With You, Under the Stars

XV. Dismay

All Soobin hears is the echo of the beating drum within his chest, and it's increasing. The two hunters just stand there, diabolically grimacing down at them, holding their power. Kai is limp and barely conscious. With his legs having no strength to hold himself up, the two hunters are dangling him between them like a rag doll. The taller of the two, DK, does this with one hand and in the other is a .44 magnum angled at his neck, ready to blow his head clean off at his will. The boys know that if they make one wrong move, it could be all over for Kai.

Yeonjun and the others stand there frozen, looking for an opening of any kind to turn the scenario in their favor, but it feels like they're staring down a brick wall. The fresh and newly night air breezes through the open building, bits of dust being picked up along the way. Faint sirens are heard far off in the distance. Luckily no pedestrians were around when the explosion happened, thinks Yeonjun, but he is worried for these incoming police and firemen. They don't deserve to die for stumbling into the conflicts of this world.

Everyone holds still with their sights fixed forward at the enemy. Yeonjun's eyes flicker around at the sudden darkening of the room that makes the hair on his arms stand up. In the back of his mind, his senses sends him on full alert and adrenaline starts kicking in tenfold. He looks over at Soobin and his blood runs cold.

"You think you can threaten me?"

The building has darkened past the point of sight for anyone to see who wasn't of the supernatural. In the few times Yeonjun has caught Soobin in a... darker moment... Those were nothing compared to those merciless, piercing eyes.

"I know even your second-rate senses can discern what I am. You actually think you can threaten a pureblood and get away with it?"

It happened in less than a second, even the aristocrats had a bit of trouble following Soobin's movements. The pureblood surges forward, imprinting a crack in the floor that goes through the wooden panels and into the concrete it was built above. The skin on his right hand dissolves and morphs into a dark red, peculiarly shaped kind of blade. It has all kinds of sharp yet smooth lines, at first glance you would think it was a sculpture that belonged in an art gallery. This weapon of a hand lifts and slices through the body of a being that had jumped mid air. Yeonjun had almost forgotten there were others, they were just lurking in the shadows, hungry to attack. This one was a hunter, for the blow left a gory gash rather than sand. Soobin effortlessly cut deep into their torso, partially dividing it in two. Yeonjun listens and there is one less beating heart in the area than before, and Soobin isn't done.

One after another, more and more figures appear between them and the hunters, but Soobin slices them down without hesitation. The other vampires are kept busy fighting several people at once, the smell of blood thickens with every slash that is brought down. Yeonjun doesn't have time to think, just to trust his body and instincts to guide him through this awful fight alive. He can't bring himself to deliver the final blow, but knowing how to make his opponent unconscious and move onto the next proves that his training hasn't been for nothing. He's dodging most attacks and knows how to keep going after the ones he doesn't block leave their mark. While this is all happening, the five hunters stand on their pile of rubble, grimacing faces unchanging. Kai's weakening heart is the only motivation Soobin needs to bring down those being sent out like disposable trash and on to his real obstacles.

Yeonjun had just taken down what he thinks is either his seventh or eight opponent when something catches his eye. Behind Woozi and DK with Kai in the middle of them appears a figure moving towards them fast, his senses tell him it's another hunter. They're holding something long and thin that catches the light of the moon when it is lifted. Yeonjun's eyes go wide and he freezes. Soobin runs forward, but it's too late. The other hunters disperse out of the way and, with deadly grace, the sword comes flying down.