The Hunter's Od Chapter 88: None of Us Are Innocent

Chapter 88: None of Us Are Innocent

Everything broke at once.

Nico lunged up from the floor, face white with horror. Abdul was already moving, dropping to his knees beside Jung as the big man collapsed hard onto one side, one hand desperately trying to clamp down over the wound and failing completely. Blood slipped through his fingers in thick pulses.

Jung choked on a breath, then another, his whole body shaking. His face had gone gray in seconds.

Soo-min landed lightly after the strike, barefoot amid splintered wood and blood, her head tilted slightly to the side as if listening to the panic blooming around her. A thin line of Jung’s blood ran down her blackened fingers.

Jagger saw all of it.

The confusion had ended.

The doubt had ended.

The mont Jung hit the floor, sothing in him snapped.

A hot, savage pressure detonated in his chest and surged through every vein like liquid fire.

"CORRUPTED SURGE."

The words ca out like a growl.

Dark energy erupted through his body in a violent rush. It crawled over his skin in black-red veins, pulsing beneath the surface, feeding into muscle and tendon and bone until every part of him felt too tight for the flesh containing it. His heartbeat slamd against his ribs like a war drum. The room sharpened. The lantern light beca painfully bright. Every breath, every drop of blood, every twitch of Soo-min’s expression slowed and stretched into brutal clarity.

And his eyes turned crimson.

Not red from burst capillaries or reflected lantern light. Crimson. Deep and unnatural, like fresh blood lit from within. The color spread through his irises until there was almost nothing human left in them.

’Yes,’ Ophilia whispered, her voice sliding through his skull like a knife being drawn. ’There it is.’

Her eyes flicked to him.

For the first ti since revealing herself, her smile faltered.

"Interesting, a defective vessel." She spoke with an unnerving composure, her head cocked, studying him as one would an exotic insect. "Your Entity is a failure. Let

show you what real power looks like."

’Kill her and rip her to pieces,’ Ophilia’s anger and hunger seeped into him, fueling the surge, "I want her essence."

"I don’t need your permission," he growled back, the thought raw and unfiltered. Jagger was already on her.

The floor cracked under the force of his first step.

He crossed the room in a blur and drove his fist straight at her face, Bone Rattlers screaming with the force behind it as he held the scavenger fang in reverse grip. Soo-min twisted aside just enough that the tip of the blade glanced off her cheek instead of slashing deep into her skull, but the force still sent her spinning across the lounge. She slamd into the wall beside the kitchenette hard enough to rattle the cabinets and burst one of the cupboard doors open.

She did not stay there.

She kicked off the wall instantly, body low and angled, claws flashing toward his throat.

Jagger ducked under the first slash and brought Jane’s Bowie knife up with brutal force, aiming to gut her from hip to ribs. She twisted mid-motion, impossibly flexible, and the blade only carved a shallow line across her stomach. Cloth split. Dark blood welled. Not black like monster blood. Dark red. Human enough to be unsettling.

She hissed, low and furious, and raked both claws down at his face.

Jagger leaned back just in ti, but one nail caught his cheek. Fire lanced across his skin as four shallow lines opened and bled on his cheek.

"Motherfucker."

Soo-min smiled again, blood at the corner of her lips now. "You should have let

finish what I started. I was being gentle with you."

"With that cheap act?" Jagger spat blood to the side. "You weren’t convincing."

Her expression sharpened. "I got close enough."

’She is filthy wearing skin,’ Ophilia said. ’Stop talking and tear her apart.’

She pressed imdiately, faster now, no longer pretending, no longer restrained by whatever ga she had been playing. Her body moved in staccato bursts, each step too fast, too sudden, like a skipped fra in reality. She ca at him with claws, knees, and elbows, every strike aid to kill. No wasted motion. No hesitation.

Jagger t her head-on.

The Scavenger Fang flashed in one hand, Bowie in the other. Steel and claws collided in bursts of sparks and scraping shrieks. His Bowie knife disappeared as he caught one wrist, twisted, and buried his knee into her stomach. The impact bent her around it, but instead of falling back, she surged forward into the pain and drove her forehead into his nose.

Crunch. "ARGH!"

White pain burst across his vision.

Warm blood flooded over his lips.

She smiled at the damage and went for his eyes.

Jagger roared and slamd his forehead back into hers, harder, putting his full weight behind it. Her head snapped sideways. He seized the opening and drove the Scavenger Fang deep into her shoulder.

The serrated blade bit in.

She scread this ti.

A real scream. Sharp and furious.

[Bleed has been inflicted on the target.]

Jagger ripped the knife sideways, tearing muscle open in a spray of blood. Soo-min stumbled, one arm suddenly hanging lower, but her other hand shot out and clawed into his side. Her nails punched through shirt and skin and scraped across his ribs, drawing a savage line of pain.

He grabbed her by the throat.

His fingers locked around her neck, and he drove her backward across the room, smashing her into the wall-length mirror near the far end of the lounge.

The glass exploded.

The mirror shattered behind her in a deafening crash, fragnts cascading over both of them in glittering sheets. Soo-min convulsed under the impact, a grunt bursting from her lips as the wall shook and fine cracks spread outward from where her body had hit.

Jagger pinned her there.

His face was inches from hers now, blood running from his nose, breath coming in harsh, ragged bursts. Corrupted energy pulsed visibly beneath his skin, turning his crimson eyes colder, harder, almost fever-bright.

"WHY?!"

Soo-min laughed through the blood gathering at the corner of her mouth.

"He was in the way."

Rage flared even hotter.

"He was innocent," he snarled, fingers tightening.

Her smile widened even as his grip squeezed the air from her lungs. "None of us is innocent," she wheezed. "The strong take. The weak are taken. You’re the only one too stupid to see it."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Abdul.

Abdul was on his knees, both hands pressed over Jung’s chest, slick with blood, trying desperately to stop the flow. Jung was screaming from the pressure Abdul was putting on his chest. His eyes were wide, pupils blown, body trembling as shock set in as blood began to pool around them. "Jung, I know it hurts, but please stay with us."

’Kill her now, don’t lose focus!’ Ophilia scread in her mind.

Jagger’s gaze snapped back to Soo-min, but it was too late. Soo-min wrapped her arm around his, her hand gripping the back of his neck. Simultaneously, he kicked him in the back of his knee. Jagger buckled, going off balance.

That was the opening she needed.

She slamd his head into the wall. Once.

Then again.

The world jolted white, his grip loosened just enough.

Soo-min raised her hand, bringing down the claws toward his neck. That was when Jagger saw Nico’s body leaning sideways from behind Soo-min like a spring coil, his fists fully cocked.

Nico roared, face twisted with a mix of terror and fury, but above all that, a desperate need to act. His body moved with a speed born of pure adrenaline. He left lightning arcs in the wake as he hooked his right hook into Soo-min’s abdon.

"Lightning Fist!"

The impact was brutal.

Soo-min’s breath exploded out of her in a choked gasp as the electricity and pure kinetic force punched through her. She slid a few ters away, clutching her abdon. "Fuck, that was close. That actually hurt," she said, coughing.

Jagger stood up slowly. He blinked away the spots, raising a hand to wipe blood from the corner of his eye.

He looked at Nico, and Nico looked at him, "I’m sorry, she sohow blocked my punch at the last mont." He held up his right hand. "I think my wrist is broken." His knuckles were split, bleeding, swelling around the wrist, already visible.

"Thanks for saving my life. You can sit out now and help keep Jung."

Soo-min stood up straight, cracking her neck from side to side. Her smile was gone. The predatory amusent in her eyes had been replaced by a cold, flat focus.

Jagger lowered into a stance. Bowie knife re-materializing in his hands, the familiar weight of it settling into his palms. "I’ll handle the rest," he said to Nico without taking his eyes off her. Soo-min smirked, a flicker of her old self returning. "Such a noble leader. Sacrificing yourself for your flock. Pathetic."

"I won’t make the sa mistake twice." Jagger raised his blades.