The next chapter is up!
WARNING: This chapter contains sequences of Violence & Gore.
Enjoy :)
Setg-in quickly made his way back down to the living room.
He saw Thea making herself more comfortable on the couch. But her gaze turned to his and she gave him a questioning look when she saw him decked out to the nines in his armor and all of his weapons.
"Set? What's going on? Why are you wearing all of that? You decide to do another night hunt again?" She asks.
The hunter shook his head.
"Thea, we're in trouble. You remember those bad bloods I told you about? I believe they are here. And they may in fact be headed this way." He told her.
Her blue eyes widened in shock.
"What!? How!? I mean...how do you know that!?" She blurted out.
"Not much time to explain. I went upstairs to make the call. When I noticed there was this small flashing red light on my wrist comp. It was also beeping. My wrist comp never done that before.
There are simply no features on wrist comps that would involve something like that. I have every reason to believe it's a tracker. And then I heard the familiar hum of a ship in the distance.
I put on my mask, peeked out the window and saw a drop ship land not a few miles west of here in the woods. I know it's them. I recognize the ship.
We're in danger. And I need to figure out a way to fight them. Otherwise, they will kill us both." Setg-in informed her.
Dread and fear sunk into the pit of her stomach like a lead weight.
"You mean to say, you have every reason to believe they are coming to the house? Right now?" She inquired.
"Yes." He replied.
Then he pulled a weapon of his awu'asa in the back.
The young warrior handed it to her. She recognized it right away to be his plasma pistol. Something she knew packed quite a punch and did a lot of damage when fired.
She should know, she watched him fire it once for demonstration. And he walked her through how it works and how to use it. In which case, it wasn't all that hard.
"Take the plasma pistol and go to the basement. I'll will go to the woods and try to stop them from coming any further." He instructed.
Thea gasped, "What!? Set, there is three of them remember?! You said plenty of times how they ganged up on you and beat the shit out of you on at least two occasions! And you want to face all three of them head on again?! They will kill you for sure this time!"
"We don't have much of a choice, Thea. I need to do this. I can't let them get here and find you. Don't worry, I have an idea. I know these woods. They don't. I can use that to my advantage." Setg-in said.
She pursed her lips and could feel her eyes beginning to water as she shook her head.
Then Setg-in reached out and caressed her cheek with a purr.
"I know you're scared, but I won't let anything happen to you. And when this is over, we can take their ship. But please, you need to go down to the basement now. And don't leave until I come back." He told her.
Thea moved in closer and wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to his abdomen.
"Please, promise me you'll come back." She said, barely above a whisper.
"I promise." He assured her.
He knew there was a big chance he could lose this fight and his life.
His only shot would be to get them if they split and go off on their own. Something he knew they would sometimes do while out on a hunt.
Then he ushered her to the basement door. Thea reluctantly opened it and gave him one last look, before going down the steps with the plasma pistol in hand.
He knew, if there was any trouble, at least she wouldn't be a sitting duck. There were doors in the floor that led outside she could take if one of them gets down there and she hast to make a hasty exit.
Setg-in activated his cloaking device and headed out the back door.
He sprinted into the woods in the direction he knew the ship had landed. He may still have been fairly young, but he was a skilled tracker, and knew how to stay undetected if needed.
His knowledge of these woods and his experience over two of the others which were still Youngbloods, gave him the upper hand. Especially, if he could pick off the Youngbloods before he gets to their leader.
He was confident he would be able to either take out one or both of them.
Though, it be less risky if he could pick them off one by one. And leave the leader for last, whom will be the toughest one to defeat. He hopes he can be successful.
Otherwise, Thea will be in danger. And not only her, but the general population could be in danger as well if they decided to stay here and have some 'fun' while here, like they did at that last village he watched them massacre.
Thinking about it, made him realize that the fate of many lives may lie in his hands during this confrontation.
With the Bad bloods...
"Vor'metka, it looks like the trackers signal has been tampered with within the last few minutes upon landing here." Kalakta informed his leader.
The leader snorted, "Doesn't matter, we know the traitor is here somewhere and we know before the tracker's signal went all wrong that he was not even half a kilometer east from this position. So, that is the way we will head."
Vor'metka shifted his gaze to his other subordinate.
"Ghardeh, bring up the map of this general area." He ordered.
The young bad blood known as Ghardeh, tapped away at his wrist comp and brought up a holographic map of their surrounding area.
"This area is quite large. Large enough that we may have to split off in different directions and track him that way." Ghardeh suggested.
The other two gazed at the map it showed the regions dense forest and rocky terrain of the area. There were only a few houses, that were very far and in between each other. Including one that was closest and not far from their position.
It was in the same exact direction Setg-in's tracker pinged at upon landing. So, he may possibly be around that area.
"Alright, we all head east. But will not go directly straight. Ghardeh, you go left. And Kalakta, you go right. I'll go down the center. You two will circle the surrounding area, that way he will not get a chance to escape.
And be on guard, if the tracker only went on the fritz a few minutes ago, that may mean he knows we are here. It doesn't matter if you decide to take the trees or stay on the ground, just don't stray far from this area.
Hopefully, we can all close in on him and corner him, like we did when we caught him on Planet E'cru. If by any chance one of you run into him on your own, engage him, kill him, and bring me his head.
Is this understood?" Vor'metka stated.
"Yes." Both his subordinates replied.
Their leader nodded, "Good, now, get going."
The three of them cloaked and headed out into the woods. They didn't bother sending the ship back out into space and have it hover beyond Earth's atmosphere.
The three of them were confident they would catch Setg-in and kill him before he could even make it passed any of them and get close enough to the cloaked ship.
With Setg-in...
He made his way through the woods.
As much as he wanted to use the trees to travel, he knew he couldn't. They would expect that of him. Most of his kind would often favor traveling through the trees than on the ground.
Being elevated higher up like that, gave them a better vantage point in locating and tracking prey. All hunters knew this.
But that didn't mean they never used the grounds for traveling. There were some areas, a hunter may have no choice but to use the ground. Like in areas that hardly had any trees or none at all. Like open fields or deserts.
Setg-in stuck to the ground, and used the foliage for coverage, making as little noise as possible on his feet.
His gaze shifting all around as he kept an eye out for the bad bloods. He hopes he was able to disable the tracker just enough so they couldn't get a lock on his position. He really didn't fancy being ganged up on again.
He has trained hard these last couple months since coming to Earth.
And while he was confident in his abilities as a warrior, he didn't want to act too overconfident when it involved these dangerous bad bloods. They didn't fight with honor like he does.
No, they will do things very cowardly, cheap, and dishonorable at times during a fight. Especially, if they thought they could lose the fight. And that is what made them very dangerous to engage.
And while Setg-in wasn't happy about the fact that they had found him, he couldn't help but really looked forward to this fight.
After all, he does have a serious score to settle with these bastards.
With that in mind he kept pushing forward. He kept his senses wide open looking for any little thing that may give them away while he tracks them. He already knew at least one of them was not as good as covering his tracks as the others, and that was the youngest and least experienced one among their group.
Setg-in didn't have to travel for very long. Around twelve minutes in, he caught wind of a familiar scent and stopped in his tracks.
There was a small rock formation several feet to his right. He made his way over to them, hid behind them, and waited. It was just his luck, the wind was blowing towards him, and the bad bloods were down wind of his position.
He didn't have to wait long. He heard the faint foot falls of at least one of them drawing closer to his position near the rocks.
As they drew closer, he only made out one pair of footsteps, indicating just one individual.
Setg-in quietly drew his h'sai-de and prepared to face his opponent head on, as they came by. He waited until they were no more than a few feet away before making his move.
Kalakta almost didn't know what hit him at first when something collided into him from his left. And he narrowly missed being sliced open by a blade.
He whirled around with a growl and pulled out his ki'cti-pa. And just like he thought, it was the so-called traitor, Setg-in.
A dark smile appeared on his face beneath his mask.
"Well, well, looks like we finally found you after all. It took some time to do so, because that pesky tracker doesn't have a very huge signal range. But it still did the trick." Kalakta said.
Setg-in smirked, he was hoping it was Kalakta. For he was the youngest and less experienced of the group. The Youngblood that went rogue not long after completing his kainde amedha chiva.
Still, just because he was less experienced and younger, doesn't mean Setg-in will not give it his all in this fight. The youngster was quite the brute when he wanted to be.
While Setg-in was taller than him by a few inches, Kalakta made up for it in bulk and had a heavier frame than the taller and older warrior.
"You may have found me. But it won't be you getting out of this fight alive." Setg-in said, twirling his sword.
Kalakta cackled, "Is that so? I guess we'll have to see about that. Your head will be my next trophy, traitor."
"Don't see how I'm a traitor. When I was never one of you to begin with. You gave me no choice when you cornered me and took me aboard your ship." Setg-in spat.
The shorter warrior's smirk widened, "It doesn't change the fact that you are a bad blood like us and always will be."
"Ki'cte! Enough talk! We fight now. Unless you're too much of a little tare'hasan to do so." Setg-in snapped.
The smug bad blood's smirk quickly disappeared and turned into a glare. He snarled and poised his combi stick at his opponent.
"Watch your tongue, Setg-in. Before I cut it out of your mouth." Kalakta threatened with a gesture of his combi stick.
"Then come try to, S'yuit-de." Setg-in said, baiting him.
It worked. Kalakta let out a vicious snarl and charged the taller warrior.
Setg-in held his ground and when Kalakta tried to run him through with his combi stick, he quickly side stepped out of its path. He then swung his blade down and sliced off a handful of the bad blood's dreads.
Kalakta let out a howl of pain. His tresses fell to the ground with a sick plop and now his bright neon green blood was spurting from the stubs out onto his shoulder and the ground.
He growled, clearly enraged and went for Setg-in again.
The older warrior parried the combi stick with his sword with skill, sparks flew from where metal connected with metal.
Kalakta brought his weapon back and tried to run Setg-in through with it again once he backed him into a tree. But Setg-in quickly moved out of the way, and the combi stick became embedded in the tree bark.
Setg-in quickly came back around with his sword and made a quick downward swipe with it.
The youngster could barely hold back a roar of pain as his arm was severed above the elbow. The appendage fell to the ground and blood started gushing out from the stump.
Kalakta unsheathed his wrist blades on his remaining hand and tried to take a swipe at Setg-in. But he deflected the twin serrated blades with his sword.
The bad blood's swings were becoming quite sloppy with each swing as he continued to lose his cool trying to kill Setg-in.
And when he arched his arm back to bring them down for another swipe, Setg-in rammed his blade through the bad blood's unprotected midsection below the chest plates.
It made him stumble and delay his attack.
Setg-in quickly ripped the blade back out and with one swift motion, he brought the blade across the youngster's neck. His head, quickly detached and slid off of his body, rolling onto the ground to the hunter's feet.
Bright green blood spouted from the stump at the neck as it dropped to the ground like a lead weight.
The older warrior wished he could stay behind and celebrate his first victory. But he still had two more of these bastards to expose of. And he had to find them first before they found him.
He may not have far to go to find them either. No doubt they may have heard their comrade's cries of pain as he dispatched him during the fight.
The question was now, if he should wait in this area, or go to another. While this area was rather big, it wasn't ginormous.
After much contemplation, he decided to move out. Because either way, they will encounter each other. And he will be sure to be ready for them. So, he took off and headed north.
Since it appears they have obviously split up, then it was only natural they would've each taken a separate area.
If he encountered Kalakta headed up from the southwest, then the others may be headed up from the west and northwest. A typical circling formation, most likely. Something that was commonly used at times with small groups or pairs of hunters when working together to bring down very intelligent and challenging prey.
Setg-in still remained on the ground and continued to use the surrounding foliage for cover as he started to track down the other two. He hopes he can get this done as smoothly and quickly as possible.
But sadly, if he knew bad bloods, smoothly and quickly don't tend to be in the same category.
Until Next Time ;)