The man immediately fired his blasters. Sin dodged sluggishly, his movements heavy and uncoordinated. He simply didn't have the energy for quick evasion. Fighting back wasn't an option, so all he could do was evade the attacks. Even managing that would be a miracle.
The man rushed forward and seized Sin by the shoulder. His grip was iron, holding Sin firmly in place as he drove his fist into Sin's stomach. The punches came relentlessly, one after another. Sin felt his insides lurch upward toward his throat, nausea rising with each brutal impact. He was certain he would vomit at any moment. The world tilted around him, reality fragmenting into sharp edges of pain.
The assault continued without mercy. Flashes of searing pain exploded through his abdomen with every blow. Sin couldn't fight back—couldn't even raise his arms in defense. He was utterly helpless, a punching bag for his opponent's rage. Each strike drove the breath from his lungs, leaving him gasping and broken.
After the final devastating punch, Sin flew backward through the air. He crashed onto the ground, his body collapsing into the grass. Extreme agony coursed through every nerve. His stomach throbbed with pain even as moments passed since that last strike. The cool earth beneath him offered no comfort, only the cold certainty of defeat.
Sin's vision blurred and swam before his eyes. Lying there broken, he understood with crushing clarity what had happened. He had known from the start that he wouldn't win this fight—that he wouldn't even stand a chance. The outcome had been inevitable from the moment it began. There was no changing it, no rewriting this brutal reality. A wave of despair washed over him as darkness crept in at the edges of his consciousness.
Then his vision went completely dark.
The Shadow demon had been released.
Sin stood up again, but it wasn't exactly him anymore. The Shadow demon wore his face like a mask. A smile crept across Sin's features as he spoke with a staticky voice that oscillated between dark, high-pitched tones and deep, resonant lows. The sound itself seemed to tear at the fabric of reality.
"Come here," the demon said, its voice layered with malice.
It rushed forward and grabbed the hunter. The hunter couldn't notice the transformation—couldn't see that this was no longer the broken man he'd been beating moments before. The demon version of Sin looked at the hunter with eyes that held no humanity, then kicked him across the field. The hunter skidded across the ground, grass and dirt spraying in his wake.
He stood up quickly, shooting a barrage of beams at Sin. The demon dodged with inhuman grace, grabbed one of the energy beams with bare hands, and hurled it back at him. The hunter barely dodged it, rolling to the side.
"Your energy—it's weak," the hunter said, breathing heavily.
"I know it is, but I have more important matters to attend to," the demon replied, its voice crackling with static. "So let's finish this quickly."
It dashed forward with supernatural speed. The hunter grabbed the demon by the shoulder again, attempting the same brutal technique that had worked before. But the demon wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.
A demon spike erupted from the ground beneath them. The blood-red spike grew and grew, reaching toward the hunter's chest like a crimson spear. Before it could pierce him, the hunter jumped back, his reflexes saving his life by inches.
"If you think that was enough to hurt me," the hunter said, catching his breath, "I would have been dead a long while ago."
Suddenly, something appeared behind both of them—specifically behind the hunter. A shadowy figure materialized, possessing blades for hands and a muscular frame. It stood around eight feet tall with long, dangly arms. Even the blades extending from where its hands should be were long and sharp, gleaming with an otherworldly sheen. The being rushed forward toward the hunter.
The hunter shot a large beam at it, knocking it back several feet. The demon version of Sin leaped up and shot off a blood beam at the creature. The thing dodged with fluid grace and swiped at Sin. The sharp blade cut into Sin's leg, slicing through flesh and muscle. But the demon didn't care—it didn't register pain. In his unconscious, demon-like state, Sin just smiled and laughed with that static-filled voice.
"Come here," it said, leaping forward.
Multiple blood swords materialized around the thing's head. The crimson blades orbited like a deadly halo, then closed in for the kill. But the creature dissolved into smoke and reappeared beside Sin in an instant.
The hunter provided covering fire, shooting beams and using various weapons to attack the creature. He threw his sword at it, but the creature deflected the blade with its own gigantic appendage. Then it pierced the ground behind the hunter's leg, using the blade as a lever to pick him up and slam his body into the ground. The impact drove the air from the hunter's lungs.
All of the weapons and objects that the hunter had carried around his waist and on his arms scattered across the ground—all except one. He quickly opened a small container and popped a strength pill into his mouth. This was his last resort, the final card he had to play. This would help him in this fight. He wouldn't go down that easily.
He leaped forward, swiftly grabbing some of his weapons—guns, blades, and a few other implements of destruction. The entity threw back its head and shoved it near the hunter's chest, the blade coming dangerously close. The hunter activated a shield by pressing one of the circles on his waist. A shimmering barrier formed around him, but it shattered almost immediately when the thing cut through it with its blade. The shield he had relied on so many times before proved useless against this opponent.
While the hunter fought for his life, the Shadow demon version of Sin wasn't idle either. It punched and used blood and shadow magic to attack the thing, creating multiple shadow portals to confuse and disorient it. The demon created a blood sword and chucked it into a shadow portal. The blade immediately exited through another portal beside the thing's head. When the sword came through, the creature dodged, cutting the blood blade in half with its other blade-hand.
It had basically teleported toward the hunter. The effects of the hunter's pills had nearly run out—he would become weak again soon. He relied on the strength pills, on all of his chemical enhancements, to help him in battle. The hunter jumped back when the thing moved one of its hands in a quick slash, cutting the air with its blade-hand. The displaced air itself seemed to scream.
Demon Sin created a blood fist and threw it toward the thing, but it dodged, cutting the fist in half. The demon created multiple shadow blades and blood blades—an arsenal of supernatural weapons. Shadow and blood weapons alike—blades, axes, hammers, spears—all orbited around the thing. They attacked at once in a coordinated assault.
It did nothing.
The creature wasn't damaged. This thing was far too powerful, operating on a level beyond their comprehension.
Eventually, the demon's energy—Sin's energy—depleted completely. His body had run out of reserves. It collapsed. Sin was on the brink of death. Even his trump card, which he didn't consciously know about—the Shadow demon—hadn't won.
The hunter created a blue energy sword out of nothing when he pressed another button on his waist. He was versatile, having multiple technological weapons at his disposal. He could easily win most battles, but this was something different. This was something he couldn't defeat with surprise or overwhelming damage. What he could do was run. He could escape and live to fight another day. But he wouldn't do that now. He would fight, and only if he had no other choice would he retreat.
The hunter jumped forward and slashed the thing's chest with his blue blade. When he looked at the impact point, there was no damage whatsoever. The thing knocked the hunter back with its blade, sending him flying far into the sky. He fell to the ground at least a hundred feet away from demon Sin and the creature.
Sin lay nearly dead, barely clinging to consciousness. The hunter got up and ran. He ran back to his facility, his boots pounding against the earth. He ran down the stairs, descending into the underground complex. Finally, he reached his command chair and collapsed into it. He let out a sigh of relief, though his body trembled with exhaustion.
"That was close," he muttered to himself.
Sweat poured down his face. He had multiple injuries from the blades that the thing had for hands. When he had first looked at it, it had four white eyes—pure whiteness, like someone had painted white circles on its face and called them eyes.
The thing had disappeared when it saw Sin on the ground. Even though Sin was right there for the taking, lying in the middle of a field where no one would notice, it had known that Sin had depleted his energy. It wouldn't gain much strength from killing Sin in that state. The being disappeared into smoke and retreated to a dark area miles away from the field. It would go kill more people, gain more strength, and then when Sin had recovered, it would come back. It would return for another bite. It would claim its prey.
No matter what, this thing—whatever it was—would grow stronger. Sin, unconscious, would have to fight this creature again. The Shadow demon that emerged when Sin fell unconscious would be a failsafe, a last line of defense. But even that had failed.
Sin lay broken on the ground, his body torn up, cuts covering every inch of exposed skin. Blood seeped into the grass beneath him, staining the earth dark.
He was going to die.