WAR: WIIGF 19 (Patreon)

Chapter 19: The Slaughter

"Arms up!" Marcus roared in Ken’s ear as the world went to shit.

Guns were loud.

Correction, guns were motherfucking loud. 

Especially when you were stuck in a underground box with walls bouncing the sound back at you ten times harder. The Crosscutters' shotguns went off all at once, muzzle flashes strobing white-hot across the morgue as his eardrums screamed against the wall of noise. Bodies hit bodies, metal screaming on tile as gurneys were shoved out of the way, bullets bouncing off steel as it sparked loud and bright.

"I hate vampires!" Words punched out of his throat before his brain caught up, silver knife held backward in his fist the way Mei Mei had shown him, blade pointed down and ready.

Tyke barrelled right past him and through, the big guy a whole human wrecking ball as he charged straight into the thickest knot of red eyes and blood-smeared faces. His club became a blur, silver end whistling through dead air. The first fledgling he met just popped, body folding wrong before it dusted mid-scream. 

Tyke didn't slow, already swinging again, roaring something wordless and pissed as vampires swarmed him. "Come on, get some!"

Lucky's nailgun spat, thwack-thwack-thwack cutting through the shotgun booms, rapid-fire percussion that made Ken's spine twitch. "Eat my wood, dickheads!” Raw wood stakes punched through chests, through faces, the blond popping up just long enough to nail something before ducking back under an overturned table. “Eat it!"

The nuns opened up; four shotguns bucking hard against shoulders that shouldn't have been able to take the recoil but did anyway. Booms shook dust from the ceiling, making the fluorescents flicker worse. Silver buckshot spread wide, turning a fledgling mid-leap into red mist and black ash before gravity remembered it existed. 

One of the older nuns dropped her empty shotgun without looking and pulled a katana from somewhere Ken hadn't seen. Her silver blade sang through the thick air, taking a vamp's head off in one smooth backhand.

Too many. Way too damn many for a room this size, this tight, nowhere to move without hitting someone or getting hit.

Ken moved anyway, spinning hard as he ducked under claws that scraped sparks where his skull just. The wind ruffled his locs, cold fingers that almost grabbed. The teenager pivoted hard on the balls of his foot and drove his knife up under ribs, silver burning through dead flesh. The vampire shrieked, sound cutting off fast as he twisted the blade.

A split second later, the thing dissolved into dust that tasted like burnt hair and old copper.

“K-keep firing!”

Everything was blur and light and sound, shotgun booming next to his ear that made him flinch hard, vamp's head vanishing mid-lunge before it dusted. Blood smell everywhere, in his nose and mouth and lungs, thick enough it made him want to gag. 

Tyke roared again as a body flew, actually flew, across the room to slam into an autopsy table with a CRUNCH. Kenny spun, chakra flooding his legs and arms because he needed every bit of speed he had, knife slashing out across a throat that got too close. 

The blade went right in, silver going deep through the neck, the fledgeling dusting in a cloud that made his eyes water. Ken shook his head, the back of his hand wiping his face. "Come on, bloodsu-!"

Someone screamed. Not a vampire shriek, not that high thin sound they made when silver hit home, but a real scream; all terror, pain and fear.

He whipped around, knife still dripping dust, and caught sight of one of Marcus's squad; the blonde woman with the buzzcut (he knew her, he trained with her, she gave him a protein bar his first day) going down hard, eyes wide behind her mask. 

A vampire, long hair dripping with blood, had gotten past her guard; jaw locked around her throat like a pitbul as she scrambled and screamed.

But before anyone could do anything, it just… tore. 

"Sarah!" Marcus screamed louder than gunfire, rifle going full-auto as silver rounds stitched across the vampire's chest. One, two, three; the thing dusted on the third but Sarah's eyes were already empty, staring up at nothing, the front of her tac-vest already soaked red.

"Fall back! Out the door, now! Move, move, MOVE!" Marcus grabbed the bloody corpse one-armed, and hefted it onto his shoulder without breaking stride, rifle still barking into the swarm.

Ken ran. 

Marcus ran.

Everybody ran, boots pounding tile as they scrambled back through the basement corridors toward the stairs. His lungs burned, ears still ringing from the gunfire, that high whine sitting behind everything else.

Movement behind him. Ken looked back and caught Tyke struggling, the big guy trying to cover their retreat but a fledgling (or maybe a Neonate, he couldn’t see the eyes) had latched onto his arm, fangs buried deep in his bicep while two more tried to tear through the back of his vest.

Tyke roared, slammed the one on his arm into concrete hard enough the wall dented, vampire dusting mid-impact, but another took its place before the ash even settled; too many of them dragging him down by weight alone.

Fuck! Ken moved before his brain caught up, ninja muscle-memory guiding the throw as the silver knife launched straight out. The blade glinted, catching fluorescent light once, and punched through the biggest vampire's heart.

Had to be the heart because it dusted with a gasp, eyes going wide before they became ash.

"Tyke! C'mon!"

The doorway back to the main corridor was a bottleneck, Mei Mei near the back laying down fire, pistol barking as nuns ran past. The Latina dropped the spent mag, and slammed a fresh one home smooth, when a blur hit her from the side. 

Fast. 

Faster than the others, the thing drove her into the wall hard enough Ken heard ribs crack from ten feet away. Her knife clattered across blood-splatttered tile, spinning outta reach, as the vampire pinned her there, fangs dropping toward her throat.

"Mierda! Get off!"

Ken blurred forward, a wordless shout tearing from his throat as he charged shoulder-first into the thing's side. All his weight, all his speed, chakra flooding his legs for that extra push. Not enough to dust it but enough to knock it off balance, breaking its grip.

"Go!" He shoved Mei Mei toward the hallway, hard enough she stumbled, only to look back at him with eyes wide and terrified behind strands of red hair stuck to her face. “Bitch, run!”

He barely had a chance to turn back before the fledgeling turned back on him, claws already coming up in a blur Ken's Sharingan tracked but his body couldn't match. He threw himself back, twisting, trying to create space that wasn't there, and gasped as talons ripped through his brand-new windbreaker. Five lines of fire tore across his chest, through cloth and skin both, white-hot pain that made his vision stutter.

No, the world stuttered as a cold weight slammed onto his right hand.

Ken blinked in confusion. Ring? A fucking ring, materializing outta nowhere while he was bleeding.

What the fuck now? Seriously?!

The teenager shoved that somewhere in the back-back-back of his mind as his heart beat louder in his ears. Screaming again, Ken kicked out hard. 

The sole of his boot slammed hard into the vampire’s chest, the force of it sending the monster stumbling back one-two-three steps. "Bitch!"

Ken took off running, legs pumping like pistons, as he burst up the stairs and launched through the open doors. Come on, come on, come on. Boots slid on the wet, grimy floor as he twisted and turned through the maze of corridors, barreling into the sides of the walls with each sharp pivot.

The door! He could see it now, right there, right in front of him; just a slice of gray against the dark of the rest of the space. The rest of the team was already pouring outside, several faces screaming at him.

“Kenny!” Lucky’s eyes were wide, blood splatter painting his pale face. “Move your ass!” 

But the vamps were still coming behind him, ragged hissing breaths getting closer, as they poured out of the hallways behind him in a tide.

Jesus f-! Fingers blurred, seals snapping together on instinct; Ram, Tiger, Bird, the motions smooth because they had to be. Chakra flooded his palms, maybe a third of all he had (maybe more, couldn't tell, didn't matter), swirling and compressing until heat built up between his fingers.

"KATON: ENSHŌŌŌŌŌŌ!"

A blast furnace opened in his face as the hallway buckled.

Chakra tore free in a sphere the size of a baseball, furious and orange; it ripped free from his hands and shot down the corridor, bright enough his eyes watered, loud enough his teeth rattled. 

It made it halfway.

Halfway.

Unstable and raw, it exploded outward into a massive flare; the entire hallway filled wall to wall with a gut-thudding WHOOSH. 

The pressure wave hit his chest like a push from Tyke, knocking him backwards into the door frame hard enough his shoulder popped.

Dry paint on the walls went flash-black, carbonized instantly as old paper signs tacked to bulletin boards behind him crumbled to ash. 

The flimsy privacy curtains lining the rooms lit up, going up in greasy smoke that smelled like burnt hair and worse. Rolling metal carts jumped, glass IV bottles bursting from thermal shock, the air turning into one long hiss of oxygen boiling away.

The nearest vampires, the ones right at the front spilling out of the morgue, caught the first full hit. Clothes ignited silent, skin cracking open like old leather left in the sun too long, and they just folded, collapsing into little piles of drifting ash before their screams could finish.

The blast kept going, a hungry wall of heat crawling down the hallway behind him, the roar filling every inch of space. Mid-pack fledglings staggered as fire ate the air from their lungs, dead bodies remembering they used to need oxygen. One tripped, slammed face-first into a closed door, and just powdered on impact from the heat behind him.

Two managed a half-turn, trying to flee back into the morgue.

They crumbled mid-step, ash mixing with blood on tile.

One had been smart enough, fast enough, to dive flat; sliding under the rising flames trying to steal home base.

Ken’s hands dropped, the teenager stumbling out through the main exit as his locs fell into his face. J-Jesus… 

His hands were still shaking, fingers twitching as the air behind him stunk from melting plastic, cooked meat, and burnt blood all mixed together. Sprinklers hissed somewhere inside, rusty water hitting hot metal, the sounds of the sole survivor dragging itself deeper into the clinic on charcoal stumps where its legs used to be.

Wasn't gonna get far.

The world slowed as everything went all quiet for the pounding in his ears, his heart trying to punch through his ribs. Something new, something cold and structured, flooded into his brain; knowledge he didn't ask for landing heavy in his skull.

"...Fire and ice?"

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

Double Jeopardy – 200 NP

Save the same teammate in a fight for a second time.

ROLL: [Parasite Ring – Cradle V1] – 400This half-silver ring will make your cycling take twice as long but will double the gains from it.

Baker’s Dozen – 300 NP

Kill a large amount of vampires at once with their major weakness: fire.

ROLL: [Cone of Cold – World of Warcraft] – 50Blast a cone of freezing air in front of you that damages and slows all enemies caught in the area. The icy wind spreads out as it travels, covering a wider area at longer ranges but requiring good positioning to catch multiple targets.

Nexus Points: 250