Chapter 319: Hunter And Her Prey
The decrease in spiritual pressure allowed the mercenaries to get back on their feet but now there was nothing but fear in their eyes.
Sophie's display of raw strength had been received loud and clear.
No one dared to question the intimidating cultivator who stood by the door with blood still dripping down her bladed appendages.
Sophie could taste the fear and panic in the air, and it was causing her heart to beat uncontrollably.
Kill...
Kill...
KILL.
Sophie's eyes constantly flickered from the usual golden hue to a crimson red colour as the hybrid girl struggled to reign in her urges.
"Big sister... are you okay?" a soft whisper came from Sophie's arms.
Lily still had her eyes tightly closed but her tiny hand gently pulled on Sophie's shoulder in order to get her attention.
Sophie exhaled softly and stepped back.
Time was of the essence and every passing second would make the task more difficult to complete.
The crewmembers aboard the starship had mental communication abilities so it was possible that her act of killing had already been exposed.
It was time to move on to the next stage of her mutiny.
Without sparing a second glance at the shocked reactions of the mercenaries inside the room, Sophie used the palm of one of the headless corpses to lock the door.
Fortunately, the scanner only checked for identity and not vital signs so there was no problem.
It was a bit gruesome but after seeing the usefulness of the palm, Sophie took out a sharp blade and sliced off a chunk of meat from the corpse.
She then took out a small disc shaped device from her storage bag and pressed a tiny button on its side.
A green light was emitted from the center of the device which then scanned the nearby area for any cameras or listening devices.
There was a single video recording device located right above her location. Sophie flung a thin needle at the camera and destroyed the lens.
She waited for the disc shaped device to sweep the surrounding area two more times just to make sure that nothing was there.
Sophie closed her eyes and began to circulate her qi in the familiar pattern of her cloning technique.
Rsychosis!
Three identical mirror images appeared in the corridor. Sophie handed over Lily to the middle one and also gave that clone a few protective devices.
"Stay here and guard Lily. We will head to the command deck and take out the captain as well as the upper-level crewmembers," Sophie spoke seriously.
She received a firm nod from the clone who tightly held Lily in her arms.
Sophie turned to her two other copies and handed one a plasma rifle while the other received some needles and several vials of poison.
"Hey... can we kill as much as we like?" one of the clones snarled with a bloodthirsty expression.
"Yes," Sophie replied with a twisted grin.
The rising tide of bloodlust was now proving to be too much to control as Sophie's eyes were now fully scarlet with a sea of murderous intent hidden behind her gaze.
There was no time for words.
Sophie's figure blurred and then vanished from the middle of the corridor only to reappear at the far end.
Her two mirror images took off in different directions while her last clone stayed in place and began to activate the many barrier devices in her possession.
Sophie's vision shifted into a world of yellowish- orange as her pace became faster and faster.
The metallic bloody scent coming from the severed palm in Sophie's hand was filling up her nostrils.
A hunter would never forget the smell of her prey.
Five aliens were walking peacefully towards the ship's cafeteria when their bodies exploded into a fine red mist.
Sophie had ripped them apart in a fraction of a second.
The beast had now been fully awakened and sought blood to quench its insatiable thirst.
Bleep! Bleep! Bleep!
Alarms blared out as the starship entered lockdown mode. Teams of heavily armoured security units headed for the mercenary who had gone rouge.
Cloud Treading Dragon!
Sophie ducked and weaved through heavy plasma fire and reached the tasty humanoid aliens hiding behind metalloid shields.
Slash!
The reinforced metal was sliced apart like butter and soon the hungry wolf arrived in the middle of a flock of sheep.
Sophie could not remember what had happened next.
She could only vaguely recall hearing cries and pleads for help as her vision filled with the gory remains of the aliens torn apart into chunks of flesh.
Eventually the hybrid girl stopped running on two legs and begun to crawl on the ceiling like a deranged lunatic.
All who came across her path were instantly killed with the exception of the lucky few who lasted for a couple of minutes while Sophie dug out their still beating hearts.
She could have killed them faster but the sadistic urge to torture was distorting Sophie's sense of reason.
Crunch!
Blue blood ran down the sides of Sophie's lips as she could feel the Spider Whisper Art automatically circulating with every kill.
The taste of these pale-skinned aliens with their long slender limbs and spherical faces was a delicious flavour that had the hybrid girl utterly addicted.
She made her way through floor after floor.
There was no mercy.
A monster who had lost her sanity was now little more than a raging beast.
Sophie's claws were now fully stained with the blood of the numerous aliens she had killed.
Some had shouted with fear, others had begged for their lives, and some had even cursed her to die.
It made no difference.
There was still a thin thread of reason hidden deep inside Sophie's mind that made her slowly work her way up to the command deck instead of wasting time to hunt down the handful of survivors on each floor.
Sophie could also feel through the mental link that her clones had also lost themselves in the sensation of killing.
Bleep! Bleep! Bleep!
The piercing sounds of the alarm constantly rang out and the harsh noise caused Sophie's ears to hurt slightly.
"Arghhhh!" Sophie let out a low pitch screech that sent shivers down the spines of the security unit running towards her current location.
Sophie's enhanced vision could penetrate through the thick metalloid doors, so she spotted the desperate team of aliens getting closer and closer.
An expression of ecstasy flashed across Sophie's face as the anticipation of getting some more delicious flesh to consume caused a fierce blush to form.
(Four minutes later)
"Mon.... mon... monster...." a security guard cried out desperately.
The plasma rifle in his hand had already discharged over two hundred rounds in the span of three minutes.
And yet not a single bullet had managed to hit the beast growling at them with scarlet eyes.
There was no doubt in his mind, that this sick creature was just toying with them.
"I... I... I CAN'T FUCKING TAKE THIS!" a shivering alien dropped his gun and turned around to flee.
All the security guard could feel was a strong gust of wind as the beast dashed through his unit just to stab the fleeing crewmember.
The monster chuckled hoarsely as it reached inside the chest of the screaming crewmember to pull out his still beating heart.
Now was the chance!
The security guard tried to press the trigger on his gun but collapsed to the ground with blood leaking out of his mouth.
Unbeknownst to the guard, Sophie had dropped a poison vial on this floor long before the fight had begun which meant that these foolish aliens were already dead long before they even realised.
Sophie scuttled over the collapsed bodies and one by one she tore open holes in their chests to find her delicious prize.
More...
More...
MORE.
This was the last level before the upper deck.
Sophie could sense the presence of lifeforms hiding inside a nearby storage closet, but the thin thread of reason stubbornly clinging on in her mind was enough to make her reluctantly move towards the staircase instead.
The prey wasn't going anywhere.
Sophie took a single step on the staircase but could not resist turning around and gazing wistfully one more time at the storage closet.
She reached into her storage bag and threw a small vial containing a greenish liquid that accurately spilled in front of the closet.
The fumes would kill the survivors within one minute.