The enormous church doors smashed together again, crumbling a portion of the stone steps in their pursuit.
Hiro felt the vibration in his knees, the sheer power of the cathedral’s Sentry something to behold. His katana would likely be useless against it; the doors didn’t seem to be affected by his mask; and {Lupine Shift} probably wouldn’t help him either.
Looking for any opportunity possible, Hiro hit the door with {Blade Whirlwind} just to see if it did any damage to its health bar.
The double doors shrugged his attack off, health bar remaining full. They squeezed together and came smashing down, which created a sharp wave of energy that rippled forward and threw Hiro into the red barrier.
He felt a jolt as he hit the ground. Another sensation came to Hiro, one of sudden anger, an uncontrolled rage.
“No,” he whispered as he quickly understood exactly what it was.
Not here!
Back to his feet, Hiro sucked in a deep breath through his nostrils and charged toward the huge church doors.
He had to try.
He had to survive.
Clank!
Hiro’s next strike didn’t do much to the double doors, but it did tick its health bar down by a hair.
At this rate, it’s going to take me forever to kill it. I don’t have the stamina. Then what? he had to ask himself. How? The new skill I got?
For {Refund} to work, at least to Hiro’s understanding, the doors would need to strike him.
Okay. Fuck, I’ll try—
Hiro moved around to the front of the doors. He didn’t know how they would react, and wasn’t at all surprised when one came smashing down in an attempt to crush him.
He dodged them and hit the right door that was still standing with his katana, where he jumped back to avoid the second falling door. This triggered his {Bounce} ability, yet Hiro was ready for it, even for the jolt he felt upon hitting the top of the red barrier that kept himlocked in the battle.
It gave him a brief view of the fight, a falling moment of respite.
How am I going to take this thing down?
Hiro landed in front of his opponent, where he saw the six relief statues on the front of the door all pointing toward him, screaming in what sounded like Latin:
“Non misericordia, sed poena! Fugere non poteris!”
“Vae tibi, damnatus! Lucidium ultimum venit!”
As he had noticed before, the miniature male statues wore liturgical clothing and hats while the women were in hooded robes covered.
What if I…?
He hit the double doors with {Blade Whirlwind} just as they were coming down again to crush him. The timing of his strike allowed Hiro to shatter one of the small relief statues, which cut a chunk off the door’s health bar.
Hiro should have been happy.
Instead, a feeling of absolute terror came over him as he felt the rage boil over again, a passive effect from {Lupine Shift}.
He had to end his fight soon or he’d lose control.
The door on the right came crashing down. Once again, Hiro flew backward. He smacked into the Zone of Influence barrier, fell to the ground, and ended up bouncing toward the doors, his katana ready.
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Hiro struck another one of the relief statues, shattering it, which took another chunk from his enemy’s health bar as the statues continued to scream at him:
“Ventus dei vos obliterabit! Peccatum tuum non latet!”
“Ignis infernus te devorabit! Fugere non poteris!”
Hiro shifted right, circled around, and took care of another of the relief statues, causing one of the doors to collapse for good. The Sentry’s health bar was now at the halfway point, three more statues to go.
“Come on,” he said through gritted teeth. “Come on…”
It took everything Hiro had not to give into the ire that boiled through him. He could feel the wrath piping through his veins, the sensation nearly overpowering. A perfectly timed {Blade Whirlwind} took out another relief statue.
Two more, here we go!
“Ah!” Hiro slid forward. Now moving in frenzy, the remaining door slammed down repeatedly like a relentless pendulum driven by an unseen force. It pursued Hiro around the circumference of the Zone of Influence, Hiro not able to get a strike in, his rage to the point that the periphery blurred, causing his arms and legs to spasm, his heart to thump wildly in his chest.
Hiro bounced away.
Upon landing, he swiveled and fired at the door with {Blade Whirlwind}, this time aiming at the ground directly in front of his opponent. His strike hit the ground at the same point the door came crashing down, Hiro able to kill the final two relief statues with a single ricochet attack.
The sound of cheering played off in his head.
You have new followers!
Soul Essence poured into Hiro as the two doors righted themselves. They hopped back to the church and let out an exhausted sigh as they crashed into one another and set in place.
A spiral of energy rushed toward Hiro as he received a new skill.
Roulette Skill: {Sacra Limina}
Rank: A
Type: Transformation/Utility
Upgrade: N/A
Description: The Evil Priests of the Culling Grounds used Agent Orange and other defoliants during numerous Inquisitions in Charcus and Pindorama in their relentless pursuit of Ham the Astrochimp.
Learning of this, the English Crown ordered Francis Drake to rescue the chimp and bring glory and commercialized space travel to Great Britain.
During his famous circumnavigation of the globe, Drake encountered an anomaly on the high seas that subjected him to 17 G’s of acceleration which created a shield around his vessels, protecting it from the Inquisitors' fire arrows. After a bloody battle, he rescued Ham the Astrochimp, who later performed the first suborbital mission by a simian.
Sacra Limina will allow you to call forth the same ancient protective barrier that protected Francis Drake and Ham the Astrochimp while you rest.
Even in his rage driven state, the description took Hiro by surprise. Is the Doom System inventing its own batshit lore? I know about the Inquisition… Sacra Limina is Latin, or Spanish, for something. Who is Ham the Astrochimp? Francis Drake?
Hiro thoughts filtered away as his hands twitched. He did everything he could to stop himself from charging toward Central Park and blazening fighting his way into whatever war could likely be held in such an open space.
He slapped the back of his head so he wouldn’t disrupt his mask. “Get it together.” He did this again, harder. “Get it together!”
Safety.
As relative as this term was, Hiro took the inner warning to heart.
He triggered {Bounce} and reached the nearest rooftop where he sat, drew his knees into his chest, and did everything he could to contain the fervor surging through him.
Hiro tried to remember the things that calmed him, the call of the Japanese summer cicada; the fishing trips with his father in Missouri; the first snow of winter; the cherry blossom trees once their petals started to fall, a calm New York night just outside of one of its many tourist seasons.
Straining, Hiro focused on the moments in his life that had brought him relief. There had been a world before the Doom System appeared, one that he could never go back to. The system could drag him through the mud, it could trap him in a shielded dome with a pair of carnivorous doors, yet it couldn’t strip him of his memories.
At least to my knowledge, he thought as relief calmed his nerves.
His phone buzzed and Hiro slowly opened his eyes. He stared at the strange glow of the solar eclipse sun, his world a modern, macabre, murderous, Monet.
After a long pause, he finally checked the message.
“Thanks for nothing,” he whispered.
“So it creates barricades that can protect me?”
Hiro got to his feet, shaky as they were. “You’ve got this,” he told himself.
Billionaire’s Row was dead ahead, loot and more bloodshed just beyond the horizon.
Hiro just needed to make it there.