Know what time it is? Story time. Without further ado and with a lateness I'm sure, lets get started. =================== VI. A Game =================== The human I shot at slumped to his knees, a hole now in his chest. He fell forward, and a pool of dark liquid began to spread around him. It must have at least reached his spinal cord because he shouldn't have just fallen from that; I expected agony. The other seven of them noticed and began to fan out and shoot in our general direction. I take cover from the hail of fire and look to Dax. He has his back against roots, yet whenever he pops out, its as if he knew where they were. I circle around the tree I was at to find a new position. In the background you could hear a rain of bullets crashing into trees and cartridges bouncing off the floor. I move silently, hopefully going undetected under this hail of fire. Sadly, my luck isn't that great and one of them sees me through the corner of his eye. He's a scrawny one who looks like he hasn't had much to eat. He's wearing grey cargo pants and shoes, but that's about it. He uses his tiny pistol and tries hitting me, but just like himself, his aim isn't too good I duck behind a tree and wait for him. I know how he is already. He's determined to prove himself to the group, just like I am. However, I am not afraid of Death; this one is shaking violently. I hear him fumble around his pockets and curses as he tries to find a spare magazine. I can sense something, not anything heavy like the killing intent most of the others have, but fear. I grin maliciously, as if something in me arose. I lay down my rifle and put my back towards the waist height root and close my eyes. I can hear him, walking - running - towards me. By the sound of it, he's about five meters away from me, it should only take him about 5 seconds to get to me then. I pull down the scarf which nearly always covered my face, and took a breath of the night air. I looked to what little of the sky I could see and prepared myself. "There will be a red dawn tomorrow." The man is still running, but is only about a meter away from me now. I've been waiting for this. Just like a how a predator chases after his prey, he came straight for me. But, he has mistaken himself on his role. I know he thinks he's the hunter, like an animal in a pack. Such a foolish person, not even smart enough to know when to stay back. I am the predator. I spin and rise from my position to face him as he began vaulting over the root. His legs were already past me, his pistol was in his left hand in the air, and his right was on the root. His legs were on my right aside, still in the air. I grabbed his face in my right hand and pushed it downward toward the floor. His vaulting arm slipped backward due to the moss on the root. I heard an audible snap, or a pop. Probably both. He dropped his pistol and I bent down to retrieve it. He clenched his right arm and screamed in agony, something I've been waiting to hear. He wrist was damaged from the failed vault, but as I looked at his arm, everything was destroyed. His elbow and forearm were dangling backward and useless, and from I could tell, his shoulder was at least dislocated. And all that time, that same smile never left my face. However, the battle still raged on and his cries were weak and boring now. I looked at his pitiful and dirty face, and when he saw me standing over him he froze. A small whimper came out and his lips shook. "P-Please..." That was all I needed to hear to snap. He is asking for mercy, begging and pleading for it. It annoyed me. The smile dropped and his look was of pure terror. "Hmph, boring." I raised his pistol and shot him in the stomach. The kick of the pistol sent a shock to my arm, it was obviously a large round. Large enough to cause hydrostatic shock, in other words, rupture his organs from the energy of the round. This time, I made sure not to hit the spinal cord. He should bleed out within fifteen minutes, and considering he was on the floor, all the dirt would have kicked up into his wound. He'll either die this way, or by infection. Either way, it will be painfully dreadful for him, and equally as delightful for me to think about. By now, there are few gunshots still ringing. I pick up my rifle and walk over to the main field where five bodies now lay, some dead, some still bleeding and screaming. Two left. I raise my scarf back to my face and turn my attention to where the last clicks of a rifle can be heard. No shots, just the hollow clicks of a firing pin. The two humans left are hiding behind the root. The one with no ammo is two person widths back, the other one has his back to the root, but still has ammo. I raise my sniper and begin lining up my shot for the one that still has ammo. But then, I hear running noises. I open my left eye and see Dax sprinting to them and one-handing a large pistol, similar to the hand cannon I picked up from the scrawny human. Instead of firing, I wait in anticipation to see what happens next. He swings his feet forward mid vault and kicks the second human in the chest. Dax kicked him with enough force that the human fell backwards and Dax landed on his chest - hard. He swiftly brings his pistol to the brain of the human and fires a the large round mercilessly into it. The second human is running towards his back, his rifle in the air. As he's about to bring the rifle butt down upon my companion, Dax turns clockwise and dodges the strike narrowly. He pistol whips the human on the side of his head, creating a bloody wound. The next instant, Dax grabs the human's face and lifts him a foot or two off the floor. The human drops his rifle and begins to struggle. He kicks his feet and flails around, but also tries removing Dax's arm from his face. However, the strong arm of the Warlock doesn't budge; instead, he strengthens his grip. All I can hear are the muffled cries of the airborne human. The next instant, a jet of red flames burst from the hand which holds the human up and incinerates it. For a few last moments, you hear the cries of pain before they cease and Dax tosses the limp body towards the side. Dax turns and sees me, physically relieved that I am still alive. He begins dusting himself off, but I don't wait for him. I walk over to one of the less damaged humans on the floor and squat beside him. He begins reaching for a pistol, which I grab and stare at his face. "I won't kill you." I point the gun to the back of his feet, at the calcaneal tendon. I let off two shots, hitting both times. "But I won't let you get away either." Knowing he can no longer walk, he clenches his fist and his mouth to muffle his cries. He was intent on not letting me see weakness. However, I can see he wasn't strong mentally. I might as well make it seem like I'm playing fair, but also mentally torture him I open the top of the gun and see six revolving chambers filled with bullets, only two spent. I spin it an memorize which ones I've shot already. I unload five of the rounds, keeping only one already spent cartridge in it. I spin it again and close it. I smile under the scarf, but I can see the terror in his eyes now. "So, we're going to play a little game. I ask you a question, and I pull the trigger beside my head. If my brains don't exit my head, you don't have to answer it. If they don't, you answer and I pull it next to your head. It'll make this questioning a little funner." I look up to Dax, who is now questioning another human. I turn my attention back to the human at hand. I point the gun at my head, "Why did you want to kill us?" I pull the trigger and nothing happens, so I point it at his head, "Your turn." =================== Late. Again. I am very bad with time. Anyways, a little longer than the rest of them. I wanted to flesh out Dax's seen as much as I could from my character's perspective.