Beast Slayer Saga

Albert entered the room to see the cowardly captain bent over and hushedly hissing into a CB radio receiver that Albert was crazy and wanted to kill him.

"You have to help me officer, he nearly beheaded me. He's mad! He said wants to gut me and use my intestines as fishing line to catch sharks! He-"

"Eep," the man squeaked, noticing Al dash in.

"And-and a good day to you too sir, but I don't need your assistance now thank you. I'm enjoying the company of a lovely lad and we are going on holiday to Olympia."

"You rat bastard," Al snarled, grabbing the man by his collar and holding his knife to his throat.

The man squeaked again and dropped the receiver to the radio, which fell and hung suspended by its wire, swinging against the side of the steering wheel with a thud that decreased in sound each time it bounced off.

'I'll give you one chance. Turn this ship on, and get us the f.u.c.k out of here or I'll do it myself and I can "use your intestines as fishing line,' as you said."

"I-I-I, I can't! The p-police are above us!"

"And who's fault is that?" Al whispered, drawing blood with the point of his dagger.

He was finding it a lot easier to threaten this man now that he had betrayed him.

The man swallowed and pressed the throttle forward, causing the boat to lurch forward. However, a few moments later, the whole ship shuddered and stopped. Albert glanced at the throttle, which was as far up as it could go, and looked behind them. The police craft behind had shot some sort of grappling hook type tool that had hooked itself onto the rear of their ship. On the police boats, a motor whirred to life and began to winch their ship backwards, ignoring the protests from their engine, which began to smoke.

"F.u.c.k! God damnit f.u.c.k.i.n.g f.u.c.k!"

Albert kicked the steering wheel casing, denting the sheet-metal it was made from.

"Now what?" Albert thought, beginning to panic.

Would he need to kill these cops, who were just innocent men and women doing their jobs just to get away?

"No, I'm not doing that. But maybe I can-"

His thoughts were interrupted as his vessel was pulled in alongside theirs and a group of police in SWAT gear leapt onto the deck.

"Thank heavens!" The captain shrieked, dashing towards the group.

"He's right in there!"

"Maybe I will gut him after all," Al muttered, keeping his knife at the ready.

One of the SWAT members nodded and gestured towards the boats behind them while the rest of them took point outside the door of the helm, guns at the ready.

"You have this moment to surrender. Place your hands on your head and walk out of the room slowly."

He had to make a decision now. It was now or never. Albert felt within himself for Numen to try and escape, accessing it more easily than before, when he felt a dangerous pulse of energy beneath the ship.

"Alright, suit your-"

A pillar of water erupted from the sea alongside the grouping of boats and a multi-headed creature covered in scales emerged from the plume of water, raining seawater onto the deck of the ship like a heavy rain. Nine heads rose out of the creature's torso, each sat atop a long, slithering, neck. Mist billowed out of its mouths, which were filled with dagger-like teeth and 28 pairs of reptilian eyes surveyed the area.

One of the heads noticed the movement of the helicopter above, which had moved out of the way as the pilot jerked the control stick. The monster roared and two heads grabbed the helicopter out of the air, its teeth puncturing it with ease. The heads snapped at each other, each trying to get a taste before tossing it aside with disdain as they realized that the metal wasn't edible.

"What in the hell is that!" One of the SWAT members yelled.

"Who cares what it is, just kill it!" Another yelled in return and gunfire exploded, peppering the creature.

Droplets of green blood began raining down onto deck, coating it in the steaming fluid as the Hydra roiled in pain. A few seconds later, silence returned to the ship and the cops gazed through the gun-smoke in an attempt to see the body of the creature. The smoke cleared a second later and they saw a torso, shredded by the hundreds of bullets. Its heads were spread out like a fan, floating in the water without moving.

"That got it," one of the officers said, relaxing and lowering his weapon.

"What in the devil is it?" Another asked, tentatively inching closer to the edge of the ship and poking at the corpse with the muzzle of his weapon.

"Your guess is as good as mine," The first cop, a captain apparently, said, barking orders to the rest of them. "For the moment, reload and lets get the criminal. We can radio about this thing after."

"Yes sir," the SWAT officer said, turning from the corpse and grabbing another magazine from his belt.

Behind him, the wounds on the hydra writhed as if the body was made of thousands of worms, and began sewing themselves together. Already in the few seconds that had passed as the cops began reloading, the creature's torso, which before looked like a slab of green ground meat , merely looked as if the monster had scr.a.p.ed itself on some rocks before surfacing.

"You guys might wanna unhook us so we can get the hell out of here," Al said, stepping out from the helm into the midst of the police.

The captain, the only one to have reloaded already, pointed his weapon at him as soon as he stepped out.

"Don't move, and put your hands where I can see them," The captain said, gesturing upwards at Al with his gun. The rest of the police had reloaded by this time and were leveling their weapons at him too.

Al sighed and rolled his eyes, but put his hands above his head. He had sheathed his dagger and put it down his sleeve, just in case.

"You are under arrest. You are charged with evading arrest, assault, kidnapping and you are under suspicion for the terrorist attack at Hospital Delos."

"Evading being shot, more like," Albert shot back. "If the first cops that found me didn't try to kill me on sight, I wouldn't have been forced to do this in the first place."

"Save your excuses for court," the captain said, gesturing at one of the other officers. The officer nodded, pushed the safety on her weapon and slid it behind her, hanging by its strap. She stepped behind Al and began frisking him, running her hands down his legs.

"We're not going to be going ANYWHERE, if we don't move. Now!" Albert said, noting that the wounds had stitched shut and the creature's heads were stirring again.

"You have the right to remain silent," the captain intoned, quickly dashing of the well-practiced verse. He obviously was not going to listen to him. Meanwhile, the cop frisking him had moved to his upper body. She would find and take his dagger if he didn't act soon.

"Does NOBODY see that that monster is healing?" Albert asked incredulously, raising his voice to be heard over the captain. "I think its a Hydra, you're lucky to have knocked it out but I doubt that'll work again."

The hands frisking him stopped and Al risked a glance behind him, hoping that the oblivious officers wouldn't open fire. This woman, at least, had listened to Al and looked at the monster again, her almond colored eyes wide.

"S-Sir," she stammered, watching with horror as the Hydra lifted its heads out of the water, its eyes narrowed in rage.

"What now, Lieutenant?" The captain growled, annoyed at the constant disruptions.

The Hydra roared, louder than any roar previously. It had been like a cat, playing with its prey, before. But now, now, it was serious. The boat shook at the powerful shockwave that followed and several officers stumbled into each other.

"I told you so," Al said smugly, blasting the grappling hooks holding the boat with energy he had been holding since before the Hydra attacked.

The steel claws holding the rear of the ship alongside a large chunk of the boat flew back towards the police vehicles, crashing into the sides of them like cannon shot. At the same time, the ship Al and the police were on shot forward, narrowly avoiding one of the Hydra's snake-like heads that had snapped forward. Luckily, the engine had been on the entire time, straining against the ropes.

With the sudden acceleration, everyone on the ship was thrown onto the floor, Albert falling backwards onto the surprisingly soft body of the female officer. Behind them, the hydra screeched in rage, its heads flailing around its body. It shot a blast of pressurized water out of one of its mouths, then dove under the waves, obviously in pursuit.

Fiberglass, wood, and metal rained down onto the group, the pressurized hydra breath hitting its target and removing most of the helm from the ship. Al and the officers sat up, several of them bleeding from shrapnel wounds and one of them seemingly unconscious. Underneath him, Al heard the female officer groaning. He jumped off the officer and offered his hand.

"You alright?"

"I've been better," she replied, holding a large welt that had appeared. A long strand of auburn colored hair had fallen out of her helmet and across her face, which was a honeyed tan color. She was surprisingly beautiful, now that Al got a better look at her. The woman grabbed his hand and Al pulled her up.

"You were right about that monster," She said, rotating her gun back around and undoing the safety.

"Thanks."

"Thank me when we survive," Al said grimly.

"Survive?" The captain asked as he joined them. He hesitated but pointed his weapon back at Al.

"Captain Bouras!" The female officer exclaimed, stepping in between the two.

The other police officers seemed unsure of what to two, eying the Captain and Lieutenant uncertainly. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Captain Bouras seemed to be struggling between following his duty as a police officer and letting the person who saved his life go. Finally, coming to some sort of internal decision, he nodded and lowered his weapon.

"We'll worry about the arrest later," He said raising his voice a little so the rest of the officers could hear.

"Now, what did you mean by 'survive,' kid? We're already escaped that thing, haven't we?"

Al shook his head. He could feel the Hydra's energy catching them up. They had gained some time due to the element of surprise, but it would be on them again any moment.

"Its almost caught up with us. It'll come from the starboard side, so get ready."

Al slid his knife out of his sleeve, grinning embarrasedly at the look on the female officer's face He shrugged and unsheathed his weapon and she sighed and shook her head, choosing not to mention it.

"How do you know that?" She asked instead, aiming her weapon starboard.

"How did you do any of that anyways?" The captain added, gesturing at the back of the ship, where seawater lapped over the newly created opening where the hooks had been.

"I'll explain later," Al called over his shoulder, carefully climbing over the rubble of the helm to reach the wheel, which had somehow survived the Hydra's attack.

Al felt the energy reach the boat and it pulsed below them. A blade of water sheared a clean line through the bottom of the boat and sliced the arm off of one of the officers, who fell to the deck with a scream.

"It's here!" Al shouted, steering left and away from the Hydra as it emerged from the depths again.

"Open fire," Captain Bouras yelled, and the officers let loose a hail of bullets at the beast.

It had been caught by surprise last time, never before having seen such a weapon. This time, it had taken precautions. The bullets were blocked by a wall of water that it kept wrapped around it, stopping the projectiles from hitting its body while its heads shot blasts of water from over the wall.

The blasts of water missed their intended targets, the policemen who had managed to avoid taking any more injuries. While no-one else was hurt, the ship wasn't so lucky. Several of the attacks scored deep gashes into the hull of the ship.

"None of our attacks are connecting," One of the policemen called out, sending out another volley.

"Get us closer," the Captain Boulas shouted to Al.

"Easier said than done," Al shouted back, struggling with the wheel. That last attack had barely missed him, but it shaved off half of the wheel.

"If you please, Sir Magician," a voice muttered from besides him, scaring the life from him.

The weaselly captain of the ship had apparently still been on board when Al cut the moorings and had somehow avoided all notice and any injuries from the beast.

"You, you're still here!"

"I missed my chance to escape," the man agreed, nodding quickly. "Leave this to me, I'm more experienced anyway."

Albert narrowed his eyes, not willing trust the man again, but handed the wheel over regardless. He wanted to live just as much as the rest of them, Al decided. He wouldn't betray them now.

"What did you call me?" Albert asked, as he drew his dagger again.

"Sir Magician. What else could you be with powers like you used to break the ropes?" The man said, brow furrowed in concentration as he took the half-wheel and avoided a blast from the beast.

Albert hated to admit it, but he WAS a better driver than him. Even with half a wheel.

"Hate to break up the conversation," the lieutenant grunted, dropping a used magazine to the floor and reloading. "But we don't have endless bullets and that thing ain't dropping, so 'Mr. Magic,' here is going to need to do something or we're all fish-food."

"Its a Hydra, you need to destroy all its heads at once to kill it."

The woman nodded, ceasing fire as the Hydra dove under the sea again to reposition.

"We tried that. Hit one of them before it realized that his heads were in danger and it raised that water shield higher."

"And so, you want me to do something," Al said, finishing her thought.

She shrugged at him.

"Seems to me that you obviously have some sort of experience with monsters and you have some sort of special powers. We don't really have much choice otherwise."

The Hydra burst out again ahead of the ship, the coward captain shrieked and narrowly avoided colliding with it. The side of the ship scr.a.p.ed against its scales with the sound of metal on metal and the lieutenant aimed her weapon again.

"Now or never, Mr. Magic."

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