The Last Hunter: Collected Edition (Antarktos Saga #1-5)

Within the first thirty seconds of running, I realize that although Mira can run long distances without any trouble at all, she can’t do it at a sprint. Or rather, she can, but she’s just not very fast. Granted, she’s tired, beat up and overwhelmed, so I should cut her some slack, but the shrieking berserkers not far behind us aren’t going to go easy on her. Still, I can’t make her run any faster. I turn to Kainda, who is ten feet to my left. “We need to slow down.”

“What? Why?” she asks.

I motion back to Mira.

She glances back and sees Mira, twenty feet behind us, which is just about half the distance to the nearest berserker. When I look back, I not only see the closest berserker, but I see the fifteen others behind him, counting their number in a flash. But that’s not all of them. I can hear many more as they hoot and scream in bloodlust. I have little doubt the army behind them can hear the din as well.

“She sets the pace,” I say. “We’ll take care of anyone that gets too close.”

“Can you do it?” she asks.

It’s a vague question, but I know what she’s asking: can I kill?

My reply comes without thought. There is no time for it. “Yes.”

She slows and drops back.

Every muscle in my body screams, “faster!” But I slow my sprint, falling back with Kainda.

Mira sees what we’re doing and grows angry. “Don’t wait for me!”

“Just keep running,” I say back to her. “They won’t get past us.”

I say it with such confidence that it surprises even me. And it’s true. A hundred of these wild men wouldn’t make it past me and Kainda. They lack the skill and cunning to prove a threat to almost any hunter worthy of the title, but I’m also much more than a hunter. I’ve killed Nephilim. I’ve beat Ninnis, the best of the hunters. And I’ve gone head-to-head with Nephil on more than one occasion. These berserkers shouldn’t be a problem.

A sharp pain erupts from my shoulder, spinning me with a shout of pain. I look to my flesh first, worried I’ve been bitten, but the skin is just red. A shout to my side warns of trouble, and I turn to find a frenzied woman charging in from the side. She reaches back and whips a stone at me. This one sails past.

Just a stone, I think with relief, and then I direct a gust of wind to carry the woman away. She’s so stunned by being lifted off the ground that she simply clamps her mouth shut and allows herself to be carried away. I cut the connection and let her fall a moment later. By the time she lands, I can no longer see her...or her fate.

“Uh, guys!” Mira shouts.

I face forward and quickly spot ten more crazed men and woman closing in from the front.

We didn’t come down ahead of the berserkers, we came down among them!

“Kainda!” I shout.

“I see them!”

We close in on either side of Mira.

“Just keep running,” I tell her. “Don’t stop for anything.”

The first of our attackers arrives a moment later, but he’s intercepted by Kainda and clubbed to the side. The man is dead on impact, but I cringe as his body slams hard into a tree trunk and then to the ground.

The man who attacks on my side fares little better. I bend Whipsnap back and let the mace end fly. The solid metal ball is covered in spikes, but even without them, the man’s head wouldn’t have stood up to the blow. I turn away from the man just before his life is ended and see that a third attacker is taking advantage of the opening left by Kainda’s assault on the first.

I have no choice. Leaping a full stride ahead of Mira, I pull the mace end free of the berserker’s head and thrust the spear tip on the other end into the new attacker’s throat. And I see every gory second of it. With a gurgle, the man spins away and slumps into a stand of ferns.

Three more rush at us from the front. Too many to take on without slowing down. I reach out with the wind, scoop them from the ground and launch them skyward. It’s a different kind of attack, but I’ve killed them all the same. They’ll land in twenty or so seconds, as dead as the others.

It doesn’t seem fair that the moment I come to terms with the idea of killing a human being to save the world...or even another life, I’m forced to perform the act over and over, but these aren’t just random men. They’re an army. And they’re going to kill us, and everyone else in the world, if I hesitate, maybe even once.

So I don’t.

We run. And fight. And kill.