Heroes to Hunted

I had always thought of myself as an apex predator of sorts. Throughout my years, I always discovered the weakness of others and preyed upon them with deadly efficiency. That was my job; I had to indebt others to my boss for a constant revenue stream and fund our operations.

That was my place in the hierarchy; I was always tasked to take care of financial disputes because I was unmatched in the art of persuasion. Because of my prowess, no violence had ever even been necessary. It was a skill that made our dealings with the authorities negligible.

Despite all of that, I had to wonder. If I were an apex predator, what would you call the furry brown monstrosity towering on its hind legs above Takagi? An apex-er predator?

I now realized just how outmatched we humans were on the food chain.

"Takagi!" Agawa shouted next to me while haphazardly tending to the wounds of an unconscious Nakamura. "Run, you idiot!" She followed her commands by frantically waving him over to our shelter of gnarled roots.

But he only smirked back, pulled his sword towards his hip, and thrust forward. Responding in kind, the beast threw an arm toward Takagi, glancing at his left arm with its serrated claws.

With a mighty sweep of its arm, the bear ripped the strapped leather bracer on Takagi's arm clean off. Beyond that, it left three shallow but large lacerations on his skin. Within seconds, his forearm had been completely covered with blood.

Despite the gushing crimson soaking his arm and blade, Takagi wasn't deterred from striking back. He stepped diagonally towards the beast's side and twisted his hips, winding up a deep slash. Given his swing and posture, he looked more like a reckless baseball player than a swordsman.

In an instant, he released his strike with high velocity, like his arms had been bound up by a pulley and released. The sword swung so intensely that even the space around the blade had cried lightly from being cut.

In the end, he was still just a man, though. The attack was undoubtedly impressive, and he'd definitely wounded the beast. But it had been nothing compared to the lacerations he'd just received on his arm.

pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ The fur was just too thick for any significant damage. All he managed with such a wild strike was to draw small streaks of red. The blood trickled down the beast's belly, coating small strands of bushy fur before dripping to the mud below.

The beast hadn't even reacted to Takagi's attack, unlike when he'd slashed its snout. Instead, its response was to throw another paw to hack at Takagi's leg.

Again, he dodged, receiving a narrow blow to his leg. Over a few seconds, and despite his armor, a purpling mark swelled up where the bear's attack had landed.

Still, Takagi persevered.

Using the beast's recovery after the swing, he again spun around to its backside while ignoring the pain in his arm and leg. Once in position, he made a slice for the hind leg opposite the one with the embedded dagger.

The blade's edge glided across the bear's unseen flesh, parting it into an exploding gout of thick blood. The crimson sprayed with such intensity that Takagi had to back away for fear of being blinded by the rapid jets of red liquid.

The bear bellowed in loud agony as Takagi took a brief moment's respite to stanch the bleeding of his arm.

I had been honestly shocked at how adept he was at fighting. Though I'd known he was a bit of a violent character, I never could've guessed that he was capable of fighting for so long against such a monster.

Sadly, though he was certainly good, he was still an amateur. Rather than keeping his eyes on the enemy, he'd been foolish. He focused on stemming his arm's bleeding so much he failed to see the impending danger in front of him.

In the second Takagi looked away, the wounded bear launched at him and slashed at the leg he'd received his original gash. Like the bracer on his arm, the armor was torn clean off.please visit panda-:)ɴᴏᴠᴇ1.co)m

By the time Takagi realized and pushed away, the damage had already been done. Even worse than the arm wound, the beast created a gash that ran deep into Takagi's left leg.

"Oh, you fucker!" Takagi shouted as he pressured the chunk of missing flesh and jumped even further away.

But Takagi could no longer move. Instead, he'd been rooted in place as he knelt in agony. Though the bear had leg wounds of near equal severity, it had been a combat veteran. It experienced injuries such as this daily.

Howling triumphantly, the beast sprinted to Takagi and charged up its killing blow.

Takagi put up a good fight; that was indisputable. But his journey seemed to be finished.

Time stagnated as the scenes before my eyes became slower and slower. It had been like the scenes of each moment was halted to emphasize every moment of his death.

Though my companions next to me had undoubtedly been shouting their desperate pleas for Takagi to run, I could hear nothing. No…my attention had been all but focused on the events playing out in front of me.

All of my senses had dulled, and my attention was wholly focused on the sight in front of me.

I wanted to help him; I truly did. Aside from him being so young, I was indebted to the kid for helping me escape from that wretched town. One thing you'd learn about me pretty quickly; a debt was something I had never taken lightly.

I wasn't sure what I could do, but anything would have been better than standing here and gawking. It didn't look as if anyone else would take action, so it was my turn to be a savior.

The thought of saving someone was a little enticing to me, truth be told. Plus, indebting a man like Takagi would've proven to be a great boon for the future, indeed!

Feeling excited, I bolted from the safety of the tree roots and took hold of the sharpest stone I could find on the ground.

"Allow me to aid your fight!" I shouted triumphantly.

Then, winding up my best throw, I hurled the rock as fast and with as much force as I could toward the bear's head. It had been completely stationary while preparing a finishing slash on Takagi, so I was confident in my accuracy.

It was a marvelous throw, one that would've surely disoriented the bear once it had landed dead on the pupil of its right eye.

Sadly, I was never a physical man. That's why the rock veered off-course completely, eventually missing its mark and accomplishing nothing. Well, I did feel a wave of crippling shame at my failure, so there was that.

I could only stand there, embarrassed that I'd been too useless to even achieve a successful distraction. I'd always been this way. I'd always only been able to talk my way out of disputes, but when push came to shove, I was always the one getting shoved.

Despair had no time to take hold of me, though, as a fast-moving yellow blur sped past me at breakneck speed, challenging the swiftness of the beast's strike on Takagi.

Between the blur and the bear's swing, every millisecond became essential when deciding Takagi's ultimate fate.

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