Oh shit! She’s not stopping.

“Help me!” cried out my hostage. “An Adumbrae got me!”

No one was dumb enough to come to his aid. The fucking guy tried to pry my fingers off his neck but couldn’t. He then tried to kick and elbow me, so I shook his body to make him stop, and to emphasize to the Axe Lady she might hit him. She didn’t slow down.

Some of the survivors—survivors of my earlier killing spree, ehem—ran into the narrow passageway between two warehouses. I followed them in, the chains coiled around my shoulder jiggling as I ran. They screamed in terror.

“Oh, my god! Help!”

“Mother Core, please save—”

“Where are the police? The BID?”

Chill out, I thought, their shrill shrieks prickling my hypersensitive hearing, I’m not going to hurt you. I was just going to use them as human shields.

They froze as I blew past them, my hostage in tow, expecting to get hit. But I didn’t bother with them, instead getting to the other end of the alley before they could exit. With me blocking their front, and the Axe Lady coming up from behind, the seven cornered people despaired. One guy stupidly held up his fists in a fighting stance. A couple hugged each other while crying. The rest stuck to the walls, probably praying they had the power to phase through, or just stood still, waiting for the end.

Axe Lady leaped up and bounced on the walls like a freaking ninja, avoiding the people between us. I raised my hostage overhead like an umbrella so she couldn’t slash me from above.

“Ple-please don’t kill me!” he begged the descending Axe Lady.

She did a physics-defying mini-somersault in mid-air and landed behind me.

I didn’t have the time to be amazed; I didn’t even turn around. As soon as I heard her feet touch the ground, I propped up my hostage, leaving him standing, and ducked as low as I could. It was as if someone pushed the remote button for slow-motion as I concentrated on all my senses, feeling the wind, keenly listening to every sound, observing the slightly darker shadows moving on the ground.

Right!

I scooted right just as the axe came down, cracking the ground with its force. I was face to face with its ugly head sculpture. My gaze dropped down and saw that it cut off the end of my left boot…including my toes! “Rrrwaa—!”

My yelp was cut short as the axe raked across the floor, shoving me to the side. I dove away from the Axe Lady before she could pin me against the wall. All of that happened in a couple of seconds.

“Wai-what? What was that?” said my temporarily free hostage, not knowing what went on behind him and how close he was to getting sliced. When he saw me roll beside him, it clicked in his frightened brain I wasn’t holding him. “Aaah!”

He tried to run, but I grabbed his leg.

I scrambled to stand up, holding my hostage upside down by his ankle before Axe Lady could land her strike. She was somehow able to stop the momentum of her creepy hugeass axe mid-swing. I still felt the gust from her powerful attack blow over me. Thankfully, it wasn’t that whistle-bullshit-wind-blade-cheat-skill.

She took a couple of steps back, analyzing the situation.

A moment to breathe. I rearranged the chains I carried so I wouldn’t get entangled. The pain from my injuries also caught up with me. Tch, if only I could get a bite. The feral rage deep within was yelling to eat her.

I was hoping in this cramped space I could somehow get inside her guard and sneak a tiny chomp. But it was too risky. Her control of the giant axe was insane. I noticed she sliced through the jacket of my hostage but didn’t wound his skin. I had purposely let him go to see how much control she had, like if she’d nick him a bit while trying to hit me. She really didn’t want to hurt these humans.

“My god, is that Beth? Why does she have an—?”

“Her eyes are glowing!”

“Wha-what the hell’s going on?”

“Run! Everyone fucking run while they’re—”

Oh no, you don’t. I tried to head off survivors once again, seizing whoever I could to have more hostages.

A greenish glint was my only warning. I pulled back my arm that was an inch from grabbing a woman before it got chopped off. Up and down the axe came. I wanted to stop the other PCM members from running away, but I had to fully concentrate on keeping myself in one piece. I realized I only needed to watch out for vertical slashes because the space was too small—no!

Axe Lady swung her axe sideways, cutting into the walls of the warehouse, aiming around my chest. I shifted my hostage to the left. She pulled back her strike. Then she twirled around and the axe came in another direction.

“Run!” It was Axe Lady who said that. “All of you run away while I hold this Adumbrae.”

“Beth, is that still you?” cried my lone hostage. “Save me! For the Mother Core’s sake, please—Aaah!” He yelled as I used him to stop another slash.

I kept on trying to get another hostage, but Axe Lady, who was apparently called Beth, stopped all my attempts. Annoying, bitch. The crowd fled back out in the open.

No! come back, my meatshields! I still tried to stick with them, but Beth, the Axe Lady, was unrelenting. She chased me in their midst, slashing with such precision and finesse that the huge axe, which was bigger and wider than my torso, didn’t hit anyone.

“Run away, guys! Spread out!” They followed her instructions and ran in different directions.

For a second, I stood still, my brain ground to a halt picking which way to go. A slash came from an angle covered by my hostage’s body. The axe bit into my hip, driving into my pelvic bone. It was my hostage being in the way that stopped it from cutting deeper.

“GHRAAR!” I roared, shoving my hostage into the blade. Axe Lady yanked her weapon away to save the guy. I then tried to chase the couple who were still crying and hugging each other, but the axe came down in front of me.

I went the other way and was once again met by the axe. This bitch was herding me! One hostage wasn’t enough for my safety. Then I heard a small, distinct crack. My eyes honed on one of her arms holding the axe. It was reddish-purple.

Internal bleeding! Just like what happened to me when I was practicing hysterical strength. And that was probably a fractured bone about to pierce through her flesh.

She saw that I saw.

Our eyes met once again.

She scowled.

I threw my hostage at her to block her vision. In one smooth move, I uncoiled the chains around my shoulders and whipped it at her legs.

“Beth! Thank the Mother Core that you—”

“Get away, damn—it!”

I pulled the chains just as its end wrapped around her legs. She tried to attack but I swung her round and round like I was in an Olympic hammer throw competition. Don’t stop swinging, I fervently urged myself. I was tempted to smash her into a building or on the ground, but I might accidentally untangle the chains.

WHAM!

She somehow managed to swing her axe on the ground to anchor herself. I lurched and nearly toppled when she stopped my swing.

“Rrrwwaaa!” Oh no, you don’t! I pulled with all my might.

She didn’t let go of the axe even if her joints were about to get dislocated, her muscles stretched past their limits. I could literally hear her body getting stretched like some kind of medieval torture. The axe was suddenly uprooted. I swung her helicopter-style once again.

The next time she’d attempt to anchor herself, I’d yank her away so fast she’d let go of the axe. If she wasn’t going to do that, I’d just continue swirling her until the muscles of her arms were torn from the weight of the axe.

I was getting dizzy. I tightened my abs, clamped my jaws tight, and breathed as shallowly and rapidly as I could to stave off vomiting.

I was spinning so fast and with so much force I was on the verge of going off-balance. My foot missing its front third part didn’t help. I could feel the strain on my muscles as the weight on the end of the chain, the Axe Lady, and ultimately her axe, gradually felt heavier and heavier because of centrifugal force or some shit—I dunno, I already forgot about science stuff from school.

What if the chain broke?

No, her arms were going to give way first. Last time I checked—okay, I didn’t really check—but I was positive human flesh was easier to cut than chains. Just a bit more, just a bit—the weight suddenly became so much lighter.

I spun out of control and tumbled on the ground, the chain whipping around like a tornado. I didn’t know where Beth’s body bounced off to.

Finally, I thought. She let go of—wait! I picked myself up and frantically searched where the axe went. It hit the cabin of a cargo truck near the stack of freight containers. That was fine as long as no one else could pick it up.

Someone tumbled out of the cargo truck. A man who had a bloody stump for an arm wrapped with his shirt. He grabbed the handle of the axe with one hand and dislodged it from the truck’s hood.

There was a round two? I turned around to find the body of Beth, the former Axe Lady and rushed over to her. Bitch, she purposely threw the axe in that direction.

I placed my hand on her chest. Still alive.

Arm or leg? She’d probably choose to save her leg if she was conscious. I bit the side of her arm, avoiding the bone out of consideration. Something didn’t feel right. I swallowed, and a wave of nausea hit me.

“Blreegh!” I regurgitated the piece of Beth's flesh. I was expecting to be satiated by eating her, to activate my power and get stronger, but there was just extreme disgust that dissipated my appetite. Then it dawned on me.

It’s the axe…

Axe Lady wasn’t the one who hurt me; she’d never fulfill the conditions for my power no matter how much I ate her. It was that stupid axe all along. How the fuck do I eat that thing? This just meant I had no way of becoming stronger by eating.

And there was only one way of defeating it.

Make sure no one is alive to use it.

I heaved the dying Beth on my shoulders. Hopefully, the stupid axe could sense she was still alive and avoid hitting her. I went to get some knives strewn amongst the corpses. The new Axe Man chased me. He dragged his weapon behind him with only one hand; he was definitely slower than when Beth wielded it.

I threw the knives at him. He stopped and whipped up the axe as a shield. I charged towards him. The knives bounced harmlessly off the axe. I slammed into the face of the axe, pushing him with the momentum of my charge.

Push! Push Push!

I shoved him as fast as I could towards the door of the nearest warehouse, not giving him a moment to get out of the way. “HRWAAAR!” You tried to do this to me, you fuck! I pinned him against the door. Then I punched the face of the axe, squishing him behind it.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

I alternated slamming against with the axe with my shoulder and punching it. Blood sprayed from behind it, splattering all over the warehouse door. There were squishing sounds, bones cracking. I didn’t stop until I was sure the man on the other side of the axe was dead.

I retreated a few yards away, letting the axe fall to the ground. Plastered all over the wall was the fleshy pancake that was the Axe Man. I also let Beth’s body slide off my shoulder and down to the ground. Her eyes bulged out of her pinched head. She wasn’t moving; I might’ve squeezed her to death too while slamming against the axe. Okay, I also really didn’t mean to do this.

I was panting. My shoulder was dislocated, my arm was broken. It was going to heal, no worries. And it was all worth it. I could’ve just run away after Beth let go of the axe.

But I just wanted to win.

And man, did it feel so fucking good.

Now…it’s over.

Or not.

The little boy dropped from the roof of the warehouse and picked up the axe. Was he watching us the entire time? That meant Ramello and the SVS were safe. No way I was going to stay here and fight—

“Don’t blame me,” the boy said. I raised my brow. “People always go after me thinking you’re my power even if you’re not. That’s why I don’t want to stay while you fight.”

He’s talking to the axe, I realized.

“Only two people dead, that’s not too bad. I just don’t understand why you try so hard to—whatever.” The kid shook his head disapprovingly. “And why were you trying to kill her?”

The kid paused as if listening to something. Was the axe legit talking to him? How was that possible? What was this axe?

“Oh well, that doesn’t matter now. We already have what we need—what? What do you mean?” He turned to me, curiously looking me over. I was ready to run. “I see…That’s not our agenda. We need to talk to the others first. Our business for tonight is done.” The kid sort of saluted me, the kind of greeting drivers do when passing a police officer along the road. Then he jumped away into the night and left me alone.

Hmmm, I don’t know what was that all about.

 

---

 

I tilted Megaphone Man’s head to the left. He had a bruise on his temple. He wasn’t dead, just unconscious. His wound wasn’t healing. A normal human. The megaphone was suspiciously missing though, the one he used to control the crowd. I recalled he did bring it up here on top of this freight container.

The kid wanted that? I mean he already got it, so why throw the axe at me? It seemed like they were buying time for something else. And that axe seriously wanted to kill me, or at least hurt me bad.

Sirens. Quite far from here.

Those should be the police called by the PCM members. I’ve been hearing them for about a minute now, but they didn’t seem to be getting nearer. Weird. Maybe they weren’t coming here.

But where?

The hospital?

Something must’ve happened there. I just remembered my phone was in another dimension so I wouldn’t know if Deen was calling me. If she did call but wasn’t able to contact me, she’d freak the fuck out. I better get out of here and transform back. Ramello and the SVS should be already safe. But first thing’s first, I should get rid of my bloody hoodie.

Phew, what a night.