Fowlhunter [GL]

“I want you to stay hidden as you tail me,” Ennanis instructed. “I will walk out in the open, try and draw the princess’ attention to me. Keep a good distance so you can provide auxiliary support if it comes down to it.”

“Okay,” Kikko nodded as she crouched down among the bushes, cocking her rifle. It wasn’t the type of guns angels normally used, which channelled a summoned Soleki beam through its barrel, but an old-fashioned human one that loaded and shot physical bullets. It was slower to fire than arrows, but it was easier for Kikko to use and would do decently for sniping. She whispered, “But, how exactly are you planning to find her, Miss Nana?”

“I have ways,” Ennanis answered vaguely.

“Alright, cap’n,” Kikko shrugged. The green-haired angel sank herself to her tummy, concealing herself within the grass.

Ennanis forged forward as Kikko crept behind her. They wound their way down the treacherous foothills of Mount Casca, where the forest grew thicker and more untamed; Ennanis raised her sword and hacked through thorny branches and tendrilous vines. Even with the path cleared, her boots caught on gnarls and jagged boulders. She was never walking straight, always stumbling over stretches of uneven rock or stomping through patches of muddy earth. At least, with experience, it had become marginally easier since the first time she had made her way down Mount Casca. Ennanis found herself worried if Kikko Apple could catch up with her; but by flaring the communication charm between them, she sensed the other angel’s warm gold spot following her keenly.

Eventually, they reached a clearing. It was a jutting plateau of striated rock. The canopy broke away into sparse, bald branches, opening up to the pitch-black sky above. From here, the plateau appeared to stop shortly out of the forest, a cliff that fell away into the unknown.

Ennanis walked out alone into the clearing. Here, she paused. She circled this plateau, holding her sword at the ready, as if waiting. For she had reached her destination.

There was no one to be seen. But it could not be more clear. All throughout the trek, the air had been heavy with a stifling tropical humidity, soaking her back and scalp through with sticky sweat. But here, the air was sharply cold, and there was no wind either. It was simply like Ennanis had stepped out into a block of cold fog.

“Come out already, Cockatrice,” Ennanis called out.

At first there was chilly silence. Undeterred, Ennanis’ gaze continued to sweep the terrain, peering over the ridge at the forested, mountainous valley below, glancing back at the dark forests where she’d came from, where Kikko lay in wait.

Until, at last, a raspy voice replied:

“You really keep your promises, don’t you.”

Ennanis heard Kikko’s sharp inhale through their communication charm.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

“What was it that you told me, back then, Little Miss Warden…” continued the woman as she stepped out from the shadow of a tree. For some reason Ennanis hadn’t noticed her there. Motes of Lunaki danced around her frame like a mist, dusting her midnight-dark gown, streaking through the strands of her moonwashed hair, glittering off the beak of her mask. Her heels clacked ominously with her.

The Cockatrice’s steely gaze stabbed Ennanis in the eyes. “‘No matter where you are, I’ll come find you’?” she parroted back at her.

Indeed, Ennanis had used the communication charm that she had once established with the girl named Chime in the sunprisons to find her. Even when the Cockatrice didn’t accept the incoming charm, Ennanis could use the charm’s flight path to triangulate her general location. There was a way in Soleki to block this from happening, but the Cockatrice apparently knew not how to use it. Once a gesture of goodwill, the golden bridge between them was now a weapon—one that the angel commander dangled over the Beast princess’ head.

“You left me with no choice,” Ennanis intoned.

“And yet you keep choosing it,” the Cockatrice’s voice dripped. “If you want to die so badly, Commander Zoleil, there are much easier ways of doing so.”

“It’s not death that I’m looking for,” Ennanis replied.

“You say that. Then why do you keep running headlong after it? Keep at it, and it’s going to find you someday.” The Cockatrice walked closer. Her gloved hands were kept folded behind her back. She could’ve been hiding a weapon there, but it was unlikely; the Cockatrice never carried weapons. The posture left her quite open to attack: her throat bare and vulnerable, uncovered by her breastplate.

Ennanis held her sword between them. But before she could make a move-

THWIP.

A bullet whizzed through the air, aimed straight at the Cockatrice. The Cockatrice simply tilted her head, and it flew past her ear.

“Your friend’s pretty good at hiding,” the Cockatrice commented. “But I can smell their fear.” She stepped to the side again, avoiding the next bullet that soared past her neck. It punched through the curtain of her pale hair, disappearing over the edge of the cliff. “These interruptions are getting a tad annoying, Commander. Of course, I could go find them and drag them out, but you could save me some trouble and ask your friend to just show themselves. I won’t hurt them.”

“......” Ennanis was silent. But shortly after, Kikko Apple crept out tentatively from the woods.

“Good evening,” the Beast greeted.

In response, Kikko levelled her gun at the Cockatrice, slitted eyes flashing resolutely. And she fired.

This time, the Cockatrice didn’t dodge. She merely raised a hand, and caught the bullet square in her silver-glowing palm.

“That’s not how you aim, angel.” the Cockatrice cocked her head. “Watch carefully.”

Wheeling her hand back, she flung it into the sky. Flashing silver, the bullet rocketed through the darkness like a sonic missile, faster than a Soleki beam through a cannon, faster than any old lead bullet. It was too fast, too sudden for anyone to do anything. The bullet passed through Kikko Apple’s skull like it was made of air; then continued ripping on into the night air.

The Cockatrice was upon Kikko in an instant, unclasping her armbraces and tearing through her skin. In the blink of an eye, the junior angel lay cold and still, red marring light-green hair. Dead.

Ennanis did not move. She could not move. Her loose hair blew in her face, dark rose tangling around her.

“You…” she said hoarsely. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her.”

“She attacked first.”

“But you didn’t have to kill her,” Ennanis choked.

“That is why you don’t believe the words of a known liar,” the Cockatrice mocked. Her voice held no remorse. “Don’t trust so easily. In time, it will only be the anchor that drags you down.”

“What is wrong with you?” Ennanis hollered, her voice breaking. “Why do you do this?”

“Because, Commander, for all that you say you’re going to kill me, I don’t think you truly mean it yet,” answered the Cockatrice calmly. “I want you to hate me properly, Ennanis. I want you to spend your every waking second scheming how you’ll hunt me down. When you go to sleep, I want your dreams to taste like my blood. When you look at me, when you think of me, I want you to be filled with so much vitriol your body doesn’t feel like your own. I want you to hate me so much, you’ll die a thousand deaths before I eventually end you for good.”

Ennanis shook.

“Not so sure yet?” the Cockatrice inquired. “Don’t worry. That was just the appetiser. We’ve still got the main course. Follow me.”