Manhunter Revelations (27 page)

After informing Henning of our situation, we
were getting ready to move out again when Sessa tapped me and
said,

“Conrad, the trees!”

Looking at the trees around us we could see
them getting more unhealthy looking by the minute. Damn it the
creature was here!

“Sessa, get read...”

Moving fast I grabbed Sessa and threw us both
half a dozen feet to the right. We landed hard but we both rolled
and came up on our feet ready. Or at least we thought we were
ready. Where we had just been standing a log at least seven feet in
length weighing a few hundred pounds slammed down in that spot. I
had spotted it at the last moment. What I hadn’t seen was the other
two logs coming directly at us. Dodging to both sides the logs
slammed down where we were just standing, and more were coming. The
creature was tearing up small trees, boulders, anything it could
find and tossing them at us. Trees and debris was raining down just
missing us. Each piece was being tossed from in the woods where we
couldn’t see it. The debris kept us dodging here and there to avoid
them but we couldn’t let this attack go on. Out of desperation
Sessa stopped and sent a blast from her hands directly where the
last debris was coming from. This was the first time I saw here use
her powers and to be blunt it both surprised and impressed me. The
twin beams blasted away a ten-foot section of forest into kindling.
The debris coming at us stopped.

“Conrad I am getting tired dodging this
stuff. We have to flush him out where I can hit him directly”

“I know but stay ready. Just because the
attack has stopped, he isn’t gone. He’s still out there”

We gathered together back to back scanning
the woods around us for signs of the creature, but everything had
gone quiet. As before I was starting to get that dread feeling I
had got the last time I engaged this creature in the woods.

“It’s coming. I can feel it”

“Me too”

“We’re too confined here. If it attacks us
here our ability to maneuver will be limited. We need to make a run
for the clearing and reach it before it attacks. We have about a
mile to go. Can you make it?

“No problem. What’s to stop it attacking us
before we get there?

I will cover the right, you the left. Throw
light blasts to the front and left side of us as we run. I will do
the same but on the right and behind us. Don’t stop. We have to
reach that clearing. In here we are at a serious disadvantage.
Ready?

She gathered herself and nodded.

“Go!”

We ran in the direction of the clearing. I
told her light blasts. She literally blew a passage way for us both
in front while throwing lighter blasts to the left. I fired my .44C
emptying the gun on the right. As we ran I counted to three and
then lobbed a mini grenade behind us. Unless the creature stepped
out and the grenade hit him on the head and blew, they wasn’t going
to do much damage. They did however cause a great deal of noise and
smoke to help cover our trail. Since I already knew my ammo would
not stop or kill the creature, I was liberal with firing ammo on
the run every now and then hoping to throw the creature off if it
planned on attacking us on the run. On the hike out here I didn’t
have to call many rest stops and Sessa had kept up with no problem.
So running through the woods, over and under obstacles, I was
worried about her ability to keep up. I didn’t need to. The woman
ran like a gazelle, leaping over logs and branches, dodging
obstacles with a ease that was amazing. Once there was a large tree
branch that had broken off the main tree and was blocking our way a
little under four feet off the ground. I was expecting her to jump
it. Instead she went into a slide down on her knees, bent herself
backwards and continued her slide right under the branch. Once she
cleared it she popped right back up on her feet and kept moving
with what looked to be no reduction in her speed. In fact she was
outpacing me being already a dozen feet in front of me. Hell I had
to worry about keeping up with her. That became abundantly clear in
the next few minutes. After a few more minutes I could see the
clearing a little off to our right.

“Sessa, the clearing, to our right”

She looked and adjusted her direction, and
actually put on a burst of speed after sending another light blast
to the left. I was hard on her heels now about twenty feet behind
her. She was almost to the clearing when a stand of stunted trees
exploded outwards directly at her. The exploding tree pieces
weren’t the real threat though. The threat was the creature that
rapidly covered the short distance to her and hit her like an
express train. Sessa went flying and slammed up in another stand of
stunted trees. I don’t know how bad she was hurt but the sound of
her hitting those trees wasn’t good. The creature kept going after
her. I ran at it as fast as I could and shoot at it five times
hoping my rounds would hurt it or stop it long enough for me to
reach it. I couldn’t let it get to her. My rounds hit it in the
side and it stumbled sideways as the rounds exploded. I put four
more rounds into it, one of them impacting it’s head and exploding.
The creature went down and I shifted my path to Sessa. Getting to
her I found she was conscious, but badly dazed. I was trying to get
her up when I heard the creature coming. I turned to shot it again,
but it was ready for me. For it’s size it was still very fast. As I
turned towards it, the creature swung a large branch like a bath
catching me in the side. My vest absorbed most of the blow but it
was still terrible. I was knocked a good dozen feet away, losing my
.44C at the same time. I was in pain and out of breath. Sessa must
have come around enough that she released a blast at the creature,
but missed it. As it started to strike her again, I pulled my .40C
and shot it six times, putting two in the head, the others in the
right leg. The creature when down, but I could see it start to
regenerate immediately. Shouting,

“Sessa, hit it now!”

She freed herself from the trees, stood up
unsteadily, but took aim and released a beam from both hands. The
creature however was fast. It snatched up a large log and used it
as a shield to absorb the force of the blast, which knocked it back
into the trees. It could be seen moving away. Struggling up I moved
over to Sessa who was still holding onto a tree.

“Are you okay?”

“Just stunned. I will be okay in a
minute”

“I don’t think we have a minute. Come on we
need to get into the clearing.”

Taking her arm onto my shoulder we started
for the clearing rapidly looking around for the creature. Sessa
then noticed I was nursing my left side.

“You’re hurt”

“Just winded. I’ll be fine”

We had just entered the clearing when Sessa
screamed,

“Look out” just as another boulder slammed
down just missing us, causing us both to fall down. As we started
to get up, the creature was there. It slapped Sessa up side the
head knocking her out instantly. Even with my speed the creature
was able to knock my gun from my hand before I could train it on
him. He then grabbed me by the neck and hit me with two powerful
punches. If he hadn’t been holding me by my neck his blows would
have broken my neck. Its hands was so big that the fingers wrapped
around my neck supported it during his punches. That thought was
after the fact as his blows had nearly knocked me out. He was
raising his hand to pound in the top of my head when I unclearly
saw a blue light blossom behind the creature. It screamed that
sonic scream of his, but this time there was a edge of pain to the
sound. I was barely aware as he tossed me away to the side. I
struggled to regain consciousness and saw that the creature was
down on one knee, clearly hurt. What had hurt him I couldn’t tell.
I again passed out for a few minutes. Coming to again, I saw the
creature was still on one knee with both of his hands deep in the
soil. It was trying to regenerate itself. That could only mean
Sessa had hit him with a blast. Struggling to move I looked for
Sessa and saw her over by the edge of the clearing. She was still
out. I had to get to her, but hadn’t fully recovered yet. My
backpack was hindering me so I struggled out of it. Feeling my
strength coming back I rose up on my knees. I was hurt. I knew it.
There was an intense pain in my side where the creature had struck
me with the branch. Probably a broken or cracked rib. My head hurt
like hell from the blows I got. I lowered my head to try and clear
it enough to get up. I had to get up and get to Sessa. Hearing a
noise I looked up to my horror to see the creature raising up,
slowly but moving just the same. He turned in Sessa’s direction and
I could see a large blast hole burn in it’s back. It was oozing a
dark colored fluid that may have been blood, but didn’t look to be
regenerating. It looked as if Tessia’s was right about the
different energies the Ladies needed to use in their attack on the
creature and its companion. It started for Sessa slowly but
steadily. Forcing myself up I had to stop it.

My weapons were lost, but I had my knives.
Pulling my ten inch spike dagger, half running and stumbling I
charged at the creature. I was almost on it when it noticed me. It
tried to turn fast, but couldn’t. Sessa blast had clearly hurt it.
As I got close I stabbed it in the neck as it turned. Swinging its
arm it knock me away from it, leaving the dagger in its neck.
Getting back up I ran at it again now mad with my desire to keep
this beast away from Sessa who was still out. Enraged I hit it with
my right as hard as I could. My blow made it stumble back. I hit it
again, again and again, right, left, right each blow making it
stumble back. The problem was I was driving it right toward Sessa.
Stopping my attack trying to think of another way to drive it away
from her, gave it time to regain it senses. It roared and stumbled
towards me with its hands outstretched to tear me apart. Stumbling
back I turned and ran hoping it would follow. This way I would get
it away from Sessa. My head was rapidly clearing but I was now
feeling intense stabbing pains in my side, which was slowing me
down. The creature’s was also getting its strength back and it
gained on me. Knowing I wasn’t going to outrun it with the pain in
my side, I did what it probably didn’t expect. As it closed on me I
stopped turned and delivered the strongest uppercut I could to the
creatures jaw. As it was crouching down to grab me my blow
connected solidly. I think what happened next stunned the both of
us. Hitting his jaw was like punching a rock wall. I should have
broken my hand. It sure as hell felt like it. The punch however was
the surprise. It snapped the monster’s head up and back viciously.
When it’s head came back down I hit it again with as much power as
I could with my left. That blow snapped its head to the right and
made it fall sideways to its knees. As I moved it to hit it again,
it swung it arm and backhanded knocking me on my backside stunning
me and causing shooting pain in my side that caused me to scream.
Trying to get myself together I was suddenly snatched off the
ground by my vest. Holding me up off the ground, the creature
reached for my head probably to twist it off. In desperation I
drove two fingers into its right eye. The eyeball burst and the
creature when wild. It flung me a clear across the clearing as it
stomped around screaming that sonic sound it makes. This time the
pain level in my side as I hit the ground almost made me pass out.
Then its sonic scream level went so high I felt the pain in my
ears, which caused me to also scream. So did Sessa. She had
regained consciousness and was trying to rise when the scream hit
us. Grabbing her ears she fell back down, and didn’t move. Why I
didn’t know, but judging from the pain level in my ears, it must
have knocked her back out. Her scream got the creature’s attention.
It shook it’s head, looked around like it was trying to find me but
couldn’t as I was lying next to the boulder I had came up against
when it flung me. Turning back to Sessa it started towards her.
This time struggling to get up was out of the question. The
shooting pain in my side almost made me pass out again. Half lying
there helplessly I started yelling at the creature to get its
attention. Better for it to come after me, hopefully giving Sessa
time to recover again. The creature stopped, turned its head to
look at me with it’s left eye. It’s right was a oozing mess. It
looked at me for a couple of minutes as I kept yelling at it. It
then turned from me and continued towards Sessa. It must feel I was
no longer a threat to it, and it could deal with me later. What was
it going to do with Sessa. Kill her. Because her blast had clearly
badly injured it. Reaching Sessa, the beast reached down and
grabbed her by her leg and started dragging her back into the
clearing. Sessa’s blast must have really hurt it because I could
now smell the putrid rotting odor now coming from it full force. It
was either no longer able to mask it odor or didn’t care that we
could smell it. I struggled to get up. I had to do something before
it killed her. In desperation I looked around trying to find
something, anything that would help me stop this beast. As I did my
eyes came to rest on my pack, which was only a few feet from me.
And the mace strapped to it. If my punches has stumbled it, the
mace might be what I need to knock it out or kill it if I can get
close. Dragging myself, grunting with the stabbing pain in my side,
I slowly made it to my pack and untied the mace. It slipped from
the pack and fell to the ground. As it did so, the creature made a
sound I hadn’t heard before. Turning back to it I saw it had Sessa
in the clearing and as I watched it reached down and starting
tearing her pants viciously from her body. So violent was his
actions that he badly clawed her legs causing them to start
bleeding. What the hell was he doing? To my horror as I watched his
penis began growing bugling out from under the rags of twigs he
wore. Was he...? He was going to rape Sessa. Right there in front
of me. Picking up the mace in haste I was turning to go and stop
this beast when I received a jolt of energy from the mace
handle.