The adrenaline rush had left him breathless but happy. He loved the excitement that dangerous situations brought out of him. In fact he loved surviving dangerous situations and the euphoria that followed it. He was now at another checkpoint and he knew that what followed would be the hardest part before he reached the clock tower and be done with the dangerous Gatling gun aimed at him.

The ground floor of the building he was at was spacious. He came from the back door and the main door, opposite him, was wide open. He could see some trees in the distance. It was definitely that square and what scared him most about it was its size: a large open area that leads directly towards the clock tower at its end. He would have to fight his way around, dodge and hide in order to reach it.

He wanted to survive that trip and find his way as quickly as possible towards his destination. He made for the wide open door and as he was half way towards it, he felt something jump at him from the side. He jumped back in the nick of time and saw another giant woman monster in front of him. Her veil hid her face and red eyes glowed from behind it. He knew what to expect: a long and strenuous fight.

This time around, he had enough space to jump around the beast and wear it down before finishing it off. As the woman dashed forward to attack, Surgit executed his plan and jumped behind her, he landed a vertical attack as he came down, slashing her back. The woman turned around and attacked with two rapid strikes. He dodged to the right and attacked again. The beast was dumb and followed him. He was leading the pace of the fight. The simple beast followed his movements and attacked relentlessly, repeating the same pattern of attacks over and over.

She would first start with a horizontal swing, then follow it up with a jumping attack if he ever put too much distance between them. If he stayed closer, she would slam both her fists to the ground. He dodged every time and attacked once to attract her attention. After a few spins, the beast became dizzy and stopped attacking for a while, leaving herself open for Surgit’s counter attack.

He jumped at her and kicked her with both his feet on the chest. She fell down on the back and Surgit stood on top of her, hacking with his saw as hard as he could. It was brutal take down, akin to a butcher, mercilessly killing his poor preys.

He was then done with his enemy and made again for the main door. As soon as he made his first step outside, he heard the shots and jumped back in. ‘The bastard knew that I would come out this way.’ The shooting stopped but Surgit knew that he was being hunted. He also understood that one wrong step would mean instant death.

He suddenly had an idea. He dragged the body of the dead enemy he had just disposed of and threw it with all his strength out the bid door. The stench of blood would attract any nearby enemy and the horde would provide for a good cover from the bullets. He knew that his hunter was sympathetic towards those poor beasts and hoped that his shots would become irregular if ever the horde was big enough. He would have to survive among them though but he would rather take a group of enemies coming at him than a flurry of bullets.

The plan worked and at least twenty enemies were coming his way. He ran towards them but bullets stopped him on his tracks and forced him to go back inside the building. They were about to reach him and he didn’t like the idea of fighting them all inside that ground floor. The main door was big enough to allow at least four enemies at a time. He waited for them to cramp up against the entrance and ran towards them again. This time, he jumped over them and landed behind the horde.

The man must have figured out his plan and started shooting again; Surgit didn’t stop though and kept on running towards the clock tower. Bullets grazed his skull as he ran as fast as his feet allowed him to.

From the square where he was, he used the trees as cover from the bullets as he zigzagged through them. He soon traversed the whole square and found himself in another open area, right beside the tower. The horde had increased and they were all following him. The bullets were still chasing him and in front of the street leading him to safety, he saw a hunter. ‘Crap, now I’m really trapped.’ He thought as he saw the hunter coming at him, and the horde behind him closing in on him.

He couldn’t stop because of the bullets aimed his way. He had to make a decision and he had only a split second to do so. Running towards the hunter would mean engaging in a fight and getting his body pierced with countless bullets. Ignoring the hunter and running past him to escape the bullets would mean that he’d have to fight all the beasts and the hunter. He figured the odds were not in his favor either if he ever took this option. He had to improvise a new kamikaze plan.

He turned the opposite way from the clock tower and ran towards a building at the other end of the square. It was the base of the building where he hid before, that was a dead end. He knew that because he had seen that from above earlier. He cursed. In his desperation to get out of the helpless situation, he didn’t think that the building he ran to led to a dead-end. ‘Looks like the fool has really gone through with his kamikaze plan,’ the echoes still taunted him and Surgit hated that.

From the corner of his eyes he noticed a ledge that he could jump to. He knew it was the only option he had left. The ledge was on the left side of the building and seemed to lead to another structure, far away from the Gatling gun’s reach. So he increased his speed and jumped.

As he landed, he felt the platform giving way to his weight, he noticed another platform below and jumped to it as the latter fell down and crashed on a hard surface below. He turned around and faced the danger he was exposed to earlier. He was hidden by a corner of the building so the bullets couldn’t reach him. The other hunter stood facing him from the other side while the horde of enemies was heading back to whence they came from. ‘The fool dodged bullets there I guess…’ an echoing voice commented.