“Everyone OK?” Robert asks while moving towards us, but constantly shifting his rifle between the bathrooms and the giant open hole that is the front of the building.
“No, I'm fucking hit!” I reply.
“Shit, can you heal it?” Robert asks.
“Oh fuck I'm so sorry Lucy!” Toby yells, pulling the tie off his forehead and running over to me.
“Mother fucker you pissed them off and then you shot me! What is it with you people and pissing off demons!” I yell back at him. And I yell loud because I am pissed. Because getting shot hurts. Oh my god this burns so bad. Now that I don't have a demon in my face to distract me, I realize just how much my own leg is screaming at me because there is a hole through it. OK, calm down Lucy. You got two heals left and worst case scenario the crystal or even mana surge.
Through I don't want to use mana surge if I can help it. I lean down and conjure up a heal, the glowing green manifesting for a moment before I touch my own leg right on the hole. I feel a sharp, stabbing pain for a moment that makes me hiss, then it goes away. It's replaced by a dull throbbing as the wound starts to close and the blood ceases to flow. Unfortunately it seems to fall short of totally healing the wound. It's a lot smaller now and isn't bleeding, but attempting to put weight on it still hurts. The burning pain is almost gone, replaced by a dull warm throbbing sensation.
Now the question is do I use the remainder of my mana to finish it or save mana and just use the healing crystal? But the real question is do we have time?
The question is posed in my mind, and immediately answered by the sounds coming from outside. The bone chilling howls from before swept their way out of the dust and through the lobby. We all freeze, complete silence throughout the lobby, save the for crunch of glass coming from right outside.
Time's up, they're here. The single silhouette of a dog starts to emerge from the dust. It steps across the broken glass, slowly coming into full view. Its nose to the floor, constantly sniffing as if it's trying to track something. It looks like a great Dane, just smaller. It looks up from it's sniffing and stares for a moment. Everything happens at once.
I scrounge up the dregs of my mana and slap my last heal spell on my leg. Jumping to my feet without a shit given for the moments it would take the heal to fully execute. The demon's face splits open in addition to its jaw, revealing ungodly amounts of teeth and even several barbed tongues. Robert swings his rifle around. He fires two consecutive shots as the Corjo demon lunges forward at incredible speed. It lets out a howling snarl as it starts its charge, but is cut back to a grating whimper as both rounds impact it at once. It stumbles for a moment, losing momentum before it recovers and charges again.
Me and Toby ain't idle, he's scrambling to his feet and running past Robert toward the back. I'm also running, with no ammo and no mana I ain't taking my chances against demons meant to engage in close combat. Robert will be fine, he still has the shield crystal floating around him. I get to the door to the back first, and turn around just in time to see Robert drop the first demon with two more shots. I say first, because the moment the first one hit the floor and stopped twitching, two more jumped out of the dust.
The second looked like an oversized chiwawa, and the third a golden retriever. Both charge at him while he backs his way toward the door. He fires on the retriever first, striking it with three rounds in rapid succession before missing a fourth. The stumbles, then trips over itself and comes to a stop in a jumbled heap. The chiwawa keeps charging, uncaring of the state of its partner as it jumps over both it and the first demon to land just short of Robert.
Robert flicks his aim, but isn't quite quick enough to kill it before it lunges at him while taking a bullet to the back. Just when it seems like Robert is about to get his guts ripped out, a rainbow tinted barrier appears between him and the oversized ankle biter. The demon crashes into the barrier, an ungodly scraping noise rigging out as its teeth and claws rake over it in an attempt to breach it. Robert keeps shooting, a moment and four bullets later the demon lays in a slumped over unmoving heap leaking black ichor all over the floor.
Toby gets to the door and bolts inside, with Robert turning around and running to join us. Five more corjo demons burst forth from the dust and give chase. I get inside and hols the door for Robert, ready to slam it shut the moment he gets here. He literally dives through and I slam the door and hold the door right on the closest demon, causing a loud metallic thunk to ring out as it slams into the reinforced door.
“Everyone OK?” Robert asks, getting up off the floor.
“Fucking peachy, now find something to block this door!” I bark at him as more demons pile into the door in an attempt to get it open. And with the lock and latch being blown out, I'm the only thing holding it closed.
Robert's eyes go wide as he realizes we aren't out of immediate danger yet. He looks around his eyes settling on something as he takes off towards it. I have to spin around and throw my full weight into the door to keep it closed. Some of the corjo demons are throwing themselves at it relentlessly while others are constantly trying to push through the gap as the door buckles. A loud bang from the tellers area next to the door gets my attention, but because of the layout a shelf keeps me from seeing what's going on.
“Toby, help me move this!” Robert yells.
I hear Toby scuttling over as one of the corjo demons gets its snout into the crack as the door buckles again. “Fuck off!” I snap at it and punch it in the face as hard as I can. I feel something crack under the impact, and my hand comes away stinging as the demon yelps and yanks its head back. But that only buys me a little time and they are quickly back to trying to force their way in.
“Come on, get that side.” I hear Toby tell Robert. “It's too heavy, we can't lift it!” He yells a moment later.
“Then fucking push it!” Robert replies.
I hear the two putting in no small amount of effort as something starts to slide across the carpeted floor. Another bang rings out from the tellers area, but this time I can tell it's a gunshot. I guess Seymore or Greg is shooting through the slits in the metal shudder.
A particularly big demon throws itself against the door causing me to almost lose it, and allowing two demons to stick their heads into the resulting gap. I desperately shove the door closed on them, pinning them in place for the moment.
“I need some fucking help over here!” I scream out, moving to punch one of the demons but quickly abandoning the idea. If I let off this door for even a moment they will push their way in.
“Hold on Lucy, almost there!” Robert calls out.
A third demon gets its head in the door, and one of the first two gets most of its neck in. It promptly turns its head and starts snapping at me, trying to take a chunk out of my leg.
“Lucy, move!” Robert yells. And I turn just in time to see him and Toby tipping over the mother of all filing cabinet racks towards the door.
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I jump out of the way just in time to avoid getting squished between the super cabinet and the door. It hits the door and quickly slides down, hitting the ground with a massive thud. The demon with its head fully in the door gets bonked on the way down, promptly yelping and pulling its head out to avoid being fully crushed.
That unfortunately doesn't stop them, as two still have their heads in the door and another throws itself against it again. The cabinet shifts a small, but perceptible amount, and the demons start trying to wiggle their way in again. Fuck, we need more weight on it! Or less demons pushing on the door. Personally I prefer less demons on the door.
“Robert, you got more ammo?” I ask him, throwing Toby's rifle back at him. Toby barely catches it, fumbling for a moment before locking his grip and righting it.
“Yea”
“Good, reload and shoot these fuckers!” I snap, before leaning down and pushing against the fallen cabinet with all my strength.
It works, and now even with them throwing themselves against the door they can't make any more progress. Another bang rings out from the tellers area. Someone is taking their sweet time picking off targets that's for sure.
A light thunk from Robert's feet indicates he's dropped his old mag, followed by a click and the racking of his gun. He steps up to the cabinet and takes aim while Toby is off to the side still fumbling getting his new magazine in. Robert fires once and black blood sprays out of one of its split face parts as it yelps and yanks its head away. Robert shoots the second, missing his first shot because of its flailing but managing to land a second. It too decides it prefers not getting pointlessly shot while pinned in a door frame and yanks its head out, finally allowing me to push the door closed. Another shot rings out from the tellers area.
“Alright, get some more shit to pile on while I hold this closed.” I tell them, prompting both to run off to a smaller filing cabinet and start dragging it over. Once they drag it to the door, I pick it up and toss it onto the big cabinet to add more weight. That isn't quite enough. So they run off and drag another over, which I promptly throw on the pile.
“Alright that should hold for now.” Robert says as he wipes the sweat from his brow.
“Fuck me…. I didn't realize they were that bad.” Toby says in between his heavy breaths.
“Those ones are pack hunters. There dumb as fuck as you've seen but they are great at working as a group. I need a gun, I'm out of mana.” I say, promoting a concerned look from both of them.
“Shit, you used the last fixing your leg didn't you?” Robert asks.
“Fuck!” Toby says, probably blaming himself for both the leg shot and now my lack of mana. Now that I'm not in burning pain from a bullet wound I don't really blame him. The demon was all up in my shit and he was trying to stop it. Still doesn't mean I appreciate getting shot, accident or not.
“Yea I did, and I won't have enough to do anything meaningful for a while.” I say, leaving out the unspoken - unless I use my emergency manasurge. But I don't want to do that unless I absolutely have to because it could cause permanent damage. Ah who the hell am I kidding! You know what's more permanent than permanent damage? Permanent death!
“You know what, fuck it! I can get some mana back, just dont panic if I start bleeding.” I say, earning a look of confusion from Toby and suspicion from Robert.
“What do you mean start….?” Is all Robert gets out before I cast manasurge on myself.
I feel the rush of mana through me, before the shooting pain following it slams into me. I grab my gut and double over falling to my knees, it feels like razors are running through every cell of my body. And just as quick as it hit it's gone. Leaving me with just the aftershocks echoing through my body.
- Warning!
- Continued usage of Manasurge on current target without extended rest period will result in permanent damage.
Ah, how wonderful. The system is being so kind as to warn me I should knock it off because I’m about to wreck my own shit. Unfortunately for me the demons are probably going to do it before I get the chance.
“Oh fuck. Damn it Lucy, what happened!?” Robert yells while leaning down to help me.
I feel something warm and wet start to run down my face from my eyes while the taste of blood speckles over my tongue. Oh boy, bleeding eyes is a new one. Now I'll really look like shit.
I drop a heal on myself, and one seems to be good enough to alleviate most of my bleeding. I let Robert pull me back to my feet as I regained my senses.
“geuz guehing mui maha hak.” I say, my words coming out slurred. Apparently a side effect this time is part of my mouth going numb.
“What?” Toby replies. And I don't blame him, I barely understood what I said, and I'm the one who said it.
In lue of trying to answer again I stagger towards the tellers area with Robert's help. Once we round the cubicle desk next to us we get a full view of the old man in his current perch. His rifle held up with the barrel pointing between some slats, but just shy of actually going through the metal shudder that separates the tellers from the rest of the lobby. The muzzle flashes and a loud bang rings in our ears.
I greedily steal my healing crystal back. I'm not too keen to waste another thousand mana unless I absolutely have to. Seymore notices it's departure and turns to look at us. One of the corjo demons throws itself against the gate with a clatter. Its paws hook in between the slats as its mouth opens wide and teeth scrape against metal as it attempts to bite its way through. A barbed tongue slips through and flails around trying to get at anything within reach. Seymore doesn't seem to be impressed, casually lining up the barrel and blasting the fugly shit in the mouth.
“There's more coming. What the hell happened to her?” He asks, turning to look back out the shudder as another demon latches on.
“She did something with her mana but I think it backfired.” Robert says as I try to stand on my own.
I give my face a slap, trying to get feeling back so I can actually communicate.
“Iz fune, juz neeth soz tine. Gime ah sho guz.” I say, trying to tell them I'm fine and to just give me the shotgun. Because I wana go break shit. Unfortunately my words are still coming out slurred.
“What the hell is she saying?” Seymore asks, angling his barrel down. He blasts another corjo demon in its open mouth as it latches on.
“I think she wants a gun.” Toby says, offering his own gun.
“Noz yuz stupizd!” I snap at him.
“Then what the hell do you want?” Robert asks.
“She's got brain damage.” Toby says.
“Take her to the back so she can heal up. Fucking christ girl, now is not the time to be doing stupid shit.” Seymore says, shooting another demon in the face as it latches onto the shudder .
Brain damage, really Toby, thats the best you could come up with? Any brain damage I incurred was earlier in life from doing stupid shit with Anna and Charles. Or that time Toby threw his blocks down the stairs at me.
I just huff and walk over to the shudder . The corjo demons seem to have figured out that they aren't getting in the barricaded door. So they redirected their efforts on the tellers' shudder . Three more demons jump on the shudder and start trying to claw their way in. I look out and can't see anymore in the lobby, so these three are probably it. Two of them already have gunshot wounds in their heads. So these are the ones that were trying to get through the door originally.
Unfortunately for them, I have a bone to pick for trying to bite my leg. Unfortunately for me I don't currently have a weapon to do it with. Unless you can't my magic, but i really don't want to waste mana on small fry that Seymore can just shoot.
“Toby take her back to the prevault room. Are there anymore coming in Seymore?” Robert asks.
“No, it's just ‘BANG!’ these two. But more will be attracted by the noise.” The old man replies, before stepping away from the window and pulling the magazine out and checking it.
“Out of ammo. How much 7.62 we got left?”
“OK, come on Lucy, let's get you to the back…” Toby days, only to be interrupted by a familiarly ungodly screech.
Another pale and lanky should blasts out of the dust and slams into the metal shudder. It hits so hard the building shakes and I hear the groaning as the metal deforms under the impact. It shoves its long gangly arm through and swipes at us for a few seconds, before realizing we're not in reach. Robert and Toby level their guns to shoot it, but it suddenly screeches again and scrambles up the gate. Disappearing from view, the only indication of where it went is the ceiling tiles falling to the ground in pieces. Oh thats not good.
I don’t give it the chance to get lost in the ceiling. I look up and drop a full powered screach spell of my own straight into the ceiling above the tellers. The ceiling explodes in a shower of dust and tile bits as the demon’s own noises reach a new pitch. With a whole lot of extra noise it falls backwards and slams into the ground on the outside of the tellers shudder. Of course it immediately starts to get back up, but thankfully Robert and Toby aren't waiting for invitations. Robert gets to the shudder first, Toby arriving only a moment later, shoving the barrels of their riffles through and throwing a leadstorm at the struggling to stand ghoul.
Somehow the damn thing makes even more noise as it dies, screeching and screaming all the way back to the floor until the only noise it can produce is a wet heavy gurgle. I hope we don't see anymore of those things, but something tells me our luck isn't going to be that great. Funny enough, I think casting the screach spell put some feeling back in my mouth, or maybe it's the adrenalin.
“God I hate those things. Let's hope they don't bring in any more.” I say, looking through the shudder at the still twitching but soon to be dead ghoul.
“Yea, it almost got over the top. Wait, I thought you had brain damage. It couldn't have healed that quick could it?” Toby asks, turning to look at me.
“The only one here with brain damage is George. My mouth went numb due to the backlash from the spell I used, that's all.” I reply.
“Lucy your fucking eyes were bleeding. A simple ‘don't panic if I start bleeding’ isn't enough of a heads up!” Rober snaps at me.
“OK, that time it hit a little harder than I was expecting but it's fine! Only minor damage that I can heal up.”
“Lucy, not being able to communicate or move properly in a combat scenario is not minor. You may not have expected it but it happened. Now, at least tell us that whatever caused that was worth it.” Seymore lays into me, sounding miffed.
“Yea, like I said, it wasn't that bad before. And yes, I got all of my mana back.” I reply.
“Well, I can see why you didn't mention it before. But seriously, full mana?” Toby asks.
“You didn't think this was important information? Wait, is this why you need privacy when you regenerate mana?” Robert asks before I can answer Toby.
“uh…. No, that's different. And it's an emergency spell, if I use it too much it does permanent damage.” I reply.
Robert looks like he's going to keep going but Seymore cuts him off.
“Enough, we'll be here till they apocalypse ends if we start critiquing who did or didn't do what right. Toby, please take Lucy to the back to clean up and get a better weapon. Robert and I will watch the front and start figuring out what to do next.”
Toby just gives them a nod in reply and starts heading further into the back. I figure that means our ‘conversation’ is over and move to follow him. All this healing, getting hurt, fighting, and lugging around a missile launcher has made me hungry and thirsty. And wow I just realized how much I need to go to the bathroom. I better make this quick, something tells me that group was just a starter. The rest will jump on us soon.