Eroge? Bad Ends? Betrayal? I'm Just Here to Suplex Monsters through Buildings. (Patreon)

When in Doubt, Go for the Flying Haymaker (11.2)

…

Alton, Main Street, 2PM CDT.

…

Alarms resounded.

The sprinklers went off.

Shutters dropped.

Emergency power went on, while red lights replaced the bright lab lights.

All of it happened in an instant, then Striped Eagle burst through the nearest wall and surged towards me with blazing eyes.

I caught her flying charge and heat ray with a hand and then slammed her into a wall.

“No civilians to hide behind this time.” I growled out before leashing my instincts. Her escape from me had been irritating. Not only that, but I’d been forced to act like a servant around her to keep up the charade. Now, the whole facility was compromised, all the data it had was with Helena, and I didn’t have to hide anymore. I let myself loose just a little. “No escape.”

Flexing my legs, I burst forward with a hand still wrapped around her face and used her as a battering ram through the wall, into the room, and out the other side.

Her cape tore and fluttered in pieces around her, while her heat rays oscillated between her face and my hand, melting and destroying the facility in our passing. She eventually used both hands to overcome my grip before launching herself up and away. The shoulder pauldrons she yanked off with a vicious grin, and she floated in the air with a bloodied face and a rapidly healing upper skull in nothing but a tiny leotard.

The savage grin on her face after she realized I gave her a moment was almost endearing.

“That’s… what I want to hear!” Striped Eagle surged towards me, and when I struck at her, she floated upward and changed her first charge into a kick that struck me in the face. I opened my mouth wide, allowing my teeth to turn into fangs, and tried to consume the lower half of her leg. She flew back before my jaws snapped shut, and I only managed to rip away the bottom half of her high-legged boot. I blew blood out from my nose before resetting it with a thumb. “C’mon, c’mon! Let’s kill each other!”

She reached out for the nearest wall and wrenched out some steel rods and rebar before aiming it my way.

The challenge was obvious, so I met it by taking the initiative.

She kept just out of my reach with her ability to fly. Obviously, since we last fought, she’d trained harder to be able to evade. Her ability to fly was more refined, and she took advantage of it relentlessly to contort her body out of the way of my strikes.

However, she still wasn’t as fast as me and still fell for feints.

A few weeks wasn’t enough to learn everything she’d need to survive.

I scored a few hits, but as the fight progressed, her skin took on a reddish hue, while her blonde hair turned to a shade closer to gold.

She took time to try and counter using her gaze. The heat of her attacks increased as the fight wore on.

Eventually, we disengaged from one another with the facility practically in rubble around us and with sounds of fighting reaching us from above.

I looked her way.

Most of the midsection of her leotard was destroyed thanks to my constant attempts to disembowel her or drag her heart out from under her ribcage. It was the best way to deal with an Oni, as without their heart and innards they couldn’t regenerate. Both needed to be removed to ensure it was for stronger specimens, though. One or the other and the Oni could slink away and come back to fight another day.

Scarlet skinned and with black eyes and a mouth filled with fangs and tusks that jutted out from the sides of her mouth. Barely clothed and covered in muscle as strong as steel, with incredible regeneration. She was an Oni through and through, though with flight and heat vision added on.

Despite all that, she fought with skill and strategy.

“You’re strong," I acknowledged her. Partly because she survived and was still fighting. Mostly because she has been genuinely trying to kill me. It helped that she hasn’t made the fight fucked up like she did at the start. So, I reigned back the dragon and took on a stance. This wasn’t someone a beast should face. Striped Eagle was still human in a way, even if she was fucked up. So, I’ll face her as one. “I’ll take your head and give it a proper burial.”

She almost had a moment to open her mouth and ruin the mood, but I stopped her with a hand sign.

Through the torrent of attacks, as I engaged and re-engaged, I littered a section of the battlefield with Hiyo Tags.

Then, I hounded her there through my assault.

With a hand seal, I activated them all at once, catching her in overlapping explosive radii.

In a moment, she was engulfed in half a dozen spheres of pure white superheated plasma, and the next she was free.

Most of her outer layer was carbonized and sloughing off; it was a testament to Oni's magical resistance and resilience that she stayed upright and was already healing.

However, I didn’t waste the opportunity.

I had charged the moment she was engulfed by the spheres of plasma and appeared before her the moment they faded away.

She was engulfed by an attack, after all.

Her vision had been impeded, so it would have been a waste to just keep standing back.

The moment the attack ended, I was there in front of her, Kunai extended in one hand while the other took hold of her charred skull.

I rammed it straight through her neck, through her spine, and then twisted it as I brought it towards me.

Carbonized limbs tried to reach up and stop me, somehow with even the spine severed, but I brought up my foot, placed it against her sternum, and kicked her body away while holding her head in my hand.

A sound similar to metal tearing away from metal erupted through the ruins when her head and body finally separated.

I held her head in my hand for a moment as the light faded from her eyes, and then I moved to leave to do as I said.

Then, the rubble shifted, and something took Striped Eagle’s body.

The sound of metal being crushed by teeth echoed through the ruins, drowning out the sound of gunfire, and I looked towards the source of the sound.

An oni with twin, long horns and bone-white skin and an emaciated body was eating Striped Eagle’s body.

She wore only floor-length, disheveled black hair and scraps of a patient gown.

Ava’s mother escaped her bindings during my fight with Striped Eagle.

I glanced around the rest of the ruin, and I took note of the lack of any corpses, even though I’d made over three dozen.

Under normal circumstances, killing a monster that ate human flesh was a normal course of action.

However, Ava’s mother had been betrayed after giving the corporations all that they wanted… the moment they suspected they’d be found, she was taken here to be harvested for parts. Over the last handful of weeks, more than a ton of flesh had been harvested from her while she was made to regenerate.

So, while a part of me wanted to deal with her, I stayed my hand.

But I didn’t walk away.

If this monster keeps going after this, then I’ll deal with her.

But I wouldn’t condemn her if she stopped after Striped Eagle.

The sound of flesh being consumed resounded for a few more moments until the lanky, feral, and mad creature suddenly reared up its head with a brilliant, red object between its jaws.

An Oni heart was part magic and part flesh, and even with the rest of the body gone, it still beat and bled.

The feral Oni stopped for a moment, hesitant, before swallowing the heart whole.

In practice, she places an infinite engine in her stomach to recover.

In theory, she was a fantastically powerful monster consuming one of her own children after enduring many nights and days of horror at the hands of mortals.

This could easily be the start of a horrific monster that would kill millions.

I watched as she took Striped Eagle’s power for her own. Lanky limbs, filled out with muscle, then fat, and finally skin, regained luster. Twin horns elongated and broadened. The previously emaciated creature on four limbs soon stood on two legs and basked beneath the afternoon sun shining through the ruined parking structure above us.

Our gazes met, and I knew in an instant that she was still feral.

But not mad.

She stepped away from me in a moment before staring upward into the sky and then taking a deep breath.

Up there, there were more people that smelled like the corporate soldiers in the facility.

Up there, there was another daughter of hers.

So, her next move came naturally.

She leapt upward into the battlefield, and I gave chase right after her.

But I underestimated the creature, as her eyes suddenly blazed and she struck at what remained of the support structures supporting the parking lot above the facility.

I had sworn, running for the sewers to find another exit, while making a gesture to contact my allies.

They had a big problem heading their way.

…

Interlude: Hailey Ava, The Falling Star

…

In an instant, the whole town of Alton changed.

Every corporate soldier and drone seemed to stop during their patrols all at once.

Then, Helena gave a cry of warning.

Next, guns were blazing in every direction, while several buildings simply exploded.

Mary turned on her car’s defense systems immediately. Armored panels slid to cover the windows, and screens showcased what was going on from embedded cameras in the hull. A series of drones shot up into the sky and gave us a view of the town from above, while a roof showed us what was above through a screen.

“They’re seeding cloud cover, and they’ve hit the electrical grid.” Mary reported, then touched her radio on the dash. A buzzing sound came through all the channels, save for the one with Helena. "The town’s isolated. They’re going to burn it to the ground.”

“They can… they can just do that!?” I almost felt insane as I just received glances in reply. Tian gestured at her door, and so did Alecia. Both of them disembarked, and I followed. Mary took her car to an alley, and soon enough I heard the sound of her putting her armor on from within. The sound of explosions, gunfire, and screaming echoed in the air. The hotel we’d stayed at, one of the tallest buildings in the town, was gone from the skyline. The streets were already filled with bodies that were burning. “What the hell is this!?”

“This is their true face. Parasites willing to burn everything around them to continue feasting.” Alecia walked to the center of the street. Blood from innumerable bodies flowed towards her but formed a circle at her feet rather than reach her directly. She gestured, and her shadow consumed it. In moments, a deluge of wolves and bats erupted from the pitch-black void that she cast. “I shall take care of the chaff. Lady Tian, I will need to rely upon you for their heavy vehicles. I cannot deal with them without breaking a taboo.”

“Naturally, naturally. Leave such things to your seniors, little lady.” Tian drawled and reached out towards a dead body. The clothes of the woman came apart and reformed in midair. A long jacket enrobed her while she considered the situation. Then, she pointed upward and towards the west. “I’ll deal with several, then I will see about the martial artist heading this way from the west.”

Alecia looked her way, question ready, but Tian was already gone.

“She’ll get herself in trouble one day.” Alecia sighed before looking at me. I straightened and felt my head lower instinctively. “Good. You know better. Stay close to me and engage whatever my familiars can’t kill.”

Then, she moved and I followed, while Mary left the back of her vehicle swaddled in makeshift power armor.

She spoke after joining us within a few strides.

“Helena has activated the civil alarm system and opened the shelters. Civilians are moving in. She’s also activated all the fire suppression systems in the city and is attempting to jam corporate communications.” Mary informed us. Operating in a large, faceless suit armed with a large weapon, she seemed formidable. However, having seen the armor, I knew that the insides were almost sweltering and that she would need to be careful to not showcase its back. Not to mention, it could only operate for a little more than one hour. Once expended, most of her weapons couldn’t be rearmed, too. She was no threat to me, but not a hindrance. “She said some of the local police and bounty hunters are trying to mount a resistance.”

“The corporate dogs are easy to locate, but there are more killers out there than them. My familiars will do their best to kill those who are killing normal people.” Alecia spoke and Mary nodded. I moved ahead of the two, presenting myself as the vanguard, and I realized after a moment that most of my bare skin had a deep blue hue. The transformation had been unnoticeable now. “Come along. We will assist the people of this town.”

I moved as she directed, and then a terrible chill went down my spine, while Mary seemed to freeze mid-step.

“Contact! Oni from the blacksite!”

Mother.

That singular thought filled my head, before I looked towards the top of a nearby building.

My vision sharpened until I saw many blocks away, my mother, standing with horns she never had before with only hair covering her.

My heart began to race, undoing my relief at the sight of her alive, as I realized long claws extended from her hands and blood covered her limbs and mouth.

Then, without any preamble, she gave a scream.

I felt my horns erupt from my skull and my teeth turn to fangs, while my bones creaked as I forcibly gained height. The pain was immense, but it was overwhelmed by the sensation of power that surged over me, along with the compulsion to kill.

If not for Alecia’s presence, her strength, I would have run off to do as my mother bid.

My dozens and dozens of siblings and cousins in the town were not so lucky.