Aki was staring at the sigil, her mouth agape. Only Caei seemed to have maintained some sort of composure, but how much of that was a facade was up to anyone’s guess. Out of curiosity, I touched the sigil, but I didn’t even get the “it’s not gonna be so easy, chucklefuck” electric jolt.
‘Get ready,’ I sighed. ‘This is gonna suck.’
I unslung my carbine and slowly approached the double door leading to the rest of the complex. I hid behind the door frame and peeked through one of the broken windows. On the other side, there was a wide corridor with blood-splattered black-and-white diamond-shaped tiles on the floor. The walls were dirty white with red streaks on them. And was that a bloody handprint?
There was an overturned gurney lying on its side a few metres from the door and angled towards us from the wall to the right. It probably was meant to be some means of cover, but whoever it was protecting was long gone, and, based on the sheer amount of blood, didn't get to live happily ever after. I could see a staircase on the other side of the corridor, which was one of the places where it split, the other being roughly in the middle of its length. There were doors on either side of this section of the passage, which led me to suspect this being the case in the other one as well. Based on the size of the building the side corridors were likely longer than the main one.
Luckily, the doors were on double-action hinges, making it easy for me to open them. Unluckily said hinges should have been oiled half a millennium before. In the quiet building, the squeak sounded like two ships edging themselves. It made my teeth hurt, and likely rang the dinner bell for every monster in the hospital.
‘Ouch…’ Aki winced.
‘Get in, quick!’ I ordered while holding the door open.
They complied and I followed in behind them letting the door close on its own with more painful screeching. I motioned the girls to take cover behind the gurney, while I covered them from the left side of the corridor. I saw Aki draw her gun and nodded in approval. And it was just in time as I heard scratches and shuffling coming from the corridor to the left of us. I moved to the right wall and trained my gun at the corner, becoming painfully aware of how the only time I ever fired one was during a parish fair years ago. And that it was a BB gun. And that I was a shit shot.
Having thus properly motivated myself, I waited. Aki slightly leaned out from behind the gurney, while Caei was still hiding, her glaive lying on the floor not to stick out. We didn’t have to wait long. An emaciated figure dragged itself on elongated boil-and-sore-covered arms ending with slender fingers with four joints each, each digit ending with a long diamond-hard nail. Its head was nothing more than a half-rotten thin-flesh-wrapped skull, with its nose and one of its eyes missing, the other shining with sickly white light. Only clumps of the monster’s hair remained, and what was left hung loosely from flaps of flesh. The whatever-the-fuck-it-was must have noticed us, as it turned its head towards us, revealing that its lips and left cheek were missing, revealing rotting yellow tissues of its mouth. It then rotated its skull by two-hundred-and-seventy degrees and with a bone-crunching twitch turned its thin body upside down. With another snapping sound, its arm joints reversed themselves allowing the creature to keep dragging itself towards us. It let out a hiss mixed with a death rattle out of its mouth.
‘Nope,’ I said and fired my carbine at it.
My lack of experience has shown there. First, I expected it to fire a lance, like in the case of Aki’s pistol. Instead, it fired off a single bolt of shadow energy like the serial killer’s gun. It also had a bit of a kick, which surprised me due to it being well… magic. So my shot only slightly nicked him on the arm, blowing off a piece of flesh but not much else. Before I could adjust my aim, Aki fired off a shot which entered the monster’s body through its left shoulder and exited from its right side. The creature didn’t appear terribly impressed with our attempts and kept dragging itself towards us. I adjusted my aim and attempted to shoot at its head. I shot wide as it moved out of the way of the shot.
Lead the target, you fucking moron, I chided myself.
The creature once again contorted itself around and when it was back in its natural shape it pounced on the ceiling and started to skitter across it towards us with surprising alacrity. Aki, who just fired another lance into thin air fell on her shapely behind and started backing away. I started to move back as well in order to get a better shot at it, but decided “fuck it” and extended my arm to fire off a Shadow Bolt, but I was too late. The monster pounced off the ceiling towards me, tackling me to the ground. I could feel its stinking breath on my face. It leaned back in a move that told me it wanted to vomit at me.
Shit shit shit
Before it could finish this, however, it was hit on the back with a Blood Lance. The monster hissed in pain.
WHAT THE FUCK. HOW DURABLE IS THIS THING.
Still, it was enough to let me throw it off me. What I didn’t see, was Caei’s attempt to skewer the thing with her glaive. So… I ended up shishkebabed. It wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences. I screamed in pain. Caei, upon realising what just happened, looked absolutely horrified.
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Used to having sharp things inside my body, I extended my shaking hand towards the monster and fired off a Shadow Bolt. The impact threw it at the wall, but that still wasn’t enough. Aki was the one to finish it off with her Lesser Abyssal Bolt. The ball of hellfire hit the fucker on the head causing it to explode like a watermelon.
Level 15 Rotting Thrall has been slain.
You have received 500 experience points (1382/4000 total experience points progress to level 8)
Before I could celebrate our victory, Caeileera ripped out her glaive from my body causing another wave of pain that nearly caused me to black out. Her arms were quickly around me and she began healing the wound she caused, apologising profusely.
‘I’m soooo sorry,’ she cried.
‘At least… some penetration occurred in our relationship,’ I joked. ‘On a more serious note, don’t worry. It happens. And… Thanks for the save. I have no idea what that thing was planning to do to me.’
Aki looked a tad jealous so I hugged her once Caei was done with me.
‘Don’t worry. I owe you one too here.’
That seemed to have somewhat placated her so I pecked her on the cheek.
It’s challenging to keep two girlfriends happy.
I was planning on keeping my carbine for those “just in case” occasions, but it was clear this was an “engage at range” situation. So the first priority became finding more ammo. I once again offered the gun to Caei, as I had more offensive spells than she did, and this time she accepted.
The first door we checked out was the one on the right. It turned out to be a cleaning supply closet. All of the stuff inside was centuries past “best used by” date, so we ignored it. There was a broom there we could use as a makeshift whacky-stick, but you know… why?
The other door was more interesting as it led to a hospital room that was converted into an armoury. That turned out to be very thoroughly ransacked. We did find two Medium Mana Crystals which I have to Caei and a Small Healing Potion I took for myself, given how I was supposed to be the… slimeshield again.
Just as I left the room there was a loud bang and something fast flew past my face. I activated the Swiftness of the Wind and jumped behind the gurney. I peeked out and saw a… soldier standing there aiming at me with a rifle. He wore a steel blue uniform, black metal body armour and a black steel helmet. His face was covered with a brown gas mask with two glass lenses and a circular filter in front. The man had a sheathed long knife attached to his belt on his right hip, and some pouches on his left side. The rifle itself had a wooden stock and handguard, while the barrel and the receiver were made of metal. It had a straight and fairly beefy box magazine right in front of the trigger.
Before I could act the soldier fired again, the bullet pierced the gurney but it along with my armour blunted the force enough for it not to be too much of an issue. It still hurt like a bitch, but was not life-threatening.
‘Lilyth!’ I heard Aki shout.
‘Cover me! I shouted back. She leaned out of the door frame and fired off a lance of hellfire from her pistol. That caused the soldier to seek cover. That gave me enough of a window to fire off a Shadow Bolt at the bastard to further suppress him, jump over the gurney and, still relying on the Swiftness of the Wind, charge at him. Aki sent another lance at the soldier. The beam pierced his leg causing him to stumble. I leapt towards him with my sword raised for an overhead strike. He parried it with his rifle. He tried to kick me, but it seems he forgot he was wounded in the leg, as he crashed to the ground. I wanted to ram my sword into his head, but he rolled away, causing my sword to impact the tiles and to my dismay crack in the middle.
Motherfucker.
I wasn’t terribly gentle on the sword these past few days. This included me using it as a projectile during a battle with some Sanguine. The fight against Ross and his magic sword wasn’t easy on it either. I haven’t been paying too much attention to its durability, because… what could I have done about it?
Still… that was the first weapon I found here and it felt like an old friend dying. The notification I got sealed the deal.
Quest Failed: The Secrets of the Blade
Description: The sword was destroyed. Even if you manage to get it fixed the magic it had won’t get restored.
I dismissed it. I had an enemy to deal with. I dropped my useless blade to the ground and turned towards the soldier, who was scrambling to one of his knees. I sent a Shadow Bolt at him but the projectile hit him on the armour, which only rattled him. He pointed his gun at me, and before I could do anything pulled the trigger. At that close distance, the bullet just ripped through my stomach and exited on the other side of my body. I doubled over from pain and the little paper doll flashed deep red where I was hit. He was ready to shoot me again, but then a lance from Aki’s pistol pierced him through the side. That threw off his aim and the bullet hit the wall instead. The man wasn’t done yet, if anything he barely noticed the hit, and was already readjusting his aim. I pounced at him and tackled him to the ground. His rifle clattered to the floor and the soldier, almost mechanically, started to reach for his knife as I was getting ready to punch him. Wind energy started to gather around my fist, but the short delay was all that the fucker needed. He kneed me in my wounded stomach, breaking my concentration as stars flashed in my vision, and used the extra few seconds to ram his knife into my chest. He must not have expected this only slightly inconveniencing me as he stared dumbfounded at me in the “why aren’t you dead” way. I used this to punch him in his gas mask-covered face, causing him to let go of the knife. I ripped it out of my body and rammed him into his forehead, causing the soldier to finally go limp.
Level 20 Sierra Squad Revenant has been slain.
You have received 1000 experience points (2382/4000 total experience points progress to level 8)
I collapsed on top of his body and started to sob, happy to have survived another brush with death.