The Astral soul system-Chapter 122: A new way to fight

Sable looked down at the dead body,her gaze lingering for some time before she tore her gaze away from it. She looked in front of her at the approaching gangsters and was suddenly hit with a strange sensation.

*Badump*

*Badump*

*Badump*

*Badump*

’That... sound ’

Her gaze was suddenly drawn to a specific position on one of the gangsters: their heart.

The beating sound seemed to overwhelm everything else in comparison, giving her a slight migraine. She suddenly noticed a red outline over the gangsters chest, beating regularly,it was the heart. She could see their hearts pumping blood throughout their bodies like a strange sonar effect, but it only worked with the heart and veins.

’w...wha?’

Sable rubbed her eyes and her ears, trying to regain focus but nothing worked. This was the first time she was in combat since the blood moon and it seemed her body had started to react accordingl, heighteing her senses. The only problem was that she was getting overwhelmed by all this too fast.

’So...loud*

The gangsters had noticed something was wrong with their attacker and started to slowly approach, surrounding the struggling girl.

’No...no stop, this is bad. I need to focus’

The gangsters grew excited at the sight of easy prey, and were already laughing. Sable unfortunately could feel their elevated heart rates as blood flowed faster and the beating intensified.

She dropped her katana, clutching her head and trying to block out the sound. Seeing this one of the gangsters charged in for an attack.

A flash of red appeared in Sable’s eyes and she suddenly turned around, swiping towards the gangster with her bare hand.

The gangster flinched backward, screaming in pain as he held his face that looked like it had been clawed by a wild beast and was dripping blood.

Sable looked at her hand and saw her nails had grown monstrously, resembling claws.

"Hah!"

She quickly grabbed her hand and pulled It back. She took another look and it just looked like her regular plain hand.

Sable felt a pang of hunger as she watched the fresh blood fall. Without realizing it her mouth opened and she licked her lips like she had just seen the most appetizing thing in the world.

’What is going on with me?’ Sable asked,fear beginning to seep into her heart. None of this happened when she had fought Isla...Was it maybe because.... the blood moon was satisfying her craving?

"Argh! Get that freak!"

The gangster with the bleeding face yelled, trying to be threatening,but his elevated heart rate and blood pressure caused by fear and anger was if anything,only more appetizing to the girl.

She noticed a glowing light in the corner of her eye and looking back, she saw one of the gangsters with a pipe in his hand that had a strange sheen covering it.

’Enhancement ability...I should BITE...I..I...I mean avoid getting hit by that thing ’

Sable thought, struggling to pick up her katana and steering clear of it.

She hadn’t even noticed but her thoughts had sped up considerably. She was having whole conversations with herself while fighting them off.

Another gangster started using his ability and his hands caught on fire, grabbing her attention.

’Fire, that’s BLOOD... dangerous,i meant dangerous’

She swung at the fire user, trying to ignore the sensations and looking for an opening to cut him open.

The thumping suddenly increased. The gangster was afraid, which would have been good if it didn’t increase his heart rate.

Sable quickly retreated and was immediately pursued by the fire ability user.

’He can’t shoot the flames, only cover his body in them’ Sable quickly recognized the variation of the fire ability being used and prepared to change her strategy.

She felt another incoming heartbeat and sidestepped, dodging an attack from above. Looking at the ground next to her, she saw a deep crater with one of the gangsters’ fist in it.

’first a speed ability, now a strength ability? THEY WILL ALL BECOME MY FOOD’

Sable tried to retreat but the strength user didn’t give up, throwing punch after punch. The scent of blood made it’s way to Sable’s sensitive nose,it seemed the gangster had taken some damage when he hit the ground.

A sharp pain suddenly appeared in her teeth causing her to flinch. The momentary distraction had given the gangster enough time to land a hit, luckily she used her katana to offset some of the damage, but she was still sent back.

Sable felt the ends of her teeth start to grow and in a panic she internally yelled.

’Stop!...NO! FEAST!!!’

She managed to forcefully revert the transformation with sheer willpower but it caused her even more pain .

"Hahaha. She’s weak. Finish it"

Sable tried to grab her sword but it suddenly flew away as if pulled by an invisible force towards one of the gangsters.

"Telekinesis? DRAIN THEM"

"Ha! Not a bad weapon. I think I’ll keep it"

Sable grit her teeth and got up. She took a stance but she was beginning to consider escaping. She just couldn’t deal with everything she was feeling. She was completely off her game, it was like her body suddenly decided not to work the same way it always has. Her movements were stiff and unnatural.

She looked back and realized running wasn’t going to be an option as she was surrounded.

"What’s this? Want to run? It’s not that easy. You came into our territory"

Sable grit her teeth and got ready to keep fighting. There were still three gangsters who hadn’t even shown their abilities.

"It was clear that they were taking her lightly as the rest didn’t even join in and just watched as the rest toyed with her.

She charged in this time, throwing a punch at the biggest one with the strength ability.

He swung his fist to counter but at the last second she sidestepped, revealing it was a feint and landing a kick on his side before jumping back.

Without looking back she rolled away, escaping the clutches of the fire ability user

If there was one good thing to come out of this,it was that she could hear their precise locations, as well as calculate when they are about to attack using the spikes in their blood pressure and heart rate.

She immediately grabbing Isla’s whip that was on her side and swung the whip, revealing its spikes as it lashed out and hit the fire ability user straight on the chest, drawing blood and sending him flying.

"Fuck! She has another weapon. Finish it now!"

Sable didn’t like the sound of that at all. Immediately they all started running towards her. She tried using the whip again but the telekinesis user wouldn’t let her, keeping her from moving it.

The gangster with the pipe was the next one to reach her and he swung the pipe down with as much force as he could, breaking Sable’s arm.

She wanted to escape but was caught by another telekinetic ability, slowing her movements enough for the one who had stolen her katana to drive it through her abdomen, laughing maniacally as he did so.

Finally the strength user punched with as much force as he could muster, striking her head with a crunching and popping sound as her head fell to the side, still attached to her body, but definitely broken.

"Ha...ha...ha"

The telekinesis user caught his breath.

"Fucking bitch actually had some stamina, I’m worn out"

"Hehehehe, doesn’t matter in the end she’s dead Shame it was a girl though,i wanted to have some fun before killing her off"

"Boss will be pleased. Right,finch?"

He asked the strength user who for some reason was frozen staring at Sable.

"Finch?"

"Something’s not right" He suddenly answered.

They all moved to Sable’s front to see what he was talking about but were all stunned when they saw her eyes, wide open, staring back at them with a blank look.

Sable herself didn’t know what was going on, but she knew two things for sure. One, she was alive, and two, she was STARVING.

Her eyes turned a crimson red, scaring the gangsters, and with ice cold indifference, she moved her hand that was supposed to be broken to her chin, and slowly moved it back into place. At the same time she pulled the katana out of her body.

"W-what are you?!"

"M...m...m...monster!"

Sable shifted her shoulder, seemingly getting used to her brand new neck and a low serpentine hiss, her tongue glossing over her fully grown fangs

’Im...a monster. FEAST,KILL, FEAST ’

The gangsters all prepared to attack but Sable was uncharacteristically calm,her heartbeat slowed down till it was almost non present and she looked up at the moon,her eyes reflecting it’s light.

All this time she’d been rejecting this... thing inside her. Suppressing it and trying to force herself to go back to the way she was before... but she couldn’t go back, could she? For the first time she felt like she understood, suppressing whatever it was that was wrong with her would only cause her more pain.

’FEAST, HUNT, SLAUGHTER. This monster is who I am now isn’t it? Nothing can change that ’

It sounded a bit depressing when she said it but it actually filled her with a sense of hope.

She took another deep breath, still calmly watching all the gangsters trying to attack her. Whatever state her mind was in now,it was calm, and that was all that mattered.

As her lungs were filled, the sounds,images and all the sensations seemed to calm down, and now that they did she realized how amazing they were. It was like looking at the world through new eyes, except those eyes were filled with blood.

’I shouldn’t have tried to act like everything was the way it was before. My body’s right,i can’t fight like i did before,I need to find a new way ’

Responding to the imminent danger,her bodies instincts kicked in and she suddenly stood on her toes .

At that moment,a large dark cloud covered the moon, blocking its light and plunging the street into darkness.

Although confused, she knew not to question or suppress it and just went with it, and as she did, two words appeared in her mind as if directly placed by some unfathomable presence.

’Ghost step’

The Sable suddenly disappeared from sight. The gangsters, panicked, looked around trying to find her in the dark.

"Where is she? Where’s the little monster"

A flicker of darkness flashed behind them and a pair of red eyes appeared.

They suddenly heard a weak, almost inaudible groan of pain and turned around. They were horrified when they saw finch being held over the ground with one hand,an expression that was half pain and half discomfort on his face as he didn’t even struggle, probably unable to as a red eyed figure was holding him up with their mouth on his neck.

They were all too horrified to move and after a few seconds, the figure dropped finch who was now a completely dry corpse onto the ground.

Sable closed her eyes in ecstasy but surprisingly she could still see,the hearts of the gangsters acting like sonars as every time they beat, she got a rough outline of the gangster, their heart,organs,veins, blood flow. Now that she wasn’t letting herself get overwhelmed it was incredible.

She licked her fangs and looked at the gangsters with a hungry look in her eye. The voice telling her to feast had disappeared but Sable felt like it wasn’t really gone, just a part of her,deep in her subconscious.

She didn’t know how but somehow she felt like the reason she survived the previous attacks was the blood moon. When it appeared, her body absorbed a huge amount of its essence. It was that left over essence that kept her able to go on and eventually helped her heal from the grievous injury. But now it was gone, and Sable was hungry, luckily, she realized that the same energy given by the blood moon was here...in their blood.

’Ghost step’

Sable took a step and suddenly disappeared, the wind howling resembling the wailing sounds of spirits.

The gangsters all looked around for her, afraid she might sneak up on them.

Suddenly remembering his ability, the fire user coated his arms in fire to illuminate the area, and the first thing he saw was a pair of red eyes directly in front of him.

Terrified, he tried to attack but Sable just grabbed his hands, ignoring the heat and with a crunching sound, squeezed, turning his hands into mush.

Leaning in, Sable’s fangs bit into his neck, somehow finding the perfect vein instantly. He tried to scream but the words only left his mouth as weak powerless groans.

By the time the other gangsters reached there, she had dropped his dead lifeless body to the ground.

Angrily, one of them pierced her with her own katana, impaling her, but Sable just looked down at the blade and let out a feline hiss.

"My turn" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She walked forward, piercing the sword deeper into her body before grabbing the gangster by his shoulder, simultaneously destroy his shoulder and throwing him away like a ragdoll.

She pulled out the katana and was about to move when she suddenly felt a force pulling it. She looked towards the telekinetic and realized what they were trying to do. With a snarl, she let it go but before it could even move a bit, she swung the whip in an unusual manner with its spikes, piercing through the body of the telekinetic, killing him instantly.

She suddenly felt a similar force on her hand and noticed the gangster with the pipe running towards her.

"Using the same trick twice?"

Sable forgot about that arm and suddenly threw the katana, plunging it directly into the heart of the telekinetic, and freeing her other arm.

’Ghost step’

She suddenly disappeared as the gangster with the pipe reached her location and swung, leaving him looking around carefully.

An eerie voice suddenly rang out from all directions, seemingly coming from the darkness itself.

"You shouldn’t hold that thing with both hands"

The whip suddenly lashed out from the darkness wrapping around the gangsters hands, the thorns digging into his skin painfully as blood dripped down, forcing him to drop the pipe.

An unstoppable force pulled on the whip, dragging the gangster and digging the thorns deeper into his skin.

He looked up and the last thing he saw was a pair of red eyes leaning towards his neck.