Chapter Fifteen

Carson's already wide eyes grew even wider as he was launched through the air at impossible speeds.

His mouth opened to shout something at her, but his words were lost to her as his body broke the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom.

Sarah jumped onto the rock they were hiding behind.

She got a good look at the creature that was fast approaching her. The thing was even uglier than she thought.

The Death Stalker was human-like, except half its face was covered by a lipless mouth, with sharp jagged teeth that formed a permanent smile on its face.

The teeth were white but had black streaks throughout its mouth.

The creature had no eyes or nose that she could discern, and it looked like the skin was pulled up and over the back of its head and draped over its face, covering everything down to its mouth.

However, the creature did have a black oval crystal in the center of its face, which may have been an eye, but Sarah did not know anything of the creature's background to make that assumption.

The arms and legs looked like normal humans, but there was nothing between the legs that would discern a gender.

Sarah glanced back at Big Bear, who was looking at her with terror in its eyes.

"Get on out of here, Big Bear, there's no need for you to die with me," Sarah said, giving it a reassuring smile.

The bear looked at Sarah, unsure of itself, before giving a low moan.

Sarah pointed towards the direction she sent Carson and snarled, "get going, or I'll send you off as I did Carson."

The bear gave her one last look before heading away with a defeated look.

Sarah stared in the direction she knew Carson was in. She had a faint smile on her face as she stood there motionless, her hair moving with the current of the wind.

"Your family needs you, Carson, I need you," Sarah said in a whisper. The thought of Carson being safe gave Sarah a sense of calm resolution and the strength she needed to face her end with no regrets.

Sarah faced the Death Stalker, and her smile was replaced with a cold determination.

"Let's just see how strong you are, shall we," Sarah said coldly.

Her body seemed to vanish in thin air, the rock she was standing on exploded into thousands of pieces.

One second, Sarah was hundreds of yards away from the Death Stalker, standing on a rock. The next moment her body appeared right in front of the Death Stalker.

Her fist slammed into the charging creature's chest, adding its running momentum to the attack.

There was a resounding explosion as the ground behind the Death Stalker was torn out of the earth, in massive chunks for several yards back. In a cone shape, with the Death Stalker at its point.

The Death Stalker, to Sarah's horror, was only sent back 2 ft before coming to a stop and didn't look fazed in the slightest, like the punch was a child playing hero, to it.

All hope of surviving diminished for Sarah at that moment, but oddly she still felt a calm acceptance instead of dread, like she thought she would have.

Maybe dying once has made me numb to it, Sarah mused.

The Death Stalker counter-attacked; it moved so fast that Sarah barely had time to dodge before its fist punched the air right where her head used to be.

The ground exploded from the impact the creature's punch made, but unlike Sarah's attack, several dozen yards were ripped from the ground.

From that one simple exchange, Sarah knew the creature was several times stronger and faster than her.

Sarah sent a kick towards the creature just moments after its strike. Her foot blurred through the air coming straight at it.

Before clamping down onto Sarah's leg, the creature's arm seemed to disappear completely, stopping her kick mid-swing.

Sarah winced when the creature started to squeeze her leg.

She felt her shin crack under the vice-like grip of the creatures, but instead of crying out in pain, she gritted her teeth.

The creature brought its other arm up over its head.

Sarah had a bad feeling about its intentions, and sure enough, the creature brought the arm down in an attempt to shatter her leg.

Sarah twisted her body, her foot lifted off the ground, and slammed into the creature's face before it could destroy her leg.

The kick knocked the creature back a couple of steps, and Sarah succeeded in freeing her leg just in time.

She winced when she landed on the leg, and pain started shooting up her leg, like hundreds of nails being shoved into her leg at once.

The Death Stalker stood there, just staring at her curiously.

Sarah stared back, curious why the Death Stalker wasn't attacking her.

She felt her leg heal when the bone shifted into its correct position, making popping noises as it did so.

"You're strong for a human, but you must have realized your no match for me. So why are you still fighting, little human," the Death Stalker said in a low guttural growl that made the skin on her body crawl.

"Would you prefer that I lie down and die for you? cause that's not gonna happen, ugly!" Sarah said defiantly.

Even if she were facing odds that were stacked so far against her, she would never allow herself to succumb to despair.

"No, but most humans usually flee or give in to their despair at the last moment. I'm just curious why you're not." The creature gestured with his arm towards the direction Carson was in. "Or perhaps, you think I won't be able to kill you in time to find your friend," the creature said, it's smile growing bigger.

"I can tell by the way you threw that man that he's important to you, but don't worry, I'll send him to the afterlife to join you soon," the Death Stalker said, walking towards her.

Sarah felt her blood boil in anger.

The thought of this creature laying its hands on Carson made her want to rip the creature apart, limb by limb.

Sarah's body reacted instantly to the oncoming Death Stalker, her body shot forward, and her fist struck out.

Her body moved faster than she had ever pushed it before.

Her fist struck the creature's stomach.

"You better not fucking touch him," Sarah roared, using her anger and rage to push all her strength into the attack.

Her punch sank into the creature's stomach, sending it flying backward like a rocket.

Sarah launched herself towards the Death Stalker, not wanting to give it a chance to recover.

Please don't come back for me, Carson, Sarah thought, as her feet raced across the plain towards the Death Stalker, which was still flying through the air.

Her feet flew across the ground, overtaking the Death Stalker.

She came to a complete stop just past the Death Stalker.

She twisted her body around, slamming the bottom of her foot into the creature's back.

Only she didn't feel her foot impact anything solid.

The Death Stalker was nowhere to be seen, and her foot had only hit thin air.

The impact against the air her kick made exploded the ground. Still, Sarah's attention was on trying to locate the Death Stalker.

Her senses were heightened to a level far surpassing a normal human's limit, trying to see the briefest of movements or hear the slightest of sounds.

Sarah heard a light footstep behind her, but it was no louder than a pin drop against the ground, but she heard it nonetheless.

Sloppy, Carson would never have made a noise like that, Sarah thought, as she spun around, crossing her arms in front of her.

The Death Stalker's fist slammed into Sarah's arm, sending her sliding backward on her heels.

She winced when the fist struck her arm. It felt like the bone in her arm cracked.

The Death Stalker did not let up, though, and chased after Sarah while still sliding backward.

Sarah's training kicked in, and at the last moment, her foot kicked the ground, sending her to the side.

She narrowly dodged the strike and managed to regain her footing, just in time for the creature's next attack.

Sarah dodged strike after strike, barley dodging the creature's attack, by the skin of her teeth.

Every attack by the Death Stalker made the earth rumble and exploded upwards, making Sarah's footing more difficult to maneuver.

"Your strength is very admirable, little human," the Death Stalker said, as he continued to strike at Sarah relentlessly.

Their body's blurred across the plain, going in every which way, as Sarah dodged the creature's attacks for all she was worth, not even getting a chance to make a strike of her own.

The plain that was once flat now looked like a war zone went through there.

"But strength isn't everything," the Death Stalker said as it vanished in thin air.

Sarah didn't even have time to process the Death Stalker's disappearance before an explosion of pain shot through the back of her skull. It felt like someone had swung a sled hammer as hard as they could against the back of her head.

Sarah opened her eyes slowly, feeling sluggish and weak.

She could feel the warm hard ground beneath her cheek.

Where am I? what happened? Sarah thought sluggishly, trying to remember why she was on the ground.

Sarah got to her hands and knees, but the world was spinning around in circles for her.

She ended up falling back to the ground from losing her balance.

She heard footsteps approaching her, but she couldn't get a coherent thought in her mind at the moment.

"You're still alive. I'm impressed, little human."

Sarah groaned as the memory of why she was taking a dirt nap in the first place came back to her like a blow to the gut.

She felt the creature grab her hair and yank her off the ground.

She gritted her teeth, not willing to give the creature the satisfaction of hearing her scream.

"I've killed thousands of your kind before, and not one of them has been able to survive even one of my attacks," the Death Stalker said as he sent his fist into Sarah's face.

Sarah felt her nose break and her skull crack from the force of the blow, but still, she gritted her teeth, even though the pain was so bad that all she wanted to do was give in and scream for help.

Instead, she glared at the creature in hatred.

Her vision had cleared up just enough to make out the shape of the creature, but no details.

"Let me see your despair, little human," the Death Stalker said.

"Go to hell!" Sarah said, spitting a mouthful of blood at the creature's face.

The Death Stalker's fist rammed into Sarah's face, again and again, the fist just kept striking her face.

The creature finally let up its assault after what felt like an eternity.

Sarah's face couldn't even be recognized anymore, there was blood covering every part of her face, and there was skin hanging in places, but what hadn't changed on her was her sky blue eyes that glared at the creature with pure hatred.

The Death Stalker hated those glowing blue eyes of hers, that seemed to hold power that not even it could fathom the depths it held.

You will show me your despair, one way or another, little human," the creature said, looking furious.

"Go to hell," Sarah replied weakly through a mouthful of blood.

She started laughing, which sounded more like her coughing out blood than real laughter, but something told her he got the message from the angry face the Death Stalker was giving her.

"Damn you," the creature roared as it buried its fist into Sarah's stomach.

Sarah felt every one of her ribs break from the impact of the creature's attack.

The creature let go of Sarah's hair, and she fell to the ground onto her knees.

She vomited onto the ground, covering it and the creature's feet with blood from her stomach.

Every part of Sarah's body was filled with pain.

She could barely keep her eyes open, but the thought of just giving up, and letting herself die, was not something she was willing to do.

Sarah shot to her feet, ignoring the protests her ribs were giving her, and sent a punch towards the Death Stalker, using the last bit of her strength she had left.

The creature casually caught the punch mid-swing, like he was facing against a toddler who was being naughty.

The Death Stalker brought his other hand down in a chopping motion, breaking Sarah's arm in two.

Sarah let out a shrill scream that echoed throughout the plain.

The pain of having her arm completely break was too much for her to handle in her state.

Her vision went between complete darkness and reality like it couldn't decide which one it wanted to stay in.

"Yes, those screams are beautiful, that's what I like to hear," the Death Stalker said as it twisted her already broken arm, which sent Sarah through another wave of pain that made her cry out in pain.

"Get your fucking hands off her," she could hear someone shout over her screaming.

That voice sounds so familiar, Sarah thought weakly.

A resounding bang sounded like two metal objects colliding with each other before Sarah fell to the ground when the Death Stalker stopped supporting her body.

"Sarah, can you hear me? Everything's going to be ok," repeated the familiar voice.

Why does this voice sound so familiar... and why do I feel safe now, were Sarah's last thoughts before losing consciousness.