บท 12: Battle of the Delhi Border - 04

Captain Lee and the prime entomorph stand before each other. The entomorph says, "You wanna play with me? Come on."

Captain Lee replies, "Yeah. But let me tell you, you're not the first I've played with. I'm Captain Lee Seo-Jun. What's the name of my playmate?"

The entomorph laughs, "Feel free to call me Puppeteer. You'll die in a moment anyway."

Captain Lee lunges at Puppeteer after saying, "We'll see about that."

Captain Lee tries to slash him but Puppeteer stops his sword with his cane. He gives a small flick of laugh and pushes Captain Lee backward. Captain Lee lunges back at him again but fails. Captain Lee gets a little irritated. He goes at him and tries to hit him from different angles. But every time Puppeteer blocks his attacks. Captain Lee starts panting and says, "You're tough."

Puppeteer says with a satirical laugh, "You done? Now it's my turn. Here I come."

Puppeteer lunges at Captain Lee and tries to stab him with his cane. But Captain Lee parries the cane and slashes at his left arm.

Captain Lee laughs and says, "How's that?"

Puppeteer jumps back and grunts.

Captain Lee doesn't give him the time to catch a breath and jumps on him again. He quickly slashes at both his arms and quite a few times at the back.

Captain Lee thinks, "Got him."

He goes for the kill. He aims his sword at Puppeteer's neck and tries to cut it off. But just before the sword hit his neck, black scales appeared there.

Puppeteer asks in a harsh tone, "You done?"

Before Captain Lee could get back, Puppeteer grabbed Captain Lee's neck and threw him towards a building. Captain Lee's body breaks through the building's glass wall and hits a table. Captain Lee struggles to get back on his feet. Just as he stands up Puppeteer grabs him again and this time kicks him back to the open area. Captain Lee tries to get back on his feet but fails as the kick breaks his spine. Captain Lee's sword transforms back into her snake form as Captain Lee's spirit energy is almost depleted. Marie tries to go to Captain Lee but Puppeteer gets to her and picks her up. Marie tries to free herself but fails as Puppeteer bites her head off. Captain Lee screams and tries to get up but fails again. He only watches in fear as he eats up Marie and his slash marks fade away.

Meanwhile, Tessa finishes healing Ray and Ray gets up. Just as Tessa stops she coughs up blood.

Ray anxiously holds Tessa and asks, "What happened?"

Tessa's spirit canary says, "My master's almost out of spirit energy. She's really pushing herself."

Ray stands up and says, "Run."

He looks up and sees Aditi, Koda, and Rohan all coming his way.

Ray grips his knife tightly and gets ready to fight.

He runs towards them and stabs Koda in the heart. Ray was tearing up while he did so. To Ray's surprise, instead of stopping, Koda punches Ray's stomach. Ray flies off backward. Ray stumbles to get up.

He thinks, "Do I really have to decapitate them? Is there no other way? Do I really have to deform my friend's bodies even after they have already died?"

Ray gets back to his senses at Tessa's screams. He sees Aditi standing before Tessa and aiming her gun at her forehead. Ray shakes off his thoughts and runs that way. He channels more spirit energy into his knife and cuts off Aditi's head from her body in one slash.

He says, "I'm sorry guys."

He then runs towards Koda and Rohan. Rohan fires a rocket at Ray but Ray dodges the rocket. He grips his knife and runs to Koda first. Koda throws a punch aimed at Ray's face. Ray moves his head slightly to the left and dodges the punch. He grabs onto Koda's arm with his left hand and twists it. He runs behind Koda and slashes off his head from behind.

Ray then gets ready to fight Rohan. He starts shaking again. Rohan was more than a friend to him. He was like his brother. But he notices Tessa panting and says to himself, "Don't falter, Ray. Rohan.....he's dead. You're just fighting a parasite now."

Yuki warns Ray, "Master, watch out!"

Ray gets back to his senses and sees a rocket coming towards him. Ray tries to jump to his left to dodge the rocket but it is too late. The rocket explodes right next to Ray. Ray screams in unbearable pain as the rocket blows away his right arm and burns his right side of the body. Tessa runs towards Ray. She kneels next to Ray and starts healing him. But not for long as Tessa soon coughs up more blood and loses consciousness.

Ray anxiously asks, "What happened?"

Yuki says, "She most probably fainted from spirit energy deficiency(SED). More importantly, are you alright?"

Ray grunts, "I…..I….."

Ray thinks, "Am I going to die now? Just like that?"

Just then Ray hears a voice. It was a young female voice. The voice said, "No. You won't die here. After all, you're going to be the strongest. Now, finish it up here and come meet me in the north."

Ray feels power wailing up inside him. He opens his eyes and stands up. Yuki says, "Master, you did it. You mastered the blood pact."

Ray looks at Yuki and gets shocked as Yuki has turned into a big snow tiger. Ray goes to pick up his knife but stops as he sees the knife is shattered to pieces.

Ray says to Yuki, "Yuki, looks like it's gonna be a fistfight."

Yuki replies, "No master. It's gonna be a feast fight."

Just then Ray and Rohan's focus gets locked to Captain Lee as his screams reach their ears. Both of them see Captain Lee lying down on the field with blood all over his body.

Ray orders Yuki, "Yuki, go help Captain Lee. I'll be there in a moment."

Ray runs towards Rohan and stands before him. Ray lunges at Rohan after saying, "I'm sorry, brother."

He quickly gets close to Rohan and throws a punch at his face with his full power. Ray is surprised as the punch tears off Rohan's head and sends it flying a few meters.

Ray didn't mean to do that. But he didn't have time to mourn as Yuki calls Ray through telepathy, "Master, where are you? I can't fight while keeping Captain safe at the same time."

Ray answers, "I'm coming and runs towards them."