達人專欄Chapter 6
Leap of Faith
The Queen is coming.
From the underground where the pyramid collapsed.
Not far away, the surface of the snow has suddenly cracked open, and Scar has just finished drawing the burning mark.
Like a humpback whale breaking the water, the Queen rushes out of the snow, flinging snow and the remains of her children from her fan-shaped crown, and immediately sees the only two living creatures left at the site of the whaling station.
Scar took a step to block Ooman behind him, Lex did not stay still and was knocked to the ground.
The only chance for a long-range attack is now; the Queen will never be this far away from them again.
Scar drew the shuriken as he had last time and threw it at Queen, the hard disk blade slicing her throat and opening a gaping hole between the torn tendons. Acidic blood spurted out and burned the snow surface with a hiss.
Scar was about to catch the shuriken when it flew back like a boomerang. He still had some distance and time to throw it again, but Queen suddenly took a step forward with her long, bent leg.
With a single step, the flying black tail struck Scar across the entire distance, smashing the hunter through the side of a small building.
Scar did not lose consciousness, but he almost thought he would see Cetanu leading the hunting party in the middle of a burning Antarctica.
When the same thing happens again, many people think they can make different choices and change the outcome, but Scar feels that if the same process happens again, he will only make the same choices, and apparently for the worse.
It's not that he doesn't have a choice. But Yautja don't run away from the problem. He has to find the answer of this ritual, and has to do it soon, or he'll probably be put back on that tail spear again.
Everything was shattered, the wood and the lamp, and fire erupted from the broken gas cans, which soon ignited a raging blaze. The building was completely engulfed within minutes, but fortunately, the intense heat restored Scar's ability to move and temporarily escape the heat loss.
He struggled to crawl through the wreckage, dodging falling beams, and rose to free himself from the burning debris and return to the snow. Scar struggled to stay on his feet, but even Yautja's tough physique began to stagger under the loss of blood and heat.
The approaching Queen gives him neither time nor luck, stomping him to the ground before Scar can get out and the Queen raises her claws...
If he was going to be torn apart, Scar was not going to let the Queen get away with it.
The blades pop out of the wrist gauntlet, and the was-dead hunter prepares for a sour, bloody funeral.
—This reality is not real, as Scar well knows. He's already dead under Queen's tail, with Predalien in his chest, and this renewed hunt has actually trapped him by his own choice. The purpose of replicating reality may be to let him watch himself continue to make the same choices, and nothing will change...
He would not leave Lex; he would help Lex pick up Queen's chain and wrap it around the cast-iron vat, exposing his back for the slim chance.
No matter how many times he does it again, he will choose this path.
Could it be that the gods wanted him to relive it to let him know that there is no honor in accepting this act from Lex?
If it had been the other two hunting brothers who had caught up with Lex, Scar was sure that she would have become their trophy, not Yautja, who had to take a non-warrior Ooman with them after recovering their weapon.
At least not in the past.
A warrior's scream echoed through the whaling station.
Lex suddenly appeared on Queen's back, making a sound that Scar had never heard before, raising her spear above her head, and then using all her strength to plunge the weapon into the wound that Scar had inflicted in Queen's throat.
The Queen has Ooman on her head, and the Ooman has the sky behind her back, her hair and the Queen's evil back spikes blooming in the snow and wind, her wide open mouth spewing hot mist. If Scar had a future, this would be the most memorable scene of his life.
The Queen howls as she rises, her long, deadly tail wagging behind her, and tosses her crowned head in an attempt to get rid of Ooman.
Scar stumbles to avoid her chaotic footsteps, the snow drenched in acidic blood gushing around him and scattering everywhere like snowflakes. Scar can't see how Lex is doing, but he hopes the shield he gave her is working.
Scar is especially small at this point, and Yautja, who has never faced Queen in person, has no idea how dangerous she really is, and neither distance nor videos can recreate that reality. The monster's huge claws kick, four sharp ones slicing the air above his head, and a terrible hissing sound envelops his hearing.
Physical death hangs overhead.
Suddenly, death is gone. The Queen stood until the highest. Lex, hanging on to the spear, refused to let go of her hands and tried even harder to use her weight to drive the weapon into the wound, but the Queen threw her out with a powerful flip of her head.
The shield, stained with acidic blood, had gone nowhere, and Lex rolled away from Queen's feet as the moonlight shone back on Scar. He was still on the ground, meeting Lex's gaze in a haze of mist.
...Whether this is the true reality or not, these eyes are indeed Lex's.
This brave Ooman jumped up and ran out.
The Queen struggled to free herself from the spear stuck in her throat like the reality she once was, lost her balance, and fell into the burning building, but not for long, rising like a charred, evil phoenix.
The Ooman ran away, and the Queen ran after her, forgetting that a hunter was at her feet. They soon disappeared together into the mist of the whalebone forest.
The only sound that remained in the snow was the sound of burning flames, and Scar managed to rise and grab the Queen's bloodied spear that had fallen in the snow before the cold and loss of blood knocked him to the ground like a Cetanu''s fist.
The snow turned green, and Scar exhaled hot air as he tried to dig himself out of the depression, the hunter's moon illuminating the hunter's shadow and glowing blood and casting a shadow from the fading ruins onto the snow in front of him.
Scar dared not look back, knowing that what was behind him was definitely not the Elders overseeing the Blood Ritual, they were still hiding under the invisibility system, peering at the battlefield, or perhaps the Clan's projection was not in this reality at all.
The shadows are not moving; there is a line of sight behind Scar.
Scar gritted his mandibles, had no intention of holding out or waiting, gathering what strength he had left to breathe hard, his palms shattering the shadowy snow, pulling himself out of the depression and grabbing the spear.
Whether this is reality or not... He is still him. Saved by Lex and fell inside the snow. Each of his blows failed to kill the Queen, who killed him with a single blow and was then sunk by Lex.
Scar did not care what the gods wanted, even though he believed in them. What he wants has not changed.
The Yautja hunt ends with nothing but trophies and glory.
That glory sometimes includes death.
He was long gone dead.
So the gods and the second reality are no longer important.
When the end is reached, what is there will be known. That's how he chose to end it.
Scar removed the bio-mask from his waist and held it up to his face, his vision mode magnifying the shadow of a cliff on the distant shore... There it was, the cast-iron vat sitting in the same spot, like a tombstone waiting for someone to claim it.
A terrifying trail of pursuit stretched down the frozen shore, the mist that the Queen lifted rolling in the air along with her angry hisses and Lex's screams.
Hanging his bio-mask back on his belt, Scar quickened his pace, running toward his destiny.
The pale, ancient whale bones emerged from the snow, pointing disorderly to the sky as if an even larger white Queen hid beneath the ground. Scar ran through the cold fog, exhaling more fog.
Lex is hiding under the cast-iron vat on the cliff, and the Queen is like a monster attacking the ant hill, digging and probing inside, shooting the inner jaw in the mouth.
Scar on the very fast speed to increase the speed of another section, running as if to override the fog. The last step was a heavy one, and the speed made the jump very easy, as if a great hand had lifted him up and tied a line around Queen's head, pulling him toward the black tomb.
Scar was no longer cold; his twin hearts were pumping hot blood, and the wind was blowing through all his dreadlocks. The Queen became small beneath the height, and this miraculous leap surpassed the last blow of his life. He howled loudly and thrust out the spear in his hand, the weapon sinking deep into Queen's throat wound, never to be pulled out again.
Tha acidic blood blossomed yellow as Scar fearlessly thrust into the weapon until there was no more length to push. Before gravity took him, Scar's wristblades popped out to their full length, following him in his spin as he swung silently across Queen's shiny black skin before falling to the ground.
Time slowed just as it had before he grabbed the second Facehugger, and Scar's attention was quick enough to see Lex pick up one of Queen's chains...
He'll help her, and then he'll die.
The Queen is still struggling, the spear in her throat too deep for her claws to grab anything, and she doesn't notice the remnants of the chains being pulled from her body. But the chains were too heavy, and Lex stumbled to her knees, the heavy chains hitting a chasm in the snow. She ran out of strength.
Scar shakes off the snow and wind from the dreadlocks and rushes through, picking up the chain links and wrapping them around the wobbly handle of the separator. Lex finally got up in this moment of impending victory and helped Scar work together, fighting side by side.
A definite jolt came from Scar's hand... The Queen was bound.
Lex's expression was the same as when she first saw the sneak attack behind Scar, and her mouth opened softly. The Queen's huge, sharp, black weapon landed on Scar's back.
The air rushed from behind Scar into Lex's face, drying her shocked eyeballs.
Scar stiffens and straightens his body because of the impact, but it's not the glowing green blood Lex sees.
—Bright yellow lines appear out of nowhere on Queen's dark tail, slowly tracing two straight lines. Her long, mangled tail finally shattered like all her offspring, breaking into several pieces, and the centrifugal force sent it flying over Lex's sides in the airstream that hit Scar, scattering pieces everywhere.
Deadly acidic blood gushed from the Queen's wounded side, and just as she was about to hurl it at her hated enemy, she collapsed.
She had lost so much blood from her throat that the broken tail became her final straw. The rain of blood spurted like a fire hydrant, suddenly cutting off a few paces in front of Scar and Lex, then slowing to a trickle, and then stopping.
But the mother of the hive is not dead yet. She still has enough strength to live on, smearing patterns in the snow.
Scar stood out, just as he had with the first kill, his wristblades passing silently through the support beam of the cast-iron vat. After a moment, a line appeared on the intact beam, followed by a loud crack as the cliff fell down the slope, bouncing and tumbling.
The chain suddenly grabbed the Queen.
She was dragged through the snow, struggling helplessly, pulled by the taut chain to the next eternal prison. The cast-iron vat finally rolled to the bottom and crashed into the frozen sea.
Pausing at the edge of the cliff, the Queen was almost in front of Scar and Lex, firing her inner jaw at the prey one last time, but Scar gently carried Lex away, holding her in his arms and letting her dodge the last viper, then raised his fist to the gray Antarctic sky.
Two silver lights shot out of the wrist gauntlet.
The wrist gauntlet threw two long, long arcs, like two serpent's teeth piercing the surface of the sea. The ice emitted a deep, distant, dull hum, and then the sound of the cracks, like increasingly rapid raindrops, drew a giant spider web.
The surface of the sea finally collapsed, and the cast-iron vat crashed into the bay.
Antarctic Queen let out a terrible scream, wiping saliva everywhere but struggling in vain, leaving only a yellow trail of blood on the snow. She was sucked into the sea.
The last sound of her disappearing behind the cliff was insignificant.
The snow still fell softly, and Ooman, who was hugged by Scar, was very warm.
Scar gently let go of Lex, who was walking slowly forward, and stood uncertainly at the edge of the cliff, looking into the black abyss below. She then looked back at Scar, watching the hunter in the wind and under the hunter's moon.
She almost smiled.
A terrible, sharp pain suddenly caused Scar to raise his chest and scream.
The pain in his chest suddenly disappeared, and he bent over to breathe a sigh of relief, only to stiffen even more in pain the next moment and drop both knees to the snow.
Novel's English correction accept, welcome to point out mistakes or provide constructive suggestions. But I will revise it after a while to avoid several different suggestions.
