SOMA:
I peep from behind the rock we choose to take cover with as I look down into an environment that I would never expect to see deep into the woods. I do not see myself crossing through the route that we took to get here. But here I am, trying as much as possible to get a better view of the supposed location that has given us problems for the past two days.
“So, this is it?” I ask, directing the question to Leonard who was right beside me doing the same thing. What I can see down below is a group of men walking back and forth the whole supposed territory of theirs.
They all have one thing in common though despite their lack of features and recognition. And that thing was their black outfits with went with a black facial mask only giving out their eyes. If I can see clearly.
“Yes,” Leonard whispers as he responds to my question, “those men over there are the Black Lotus. Highly skilled professionals in combat and warriors trained to kill. They are rumored to have supernatural abilities beyond our comprehension but we cannot affirm that yet due to fewer encounters with them,”
Unconsciously, I grip my sword as I feel ab unlikely aura come from then into where we are hiding. The aura is kind of strong that I could feel myself a little worried about what we are going up against. I know this is not going to be easy, so, mentally, I have to feel the pressure.
“You sure might be about to find that out,” I tell Leonard in reference to his last statement about the Black Lotus possibly having supernatural abilities. As much as I do not believe in the supernatural even though our kind is mostly classified as one, I can swear that this group has something that I cannot place my hand on at that moment. “Are you sure we are safe here?” I proceed to ask for fear of being fished out.
“I can’t say. It depends on how good we are at masking our scents. As well as keeping our voices low,”
“I’m pretty much good at masking my scent,” I say and then look at him and the others, “but I can’t say the same about you and your men,”
Leonard gives me something similar to a cocky smile. Don’t know what he’s trying to make out with that but I do not like the creepiness that comes with it.
“My scent’s always masked. So you can forget about me giving us out,”
I prevent myself from shaking my head. He could have just said that without being this creepy. Most times I do not understand why he has to choose that demeanor as his persona. The best him I have seen was the day he was a little annoyed with me. Nothing else beats that.
“So what next? Are we to go in and attack?”
My eyes are still fixated on the men moving up and down. But I was able to observe something from their movements. It felt like something similar to them anticipating an event or being in a rush for something big. I can’t place my hands on it, just like I can’t place my hands on why their aura felt this strong. But my keenness for observing things was chewing on me.
“We can’t just attack like that. We need to first decide how we are going in so we do not fall into another trap of theirs. They can be smart when they want to,”
“Now what’s the plan?” I ask, but then push my senses out of what Leonard is about to say because I noticed something out of place.
The rest were walking, still, but one of them suddenly stops. Did I forget to mention that they were armed? Yeah, they all seem to have either guns or swords and I can tell that it contains our weakness.
The one in particular that stopped walking suddenly looks in our direction. And I widen my eyes in shock as I shout to the others, “Get down!”
Immediately, a shot goes off. And if I had been a fraction late, I would have become fried meat for them because the shot was directed straight at me.
I could not control the rate of my heartbeat after that. I was shocked beyond understanding. How did he know we were here? Oh geez, that was a close one.
Another shot goes off in the air and it makes me bend my head in fear of getting shot at. Our saving grace at this moment is the rock we are hiding behind but I know that it is not going to be a safe haven for too long.
“Shit, they found us!”
I don’t know what’s going on in Leonard’s head because it took him a matter of time to say that. It’s been a while since the first shot went off and he only has time to think about that now? So weird of him.
“What are we going to do now? We can’t just stay here and let them continue shooting at us,” I yell whole looking at the men surrounding me. It was Leonard and half of the men we came with.
Yeah, during our round to this place, we lost another man to another deadly trap. So we left with five men now, which I will still say is enough for the mission, although Leonard totally disagrees with that, stating we have been put on a most likely edge of losing out.
“We are going in now,” Leonard says over the shots being fired at us. The sounds were too loud for me to even hear a thing he is saying but I strain my ears still to get into it. “But whatever you do, try to avoid the guns and swords. They are all laced with silver,”
I nod, and I see the others do the same. From there I put my hand by my side and pull out the sword in its heath. What I do next is to go flat on the ground as I intend to crawl down to the other side, using the rock as a means of saving my skin.
They all get the memo of what I am trying to do and so they start to do the same. We all crawl down through the little cliff, but I almost trip at one time except that I get saved by Leonard who is behind me as he grabs my foot, hindering me from falling.
And when I get to the last place that I know would get me into the base of the Black Lotus, I sit still and I hen hold my breath. After that, I do what I would call the stupidest thing ever and then jump into the ones still shooting. But I realized they were stupider because they were still shooting at where we just crawled away from. So it made it a surprise attack from me as I slice into the neck of one of them.
Immediately, I grab his body to use as a shield and then go deep into the others shooting at me. At the moment, I can see that there are about six of them with guns so, with the body of the one I am holding, I am able to fend off about three of them until I cannot make use of the body again.
And just as the body drops from my hand, I feel a bullet about to pierce through my face, and then a CLANK.
A sword has just interrupted the incoming bullet. I look to the side to see it was Leonard’s doing, and that gives me the green light to go deep into this fight.
With my superhuman strength, I jump into the others shooting, and while managing to avoid their shots, get into two of their midsts and slice at two of them at the same time, dropping them dead.
My sword was a good bonus in intercepting the bullets that could harm me, but I know how fast bullets can be so when one manages to escape the interception of my sword, I was already expecting such to happen. When it hits me, I grunt but do not feel any pain. Yeah, the force gave me a little pain but I was expecting an internal injury. However, I felt none of that and that is when I recall the type of jacket I have on.
A creepy smile makes its way to my face. Most likely similar to the one I see on Leonard’s face every time. And what I do next is to rush into the one that just did that.
He starts to move back while shooting at me but I stop the bullets with my sword. When I get to him, he tries to attack with his gun but I cut through it, affecting his hand in the process. Then I grab his face and slowly dig the sword through his neck.
The cry of his pain was not a joy giver for me but I enjoyed it because I needed something to pleasure on. As I take out my sword from him, I feel something coming at me and so I push my head to the side to avoid it hitting me. Until I hear a sudden grunt behind me.
I look at what has occurred behind me to see that a knife has gone through the head of a masked man that was about to hit me with a sword. Immediately I get the picture of what is happening here. Someone just saved me from being killed.
It instantly makes me look at the front where I believe the knife had been thrown from. But I do not see a person other than the shadow of someone escaping from beside a corner.
I do not know where I get it from but a sudden feeling of recognition overwhelms me. I tend to believe that whoever did that has a connection with me.
At first, I want to ignore what just happened but my curiosity gets the better of me and immediately I find myself running after who or what just saved me now.
“Soma, what are you doing?” I hear Leonard yell at me from behind as I start to run after the unknown savior, but I ignore him as well as the clashing of swords that was ongoing behind me.