HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

Archie’s whole body was exhausted from bearing all the attacks and hits, his legs started to tremble and it was quite hard for him to stand properly. The guy, on the other hand, was still in his prime as if he didn’t lose anything in exchange for using that form.

“What’s wrong? Had enough?” The guy said as he lifted Archie’s arm and looked at Archie. “Where’s your confidence from earlier? Did I blow it away?” The guy continued as he slammed Archie to the ground.

Archie groaned as he crawled on the road but the guy stepped his foot on Archie’s back. He squeezed Archie like a paste, Archie coughed blood as he tried to free himself but it was no use because how the difference in size between those two.

“I had enough fun, I should kill you now,” The guy said as he grabbed Archie’s head with his hand.

Archie screamed as he tried to bite the guy’s finger but it was so tough that his teeth broke the moment he tried to clench his teeth.

When the guy was about to pop Archie’s head off, a gunshot could be heard from the distance. The guy stopped squeezing Archie’s head and immediately removed his hand from Archie. Archie gasped with his eyes going red and face covered with his own blood. Archie turned around and looked at the guy staring at something in the distance, Archie looked at where the guy was looking at and realized that it was where Ruby and the others were.

“It seems your little friends decided to join the fun, I guess I should greet them then.” The guy said as he removed his foot from Archie’s body and then ran toward the laboratory.

Archie couldn’t move a muscle, he could only watch as he waited for his body to heal itself. He saw the guy charge at the building and destroyed them like it was nothing. Archie was grateful to Ruby and the others for saving his life but at the same time, he didn’t want them to help him.

Ruby and the others ran away the moment they saw the guy running toward them, they left the building and ran as fast as they could to their second checkpoint. Ruby had planned everything and this was something that she predicted as well so it wasn’t really a problem.

“Hurry! Don’t let him catch up to us!” Ruby said as she started to hear giant footsteps from behind her.

As they ran they heard the Laboratory’s entrance was being destroyed, they immediately ran much faster as their lives depend on it.

“Where are you, little humans!” The guy shouted while he broke the walls.

He couldn’t find them and he decided to use his ears to listen to their footsteps. He found where they were and immediately charged the walls in front of him, then he saw Daniel run to the corner. The guy smiled and broke the walls to use the shortcut, and when he broke the last wall, he saw the four of them pointing their guns at him. They fired and emptied their magazine at him, but unfortunately, his skin was so tough it bounced some of the bullets off.

“Run!” Ruby screamed.

All of them ran their separate ways but Tommy was unfortunate because the guy threw a remnant of the wall at him and hit his back. Tommy was struck down by it and he couldn’t move because he broke both of his legs and his spine. His scream could be heard by the others and they immediately turned around and fired their second magazine at the guy.

“Take Tommy away!” Ruby screamed as she shot the bullets in the guy’s face.

Without wasting any time, Daniel and Vincent dragged Tommy away and carried him to safety.

Ruby kept shooting his submachine gun at the guy but all of her bullets were bounced off of him.

“How funny. Do you think a bullet will stop me?” The guy said as he stood in front of Ruby.

Ruby emptied the magazine and threw her gun away, she then grabbed her pistol on her waist but the moment she pointed her gun at him, he flicked her hand and she lost her pistol.

“Stop trying, you’re just wasting your time,” The guy said.

Ruby looked at the bag on her left waist and removed the belt from it, she grabbed the bag and lifted it up. Before she could grab something from inside the bag, her left hand was grabbed by the guy and he lifted her up and tried to crush her whole hand. Ruby screamed in pain while the guy laughed at her, Ruby was trying so hard to free her hand but suddenly she laughed and made the guy look confused.

Ruby stopped resisting and glared at the guy while he was hanging. “You fell for my trap,” Ruby said as she smiled and endured the pain.

The guy looked at his right hand where he crushed Ruby’s left hand and suddenly his hand exploded. Ruby fell to the ground as she screamed her lungs out because she blew her hand off and lost half of her left arm.

Vincent came back when he heard the explosion and saw Ruby laying on the ground with her missing hand and spurting blood. “Bubby!” Vincent screamed at her as he ran toward her.

The guy looked at his hand and he bleed but he noticed that there was some kind of liquid other than his blood. He looked at it for a moment but suddenly he staggered and started to feel the pain in his hand.

The guy started to scream in pain because the serum started to kick in its effect, his hand was twitching as Vincent grabbed Ruby and carried her away. They both looked at the guy screaming and on his knees, they saw his body slowly shrinking and the muscles that wrapped his whole body started to twitch and went back to normal.

Archie came and saw the guy was in pain then he saw Ruby and her missing hand. He was so confused about what happened in there but then Ruby pointed her hand at the guy. “It’s your chance to kill him…” Ruby said as she groaned in pain.

Archie without hesitation ran toward the guy and saw an opening on the guy’s back. He used all his strength and ability in his right hand and then thrust the guy’s back. He managed to pierce through the guy’s skin and immediately grabbed his spin and pulled it out. The guy screamed as his body kept shrinking until he was back to his normal size and form.

The guy was laying on the ground with his whole body twitching, Archie was confused but at the same time, he didn’t waste a single second by doing nothing. He tear the guy’s whole limb apart and he could see the flesh in the guy’s body was twitching like crazy. Finally, Archie pierced through the guy’s heart and pulled it out while it was still beating.

The guy’s eyes were wide open as he tried to reach his heart from Archie’s hand. Archie glared down at him and used his left hand to crush the guy’s skull and squeezed his brain.

Archie fell on his butt and with both of his hands held the guy’s brain and heart. He looked at the guy who was no longer breathing or moving, and he could see the guy’s whole body was still twitching uncontrollably.

“What happened to him?” Archie asked as he caught his breath.

Vincent wrapped the open wound on Ruby’s arm while Ruby looked at the dead body of the guy. “We made a serum and it was for handling a parasite that we couldn’t kill,” Ruby said as she groaned in pain.

Archie turned around and Ruby’s scream was getting louder and louder as if the pain worsened than before. Vincent looked so worried about Ruby’s condition, and then Ruby grabbed Vincent’s hand as she glared at him. “Cut it off! Just cut it off! I got exposed to the serum and if you don’t cut it, it will affect my whole body!”

Vincent was hesitant but then Archie suddenly grabbed Ruby’s hand and cut off Ruby’s arm from the elbow down to her forearm. Ruby screamed and then sighed with relief as if the pain was slowly gone. She looked at Archie and smiled a bit. “Thank you…”

“What’s that serum? Why is it dangerous to you as well?” Archie asked.

Ruby’s lips trembled as she looked at Archie. “It was the serum to kill the subject that failed in the experiment. The serum is the easiest way to kill a parasite inside our body so it’s harmless if our skin touches it but it’s extremely dangerous if it gets inside our body.” Ruby explained.

Daniel came with Tommy on his back, Daniel was shocked when he saw that Ruby lost an arm while Tommy was unconscious.

“You guys should go back and treat your injury…” Archie said.

Vincent carried Ruby on his shoulder. “What about you?”

Archie looked at the dead body of the guy. “I will stay here for a moment and deal with this first…”

“Leave him be… let’s go back, I need immediate treatment before it gets worse…” Ruby said.

Vincent nodded with understanding and then the four of them left Archie alone with the guy’s dead body.

Archie looked down and stared at the guy’s dead body then a wind blew into his face. “Eat him…”

Archie looked up and noticed the wind witch was around him. “Eat him? Why?” Archie asked.

The wind blew onto his face again. “You will gain his power, and it will make you stronger…”