Gunfire shattered the night.
Vladimir cursed, tossing his rifle down into the SUV. No room to aim properly here. He ripped out his Colt 1911, ducking low, yanking Yuuta down with him to shield him.
But Yuuta didn't flinch. Staring at the soldiers surrounding them, he calmly raised his hand then clenched it into a fist.
Vladimir bit his tongue. He knew better than to interfere when Yuuta got that look.
Yuuta's mind raced, angles, weapon placements, exits. Coldly calculating, he grabbed his knife case, pulling free the Microtech Jagdkommando. No time to admire it.
"Everyone, out of the car! Five... four... three..."A soldier barked the countdown, folding each finger down with deliberate slowness.
Yuuta didn't waste a second. Knife by his eye. Vladimir, realizing too late, reached to stop him—
Splurt.
Yuuta jammed the blade into his own eye without hesitation. Blood poured.
No pause. No scream. He carved vicious slashes down his cheeks, thighs, arms — tearing skin, shredding his shirt, painting himself in blood. Five seconds. That's all he needed.
"One!"
Click!
The last second ticked down. The door creaked open.
Yuuta stumbled out, hands up, visibly trembling, blood staining the snow beneath his bare feet.
The soldiers tensed, weapons trained on him. He limped toward Nikola, his voice breaking like a beaten child's.
"P-please don't shoot! I-I was kidnapped! They tried to kill me!"
He pointed back at the SUV — right where Vladimir was hiding.
Inside, Vladimir's fists clenched. Betrayal.
But he kept still, whispering prayers through gritted teeth.
Nikola hesitated. Gave a sharp order in Russian. Two men peeled off toward the car.
One soldier stepped up to Yuuta, raising his rifle, murmuring coldly:
"Вините свою удачу..."Blame your luck, brat.
He pulled the trigger.
TA-TA-TAK!
But Yuuta wasn't there.
In one motion, he deflected the barrel, slashed the soldier's throat wide open. Blood sprayed as the man collapsed, gagging.
"Boss! Let me help you!" Vladimir shouted.
Yuuta facepalmed. Idiot.
Then all hell broke loose.
Yuuta closed in on the nearest soldier, ripping the rifle from his hands, twisting it hard—
CRUNCH!The wrist snapped.AAAAAARGH!
Yuuta drove a knee into his ribs, jammed fingers into the man's eye sockets, then bit a chunk out of his neck like a rabid animal.
He spat the flesh out as the man hit the ground.
Bullets flew.Yuuta danced through them like a ghost, moving low and fast.
He grabbed another man, locking him in a chokehold.
One brutal wrench— SNAP.
The man's neck twisted 180 degrees.
Yuuta seized the corpse, using it as a shield. Bullets tore into the body.
Vladimir raised his pistol—then froze.
Yuuta's blood-drenched face stared back at him, eyes glinting.
Mine.
The message was clear.
Yuuta burst forward again, tackling two soldiers at once. His scalpel flashed, slicing one man's throat open with surgical precision.
The second tried to run. Big mistake.
Yuuta pounced, yanking the man's jaw open, stretching it wider and wider—
CRACK!
The jaw split grotesquely.
The man gurgled, trying to scream, trying to breathe.
Yuuta found a rock.
Dragged it through the snow.
Lifted it high—
SPRACK!
The man's skull caved under the weight, brain matter splattering the ground.
Yuuta stood slowly, blood dripping from his fingers, a wide, monstrous grin splitting his face.
His eyes locked onto the last soldier — the only one left standing, calculating whether to fight... or flee.
Silence enveloped the battlefield.
Nikola who had held his shotgun, threw it to the side of the snow as he took slow deliberate steps towards the young man, clapping, as a smirk made its was across his face, with the crunching effect snow of his footsteps echoing.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
The mans claps dimmed as he approached the young man. The man silently slipped his burly hands into his pocket, pulling out a cigarette box. He opened it, took a cigarette out before offering the young man one who was curiously eyeing him.
"Ты хочешь присоединиться ко мне?" (Care to join me for a smoke?) He offered, the cold breeze slowly pushing the lid of the cigarette box.
The young man closed his eyes for a moment, as he contemplated the mans words. His eerie smile enough to make the devil beg for forgiveness started to disappear, as he gently opened his eyes in the cold weather, inhaling the freezing air.
He skipped over to the man before speaking, as if he had changed personalities, different from his ASD and sadistic personality.
"конечно" (Certainly) he answered with a small smile.
Nikola, who heard Yuuta answer in Russian was shocked for a moment, before chuckling to no one in particular.
He blew a puff of some besides Yuuta as they both stared in the distance, looking beautifully at the endless dark horizon. The man then holstered up his black pistol, which Yuuta eyed curiously. He aimed at the SUV that Vladimir hid behind before shooting the engine and tank with his 15 rounds.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
He continued to shoot the tank even after his pistol ran out of ammunition.
TIK! TIK! TIK!
Upon hearing his magazine being emptied, he clicked his tongue is disdain as he tossed it a distance away.
BOOM!
The SUV blew up and set in flames as Vladimir narrowly dived from the explostion as bits and shards scratched his face.
Nikola cracked his neck and knuckles as he drew his brass knuckles from his pocket and a butterfly knife as he assumed a stance.
"Well then, lets get started" he smirked as he launched himself towards Yuuta using his full power.
Nikola reverse gripped his knife as ducked towards Yuuta's heart, planning to impale him and stop his carotid system. Yuuta however had different plans, as he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and pushing the mans arms to the ground swiftly, before he tilted his body and formed his hand into a knife form as he attempted to strike the mans cervical artery.
The man expecting this however braced himself as he swiftly blocked the attack using the brass knuckles, before assuming a stance that was between boxing and systema, as he leaped back analyzing yuuta.
Yuuta, however did not leave him a chance as his figure blurred. Nikolas eyes hovered alertly everywhere around him, as he protected his head. He however struck the ground which made it tremble due to his massive size, as a small body narrowly missed being turned into toothpaste.
The young man's left hand touched the ground and his right was in a claw stance, with his Jagdkommando knife stuck between his gritted teeth, as he twisted his body, his kick landing on the mans liver; a mix of capoeira and taijutsu.
To a normal human being, such a kick was enough to turn one's liver into corned beef in a container, however, because of the mans bulletproof vest and bulging muscles, all this led to was a mere grunt that came out of the man.
The young man however was not satisfied with this, as he once again preformed a hand stand as his legs wrapped around the mans head, before he performed a summertime assault, carrying a man worth of 180 kg, and slamming his head into the solid ice below.
BAM!
The man, even with a concussion and his head was severely wounded, grabbed a hold of the young man who had yet to back handspring back to his position as he gripped the young man's arms tightly, and violently twisted it in an unnatural method, which broke his arm in the process.
The young man, with his arm now broken, retreated slowly, looking at his enemy with his intense eyes, not disturbed by his arm that was loosely dangling by his side, especially with his elbow bone having stabbed right through his skin. Instead, he dislocated his two shoulders completely.
With his unbroken arm, he held the knife in his arm as he threw it. The man who had not expected this action, swiftly dodged the knife as he looked back to the young man's position, bu was surprised with finding the young man had disappeared.
He warily looked around him, before he felt a small hand that was wrapped around his face and was immediately slammed to the ground, as cracks started to form in the ground and started spreading to even as far as the SUV.
The man immediately coughed blood violently mixed with his dry laughter before speaking to his soon-to-become killer.
"Haaaa.....haaaaaah..... I-i hope you die a horrible deat-" Before he was able to continue his sentence however, his face was crushed by the young man's foot, who held no morals, nor his 'enemies last words'.
To him, they were simply unnecessary.
Death was decided based on 'natural selection', so last words had no meaning to them.
Words that were merely speculations, wishes, or regrets.
From a nihilistic or existential perspective, death renders all speech meaningless, as the person will no longer be around to witness any consequences of their final statement.
Yuuta reflected upon this as he kneeled and punched the man who was on brink of death.
BAM!
The young man, with his ever stoic face, kept punching the mans face at the same place.
.
.
*Punch* *Punch*
For around an hour, the young man kept punching the man's face despite the man being lifeless.
Blood and other matter sprayed on the ground, as the young man's bloodied and torn fists kept punching the ground where the mans head once used to be, now no more than matter here and there.
Despite the pain and numbness that slowly creeped in and made its way into his bones because of the cold, the young man, without a ripple of emotion in his eye other than his indifference, kept punching the man's face.
He punched once more before confirming that the man's irritating face was no more.
Slowly, standing up on his wobbly legs that had turned numb due to the cold, he silently observed the result of his actions, wiping his bloody hands on the pure, white snow.
To any bystander, he would look like a monster that came straight out of a horror movie.
Silence.
The checkpoint was silent.