The four abominations shambled after the fleeing people, their misshapen forms twisting and contorting with each step. They moved with an ungainly gait, lurching forward and dragging their feet across the cobblestone ground. Each of their grotesque mouths opened wide, revealing rows of sharp teeth and forked tongues that lashed out at their prey.
Screams echoed through the alleyways as people fled in terror, pushing and shoving each other in their haste to escape. A woman fell to the ground, her ankle twisted beneath her, and cried out for help. One of the abominations loomed over her, its mouth opening impossibly wide.
Aubrey lunged forward and grabbed the woman by the arm, hauling her up and dragging her out of the way as the monster's jaws snapped closed on empty air.
"Run!" she yelled, shoving the woman in the direction of safety. "Get out of here!"
The woman staggered away, her eyes wide with fear, and fled down the alleyway.
Aubrey turned back to the abominations, which had begun shambling toward her. Their bodies were twisted and grotesque, covered in jagged spines and gnarled ridges of bone. Their hands and feet ended in thick claws that tore furrows in the cobblestone ground. Each step left a trail of oozing slime that reeked of rot and decay.
The sound of screams and panic faded behind her, replaced by the relentless march of those grotesque, leathery feet and the slurping rasp of their inhuman tongues.
Aubrey moved further down the alley, forcing them into single-file. She wasn't going to give them any room to maneuver, especially with her back against a wall.
[Harmonic Synesthesia Active]
The grating shrieks of a klaxon horn began to sound in Aubrey's mind, filling her head with an earsplitting wail. Like the first abomination she had encountered, the music that guided the sounds of their movements had a mixture of dark ambiance and industrial. The visual cues that guided their actions warped as the creatures staggered drunkenly about, struggling to maintain their coordination.
"Not today, motherfuckers!" Aubrey snarled, leaping into the air and delivering a flying drop-kick to the leading abomination. Her feet slammed into its chest with a thunderous impact, knocking it back into the abominations following behind. The blow sent it crashing into the cobblestone ground, its body rippling and contorting.
[Skill: "Shove of the Heartbeat's Force" Activated!: Cooldown: 8 seconds]
[Successful Strike: "Staccato!"]
Aubrey twisted in mid-air, planting her feet against the side of the nearest wall. She pushed off with a sharp, percussive note and launched herself back at the creatures. Her momentum carried her forward, and she crashed into them once again, sending them staggering back further. She tumbled into a roll, and gracefully she came up on one knee.
The creatures let out a feral hiss as they recovered and charged towards her. The klaxon of their movements faded away, no longer having the disorienting effect.
The lead creature's maw snapped at her, but Aubrey rolled to the side and popped back up, crouching in a fighting stance. It pivoted after her and opened its jaws to scream in rage, its maw dislocating almost like a snake, stretching out and baring more jagged, misshapen teeth. A forked tongue lashed out, narrowly missing her face as she danced away.
This gave her a moment to take them all in. The creature leading the charge had elongated spines sticking out from its arms. A series of small tentacle-like feelers that opened like flowers lined the side of its head, intertwined with a pair of ram's horns. Two sets of yellow eyes glowed behind its visage like tiny, perverted suns.
The creature trailing behind had the same dark skin of an ebony leather that covered its lean, sinewy body. Spiny growths jutted out from its shoulders like deadly spikes, and its twisted face had no eyes, just an empty socket that oozed with pus. Its maw hung open, drooling black slime, revealing a set of gnarled fangs.
The third and fourth... Aubrey didn't know where to start with these two. She wasn't even sure where to look because neither had heads.
Their heads had been replaced with pulsating orifices—a constantly churning, slurping vortex of tentacles, eyes, teeth, and writhing, slithering shapes. The stench coming off these things nearly made her puke, like walking into a sewer backed up by an industrial garbage treatment facility.
One thing was clear—she had stupidly boxed herself in. The bright idea of using the alley to funnel the enemy was an unmitigated failure. They shuffled over each other in the tight space, becoming an incomprehensible mass of disgusting appendages.
"Fuck... Fuck... FUCK!" Aubrey muttered to herself, staring up at the ungodly monsters approaching her. She wasn't scared. Hell no. She'd fought one of these things before.
But four... at the same time. And she didn't have Hellion's Cry on her. No guitar meant she had to rely on her fists and claws. The smart thing to do here would be to turn tail and run for it, but...
"Shit!" she swore, dodging another of their clumsy attacks. "Fuckity, fucking—AHHH!" Aubrey's reflexes screamed, her senses prickling with danger as something wrapped around her leg. It happened too fast. The abomination with the tentacles had managed to get a hold of her in a blind spot while the others distracted her.
Tentacles—prehensile feelers intertwined with bits of hair, stringy filament, and ghastly ooze—grabbed onto her, nearly toppling her over. They wriggled and slithered up her thighs and around her waist. More of its appendages shot out at her arms, while its companions caught up from behind, crowding her against a wall.
"Get the hell off me!" Aubrey screamed, activating her Shove of the Heartbeat's Force Skill, unleashing a thunderclap-like noise. It struck the tentacle monster dead-on, slamming its body into the brick wall. Cracks formed on the surface, and the impact loosened its grip on her enough for her to break free.
[Skill Combination: Genesis of the Illusive Mirage + Veil of the Hidden Stratto Activated! Cooldown: 20 seconds]
A shimmering, translucent image of herself appeared before her, like a mirror reflection. It darted off ahead of her, moving in a direction she knew she couldn't. The tentacles lashed out, smashing into the false Aubrey, causing it to shimmer and disappear like mist.
Meanwhile, the real Aubrey dashed along the wall, using her momentum to kick off and run across the adjacent building. The monsters roared, slamming and scratching against the walls in an attempt to find her, but it was too late. She'd already disappeared into the shadows, her body fading from sight.
"Nice!" she yelled from somewhere they couldn't find, taking deep, gasping breaths. "That's more like it!"
But there was no time to rest. The abominations stalked the streets in search of prey, shambling past the empty storefronts and homes.
Suddenly, she spotted two Gearbound Constables rushing towards them from one side of the street. The two automatons clanked and clattered in a blur of metallic gears. Sparks flew from the joints of their iron limbs as they ran at full tilt toward the enemy, batons extended and ready to attack.
"Unhallowed threat detected!" the constables intoned in unison as they leaped at the nearest abomination. They swung their batons, striking the creature's spiky shoulders.
Aubrey couldn't see the details clearly in the chaos of their strikes, but the automatons seemed to be holding their own against one of the monsters. However, the other three creatures had already spotted them. One of them rushed forward to join the battle while the other two turned away and lumbered into an alley, pursuing other targets.
"Shit!" Aubrey swore under her breath, sprinting after them.
Her eyes tracked one of them heading to the alley. Its thick, leathery feet clacked and slapped against the cobblestones as it barreled through the winding passages. Several people had escaped the area by then, but two laggards turned a corner, entering the monster's line of sight.
"Hey!" Aubrey shouted, trying to get the monster's attention.
The abomination ignored her, continuing toward its intended targets.
Oh no you don't!
Aubrey leapt high, catching the eaves of a building. With a push, she flung herself higher, and her legs propelled her to a nearby rooftop. Her lithe form nimbly ran along the tops of the houses. She pounded down the wooden shingles, bounding off in a lateral lunge over the alley, landing in the monster's path.
"Okay, ugly. You asked for it!"
She hunched over, clawed fingers digging into the cobblestone road for traction as her thighs strained with tension. Aubrey pushed off, driving herself into the beast with a full-on bull rush.
"Go fly a kite, bitch!"
The force of the collision slammed the abomination's hideous frame against the wall, rocking it off its feet. She heard the cracks of multiple bones as she propelled its body off the ground with a series of sprints, hoisting it onto her shoulders.
Aubrey grunted, straining against the abomination's bulk, and whirled her hips to slam the monster into the street below. With a heavy crunch, it slammed face-first against the cobblestone ground, spilling its dark ichor in all directions.
She backpedaled several steps, wheezing as she caught her breath, her boots sloshing in the putrid blood and fluids.
The abomination twitched and spasmed, slowly pulling itself up, the tentacles around its mouth still moving. Its gaze—which reminded Aubrey of a starved hound's eyes, empty and with madness—set on her. It snapped its jaws and clawed its way back towards her, enraged.
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"No fucking way," she gritted out, rising back into a fighting stance, her claws primed for another round of whoopass.
Before they could resume the brawl, a blur of pale green fabric and auburn hair rushed past Aubrey's side, meeting the monster's advance halfway.
Seraphine whirled like a dervish, her rapier lashing out in a blaze of light and shadow, leaving a trail of silver and gold behind her.
Aubrey blinked in surprise, gawking at the young woman. She didn't expect to meet her again on the same day. "Seraphine! What're you doing here?!"
"Protecting the people of this city," she responded between strikes, punctuating every sentence with a slash or thrust of her blade. "I should ask the same thing of you! Did you fancy fighting your own kind?"
My own-WHAT?! Did she just compare me to this ugly-ass motherfucker?
Aubrey almost screeched in response.
Almost.
"Hey, hey, HEY! Fuck you, bitch! Just because I'm an Unhallowed doesn't make me one of these things!" she raged, gesturing to the abomination with a wide gesture. "I happened to be in the area when this mess started, and—"
"An unlucky coincidence, then." Seraphine's blade wove in and out of the monster's body in a glittering flurry, like an arc of falling starlight. Each strike sent dark ichor spraying through the air in glistening, crimson droplets. "If you must insist on assisting me, then kindly hold back and do not get in my way."
What the—BITCH! If not for these goddamn things, I'd teach you to respect your elders!
Aubrey snorted a contemptuous laugh, landing by her side with an aerial reverse heel-turn, letting Seraphine lead. "Don't worry. I wasn't gonna take all your glory! But just so you know, there are three more of these things running loose! A couple of Gearbound Constables took two, but—"
"Levy went to help the Gearbounds, yes!" Seraphine took a defensive stance in front of Aubrey as she spoke. "If your words from earlier ring true, then you should find and engage the last one. Unless you prefer to leave it to the other denizens."
The way she said 'denizens' set Aubrey off again. "Fuck you, you little twerp!"
She ignored Seraphine's surprised squawk of protest as she took off running down another alley, looking for the final abomination. "I'll show you! Just you wait, bitch!"
With that parting retort, Aubrey hurried off down one of the side alleys.
It didn't take long for her to sniff out her quarry, a whiff of the noxious miasma filling her nostrils, leading her through a series of side streets. The sight that greeted her made Aubrey grimace—two haggard women backing away in fear as an abomination closed in. The creature shambled toward them on all fours, its clawed hands scraping the ground.
Aubrey shot forward, swearing under her breath and going all in on a kamikaze rush. She wrapped her arms around the abomination's shoulders and flung herself against its back with a twist. The monster staggered under her weight, almost losing its balance, but it managed to steady itself as it lurched to a stop.
"Run!" she screamed at the women, hoping they'd heard her. Her vision spun for a moment as her center of gravity shifted. Then the creature flung its spiky, barbed body upward, slamming into her.
"AAARRRGGHH!" She slammed into a brick wall with a wet squelch, gasping for breath. Her claws gouged chunks of brick and mortar from the wall as she scrabbled for purchase. "Motherfuck—ACK!"
Aubrey managed to hook a hand onto a protruding chunk of brick and twist around, locking her legs around the abomination's head as she scrambled on top of its back. She sunk her claws into the abomination's disgusting face, anchoring her perch on the writhing thing's shoulders.
[Ability: Veil of Dispair Activated! Duration: 24 seconds; Cooldown: 60 seconds]
[Creatures within two meters will take necrotic damage every six seconds]
Like a bull-riding champion, Aubrey held onto the squirming, spasming abomination's head like it was the bucking bronco of her life. Her ability kicked in, causing a wispy shadowy mist to pour from her body, blanketing the area around her.
The abomination gurgled in agony, thrashing about in an effort to shake her loose, but Aubrey held on with a desperate grasp. She yanked her claws back, digging them deep into the creature's leathery flesh to steady herself.
As she struggled to stay on, Aubrey clenched her jaw, wincing in pain as she felt her thighs and shins scraping and grinding against the hard, gritty edges of the monster's skin. Her leather pants and boots provided some protection, but not enough. The monster's stench made her stomach churn. She could feel bile rising in her throat, threatening to spill over.
She started to gag. Her breath hitched as she tried to fight down the urge to retch. But the longer she clung to the wriggling, hissing, screeching creature, the harder it became. Finally, her stomach clenched, and she doubled over, her grip loosening. She vomited up everything she'd eaten today onto the monster's head and down her lap.
"Urk! Hk! Ga—UUURRRPPPH!" She shuddered at the slimy feel of puke on her legs, nearly losing her balance and her hold on the thrashing creature. But Aubrey managed to maintain her perch and use one of the abomination's spines as an impromptu handhold to regain her footing.
[Ability: Veil of Dispair Activated! Duration: 24 seconds; Cooldown: 60 seconds]
She clamped her legs tighter around the abomination's neck and pressed the length of her forearms against its throat, squeezing with all of her strength. The abomination thrashed, sending waves of pain through her thighs as her flesh was abraded from the relentless movement.
Her voice rang out clear and true, echoing throughout the alleyway. "Gotcha, motherfucker! Gonna... huff... wring your scrawny little neck!"
Aubrey's grip held, even as her thighs burned and the pain lanced through her shoulders as she yanked on the abomination's head. With one last agonizing spasm, the abomination shuddered, collapsing face-first to the ground with a wet splat—which also caused Aubrey to slam face-first into the road, too.
"Fuck!" she cried out, spitting a mixture of dirt and blood from her mouth as she rose, taking a shaky step. Her entire body hurt. She glanced back down at the unmoving monster and back to herself.
[You've acquired a small amount of experience]
"Note to self..." Aubrey panted as she took in her surroundings, "never ever again do that... without my guitar."
Blood soaked the legs of her pants, which were ripped and tattered, and there were long gashes running down her thighs where the abomination's sharp flesh had sliced her open. Aubrey noticed how some of her threads had adhered to the beast's slimy, oily flesh, like webbing.
She looked on her backside and cursed out loud as she found the back of her pants nearly torn clean off, showing the partially clawed globes of her ass. She tried to adjust the tatters of her pants with her fingers, but to no avail. With no other choice, she removed her jacket and tied it around her waist for temporary cover.
She examined herself for other injuries and groaned, rolling her shoulder in relief that it wasn't dislocated or broken. She wasn't about to thank Seraphine, but this could have gone much worse for her if it weren't for that noble brat's help.
As if the thought itself conjured her, she heard footsteps from the end of the alley, and saw the young woman round the corner at a brisk walk. Aside from the exertion and adrenaline that must have flushed her face, the other woman seemed largely undamaged from her tussle.
She re-sheathed her blade and called out in a questioning tone. "That is the last of the creatures, then?"
"Tsk!" Aubrey let out an irritable sound as she sidestepped the prone monster in front of her. "It sure fucking looks like it, doesn't it?"
"Language!" Seraphine looked her over with an assessing gaze. "You appear... intact."
"Gee, thanks," Aubrey remarked with a huff. "You can save the concern, Milady. I'm still alive."
Seraphine wrinkled her nose, and Aubrey had to fight back a grin. It looked like even she wasn't impervious to the abominations' smell. She covered her nose, and Aubrey would have laughed at her expression if she weren't in such pain.
"So, what about those other two?" Aubrey asked, trying to change the subject.
"My compatriot and the automatons ended the other creatures swiftly." She then let her hand fall to the side, approaching the corpse with caution. "I've never seen these types of Unhallowed before."
"No?"
Seraphine shook her head, a thoughtful expression on her face. "No, this is new."
"What? Really? You sure? This is the second time I've seen these things come out of nowhere. Well... not really out of nowhere. People suddenly turned into these things"
Seraphine arched a brow at her in question. "You know something."
Aubrey just rolled her eyes. "Do I look like I do? You're the one who's supposed to know." She started to limp, flinching every few steps. "Don't ask me to elaborate. You're the Hunter here."
The noblewoman watched her hobble past, then followed at a slower pace, her footsteps barely making a sound. The two of them fell into a strained silence as they made their way back to the main street. Aubrey held back a wince as the adrenaline ebbed away, leaving her feeling wrung out and exhausted.
Once they were back on the main thoroughfare, she saw the ofuda-user—Levy—heading toward them, looking pretty banged up but far from dead. The young man brushed off dust and bits of debris from his coat and glanced their way. His eyes lit up as soon as he saw Seraphine, but then soured with annoyance once he saw Aubrey.
Aubrey fought off the urge to throw something at him. That probably wouldn't help her case here. Instead, she huffed and ignored him, turning away from his condescending glare.
"Seraphine!" The other young man said, sounding relieved as he caught up to them. He looked over her for injuries and smiled once he saw none. "It appears I had little to worry about on your end."
"Not a scratch," the noblewoman said, offering a polite nod.
The look he gave Aubrey told her all she needed to know about the man's thoughts about her. "Oh... you..."
"Uh-huh," she shot back with a grunt. "That's right."
Aubrey went back to checking herself for wounds, gritting her teeth through the pain as she poked around for bruised ribs.
Suddenly, an ofuda flew at her face—slapping over her mouth like a band-aid on a zit.
Several more ofuda rained upon her like a sticky paper mache, wrapping her wrists and ankles, binding them together in a flash.
The entire process was so quick Aubrey couldn't even react in time to dodge. By the time she regained her bearings, her arms and legs were held by the adhesive seals, held against her body like a straight jacket.
Aubrey stared wide-eyed at her immobile body, then looked over to Seraphine in shock and indignation.
The noblewoman shrugged back, a gesture of resignation. She gave her partner an annoyed glance but said nothing to stop him.
"It's her fault for letting her guard down around her enemies," Levy said, sighing as he dusted off his hands. "There! Now we can take her back to headquarters!"
Aubrey mentally flipped him off.
Seraphine shook her head with a tired sigh. "No. Let's bring her to one of my safehouses. She would only get immediately executed if we take her to our superiors. There's something unusual about her history, and I want to investigate this further."
Levy turned to Seraphine and blinked owlishly at her, a dumb expression on his face. He turned back to Aubrey with a ponderous look on his face, staring at her from head to toe as if trying to discern whatever mystery was hidden within her.
The idiot didn't see how his eyes trailed over her figure a little too long, with a bit too much lecherousness behind it despite probably not intending any perversions. It was easy to spot lust in the eyes of someone who thought he had the moral high ground over a woman like her.
If not for her body, she would have given him a right hook to his stupid face, which would have probably satisfied her quite a bit. Instead, she let her eyes glare daggers into the man and spat muffled curses under her breath.
Levy blinked out of his trance and looked away, turning to Seraphine to listen to her instructions. "O-Oh. Sure... Yes. Right away. Shall we use one of the carriage compartments? My carriage isn't far from here. I think it should have enough space to hold this... woman..."
The young man strode off down the street, disappearing behind a row of houses.
Seraphine knelt next to her, a contrite expression on her face. She slipped a hand under her arm, pulling her to her feet with surprising ease. "Looks like we'll be spending some time getting to know one another, Aubrey Sinclair. It'll be entirely up to you whether the experience ends as a cordial one... or not."