Beast Soul

"This is a life or death battle. And in a life or death battle, there's no time to think about the safety of someone else who's your enemy. There's only time to think about yourself." Noah pressed his foot on the ground hard as he spoke, stopping in his tracks once again as he leapt up into the air and up the trees, hiding on top of one of the tree branches as he continued his words. "You're going to have a lot of fights like that, Noah. That's the path you have in front of you. And sooner or later, that 'no killing' mentality of yours is going to end up killing the both of us."

The original Noah didn't reply immediately. And he didn't have to, because right then, Noah's eyes widened, and he leapt up right before the bright blue strand of light hit the tree trunk that was right behind him, causing the entire tree to smash into pieces.

BOOM!

Noah flipped up into the air and immediately turned his whole body around, only to find a long strand of bright blue light heading straight for his shoulder. 

He wanted to evade the attack, but it was too late. The strand of light was simply too close to him, and even though Noah tried to shift his body in a last minute attempt to evade the attack, the strand of light nevertheless struck Noah's shoulder, resulting in a large explosion that lit up the sky for a split second and sent Noah flying sideways, crashing into the trees with a loud noise before falling down onto the ground. 

"Bullseye!" Agent Edgerton said with a smile on his face as he saw the large explosion that shook the whole sky, and then began to move forward in an attempt to decrease the distance between him and his prey. 

'The monster seems to have realized the threat I pose, which is why it's trying to keep a distance from me. So that I have less of a chance at targeting him,' Agent Edgerton seemed to have figured out Noah's plan. And he definitely wasn't going to let the monster have its way. He was going to hunt down this monster and kill it. "You might be a clever monster, but I won't let you win this round. I promise you." 

THUD!

"God f*cking damn it!" Noah yelled out in a frustrated tone as he landed on his back. "Ah, my back!" He said as he quickly got up on his feet with his hand massaging his back. 

"Don't make loud noises, you moron!" All of a sudden, Noah began to talk in a hushed tone. He sounded frustrated. This was, of course, the transformed Noah, who was trying to keep the original Noah from giving out their position by screaming loudly. "Are you trying to get us killed?" The transformed Noah said with an agitated expression on his face. 

"Ah, sh*t! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The original Noah had now realized his mistake and immediately apologized, this time inside his mind. "I really don't know how to control my body while there's another mind operating alongside me!" He said in a desperate tone. He really was confused, as this isn't something that a normal person like him has any idea about.

"Just… use your feelings, alright?!" Even the transformed Noah didn't know how to properly explain the mindhive system to a human being. 

"What does that even mean?!" The original Noah didn't know what to make of his doppelganger's words.

"Sh*t! Nevermind!" The transformed Noah was frustrated, but he seemed to understand the original Noah's struggle in not being able to understand all the changes that were happening to his body. He was, after all, a human mind. He wouldn't be able to grasp the workings of an alien mindhive system so quickly. Hell, even he wasn't familiar with this sort of dual control mechanism that's going on right now.

"Just don't do anything stupid and leave the rest to me!" The transformed Noah said with an intense voice. He then looked at his hands and his legs and realized that he wasn't even at his true form, which only made him gnash his teeth in anger.

"I have to win this fight while I'm injured and not in my true form?" He didn't want to believe it, but he was forced to. It seemed like the amalgamation of the two minds came with a cost, which was in the form of a downgrade in strength. This was a double loss for Noah, especially since he was injured, which had already made him weaker than before.

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

Of course, Agent Edgerton was going to give Noah the time to worry about his power and strategies as countless blue strands of light began raining down on him, forcing him to move out of the way as quickly as he could, and continue dodging the attacks.

"F*ck! We have to do something!" The original Noah said as the transformed Noah controlled his body and moved around the tall grass, dashing in a zigzag manner as he narrowly avoided the strands of light.

"Yeah, no sh*t Sherlock!" The transformed Noah responded in a passive aggressive tone, which just made the original Noah even more annoyed. 

"Those blue light things definitely have to run out at some point, right?" The original Noah asked, and the transformed Noah thought for a few seconds before replying, "I'm assuming that's the case. But even if it is, how would we know whether he has completely run out of ammunition or he's simply in the middle of reloading?"

"You make it sound as though there might be a problem," The original Noah spoke as though the transformed Noah's question was just idiotic. "Why does it matter whether he has run out of ammunition or he's reloading? Our main objective should not be taking him out in one go, but to decrease the distance. We can think about ending the fight after we have closed the gap. That should be our second priority. And given how we were running away from him all this time, he probably thinks that we wouldn't consider turning around and heading towards him. This might even throw him off a bit, which might even give us an opportunity to attack."

He paused for a second, went through the words he had just spoken, and then continued, "And when I said 'take him out', I meant to disarm him, alright?" He wanted to clarify his point to the transformed Noah. The original Noah had no plans to kill. "You can beat him. But you can't kill him."

The transformed Noah didn't reply. 

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

The strands of light continued to shoot out from within the jungle, and Noah continued to move left and right, up and down, doing every possible move to avoid the bursts of energy that were hurling at him at an incredible speed.

"Wait for it…" The original Noah said in a hushed tone, but his doppelganger was already thinking about it. They were waiting patiently for the shooting to stop, which it had to, eventually.

Right then!

Zoom! Zoom!

The strands of light that were continuously raining down upon him had suddenly stopped, and without wasting a single second, Noah stomped his feet in the air and charged forward.

Whoosh!

He leapt through the trees, shrubs and grass, closing the gap that he had created between Noah and Agent Edgerton within seconds.

"Can you see him?" The original Noah asked the transformed Noah. Clearly, the two had the same eyesight. However, compared to the original Noah, the doppelganger had a much more clear understanding of where to look and was generally quicker when it came to reflexes. 

"I see him…" The doppelganger replied in an emotionless tone, as his gaze was fixated on what appeared to be a normal tree a few miles away. 

But Noah knew that there was more than just a tree there. He had calibrated the trajectory of the strands of light that were heading towards him, and had figured out the location of the source of the attacks.

"F*ck, he found me!" Agent Edgerton, who had emptied his lazaron ammunition cartridge, saw the fast approaching Noah, and immediately pulled out his shotgun rifle, quickly moving his assault rifle out of the way. 

"Sh*t! Abort!" The original Noah grit his teeth and yelled out inside of his mind as he saw the enemy taking the shotgun rifle out. "We won't make it in time!"

"We might…" The transformed Noah had a different opinion, but right before he could finish his words, a sharp pain erupted in his head for a split second, which made him groan in pain, and he reluctantly stopped in his tracks, changed directions, and immediately hid deep within the jungle.

Zoom! 

A large strand of light exited out from the shotgun barrel as Noah retreated, slightly grazing by his left ear right bro it struck the ground and exploded, causing mud and dirt to fly into the air.