eternal || hawks x reader

Chapter 4 || Blood

"your bones pressed against your skin so hard you would think that they were simply dying to scream their secrets to whoever cared enough to listen."
- k.p.k

"Euchhh... Achh..."

My nails dug into black skin, hands clasped around my neck. Beady eyes of the same color watched me blankly as the monster crushing my throat only tightened his grip. The scratches I inflicted upon him closed, healing seconds after, and he cocked his head to the right as he watched me struggle to stay conscious. I hadn't detected him coming and when Rumi had pointed out the beast's presence, it was too late. The pure strength he possessed caught me completely off guard, the lack of oxygen to my brain not helping much either to figure out my next move.

"Let... her... go!" Mirko's ragged voice and heavy breathing brought me back from slipping in and out of consciousness. She jumped into the air, slightly healed from my blood, and struck the face of the freaky giant that resembled a really fucked looking sort of bird with it's brain exposed. Her kick lacked any sort of power as she was overexerting herself, barely affecting him and instead he used his other hand to grab her foot. He merely increased his hold to stimulate a cry of pain out of her, bones being audibly broken and the torturous sound was enough to get me to focus on bringing this bastard to his knees. Strained and trembling, my thumb pressed the side of my ring to switch out the small blade.

Running it over my palm, I began bleeding a bit slower than usual but I had him to thank for that. I wasn't sure how this was causing it but just being slightly aware was enough for me not to let this happen again. In two clean sweeps, I hardened my blood enough to be able to cut through his rough skin straight down and through the bone. Both of the hands holding Rumi and I hostage were severed off, falling to the ground along with our bodies. I ended up on my back, desperately gasping for air until it burned to try and keep breathing. "What the hell..." My voice was hoarse, each word I tried to form felt like rubbing sandpaper together in my throat, "... is that thing?'

She had landed on her side, holding her leg with gritted teeth. I always knew her to have a rather high pain tolerance so for this monster's attack to have her show any sign of struggle -  it was more than obvious she was pushing herself too far. "T-They called it a Nomu."

Nomu?

A ginormous foot came into view, within seconds crashing down towards my stomach. I quickly rolled out of the way to avoid the attack, nearing a heap of fire that was burning away at the floor level we were on. My back came into contact with the flames, searing the back of my body suit and exposing the skin. I pushed myself forward, wheezing from the slight unexpected injury. "Who is, they?"

"I don't know exactly, none of the League of Villain members showed their faces before they set these monsters loose on us." Mirko slowly stood up, trembling as she did so. My eyebrows furrowed when it was revealed that this freak wasn't the only one running around the blazing building; exactly how many did she have to go up against to end up like this? "I was able to take down his friends without even breaking a damn sweat but this guy is a... different breed."

The Nomu came towards her now, towering over her within seconds possessing newly formed hands. He was faster than a literal blink of an eye to the point that it was actually scary. Not to mention she could barely keep up with him as her enhanced speed wasn't at a hundred percent, even after I healed what little I could inside her. Thankfully, she was still able to dodge the jabs he sent her way as hand-to-hand combat was her specialty.

From earlier, it seemed the most effective way at slowing this bastard down was to slice through his body. I cut open my right hands palm to match my left as it hadn't closed yet. Sharp, lengthy katanas formed from both wounds and I slid over before he could throw another punch, shielding her from the next blow as the heavy-handed hit struck the weapons. He didn't retract his fist, only pushing it harder against the blades as I struggled to fight against his sheer strength. "Mirko... you... have to.... get out of here!"