Chapter 030

It was still Alvin being chased by Heldium, but this time things were going vastly different. Alvin seemed to be quite leisurely, as he had already through familiarised himself with the terrain, and knew which places was soaked with oil, and which places were fireproofed by him earlier.

He ran ahead, occasionally turning around to harass Heldium with bullets, and explode crates of gunpowder he had placed. He constantly kept mocking him just for effect.

Alvin then clambered up a tree, where he had hidden a rifle with a longer range. He aimed the rifle a little behind Heldium, in the path they had just travelled at a crate of gunpowder he had hidden relatively well and had not exploded as Heldium passed them.

The crates there exploded in a defending blast, and a shrill scream sounded from within. Heldium too looked back, to see a woman with severe burns all over, in a now scorched white dress.

Alvin fired a few more shots at her, which she deftly dodged. She then raced towards Alvin with long and agile steps. Alvin shot at a patch of oil on the floor slightly in front of Heldium, where she inevitably had to cross if she wanted to come close to Alvin. Another gunpowder crate exploded, creating a small ire, which they both recoiled from.

"What's such a lady like you doing here in our manly brawl? Well, in retrospect, you might just be another man among three men brawling right?" mocked Alvin.

Kate's face turned red with anger and embarrassment, as she sounded out a shrill scream that made Alvin dizzy. Just as he was about to try and shoot her to get her to stop, Heldium thrust his sword towards her.

"Are you insane? He has clearly trapped us in this damn abandoned circus. You should help me deal with him!" yelled Kate.

"Well, I don't like your screaming, so can it!" yelled Heldium. But he also turned towards Alvin.

"Waaah! A man and a woman, standing side by side in a burning world, against the great demon! A story worthy to be sung by bards! But when we consider that the woman used to be a man and the man used to be and still is a dumass, the story becomes worthy of Emperor Roselle!" yelled Alvin at them.

Both of them simultaneously yelled in rage as they started strafing towards Alvin.

Alvin jumped off the tree, and ran right into the middle of a blazing tent, through the tiny gap he had maintained using two stones propping flammable materials apart, leaving a tiny gap.

The other two had no choice to follow, because more and more of the rotten and discarded canvas was catching on fire and burning up. The heat from the flames, and more so the pungent smoke would slowly kill them unless they got out soon.

Kate managed to fit in through the narrow gap, but Heldium had no such luck. He tried unsuccessfully to squeeze through, but ended up knocking the stone frames away. There was a small path that was rapidly being burned up when he did that, and Heldium was ready to change though, when he heard shots behind him. He immediately felt multiple points of pain in his back.

He turned around to see Alvin with a shotgun aimed at him.

Though a Weapons Specialist had good physical strength and self healing capability, it was nowhere enough to take and shrug off attacks from a shotgun at close range. Adding to that, Heldium was quite exhausted from the chase, and severely burned by now to boot. All he could do was stare in rage at Alvin, as he calmly reloaded his shotgun, and shot him once again. This time, Heldium fell to the ground, and lay weakly as he was bleeding out. Unwilling to underestimate injured prey, Alvin used two more shotgun blasts to ensure his weakness. He specifically left his head intact, just in case Sinsest demanded that it was necessary for him to complete the bounty. Heldium by virtue of his amazing constitution was still no dead, but it was clear that he did not have any capability to move.

Alvin decided to grant mercy to the called prey by not prolonging its suffering, and slit his throat with the Sword of Culling. He then proceeded to drag his body to a spot with relatively fewer flames, and cut off the head. He then frisked the body for any valuable items found the leather cap, which could cause some mental damage to anyone who comes in contact with you, at the cost of some rationality. He also found a wallet, with a few coins and notes, even though it was partially burned. And of course, he didn't miss the red sword mystical item which could shoot energy beams put. He then waited for the Weapon's Specialist Beyonder characteristic to condense. As soon as it did, he grabbed it, and threw the crops of Heldium into the flames.

He then turned around and went through a small path he had left and got back to the area where he had last seen the Witch.

He looked around for her, and soon saw traces that she was escaping to the west. He quickly started tailing her based on the tracks she had inadvertently left behind. He figured out the direction she was probably moving, and with his familiarity with the terrain, he quickly took a shortcut to corner her.

After a few seconds, she managed to escape towards the edge of the abandoned circus, where just when tent stood between her and the outside.

Just as she was considering her options, Alvin popped out from her side, and shot at her with his revolver. She wasn't able to react in time, and screamed as she was hit. As Alvin continued firing at her, she took a small cloth doll from her waist and dabbed the blood from her bleeding wound onto the doll.

She then abruptly faded, leaving behind a mutilated doll with bullets all over it, which then disintegrated. Alvin walked over to where she had stood before she disappeared, and then looked all around him.

"All things considered, that was a successful hunt" thought Alvin, as he felt a majority of the potion digest. Just one more hunt would probably completely digest the potion.