The captain had leaped over the chair which Judith had tossed toward his legs, but expecting this, Judith picked up the chair beside her and flung it at the captain who was still in midair.
This time successfully getting him, he fell onto the ground with outstretched hands to absorb the shock of the impact.
Judith, while he was still falling, capitalized on the opportunity and ran toward the drawer, pulled it open and grabbed a knife. Once she had turned, the captain was already at her. Having dropped his knives, he grabbed her arms and pushed her against the counter, ramming her back into it, which caused her to scream from the impact.
A shock of pain had exploded from the point of contact and spread throughout her spine like a snake made entirely of venom.
"Ah!" Judith had screamed, before sucking up the pain and turning her attention to the matter at hand.
"I don't want to harm your flawless skin, but I will if I must." As soon as he had said this, he diverted his strength to his right hand, which was holding onto Judith's left arm, which was housing the knife.
He pushed her own hand toward her neck, attempting to make her decapitate her own throat. But Judith fought against him with all her might, all the while counting her options.
With no time to properly think, she ducked under the knife and dragged herself to the left, using the force the captain was applying toward her against him, so he crashed into the counter.
She at once made good distance from him, and then once more began to count her options.
The captain now overhead the counter, stared into the drawer of knives. But thought against the idea as he wanted to limit how much damage he would do to her skin. Believing he could over power her, he stood erect, with a smile.
A smile prompted by a realization, which was to his advantage.
Turning to Judith, who was now against the wall with a rope attached to it on her left and the counter to her right, he smiled harder and spoke.
"You can't kill me, can…" Not letting the captain finish his sentence, Judith had cut the rope beside her and in an instant, a zipping sound had resounded into the air.
The captain frantically turned to the sound, instinctively knowing the chandelier was coming for him. But to his surprise, the chandelier fell behind him, completely missing his head.
The captain grinned and attempted to laugh, when another sound resounded into the air. This time, the sound was rapid footsteps. He didn't get to turn to the footsteps in time before he saw Judith throwing herself at him, so he was flung backwards. He tripped over the chandelier and fell to the ground, so his head had hit the chair that was behind, successfully knocking him out.
Judith wasted no time. She at once got up, took another chair and slammed it into the captain's head.
With the crumbling of the chair, Judith began to heave, as she stared at the captain. Who was now bleeding profusely from his head. As to where exactly the blood was coming from, Judith didn't know, neither did she care.
Now believing for a fact that the captain was immobile, Judith crumbled to the ground, breathing heavily. Suddenly becoming irritated by her hair, which had been plastered across her sweaty face like vines, she pulled them up and returned them to their spot above and behind her head.
Trying to gulp in as much air as possible, Judith leaned her head against the wall, still breathing hard. As Judith was finally safe, and alone, her thoughts and gaze kept fixating itself onto the captain. Who was drowning the kitchen in a pool of his blood.
Judith, now feeling the adrenaline flooding her veins dissolve like water was being poured onto acid, found herself feeling the burn in her back. And, feeling a sense of, unease. Unease brought about by the fact that the captain was dying, due to her efforts.
As her thoughts lingered on this fact, Judith felt what seemed to be some form of…guilt, creep into her. She shook her head, trying to dismiss the feeling, but it didn't fade. Rather, it was only accentuated as the seconds passed by, most especially because she wouldn't take her eyes off of him.
Judith hated the fact that she was feeling this way, after all, this was not the first time. Yes, Judith had taken a life once, and though she tried to believe that the person had deserved it, she was still haunted by it for days, weeks even.
Now, seeing the captain slowly die, Judith found all those feelings she had fought through returning in full force. Like a raging sea in a bad storm slamming into the walls of a cliff.
"He deserved it, he deserved it." Judith said, staring at the captain, unable to take her sights off of him. "He deserved…" Before she could finish her sentence, an enormous sound had burst into the air, along with a large bang which made the house shake as though an earth quake had occurred.
Judith, who was startled by the sound and the bang, suddenly realized the sound was similar to shattering glass. In that moment, she had calmed down a little. It was evident that the Parabeast was dead. Qui Lin had done her part.
Following this realization was relief, which, unfortunately, did not last long.
Her attention was immediately brought back to the captain. Who Judith continued to stare at. It had felt like an eternity for Judith, but at one point, she gritted her teeth, shut her eyes and finally, steeled her nerves.
Wanting to be rid of this feeling, she thought it was best she didn't think on it. Which was only possible if she was away from this place. Deciding to leave, Judith rose up from the ground while ignoring the shooting pain in her back.
She turned toward the threshold, attempting to exit, but had found her feet refused to move. As she stood in place, a part of her was telling her to look at the captain once more. But Judith ignored this voice and forced her feet forward.
As she walked past the threshold, she said to herself over and over again, that the captain 'Deserved it.'
Upon entering the main room of the house, Judith had found an enormous piece of rock was sitting comfortably in the middle of the room.
Judith turned her sights away from the rock, and toward the direction in which the moon's white beams had been seeping into the room. Before her very eyes, she saw a gaping hole in the wall, a hole which the rock was responsible for.
Before using the hole as an exit, Judith took the time to analyze the rock.
As Judith looked at it, she knew at once that it was definitely a piece of the Parabeast's carapace. Albeit frozen and shattering bit by bit, it couldn't be denied. Judith forced a smile knowing that the people of the Outpost were safe.
In more ways than one.
Remembering the captain for a moment, Judith clenched her fists and forced the thought away. She meant to exit the house as quick as possible, when suddenly, something about the rock had called Judith's attention.
Upon closer inspection, Judith found a strange red light emanating inside the carapace. The longer she stared, the brighter the red light became and the clearer its meaning was.
"She didn't do it in time?" Judith said, thinking on how long it took Qui Lin to destroy the Parabeast, because it would seem, that nothing had changed. The Parabeast was still going to explode.