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Chapter 37: Among us
The group readied themselves for battle, as much as a bunch of college students with little to no real life battle experience could possibly be.
Luna grabbed the pole of a standing lamp to use as a spear, Sam lifted up a chair wielding it awkwardly across the commercial building, but both Medusa and Uriel were barehanded. She didn't need a weapon because of her martial arts training while Uriel could make his revolver appear instantly thanks to his trait.
The group traversed the halls, shops and staircases without any luck in finding the skinwalker. There weren't any traces or clues left behind by the cunning creature, but something like that was to be expected considering how it enjoyed to play with its victims instead of facing them directly in combat.
More than hunters, they just looked weird and lost because that was precisely their situation right now. Their only hope of making it alive was to find the creature and... feed it a bunch of silver earrings. None of that made any sense, but they all saw how the skinwalker took a bullet to the head and survived. As strange as it seemed, even something as deranged as that was a better option than trying to kill it with brute force.
Uriel was even more dubious than the rest of his companions because he knew how unreliable his information was. After all, how reliable can the tale of an old Navajo witch doctor who barely mentioned a skinwalker's weakness be?
"Can you guys hear that?" Luna said, her eyes closed in an attempt to focus on the sound.
"I think it comes from over there." Sam said pointing towards a small room behind a counter.
Medusa fearlessly kicked the door open holding a battle stance right after the door opened. She expected to find the skinwalker inside or at least some sort of creature, but she was was greeted by the pitiful sight of a wounded young man sobbing.
"I tried... I tried so hard but it just won't die." Atomic's clothes were in shambles, his breath jagged, but there wasn't a single visible wound on his body. Uriel grasped Medusa's shoulder when she tried to head inside the bathroom to help Atomic.
"Don't go, he may be the skinwalker." He said shaking his head.
"Ah! Yes, I realized too late that if I got separated I wouldn't be able to come back to the group. Don't mind me, I'll stay in here until Miss Dragonfang returns." Atomic sighed
"He can't be the skinwalker, that thing would attempt to infiltrate our group as soon as possible." Sam tried to make a point, but there was no confidence in his words.
"Maybe, maybe not, but we can't risk it." Uriel shrugged. "Stay safe." Were his parting words to the geeky student, or at least that was his intention, because as soon as they turned their back on Atomic, he dashed towards them.
"Watch out!" Medusa pushed Uriel to the side, receiving a powerful bash by the creature that was impersonating their companion.
The light armor provided by Phlox did close to nothing against the solid tackle and Medusa was thrown several meters away. She attempted to roll on the ground and recover her footing, but the hit carried so much force it was impossible. The only thing she could do was to lean forward and cough up a mouthful of blood.
"You bastard!" Sam waved the chair on the air without much hopes of causing any damage to the creature, but contrary to his own pessimistic expectations, a single strike from an ascended proved to be enough to disfigure the creature's face. The creature let out the mix between a gasp and a growl as it fell backwards with its skull cracked open. Its unsightly tongue sticking out of the hole on its face.
Luna pointed the makeshift spear towards the skinwalker with a malicious grin on her usually expressionless face, yet the creature was able to hold it in his hand without any trouble.
"It's not fair to fight four on one!" The creature started speaking with a male hoarse voice that turned more and more feminine as it spoke, until the voice of Medusa could be heard clearly. Its previously disfigured face quickly shifted into the porcelain smooth skin and fiery red eyes of Medusa.
"You pretty bastard!" Medusa said after noticing the creature now looked like an exact copy of her and, after recovering her breath, she jumped forward with a high kick. It was so fast it was impossible to dodge, but the skinwalker blocked it with a single hand.
Both Medusas got tangled in a martial arts fight, equal in power and technique. Kicks and fists rained from both sides, the snapping sounds of their skillful blocking technique echoing in the whole floor.
While Atomic's body was stronger and faster, his lack of martial arts training was a serious disadvantage against the nimble huntress. By impersonating her, the skinwalker managed not only to dodge easier and block incoming strikes, but also to create confusion among its enemies. This turned out to be a serious problem for Uriel, who was expecting to find the chance to shoot the creature in the back with his revolver to keep it down, at least for a short while.
"Move away Medusa, I can't take a shot like that!" Uriel shouted.
"I'm not falling for that trick." The skinwalker grinned. "I know what you want to do and I won't put it that easy." The creature said mockingly with Medusa's voice.
The skinwalker slowly but surely started gaining ground on Medusa, getting closer and closer towards Uriel. His hands were shaking, sweat running down his forehead clouding his view. The situation was far from ideal, especially after Medusa received a powerful elbow strike on the ribs that left her lying on the floor struggling to breathe. The cryptid then pounced on Uriel, but was stopped mid air by Luna who was brandishing the standing lamp pole as a spear. It wasn't sharp enough to pierce through the cryptid's tough skin, but at least she managed to save Uriel in the last second and pin the skinwalker to the wall.
"Fire now!" Luna shouted.
A deafening bang was heard and the tile right above the cryptid's head cracked into pieces as the bullet missed by just a couple centimeters.
"Ha, ha, ha! You missed your only chance!" Said the creature grinning ever more widely until its maw parted disfiguring its face, it grew taller as long claws erupted through its nails and its skin became black. The contrast of its now jet black skin and the white of its eyes made it look like a creature brought directly from a nightmare.
Luna struggled to keep the cryptid pinned to the wall, but it didn't resemble a person anymore and its crawls gave it a longer reach, even longer than Luna's improvised weapon.
Waving its long arm, the creature managed to leave a scratch on Luna's face with the clear intention of mimicking her, but Uriel wasn't going to allow it. Luna watched in disbelief how Uriel, instead of shooting his gun, jumped towards the horrid creature making a fist with his hand. The creature laughed maniacally at the flimsy evolved, opening its maw and waving its impossibly long tongue in an unsettling manner.
Uriel moved fast, maybe faster than he ever had, but the difference in speed between him and the creature was too much and he ended up getting caught in the air. Uriel's eyes widened up from pain, but he didn't let a single gasp or yelp. Now that the students were out of combat, the creature was able to savor its victory by licking Uriel's face, and then drawing him near.
"Do something, he'll get eaten!" Medusa shouted enduring the pain of her cracked rib cage. But not even Luna could help, she could only see how the incredibly strong and cunning cryptid opened its maw wider and wider to eat Uriel. Just before the skinwalker was able to close its maw to devour her prey, Uriel grinned and spitted an earring into the creature's foul mouth.
"Here's your medicine!" He said scornfully. "It was prescribed to you by a navajo witch doctor."
The creature let go of Uriel as it walked backwards, clasping its throat as if being burned from the inside. Coughing and twisting, morphing its appearance into that of many different people until its skin began to boil and evaporate leaving nothing but a single flux orb behind.