Life or Death

The walk was a long trek and he crossed the constantly altering terrain. The streets were silent and filled with the slight noise of the flowing breeze. Brandyn reached the destination and the park was dead silent. There seemed to be no movement except for the rustling of the leaves and branches of the massive trees.

For a normal human, this forest would seem abnormally dark.

However, for Brandyn, it was almost as if he had been gifted with the ability of night vision. This allowed him to find his prey akin to an eagle finding theirs.

Within the depths of the woods, he had found his target. He almost completely matched Carbine's target and Brandyn started to ready himself for action.

"Here he is. I must be trying to get that briefcase that he has." Brandyn deduced, hiding behind a thick tree trunk.

His target had moderate length hair with restless hazel eyes that seemed to scan his surroundings as if they were surveillance cameras. His heartbeat was pounding and even in this breezy environment, he was profusely sweating.

For a human to be tasked with moving such an amount of money, he was most certainly fearful.

"Calm down, Cole. If you see someone, just use your gun." He repeated to himself, shakily holding the briefcase.

*tap*

A footstep.

*tap*

Another.

Cole reached down to his waist to grab his gun and his eyes started to water from just the fear of another person being in this forest with him. He was surrounding by the dark green leaves of the trees adjacent to him but beyond that was a black void.

*CLICK*

His weapon was now ready. He was ready.

"This guy seems so scared. This won't be too hard." Brandyn realised, as his eyes started to glow their signature, menacing purple.

His hand, which was pressed across a tree, slowly grew claws that slashed across the bark that it was touching.

His fangs grew long and deadly, but all Cole could see were his two purple, glowing eyes.

Suddenly, Brandyn dashed ahead and in a straight direction, breaking past ordinary human boundaries in less than a second.

*BANG*

A grey rock infused with another form of metal soared across the forest and at high velocity for its apparently high weight. The rock then slammed into Brandyn's rib, knocking him right off course. The gun even had a stream of hot smoke emitting from the barrel as the weapon was so explosive.

Cole stood there, involuntarily rattling the gun with his unsteady hands and Brandyn dropped to a hand and knee from this attack.

"Argh! I think he broke one of my ribs with that thing! What even was that?" He wondered, holding the wound to then see his hand, which was covered in his own blood.

As he viewed this blood, he snapped.

"Should I run?" Cole wondered, watching Brandyn lowly snarl as he saw this blood.

Once he looked up again, Cole's body seemed to begin running in the opposite direction on its own. However, a regular-born's attempt at outrunning someone like Brandyn will always be futile.

Even with 15 metres in between him and Brandyn, the distance was closed in less than a few seconds. Viciously, Brandyn slugged his right arm ahead and slashed across Cole's entire back. Not only was the cutting damage incredibly painful but the pushing force from his slam even knocked Cole to the floor. As he started to fall, he dropped the briefcase in the process but as of now, this was one of the least of his worries.

As he saw how real his chance of death was, all sense of rationality had disappeared. The only thing that mattered to him now was his life.

Seeing this great opportunity, Brandyn snatched the briefcase then leaped forwards to force his leg ahead. As Cole was on the ground, lying on his knees and forearms, the foot drove right into his abdomen and rolled him right over onto his back.

*COUGH*

The kick was something that the regular-born had never felt before. His internal organs felt as if they were about to rupture and he was totally vulnerable against his attacker.

Luckily for him, Brandyn was not here for him.

As Brandyn stood over the weakened human for a few seconds, his rage started to dwindle. He felt slightly lethargic and it felt like an adrenaline dump as he was pulled back to reality. Initially, he would've attacked him again but with his calmer mind, he ran off into the distance and didn't even look back.

In a few minutes, Brandyn was out of the forest entirely and he had the briefcase firm in hand.

After those few minutes, another man arrived at the scene. He wore a black mask and a dark jacket, with chains across certain areas. His facial features were completely hidden and he didn't even help Cole up.

"Where's the money?!" He asked furiously, with a suspicious bag of white powder in his hand.

"Someone infiltrated the transaction. I don't know the guy but he *cough* took the briefcase." Cole said with a raspy and light voice.

While he struggled up to his feet, the man was starting to bubble up with rage. Cole was saved from his terrifying facial expression due to his mask but he immediately knew that he was not happy with what had occurred.

"You had one job! I swear your gang can't get anything right! Why would they ever put someone like you on a mission like this." He said in a quite but angry tone, grabbing Cole by the neck of his shirt.

Just this grab forced Cole back 2 steps and the man's eyes glowed a pale yellow. As he grasped onto his shirt, a golden energy enveloped his arm and seemed to make his grip even tighter than before.

"S-sorry.." Cole said, struggling to catch his breath.