Night 59: Main Hallway, 1-West

[doneinthree]

[from here]

Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/

Comments

[roseoverture]

[ From here]

More bloodied rats and bats waited for them in the main hall, along with all other manner of bloody chaos. Insect guts littered the ground, a dead pack of dogs lay further ahead, and all the way down the hall was blood, blood, and more blood. Utena's breath quickened. She was already getting Doyleton flashbacks. Nothing had been this bad since that night with the zombies.

The only thing that eased her nerves slightly was a song. Of all things, there was a song being sung. Utena realized after a moment that she recognized the singer's voice, too: it was Tear, and she was using her powers the way she had with Renamon the previous night. Instead of healing, though, it seemed to be making all the remaining monsters in the area fall to the ground. "Whoa..." Utena said with wide eyes, watching as the other girl finished and beat a hasty retreat out of there.

"...Here's hoping the guys get here before more of these things do, then," said Utena after a few moments of wary silence. She moved an arm partly in front of Aigis, a

[no_dont_go]

The further down the halls they traveled the more gory and grizzly the sights. Aigis felt sickened by the malformed bodies of small animals littering the floors. This was the smell of blood and death. She had found another sensation to add to the list of undesirables

[roseoverture]

"I see them..." Utena had never seen the likes of the little creatures before, but no matter, she told herself as she swallowed a lump in her throat; she couldn't focus on how horrific they looked or how many there were. All she needed to do was fend them off, put them down. She had to keep herself and Aigis safe until everyone was here and they could all get the hell out. Hopefully to somewhere less monster-infested

[train_tracer]

[from here]

Vino was disappointed. Perhaps all that waiting really had been for nothing, even if he'd gotten a healing boost in the process. He'd missed out on a lot of the fun, it seemed, judging by the amount of animal carcasses strewn here and there in the hallways. Despite his early start, it seemed several other people had already gotten to dealing with the stirrings in the shadows before he had

[no_dont_go]

Aigis heard Utena cry out but it was the sound of a raging attacker, not the cry of an injured girl. Utena had held a sword in her hand. She would likely understand enough how to wield it to keep from gaining too much damage, though Aigis would keep her ears open. Just in case

[roseoverture]

Utena had only just finished off the last of the necrits when the monsters down the hall began to wake. She kept her sword up as a few dogs zeroed in on the two of them, somehow able to keep her mind off the cold necrit blood on her fingers. She had more important things to worry about right now.

The dogs rushed, and so did Utena with another guttural battle cry. With their rotting body parts and disfigured faces, she had no trouble seeing them as nothing more than things, threats to her and her friend. With another sharp thrust guided by the spirit that enveloped her, the Sword of Dios seemed to shimmer in the moment before it rammed through the dog's mouth and throat, piercing through skull and flesh to the other side, dark blood flying. With a wet gasp and a whine, the dog crumpled

[damned_monsters]

So much sound. So much activity. The lurcher couldn't stand it.

Noise in its territory. Shouting. Cutting. Fighting. Didn't matter who or what was causing it. It had to get it out. All of it.

The lurcher groaned as it turned the corner of the hall, three figures visible in the painful, rosy light of the halls. They were causing it. They were the ones. It wanted to rend their bodies limb from limb, if only it would make the noise cease.

With a roar, the lurcher took off charging with hulking limbs outstretched, eyes fixed on the shortest of the figures, the one with golden hair.

[Eryn]

[sixth_attack]

[Coming to the rescue from here!]

Storming forward with his bloody boots thundering down the floor and his hair whipped back around his head and the number "6" drawn crudely upon his temple, Sechs was rapidly approaching the main hall, his eyes and grin were wide with excitement as he dashed through the rioting populace. He was hell-bent on getting to the center of the chaos and attacking any weaknesses the institute had; surely that red glow couldn't be protecting everything!

Then something out of place grabbed the charging Replica's attention. Something blue was glowing up ahead. Like a single star shining brightly against a sky covered with blood, a blue aura flickered into existence, a calm entity that stood out against the institute's chaos. Yet before Sechs could get close enough to see the source of the enigmatic light, it was snuffed out instantly like a candle in a strong wind

[train_tracer]

Too many things were happening at once and Vino wasn't involved in enough of them. True, he tended to pick and choose which interesting things he wanted to dabble in, but everything that was happening now was amazing entertainment. And they were all happening almost too fast for him to react to!

Vino took it upon himself to avoid underestimating others. After all, surprises and sudden plot twists in stories were completely likely, right? They were part of the charm of the stage act, in his opinion. If everything were predictable, it would be quite boring, wouldn't it?

Now, claiming that there was nobody who could compare to himself? That was just fact! That wasn't underestimating at all. It was just that so many opponents tended to overestimate their own abilities compared to his, and that was no fault of his.

Anyway, the fact was that Vino had no problem accepting that the two young ladies he had met up with were perfectly capable of holding their own against these monsters. But one could say he hadn't quite expected just how

[no_dont_go]

Aigis could hear Utena's cries behind her but the dogs had to be dealt with, along with the new creature that was hobbling their way. Aigis poised herself for the attack but it was a weak posture. Her arm still bleed profusely and she was barely managing to stay up on steady feet. But she had to hold strong and protect her friend.

She was about to raise the Evoker again when suddenly a bellowing cry drew her attention. And then he appeared. "Sechs-san." And for a moment she felt like smiling again

[roseoverture]

As if there hadn't been enough to deal with already, suddenly there was even more happening at once, more than Utena could keep track of. Everything blurred in a frenzy of light and shadow. A casually violent apology in front of her. A bellowing roar behind. Someone screaming out for Aigis, and a dark shape exploding out of the shadows of the hall. The arm of a monster falling. The arm followed almost faster than the eye could blink by the monster's hulking body. Both hit the opposite wall with a thunderous squelchThe oncoming dogs were the first thing to shake Utena back to full awareness, out of her shock and confusion. She joined the red-haired man in attacking them, vaguely aware that the powerful man in black that had joined the fray behind them must have been Sechs. She hacked at the creatures and skewered one or two of them with the guiding strikes she seemed to be blessed with tonight. Fewer of those strikes than before, though; with her shoulder mangled the way it was, all she could do at times was flail and shout, just

[damned_monsters]

Had the lurcher noticed the attacker from behind, it might have stood a chance. As it was, it didn't.

The creature let out a ghastly wet bellow as its arm came clean off, cut swiftly by the figure in black as he next kicked off the wall and slammed the flat of his blade against it. It hit the wall with a grotesque sound of bones breaking and muscles squishing from the force of the impact.

Lurchers were made of tougher stuff than most institute monsters, however. With its thick hide and its never-ending drive to protect its territory, it was able to keep its other arm from being severed by the girl in pink. The sword sliced through part-way, severing some nerves and damaging most function beyond repair, but it did not come off. And the monster bore its injuries with another roar, lashing out at the black shape with a massive headbutt. It was the only thing it could do with the lack of limbs it could attack with.

[sixth_attack]

Memories of battles which Sechs could actually fight in flew through his mind as his attack worked as effortlessly as a hot knife slices through butter, or in this case, his axe chopping clean through an arm as thick as his torso! That wondrous feeling of freedom and power gave the battle android a near total wave of ecstasy powered by endorphins. This felt so good! His missed this feeling so damn badly!

Sechs' second strike hit right on target with a satisfying smash, and he couldn't stop the victorious grin from growing on his face as he landed heavily to the floor with an excited growl hissing through his bared teeth.

Nobody he was allied with was going to die under his watch now! He was no longer slow, weak and vulnerable! Such empowerment charged the Replica like a surge of pure electricity, a potency that no shot of adrenaline could offer. Sechs took Aigis' words in stride, and he tore off towards the fallen monster. That creature was his all right

[no_dont_go]

((ooc: Skipping Vino with permission))Utena had returned to the fray without missing a beat, and a moment later she watched out of the corner of her eye as Sechs' attack shattered the Lurcher into a bloody pile. Aigis felt her confidence in her friends soar. The redhead was also doing a number on the other dogs and creatures still tagging around, but the potency of their attacks must have started to get through to the creatures. What monsters remained mobile began to beat a retreat. With the Lurcher down, it seemed the smaller ones were less keen to attack

[roseoverture]

Utena would have continued her assault, but had to step back when Sechs grabbed a fistful of the monster's shoulder hair and swung himself around the creature, causing it to stumble toward her. Even if she had been able to stay close in the fray, she shouldn't have, considering what happened next. Sechs made a strike with his palm, and in the seconds following, the creature exploded.Utena let out a surprised shout, jumping back to avoid the outer spray of blood and tissue from the shattering remains of the monster's upper body. Whatever Sechs had done, it was more than she could have hoped to do on her own. Her eyes were wide, the flow of the prince's spirit within her quieted by what she had just seen. She just barely fumbled out a "thank you" to the wild-haired man, followed by "That was amazing... All of you