Nightshift 21: Top of the stairs, near Nurse Quarters and Decom 2

[not_a_savior]

[ From here. ]Nowe proceeded up the stairs cautiously, checking ahead of him constantly for any sign of the huge sword-dragging beast that Kurosaki had described. He saw no sign of it immediately and felt it safe to keep going, reaching the top of the staircase without incident. He looked around him. The hallway was familiar, certainly. He

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[not_a_savior]

Nowe gave a grateful smile over his shoulder at the orange-haired man. It seemed Renji had been right about Kurosaki. The guy seemed trustworthy, and he was strong enough that he had confidence in his ability to keep watch, when there was the potential threat of a huge monster running around. The ex-Knight couldn't help but wonder if Kurosaki had ever cracked a smile in his life. His brow seemed consistently furrowed.

Still... a guy that was willing to put himself between them and the threat of a huge monster was pretty chivalrous. Nowe again despaired over the fact that he couldn't do that anymore. Not without a weapon, his magic, his friends, or Legna. But no, he had none of the above, and felt so powerless. Those thoughts, however, only steeled his determination. He had to find what this damn place had done with all his possessions. It had to be around somewhere.

As they crossed the hallway to peer into the darker, unexplored one, Nowe's grip tightened on his flashlight.

"We should probably shine a light down there," he said, making sure his tone was a low whisper, "even if there's something there, it's better we blind it first and gain the advantage, right?"

[scintillatingly]

Following Renji diligently, Sora also had to admire Kurosaki's resolve. He glanced over at the bright-haired boy and smiled. "But if something attacks you, you have to yell for us." He wouldn't stand for him trying to fight anything on his own.

Though Sora had to wonder if they would manage to find anything as interesting as what they had caught on the television the previous night. Considering information had been so scarce before, even getting a general idea of where they were had been really helpful. It was hard to believe they would be lucky twice in a row, though.

When Nowe made the suggestion, Sora quickly nodded. He had made sure to bring his flashlight this time, so he turned it on and shined it ahead of them, searching for any sign of something menacing.

[stray_shinigami]

Looked like the hallway was clear. And things still sounded pretty clear, too. "Okay," he said, looking at Kurosaki. "We'll do a quick check of the rooms. Most of the ones in the other hallway were locked. We'll get you if we find anything really interesting."

He trusted Kurosaki to watch his back, just like the other kids. And he didn't like the idea of being stuck in a hallway that was probably a dead end with something so nasty it even scared Kurosaki blocking the way out.

Renji moved ahead to try the first door on the left. Surprisingly enough, it was unlocked. He opened it cautiously.

[damned_monsters]

Renji's fears were not unfounded. From the depths of the hallway came hoarse, garbled sounds. Almost like patients calling to one another, if patients had such heavily gravelled voices. The click-clack of claws on the floor under-scored the strange chittering.

Something was coming.

[Fey]

[soul_defender]

Until every last bloodshot vein was visible around his pupils, Ichigo's eyes widened once those ears of his were piqued by those grinding tones. As he slowly turned his head towards the source, from the far end of the hallway instead of from behind as he had anticipated, he immediately felt a twinge of regret on having decided to stay in the rear rather than take the reins.

"Don't make any sudden moves, guys. It isn't the big guy I warned you about...but this could still be really ugly."

Were these the same zombie-like creatures he had faced before? Ichigo, his brightened brows still lowered like weights over his sharpened eyes, struggled to see across the length of the hallway to see for sure. He quickly abandoned his post in the back and began to take slow, cautious steps towards the others.

He had no desire to stand and fight, if his suspicions came to 'life', but this was the best way to put himself between them and the safety of his friends. In foresight, Ichigo's fists were already clentched.

[not_a_savior]

"Damn..."

Nowe had been on the verge of following Renji into the open room, but froze as soon as he heard the clicking. Claws? Another cat? No... these feet sounded much closer together. Nowe grimaced. So not only did they have to worry about whatever huge monster Kurosaki had described, there was also whatever was approaching them. Feeling his heart speed up, Nowe's grip again tightened on the flashlight.

"Use the light to blind it if you can. Keep the light away from your own eyes so you keep your night vision," he murmured to the others, waiting for the creature to get closer. The cat had been a fairly easy defeat... he could only hope this would be too.

[scintillatingly]

If there hadn't been those voices, Sora would have suspected that there were roaches coming their way... Which wouldn't have been so bad, since he knew how to kill those. This seemed like something he hadn't yet come across, which couldn't be good. The rare monsters were the really bad ones.

Taking a deep breath, he kept his hold on the flashlight tight and strong, not wanting it to fall out of his grip because he was nervous. It was dark and something unidentifiable was coming towards them. It figured that he'd be slightly scared. Before, he had been close to fearless. He didn't like what this place did to him, what it made him feel like.

Light would chase out the darkness. Nodding, he drew up the flashlight and pointed it in the direction of the noise. There were four of them; they would be all right.

[stray_shinigami]

The room could wait. It was time to fight or flee. Renji stepped back into the hall, letting the door fall shut behind him. He didn't have to say "get ready;" everyone already was.

He pulled out two more of his pens, thumbing the caps off. Again, he was aware of just how pathetic they were as weapons. But... better than nothing. Damn, he really needed to collect metal for a sword.

The flashlights weren't revealing anything useful yet. He moved to the center of the hallway and relaxed by force of will into a defensive stance. He'd know in a minute if he'd need to attack or act as rearguard as they escaped.

[damned_monsters]

The light of flashlights fell on wide, yellow eyes and jagged teeth. The chattering escalated to crazed shrieks of rage. Small, twisted gray bodies that lacked arms scampered with surprising speed out of the beams of light, recoiling away from the brightness. But still the came closer, four of them, on the hunt and shy of the light.

[soul_defender]

Keep the light on them. It didn't need to be said outloud, even if Ichigo wanted to make himself out to be some sort of leader for the group; these three were sharp enough in battle, obviously, to know how to pinpoint a weakness, then push it.

But Ichigo did need to make a move, before their swift assailants managed to fight their way through the stunning streams of light into an attacking range. He sprang forward quickly, his legs tensing and propelling him forward towards the enemy like coiled springs.

"If they move out of the light, train it on them again! Keep 'em off-balance!" Ichigo cried out, sweeping past those aiming their flashlights down the hall. As quickly as he could, Ichigo flexed his arms so tightly and so quickly, the grinding joints in his fists cracked sharply; he lashed out at the closest creature on the left of the hallway while it, distracted, hissed and snarled against the illuminating beams, intending to ram his fist into the center of its face. Immediately, he stepped out of the way again, hoping that the others would recognize his pattern of attack; repel, hit, repel, hit.

[not_a_savior]

Nowe ran up beside Ichigo. No one else was armed with much else besides a flashlight. He kept the light trained on one of the things, whatever they were. He wasn't going to just stand back and do nothing like before.

What were they? Some kind of rodent? Nowe followed one of them carefully, finally seeing his chance and dashing forward, slamming the butt of his flashlight toward the thing's skull. With luck, he'd smash through the bone and get away without a bite. Regardless of whether he managed a hit or not, he quickly leapt back after that and again began searching out another one of the creatures with the flashlight's beam.

[scintillatingly]

The monsters were grotesque. Sora couldn't pinpoint why, but there was something fundamentally wrong about that. He realized that in a way, they manner in which they moved as a pack and seemed to have no method to their attacking was similar to Heartless.

And the yellow eyes.

His Keyblade wasn't reacting, though, so the similarity ended there. In fact, even when he tried to force his weapon to manifest, it wouldn't respond. He didn't have the strength after that earlier time, even if he hadn't actually gotten any hits in.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, the boy tried to quickly decide what to do. He wanted to mimic Nowe and bash one of the things with his flashlight, but then he wouldn't be pointing the light at them like Kurosaki had ordered. Maybe he would have to serve as support in this encounter, as much as he didn't like the thought.

Sora took a few steps back as the others ran forward, following the four creatures as best as he could with the one beam of light he had at this disposal.

[stray_shinigami]

Four enemies, four fighters. No problem. Nowe and Kurosaki engaged quickly, and Sora held back to keep the light up, which seemed like a good idea.

Renji launched himself at another of the creatures. Again, he aimed for the eyes, which glowed, conveniently enough. Even if it didn't outright kill them, most everything had a problem when it couldn't see. And there wasn't much else that he could do; he doubted he'd be able to manage any kidou right now.

But pens, yeah, you could stab things with those. If the eyes didn't work, he'd just go for the neck next.

[damned_monsters]

The small, twisted creatures were quick. Their armless bodies contorted and writhed to avoid blows, moving erratically to avoid the ever present beams of light. Their lipless mouths were open wide, teeth bared to snap and slash at whatever flesh came near. Or thin air, for those in the beam of the flashlights.

But quick as they were, the blinding light hindered them. Nowe's blow landed, and an angry wail went up as the creature shook itself, its skin still intact but now bulging oddly. It snapped at skin, teeth seeking to tear and rip. The creature Ichigo attacked met a similar fate, recoiling away dazed with lumps protruding from its bald skull.

Renji's dive landed him with a pen in one giant yellow eye. A scream that sounded like nothing uttered by living lips filled the corridor as the creature went into a frenzy, launching itself at Renji, large clawed feet trying to sink into the death god's chest. Yellow pus leeked from its blinded eye.

[soul_defender]

Grunting sharply, Ichigo's primitive exclamation came one of the creatures, already within a deadly range, managed to use their deceptive speed to close the distance between itself and the one with orange hair, reaching out with gnarled teeth and snapping jaws like some hungry alligator springing from the river's edge. Kurosaki barely had enough time, saved only by his quick thinking and reactionary speed, to wrap one hand around the creature's lower jaw and the other against its forehead before it could bite down against him.

"Gnngh...grimy bastard!" he snarled, his arms straining visibly to keep his opponent pressed back. While he kept up his guard, Ichigo turned towards Sora on the back lines, urgently staring at him. "Don't move back! Come straight at them with that light!"

[not_a_savior]

The corner of one of the creature's teeth caught the top of his wrist and tore a thin strip of skin away. He grimaced at the pain, but it definitely wasn't the worst injury he'd ever had. He'd live. But what were these monsters? Those blows barely affected them at all, only seemed to give them weird lumps. The one that was heading toward Renji seemed to be leaking, but the one he'd hit was still alive. He had to find out how to finish it off...

He rushed toward his redheaded friend, grabbing another towel from his waistband and quickly whipping it around his arm to use as a makeshift shield against the creatures' claws and teeth. He headed for the one he'd hit already, holding his towel-wrapped arm in front of him in case they tried to leap up and bite him. He had to keep his flashlight on it... finally he caught up to it and repeated the same blow as before with the flashlight, aiming for the bump he'd already inflicted on the creature. He tried to drive the edge of the flashlight down first, wondering what might happen if he managed to pop a hole in the thing's body.