HALF: Dead nor Alive

“Hey?! What are you doing?” Resse yelled at Archie who removed his sword and guns from his back and waist.

Archie removed the gloves from his hands, he turned around and looked at Resse. “You used artillery and big guns to fight the 7th gen parasites that tried to destroy the city. What makes you think these weapons can stop that parasite?” he said. “If you’re changing your mind, it’s not too late to join Ruby and the others,” he continued.

“So what? How about you? What the fuck are you thinking by not using any weapon to fight this thing!” Resse yelled at him still.

Archie smirked and turned his right hand into blade-like fingers and wrapped them with tissues all the way up to his arm. “With this,” Archie replied.

The three of them were shocked and glared at Archie’s hand with disbelief. “What are you?!” Fanheim asked.

“Me? I’m something that you called an Ex-Human,” Archie answered. “If you’re thinking of stabbing me on the back, I can kill the three of you first and tell the others that you all died from the battle,” Archie said calmly.

A roar came from in front of them and it was enough to make the three of them kneel in fear. Archie covered his ears and heart with the tissues so he won’t be affected by the roars for the second time.

Giant footsteps were running toward them and Archie wrapped his whole body with his muscle tissues except for his head. He glanced at the dragon-like that was running toward him, he then looked at the three of them who were struggling to recover from the roar.

“This is the truth about the world you’re living in,” Archie said and then he sharpened his claws and readied his stances. “That the world is fine without you humans,” he said as he looked up at the dragon-like parasite with its mouth wide open ready to swallow him.

Archie made his both hands bigger and used them to grab the parasite’s giant mouth, he was struggling to hold the parasite away from him. The muscles that wrapped his arms tore quickly and the loud cracking sounds of his bones could be heard clearly. He then screamed as he pushed the parasite then threw it to the side.

“No matter how hard you try to survive, the end of humankind is coming and you can do nothing about it,” Archie said as his arms started to recover from the injuries.

The dragon-like parasite crushed the cabins and rolled over flattening everything in its way. Fanheim, Prince, and Resse recovered from the roar, they were looking at Archie that had fully transformed his body and face like a mummy. They were shocked to see something like that for the first time in their lives, Archie’s body became bigger to match the dragon-like parasite’s body. Knowing that they were no match for the parasite, the three of them decided to watch from the side and let Archie handle it on his own.

Archie ran and leaped toward the parasite with his claws ready to pierce its skin but the parasite used his tail to whip him away. He grabbed onto the parasite’s tail and tried to stick his claws inside, he was surprised that it wasn’t as hard as he expected, but then he noticed that he only pierced through the scales not the skin of the parasite. The parasite’s skin was way tougher than the scale, and before he could try to pierce his claw into its skin, the parasite’s head turned at him and bit half of his torso.

The bite wasn’t lethal since Archie’s skin and muscle could prevent its sharp teeth from breaking his torso, but the problem arose when the breath of the parasite released extreme cold that made the right side of his body numb. Archie tried to free himself by opening the parasite’s mouth with both hands but it won’t budge since the parasite’s strength outmatched his.

Archie decided to put his whole arm inside the parasite’s mouth and extended them like a jacking tool. Either his arm managed to open the parasite’s mouth or pierced through its mouth, but either way, it gave him the advantage to deal with the parasite.

The parasite tried to resist as he wiggled its head, then it used its tail to attack Archie from the other side. Archie used his left hand to deal with the raging tail of the parasite until the parasite pushed Archie’s left arm away and pierced his body with its tail. The parasite’s tail tore half of Archie’s body while Archie was struggling to free himself.

Archie’s wounds healed themselves almost instantly so it wasn’t a problem for him, he then decided to gouge the parasite’s eye with his left hand. The parasite roared in pain and removed Archie from its mouth, Archie immediately backed away to recover. He looked down and half of his torso was frozen because of the cold breath and he couldn’t regenerate since it was frozen so he decided to tear half of his torso with his left hand and removed the frozen part of his torso.

Fanheim, Prince, and Resse were watching Archie with disbelief, they realized how weak they were compared to Archie and especially compared to the parasite. Reality struck them real hard that they were insignificant and nothing but a bottom feeder.

Archie used his old method by going for the soft area of every parasite which was the eye. If the parasite couldn’t see then there was nothing he should be worried about. He charged toward the parasite and dodged all the attacks of its tail and bites, he then went to the other side and gouged the right eye of the parasite.

The parasite roared as it started to move randomly and whipped its tail to protect itself from threat. Suddenly it released a cold breath around its body and everything that was touched by its breath became frozen in an instant. Knowing that he couldn’t get close to the parasite anymore he decided to transform back into his normal body.

Archie walked away as he started to feel anxious because his guts were telling him that another one was about to come because of the loud roar of the dragon-like parasite. He grabbed the gloves that he threw earlier, he put them on as he looked at the three of them with fear written all over their faces.

“What are you doing? It’s time to leave,” Archie said.

The three of them looked at Archie and didn’t respond to his words at all and then suddenly a loud banging sound could be heard from the peak of the mountain. All of them looked up and saw a giant creature coming out from inside the mountain and blocking the sunlight, it was so big that it couldn’t be described by the shadow on the fog. It roared and trembled the whole mountain, the four of them immediately ran down the mountain but Archie looked to his left and saw the dragon-like parasite digging the ground as if it was scared of the creature that surfaced from the deep and tried to leave.

Ruby and the others looked up at the mountain when they heard the roar, they were terrified because of it and she immediately ordered everyone to move faster.

As they ran down the mountain, they saw dozens of parasites screeching as they ran for their lives. Ruby and the others immediately grabbed their weapons but the parasites ignored them and kept running down the mountain. They were confused because that was the first time they saw a parasite ignore them and not to mention they were running in fear.

Archie and the others caught up with Ruby and the rest of them, they were running together down the mountain.

“What happened?!” Ruby asked as she ran beside Archie.

“I fought and I think the dragon-like parasite summoned that thing that just surfaced from the deep of the mountain. It was so big that we couldn’t see the shape of its body by judging on the shadow in the fog, but whatever it was, it scared the parasite that I fought,” Archie replied.

As Archie ran down the mountain, he felt a breeze hit his face, he stopped and looked around.

“What are you doing?! We need to leave this mountain as soon as possible!” Ruby screamed at him.

“You go ahead! I will catch up with you!” Archie replied.

The wind witch appeared next to him and Ruby could see the witch standing next to Archie but since she had to keep running down the mountain, she turned around and focused on escorting the nomad safely out of the mountain.

“What have you done?” The witch asked. “I told you once they came out from the deep, it will be over for you,” she said. “There’s not much time left, you must leave this continent or you will be dead,” she warned.

“How much time do I have left?” Archie asked.

“Less than a year, you have to leave this continent before the other kings came out and clash to fight for the land,” The witch answered.

“Half a year…” Archie said as he looked at the mountain.

(At the same time in FalCon-3)

The black-haired witch looked at the north while she leaned on the tree. “What happened over there?”

The green-haired witch appeared from the tree. “A king has arisen.”

The red-haired witch stood next to the black-haired witch. “It has begun… the clash of the kings.”