Chapter 1937

Chapter 1937

Annie raised her bow and the rabid young man accelerated at her, as though he hadn’t just been concussed against the canyon wall when she had sent a single arrow at him. He displayed no fear or self-preservation instinct. She hadn’t even activated a Skill and he had been completely overwhelmed. Behind him, Annie’s target smiled with a sly curl of her lip.

Chaos was obviously exactly what the woman wanted.

Annie’s eye traced the shaft of an arrow to her target. Yet perhaps because of how young he looked, her heart urged her to reconsider. Maybe he doesn’t really want to die. Maybe his brain broke from the impact. It seems rude to punish this kid for his deficient brain.

With this judicious allowance, Annie lowered her bow slightly. When the young man raised his weird dagger hands to lash out at her, she dropped low and swept his legs. Crouching down and aiming sideways, she fired. Her arrow took him in the shoulder, carrying him up and pinning to the high canyon walls. His body flopped around as he howled in fury and pain.

Then Annie focused on her real target. Her eyes widened when she saw that all traces of her had vanished and a familiar figure stood in her place. A tall man stood with a club leaning across his shoulders. Those muscles-

“Honey,” Dozer rumbled quietly. He had a smirk on his face. “You couldn’t attack your own husband, could you-”

Annie’s nose crunched the illusion Dozer’s nose, earning a delighted set of cackles from Annie. “Wonderful! I’m not allowed to attack him at home. Says it sends the wrong message to Delilah. So I really appreciate this opportunity to thoroughly thrash this lump.”

The illusion dissipated and the woman stumbled back and looked at Annie in horror and confusion. Annie couldn’t help but snort. However, the whistling release of Annie’s next arrow cleared up most of her confusion. The woman pulled out a heavy, knotted rope and whipped it around to deflect the arrow. A powerful image of violence and bloodletting spun itself through the rope, adding weight and brutal momentum.

So she’s not just all flashy illusions, Annie mused.

With surprising skill, the woman twisted the rope at the very moment it blocked the arrow's path. Annie’s predatory attack screeched in outrage to be challenged. For a brief moment, both images flared and struggled with each other. Annie, again, had to admit this woman had legitimate talent. She possessed enough gumption that the arrow was redirected slightly and only took a chunk out of the woman’s thigh.

She squealed in pain and clearly lost herself for a few seconds in panic, as though she were more familiar with inflicting attacks than receiving them. Her form flickered between several strange bodies. Finally, it settled upon Lucifer, who looked up at Annie with imposing eyes. Annie was almost lazy in knocking the next arrow. He lowered his hands and gripped his saber. “Lucifer Sla-”

Annie’s arrow interrupted the illusionary attack, shattering Lucifer and digging an arrow halfway through the woman’s forearm. She looked at it for several seconds, seemingly bewildered by its very physical presence in her body. And Annie would have finished the job on the distracted foe, had she not felt the young man finally dislodge himself and pounce toward her back.

She donkey kicked the fool in the jaw, his malfunctioning brain be damned. This time, just to be thorough, she rapid-fired arrows to pin each of his arms and legs and prevent him from interfering. To Annie’s great annoyance, he had apparently adjusted enough that he slashed out with his dagger fingers and shattered the first arrow, before the flurry of followups overwhelmed him. So as he was carried back and slammed into the far wall, only two legs and one arm were pinned. Annie sent one more arrow over, just for good measure.

Then one more, thumping into his inner thigh uncomfortably close to his manhood, just to vent some of her frustration. She turned back to the woman.

As Annie mulled that over, a lightning bolt crashed down on the woman. The image of a pained and struggling woman crawling on the ground shattered and revealed the woman looking quite spry, aside from the fact she now rolled around under the influence of the electricity.

Annie raised an eyebrow as Clarrissa floated down from the clouds. “What, you here to tell me to stop playing with my food?”

“I’m here to tell you not to kill her.” Clarissa rolled her eyes as she alighted softly on the ground. “This goes much more smoothly if we have someone alive to stand trial. Your bloodthirsty crusade reaches a happy and justified ending.”

Annie’s expression flattened. “After all the shit this woman has orchestrated, if you expect me to be sorry for hunting them-”

“No, I apologize, that came out wrong.” Clarissa raised her hands placatingly. “Without your efforts, there would be so many injustices continuing that we hadn’t even realized were happening. Thank you, Annie. What I mean to say is that please, consider letting her pay for her crimes in the court of public opinion. Her corpse solves the problem of her. But being able to lay bare her propaganda and schemes solves the bigger mess that she started.”

Something vicious and bloodthirsty in Annie’s heart wanted to say no. She wanted to fire one last arrow and watch the life drain out of this cockroach's shredded throat. The primal predator in her would savor the experience and then raise its head in exultation.

The Predator in her wanted a corpse.

However, the experience of fighting against the woman had been so mediocre that the hunter in her seeking a talented quarry just seemed to shrug its hands. Begrudgingly, Annie nodded and lowered her bow. But then she smirked. “Alright, on one condition. Hit her with a few more of those lightning bolts for me. Make the fat little bug squirm.”

*****

Merrick drew a shuddering breath and sat up. His hand instantly went to his heart. “Did I...?”

“Die? Technically. My arrow slipped between your right and left ventricle, just below the major arteries. My Skills let me view Health, so I was pretty confident an inducing a short-term coma with the shot by putting you between 2 and 9 Health in a single go.” Annie crouched over him, looking bored. The other woman was nowhere to be seen. Annie rapped her knuckles against the ground. “Take this as a warning. You let your pride get you involved on the wrong side of a fight, kid. Don’t let it happen again.”

Merrick was too busy breathing to have much of an emotional reaction. To his surprise, she kept speaking.

“However, I’ll say this- in just a few clashes, you adjusted enough to block one of my arrows. You... don’t suck.”

Then she departed, leaving Merrick laying on the ground and looking up at the thin strip of grey sky above the canyon. Even just that stretch seemed too vast to fathom.