There were footsteps padding on the tiles behind me, approaching at a faster speed than my mind would like to believe. The next rooftop grew closer and larger at a steady rate. I took two well placed steps and leaped forward with every bone in me, as if I were a machine engineered specifically for jumping. The wind froze for a split second, and the whole world spun in slow motion as I slid through air, but what seemed through time. It then resumed normal pace as I landed on top of the local deli store, I tucked my feet into my chest for a quick roll to absorb the fall, feeling the vibrations flow through my feet and recreate up my shins. As I stood to my natural height to begin running, the familiar sound had also managed to make the jump. I quickly became annoyed at the fact of this pest being able to keep up with me. I'm fucking fast, bro! I thought to myself. There's no way it caught me so quickly!!
I avidly swiveled on my heel to face the opposition just in time for its opening attack. As it lunged, time moved in slow motion again, almost halted to a standstill in fact. The person... The thing... That lie before me, was a kishin. A souls that had been tainted with evil, the corruption spreading outward into its physical appearance as well. They require the essence of other souls to survive in their state. And since most people don't sign their souls over on a contract, the kishin take them by force and devour them. This one, Death told us before the mission, had been nicknamed Bad Kill, as it left a sloppy and loud mess of every victim that happened to step into his death rain cloud. It's head was shaped like a cube with 4 faces on each the front, back, left, and right side with a different expression on each face. It's four arms were long and flexible, almost like tentacles. The six legs moved at an extremely impressive speed. I eyed the creature up and down, left and right, analyzing it closely, taking in every detail like an artist before his canvas. I was going to paint with it's blood and my brush would be the weapon on my back.
With effortless agility, I ducked under its first horizontal swipe. The next face targeted me, reaching its arm out to grab me. I darted quickly to the right. This time, two of the faces decided to attack in sync, vertically slashing upwards one after the other. I dodged left then spun to the left again to put myself at a distance, allowing me to draw my weapon. I pulled it from my back.
"About time you stopped showing off and decided to use me," the weapon said in a snarky sense.
"Babe," I started to say but was so rudely interrupted by having to narrowly block an attack coming for the left side of my face. The claws grazed the polespear, making an unpleasant yet exhilarating sound. "No offense but um... I could've done this without having to arm myself." I responded back with just as much of a playful attitude. I dodged and blocked two attacks in quick succession.
"And so could I," she bounced back. "In fact, if I were alone, I'd have done it 4 minutes faster."
The kishin spun like a helicopter, it's arms held out like propellers and all six legs moving in perfect time with each other. The whole phenom produced a sound like a locomotive. And it came speeding for us. I ran the opposite direction, towards a wall at the south of the building. I lobbed the spear into the brick wall as hard as possible, careful not to miss a step in my stride. It impaled the wall with a sturdy sound. I jumped into the air as I approached, landing easily on the very tip of my perch I'd created and waited for Bad Kill to get closer. As it does into range, I hopped from the spear like a springboard, doing a a side flip for extra style, and landed soft footedly on the pavement roof directly behind the creature. The helicopter halted in it's tracks. The corner between to faces stared at me. Neither side of the monster was able to detect where I'd gone.
Got you.
I rushed forward and threw a heavy kick right the the kishin's skull. It toppled backwards and in an effort to regather it's balance pushed itself onto the polearm. The kishin struggled for a moment, then gave up as the life drew away from its deformed body. All the faces grew expressionless as though they were in a serious business meeting. The fight was over. I wrenched my weapon first from the wall then from the head of my hunt. I tossed it 3 feet into the air in front of me and held my arms out as though a young girl was falling through the air. What came down was not my weapon, but instead a young girl who was falling through the air landed in my arms.
"I hate when you make me transform to human in mid air. You know how I feel about falling," she stated in an unhappy yet playful manner.
"But don't you love it when I catch you?" I asked her. She replied with a cute "maybe" and kissed my lips softly. I set her down. We stood over the corpse together, each of us on one side of the body. It's matter started glowing, and then disappearing until nothing was left except for a few sparkles of body essence and a small, hovering ball of flame.
"There's your soul El. Last one, and then we'll need a witch!"
"Yea." She scooped up the maroon ball in both hands. She held her nostrils closed with on hand and held the souls by its tail with the other. "I hate eating these so much," her voice sounded funny. I let out a light scoff and a warm grin. I watched the thing slide into her mouth. She forced a large gulping swallow to get it completely down. "Ew... I never get used to the taste."
I'm sure the witch's soul will taste much better. And the power of being a death weapon: like heaven. Or in our case, hell.
