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

Comments

[scintillatingly]

Climbing the same stairwell they had taken the night before, Sora was glad to see they were greeted with the same hallway. There wouldn't have been any reason for it to have changed, but with Landel's one could never be sure. It was encouraging to know that he was starting to get a concrete idea of how the institute was laid out. There were still quite a few blanks in his mental map, but that was why they were doing this.

"So were we going to try heading to the left or go further right?" If they had already decided this, he hadn't heard about it. He didn't know what either way would present to them, so he had no preference about where they went.

There was always the chance that one way would lead to a large fight of some kind, but that was always a possibility, so he didn't know how it would factor into their final decision. He trusted one of the others to make the decision, though.

[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

[scintillatingly]

Right. Don't back away, run forward. Sora reminded himself that if any of the creatures got too close, he could always attempt to kick them away. There was the possibility they would just latch onto his leg when he did that, but...

The others were getting hurt, too. It didn't matter.

Running up so that he was standing among Nowe and Renji, he kept the light on the monsters with much determination, as if he was hoping that it would eventually start to burn their grey skin.

He wanted his Keyblade. He tried to force it out again, but it refused. So he stood at the ready, prepared to kick.

[stray_shinigami]

The monster's attack wouldn't have been a problem... if Renji had been able to use shunpo. He'd only ever known how to fight as a Shinigami, and it was hard to adjust to a handicap, especially when he hadn't had a chance to fight before now.

So he couldn't get out of the way, not fully. But he might as well use that problem as an advantage, if a small one.

He dodged to the side; the creature's talons dug into his shoulder and upper arm. He let out a snarl of pain, but didn't pause as he drove his other pen toward its neck with all his strength, aiming to sever arteries and drive it as far up toward the brain as he could.

[thebloodyacacia]

screeeech thump

screeeech thump

screeeech thump

From behind the men, as if approaching from the left-hand hallway, came the sounds. They began suddenly and too close to be normal; it was as if their source had lingered on the edge of the hallway, waiting for them to go by, before moving.

And then Pyramid Head loomed into the group, sword dragging behind him.

At first, he didn't seem to notice what was going on - that a fight was occurring around him. Perhaps he was confused? But that could be quickly dispelled from anyone's thoughts as he forced his way into the middle of the fray and slammed one foot down on top of one of the gray, hairless things - whichever one happened to be unfortunate enough to be close to him at the time.

[damned_monsters]

The gray creatures were whipped into a maddened frenzy. There was the scent of blood in the air now, and they wanted more. The ones who were hit screeched and recoiled from further blows, even the one who's eye was popped. They clawed in madness, teeth and hind claws grasping and slashing through thin air as they sought hot, human flesh.

And then the air changed. A strange hush came over the creatures before a new panic set in. The one that had sunk its claws into Renji's arm attempted to climb up him, the pen jabbed awkwardly into its neck. Odd colored black blood oozed out, and even as the creature was losing blood it still tried to climb over him.

One necrit didn't move quick enough. With a sickening squelch it was crushed beneath Pyramid Head.

[soul_defender]

All the blood from Ichigo's face seemed to drain away instantly, leaving his features ghostly pale and pulled screaming downward into a perfectly dismal state. His mouth agape, he simply couldn't believe his luck as he watched the lumbering behemoth muscle its way effortlessly over the weaker monsters.

Tonight had just been like a bad game of Tetris; everything kept stacking up, and not one bit evenly.

"Dammit, that is the big thing I mentioned earlier!" he exclaimed, having to raise his voice high over the clamor. Thrusting himself away from Pyramid Head, his back sharply slammed into the wall behind him in an effort to dodge. Tensed and ready, he watched with no hidden sense of anxiety in his eyes for the giant's next move.

[not_a_savior]

Nowe stared, feeling all will to move instantly drain from his legs at the sight of the huge creature that approached them. That horrible smell from earlier, from the black blood pooled all over the stairs filled his nostrils and he nearly gagged. It was coming straight toward them, and had stomped over the monsters as though they were nothing. And that sword...

He'd never known fear quite like this. There had been some when Gismor had tried to poison him, but even that was nothing compared to watching the huge monster trudge toward them. He'd had his weapons when he'd faced Gismor. Now he had nothing, and was utterly powerless.

His hand was shaking violently. The flashlight slipped from his hand and clattered loudly to the ground, the batteries scattering across the floor. Nowe backed away, slowly, and then remembered that there was nowhere to go. They were trapped, and it was coming right for them.

[scintillatingly]

Sora's small flashlight job was forgotten when he felt something in the air distinctly change. He heard the ominous footsteps first and was forced to jump to the side as the hulking monster stepped toward them. Completely forgetting the things that originally attacked them, the boy found himself holding his breath.

For a moment, he was frozen, unsure of what to do. It was the clatter of Nowe's flashlight that woke him up. Everyone was scared, but they couldn't just stand there. Something had to be done. Putting his flashlight away, Sora focused. The Keyblade had refused to come before, but he could already feel his adrenaline building with this larger threat.

There was a flash of light as it appeared - not that it seemed to bother their foe.

His hand snapped in Kurosaki's direction as he held tight to his weapon protectively. "What do we do?"

[stray_shinigami]

When a pen in the neck failed to get the monster off of him (and apparently got it even more excited) Renji decided to go with plan B. The strange hush meant that it was something big and nasty, and he needed to get this thing off of him now. He ran into the wall, as hard as he could, crushing the creature betwen him and it. Once, then twice, and it dropped off

[thebloodyacacia]

Pyramid Head's left arm swung out and attempted to scoop one of the gray creatures off the floor as they ran away, but he missed, his fingers grazing the floor instead. Slowly, he lurched back upright, paused, and tilted the helmet from side to side as if gaining an overview of all four men in the hallway.

Silence prevailed for a moment --

One was against the wall. Three were standing free.

screeeeee

Pyramid head swung his sword up and out, a terrible arc of rusted metal aiming straight for Renji and Sora - and thus Nowe, behind them - and eventually Ichigo, if he went all the way around.

[soul_defender]

Run. Run and hide. Hide!

Fear was the only voice Ichigo Kurosaki could hear. His own fear booming like an avalanche's roar, and nothing else. He could see Nowe, the terror in his eyes, the quivering in his hands; he could even watch, as if the moment was being forcibly stretched out across time, as the flashlight fell and crashed against the hardened surface of the floor, but the sound of it was all lost. He could see Sora, staring back at him for hope and direction, but all Ichigo could see was the boy's lips moving silently.

Like watching a thunderstorm roll across the sky, Ichigo stared up at Pyramid Head, feeling the unreproachable strength rise over him and blanket him completely. He felt its power, the unmistakable feeling of being overwhelmed even before the first clap of thunder. Doubt flooded in, joined by impossibility, and lastly, the ever-constant concept of mortality, and his first instinct was to run. He was barely able to dodge to the side, narrowly avoiding the sweeping arc of Pyramid Head's grim blade.

Run, you

[not_a_savior]

The sight of the gigantic sword swinging toward them was enough to jar Nowe's legs back into action. Without thinking, he ran forward far enough to grab Sora by the back of his shirt and yank him back and down toward the floor so the huge blade flew over their heads

[scintillatingly]

The size of the blade was overwhelming enough. Having it headed directly for his forehead had Sora yanking his Keyblade up with the futile hope that he could somehow parry it. That didn't end up being necessary, since Nowe had the foresight to yank him down and out of the way.

Ending up on the floor for the second time that night, the boy knew that he had to be thankful. Trying to block that much larger weapon with his own would have probably just resulted with him getting thrown against the opposite wall.

It seemed that everyone else had dodged the attack as well. At least this thing, frightening as it was, moved slowly.

When Kurosaki gave him the worst possible answer - telling him to run while he tried to take it on his own (and jumping at it like a madman!), Sora was once again at a loss. Again, it was Nowe that helped, forming a sensible plan.

"Got it," he said, returning the smile and then dashing after Nowe as they gunned it. He held his blade at the ready, prepared to slash at the creature as he bolted past it.