Zuno grasped onto his weapon tightly, his finger hovering terrifyingly over the trigger. He wanted to press down and blast the monster in front of him away, but he knew deep down that wouldnt have done anything to the terrifying creature that stood before him. His gaze scattered towards his comrades, their face was as pale as his was, a sense of dread and frustration showing brightly onto their complexion.
The thing that stood before them wasn't something they knew could exist, a speaking arachtoid? A humanoid one at that. While technically speaking all arachtoids are humanoid but this one was the closer to an actual human being instead of a creature playing pretend.
After his gaze fulttered, he looked back towards the monster… either it was his mind playing tricks on him or it seemed like it was slightly closer than before. His feet reflexively pulled two steps back, slightly breaking the rough formation they were in.
"W-what are you doing?…"
Sarah hesitantly muttered towards Zuno, a bit of tremble in her voice.
"I.. I dont know… my legs… they-"
A loud bang blew through the air before Zuno could even finish the sentence. His eyes flickered towards where the sound originated. A small steaming crater was before Claire, who was being held by her throat mid air. The grip onto her rifle being replaced with desperate scratching at the creatures forearm.
"Bad move… really bad move.."
The creature stated in a playful tone, before being followed by a sadistic smirk. It was like that thing was playing with them.
Claire legs frailed around below her as she took distanced short weezy breaths, trying her best to get some oxygen in her lungs.
Zuno and the others were frozen in fear, many thoughts going through the boys head, was this the end of them? Was he next?
The amount of cowardice him and his teammates had in the face of true strength, watching their ally get strangled to death before their eyes. Fear and frustration enveloped Zunos mind, he wanted to help. He wanted to try and save her but it felt like his legs were frozen in place, that one small interference with what that thing was doing to her would be the end of him, but in the end, it was too late.
Before Zuno or anyone else for that matter could get the confidence to intervene, Claires desperate wheezing slowed, the sound of her legs kicking in the air was no longer audible, and her arms went limp.
" Humans are so fragile, yet so violent… It's facsinating."
It's grip on claires neck loosened before it threw her limp body towards the ground, her body landing with a lound thund before being shortly followed by a crack. The noise was similar to what a rock sounds like when its crushed under intense pressure, not a really pleasant sound for the ears.
Anger grew in Zuno, memories of his short but sweet time with Claire, the time he spent with the whole squad. He can't bare watching them die in front of him, him losing more people that he held dear. A calmness overcame his fear, it was a feeling of acceptance, he accepted that he'll give his life for theirs, for the rest of them to have a chance to escape.
"EVEYONE RUN!"
Zuno screamed as he ran towards the aratchtoid, he maneuvered his rifle, afraid to shoot incase the builet hit claire and ended the chance of her possibly being alive.
Zunos whipped the stock of the rifle towards the arachtoids head, with all the force he could muster
But…
He was too slow, the arachhtoid sidestepped, mostly dodging the stock with the butt of slightly clipping his shoulder.
"Hmm… you're faster than I thought."
The arachtoid muttered with delight, before locking his right arm into a fist and sending uppercut towards Zunos ribs.
Zuno could feel each rib splinter and crack under the mere force of the punch. His body propelled off the ground, being flung a dozen feet from where he originally was.
A loud thud signaled him reaching the dirt below him, with his fall ending with a roll. He felt a large burning sensation feeling up his lungs as he tried to get back up.
With a weary gaze he looked to see if he gave his teammates enough time to escape, it look like they were getting away, a smirk formed unto his face.
But the fight wasn't over.
The arachtoid walked menacingly towards Zuno as he struggled to stand. A smug but somber expression on its face.
With all his will, Zuno rushed towards the arachtoid, trying to at least get one more hit in before he succumbs to his wounds. He slips down as it trys to grab him and sends a left hook towards its jaw, he nearly strikes it as it counters with knee, sending him to the ground.
It wraps its fingers around his hair, before lifting Zuno off the ground.
"How honorable… I'll let them leave… but I'll be taking her with me."
It says before unleashing its grip and sending a lethal kick that striked the side of Zunos head, pulverizing the part of skull it hit and sending him flying across the clearing.
After which, it walked over towards Claire, and picked her up over its shoulder, carrying her out of the clearing.
Zunos air time ended as his back hit a tree, shattering his spine. He flopped onto the ground, clinging to life with encumbered breaths. A large wave of tiredness started to flow through him as his lungs began to full with blood. He couldn't yell for help, he had no feeling in his legs, he couldn't more.
Zunos breaths were getting weaker and weaker as his eyelids felt heavy. The area in front of him blurred as the darkness began to take hold.
Memories of good and bad played through his head.
Memories of Zoey and William
Memories of his Squad and Micheal
Heh… even Xaiver.
But as his final breath ceased, memories of his parents showed.
Status
Claire Wilfit:MIA
Zuno Kucax:KIA