That Hell
Drops of Kard's blood splatter across the rocks as he spins round and falls, and the shadow moves into the light. It's a human, a tall, muscular human clad in dark combat clothing, wielding a now bloodied metal bat with a black chronafibre mask over his face. The only thing that is visible are his eyes, which glow eerily blue in the shine of spores and chrona, like two little holes of hate and death. And suddenly, all around me, screaming erupts amongst the survivors, and all hell breaks loose, as people scurry for cover, fight, clash and yell. In front of me, the attacker moves forwards, advancing on me.
"WAKE UP!!" I yell at everyone, then I have to shut my mouth and dodge before my brains are spilled across the rocks.
This bat guy is my biggest problem right now, and I should be focusing completely on defeating him. But I can't seem to make my legs move. Kard's lying there, with a direct hit from a steel bat, full swing, on his temple, alive or dead I do not know.
I've only ever fought in simulations against mimicked opponents in virtual reality. I'm not ready for a life or death 1v1!!
The masked guy attacks with an inhumanly fast and powerful thrust with the blunt end of the bat, and I fold my whole body backwards to dodge it. It still grazes my forehead and draws blood, and I feel the wind rush past my face. As fast it had come, the bat retracts, and comes swinging at my ribs. I block it with both forearms, but the sheer force of the swing sends pain shooting through all the way to my shoulders and through into my ribcage.
That's gotta be a fracture in both arms…!!
Then he hits me, hard, in the side, and I feel like someone stabbing me in the gut with fifty knives. I can't see it. I can't see his movements. He's wielding that bat at inhuman speed, in a blur of metallic whirling, and rams it into my ribs like a truck. I feel three of them snap instantly, and the pain almost makes me black out.
My guard is-
A strike directly to my lower jaw from below. I feel myself lift into the air, then nothing at all. The world's ringing and spinning and swirling, and suddenly I'm lying on my back on the cold, hard, stone ground, feeling something wet and hot running down my cheek and neck from my broken jaw.
What just happened?
Elemental's words come back to me.
"This place is absolute hell."
I think I get what he means now.
The bat-wielding menace advances, and lifts it above his head. I can't move, all I can do is struggle to draw in another breath to keep my heart beating.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! I can't die yet! Not like this.
Then a hand reaches out and grabs his ankle, and yanks him off balance.
"GUYS, GET 'IM!!" Kard yells from the floor.
Blood's pouring down one side of his face, and his eyes are glassy and unfocused, but he's alive. For now.
Then suddenly someone dashes past me and jumps in. It's Elemental, and then everyone else is here too.
POV Elemental
Elemental went airborne, and knee-slammed the masked attacker bang smack in the centre of the face, forcing him back.
"Artee, Ronin, now."
The duo swept in, rapid-firing punches at the attacker's face, and Elemental came from the other side.
"EVERYONE ATTACK!!!" Neo was yelling, as the whole group yelled and charged in at one attacker.
For a few seconds, he was swamped by bodies, but then suddenly the bat broke through them, colliding with skulls, jaws and ribcages, and ten people dropped at once, blood spraying across the floor. Elemental and Artee pincer-attacked him from two sides, but when they hurled their punches the attacker was gone.
Where-?
He felt cold air above him, and flung his head up.
ABOVE!?
He barely sidestepped the bat, which instead collided with the stone ground and embedded itself in the rock, surrounded by a crater the size of a human head.
The hell's with that raw power? Whoever this person is under that mask, they can't be compared to Exqua, or even Airo! They're not normal.
But, the same could be said for Elemental.
Within Sword's group, there were several people who stood out especially from the rest. The wonder duo, Artee and Ronin. Mist. Kard. Everest. Neo.
No one did actually say it, but everyone knew. That in their group, despite being bruised, battered and bloody the first time they met, 004 Elemental was the most dangerous in a fight, in every way. From skill, to grit, to sheer overpowering pressure, Elemental outpaced everyone in the group by miles.
And he knew that if he wanted everyone to walk out of this alive, he had to really put in the work.
He caught the bat under his arm, locked and pinned it, scored a punch in the mouth. The hit him across the face, but he turned right back and returned the favour into the side. Artee scored one to around about where the temple should've been from behind.
Good, if we just keep doing this, then we can…!
His thoughts were cut off by a hurtle and blur of movement in front of his eyes, and suddenly Artee was airborne, blood trailing from his head. Ronin opened his mouth in surprise, but a huge fist collided with his jaw and he hurtled backwards like a ragdoll. The others tried to back up, but no matter how far they retreated they always seemed to be in range of the bat. Neo was hit hard in the side of the face and fell.
Within seconds, all that was left was a single, tall, terrifying, hooded batsman, blood dripping from the steel the ground, knee-deep in limp, blood soaked bodies. Elemental was speechless.
That's no human. That's a…
He felt a tremendous force collide with his sinuses before he could even blink.
…monster.
Elemental lost his footing, vision swimming with red spots and clouds, and the last thing he felt was the stone cold ground against the back of his head.
POV Sword
I feel like I am floating in the sea.
Weightless, thoughtless, liveless, floating in the sea.
Is this what it feels like to die?
Am I dying… no, am I dead?
No. Fuck, no, not yet.
I can't drop out yet.
I can't die yet. Please, someone, something, God, Goddess, save me.
…ah, right.
If there's one goddess in this world, the last person she's gonna save would be me.
Since I got rid of anything religious in our house, and told me sister to never worship her.
The so-called Goddess of our world, Erisen, the Great Saviour Anastasia. Worshipped around the globe by the World Church, that goes around funding nurseries and orphanages, feeding refugees and helping the sick, all in the Great Saviour Anastasia's name.
I don't believe in Goddesses, or the divine, or God or Saviours or Creators.
If there was one, an all-loving, saviour Goddess, my mom and dad wouldn't've died, and I wouldn't be here, on the brink of death, searching for them.
"Don't rely on things like Goddesses, Nari," I'd said. "Mom and dad died, so now we can only turn to each other, and the people that are here around us."
Damn.
If only there was a Goddess, a miracle-giver, somewhere.
Please save me…
Oh, I can see something. A light…? The beginnings of a whisper, a warm feeling.
Is this Godd-
WHAM
"AAAAH!!!"
I jerk awake, and Neo pauses, fist raised midair.
"Oh, he's alive. Good for him…"
I prop myself up on my elbows, head still swimming, and glance around. The already quiet cave has been plunged into even further silence, and the other survivors are simply a few shadows moving around in the dim.
"…what happened… to the… bat…?"
Beside me, Elemental, who's sitting upright bandaged with a chronafabric torn from someone's shirt over the face, exhales.
"We were all taken down," he said. "Without much resistance."
"I woke up first," Mist says, who was struck just below the ribs (still painful as fuck). "But when I did, he was gone."
"Completely gone?"
She nods, and I rub my head.
"We're lucky most of us are drugged up on Pale Viper venom or some other form of stimulating elixir," Artee says. "We were able to survive…"
He glances behind him, and I follow his gaze.
"Sword…" Neo mutters.
"No," I say, fingers tightening against my palms. "It's all right. Can you help me up…?"
"Sure."
"We already closed his eyes. It's a shame we can't bury him…" Ronin says, still wobbly on his feet.
I look down at Kard's dead face.
***
Right, Kard. I hadn't known him for long, but he had grown on me anyway. He cared for everyone, he was kind, and he usually smiled, even in this dark hell. Sometimes he felt like one of those people that always glowed with a reassuring light, but now it feels like worthless garbage.
Light, my ass.
A bat to the head and it's as if he was never there.
"…how many others died?"
"Most of the group," Mist says, shaking her head. "Everyone's else, including you, are severely injured…"
I touch my jaw. It still hurts like hell every time I talk but miraculously I'm neither dead nor crippled; it seems to have pieced itself back together.
Is this the effect of Pale Viper venom…?
"Were the other survivors also hit?"
"Yes, lots of 'em died, but I think the greater percentage survived."
"Oh?"
"Right," Elemental nods. "There are more than a couple skilled ones still out there."
I go through the options. 001 and 002, the mysterious top ranked duo Airo and Avoma - I wonder how they fared in the metal bat ambush, or where they were. 003 Exqua, the madman. And more.
"But," he continues, "No one was able to make any one of the attackers fall."
"Right, those guys, who the hell were they?" I demand. "Terrorists? Elite soldiers?"
"No idea," Mist shivers, "but don't want to see them again."
We all agree with her on that part.
"Who knows when they'll reappear," another survivor from our group called Kino sighs. "I think we shouldn't stay here, and follow the other groups' lead?"
I ask him what he means. Kino's unsurprised.
"You had the worst of it," he admits, "so you woke up last, and missed it. But most of the other groups that survived have headed over the stream, after some group under a guy called Woodsy suggested that they were trying to force us out of the safe zone."
"I see."
I look over into the 'forest' of stone formations that stretch far into the endless darkness of the vast cavern.
"I don't have any better ideas," I say, and Elemental agrees.
"So, should we get moving…?" Neo asks.
No one objects.
Tired, wearily, painfully, we help each other to our feet, agree again to stick together and head over the underground stream after a final drink.
Me, Sword. Neo, Elemental, Mist, Artee, Ronin and Kino.
I hope we manage to survive whatever lies ahead of us, but all I know is that it won't be a walk in the park.
We've just had our first taste of this hell.