Night 59: Abandoned Bomb Shelter

[chippforprez]

[ from here ]It was only thanks to Chipp's frightening speed that he and his companion managed to cover that much terrain in a single night, finally reaching a section of the mountains that surrounded the Institute that could be traveled on foot - somewhat. Chipp hit the brakes just as they arrived at the base of a narrow strip of trail, kicking up

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[anemptydecapo]

It was difficult not to stop what one was doing when your partner decided to take his fight to the sky--and failed spectacularly. All of the assassin's attention ceased to be on his own actions by the time the ninja painfully landed back onto earth. "Zanuff?!" What the hell had he been--

"Gah!" Pain let itself known the second he'd attempted to dash toward the other man as hooks dug through the material of his vest and ripped open the scars on his shoulders. The muscles in his arms set aflame with hurt as the hooks-- no, those weren't hooks at all. They were talons-- pulled him off the ground.

Despite the screaming pain blossoming throughout his body, the only sound to leave Venom's lips was a strangled exhale of breath and the only thought to cross his mind was That is enough. The Guild Head's eyes shut tight as Magic flooded through his frame and exploded outward in a burst of light and energy. The bird clinging onto him immediately let go, letting out a startled cry as it was temporarily blinded. Venom crashed back to the ground with a thud before pushing himself back up and into the air.

Let's cut down on this waste of time.

He swung his cue in front of him, aiming it toward the ground and at those damn monsters that wouldn't leave them the hell alone. If they wanted to be taught a lesson? Fine. He would teach them their manners. Magic again ran through his body but, instead of expanding outward, it was channeled through his weapon. "Red Hail!" At that command, a volley of electrified spheres of energy rained down upon the enemy.

[chippforprez]

The crackle of magical energy was quite the sight, but that was hardly what was on Chipp's mind as he recovered enough to face the monsters that had knocked him out of the sky. To say he was mad was an understatement and he didn't even need to think about his next move. It was already decided. Those monsters had to be destroyed.

He took in a deep breath, focusing as he prepared to channel all of his ki into the most devastating technique he knew, one that would crush any enemy that came his way. As he floated up slowly into the air, five ghostly afterimages followed suit, splitting up into fireballs that formed a five pointed star around Chipp. The air burned at this point as the birds were jerked backwards, pulled into the glowing star. Now trapped, Chipp wasted no time launching himself back down, using his axe to slice into the trapped creatures and deliver a fatal blow. But he wasn't done yet. As Chipp landed back down on the ground, he paused for just a second.

And then the birds exploded.

There wasn't even anything left of the monsters as the blast incinerated them, both inside and out. Such an attack was probably considered "overkill", but it seemed good enough to Chipp as he stood upright, looking quite pleased with himself now that they were done with the vermin.

"Haha... Destroyed!" He triumphantly announced, looking over at Venom to make sure that his companion made it out alright. Those birds might have taken a chunk out of him, but at least it looked like they both made it out alive and in one piece. "Thinking you can stand a chance against us... What a waste of time!"

Chipp would have probably berated the corpses of their enemies some more, if there were actually corpses to yell at.

[anemptydecapo]

As much of a sight as that maneuver of the assassin's might have been, the landing was laughable. Falling from that height while injured and onto uneven, mud-slick ground only amounted to one result: the dress-shoes on his feet lacked the friction to keep his right leg under him and it slid out--painfully so. Though his cue soon found a new purpose in regaining his balance, Venom was thankful the ninja's attention was on demonstrating his own power.

Violently so. By the time he began venturing forward to the other man (the dull pain in his leg was ignored. It wasn't sprained), all that remained of their attackers was burning husks.

He'd be lying to himself if he claimed the monsters didn't deserve that death, so he didn't bother. There was a time and place for sympathy and this was certainly not either of those.

"You're bleeding." An obvious statement to make, but from Zanuff's large amount of celebratory cheer, it had its purpose--victorious as he was, he couldn't forget his wounds. "Let me see it."

[chippforprez]

"Huh?" For some reason, it was almost like Chipp was taking that statement as a criticism against his fighting abilities and/or training, which tended to be his usual train of thought, so the natural reaction was to point out that he wasn't the only one who got trashed by those demons. "What the hell? You're bleeding too! And your leg is all messed up, you're walking funny!"

... Wait a minute. He paused, and then realized that Venom was in just as bad shape as he was if they were talking about being shredded by the claws of those monsters. The wound on his back was stinging and moving definitely agitated it, but this didn't stop Chipp from giving Venom a pointed look as he started to rip the shirt off him; with the amount of tears it had on it, there was no point in trying to salvage it. A little cold and rain wasn't going to bother him.

"Hey, you too. Let's treat your wounds first, I'm fine." Actually, even Chipp could realize the gashes on his back were a little too deep for him to be "fine", but maybe it was his worthless pride talking. If he hadn't screwed up back there and didn't miss his mark, then... well, neither of them would be like this. The disgruntled look on Chipp's face was evident as he stared at the tattered remains of his shirt. This was all he had for bandages... Damn. Hopefully, that was the last of those monsters.

[anemptydecapo]

His own wounds...? "That isn't necessary, Zanuff. I'm..." Fine was the word about to leave his mouth. If it had been anyone else he were speaking to, he might have said it. He did mean it. He was fine. No matter how deep the gashes in his shoulders were, he'd been through far worse. But with Zanuff professing himself to be alright, that there was nothing to worry about, on top of Venom professing to be alright, that there was nothing to worry about...

They'd probably bleed out before Zanuff admitted to being more than slightly damaged and, with the man's penchant for turning everything into an argument, the conversation would most likely degenerate into which of the two were more "fine". For the sake of their sanity, Venom swallowed the word, and his pride, back down. He'd just have to take the high road.

He disassembled his weapon first (for reasons to be clear later) and placed the two halves of the cue onto the ground, parallel to one another. The torn clothing came afterward. In the very least, removing his vest still proved to be an easy task despite his shoulders burning with every motion in his arms. The material pulled easily from the clasps that held them to the material on his shoulders, which was second on the list to be removed (and with more effort). The assassin proved to be more delicate with his own belongings than his company, folding the removed clothing despite the tears and blood smeared across its surface and placing them onto the two halves of his cue. "Mud" was not going to join the list of things wrong with them, not when the material was all they had for bandages.

Without his shirt in the way of the gaping holes that demon had left in his muscles, Venom could feel his lips twisting downward in disgust. His stomach told him not to order the other man to turn around. It very much did not wish to see the gash there when he was already privy to the sight of his own blood washing down his arms in this rain. However... "No. I'll take care of you first. I'm used to this." The scars littering his torso proved that much.

[chippforprez]

Although Venom had realized that attempting to insist that he was fine was only going to result in an infinite feedback loop of pain and misery, even offering to treat Chipp's wounds seem to rub him the wrong way. There was something about Zanuff's pride, stubbornness, and inability to accept that he just got his ass kicked by demon birds that made him especially resistant to accepting Venom's aid.

"And I'm used to this. I've suffered worse during my training!" The ninja insisted, crossing his arms and almost turning around, which he only stopped because that was what Venom probably wanted him to do in the first place. It wasn't that he didn't trust the other man, but they were both beaten up and, in Chipp's opinion, could both take it. Despite using all of his ki, he had enough in him to at least scour the mountain. "Once you're done, let me know so we can keep looking for that Landel bastard. We're already here, so -"

In Chipp's perspective, he became suddenly aware of all of that energy he was just thinking about suddenly draining from his body, which might have been due to the deep gash on his back bleeding out. Except it didn't quite feel that way, it felt more like his body suddenly shut off, and he could vaguely feel that he had permanently lost the ability to reach his ki - it was just gone, not even in the sense that he had exhausted it. Like it wasn't there in the first place.

The ninja stood for a moment, mouth hanging open like he forgot what he wanted to say.

And then he fell over from what appeared to be complete and utter exhaustion, faceplanting onto the muddy ground. To everyone else, it looked like Chipp had suddenly passed out in midsentence, far too quickly and frightening to attribute it to mere tiredness.

[anemptydecapo]

And here he'd thought the ninja would try to be sensible about these things.

Venom found himself shaking his head the instant the other man opened his mouth, and his rose his hands in an effort to make him stop. "I was never suggesting you weren't. I was only stating that when dealing with these situations--" The look in Zanuff's eyes (or... lack thereof. He'd never seen the man with that blank an expression before) cut the Guild Head off and, despite himself, his hand drifted toward his associate's shoulder as if to shake him out of it.

...What was--

Oh.

It took a minute for the confusion at Zanuff's sudden quietness to shift into understanding, but when the change did occur it hit hard. It wasn't entirely the loss of his Magic that caused the assassin's face to blanch and his balance to suffer: it was what came with it. Without that power in his veins acting as a distraction, all of those wounds he'd ignored before--the angry marks across his cheek and arm, the stab in his side, the new gashes dug into his shoulders and the twist in his leg--began to burn with overwhelming strength. Coupled with a lack of energy, that strength sapped his own from his bones.

He didn't have time to register the fact he'd collapsed just as easily as Zanuff had (Zanuff collapsed...? When did that happen?). The only thing that could run through his mind was the question of how someone could feel so much pain, yet still feel too exhausted to stay awake. After that, the world shut off.