Chapter 29: Chapter twenty-eight

A Hunter does not have the connections of a Justice or the physical might of a juggernaut, but mark these words: I would sooner stand against one of each than come face to face with a Hunter. What we know of their combat abilities and situations they are likely to be deployed in is listed below. But what that fails to capture is the simple wrongness of the creatures. If you have seen one, you know what I mean. If you haven’t I hope for your sake that you remain ignorant.

• Shadows of Inveritus tactical manual.

 

A shiver ran down the back of Sal’s neck. The Hunters had found him. Sal had feared this day since his first theft almost thirty years ago. He could feel the slithering wrongness of the Hunters catching up to him as he urged his stupid horse to run faster through the dirt streets of the city.

He chanced a look back. The creatures were getting closer. Just over fifty feet out and gaining. Their legs pumped, their lungs heaved, but their expressions never changed. Sal might have felt sorry for the wretches, if he hadn’t been so afraid for his life.

Sarina drew an arrow and fired at the Hunter that had once been a woman. Even firing backwards from horseback her aim was perfect, and the arrow flew straight at the Hunter’s eye.

Until the Hunter snatched it out of the air.

Sarina snorted and fired six more arrows in the space of a handful of seconds, all at the same Hunter. The Hunter twisted its body and its arms flashed. It dodged or caught all of the arrows but one, which penetrated all the way through its forearm. It didn’t even seem to notice.

The Hunter which had once been a man grabbed a sack of rubbish from outside a store and lobbed it at Sarina’s horse with tremendous strength.

Sal instinctively tried to push the bag aside with force, but the moment it left his body, the vis-state force was pulled away into the cold nothingness that surrounded the Hunters. He cursed his waste of force and closed his Channel.

Sarina dragged her horse to the side and barely avoided the sack, which smashed into the wall of a nearby shop with enough force to splinter the wood.

“Split up!” Sal said, shouting to be heard over the clamour of hooves. “They’ll follow me.”

“I’m not leaving you!” Sarina said.

“I don’t want you to leave me! I want you to kill them! Now, go!”

Sarina nodded and pulled her horse into a sharp turn at the next intersecting street. Kalissa seemed to hesitate for a moment before she turned off as well.

And then Sal was left alone with two soulless monsters that were immune to his shaping.

Sal wondered if maybe this hadn’t been such a great plan after all.

But then one of the Hunters flung a sack of rubbish at him and there was no time for second-guessing. It was all he could do to get his horse out of the way of the projectile.

A sharp turn loomed ahead where the road split around a group of warehouses. Sal’s horse would have trouble making that turn. It was worked into a lather and that corner could send it crashing into one of the wooden buildings if he tried to take it at his current speed. Sal spared a look back at the Hunters chasing him. Less than thirty feet away now. He hated to slow down, but if he crashed, they would be on him immediately.

Sal reluctantly pulled back on the reins and brought the horse around the corner at a more controlled pace. The Hunters barely slowed, pushing themselves off the walls and launching back onto the street. The manoeuvre had more than halved the distance between them. They were just over ten feet away now and he could see their blank eyes, staring unblinkingly at him as they pursued.

Sal’s horse was beginning to tire. He hadn’t had a chance to warm it up properly when they made a break for it and the animal was starting to slow.

The creatures behind him showed no signs of slowing. They kept coming as fast as ever. Maintaining that level of speed would tear a human body apart, but the Hunters couldn’t feel it. They pursued him mindlessly, knowing nothing but their quarry.

They were getting closer. Less than ten feet away.

Still no sign of Sarina.

Sal had to do something.

He had his burglar’s tools with him, but they weren’t much use, and the Hunter’s absorbed any force he tried to shape.

But the Hunters were moving awfully fast. Maybe he could steal the force from a leg and send them crashing to the ground the same way he had that dog. At that speed, it could be too much force and might break his hand, but better that than be caught by Hunters.

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Sal pointed his left hand at the Hunter that had once been a woman and opened his Siphon, trying to take the force from her left leg. It didn’t work. There was no pressure on his hand, no force converted into vis and stored in his body. Instead, his own vis, the force that kept him alive, drained out of his arm and was sucked into the nothingness that was a Hunter.

Freezing cold spread up Sal’s arm and he closed his Siphon in a hurry.

That hadn’t worked, and Sal’s horse had slowed further while he was trying it. He kicked the stupid beast to make it go faster, but it was moving sluggishly now. The Hunters were closing in.

The Hunter that had once been a man was a little faster and it reached out an arm to tear into Sal’s horse and bring it to an immediate holt.

Then it twisted its body around as a volley of six arrows fell on it. It dodged two, caught another in each hand, one gouged a hunk of flesh from its cheek, and another struck it straight through the heart.

The creature collapsed, twitching, its mindless determination unable to accept the fact of its death.

Sal drew breath to cheer for Sarina, who had pulled her horse in behind him from a side-street, but the other Hunter reached his horse before he could. Bloody fingers touched his horse and pulled great gobbets of meat away from the animal.

The horse went mad with pain, bucking and squealing. Sal leapt off before he could be thrown and landed hard on the dirt road. Fear propelled him up and he ran for it. He didn’t have any chance of outrunning a Hunter, but he didn’t know what else to do.

The Hunter came after him, but then had to twist to avoid another volley of arrows fired by Sarina from behind. It was more prepared for them than the other one though, and only took minor hits, one in the meat of its uninjured arm, and one through the foot.

The foot shot made it stumble a step and gave Sal enough time to get to the door of a nearby warehouse. Luckily, it wasn’t locked, and Sal ducked into a warehouse full of hanging meat being cured.

The smell hit him like a physical blow, and his stomach turned a little flip at the sight of all the corpses, hanging all around from brutal hooks like some twisted forest of death. But he didn’t have time to think about the disgusting habits of northerners. He grabbed a key off the wall and locked the door, then he took off further into the forest of meat.

He was still moving quickly, fear lending him speed, but he would begin to slow soon. He had to get as far away as he could before fatigue caught up to him.

Sal heard wood splintering from behind and he knew the Hunter was in there with him. He ran through the bodies, shoving aside slaughtered pigs and cattle, looking for another way out.

There was no way he could hide from the Hunter; it was tracking his very soul. There was no way he could fight the Hunter; he was unarmed and his shaping was useless. All he could do was run and hope something changed before the Hunter caught up with him.

He reached the other end of the long warehouse. It was a dead end. His steps began to slow but he forced himself into motion and veered off to his left to look for another exit.

Then the Hunter caught up with him. The creature burst from the forest of corpses, the bodies swinging wildly in its wake. It was bloody and arrow-shot, but it seemed oblivious to the wounds. It came at Sal and there was nothing he could do. He drew the spike from his robes, the one he used to secure rope, and held it before him in a hopeless attempt to fend off the Hunter.

Hands drenched in blood; it came for him.

Then a blade erupted from the Hunter’s gut. Kalissa was behind the creature, though where she had come from Sal could only guess, and she had run it through with a long knife.

She pulled the knife free to attack again and the Hunter whirled on her, swinging with a blow that would dent metal. Kalissa dove out of the way but the Hunter’s hand clipped her and turned her dive into a tumble.

Sal saw an opportunity and jammed the spike into the back of the Hunter’s head.

Or he tried to. The creature twisted and the spike took it in the shoulder instead. Sal turned to run but unbelievably strong hands grabbed him.

Then stopped.

Sal turned to see why he wasn’t dead. The Hunter had an arrow through the side of its head. He looked back through the forest of dead and saw Sarina. She had somehow shot between the swinging bodies and taken the creature through the head just as it grabbed Sal.

Sal’s first thought was, Fuck me, I’m alive.

His second thought was, I wonder how many drinks I’m going to have to buy her for this.

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