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Infrasound Berserker - Chapter 71 City Streets
🕑 Added 2023-10-06 15:00:03 +0000 UTCChapter 71 City Streets
“Union Spear, radio check. Over.” Alexander’s voice resounded from everyone else’s devices.
“Logan, hearing you clearly, over.”
Kate checked her gear one last time, the two of them back at the office after returning to the castle for the night and sharing what they’d learned with Jon. He’d had a few additions that they’d already shared with Valery.
“Everyone ready then?” Valery asked. With her spear in her right hand and her shield in her left, she looked like some amazonian warrior woman of legend.
They were all equipped with a small pack, most of them with handguns too, and headlamps.
Bastian confirmed over the radio that the immediate surroundings were clear. He would remain at the structure with Aisha, Annika, and Theodor, the group tasked with checking and preparing chemicals for transportation north and towards Hein Pass where the Union was sheltered.
Kate glanced at each of their group as they left the office building. Valery with confident steps, her weapons at the ready, followed by Lewis, the large man wielding a sledgehammer, plus a chainsaw of all things on his back. Alexander moved to their side, eyes vigilant. Aathi made distance, not invisible but moving fast and damn near silent, even to Kate’s ears. Reymond and Latia moved at the back, bow and flute at the ready, with casual confidence as they scanned the surroundings.
The sky was overcast, no Wyverns visible, no snow falling. It was quiet near Falstadt, the group making their way towards the dungeon entrance with quiet and fast steps, led by Kate and Logan.
They would lead the Union group through the corridors, familiarizing them with what they knew about the dungeon and the potential undead encounters.
After that they’d split up, staying in contact while the Union group looked for a potential temporary base within the city.
Kate took a deep breath in, looking down at the blood covered stairwell leading into the dungeon. Bodies of undead were left in the snow and on the stone floor of the hallway.
“Everyone ready?” Logan asked.
The others confirmed one after the other.
“Only engage if we request it,” he said, repeating the discussed rule. Himself and Kate were familiar with their respective abilities, and they trusted each other. Adding in a bunch of people firing projectiles or fighting with unknown spells in the somewhat tight corridors was more danger than help, at least until Kate and Logan got overwhelmed.
Kate wasn’t sure if she thought of the others as additional backup or just more people to potentially protect. Either way, this was the deal, and she’d do her best bringing them into the city. She nodded to Logan and walked into the dim red light, keeping her headlamp off as she listened to the surroundings, tuning out the steps and heartbeats of the team following in formation a few meters behind.
The first few corridors were empty but she soon heard a few of the undead in the distance. She signaled to Logan in the dim red light. Four, likely normal variants.
He confirmed.
She gripped her axe and walked forward and into the broad hall where the creatures were stalking. Kate couldn’t see them yet but her Echo Awareness was enough for her to know where they were lurking. She raised her axe high, took a small step forward, and flung it forward and into the darkness. She heard metal cleaving through flesh before her weapon hit stone. Raising her brow, she recalled her axe and felt it slam into her hand a moment later, the blade smelling of iron.
She heard the creatures react and threw her axe at the next one that had gone to investigate the sound. A dull thud and the creature fell. Kate turned on her headlamp when she heard the remaining two undead rush towards them. She recalled her axe, the butt of the weapon hitting one of the undead on its way back, the creature stumbling.
Logan stepped past her, his sword piercing like a spear through the running monster, cleaving through its flesh and bones with a heavy strike, then cutting upwards and out on its shoulder.
Kate caught her axe and walked past him, swinging wide at the stumbling undead. She felt as if she’d missed the creature when she brought her axe back close, seeing however that the monster fell with its side and chest split open, blood and innards spilling onto the already blood coated floor as the other undead slid off from Logan’s sword, unmoving.
She looked down at her axe and felt its weight, felt her magic resonate, as if the weapon was an extension of herself. They were both quiet as they made sure the undead were down, Kate finding the two she’d thrown her axe at. The cuts were clean, her axe having cleaved through bone and flesh alike. She even saw an incision in the stone wall where her axe had passed through the creature.
She looked back at the waiting group, ignoring the mix of expressions as they shielded their eyes against the light. She gestured the clear signal to Logan and turned off her lamp, the group continuing a moment later.
Kate felt a little more confident now, knowing that her axe would likely no longer get stuck in the arm or leg of an Emissary. At least she hoped it wouldn’t. And even if it does, I can just call it back to me.
She smiled at the thought and continued on through the dim red corridors.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Human]’
…
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Human]’
‘ding’ ‘Terrifying Presence reaches lvl 9’
‘ding’ ‘Echo Awareness reaches lvl 14’
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Charger reaches lvl 2’
Fortitude +1
‘ding’ ‘Bound Weapon Return reaches lvl 3’
They led the group along the mapped out corridors, encountering a few more small groups of undead without any special variants, quickly taken out. Kate listened carefully when they passed the stairwell leading down but again, there was nothing.
She sighed when she saw the light in the distance, the group soon emerging out into the hall where Kate and Logan had faced the Undead Overakar. Its corpse remained untouched, other than the sections of scales they’d removed themselves.
The cold morning air flowed in through the broken down wall, revealing the streets of Falstadt beyond.
“Clear,” Kate said and pointed. “There’s a rope over there.”
“Who killed this thing? You?” Aathi said and kicked at the dead monster’s clawed hand.
“Exterminators,” Latia said with an awed tone, her excitement almost palpable. “We should take pictures.”
“They’re too dangerous for our fighters to face yet,” Valery said. “No pictures or we’ll have more deaths by the end of the week.” She walked close and raised her spear, slowly testing it against different sections of the beast. “Your weapons. They’re enchanted. Can we compare?”
“The scales should be valuable,” Lewis said.
“We’re only destroying a few, and there are plenty more of these beasts out there,” Valery said and stabbed at the armor, finding ample resistance, her weapon glancing off with the direct blows.
“I’m closer to her level of strength,” Logan said when Kate started to make a move. He slammed his sword down, the weapon cutting into the scales, not penetrating without issue but a few more strikes confirmed his first hadn’t just been lucky. The greatsword was sharper, even slicing strikes damaging the scales.
Without his magic too, Kate thought. I wonder if a living Overakar has stronger defenses though, and maybe magic to enhance itself too. She touched the scales, glad they hadn’t died facing this thing down. The next one would be easier to kill, of that much, she was certain.
“Thank you for bringing us all this way,” Valery said. “We’ll radio updates on the secondary frequency and emergencies on the main frequency.”
“Understood,” Logan said and got out his map. “We’ll be checking the first gun shop on the list.”
“Good luck out there,” Lewis said, tapping the sledgehammer in his hands.
“If we receive no updates, we’ll meet here again at noon,” Valery said. “And call for us if you need assistance.”
Logan gave her a nod and turned back towards Kate. “Ready to go?”
Kate looked at the dead eyes of the Overakar for a moment longer, then nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get you some ammo.”
They moved down into the city after the group of Union fighters, then separated at the end of the street, Kate and Logan going east.
They passed through a few partially snow covered streets and reached a broad square.
Kate slowed and halted as she took in the scene. There were no undead here but a blackened crater stretched nearly ten meters from the center of the square over to a set of buildings. A few restaurants, she knew, now blackened husks, half collapsed or close to it. She looked down the road leading southwards and saw more destruction. She heard Logan take out his binoculars before he activated one of his radios, the secondary frequency for updates. “Logan here. Friedrich square was hit directly, buildings are burnt out, collapsed or close to collapsing. Widl road going south shows similar damage, over.”
Kate kept looking at the blackened buildings and sighed, then continued towards their destination, making sure to consciously focus on her tremor sense and hearing in regular intervals.
The farther south they walked, the worse it seemed the damage became. Kate had little hope for their target gunstore or the police station farther south. They found the former after a quiet walk through the desolate snow covered remnants of a city.
“Think there’s a cellar we can check?” Logan asked.
The gun shop had been in the ground floor of a three story building. The upper two floors were collapsed entirely, the blackened door of the gun shop resting in the street with a layer of snow atop it.
“We’re not going in there,” Kate said, seeing the remnants of the building barely holding itself up. It didn’t look like a bomb had hit directly. It had simply burnt out. Without anyone here to stop the flames. She shook her head slightly. Firebombing our own towns. How many people were killed here? Hiding in cellars and attics. She pushed the thought aside. It was not constructive. Focus on those still alive. On the resources we can get here.
“We should go northeast from here. There’s another shop near the lake,” Logan said before speaking into the radio and informing the others that searching the southern part of the city was likely not going to yield particularly good results.
They walked on until Kate raised her hand. “Got incoming. A few big ones, nothing as big as the giant we saw. They’re moving fast.”
“We hide,” Logan said, looked around on the broad street they stood on and pointed at a closed entrance.
Kate ran over, checked the door and found it locked. She took a step back and kicked it in, pieces of the lock clattering to the concrete floor of the dark stairwell beyond. She didn’t turn on her headlamp and used her echo awareness instead, very much aware of the closing in horde of likely undead.
Logan followed with a small flashlight before he leaned the door closed behind himself.
Kate ascended with quiet but fast steps until she reached the third floor. Checking one of the doors, she found it unlocked and opened the door, clicking her tongue to get a better picture of the inside.
An apartment converted to an office, no corpses, no undead, the shutters were half down, some dim light filtering in.
“Clear,” she said after Logan had shut the door and moved a desk in front of it with one hand.
“Logan, have a potential undead horde near Römerstrasse, corner Hofplatz. Will disable secondary radio for now, over,” Logan said and turned off the radio. He kept the emergency one on.
Kate crouched down and went over to the windows, focusing on her hearing and tremor senses as she took a glimpse out onto the street. She narrowed her eyes when an undead Wyvern flew out from a nearby street and crashed against a building some fifty meters down the street. A flood of undead followed on the ground. Humans, orcs, two ogres, one Overakar. She saw a few smaller fliers too that looked like large butterflies with dark gray wings, their main bodies around as large as her torso, each wing at least twice that.
She ducked when two of them flew past the building, Kate feeling the tremors of the undead passing by below, hearing the fluttering wings and the quiet moans.
Kate felt her blood pulse and closed her eyes. She wanted to go out there, wanted to kill all of them.
Too many, she reminded herself. Not yet. Soon.
Soon, she repeated.
And then the sounds grew distant, the tremors lessening. A part of her was annoyed that the creatures had gotten away but she focused instead on unclenching her jaws and slowing her breathing.
She signaled the clear to Logan.
“You okay?” he asked.
Kate glanced at him. “Wanted to go out there.”
He grunted and turned on his second radio, then stood up and reached his hand out to her. “Me too.”
Kate smiled and grabbed his hand, the two of them reporting what they’d seen and where the horde was headed for now. A minute later, they were back outside, walking through the streets towards their next destination. Their radios cracked.
“Union Spear, I have sighted another horde near the botanical gardens, moving west. Several Wyverns and ogres, mostly humans, orcs, and goblins, at least two hundred strong, over.” It was Reymond’s voice, calm and easy, as if he was describing a strange set of clouds he’d seen on the horizon.
Logan confirmed quickly.
Several hundreds, and Wyverns that would attack from above.
“That would be like fighting a maelstrom of flesh, teeth, and claws,” she murmured.
“The numbers prevent us from direct engagements but there are plenty of tactics we can use,” Logan said, pointing at a set of stores that looked mostly undamaged, other than the broken in windows and doors. “Gun store three is intact it seems, let’s see what remains.”
Kate checked for dangers as the two approached but nothing showed up.
They entered the store and found it dark and in disarray. Kate turned on her headlamp. She saw dried splotches of blood, red foot and boot prints, many decidedly non-human, glass cabinets broken, shells on the floor, holes in shelves and walls.
She walked deeper into the store with Logan right behind her, clicking her tongue from time to time. They found more old blood and shells, soon also blackened sections with shrapnel stuck in the floor and shelves, jackets and pants shredded.
“Careful for booby traps,” Logan said in a quiet whisper.
Kate raised her brows and continued at a slower pace, clicking her tongue more often and making sure she didn’t miss any wires or the like. They reached the counter, racks of guns behind it, many of them missing. There were more shells here and a trail led out through the open back door going into a stairwell.
“Looks clear,” Kate said.
“Gunshots would’ve attracted a lot of monsters. They would’ve lasted longer but holding this place would’ve been difficult. And people must’ve rushed here too, trying to get weapons,” Logan said. “Maybe they managed to hold and break out of the city afterwards.”
Kate listened but mainly checked the shelves and drawers. “Anything useful?”
Logan touched a few of the guns and then looked at the bullet packages she set out. “Hunting rifles. Bolt action. Maybe useful to equip the people of the Union but not great for us. Looking for specific ammo too, let’s see.” He helped Kate check the unlocked drawers. “No keys anywhere?”
Kate grabbed onto one of the locked ones and pulled. It rattled but remained closed. She set down her axe and used both hands, pushing one boot against the counter before she pulled. The handle ripped off and she stumbled back slightly. She wiggled the thing in her hand and raised her brows.
“Good locks,” Logan murmured, checking the counter and the drawers. “Here you are,” he said when he found a key.
They took some time to search the store, finding ammo that could be used for their Glocks and more importantly for their assault rifles. A few hundred bullets that Logan put into his pack before he reported their findings to the others.
“Union Spear, we copy. Will mark the store as low priority. We found a potential location that is strategically placed and has suitable fortifications. A manor at Schlossstrasse fourteen.” Alexander was the one speaking. The radio was still sending as he paused. “Aathi reports that there is something strange lurking on the ground floor. Might be good for everyone to be here before we check it out, and seeing how you two are the highest level around.”
Kate looked at Logan.
“Does that sound like something an Exterminator might be interested in? Over.”
Logan looked back at her, then spoke into the radio. “It is. On our way, Union Spear. Over.”
Comments
Hayden Pech
Woooot! So many chapters!!! Thanks for them all!
Korriberg
Love it
