John Wick - Chapter 130: The Massacre (Patreon)

Nate shouted from outside the church, but no one answered.

At this point, hunter and prey had completely traded places.

The church was pitch-black. Only the light spilling in through the entrance formed a trapezoid across the floor. The assassins hid in the darkness, terrified. Bodies littered Piazza di Spagna outside, yet the man responsible had remained completely in control and had not even been injured.

They all knew the man outside was a monster. If they went out again, they would die. So they huddled inside the church, coordinated their positions, and kept their guns trained on the entrance.

Most Continental assassins worked alone, but the crushing pressure Nate gave off had forced them to cooperate. They knew there was no chance of surviving separately. If they fought together, they might at least have a sliver of hope.

Everything around them was dark except for the light at the entrance. If Nate still wanted to kill them, he would have to come inside. The moment he crossed the doorway, they would cut him down in a storm of bullets. Every assassin kept their weapon fixed on the entrance.

“Anyone else coming out?”

A young voice drifted in from outside the church.

Two assassins hiding behind a support column raised their guns with trembling hands. The pressure Nate had put on them was overwhelming. He had already made it all the way to the church, which meant every reckless assassin who had attacked him along the way was dead.

And that did not even include the people killed in the explosion. Nate had already taken out dozens of assassins on the way here.

Several assassins inside finally cracked under the pressure. They charged out screaming with their guns raised. A burst of gunfire erupted outside, followed by the thud of bodies hitting the ground. Then everything went quiet again.

“Why... why did we take this job?” one assassin muttered, gripping his gun with shaking hands. “He’s not even human. I’m surrendering!”

He threw down his gun and started toward the exit, but another assassin quickly grabbed his arm.

After a brief pause, the second man said, “Are you new to this? Why would he spare you? That guy’s a killing machine. He’s brutal. Going out there is suicide!”

The assassin who had tried to leave stopped, sighed heavily, and lowered his head. Then he picked his pistol back up and returned to his position.

“We came here to kill him. You really think that god of death outside is suddenly going to feel merciful and let you walk away?”

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this with me...”

The assassin who had picked his gun back up was still staring at the entrance when his words suddenly cut off. Two dark, round objects flew in through the doorway, struck the floor, and bounced twice.

“Grenades!!” he screamed.

Every assassin in the church nearly jumped out of their skin. They threw themselves behind whatever cover they could find, but after a moment, nothing exploded. When they cautiously looked again, they realized the objects were only smoke grenades.

Thick smoke poured out of both grenades, burning their eyes until they could barely keep them open. The church had already been dark. Now it was almost impossible to see anything at all.

“Cough, cough... Sorry. I’m too nervous.” The assassin who had shouted was closest to the smoke grenades, and the fumes had tears streaming down his face.

“About time~”

A line in a language they could not understand came from outside.

Beep, beep, beep.

Another dark object shot through the entrance with the beeping and buried itself deep inside the church. The assassin forced his stinging eyes open and looked over. It was an arrow with a red light glowing at the tip, embedded in a pillar and still emitting a sonar-like pulse.

Every assassin in the church suddenly felt as though they had just been swept by radar.

“What... is that?” one of them asked, staring at the arrow in confusion.

Outside the church, outlines had already appeared in Nate’s vision. He counted fifteen red silhouettes in total, most of them hiding along the two sides of the church.

Charging straight in would be risky. Nate thought for a moment, then pulled the Barrett anti-materiel sniper rifle he had barely used from inside his coat.

Ever since sleeping with it in his arms, Nate had grown surprisingly fond of the Barrett. He almost hated the idea of firing it.

“Ms. Barrett, time to wake up and get some exercise.”

Nate lifted the beast of a rifle and braced it at his waist. He aimed through the church wall at one of the red silhouettes in his vision and pulled the trigger.

He planted his feet firmly and leaned into the weapon. The recoil from the massive rifle felt brutally real. Even with his Firearm Proficiency, Nate still had to focus to keep it under control. He loved the feeling.

The Barrett M82A1 let out its first roar in Rome. The terrifying blast sounded even more deafening in the quiet night.

The deep, heavy boom rolled back and forth between the steps of Piazza di Spagna like Thor bringing down his hammer. The stained-glass windows of the church buzzed from the shock.

The round screamed from the barrel. The Barrett’s muzzle kicked high, while the blast from both sides of the muzzle brake swept dust from the ground in two curved arcs. Nate bent his left knee forward, leaned slightly into the gun, and forced the massive rifle back under control.

A hole appeared in the wall.

Chunks of brick and stone exploded inward. The bullet punched through with a piercing shriek, the sound of a steel core tearing through the air.

The assassin farthest to the left was crouched behind a pew with both hands on his gun, aiming at the entrance. The round tore through the wall and his upper body vanished.

The female assassin beside him watched his torso explode. Blood sprayed out behind him in a fan and splattered across a stone pillar three meters away. Before she could react, warm, sticky fluid hit her face along with fragments of flesh and bone.

What remained of the body swayed once, tipped over, and collapsed. Intestines spilled from the open abdominal cavity.

She touched her face blankly, then looked down at the half-corpse on the floor and let out a piercing scream.

The semi-automatic Barrett cycled with a crisp metallic scrape. A scorching shell casing, still smoking, jumped from the ejection port, clattered across the floor, spun twice, and finally came to rest.

Nate shifted the muzzle.

Second shot.

The round punched through the wall and ripped masonry apart, spraying chunks of concrete into the church like buckshot.

After smashing through the chest of the first assassin, the bullet struck a second man squarely in the chest. The enormous kinetic force lifted him off the ground and blew a bowl-sized hole out through his back.

He was dead before he landed. His body folded into an impossible curve in midair like a broken rag doll.

Third shot.

This round struck the edge of a support column and blasted away half the corner. Bullet fragments and chunks of masonry flew everywhere. One large shard tore through an assassin’s upper thigh, severing his entire leg at the hip and sending it flying two meters into another wall.

The remaining fragments scattered through the others like shotgun pellets, hitting several more assassins in quick succession.

The man with the severed leg looked down at the stump. Blood sprayed from it like an open faucet. Only then did the pain register, and he opened his mouth to scream.

Several red silhouettes in Nate’s vision dropped at once. He did not hesitate. He kept pulling the trigger.

Fourth shot.

The bullet hit the wall below a window on the right side of the church, punched through, struck the stone floor, and ricocheted diagonally through an assassin’s abdomen. His upper and lower body remained connected only by his spine, with a deep channel torn through the flesh around his waist.

He lay face-down and tried to crawl, fingers clawing at the gaps between the floor tiles. He did not make it even one full step before dying.

Another shell casing leaped from the rifle.

“W-what is this?!” someone inside the church screamed.

The inside of the church dissolved into chaos. No one dared stay in place. The surviving assassins ran deeper inside like madmen. Some crashed into pews and fell. Others shoved their companions forward as human shields. The red silhouettes churned together in Nate’s vision until he could barely tell one from another.

Fifth shot.

The bullet punched through the wall and struck a man crawling behind the altar in the lower back, turning his internal organs into pulp. His body arched violently as if he had been electrocuted, then slammed back to the floor as dark red clots of blood spilled from his mouth.

Nate fired all five rounds in less than five seconds. The silhouettes in his vision made it obvious that the assassins inside had completely fallen apart.

He put the Barrett M82A1 back inside his coat, then flipped one hand and brought out the Combat Master 2011.

Five holes now marked the church wall. The smoke grenades were still pouring out smoke, which rolled through the doorway mixed with dust and the smell of blood.

Nate stepped into the church. His shoes made wet, sticky sounds as they came down in the pools of blood.

Bodies lay everywhere. Some were still mostly intact. Others were missing half their mass. Blood covered the walls, pillars, and pews in sprayed patterns, with the longest streak running four meters. The assassin who had lost his leg was not quite dead yet. His body twitched, and a jagged white stump of bone protruded from the wound.

Only five assassins were still alive. They huddled in a corner behind the altar, trembling as they raised their guns. Through the smoke at the entrance, they saw a figure walk into the church with both hands held across his chest, a pistol angled in his grip.

The figure spoke. His voice was not loud, but in the open church, every word carried clearly.

“Everyone.”

“Goodbye.”

Gunfire erupted, and every remaining enemy inside the church was killed.

The hunt was over.

[Eagle Eye (Lv. 7): Gun Kills (21/50)]