Exqua's Storm I

 

Over the next week, we did precisely what Woodsy said we were going to do. We would sneak through the Facility and slowly chip away at their numbers. We were becoming more and more aggressive by the day. Things had changed after the Administrator told us we could escape this rocky prison. Even for just a few hours, it was a godsend. On the fifth day, we had killed almost three hundred people between us, and the feeling of cutting through the bone and flesh was now nothing new to me. Murder was like potato chips. I couldn’t stop at one.

 

POV Woodsy

It was dawn of the sixth day. In the entire Facility, there were only about four hundred left at this point. The Prey, the Hunters, and the serial killer, Clown. Woodsy steeled his nerves. He and his allies decided that now was the time to mount the final, frontal assault on the Hunters. When he exited the cave, there was something he had to do. And he was determined to lengthen the time they had in the myth called the sun by any means possible. Today, he would not rest until Exqua was dead at his feet.

 

They formed a line, everyone standing shoulder to shoulder, and advanced. Woodsy was in between Airo and Elemental, who were the leading figures of the other two faction in the alliance. And then there was Exqua's full force, of over four hundred people, each one of them armed and dangerous, some nervous, some furious, some just looking like they wanted to go home. But nonetheless, if any single person were to exit the cave, the whole world would be turned on its head. It was unfortunate that most of these people were going to die, this very day, without being ever able to show their skills in the outside world. There was nothing else to say. They stopped advancing and waited. Woodsy glanced to his right, and saw Vedix also throw a glance at him. And a second after that. Exqua and his army attacked.

 

POV Sword

They're thundering towards us. Some of us have guns in our hands, and they open fire, like Nyx and Loflo and Swono, and rubber pullets explode upon the enemy. Unfortunately for us, there is a class in the facility that involves dodging and blocking bullets. Coupled with monstrous reaction speed, they were cutting, blocking and dodging the barrages of bullets flying at them, mostly. A few bullets got through, striking heads and shoulders and chests. It was when they got closer that they started to slow down. The cave was not that big - it wasn't like fighting on a plain, with two opposing enemies. There was only about enough room for them to run in a ten wide big block. But they broke through and all hell let loose.

 

Those who survived the massacre of the previous days were all top-tier warriors. That was why this battle was the hardest one yet, for us. I had no clue what was going on. At first, we held the line, each of us fighting one person. Then we were swamped by enemies, and the fighting spilled out across the cave. I make my way round the side to the cave, which is actually a perfect circle, with the Pods, dining hall and lecture buildings on one side, and then the training pitches and arena on the other side. I've reached the newly built Pods for the G2s, and there are three of them on my tail. I run straight at Pod 61, then I jump on its side and boost myself off it, catching my pursuers off guard. I slam into the first, and we both tumble to the ground, but I'm fine and he's winded, gasping for breath.

"Not so fast!"

The second, who I suddenly recognise as 226, 'Vix', strike me in the side with his foot and I go rolling across the floor again, my sword clattering out my hand. My gashes and stab wounds sting from the impact, but I push myself off the floor, and using my hands as a lever, and power myself up into the air and bring my heel down hard on the first's back. I can feel his spine snap beneath my feet, and he vomits blood, paralyzed. Vix slashed me across the leg with a knife, and the third dives for my waist, tackling me to the ground. I drive my elbow as hard as I can into the back of his neck, and his grip loosens instantly, and I seize the chance to slam my knee into his stomach and flip him over my head (while on my back) and he lands behind me with a thud. I scramble to my feet just as Vix comes at me with a sabre. I dodge it backwards, but it still catches me across the chest and I see my blood fly through the air.

"You pull that from your arsehole or what?"

"Something like that."

"The fuck was that supposed to mean?"

"Don’t even ask."
He comes at me again, and I pull out my dual daggers from my belt, both of them 18-inch long wicked-looking things, their edges blue with chrona. He's good with that sabre, and he's defending and attacking with ease, twisting his body this way and that like some kind of dancer. But it's not enough to beat someone ranked two hundred spots higher than him. I catch the edge of the blade on my foot and crush it into the ground, taking his arm with it, and I punch him in the jaw. Disarmed, Vix stumbled backwards, and I use this opportunity to seize the one nearest to me by the neck and twist, snapping it cleanly. That pale viper venom from over a year ago really helped me out. Unfortunately Vix ate that too. Yeah, you can do that now, if you want to. Only a few people I know still haven’t taken it, and that's Elemental and Zak, both of whom are monsters (somehow).

 

I pound the third one's head into a grease spot on the floor and retrieve my sword. Vix slowly gets to his feet.

"So?" he asks.

"So what?" I shoot back.

He collapses onto his ass and sighs.

"I'm tired. Just go away."

"You’re the one that came at me and now you're acting like it's my fault."

"I was trying to be dramatic."

"Who do you think you are? Elemental? 'HoW cAn yOu FaCe tHe StOrM iF yOu StOp At RaIn!?'"

"What exactly is your point?" he demands.

"My point is that I'm asking what your point is."

"Don’t kill me."

"Fine."

"Thanks," he says and leans his head back.

I leave Vix propped against the wall of Pod 61. I can't help but see how exhausted, how tired, how sad, how longing he is to see the outside world. His eyes look like a dead man's. I make up my mind.

"Administrator," I say, as I walk away from Vix.

"Listening."

"Can we bring others out with us when we go outside?"

"No. But I can make exception if it's you."

"Thanks."

 

POV Zak

Zak was having the time of his life. The worst time of his life. He had been forced to scramble up onto the roof of Pod 23, because he had been chased by thirty people, and then when he had just barely lost them he was jumped by another six. By the time he dispatched the six who had attacked, the other thirty were on his ass again. He took out two of them who were separated, and now he was crouched at the top of Pod 23, kicking and tossing anyone who tried to climb up off.

"Get yer arse down here!"

It was 242, 'Akove'.

"Goofy ass accent guy," Zak shot back at him, and Akove bounded up the pod towards him at frightening speed.

"YO CHILL!! I DIDN'T MEAN IT - AHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

Akove jumped on top of him and both of them fell backwards down the Pod. Zak somehow landed on top and fumbled at Akove's belt, where there was a knife. Then he felt several sharp pang of pain shoot through him as the other plunged their weapons into his back and sides, but he succeeded in pinning Akove's arm and sinking the knife into his stomach.

"Ow," Akove said.

"You fucking monster."

Akove grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head into the ground, once, twice, three times, then tossed him to the side. Blood trickled down his face as Zak tried to get up, but the world was irritatingly wonky and someone had pierced his shin with a spear.

"Looks like… this the end for me," he breathed.

"Yer should've have triggered me, with that æccent comment."

"You sound like you gargle with vinegar mixed with toilet water. Piss off."

Zak flipped him off and Akove stomped on his head in retaliation.

"C…can’t … can’t hit any harder?"

"Still flapping your gums?"

Zak glanced up at him with his other eye, closer the ground, since he couldn’t open his other one after being stepped on. Akove looked like he was going to pop a vein. Either that or the Administrator was killing him because he sounded like a buffoon. Then he lurched forwards and collapsed on the ground. There was a knife in his back. And standing thirty feet away was El Casio.

 

Zak groaned and pushed himself up slowly, his arms and legs trembling with the effort as Casio fought the thirty other enemies by himself, sweeping his katana back and forth, keeping them at bay and slicing someone's arm off. In front of him, Akove was also trying to get up.

"Oh no you don't," he muttered under his breath, and reach out, slamming Akove's head down onto the stone floor with all his strength.

He stopped trying to get up after that, and Zak tore the knife out of his back. He had to back up El Casio, but there was blood in both of his eyes and he couldn’t see a thing.

 

Desperately, he clawed at his good eye, blinked the blood out, and then hazily made out a few figures moving about through curtain of semi-transparent red. Then he realized that it was El Casio cutting someone in half, then whirling around and jumping over another's sweeping spear with a horizontal somersault, and he spinning kicked three of them in the face while he was at it. He plunged his katana into the one with the spear, who was actually the last one standing. He had killed all thirty enemies by himself.

"…Casio," Zak panted, limping towards him.

He could just barely make out a long, thin, object jutting out of his friend's body. What was it? He was slipping out of consciousness, and fell in his knees. He could hear Casio's ragged breathing as he fought for air. Because he had been run through by a spear. Then Zak collapsed and the world went black.