Shattered Salvation, Draft 1 CH 43
#44 of Shattered Salvation
draft 1 of Book 4 in the Tristan Series, where The rescue of an old man turns into a race to find a virus that could wipe out all life in the universe
Alex loses himself in the fighting
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Alex dropped the guns and grabbed the knives at his belt. This had gotten boring. He wanted to have some real fun.
Tristan had pushed him, not hard, just enough to indicate the direction he needed Alex to go in, so he'd gone there.
He rushed the men before him, they fired but their aim was off, or he was moving fast enough to dodge them. It was how it felt, when he let go like this, like the world slowed. He knew it was an illusion, but they still missed him. He got in close, slashed, stabbed, cut, punched. He felt the blades cut through fabric and armor ties before biting into flesh.
He left the knife impaled in the man as he fell, grabbed the one off his belt and it pulled out as the sheath fell away with the man. Alex sliced the man next to him.
He felt free. He didn't worry about what Tristan would do to him, about his odd behavior. In this moment all that mattered was him, his knives and people he could kill.
The men fell around him. Most because of his knives, but a few because someone tried to shoot Alex and missed.
He knew he'd completely let go, given himself entirely to his knives when he began laughing. It had been a long time since he'd reached that state. As Tristan trained him, he'd found he was able to kill more and more opponent without reaching that state. He came close, when he fought Tristan, but he couldn't allow himself to let go then, he couldn't kill Tristan. He didn't want to.
Men dropped around him, and slowly he added knives to his belt until he couldn't fit them easily. He still grabbed one as he killed, but dropped it when it couldn't easily slip into place. He wished he'd found his harness, or someone's knife harness, but no one here seemed to use knives like he did. They all preferred guns. Knives seemed like an afterthought to them.
A form ran at him. Alex pivoted, slashed up, heard the knife slide against metal as she used it to deflect the blow, noted that it was an arm, the person's half mangled face, and finished turned to cut the man's neck she'd forced him to turn away from.
She?
The rest of what he'd seen registered, curves covered by armored clothing, gun held in the mechanical hand, but by the muzzle. She'd intended to bludgeon him with it. He'd laugh, if he wasn't already doing that.
She yelled something.
He stabbed the man before him in the heart. Took his knife and slashed at the man who'd been next to him, only to find he'd stepped back. They all had.
Except for one; motion at the side.
Alex stepped out of the way, turned and was facing the woman again. The one with the cybernetic arm. He'd need a vibro-knife to get through that, possibly a mono-edge one. Did he have either? He didn't think so, nothing he'd picked up had had the trigger a vibro-knife had. Maybe he did have some with mono-edge, he'd cut through armor easily enough with some of them, but he'd left them behind and none of the knives he'd grabbed had the indent mark in the pummel he put there so he'd know what he was holding. It didn't matter, it just meant he shouldn't bother striking that arm.
She had a knife now and slashed at him back and forth. He easily dodged them. Someone tried to come at him from the side. A quick turn, and the man had a knife in the neck. Alex didn't have the time to grab one of his, as the woman tried to make use of the distraction, so he took one out of his own belt.
She said things as she came at him. Slashed, stabbed, talk. He didn't have time for words, he was too busy laughing and killing, or at least trying to kill her. She wasn't good at wielding a knife, but she was quick at avoiding his.
Alex saw motion out the corner of his eye, but before he reacted she barked something and the man moved away. She wanted him to herself. Well, Alex could accommodate that.
He moved forward, slowly, steadily. When she tried to push back he dodged her clumsy attempts and pressed her again. She kept backing. Her eyes going from anger, to speculation, understanding.
Alex saw it in how she squared her shoulders, set her foot down as she backed again. This woman thought she finally knew what she was up against. That she'd be able to best him with that knowledge.
She was welcome to try. Alex welcomed the challenge, but she was wrong in her assessment. They always were. There was only one person in the universe who knew him, really knew him, and he was the only one allowed to kill him.