With only Two Gates open, Silas was stronger than the average person. His heartbeat was slow and rhythmic and his muscles tensed like steel cables. The improvement to his senses was weak but the Nightmare Seed more than made up for that. That’s why he believed himself capable of fighting half a dozen mutants earlier.
Having said that, his opinion quickly changed as the first set of dark claws narrowly missed his face, followed by a second and third. His feet moved quickly as he ducked beneath the next claws to make an attempt for his life. These creatures had the strength of the First Gate, but their strength wasn’t the problem.
They didn’t care about injuries, they didn’t care about pain- they wanted his flesh. All they felt was the ravenous desire to consume all that he was and all he could be. Silas straightened his back and side stepped to dodge another claw, grabbing its arm and quickly snapping it at the elbow.
Even with its bone exposed and its shoulder blown off from the bullets prior, it simply leapt at him with its teeth. Silas felt his heart drop as the realisation finally, truly settled in. These creatures, as they were, could no longer be considered people. Barely animals.
Distracted, another mutant clawed at his forearm even as Silas pierced a skull with his knife. Four long gashes dripped blood as he stepped back, swiftly dodging the next claw and kicking the armless mutant in the head, sending it tumbling towards the ground. Step by step he weaved between their mindless attacks, not stopping even as they threatened to pierce him through.
Abruptly raising his shoulder, Silas forced it into a mutant’s mouth. He could feel the burning sting as its sharp jagged teeth tore his flesh apart but Silas was just happy he managed to block before it bit into his neck.
With his free hand, he grabbed the mutant by the hair, crouched down and tossed it over his shoulder onto the ground. His boot caved its skull in shortly after. With a pivot, he grabbed another by the wrist, pulled it in and pierced the side of his head with the knife before dropping its lifeless body on that of its skull-crushed companion.
His eyes narrowed as a sudden pain erupted from his thigh and he quickly stepped back, his other leg quickly whipped around and bringing his boot face to face with the armless mutant's teeth. With a sharp crack, the creature’s neck snapped and it too fell to the ground lifeless.
Not yet minding the holes in his thigh, he put his foot solidly on the ground and shifted his weight to the left and lashed out with his good arm. With a crunch the mutant’s face caved in. Then he ducked beneath another claw and pushed his shoulder into the last mutant’s gut, sending them both to the ground.
Its rancid breath stung his eyes even as Silas held it down by the throat and pushed the knife’s blade through its eye socket. With a small grunt he rolled over, exhausted. In a flash of red light, blood energy surged through his wounds and did its best to staunch the bleeding as he lay amidst the corpses.
A chunk of flesh missing from his left shoulder, four long gouges in his right forearm and a row of messy holes in his thigh. Silas didn’t even want to think about how bad his injuries would be without his enhanced senses.
While the Voiceless were dangerous, Silas suddenly felt that the sheer number of these things was the real threat. A measly six basic mutants could take the life of a Second Gate Empyrean. Not to mention some were crippled..
Once the bleeding stopped, Silas pushed himself to his feet and rapidly took in fear energy to replenish the mental exhaustion. While passively drawing in world energy could replenish blood energy, he was better off finding a place to hide and eat. Food was a much better replenishment.
The screams of Screechers and the gunfire had yet to cease, Silas guessing it had only been a few minutes total since the sewers opened up. The small groups of survivors were still fighting off their respective groups of mutants but he feared for the outcome. Once ammunition ran out, their one advantage would be lost.
Silas slid the low quality bullets into his revolver as he walked over to the nearest villa still emitting fear energy. The lights were on on the second floor, vague shadows moving about or peaking through the curtains.
Stacks of furniture and debris blocked the windows, including the one on the door. Evidently, the occupants quickly boarded themselves up when things got bad. Silas couldn’t blame them, but that wasn’t even his third thought, let alone his first. The real question was..
“Can you let me in, please?” Silas spoke weakly towards the windows on the second floor. The lights turned off above him within seconds. He could barely hear some shuffling from within as the occupants gathered in a corner and, presumably, hid from him. The fear energy skyrocketed.
After a few moments of silence, Silas sighed. He understood the fear, truly. He had been bitten and, while he did have the strength to kill a dozen mutants on his own, he didn’t have the sheer brute force an Empyrean was known for. They didn’t realise his blood energy was already fighting off the Corruption.
Something that would change once it ran out.
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“I cleared the area, but you folks should find guards before the gunfire goes quiet. If you don’t, ration your food and keep quiet as long as possible. No lights. If you enter the fog, be quick.” Silas explained slowly before stumbling off towards the next populated house in the direction of gunfire..
The empty houses had been looted of their supplies and redistributed towards the assigned Villas already. His best bet was making it to the nearest patrol, or be let in. This time he heard a masculine voice order someone in a harsh tone after he knocked, then the house grew silent.
Silas repeated what he said to this house too, then the next, and the next. He knocked on door after door asking for help, his pace growing quicker with every silent rejection. The bleeding stopped but the veins near his shoulder had long turned black, held off only by the red light of his blood energy.
He had just knocked on another door when the sound of gunfire finally ceased in the distance and signalled the end of the fighting. Be it the mutants or the guardsmen, the situation for anyone who was still outside became perilous. The mutants will start spreading out either way and that left him a sitting duck.
With a short grunt, Silas placed his hands on the brick wall of the villa and circulated what little blood energy he had to spare into his legs. With one leap he shot straight to the nearest window and gripped the ledge firmly. His gaze was firm as he looked inside, a flash of blue and purple light in his eyes. “Open up.”
With a small stumble, the only man inside the house locked eyes with him and Silas felt a sudden drop in his fear energy reserves before the man slowly stumbled over. Silas moved his head out of the way as the windows opened up and then pushed himself inside. He was practically gasping for air as he laid flat on his back
“Food. Now.”
Another huge drop in his fear energy and the man quickly shuffled downstairs while Silas examined his surroundings. Green floral wallpaper mixed with dark wooden details. Two children played an unknown board game in the corner while the mother seemed to be looking through their wardrobe for something. A large bed was in the middle of the room.
Silas wasn’t sure if it was mere seconds or a few minutes before the man returned with a small bag in hand. With slow movements, Silas slowly drew the knife from his waist and offered it to the man, handing it to him while he took the bag.
“Carve the black flesh from my shoulder.” Silas asked, this time without any use of fear energy. With much more stability, the man slowly walked behind Silas and put the blade to his flesh.
“I’m an Empyrean, I need blood energy to fight the Corruption. I’m no threat and I can guide your family after recovering. Deal?” Silas sighed, doing his best to ignore the man putting the knife to the back of his neck. He could sense the man’s fear skyrocketing at the mention of corruption.
Forcing himself to stay calm, Silas tossed a few pieces of the food from the bag in his mouth. Jerky. He chewed fast, ignoring the taste entirely. With every second that passed he guided the small remnant of blood energy to digest the food and replenish his reserves. When the man finally began carving the corrupted flesh from his shoulder in small, thin cuts, it took all he had not to defend himself.
He wasn’t sure if it was because he accidently influenced the man with his fear energy or what, but he took extreme care in making sure he cut off as little flesh as possible with every slice. With every cut there was less corrupted flesh, freeing up more blood energy to stave off the rest of it.
“Did you say you were an Empyrean?” One of the children slowly walked over, ignoring the looks from their father. He couldn’t have been more than six years old, holding a small wooden sword in hand. “Are you going to keep us safe?”
Silas tilted his head back slightly to look at the man behind him before turning back to the child. He put on the best smile he could, thinking about how most of the orphanage was only a little older. Hopefully the Director got them to the Mayor’s Estate fast enough. “I’m going to do my best, okay?”
Hiding his grimace and making sure his wounds were out of sight, except for his shoulder, Silas ruffled the boy’s hair. “Your dad’s just helping me get better real quick, okay?”
“Mm!” The boy looked up at his father with a newfound sense of adoration and hurried back to his sibling in the corner, conversing in what Silas could only describe as whispered shouting. The smile was real now. “Good kids you have, sir.”
“You’re not a guardsman.” The father stated quietly, digging out a particularly deep piece of corrupted flesh without hesitation. “But you’re an Empyrean. Can we trust you?”
“Don’t trust me, trust the man that taught me.”
“And who did that?”
“Gideon Locke.” Silas breathed out The Director’s real name as the Corruption was dealt with, the vast majority of his blood energy finally able to focus on his wounds while the rest focused on generating more.
The name seemed to do the trick as the man’s vigilance lowered. He looked down at the bag of jerky Silas held and looked over to the side where his wife was. “Martha, get the Empyrean some of the bread from the pantry.”
“How long until your injuries heal?”
“Honestly? No fucking clue.” Silas let out a laugh, the movement sending a burning pain through what was now an even bigger missing chunk from his shoulder. “I’ve never been this hurt before, let alone as an Empyrean.”
With a laugh, the man took a roll of bandages from the nightstand whilst ignoring Silas’ odd look. He helped Silas up onto the bed and got to slowly bandaging him. “What, is this your first day or something?”
“Actually it’s only my like, third day.”