Episode 13 Soulless Predator
“Soma Vesta,” Kunai growls under his breath, loathing deep in his dark black eyes as the figure of Soma Vesta approaches in the lit-up night.
“Yo,” Soma shouts, his voice dragging on into a taunting drawl. “It’s been a while, huh, little Kunai?” He steps aside as Kunai hurls a Steely at him. “Jeez. Still haven’t learned any manners, huh?”
“I don’t want to hear it from you, Soma!” Kunai growls, forming an Avenger in his right hand. With blinding speed, he zooms towards Soma, the hand with his Avenger stretched out.
Soma calmly raises his rifle in just his right hand, and fires a single shot. Kunai’s Avenger shatters into tiny pieces before he even reaches Soma, the latter having hit the Avenger squarely in the center with a single bullet.
Kunai skids to a halt just out of range from Soma’s reach. He scrambles to get away, as Soma cocks his gun and aims for Kunai.
“Kunai, Kunai, Kunai…” Soma sighs tauntingly. “I keep tellin’ ya, you gotta show me that sword o’ yours if you want a chance to win against me!”
“Dammit!” Kunai howls, his face contorted with rage. “Why aren’t you dead?! Ryuu told me he killed you.”
Soma bursts out laughing, a high-pitched sort of cackle that grates the air. “That idiot Ryuu?! There’s no way someone like him could kill me. Anyway, I keep telling ya to show me that sword o’ yours, Kunai! Show it to me! Show me it! Showmeit, showmeit, showmeit!”
Kunai watches with horror as Soma progressively speaks faster and faster, his speech becoming slurred and wild. Kunai bares his teeth, an utterly repulsed look on his face.
“Soma…” he begins in a low voice. “I don’t have my sword anymore. You should know that. You must have seen my clone at Duncan’s hideout. However…I don’t need that sword to defeat you!”
“Ohhh…really, eh?!” Soma cries, his eyes bulging madly. “You don’t need that sword?! I’ll teach ya to show me up like that! I’ll teach ya good! Show me that sword, show me it! Ever since I first heard about a Hermit that can use a sword, I’ve wanted to fight him! And now ya deny that to me?! I’LL SHRED EVERY BONE IN YOUR BODY TO BITS IF YOU KEEP SCREWING WITH ME LIKE THAT!”
Kunai’s eyes widen at this outburst. However, in the next moment, he is forced to dodge as Soma sends a relentless barrage of bullets flying towards him.
“Die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, DIEEEEE!” Soma howls, spit flying from his mouth with every word.
The bullets keep coming without pause, as Kunai is forced to continually keep moving from side to side, dodging every bullet. “Damn it! He’s gone insane! I’m gonna have to somehow stop him. I can’t keep just keep dodging bullets like this!”
Wordlessly, Kunai begins his counterattack. He forms another Avenger in his hands, and in between rounds from Soma, takes a flying leap forward, bouncing his way towards Soma.
As Soma fires again, Kunai launches the Avenger straight at the gunman; however, in the few seconds during Kunai’s attack, two of Soma’s bullets strike Kunai across the right arm, piercing his skin and drawing blood. Two lines of fresh blood pour forth from the wounds. Kunai clutches his right arm, grimacing slightly.
Meanwhile, his Avenger sails through the air. In his blind wrath, Soma fails to even see the Avenger hurtling through the air toward him. The Avenger cuts into Soma’s body, drawing blood as well. It splashes into the air.
Soma collapses to his knees, his breathing ragged. He lowers his gun at last. Kunai watches intently, preparing himself for another surprise attack. He slowly reaches for a pair of Steelys with his right hand, even while still clutching at his arm where the bullets had hit him with his left. Carefully, he begins to approach Soma.
“Curse you, Kunai! Curse you…curse you and the graves of Ivy and Lily!” Soma screams almost incoherently.
Kunai freezes in his tracks, shock etched across his entire face. He opens his mouth, but his entire jaw shakes violently as he speaks. “What did you just say?!”
“I said curse you and the graves of Ivy and Lily!” Soma screeches. “Ever since I first learned about you, I haven’t been able t’sleep or eat! And it’s all ‘cause of you! It’s your fault! I can’t rest until I kill you!”
“How do you know about Ivy and Lily?” Kunai asks hurriedly. “Come to think of it, you seem to know way too much about me. Soma Vesta…who or what exactly are you?”
“DIEEEEEEE!” Soma shrieks, unable to utter anything else. He picks up his rifle, and before Kunai can even react, he fires several more rounds.
One of the bullets pierces Kunai right in the stomach. His eyes widen as his knees fall to the ground. He collapses face forward, his entire body trembling with cold, pain, and emotion.
“Damn…it…” Kunai hisses from the ground, his eyes going dark on him. The haze creeping up on his eyes, Kunai watches Soma’s feet approach him, the click-clack of his rifle rattling by his side.
Suddenly, Kunai feels another intense, blinding pain in his chest as Soma begins kicking him. With a furious heave, Soma kicks Kunai into the air, and then whacks him brutally across the face with the butt of his rifle just as Kunai harshly falls back to the ground.
From somewhere far away, Ophelia’s voice rings out. “S-Stop! Kunai, are you all right?!”
Soma turns his attention towards Ophelia, his eyes and face strangely calm now. He takes several steps towards her, clutching his rifle coldly by his side.
“S-Stay away!” Ophelia cries desperately, taking several steps away from Soma. “The Maple Gods will not save your soul, you murderer!”
However, Soma’s face contorts even more with rage at Ophelia’s words. His features twist hideously, as he screams, sprinting forward and shoving the barrel of his rifle right in Ophelia’s face. “I DON’T HAVE A SOUL!”
Ophelia cringes as Soma places a finger on the trigger of his gun. But the blast from the gun never comes.
Instead, a beam of white light sails through the air and hits Soma directly from the side. Soma collapses, shrieking madly, a hole the size of a medium-sized coin appearing right in the center of his right hand. His rifle falls to the ground with a clatter.
Ophelia gasps as Zack and Mira enter the battlefield, three bound and gagged Bandits behind them. Zack lowers his Kage, his eyes blazing with fiery determination.
“Never thought I’d see ya again so soon, Soma Vesta,” Zack says, his voice steady. He raises his Kage again and fires another shot of white light at Soma. The flash of light flies through Soma’s right shoulder, leaving another tiny hole there.
Soma grovels on the ground, screaming in pain as he twists and turns feverishly. Zack lowers his Kage once more, and walks right up to Soma, picking him up from the ground by the hair. He stares into the gunman’s beady, fearful eyes.
“Why are you botherin’ Kunai?!” Zack asks demandingly, pressing his Kage against Soma’s throat.
“I have to kill him!” Soma screams wildly. “I gotta kill him! He…he’s a Hermit, but he uses a sword! I have to see that sword…I have to fight against it! I have to see it with my own eyes, and then I have to kill him! Kill himmmmm!”
Zack sighs, his eyes blinking with the slightest tone of sadness. “You’re one crazy mess, Soma. I thought I wouldn’t have t’kill ya, but then you go and cause all this trouble. I didn’t realize you were after Kunai that badly. Truly a soulless monster capable of nothin’ but evil.”
“P-Please!” Soma pleads. “I have to kill Kunaiiiii!”
“That’s enough,” Zack says in a low voice, “you’ve done enough harm in this life. Now go to hell.” He raises his Kage again. With another blinding flash of white light, Soma falls to the ground lifelessly.
Mira and Ophelia watch the scene unfold with shock. Soma’s body lays silently on the ground, unmoving. The battlefield suddenly falls into a strange silence once again, the battle now over. The two girls continue to stare at the corpse with horror.
‘This is my first time seeing a dead body…’ Ophelia thinks to herself, her eyes widened with fear and shock.
Zack strides over to Kunai’s motionless body, tending to him. He turns Kunai over on the ground, inspecting his wounds. Kunai coughs, blood spurting forth from his various wounds.
Mira turns to the two with a mixture of horror and worry on her face. “I-Is Kunai going to be all right?!”
“Sure,” Zack says rather casually. He holds his staff just over Kunai, hovering over him. A bright green light engulfs the two of them. Zack turns to Mira. “Go get my things. Inside my backpack’s some first aid stuff. Bring me those.”
Mira nods, sprinting off to fulfill Zack’s request. “Yeah!”
Ophelia looks on uncertainly, a worried frown on her lips. “Is Kunai going to be all right?”
Kunai finally opens his eyes, squinting up into the faces of Zack and Ophelia through the bright green light now surrounding him. Zack nods.
“’Course Kunai’s gonna be all right.”
Nevertheless, Zack continues to scowl down at Kunai. “S’all my fault, Kunai. I shoulda never let that bastard live.”
“Eh?” Ophelia murmurs, as Mira returns with Zack’s things. “You knew him, Zack?”
“Yeah,” Zack replies, “sorta. I met him when I was journeying around after all the Lilith business was done. I screwed up. If I’da told Kunai everything about him from the beginning, we coulda been better prepared. But even I didn’t think he’d be this persistent.”
Kunai frowns as well, though he remains silent, keeping his thoughts to himself. ‘Prepared, huh? All your fault, huh? Don’t screw around with me…I only got into this mess because I wasn’t strong enough to beat Soma on my own… I’m pathetic. If anything, Soma was right…I’m nothing without my sword.
‘That hellish determination to do anything to win… It was in Soma’s eyes. It was in the Fatalists’ eyes. And it was definitely in the eyes of the dark side of my soul. Why can’t I fight with that relentlessness anymore? Maybe getting back Myou is my only chance after all…’
Abruptly, Kunai rises into a sitting position. Zack starts, waving his arms wildly. “Hey, Kunai! Ya can’t get up yet, I haven’t even bound your wounds yet!”
However, Kunai ignores Zack, his eyes lit up with determination. “Even if Soma Vesta wanted to kill me…even if all Soma Vesta cared about was hunting his prey…I can learn something from him. For that, I’m grateful. I know now what I need to do to win every battle from here on!”
—END THIRTEEN—