Of Shadows and Demons

by Samuraimon

Chapter 1: A Routine Job?

Fog wisped out of nowhere, swirling eerily around Dante as he walked down a main street. Nothing stirred in the mist, the only sound he heard where his own leather boots thumping as he walked. The city's name had been Chesterton, but now Dante would have named it "Demonville". It was all the same to him, after all it was only a rountine job, or so he thought anyway.

Along the ground bloody trails lead off from wrecked cars and broken shop windows. Dante knew it was the work of demons, however there were no bodies and certainly no survivors of the bloody massacre. He could not imagine why there was mist though only in this one part of the region. Upon arriving he had seen the city from an overpass through the mountains even from there he knew this would be interesting. But it wasn't much of a party without any games to play and Dante was far from being amused. He hoped he would be paid well for this whole mess. The contractor who had hired him had told him explicitly that there was a demon that had terrorized the builders of a new church somehwere at the center of the city. But judging by the way the place looked, the demon had done a nice job for himself which surprised even Dante's expectations.

Dante raised Ebony and Ivory from beneath the folds of his trenchcoat. The shuffling sound he had heard precious seconds before suddenly resumed. His eyesight was razor sharp and even he could not pierce the fogwith his gaze. The silhouette of a man staggering met his eyes as he raised his guns and pointed them crisscrossed at the man's head. This wasn't a demon, nor was it a human by any stretch. After all the poor dude had half his face gone.

"Well now, this is what I'm talkin' about! Finally some action!"

Dante smirked, and pulled the triggers, the sound of his gunshots reverberating off the buildings and stonework around him. The creature fell and then he heard groaning from behind where the corpse now lay. There were more of them. Alot more of them. Dante merely chuckled, "Fellas I only deal in demons, but if it's a fight you want," he paused, as he fired at one as it lunged at him from out of the front lines,"Then bring it!"

The silence had been broken. Alucard raised his head and squinted into the grayness that filled the air. "Come Police girl, we move."

"Yes Master!" she replied nervously.

Alucard didn't like the whole situation at all, not one bit. Though they had just arrived a short few hours ago,they had found no sign of the vampire who had created all of these Ghouls and no sign of the British sanctioned special forces that had been sent in to cordon off the area. Regardless, there still was something alive and kicking out there in the fog, and Alucard was determined to find out what it was.

Dante tried keep his bravado going even though there were so many zombies all around him. Some even had guns and uniforms suggesting that the British military had sent people to do a crappy job. Dante continued to fire Ebony and Ivory rabidly at the hordes of the city's maddened populace to no avail whatsoever. With each one that fell two or three more seemed to rise from the back to the front in order to take his or her place. Unsheathing Rebellion, Dante sliced one in half spreading his blood and guts all over the pavement of the alley way the Ghouls had forced him into. The others continued to back him into a corner until he hit a wall. Dante shrugged his shoulders and stared at a particularly nasty one in the front, oozing blood from its mouth and chuckled," I guess you all want a piece of me huh? Well there is plenty of me to go around! Come and get it if you can!"

Dante shoved Rebellion into the bloody-mouthed Ghoul, flinging his corpse into the front row of the horde who fell over. Dante then shot them all, their fleshy bodies not as strong as that of demon. The second wave did not hesitate, but instead some of the zombies in uniforms shot at Dante with some heavy artililary, namely machine gun spray. Dante took the shots with a grimace and did a running charge, successfully getting the head off or one and cutting the legs out from under another. He smiled slightly as one came rushing from behind with a billy club, only to be shot by Ivory, without Dante even turning around.

He wasn't even done yet by a long shot. "I'm just getting started, but I'm willing to bet you guys don't even understand a word that I'm saying," Dante said as he sliced one deeply in the chest and decapitated another Ghoul simultaneously. Hacking and slashing did the trick, leaving a pile of mangled corpses in his wake. The last Ghoul came from around the corner to the next road wielding a pump action shotgun, and shot Dante in the chest. The half demon got up and flung the blood from his bloodied blade into the zombie's eyes before sheathing his sword and shooting it's head off with a charged shot from Ebony. He blew the smoke from his gun and sighed, "Rountine job my ass."