HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

Archie groaned as his whole body felt the burning from the inside, he couldn’t care less about his surroundings because he felt the most unbearable pain that he ever had. He clenched his fists and tried to grab anything he could, his grip was strong enough to bend the steel door next to him. His groans made the parasites that were sleeping to woke up, and he sensed it even though he was dealing with the pain. His whole body trembled as if every cell in his body tried to leave him.

He heard screeches coming from both sides of the hallway, and they weren’t that dangerous compared to the ones he fought back then. While he couldn’t control his body, the parasites pounced at him and bit him, but his skin was so tough that it was hard for them to get their teeth through while Archie was still struggling to control his body with parasites on top of him.

Archie’s skin started to itch and the parasites managed to tear his skin open and then started to chew his flesh. At that moment he finally regained most of his body parts, but not his hands, his fingers suddenly expanded and his claws were sharpened. His hands moved on their own and slashed the parasites into halves, the rest of the parasites ran away in fear and immediately hid in the darkness.

Archie felt all the bones in his hands break after that, he looked at his long fingers and claws while he slowly moved them and observed them. He then walked toward the steel door and scratched it with his claws, the steel wall was damaged from just a scratch.

“What’s happening to me…” Archie said as he looked at his fingers.

Archie felt the joints in his fingers were like a string that he could pull and release. He pulled the joints and his fingers slowly back to their normal size, then he tried to extend his fingers again and it became longer and longer until he started to feel unbearable pain.

“This power, is this belong to that parasite?” Archie asked as put his fingers back to normal.

Archie decided to go back to where the fragment was, and tried his new ability to carve the meteorite with his claws.

Archie looked at the meteorite and extended his claws, he then scratched the meteorite with his claws but not even a single scratch could be seen. He shook his head as he scoffed because of how sturdy and tough the meteorite was, he then decided to leave and go back to the city.

When he got out of the laboratory, it was night already and he had been suffering for almost half a day. On his way back to the city, his heart suddenly pounded really fast and his vision was sharpened in an instant. He looked to his right and saw a person standing in the middle of the road staring at him, it was a guy and he knew that was the guy that Vincent mentioned yesterday.

Archie gulped and stared back at the person who hid his face with a hoodie. He slowly clenched his fists and lightning came out of nowhere that distracted him, and when he looked back at the guy, he was already in front of him and kneed him in the gut really hard.

Archie was thrown away and hit the buildings nonstop until he hit a concrete wall. For the first time after a while, Archie couldn’t move his whole body by just a single hit and at that moment he knew he was no match for that guy.

The guy walked toward Archie so casually and calmly as if he was playing with Archie. Archie stared at him as he rapidly recover from the hit, he then ran toward the guy and used the ability he just learned. The guy didn’t bother and kept walking casually, and when Archie was in range, he extended his fingers and claws, then scratched the guy’s hoodie.

A jet-black hair guy with bright blue eyes was staring at Archie then he grabbed Archie’s hand and cut it off with his hand transformed into a blade. Archie was shocked when he could do something like that, and while he was still in shock, the guy stabbed Archie in the chest with that hand of his.

He pushed his arm all the way back to Archie’s back, he lifted Archie up into the air with a smile on his face. “We have finally met,” The guy said as he kept smiling with Archie’s blood falling down to his face.

Archie couldn’t even open his mouth as he grimaced to endure the pain, he then decided to use his left hand to stab the guy’s neck but the guy immediately threw him away before Archie could reach his hand to him.

“I knew that they were up for something, that’s why I came all the way here to check what’s going on,” The guy said with an assertive tone. “How lucky that I found you as soon as I came here,” The guy continued as he walked toward Archie.

Archie exhausted his ability to heal after everything that happened to him. He couldn’t heal the big hole in his chest because of that, and it was hard for him to even breathe. All he could do was stare at the guy with his eyes half-opened.

“Why are you doing this…” Archie asked as he leaned on the wall.

The guy tilted his head while he furrowed his eyebrows. “Why?” The guy said. “Isn’t that what they want? To get rid of all the competitors?” The guy said as he crouched in front of Archie.

Archie weakly smiled and blinked his eyes. “I know that already…” Archie said. “What I’m asking is why are you trying to kill the humans? They have nothing to do with this…” Archie continued as he started to feel dizzy and sleepy.

“Why not?!” The guy said as he grabbed Archie by the hair to keep him awake. “As Drautnir, the humans’ fate is in our hand and I can do whatever I want with them,” The guy continued as he banged Archie’s head on the wall.

Archie scoffed. “You’re sick…”

“Me? Don’t you realize that the humans are now at the bottom of the food chain, they’re just ants for us. Why are you still care about them? Living in coexistence with them? With those useless beings?” The guy said and shook his head with disbelief. “They’re nothing but trash that needs to get rid of, and if it’s not us, sooner or later those parasites will do it for us. I’m just making things go faster,” The guy continued.

Archie couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore and he started to lose consciousness, but then the guy choke on him and pushed his head onto the wall while his other hand went inside Archie’s chest and pumped his heart. Because of that, Archie could open his eyes even though it was just a little bit but it was enough to keep him awake.

“I will spare your life this time because it was fun to kill a greenhorn like you.” The guy said as he tried to keep Archie awake. “I will be coming back, seven days from tomorrow with all the parasites to destroy the city and the people in it.” The guy continued as he smiled. “Until then, it’s up to you to leave or to die…” The guy said as he removed both of his hands from Archie.

The guy stood up and watched Archie fall unconscious then he left as the rain started to pour and washed all the blood on the ground.

Archie was unconscious for almost two days, the red-haired witch came to check up on him after her sisters informed her about Archie’s condition. She crouched next to Archie and looked at the hole in his body that hadn’t healed, she put down a bag and fed him something.

Archie chewed the meat and he slowly opened his eyes and looked at the red-haired witch. “Where am I?” Archie asked.

“You were unconscious for a day and a half, and your body couldn’t heal because you almost starved to death.” The red-haired answered. “Here, eat all of them, it will help you recover immediately.” The red-haired witch continued as she offered the meat in the bag.

Archie tried to move his arms but he couldn’t and so the red-haired witch fed him until he recovered.

“How could he be so strong?” Archie asked as he looked at the woman.

“He was chosen a long time ago…” The red-haired witch replied as she fed him. “He has been living for almost a century now…” She continued as she looked at Archie.

“What? How’s that possible?” Archie asked with disbelief.

“How’s that possible? Is that what you really asking me right now?” The woman raised her eyebrow as she looked at Archie with disbelief. “I think you don’t know about us either, huh?” The woman continued. “We, the witch sisters have lived ever since the meteor strike the earth. We have been living for centuries now. We are immortal as long as we have the parasite as our food, and that applies to you as well.” The woman said.

Archie chuckled and coughed when he heard it. “No wonder you sisters and that guy is so strong,” Archie said. “So we are immortal, huh?” Archie asked as he looked at the sky.

“So? What are you going to do? Are you still going to fight him after knowing that you’re no match for him?” The woman asked.

Archie looked at her and smiled. “Of course, I’m going to fight him with everything I got even if that means I have to gain more power from eating parasites…”

“Then, how about we teach you how to become strong?” The woman asked.

Archie smirked and nodded. “That would be great.”