Akuma

Chapter 4

"Damnit! Can't you bring it somewhere I can see it?" Runa's voice filtered over the comlink, buzzing in his ear. Kaede grit his teeth as he dodged another strike to his chest. His clothes were cut up, but luckily the demon hadn't landed a blow on him. All the while, he'd been dancing around in the street below, unable to get it to go where he wanted it to.

"If I could have, I would have done it already!" he shouted back in irritation. His gun was long empty, so Kaede had resorted to his numerous throwing knives and finally down to his long knives. He twisted around, slashing at the demon as it cut at him too. The silver blades dragged deep into the demon's arm, but only served to anger it further.

He bent backwards, trying to avoid the heavy blow that was aimed right at his chest. The claws caught on his clothes, pulled and tore. The other arm swung at him and caught him hard in his side. Tossed heavily to the side, Kaede hit the ground and rolled quite a ways before stopping. 

"Kaede! There... there are people..."

"Yeah, I know that," he replied as he wiped at a bit of blood on the corner of his lip. 

"No, no they are... fighting a creature up on a roof."

"What? Runa! This isn't the time for that!" He cursed as he threw himself to the right and rolled again to avoid taking another hit. As he came up on one knee, his ribs pulsed with a sharp stabbing sensation throughout his entire side. Caught by surprise, he wrapped an arm around his chest, holding tightly to where it hurt.

"Lure that thing towards them! I can't get a clear shot and there's no way in hell you can kill it yourself."

"What makes you say that!? I can handle it just fine, besides didn't you just say they were fighting?" he cursed back and stood to glower at the creature that huffed in the moonlight. Thick white mist curled up from its lips as it growled at him.

"They killed it already! And I saw how large that thing is! I doubt even my bullets could take it down. Hurry Kaede."

He ground his teeth as he stood there, bent over slightly from the pain in his side. A cough worked its way up into his mouth and he couldn't help but spit up hot liquid into his mouth. Surprised, he spat it out onto the ground and grimaced as the crimson liquid sparkled back at him in the moonlight. Damn... he thought to himself. Moving his hand from his side, he was relieved to see that there wasn't any blood. However, that meant that the damage inside was much worse.

"Which way?" he groaned slightly. Runa began giving him instructions on which way to go and he followed them. It was a shot in the dark, but hopefully the damned thing would follow him. Kaede didn't have to worry about losing the demon, he wasn't as fast as before wounded as he was. His breath was growing shorter and the darkened streets that he was following were starting to spin before his eyes.

"How... much... further," he panted into the comlink. His body was on fire and he felt that if he had to continue any longer he would pass out from sheer exhaustion. Glancing behind him, the demon continued the chase. It was growling as it rushed after him, using its wings every so often to gain more distance. Shit... it's catching up to me too quickly.

"If you've taken the right I told you about already, you should be nearing the building by now. It's a gray building, a little run down and rather large. Larger than the buildings around it."

"Because that's so helpful," Kaede muttered angrily. As he ran he tried to figure out what building she'd been talking about.

"I'll get their attention, maybe it'll be enough to get them to see you..."

"What are you doing?" He asked, worried about how she was going to get their attention. The moment he asked a loud sound caught his attention. Right above him a bit of rock showered down over his head. Was this the building she was talking about? It was grey... and rather large...Wait, did Runa seriously just fire a shot at them!? Almost immediately after another shot hit the building, resounding in the street he was standing in. Kaede came to a halt, half in awe because of her audacity, the other half because he'd located the building where these supposed people where.