Perceived Fate

He awoke to panicked, “Flyer!”

The darkness didn’t help as Malums eye wearily tried to find something to focus on. The dim moonlight showed the entrance of a figure.

It was large, and what was worse was the sound of the air moving through it large wings.

A Pterodactyl, the variant who had put pressure on even Tim. Malum stayed quiet and moved to keep his squad in safety and to rejoin to kill the beast.

The news was that it was landed and such wasn’t as big as a threat but it wouldn’t take long for its good night vision to pick up on his teammates.

He pushed Jerome awake and nudged the newbies awake as well.

He kept his voice quiet, “Jerome you’re with me. You guys sit tight, you should be safe in this hut as long as you stay quiet. Got it?”

They nodded in return as Jerome found his sword n shield.

After they were kitted up, they slowly exited the hut and found the beast eating away at the dead corpses that had yet to be burned. `Troy’s corpse!`

Malum’s eyes ran towards the hut that it was stored in and found it to have been crushed. Malum hoped for the best but focused on his task.

He signalled to Jerome to flank the other way and the two slowly closed in as the beast’s jaws dripped with blood.

The sound of bones crunching, the beast feasting on its own species were covering the sound of Malums beating heart. He needed this to go well, just one good stab.

Closer and closer, Malum cursed even the small size of the camp. Every footstep was a danger and Malum practically stopped breathing when he heard something,

“Thud!”

Malum’s eyes, as did the beast’s immediately turned to see the source and Malum heart dropped as he saw Jerome body fall as he slipped on an unsteady patch of dirt.

Malum reacted before the beast did as he held back his sword and charged for the where he thought the beast would charge.

Luckily the beast didn’t take advantage of Jerome fall to charge at him, instead it focused on taking fight. It flapped it’s wings but before it managed to fly to high, Malum had changed his direction and managed to get himself a small cut in the edges of one of its wings.

It wasn’t much but it would restrict the beasts flight speed to a more moderate level. The demon continued to take flight, and into the dark sky it flew.

With it no longer in sight, Malum went to see if Jerome was okay and found the man’s ankle to have been bent the opposite way it should.

Jerome was reeling, but he tried to keep his cries quiet as Malum dragged him inside the spare equipment hut.

He sat him on a bench as Jerome let out more muffled cries.

“Leave, me!” Jerome manged to get out as Malum wandered if he could heal him with bandages or the like.

“I’ve got to do something!” Malum protested.

“Look at me! Leader LOOK! Kill it, I’ll be fine.”

Malum reached for his bandages but pulled them back.

“Fine!” he left the hut and didn’t look back. He pulled back his blade and searched for the bastard that had caused Jerome’s injury.

He hand clutched strongly against his swords hilt, yet anger wouldn’t allow him to see the Variants figure anywhere in the skyline.

It was still too fast, so Malum kept his guard up.

He waited for anything to catch his notice. Any sound, any sight, and he would flinch.

His heartbeat became audible. It bounding inside his chest, pumping his blood to his body.

A sight, a small screech and sound of tearing. Malum quickly reacted but not in time as the beast claws found blood and Malum felt pain ripple through his shoulder. He had been injured, the cut down his shoulder looked fairly deep.

He kept his guard up and swapped the hand in which his sword lay. His shield had hardly done much anyway, he needed to focus more.

Past his heartbeat, past the sound of fighting in the fields outside of the Outpost, he listened.

A small but rising sound, like bug flying closer to his ear. Its was small, faint, but its distinct pitch made Malum focus on it. It was like a whistle, growing louder and louder.

He found which direction it was coming from and prepared to swing his blade.

Moments passed as Malum focused entirely on his senses.

In milliseconds, Malum found the sound to reach its peak as he saw the outline of the demon appear in the sky.

He swang with as much speed as he could muster and just as quickly as he saw the demonic beast did he find the claws to be upon his body.

Thanks to his sudden movement whilst he attacked, he saw the faint claws of the beast miss and felt as his sword pierced through the beast and it came crashing down into the dirt.

He had cut through the wing, removing the beasts ability to fly.

It shrieked in anger as it realised it greatest power had been stolen from it. It blood red eyes focusing entirely on Malum.

Yellow eyes starred back. Instead of anger on his face, glee was what he felt as he slowly closed the distance between himself and the pest.

His arm reeled back as he drew himself into a charge and as he met the beasts attack head on. It was hardly even a fight. Even without his main attacking arm, he still managed to cull the beast without substituting another injury.

It bloody jaw slowly bled into the earth. It’s main body, several feet away.

Malum fell down the second he decapitated the beast. His legs fell to the earth as he felt the pain from his arm reach his brain. Before he died of blood loss, he needed to get some help.

“HELP!” He shouted as he felt his consciousness begin to falter. Darkness infected his vision as his mind grew slower.

Sleep had to be pushed back, he needed to see his comrades before he went out. Then he could rest in peace.

As he lay in the dirt he remembered Jerome. `He needs help!`

But Malum couldn’t even feel his lips, how could tell anyone to help his comrade. He wished upon every God that they found him before he fell. Jerome was strong, he would be fine.

Perhaps it was just hopeful thoughts but despair wasn’t something he could take on right now. Especially as he felt sleep dawn on his horizon. The figures of his teammates coming out of their hut.

Malum didn’t remember anything after that.

He awoke a terrible pang of pain, feeling returned to him as he began to open his eyes.

As he pushed strength into his arm, that feeling quickly returned and as his eyes opened he noticed the ceiling wasn’t collapsing.

Instead it was of the Camp near the Outpost. That meant the wave was over, even the travel would take more than 24 hours.

With his head he turned to see other parts of the room, his body ached as he pushed himself up and as he looked around he saw his original squad sat around his bed.

Each on a single chair, Jake and Alicia resting on each other’s head. Gerald opting to instead just lay on the floor. Malum looked for Jerome but found he wasn’t there. His room had only 4 members inside of it and that made his heart sink.

He needed to ask, but some part of him didn’t want to know. The confirmation hurting to much for Malum’s weak heart.

Sadly, he couldn’t allow himself that pity. He wasn’t weak, and even if he was he would force himself to grow out of it. He pushed his body as he slowly got of his bead and used his alright hand to push on Alicia.

His voice was as dry as the desert but it still managed to eke out, “Jerome, Jerome!”

The second time woke her and she looked up to see him and exclaimed, “Malum! Oh your up, you can’t do that, sit down.”

Malum only continued to say, “Jerome!”

Alicia face crumbled as she clearly pulled back with emotion. “He didn’t make it.”

Malum fell backwards. Into his bed his body lay. One injury to his shoulder, and now one to heart.

A wave of emotions rushed through his mind. Overwhelming him, Malum instead shifted towards pure logic.

His goal, his goal, that’s what he needed to think about. Memories of him and Jerome infected his mind, or was that perhaps what he really wanted to do.

He needed to grow stronger, he thought of him and Jerome when they met. He looked so alone in the crowd.

He needed to survive this hell. Malum remembered the pride he felt as he saw Jerome first working so hard and when he achieved the ranking on the day they were announced.

He couldn’t forget his emotions; he wasn’t strong enough.

All the memories of himself and Jerome appeared in his mind. This was his friend, his comrade and his subordinate. It was his fault that he died, how could he just forget the grief he felt.

He finally allowed his emotion to get the better of him. On his poor hospital bed, he sat and mourned the loss of his ally.

With his eyes sore and his mind exhausted from the endless emotions, he finally managed to fall asleep.

His teammates spoke words of comfort. It wasn’t his fault; his logical mind knew this fact and yet his heart refused to accept that he wasn’t responsible.

Time passed as Malum sat in the hospital. Several people visited him, the Troop Leader being one of them.

He talked about regret, about responsibility and as he had seen him in that hospital in the city Malum found his wors to be comforting. Unlike many, they actually had substance behind them. Genuine compassion was hard to find but Malum found it in a strange place.

Obviously his teammates were the best doctors he had. His shoulder had mostly healed but it would always remain sore to use. His dominant arm was rendered weak and so Malum would have to make some serious changes to his fighting style.

He spent each morning practicing this new style. The desire to grow stronger could no longer be held back and so he was back to swinging his sword.

He would have to return for the next wave, sadly the military was anything but generous.

At least the newbies were getting better, they had also visted and thanked him for his actions. Malum felt strange emotions of hate towards them. In some way he blamed them for Jerome’s death. It was unfair, but that’s what he felt.

He continued to train, every day. His teammates had stayed to practice as much as possible as well but they were now at the outpost so he got into a flow state of training and time soon passed.