Walking toward them now at a steady, unwavering pace, I showed them the face of a man who had taken life before, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
I wasn't always like this. Before Bawake, I went out of my way to avoid conflict.
This wasn't because I was some pacifist, but because I saw no merit in struggle when the hierarchy of power had already been established. Society didn't need me to kill, so I never did.
This... this would mark my second murder.... or targets?
Analyzing the entire situation, the weight of what I was about to do pressing against my mind, I wore an expression twisted in agitation... half rage, half dread.
"Second..." I muttered inwardly, the thought hissing through my mind like a cracked wire sparking in the dark. "Come on, you know as well as I do, It'll probably be all of them."
But even as I braced myself for what was coming, something tensed inside me. A thread of logic fighting the current predicament.
'I should keep one alive. Track him. Make him talk. Maybe there's a base nearby. A stash. A route out.'
"One week till i kick the bucket," I remembered the system saying, its sterile warning now hanging in my brain like the smell of blood after it dries.
'Fuck... wrong motive. Snap out of it, Vett. Focus.'
The desert... it held no reverence for deliberation. It wasn't a place of maybes or moral tug-of-war. No, the dunes were ancient arbiters of action, a once-ancient society led by the lost gods.
Those solitary grains of sand, endlessly drifting like the memories of the dead, never asked why. They didn't wait for clarity or consent. They moved. Shifted. Consumed. And if you lingered too long, lost in your own weakness, they'd bury you without ceremony.
Merely another regret swallowed by time and twisted fates.
"I guess I've already killed once before, what difference is this? No more wrong than butchering pigs for bacon. People like this shouldn't have the luxary of living." And as this thought slipped from my mind, I accepted right then and there this...
Is what it means to live.
Tilting my head slightly, I uttered at all of them coldly. "Even if you were me from a parallel universe, none of you are really real to me. Die or be dead soon enough."
Their eyes widened for a flicker of a moment...
These monsters, soul-bent on killing me, were shortly stunned by the apathy in my voice.
And to think I was empty before.
Their charge intensified. Blunt and sharpened blades drawn for battle.
Bloodlust blazed in their eyes, wild and ravenous, like a twisted tiger stalking its starving prey.
But fortunately for me, I was far stronger than any tiger alive out there.
Glaring once again at their blades, still gleaming with the residue of past killings, I suddenly wondered... were they even human anymore?
As I braced myself to fight back, I heard a chorus of frantic screams, their voices dripping with a deranged hunger.
"You look delicious, all that compacted muscle—YUMMM, DINNER'S LOOKING GOOD TONIGHT!" one man shouted, his enthusiasm echoed by the others, their comments as grim as the last.
My eyes narrowed instinctively, a reaction given from too many dances with death. I wasn't just meeting their eyes, I was seeing the raw truth of who they were. Weak. Fragile. Ready to burn out like a piece of paper caught in flame...
What I sent in their direction wasn't just a glare, it was a message of flashing hatred, a demonic stare so grim and dark that it forced their souls to flinch off instict alone. Their eyes, oh... kekke, their eyes told me everything I needed to know.
Fear. Confusion. A primal hesitation they couldn't explain.
"You want me for dinner? I mean..." I exhaled, my voice as clear as a glass of water.
As I lifted both hands in a low shrug, my voice grew quieter, colder... more real.
"You did this to yourself," I muttered, my voice cold, almost indifferent. "I have no choice in this matter... Each and every one of you are putting guns to your own heads. Cyber psychos... man. Just how more sick will you make yourselves?!"
I raised my voice as the distance between us closed, my tone sharper, more insistent. "Until something truly shakes me to my core, I'll do what I have to. I won't ask again, leave if you value your lives."
In my mind, the thought lingered...
How they truly believed they could consume me...
But then it hit me.
Why the hell am I holding back? Why am I pretending like I don't deserve to lose myself, just for a moment, among these monsters?
The moment it hit me, an explosive surge of anger jolted through my body, and I couldn't hold it back any longer. My voice tore through the air, loud and sharp, "Pathetic fucking insects! I COULDN'T CARE LESS IF THIS WAS ABOUT JUSTICE OR NOT, WE'RE ALL JUST SCRAMBLING TO STAY ALIVE, AREN'T WE?!"
As the words left my mouth, a dark grin crept across my face. It grew slowly, unnervingly so manic. It wasn't just a smile; it was a provocative taunt...
My eyes, glossy with intensity, told a tryanting tale of an ancient ego.
As I took on a basic fighting stance, my hands slowly formed at my waist.
Uttering some hazzardus words, they without a doubt, seeped in finality, "Killing pests like you... I lost interest in that back in the first half of Bawake. Either way, I won't be the one dyin today. It's not a matter of will I or not. I simply won't."
After all...
I haven't be wowed yet.
Not really, wowed.