"Guys! Enemy incoming! And they are running fast!"
The crew was still in the military truck, racing to find their team leader, Riley, while a group of enemies closed in behind them. As Wood warned, they were sprinting, almost unnaturally fast, like something out of an anime.
Or in simple terms… Naruto fashion.
Despite the military truck traveling at the speed of 60 miles per hour, the elves were able to catch up to the vehicle.
"There they are! Johann, tell them to pull over!" one of the elves shouted.
Nodding his head, the elf accelerated his speed and managed to catch up to the vehicle with ease. Running alongside it, he leaned toward the driver's seat where Price sat and called out, remarkably polite for the circumstances.
"Good evening, dear sir! Would you kindly pull over?"
Price glanced over and disregarded his advice. His only response was a raised middle finger before jerking the wheel hard, sending the truck into a sharp drift.
The maneuver was sudden and expertly done, causing a few elves to slam into the side of the vehicle and tumble over its roof.
But the others kept coming, relentless in their pursuit.
"Well, that's a 'no,'" an elf muttered as he glanced at the vampire member in their group. "HANZERFAUST, TAKE THAT METAL WAGON DOWN!"
"Yes, sir!"
Without hesitation, the vampire dissolved into a swarm of bats and flew upwards in the sky like a dark menacing mass of cloud. The swarm then launched toward the truck like a volley of missiles.
"Oh, crap! Enemy drone strikes inbound!" Woods shouted.
The Special Operatives quickly took up positions and fired rapidly at the approaching high-speeding bats. Hundreds were shot down, but it was like trying to empty an ocean with a spoon.
Despite their modern weapons, the numbers of bats were almost unlimited. For every one that fell, ten more seemed to take its place.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each time a bat impacts themselves onto something, they explode and send shockwaves that rocked the vehicle, threatening to push it off course.
"YOU'VE—"
Boom!
"GOT—"
Boom!
"TO—"
Boom!
"BE—"
Boom!
"SHIT—"
Boom!
"TING—'
Boom!
"MEEE!!"
Price kept ranting as he zigzagged the truck and avoided the suicide bats, when all of a sudden, a distant sound of a horse's neigh reached their ears.
Woods, Belinski, Tavish, and Polites glanced down the road and spotted a horse made out of dark mist and glowing menacing orange eyes, charging straight at them.
"Damn it! We've got another problem," Tavish growled.
"Polites, use whatever magic you've got to kill that thing!" Woods barked.
"You want me to take that thing alone?!" Polites asked, clearly alarmed.
"Who said anything about fighting alone?" Tavish responded with a serious smile as he pulled a machine gun from his Spatial Ring.
Woods and Belinski followed suit as they also drew their guns and weapons with grim determination.
Polites smirked. "Alright, I'm in."
With that, he took position at the rear of the truck, keeping watch on the approaching creature in the form of a nightmarish horse. As it drew closer, several whips of dark mist erupted from its mane like writhing serpents. Price caught sight of the tendrils in the side mirror, and his face tightened with concern.
"That's definitely not good," he muttered.
As the Dark Horse chased the group down, its tendrils lashing out in an attempt to seize the truck, but the team at the rear opened fire and aimed for the creature's glowing eyes. The bullets hit their mark, temporarily blinding it, but the eyes regenerated almost instantly, and the spent rounds fell away as if swallowed by the mist.
"Fools. All who interfere shall burn!" The Black Horse spoke in a deep and otherworldly demonic voice as it wrapped its dark tendrils around everyone's necks, trying to wrench them from the truck by force.
"Cut the tendrils!" Woods yelled, struggling to free himself.
Just as the creature began pulling them back, Polites reacted as he summoned a magic weapon which formed out of thin air from his [Pocket Dimension]. With quick speed and precision, he sliced through each tendril, shattering them into pieces.
"Whoa!" Woods exclaimed, impressed.
Without missing a beat, Polites launched the weapon like a javelin, piercing the horse's head clean through. For a moment, the creature recoiled from the impact, then its head regenerated as the mist reformed back into shape.
"Nice work, elf!" Tavish called out.
"Thanks, but that thing's not slowing down," Price warned.
With a determined look, Price slammed his foot on the gas, pushing the truck harder in an effort to outrun the Black Horse and the pursuing elves. Yet no matter how fast they went, the monstrous creature and their enemies continued to chase them and matched up with the truck's speed.
Suddenly, the Black Horse lashed out with its dark tendrils, coiling them around Polites and engulfing him in a black substance.
"Ahhhhhh!" Polites screamed, feeling the strange energy invade not just his body, but his very soul.
"Polites!" Tavish shouted and raised his gun to fire at the creature. But before he could act, Polites let out a primal roar.
"RAAARGH!"
Summoning all his strength, Polities tore himself free from the tendrils. Without hesitation, he reached into his [Pocket Dimension] and drew out a flaming chain. With a fierce swing, he lashed it at the Black Horse and wrapped it tightly around the creature's head.
Gritting his teeth, Polites held the chain and spun at the rear of the truck, using the momentum to swing the massive creature. With one final pull, he threw the Black Horse into a nearby building, sending debris flying as the Dark Spirit crashed through the structure.
But just moments later, the Black Horse burst out of the wreckage, hitting the ground with a thud and resuming its chase.
"Polites, what the hell is that thing?" Woods demanded urgently.
"When it had me wrapped in its tendrils... I'm certain it's a Chaos Spirit," Polites responded, still catching his breath. "And I hate to say this but… from what I have studied, Spiritual Lifeforms are immune to all physical attacks. None of your guns could work on it!"
"Motherf-... what the hell are we supposed to do, then?" Tavish cursed.
Price, still focused on driving, cut in. "We keep running! And don't forget, we've—"
Before Price could finish, Tavish interrupted with his eyes widened. "We've got incoming!"
He pointed upward. Above them, a Dark Elf can be seen leaping from rooftop to rooftop, moving with inhuman speed and reflexes, effortlessly keeping pace with the truck.
Price took a sharp right turn down the street, but the male Dark Elf leapt from a building, grabbed a lamppost mid-fall, and used it to swing down onto the street with incredible precision.
The moment he hit the ground, he sprinted after them, and his speed increased with every step.
"Great, now we're dealing with ninjas?" Woods muttered, squinting as he watched the Dark Elf closing in, matching the pace of both the Dark Horse and the pursuing elves.
"Holy hell, he's gaining on us fast!" Woods raised his sniper and fired, but the Dark Elf sidestepped the shot with lightning reflexes.
Tavish followed with another round, only for the Dark Elf to catch the bullet in mid-air and crush its tungsten core with ease.
"Yo, bruh! You stink!"
Tavish's eyes widened in disbelief. "What the hell is with this guy's speed? He's outrunning the horse, the elves, and our truck, and he just caught a fucking bullet like it was nothing!"
Polites rummaged through his Dimensional Storage. "Hold up. I think we've got something from that auction…" He pulled out a long, golden staff adorned with colorful stones, each one radiating with power.
Inspecting it, Polites could feel the staff pulsing with mana.
'Is this an elemental staff? Let's find out.'
With that in thought, he tapped into the yellow mana stone and fired a bolt of lightning, but the Dark Elf effortlessly slid beneath the attack with exceptional speed, never slowing as he continued his chase.
'Only one element at a time, huh?' Polites thought.
Switching tactics, he activated the cyan mana stone, and an orb of ice formed at the staff's tip. With a swift motion, he fired it at the Dark Horse, freezing the spectral creature in place.
But the Dark Elf didn't stop. He jumped onto the truck, grabbing the rear bumper and pulling himself up with ease. Within seconds, he was standing in front of the group.
"There you—" Polites began, but before he could finish, the Dark Elf delivered a brutal roundhouse kick to his head.
The blow knocked Polites out cold, the Elemental Staff slipping from his grasp and falling to the truck bed.
Woods swore under his breath. "Well, that's just great."
"What's up? Name's Bolt," the Dark Elf said, giving a quick upward nod to the humans with an unsettlingly casual grin.
The squad glared at him, and in an instant, Tavish raised his rifle to fire. But before he could pull the trigger, Bolt dashed forward and landed three rapid jabs to his face, followed by a brutal kick to his chest.
"Ugh!!" Tavish coughed a mouthful of blood as he stumbled back after enduring the flurry of punches. "That motherfucker!"
'Damn, this man is so fast that my eyes couldn't even follow his movements,' Tavish pondered, wiping His mouth.
Seeing his squadmate get injured, Woods turned and aimed his gun at Bolt. But the Dark Elf was faster as he slammed a punch directly into Woods' face.
"Oh, Jesus!" Woods yelped as the force of the punch nearly sent him flying out of the truck, but Belinski quickly grabbed him and yanked him back inside before he fell.
Suddenly, the same Dark Horse burst out of an alley to their right and smashed into the side of the truck with brutal force, sending the vehicle into a wild 360-degree spin, but Price expertly shifted gears and regained control, keeping the truck moving forward.
Despite the chaotic maneuver, Bolt managed to hold onto the truck and avoid falling off. He turned his attention to Belinski and launched a flurry of rapid punches.
"ORA!! ORA!! ORA!! ORA!! ORA!! ORA!! ORAAAA!!!"
Belinski raised his gauntlets and blocked the attacks, but Bolt wasn't finished. With a powerful uppercut, he shattered Belinski's guard, following it up with a vicious punch to his gut.
As Bolt spun for a final kick, Belinski grabbed his leg with one hand, stopping him cold.
With his free hand, Belinski drew a pistol from his Spatial Ring and fired point-blank, unloading several rounds at Bolt's chest, head, and vital points.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!"
The bullets bounced harmlessly off the Dark Elf's magical barriers, but the kinetic force knocked him back, making him wince as the rounds struck his head, leaving him dazed.
Once he completely emptied his magazine, Belinski immediately unleashed a storm of punches in retaliation.
"RAHHHH!"
Bolt, however, expertly parried the stream of punches perfectly and demonstrated impressive agility and precision. Despite the sheer speed and power behind Belinski's attacks, so fast they were nearly invisible to the naked eye, Bolt matched him blow for blow with casual ease, showing just how skilled and formidable he truly was.
The two stood locked in a deadly dance with a whirlwind of fists and fury, neither giving an inch.
As the chase went on, Tavish kept firing round after round at the Dark Horse and the sprinting elves, as his frustration mounted with every pull of the trigger.
"Seriously, we can't kill it, and we can't even slow it down!"
"I got this," Woods walked forward and pulled a sniper rifle from his Spatial Ring. He took aim at the charging horse, zeroing in on its head.
Bang!
The deafening crack of the .50 caliber round echoed through the air, and the bullet exploded into the Dark Horse's head. But in mere seconds, the creature's head regenerated, and it kept charging.
"Well, that didn't go as planned," Woods muttered.