dribbling down his arm.
Note of humor: does the phrase 'Falcon Punch!' seem relevant?
Alaric let Sil'cais drop to the floor and watched as bad blood tried to crawl away with a snarl on his face. A click was heard as Sil'cais flipped open his wristpad and he was frantically trying to put in the self destruct code. Ja'anya saw what he was doing and her eyes went wide. There wouldn't be any chance of evading the blast radius if he succeeded. Alaric responded by walking up and stomping on Sil'cais' wrist, breaking bones and the equipment with just his bare foot. The piece of equipment blew up in a shower of sparks and Sil'cais could only gape as his arm bent unnaturally. Ja'anya remembered what Alaric said about suicide and she thought it to be quite fitting at this moment.
'Suicide is the coward's way out.'
Alaric grabbed him by the dreadlocks and pulled his head up, ready to deliver the final blow. Sil'cais at this point would have been better off if he didn't say the one thing that really infuriated Alaric.
"No!" Sil'cais screamed in terror, trying to get loose. "Mercy!"
Ja'anya, watching from the side, saw that the word had struck a nerve in Alaric and, to Sil'cais' already long overdue suffering and it only enraged him more. He grabbed the Bad Blood by the neck and hoisted him off the floor until he was barely standing on his toes. He clenched tight, making Sil'cais choke and gasp.
"Mercy?" Alaric roared at the Bad Blood. "You dare to beg for mercy when you showed my family none!"
He brought Sil'cais' face up close to his.
"The only mercy you'll get is the mercy of death!"
He choke slammed the Bad Blood into the deck, then grabbed Sil'cais by the leg and, with remarkable strength, swung him into an adjacent wall with enough force to leave a dent and a green splatter mark. Alaric then grabbed his head and mercilessly pounded it into the deck again and again. With Sil'cais barely conscious, Alaric gave him an eye opener from hell. Alaric picked the Bad Blood onto his shoulder, raised him overhead at arms length, and brought him down onto his knee with a sickening crack. Sil'cais gave off a deafening roar of pain before Alaric slammed him into the deck.
Ja'anya flinched when she heard Sil'cais' spine snap painfully in half.
In a short span of a minute, Sil'cais' shattered body was now nothing more than a twitching and overused, Yautja shaped punching bag! But by some unfathomable means, Sil'cais was still alive, albeit in extremely excruciating pain. Alaric looked at him in the eyes one last time. He held the now near death Bad Blood by his dreadlocks and he had an axe in one hand before roaring one last thing.
He roared something indistinct at the Bad Blood, surprisingly, in a language that Ja'anya had never heard. It sounded like what she thought was archaic Yautja mixed with one of the many human dialects, but in truth, she couldn't tell in Alaric's enraged state.
With that, he swung his axe and decapitated the Bad Blood in a spray of green blood that left a huge trailing arc splattered on the walls. The headless corpse fell to the deck in a bloody, pulverized heap.
Alaric stood there panting, green and red blood covering him, severed head in one hand and his blood soaked axe dripping in the other. He threw his head back and roared long and loud in victory in the same way a Yautja hunter would've celebrated the kill.
Ja'anya couldn't comprehend what she had just witnessed, nor did she care to think about it. She had only one thing on her mind. Ja'anya rushed to him and held onto him in a tight hug, eyes shut in relief that he wasn't dead. Alaric stopped roaring and looked at her with puzzlement evident in his crimson eyes. He could see tears, actual tears, rolling down her face. Tears of joy. He never thought he would ever see a Yautja shed tears of any kind. The odd sight, as mysteriously as Alaric went berserk, had a calming effect on him and he could feel himself feeling more serene and peaceful. His rage was subsiding. His eyes slowly dispersed back into their normal state, his body slowed down and he smiled before dropping the severed head, and the axe in his hands, before he lightly hugged her back.
Then he collapsed backwards to the deck unconscious with her in his arms.
Ja'anya barely had time to brace herself as she landed on top of him. She looked at him, and saw a smile on his sleeping, blood covered face. It was like he had finally achieved some type of peace, for the moment at least.
'Slayer…'She thought as she toyed with the name in her head. 'What an incredible warrior.'
She was on top of a human who had gone from a disciplined marine into a frenzied berserker before falling unconscious again, like when they first met. Despite this, and the fact that she was half naked, Ja'anya was disinclined to move, because she was content just to stay in his embrace for a short time, curling up and purring happily.