HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“So what’s this cross-breeding you’re talking about? Is it the same term as breeding a dog or a cat to take the best gene of one type of parasite and combine it with another to cover the weaknesses?” Archie asked as he walked into the forest with the wind witch.

“Yes, that’s precisely what they’re doing right now. I don’t know how long have they been doing this, but one thing I found out is that the parasites are not doing it naturally,” The wind witch answered as she nodded her head.

“Unnatural? What’s that mean?” Archie looked at the wind witch.

“Once you go deeper into the island, you will notice the strangeness of the biome of the island. Everything overgrew in an unnatural way, a flower grew like a tree, the grass’s root was thicker than the tree trunk,” The wind witch tried to explain to Archie what she saw on the center of the island. “It’s beautiful but it’s unnatural,”

Archie tried to imagine it but he couldn’t because everything that the wind witch said sounded weird.

“What’s the connection between the biome and the parasite’s behavior of cross-breeding? I don’t see any correlation between those two,” Archie asked.

“What I’m trying to say is that everything that happened on this island, was because of someone’s intervention. I believe the Adam is the one behind all those events and he has some kind of ability to manipulate a gene and turn everything as he pleases,” The wind witch answered.

Archie hummed with understanding and he believed it had something to do with the parasite inside the Adam’s body. The wind witch was thinking the same thing but she didn’t know anything about a parasite that could manipulate another parasite physically because she had never seen one before.

After an hour of walking, Archie finally felt the presence of parasite around him. He followed the presence while the wind witch became one with the wind to guide him where to go.

Archie looked at the parasite and it looked like a humanoid tiger with horns, it looked so weird and it was the first time he saw something like that. He then decided to ambush the parasite stealthily but his presence was noticed before he could swing his sword at the parasite.

The parasite moved so fast and it didn’t stay to fight after realizing that Archie was too strong. Archie followed the parasite and with the help of the wind witch, he managed to catch up on the parasite and cut it in half with a single swing.

“So, you saw something like this but there are thousands of them on the island?” Archie looked at the inside of the parasite and the inside looked like it belonged to a human because of the anatomy of the parasite.

“Yes, and this parasite seems to be a failure that’s why it was here on his own,” The wind witch whispered as the wind blew on Archie’s right ear.

“A failure? If this is a failure, what kind of parasite that you saw in the center of the island then?” Archie started to realize that he couldn’t fight them all in his human form and had to go all out if he wanted to kill everything in his sight.

Archie proceeded to go deeper into the forest and gather more information about the cross-breed parasites.

The sun was down and the moon was up high in the sky, Archie was covered in dried blood and sweat. He fought dozens of parasites and it became more frequent the more he walked to the center of the island. He was fine but the problem was that the flesh of the parasites that he killed, didn’t satiate his hunger, and at that moment, Archie realized that he was in a bit of trouble.

“I can’t keep on doing this, they’re coming at me like a river and I need a better plan to deal with them,” Archie said as he saw dozens of parasites lurking in the darkness with their glowing yellow eyes.

“What are you going to do then? Your presence must have been noticed by him, and that’s why there are endless hordes of parasites,” The wind witch asked as she floated next to Archie.

“Yeah, I believe so too. He’s giving me a welcoming party and wants me to witness how powerful his army of parasites are,” Archie answered as he wiped the sweat under his nose. “But that won’t be a problem since I could leave the island whenever I want. Let’s leave first and rest, I need a better plan or at least a way to deal with all of them,”

Archie spread his wings and flew away from the danger then went to the nearest island with the wind witch.

The morning came and Archie finally found a parasite that he could eat. He had a feast with the wind witch as they were staring at the Borneo island in the distance.

“Is Borneo used to be filled with a lot of people?” Archie asked.

“Yes, there were so many tribe people that used to live on the island, they knew how to deal with parasites with their bare hands and bows. Those people weren’t even Axis Humans but it felt like they were made to fight those parasites.

“No wonder I couldn’t command or give them order since they’re intelligent and only made a necessary move to kill like a human being. So those parasites were cross-breeding with a human being it seems, or I think it was originally,” Archie replied as he ate the flesh of the parasite.

“You might be right about it, he must be experimented with as a human being and used the tribe’s survival instinct and intelligent with a body of parasite,” The wind witch nodded her head in agreement. “So, after spending a whole night on this island, have you found a solution, Archie?”

Archie was thinking of a way to fight those parasites but he couldn’t because of how intelligent the parasites were. If he didn’t be careful, he might fall for their trap and even if he could regenerate, those parasites would tear his body apart over and over until there was nothing left.

“I would rather fight a King-type parasite than have to fight a smart parasite. It doesn’t matter if they’re way weaker than the King-type parasite, but they calculated every move and would be enough to kill me,” Archie said as he sighed and laid down to stare at the dark blue sky.

Archie looked at his bag and he was thinking of eating the dragon’s heart tissue that Eve gave him. He didn’t know what would happen if he ate it, but he believed that he should be fine since it had been more than a week.

“Are you thinking of eating that thing inside your backpack?” The wind witch asked as she looked at Archie. “Isn’t she warned you not to consume it?”

“I know, that’s why I’m not going to do it. I’m just thinking about it,” Archie said as he stood up and stretched his arms. “Let’s try to do this again, but this time I’m going all out to fight them. So, can you watch my back and make sure that I can escape if I ended up being cornered by them?”

The wind witch smiled and nodded then they both flew away to Borneo island and left the backpack behind since Archie didn’t want to lose his backpack.

Archie fully transformed into a parasite, and he realized he could grow twice bigger than usual. His body didn’t feel heavier even though his mass and size were twice the amounts from before.

Archie was amazed by how deadly his claws were and the strength that the parasites were scared of his presence. He felt the confidence was coming back and proceeded to go deeper into the island in his parasite form.

The sun was at its peak and Archie couldn’t find any parasites around him, he was convinced that the Adam was really the one who controlled all of the parasites. Now that he knew he could fight back, he used his opportunity to fly above the island with his massive wings to support his massive body.

Archie looked down at the island with the wind witch next to him, she pointed at the long river in the center of the island. She then pulled her index finger to the east and stopped at the gigantic tree with the branches and the leaves that covered a mile radius area around it.

“That’s where I saw flower trees and grasses with roots as thick as a tree trunk,” The wind witch said.

“That’s a massive tree, it looks like a sky scrapper but it’s a tree,” Archie was amazed by it.

“What do you think? Do you want to go there and directly fight the Adam?” The wind witch asked.

“I’m planning to go there, but not to fight,” Archie answered as he kept staring at the tree. “It’s better to introduce each other first,”