Cherreads

Chapter 4 - Soul Hunters.

Skrrr!

The scream was loud, hard to ignore, and most of all, frightening.

It didn't seem to be coming from one direction either; both sides were echoing with the bizarre holler.

And it was getting closer.

"Shit! We've been spotted!" Sharkteeth withered, holding his blade in front of him, his back facing the muscular man, who did the same with his giant sword.

Ashen took a stern stance, making sure he was not standing too close to the grass to avoid any surprise attacks.

Suddenly, Smart uttered—though he was shaking in fear, he still managed to compose himself and make his voice audible over the loud screams surrounding them:

"Soul hunters!!! Only they can make such a scream!!! We need to get out of here!!!"

That was all the team needed to know; no one doubted him, not even for a second.

The muscular man took charge, spotting a rock a bit further than the route they were going to take.

If there's a rock, then there is a chance a cave might be nearby.

"Everyone, quick! Head towards the rock!!!"

They were ready—Ashen more than anyone.

His eyes were constantly scanning his surroundings as he ran behind the group, not falling behind and not getting too close either.

Everything seemed to be going well, until Smart yelled—

"Look out!!!"

From the ground, a monster, covered in dark mist that burned as though it were flames, grabbed Sharkteeth by the leg.

The monster had long nails that curled around its victim's leg while looking him dead in the eyes. Green pupils that glowed, almost reaching deep into one's soul!

"Damn it!"

Sharkteeth acted quickly, swinging his blade left and right at the monster, but it didn't let go; instead, it constantly restored itself.

Slowly ascending his body.

"Oi!!! Someone help me get this thing off me!"

It was then Smart acted, pulling a dagger from his pocket and going straight for the monster's eye.

It screamed, disappearing back into the ground.

"Come on, we need to go before the others get here!"

Following his lead, the others ran as fast as they could.

Ashen, still maintaining his pace, looked back a bit and noticed Timid was right behind them, huffing and puffing in fear.

The reason was pretty obvious: multiple soul hunters were running behind him, and they were catching up as well.

Though he couldn't hear his voice, Ashen could still tell he was begging for the group to come back for him.

No one could hear his voice, and even if they could, there was little to no chance of anyone stopping to help him.

Unfortunately, Timid was all on his own, and soon after, the soul snatchers got to him, yanking him into the bushes.

Now, they were charging toward the group at top speed.

They had no legs, so instead, they hovered above the ground, which gave them a speed advantage.

'Change of plan.'

Ashen boosted forward, suddenly outrunning the whole group and sprinting right in front of them.

All of them were shocked to see him running so fast; they had already thought he was slow to begin with.

Not until they peeped behind them did they understand why Ashen accelerated the way he did.

The soul hunters were catching up, and they were nowhere near their targeted rock.

Not to mention, they were already at their top speed; outrunning Ashen was out of the equation. Now they needed to make sure they were not the ones at the back.

It was quite obvious that anyone unlucky enough to be at the very back would be the first to fall prey to the monsters and buy time while the others ran for their dear lives.

Just like Timid did, even though they had no clue how he died.

Breathing heavily, they all ran as fast as they could, Sharkteeth being in second place and Muscle Guy following right after.

While Smart was intelligent, he was not as fast as one would think, despite being in perfect shape.

His face was etched with panic once he realized he was the one in last place, and the soul snatchers were already catching up to him.

In truth, he found it weird that these monsters were here to begin with; monsters like these only came out when the sun was out.

And even if they did come out at night, they were not ones to chase their prey, at least not this desperately.

They should have given up after they grabbed Sharkteeth's leg.

Why the hell were they so desperate to chase them down?

Baam!

Eh?

Everyone froze in shock.

A soul hunter had appeared in front of them, its creepy, huge hand covering Ashen's face as it shrieked loudly.

Ashen was shocked.

He didn't expect the monster to just fall out of the sky.

Did it leap from the back?

Not even a few seconds later, the entire group was surrounded by these monsters, blocking their vision.

They tried to fight, moving as fast as they could, but in the end, they were no match for these fast-moving entities.

First was the muscle man, whose body got ripped apart, limb from limb, while he screamed in agony, begging them to stop.

Smart fell to the ground, seemingly trying to play dead, but even then, these monsters still chose to provoke him.

Sharkteeth put up a decent fight, holding back a few soul snatchers by himself. He was able to kill a few by stabbing them in the eye.

And just when he wanted to make a break for it, he was met with a miserable death.

The soul snatchers perched on his skin, eating him from the inside out, his painful screams burning under the blood spewing from his lungs.

As for Ashen, he made the tough decision before he could be killed.

Seeing as the others died, he knew he didn't want to die in such a way.

Pain... he hated it.

Thus, he did the unexpected.

Twisting the blade in his hand, he stabbed the single soul snatcher before him in the eye.

And then, he took the knife and immediately stabbed himself in the chest before falling into the thick grass.

In response, the soul snatchers all screamed, vanishing into the night one by one.

Their mission was completed; they had killed every single person in the group.

...

[A/N: You've gotten this far, if you like this book, please add to your libabry and also support me with powerstones for wpc constest.]

More Chapters