Chapter 3 ( This is my favorite one.)
The light, the fire, I felt the power react to my emotions. Fear saved my life, now rage was about to show me it’s power. I focused on the direction the train whistle had come from, but the sound was so distant I doubted I could catch Gerald. It didn’t matter, I had to see just how fast I could move with this power I had released. I readied myself for a bloodbath and began to run.
I was still hovering above the ground, every running step I took propelled me five times farther than any normal person could sprint. As I ran all I could think about was ending his life and removing everything he ever knew from this world. I lost focus on my running and felt an odd numbness spread through me, when I became aware of my surroundings I was still moving quickly, but I wasn’t propelling myself. I was on top of a train car. ‘No way...’
This power... I began to wonder if I would ever understand it. I quickly threw the thought aside, I had more important things to worry about at the time. I dropped to the nearest link in the train cars and started to devise a plan. ‘Just where could that old bastard be hiding?’ The passenger cars were toward the front of the line, I would have to climb over some of these freight cars to get there. Once again the straight out wanting to kill him flooded my mind. I turned to climb the first freight car I had jumped from, but what I saw wasn’t what I thought it should be.
Instead of a freight car I was looking through a window leading into he first passenger car. Some of my questions had been answered by the demonstration of this power, but along with the answered questions there were new arising questions. One rose out above the others and tore at my thoughts, ‘How could I possibly come to control such a thing...?’
I didn’t have the patience to wonder about it, I had work to do. I threw open the door and pulled out the shining sword and my hand-and-a-half sword and began cutting down everyone in the train car. People yelled, people cursed, but before long they were all just bleeding corpses. They were all people with names and lives of their own, but for what I cared, they were just fragile obstacles in my way. I didn’t care who they were or what they may have become, I just wanted to find that old crone and take everything he was worth.
I stepped out the other side of the passenger car and felt rushing cold wind hit me. This fossil of a vehicle was still gaining speed... Once again the rage flowed over me like a torrent wave and any other thoughts besides death and greed were disposed of instantly. ‘Something... toying with my mind...’ It was all so new to me, I could barely control any of this power, the energy, all I could do was swing at what I wanted dead, and watch it die.
A burst of energy helped me kick the next door off it’s hinges. The extreme force sent the dislocated piece of metal flying through the car until it reached the other end and actually cut someone in half. This odd gruesome sight caught the attention of the others in the train car, but only for a moment, this one was full of armed guards.
I slashed a couple of them near the open doorway but a flurry of bullets and thundering gunshots soon followed my grand entrance. I now gripped the shining sword with both hands while the other blades flew around me wildly deflecting bullets and slicing open anyone daring enough to get close. Blood was everywhere, on my clothes, all my blades, running down the windows and flowing across the floor of the train car. There was still one more target left in this car, but he didn’t have a gun. ‘A fellow swordsman... You chose the wrong day to be a bad guy.’
As a swordsman should, he examined the situation. He had a broadsword... there’s no way he could get close enough to cause any damage with that. I could see panic in his eyes, he’d seen what I did to all of his gun wielding allies. A brave soul he was, when he finally charged me. Any other time I would have dropped my scabbard to the floor and dueled him fairly, but there was too much rage here that needed to be released.
He closed in and deflected two of my floating swords and attempted to thrust at me, but without a thought crossing my mind, my right arm cut violently through the air and was followed by every blade in my arsenal. The poor being before me was slashed five times in succession with blood erupting from every cut. Before he even had time to register the pain, my arm had come back around and thrusted straight out toward him, causing an invisible force to throw him across the distance of the train car. He felt the pain in mid-flight and screamed, but he was silenced as he crashed into the window of the last door, causing it to shatter.
I gave his blade a second glance. It was a good size, but it wasn’t as strong a material as mine. It would be pointless to try and sell it. Swordsmen were few and far apart, and it was just extra weight I didn’t need right now. The noise of the fight must have drawn the attention of the engineer’s cabin because I saw a greasy mustached man trying to unhook the rear cars from the engine. Apparently Gerald had realized he’d rather have his life than a train car full of drugs.
My breathing was steady now and my pulse had slowed. The worst was behind me and my target was close... I could already see his death in my mind. My swords stopped flying around and returned to their designated places. I could think clearly now... ‘Gerald had better know how to operate an old train because his engineer isn’t going to live much longer.’
I walked slowly toward that last door. The ringing in my ears from the gunfire prevented me from hearing what the grease ball was muttering. He was frantically struggling with a pin that refused to cooperate. I moved the swordsman’s limp body out of my way and opened the door casually, as if nothing had happened.
The engineer stopped struggling with the link and slowly lifted his eyes in my direction. I saw his fear, the panic. As if he wanted to scream but was paralyzed. I could see the light from my gaze reflect off his greasy face and his pathetic drunken eyes. His life was worth nothing, and he had made it that way. I readied the gauntlet on my right hand, this drunken idiot wasn’t going to fight back. I reached down slowly and dug the claws of my glove into his neck and locked them in place.
I began to lift him off the link, and before he could even tell what was going on he was no longer in contact with solid ground. He looked at me, so pathetic and weak... defenseless. His look made me sick, he was scared, his expression suggested he was going to cry... or puke. I decided I didn’t want to know which and threw him under the train. It was moving so fast now I couldn’t even hear his bones being crunched on the rails. It was no longer relevant, my target was now just one door away.
This old crone was more trouble than he was worth. I just fought my way through Charlie and his idiot guards, a train car full of drug dealers, another train car full of armed guards and a swordsman. Just the fact that I was still alive at this point was impossible to comprehend by normal means. The door handle turned silently in my hand, and clicked when it reached it’s fully open position. This was the moment of truth, all sound or awareness to anything but this kill simply faded away into nothingness. Just me, Gerald, and the panicked breathing coming from him as I stared him down.
I started to walk forward. Slowly, menacingly. I could hear my footsteps echo in my mind and mingle with my heartbeat... A tempo for murder.
He began to cower before me, trembling, whimpering. This display of weakness was below cowardly. I could see his sweat start pouring when I unsheathed the shining sword and brought it to rest on my shoulder. This was too sweet to end, I had to savor every moment. “Do you regret what you’ve done?” He panicked and screamed, “What did I do to you!? I was just running my business when that twisted fuck Charlie started causing trouble!”
I shook my head at his comment, “Now now, no need for foul language. And lying to me won’t remove the bounty from your head.” He was still panicking and probably didn’t realize he was screaming at me, “What bounty!? I haven’t done anything wrong! I was just trying to make a few bu...” I swung the sword right past his face, silencing him and trimming his mustache. He glanced at the sword but quickly brought his gaze back to me, his expression had changed... I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
He was looking at something behind me... Maybe he was thinking of escape, or there was some kind of weapon back there. He was trying to come up with a plan to get out, I decided to end this hunt before I was no longer in control. “You have refused repentance and sealed your fate. I hope you enjoy fire.” I slowly rose the sword until the tip was pointed at his neck. He gulped, as I expected him to. They always do.
From here I raised it over my left shoulder, I was going to make a clean cut if he wasn’t going to fight back. I was just about to swing, but a severe spiking pain hit in my back. I felt blood running, and something forcing it’s way through me... I yelled in pain and dropped the shining sword. Reality forced itself back into being, the rushing wind, the thunderous rumbling of the train on the rails, and my own voice, screams muffled by the pain now taking me over.
It pierced me and jutted out of my stomach right below the ribs, covered in my blood... ‘Broadsword?’ That damn swordsman had survived and was now wreaking his vengeance. I tried to think and pull myself off the blade, but I was being lifted off my feet and pain was surging through every nerve in my upper body.
My weight was supported by the hand guard on his sword, he was moving me away from his boss and toward the still open doorway. He tilted his sword and I slid off the cold steel and fell to my knees, I was now watching the ground under me move at an incredible pace. I felt some of the weight leave my back. ‘Are my swords protecting me again?’ I checked... no glowing, not from the pendant or the shining sword, the sword that I had dropped in my weakness and was now laying on the floor of the train engine.
More weight left me, followed by yet more, but no glowing. I heard a clanging noise on the metal floor, I turned to look but I only got a glance before Gerald kicked me in the head. The swordsman had taken all of my blades and piled them on the floor where I had dropped the shining sword. Gerald was now standing over me, I fell backward when he kicked me and now my head was dangerously close to the edge of the platform.
He was saying something but I couldn’t hear it over the rumbling beneath me. I couldn’t yell anymore, my voice had gone out though the pain was still there. I felt my shirt getting heavy from soaking up all the blood. Gerald backed away and returned to the engine’s controls. The swordsman reached down and grasped my shoulder plates... I was once again being moved against my will. He looked me dead in the eyes... “You let your guard down hunter.”
I felt him lift me up higher and toss me from the train. I didn’t have the energy to gain control, I just hit the ground full impact at steam engine speed. Pain now coarsed through my entire body, ears ringing, wounds stinging, filled with dirt and gravel. I just layed there with my fists clenched... ‘I lost... All this work... but nothing to show for it...’
‘I’ve been beaten...’