Hunter vs Hunted

It didn't take long for the spearman to find himself engaged in another savage battle.

The vandals had charged at him all at once and each succeeded in reaping a piece of flesh from the spearman. On the other hand, Tom had also done serious damage to them as well. There were four wolves in total and each was more injured than the last.

As both parties stood there in a stalemate, a crow sat atop a nearby tree spectating the battle in front of it. It seemed to possess a strange sentience of its own as it watched the vandals and Tom battle it out, and while they fought, the black bird seemed to be... learning.

As it sat there, the two sides reengaged one another to end this battle once and for all. It seemed only one side would walk away this time and that's exactly what happened as the battle concluded with Tom retrieving his spear from the head of the last vandal he'd slaughtered.

As he stood there marred in wounds and clutching his one good arm that held his spear, a lone apparition appeared from the surrounding darkness. The apparition didn't fully step out into Tom's field of view so the spearman could only squint his eyes to try and see the target in front of him.

With the vandals all dead, the only light being emitted were from the moon and stars above, and before Tom knew it, the apparition was upon him and he found himself unable to raise his spear as quickly as before.

It tackled Tom to the ground and now sat atop him trying to gouge out his eyes; however, Tom wasn't going to let it do as it pleased as he raised his spear and thrust it into the left side of the thing's torso.

When he did so, the specter spit out a bit of blood on his face and this caused Tom to briefly close his eyes.

When next he opened them, the first thing he saw was a black bird descending right on top of his face, and the crow mercilessly tore into the man's left eye using its sharp beak.

Tom let out a roar of pain as his eye was plucked out like an apple from a tree, and a wet thud was all he heard as his eye fell to the ground beside him.

Tom screamed in agony, but decided to do something quickly before the duo could completely blind him as he pushed the specter off of him and grabbed the bird. As soon as he did this, he crushed the black creature between his hands.

Immediately after doing this, it seemed the apparition felt immense pain as it writhed in agony within the darkness.

The tree's above swayed a bit to reveal the specter's image. Standing only ten meters away from the spearman, was a boy just as riddled with injuries as himself.

This boy was Marcus and the expression he now had could only be described as malevolent.

Marcus was in immense pain and it wasn't due to the hole in the left side of his chest. That did hurt, but it wasn't the cause of the soul-rending pain he felt right now.

He couldn't understand the pain he felt, but he didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that it hurt like hell and coming from someone like him, it must have been excruciating for him to react so violently.

Marcus nearly lost himself in a rage because of the pain but managed to just barely reel his emotions in. Whilst pushing Marcus off of him, the man had let go of his spear that had fallen to the side and now it lay in between the both of the two of them.

Both understood the urgency of the situation. Tom was out of Ki and was now blind in one eye. Not to mention, his body was mutilated and he doubted he'd live to make it back in time to cash in the bounty for killing the omen before him.

On the opposite side of him, Marcus was having similar thoughts. He already had a pool of blood forming around his feet due to the hole in his chest from the spear, and it didn't look like he would last much longer. He'd incurred even more damage than Tom had and it was nothing short of a miracle that he remained standing right now.

As the two individuals sat there in absolute silence with the only weapon in front of them being positioned evenly between them, the forest grew eerily silent. It was as if the entirety of the forest held its breath to watch the two's showdown.

Would the hunter become the hunted or would the hunter finally manage to catch the prey it had been chasing all this time? It was hard to tell. Both were gravely wounded and more than likely wouldn't survive even after killing one another, so one would find themselves asking what the point of all this was.

Wouldn't it be better to just let bygones be bygones and enjoy one's last moments in peace. How would fighting until the end solve anything. It was wholly irrational to continue fighting when the end result was both of them dying no matter what.

However, neither of the two seemed to care as they looked into each other's eyes.

Tom's brown and crazed eye's met Marcus's blindfold and after only a few seconds had passed, they both leaped towards one another.

Tom possessed an obvious advantage over the omen as his stats were superior in almost every way. Victory was assured for him, and he planned to make the little runt pay for all the grievances he'd caused him up to this point.

This omen was the reason so many men died today. Whether it be the mages he'd hardly known, or Jerry, his long time acquaintance. If it hadn't been for this thing before him, they wouldn't have had to die. If it weren't for him he wouldn't be in so much pain.

At first, Tom was purely motivated by his lust and greed for women and gold but now he just wanted to kill the omen before him. Even if he died in the process, he'd make sure this vile creature's final moments were filled with nothing but pain and misery.

Surprisingly Marcus's didn't share the same thoughts. He did hate the man before him, but it was a less focused hate and was more general. He didn't blame this single man for all his pain and misery. Instead, Marcus only viewed him as only a part of the problem, not a whole.

The world was his enemy and his goal was to crush it. He wouldn't let the man before him be the end of him. Tom would be nothing more than a stepping stone for Marcus.

Just as Tom grabbed the spear and thrust it forward at the approaching omen, Marcus recalled all the hatred he'd bottled in the past couple weeks and let it bubble forth.

He didn't care about the pain this man thought he caused. He didn't care who this man had back home. Hell, he didn't even care that this man was about to be his first kill because he'd only be the first of many.

When the spear was about to reach Marcus's heart, all the darkness in the surroundings quickly coalesced in front of Marcus and seemed to answer to his call. The spear snapped in two to Tom's disbelief and the darkness thrust itself forward and pierced the man's own heart, lifting him several feet into the air directly in front of Marcus.

Blood fell down in droves from the sharp tentacle of darkness and some even fell directly over Marcus's face as he stared at the man whose eyes were wide open. In Tom's final moments, he couldn't understand how the weak omen managed to kill him, but it didn't matter as the omen reached up to him with open hands and closed them in a fist.

All Marcus's darker thoughts rushed forward and influenced him heavily. He didn't realize he was bending the surrounding darkness to his will and using it to slaughter the man before him, and a similar scene occurred as the surrounding darkness enveloped the man and ripped him apart limb from limb.

Whilst this was happening, Marcus started to sway and his vision became blurry. Soon enough he succumbed to his injuries, and everything went dark.