Cutlass Sharpened (6 page)

Then he felt a strange sensation, like being
tired when he stood too fast last time. He knew deep down he
wouldn’t last long and had to act. The sensation flowed to the
sword unbidden, but not in any way concerning.

This all happened in roughly
a second and
her
scream made him react, not think.

Finding a hole to escape, he
ran out to find
her
again. The female was smaller than him, much smaller. Smelled
nice, calming. He knew it was her though he didn’t know what
happened to all her long curly red hair. She wasn’t like the
smaller female with blonde hair and blue eyes who didn’t smell like
the one with red hair. She stood in a dusty, but still white suit
that hugged her large body. She wasn’t like the frail other one.
Red hair had thick legs, strong shoulders and a wild fierceness
that drew him. Round hips, a not too narrow waist and large breasts
made him desire her. But she was still small and small meant weak.
Weak meant prey.

He was not prey.

Then he saw the nature of
her scream. The other large, dangerous males looked different, but
the creature was why the red one screamed in panic. Then he noticed
the largest of the men about to be eaten.
She
not want other male dead. He
protect her too from creature. I help.
He
thought quickly and found his mouth watered at the sight of the
great thing.
Food. Hungry. Eat.

“
Drop Female!” he
yelled.

Renee didn’t bother doing anything other than
do what a strange new voice told her, but as she looked over a
shoulder she saw the naked man standing just outside her ship
carrying nothing other than the black shining sword in his left
hand, brought it back around his right shoulder and cut through
empty air.

Energy gathered within the cutlass dropped to
the single edge during the swipe and an arching blue electrical
wave diagonally flew from the hacking motion. The wave grew wider
the further it went, passed through Renee’s barrier, barely missed
Deegen and Steven trying to move in and save their leader from
being eaten and slid to a grinding halt.

The energy slash met the Beast’s neck arched
over itself too intent on consuming Stone to witness what would be
its end. What little energy that remained in the strike was just
barely enough to slice through its scaled neck in two places, near
the base of its chest and behind its skull. Without signals from
the Beast’s brain its body fell in three new pieces.

Stone’s eyes opened when the ground he stood
on shook and relaxed. There was no pain, but as he realized he
hadn’t died he turned to find the severed head three times his size
sliding down and away off the body. He had been in some close
calls, but nothing like this. He still didn’t go into silent shock
till he turned when seeing the man they just discovered walking in
his direction.

Renee didn’t seem to know how to get back up
as she saw those amber eyes awake again. He didn’t look at her as
he started walking towards the carnage. Seeming to sniff like a
dog. She was at a total loss for what just happened.

Deegen took several steps back to give the
odd man some room, but didn’t let go of his whip or blade. He
didn’t even get a single passing glance as the frail man kept
walking, struggling with each step. As if tiring more and more, but
no one stopped him.

He made way directly for the severed skull,
hunger guiding him to where to feast. He was thankful not to have
needed to roll the head over. With failing strength he knew there
would be just a single chance. Taking both hands on the hilt he
plunged the cutlass with minimal resistance through scale and skull
and gave a twist to create a hole. Then extracted the weapon and
let it fall on the ground.

With a sickening slurp he drove his arm deep
into the brain and got a handful of the matter, pulled it out and
started eating in massive chunks. Starving. His left arm covered to
the armpit in purple blood. He did it again and again.

“
What the fuck?!” Exclaimed
Steven who was sickened. “Beast meat I’d understand, but brain? I
know that shit is lethal poison.”

“
To ninety nine point nine
eight percent of humanity it is.” Stone confirmed as he jumped
down. He lowered his helmet back into a collar in his armor with a
look of reverence. “Men, I think we are in the presence of an
ancient Beast-eater Hunter. Likely one of our forefathers. He took
it down with one strike. I know of only fifteen living Hunters that
can bring down an A-Rank Salamander in one move
without
a kinetic blast from that
distance.”

“
Impossible!” Scoffed
Steven, but no one needed to tell him otherwise. Seeing was
believing and he wouldn’t be in denial for long once adrenaline
wore off.

Satellite’s gory talons clamped on Stone’s
shoulder to say “We need to get out of here yesterday! It’s going
to hit any moment.”

Heads turned to the no longer not so silent
sandstorm barreling at them. And that wasn’t all. In the dust cloud
of flying sand were a dozen more Salamanders all using the storm to
fly right at them.

“
Go! Go! Go! Get to the
ships!” Stone commanded while running.

The man didn’t move as he continued gorging
on his kill with ravenous need.

“
Move your bony ass!” Steven
yelled, only to get punched in the sternum when he touched him. The
blow had some weight behind it, but not enough to do more than
sting. Steven grabbed the man’s waist in one arm and sword in the
other after making his spear collapse and drop down to little more
than a dagger sheathed in his lower back. Steven then ran for all
he was worth to the shuttle carrying the man.

Too weak to get free, the
man just relaxed and came to a similar need to flee. He saw more
prey coming, but he could not stop another, let alone a swarm
bolstered by deadly sands. In the other direction he looked to
see
her
standing by
an opening, waving them to hurry.
Boat?
Boat with wings. Mast. Double furled sail unwinding. Flying
sailboat?
He tried making sense of what he
was being carried to. To the right he saw two much smaller fighters
rising off the ground piloted by the two men with black faces.
Their ships were similar to the big one, only with wider wings
carrying weapon pods underneath.
Cannons.
The fighters were much more
angular, sharper. Their sharply angled triangular sails unrolled
and filled to make them circle off the ground.

Steven practically sprinted through the
opening and unceremoniously dropped both burdens while Renee closed
the exterior and interior hatches. The Hunter jumped into his seat
saying “Let’s get the fuck out of here.” And activated the
shuttle’s thrusters to full burn, angling the bow at a direction
opposite the storm of death and up in the grey sky. The shuttle
felt no change inside as it just missed being consumed by the
storm. The fighters were keeping pace, flying backwards shooting
the fire breathing Beasts with psionic cannons that tore them
apart.

Renee though was on her knees in front of the
strange person covered in Beast blood with flecks of Beast brain
crumbs around his mouth. Her stomach clenched, but she resisted
licking him clean. He suddenly sat up and touched her clear
helmet’s faceplate, smearing it with blood. Last thing she expected
to hear was a deep voice ask “Unhurt. Female unhurt?”

Renee found herself at yet
another loss.
He’s worried. That shows
empathy. How is this possible? Those eyes are so sexy and his voice
is so deep. Like gravel met baritone and made a baby that lodged
his throat. Stars, that voice is panty dropping worthy.

“
Unhurt?” He asked again,
clearly expressing confusion twin to her own.

“
She’s fine.” Stephanie said
and stopped moving when his head whipped around to her. “You saved
us. We won’t hurt you… ummm? Do you have a name?”

“
Name?” He cocked his head
when he didn’t find the blonde woman a threat. “What’s
name?”

Stephanie shot Renee a look that said ‘I was
right.’ She sat down to witness tension in his shoulders relax. She
touched her breast. “A name is what we go by so as to let others
know who we are and to gain our attention if they need us. Did you
understand that?”

“
Some.” He rubbed his neck.
“Hurts. Thump thump here hurts.” He turned to Renee. “Female’s
touch took away hurt. Again?” He looked close into Renee’s vibrant
eyes of the most unique emerald. A small, pert nose over full
rosebud lips were marginally dropped as she never expected to hear
him talk.

“
Uh, Renee? Stars to Renee!”
Stephanie snapped her fingers to pull her out of a storm of wild
thoughts.

“
Wha…?”

“
He’s in pain. I thinks he
wants to you touch him again. Even I know human contact eases pain.
Remember when you did a brain scan. Do it again.”

“
Again?” He did sound in
pain now that she recovered. Her left hand touched his head and he
closed his eyes to make that humming sigh sound. “No hurt so much.”
He said much more softly.

Renee’s chip began another scan and not even
being ten minutes, changes already showed. “Steph, you were right.
The part of our brain that controls speech is much more active.
He’s learning and committing language to long term memory.”

“
It’s the multi-tool on his
arm. But I know of only the president of Galicom and the Emperor
ever being able to bond an original to themselves. We’ve reverse
engineered it, but we’ve yet to completely harness the full
capabilities of an original. I heard what Stone said about him
being an ancient Hunter and he
may
be correct. Not everything was recorded in the
original birth of the program. He isn’t a clone since I see a belly
button so no laws were broken. He very well could be a lost Hunter.
Having not one, but
three
original creations means he was filthy rich back
then.”

“
Then why was he sealed away
in that thing?” Deegen’s voice spoke privately in their internal
coms.

“
I hear its painful bonding
original artifacts. It could explain the memory loss.”

“
Not a chance in hell.”
Renee killed that theory before it took root. “He was artificially
stripped. Pain can’t remove everything of who he was and leave only
basic instincts untouched. He doesn’t even have medical nanites in
his blood. Even if he was one of those naturalists, he’d have
severe brain damage without them. I’ve found
nothing
… and his pain is worse than he
can currently articulate.” She took her hand off his head and he
groaned, opening up those amber eyes. Taking Stephanie’s idea and
running with it she touched her chest, hating to resort to such
barbaric methods. “My name is Renee Dorgen.”

“
Female?” He asked with
clear uncertainty, rubbing his neck again.

“
Female is my gender. Renee
is my name. Renee.”

“
Ray-nay?” He asked, rolling
his tongue.

“
Yes, I’m Renee. Do you know
who you are. This means yes.” She lifted her head up and down. “Ah,
sorry.” He touched her collar and her helmet collapsed. He blinked
rapidly as her hair blew up and out to lay down in the ship’s
gravity as they reached space, leaving the atmosphere and planet
altogether. “Yes.” She nodded. “No.” Shaking her head side to side.
“Do you remember your name?”

“
No.” he mimicked shaking.
Mimicry, the basis for understanding another.

Renee made up her mind. “Then until we
discover who you are I’ll call you… hmmm… Oliver. Yes, you’re
Oliver.”

“
Olive-er?” He repeated.
Touching his chest now. “Oliver?”

“
Very good, Oliver. Can I
ask you not to hurt my friends?” He barely understood. “Uh, no hurt
Stephanie.” She pointed to her friend.

Oliver turned in the thinner woman’s
direction and pointed his left bloodied arm like Renee. “Stephanie
no hurt Renee… I no hurt Stephanie.”

The crew’s archeologist smirked. “Looks like
you rescued a lost puppy, Renee.” The medic rolled her eyes and
sighed. To the newly named man she said “Oliver no hurt Renee, I no
hurt Oliver either?”

He seemed to mull it over. “Renee smell kind.
I no hurt Renee. You smell of other female. I not close to you.
Keep Renee alive, we bond. Yes?”

Up front Steven laughed.

Stephanie nodded. “Yes… Uh, Renee, how can he
smell I’m lesbian? I thought there was no pheromones or signals to
identify our sexual preference.”

“
Add it to another on the
long list of this fucked up situation.” She replied. “Oliver, look
at me.” He obeyed. “I’m going to take the pain away, but I’m not
going to put you to sleep this time. I need to know if you can
stand so I can clean you up… can you stand?” she clarified by
standing herself and Stephanie followed.

He this time struggled mightily, showing he
was very tired. “Steven, reduce gravity in the central compartment
by half.”

“
Will do.”

Gravity lowered and Oliver mimicked
Stephanie’s smile, figuring it was pleasant and moved under his own
power much more easily. “Feel better.”

“
Follow me to the bathroom.”
Renee didn’t bother needing to dumb it down as he seemed to
understand. Stephanie followed, picking up the gore soaked
blade.