Bloodlust (1)

I can’t… lose control… like this…

I… I need to find Oliver… But he’s unconscious. He can’t help me right now…

“I… I’m sorry,” I said. “We can still… talk this out…”

The bullet shell fell to the ground as the regrowing muscle pushed it out. I was done healing.

Unfortunately my anger doesn’t go away as fast as my pain does. But I can’t let myself fight him.

“You’re coming with me,” the man said. “The only question is whether or not you’re conscious.”

“I can’t go with you…” I responded. “There’s-”

Bang!

My sentence was interrupted by another shot from his gun, but this time I was ready for it.

My demonic powers activated in my right arm again and I sliced the bullet out of the air.

“I was still talking you-!” I shouted before getting interrupted by the bullet shooting up through my hand.

“Gah!”

I know I hit the bullet, and even if he shot again it couldn’t have hit from that angle. This was definitely the work of his flair. But what was it?

It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is can’t be all that special. He can’t kill me, and as long as he doesn’t hit my brain he can’t knock me out either.

I just need to find out the trick behind his flair, and then he’s as good as dead.

Dead? I shouldn’t… I don’t… want to kill him. I can’t let it take control like this-

Bang! Bang!

I didn’t notice he had pulled out another gun, and he just shot both of them. But he didn’t shoot them at me, he shot at the ground around me. Why?

My question was answered as the bullets ricocheted and went straight towards me. I sliced through both bullets before they managed to hit me. Both my arms were now light grey with markings stretching across them.

I finally found out. He can make those bullets bounce off of surfaces toward a target without losing speed. But how many times can he make them bounce? The most he’s done so far is twice, but I can’t underestimate him.

Either way, it looks like he’s a mid to long range fighter.

“Looks like I’m gonna have to get serious,” he said under breath.

Those pistols he uses are revolvers, I don’t know if there’s any particular reason, but each one should only have room for six shots. And with both pistols he’s shot a total of five times, four with the first one and once with the second if I remember correctly.

If I rush him he won’t have time to reload, and then once he’s out of bullets he’s not a threat. He’ll be finished.

I won’t spare him. He had his chance to resolve this peacefully. He wanted to spill blood, so I’ll make sure his covers the ground.

It looks like he’s carefully watching my movements, waiting for me to make a move.

Idiot! You shouldn’t’ve given me so much time.

I let my power spread throughout my body. After all, I need to take every precaution to make sure he can’t hit my head.

Demonic Fury: Complete Veil

I sense a tinge of fear coming from him. He’s nervous because I completed the transformation.

Good.

I ran towards him and he shot three times, one from the first gun and two from the second, all straight towards me. That puts him at one and three bullets.

I sliced the bullets as they got too close. The first one broke and was deflected but I noticed that the other two bounced off my claws and went straight towards the ground. I also noticed the difference between a bullet that was about to bounce and one that was about to pierce it’s target.

A faint yellow glow that was barely noticeable, especially since the bullets moved so fast. As long as this glow was there then the bullets would bounce away from whatever they touched, heading straight towards a target.

Now that I know this, I can tell which bullets will bounce or not.

I kept dashing forward as the bullets hit the ground behind me. As they rebounded towards me I spun around, slicing the bullets apart before resuming my rush.

Bang! Bang!

He shot two more bullets from his second gun, leaving him at one bullet each.

For whatever reason neither of the bullets were glowing. He hadn’t gotten scared and forgot to use his power had he? How pathetic.

He jumped back as I got closer. I wonder which part of him I should slash open first?

I’ll just cut him in half!

As I reached him, I put the full force of my power behind my swing.

Demonic Rend!

The force of my slash shook the air around us, but he somehow evaded my attack and was now high in the sky.

So he can bounce himself then? Annoying.

Bang! Bang!

He shot his last bullets at me from above! That’s not good! I can’t let him hit my head!

I jumped back and got ready to parry the bullets when they inevitably bounced towards me. I slashed at them with my claws, I hit one and it bounced away once I touched it, but I missed the other one.

Stain! Am I really going to lose just like that?

Even after the bullet wound heals, if I’m unconscious then I could easily be killed another way. Suffocation comes to mind…

I barely felt a tap on my forehead as the bullet bounced off of it.

Why didn’t he shoot me? Was this just luck?

I saw that the bullet was still glowing, and he was quickly reloading his pistols.

Did he just not notice that opportunity then? Does the bouncing effect only go away if he wills it?

Either way, I’m not dead yet.

I won’t let him get another opportunity to beat me.

I watched as the bullets came back, this time they weren’t glowing anymore. I deflected both before rushing towards him again.

He tried bouncing up before I could reach him, but this time I already knew his dulled trick.

I jumped in time to grab his legs and threw him into the ground on his back. He hacked up blood as the ground cracked from the impact.

Perfect.

I went in for the kill, opting to slice his neck open but he used his legs to sweep me feet out from under me.

I tripped and missed my mark, but I managed to cut his right arm with my claws.

I hit the ground, but as soon as I did I bounced away from him at high speed. I flew through a tree, breaking it in two.

So he can use that dulled flair of his on other people too!?

The impact broke my back and I could feel blood welling up in my mouth, but I heal quickly.

He was standing now, so I grabbed the top part of the tree he hurled me through and threw it at him. Let’s see how he likes that!

After reaching him, the tree bounced back toward me. I should’ve figured as much, but this wasn’t too big of a problem. I can just break it with Demonic Rend before it hits me.

I gathered my strength and clawed at the tree before it hit me, but the moment I touched it, it just bounced downwards towards the ground before bouncing back up into me.

Decay it all! Why does this stained idiot have such precise control over his dulled flair! I’m Getting MAD!!

The blow shattered the trunk and my ribs, also leaving me with ruptured organs, but I am immortal! It doesn’t matter how much damage he does if I can heal it just as quickly. And the angrier I get the faster I heal myself and the more powerful I become. He can’t even heal the scratch on his arm!

This battle will prove hopeless for him in the end. He chose the wrong opponent.

“What are you smiling about?” the man said. “That’s a lot of blood.”

“Are you so foolish as to fight me without knowing what my powers are?” I replied. “I may be covered in blood, but you’re no closer to defeating me than when this fight began.”

“Is that so,” he replied. “You weren’t in the rogues gallery for this region, so I never did look at your full profile. Maybe I should do that before we continue.”

“Like I’ll give you the chance! Do you honestly think I’ll just sit around and let you do whatever you want when I’m trying to kill you?”

“Well I think you’ll sit around long enough despite how you feel.”

What the hell is up with this cocky colorless?

“You can’t be that stupid, can you? Why would I do anything you say?”

“Because quite honestly you don’t have a choice!” he yelled before shooting all the bullets in both clips as fast as he could.

I got ready to deflect the bullets before I realized none of them were aimed directly at me, and all of them were glowing.

If he attacks me from every angle at once this could be bad. He shot twelve bullets, meaning there’s no way I can deflect them all. I need to abandon that idea and focus solely on protecting my head no matter what!

As I got ready to defend, I realized one final thing about this all out attack. It wasn’t meant to be an attack at all.

The bullets ricocheted off the ground and each other, forming a tight dome around me. This was a trap.

“You like it,” the man said casually while reloading his revolvers. “You’re witnessing Trigger Happy’s ultimate capture move: Bullet Prison!

“I usually don’t like to explain my special moves too much, but I find this one to be much more effective when properly explained to the trapped individual,” he continued. By now he was done reloading his revolvers and had pulled out a mini board. “As the name explains, you’re trapped in a prison of bullets. By now you’ve realized that even if you hit one of my bullets, it just bounces off and hits you somewhere else. If you try to escape, all those bullets will make swiss cheese out of you so quick you won’t even hear the clever pun I’ll make. You’ll also be swiss cheesed if I see you trying to dig a hole or anything like that.

“Would you look at that, I already found you on the bounty board. You’re up pretty high, you know?” he said. “Let’s see… your flair gives you superhuman strength and agility, sharp teeth and claws, an utterly insane regeneration factor, and… a possible kaiju transformation. You are a lot more dangerous than I thought.

“Hmm… It doesn’t actually say you’ve done anything yet, but after all this I’d say locking you up is a fair precaution. You’re kinda seething with bloodlust right now.”

“Don’t forget that you shot at me first,” I said.

“Sorry ’bout that, but with my line of work taking chances is what gets you killed. Especially when it comes to psychos like you,” he said. “No offense.”

“Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“Well, yeah but-”

Before he could finish his sentence I rushed him. I figured that if any of the bullets hit me, they would bounce off if he wasn’t paying attention during my initial dash. And I was right.

“Stain!” he yelled, but by that point I had already reached him and rammed my fist into his gut, knocking him a couple feet away.

Immediately, I turned around to defend myself. Since all the bullets were coming at me from the same direction I managed to use my claws to deflect the two bullets that were headed straight for my forehead. I didn’t have enough time or speed to defend against the rest.

I got shot through the neck, arms, legs, heart, lungs, and twice in the stomach. It was excruciating, but I held on. All in all I counted twelve bullets.

Painfully, I stood myself up. I couldn’t breath, and I could barely move. But in the next few seconds all my wounds were healed.

I heard Trigger Happy coughing, and looked to see him spitting out blood as he rose to a knee.

“Didn’t I tell you there was no hope,” I sneered.

“You really are crazy…”

“And you’re dead,” I said as I walked over to him.

That determined look on his face really pisses me off, I’d hate for him to go out with some hope left.

“Show me your despair, Trigger Happy,” I said nonchalantly before kicking him across the area we had been having our little scuffle in.

I walked over to him as he tried vainly to stand, only getting to his hands and knees.

“Let’s see… if I recall correctly, first you shot me in the back!” I shouted as I hammered my fist into his backside. He made a delightful thud as his body slammed into the ground.

“Then, you shot my hand!” I yelled as I smashed his right hand under my foot. What a delightful scream.

“I don’t really remember the rest of the order, but I doubt you’d be able to stay conscious for that long anyway. So I’ll just slash your stomach open and watch you bleed out!” I said while pushing him onto his back with my foot.

I then raised my right hand and got ready to slice him open, bringing it down at full force when-

Something stopped me.

“What are you doing!?”

Oliver was suddenly standing in front of me, holding my arm to prevent me from killing the bounty hunter.