As soon as I reached the peak of my jump, I managed to kick him in the face with my other leg, this time from the opposite side of my arm. As I fell (gravity, unfortunately, hadn't been canceled), I folded my arms in front of me and drove both elbows straight into its nasal cavity—after all, this scaly bastard didn't have a propper nose. The moment I hit the floor, I straightened up and, extending my still-bent arms, left a multitude of bleeding cuts across its abdominal cavity with my splayed, clawed fingers. That's for my knee!
The ancients said that pride leads to a fall. And so, having grown overly proud of my strength and speed, I missed the moment when—despite being so much slower than me that he could only deliver one blow in the time it took me to perform that entire combination—the force of his strike turned out to be possibly even greater than mine.
So I simply overlooked the swing of his second arm, which I blamed myself for, flying from a crushing blow to my ribs straight into the railing of the second floor.
It's a good thing I don't feel pain, because judging by the feedback from my left side, he broke my ribs—and badly. Gripping the handrails, I pulled myself up, slipping back into acceleration.
"Cain!" Yamata cried out. Well, yes, it took me a couple of seconds—but for the slower Four Eyes, that was practically an instant.
But she turned her head in my direction for nothing. What could a Hunter's blow do to me, a survivor of Nemesis? At worst, it could cut me in half—and that's fine, I'd patch myself up and regenerate. But the distracted girl herself missed her opponent's paw strike aimed at her stomach. Yamata's special suit withstood the test with honor and did not allow its owner to be torn to pieces, but the Four Eyes herself was thrown back toward the corridor exit.
Still, the girl jumped to her feet quite nimbly; after all, disorientation means nothing to the undead. Even if there were a concussion, it would only impair her body control for a short while—there would be no loss of consciousness or anything beyond physical impairment. It's handy, being undead—even if only halfway there.
All these thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant, while my body had already shot into the air, flying toward the Hunter who was leaping at me. Upon colliding with this "tin can," my body crunched in several places at once, but despite my smaller mass, acceleration was clearly on my side. Hunter was already on the verge, so in the end I landed on top of him and, pinning his massive arms to his body with my feet, began to knead him with my fists. Chunks of flesh flew in all directions, accompanied by the monster's shrill growls, yet the enemy beneath me still refused to calm down.
I even used my jaws, gnawing at the place where the neck should have been (Hunters' heads merge directly into their shoulders), aiming for the softer-scaled area. By the way, the blood tasted great, even though it looked repulsive—black with a greenish tint.
But my squeamishness had died long before I ever reached the city, back when I realized I was Korean (who else would eat dogs, even undead ones?), so I didn't pay attention to the color, focusing instead on the excellent taste.
Once again, though, I forgot that it's foolish to measure a Hunter by human standards. His legs resembled those of a frog or a grasshopper at the joints, and by twisting them at what seemed like an impossible angle, my opponent began to rake at my sides. Of course, there was no pain—but if this continued, he would simply saw me in half!
Having reached that conclusion, I doubled my assault, literally tearing chunks of flesh from the monster's body and almost gnawing my way straight through its flesh. And after only a couple of seconds of real time—which felt like an eternity to me—two events occurred at once, finally silencing my opponent.
First, I shattered his ribs on the left side with my right hand and tore out his heart… a three-chambered heart, my consciousness noted, drawing on knowledge borrowed from the Four Eyes and the special forces scientist. Second, I bit through his throat—at least, the crunch sounded very "tasty."
Biting off a piece of his heart while it was still fresh, I got to my feet, noting that thanks to the monster's blood I had consumed during the fight, my regeneration had accelerated. But deciding to help the Four Eyes first, then join forces to deal with the two remaining Hunters, and only afterward calmly have a snack and take care of the bodies of the soldiers and employees (beheading them, just in case—they might not rise yet, but I know how mean this world can be, with corpses choosing the most inconvenient moments to get back up) and examine the laboratory, I rushed toward the girl who was still fighting.
(End of Chapter)
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