The Battle

Buffy was trapped in her personal hell and things weren't getting any better.

She slammed one vampire into the brick wall of the sewer with a resounding crunch and gave the next a swift, brutal roundhouse. With barely enough time to recover Buffy faced another vamp who delivered a powerful left strike, knocking her face in to the opposite wall.

Oh great! she thought, where did this one come from?!

Cursing under her breath, she counter-attacked with a series of pummels to the head and a stamp kick that sent her opponent flying into the vamp behind him. Unfortunately, another two vamps got in behind Buffy's defences and grabbed hold of her arms.

Dammit! she cursed, and backflipped over them before they could get a firm grip. She managed to stake one and sent the other reeling with a powerful side kick before the ash had settled. But then another vamp attacked and crashed into her with a violent shoulder smash. The collision knocked the breath from her lungs and left her gasping for air.

No! she raged. Buffy was angry with the vamps, but she was even more angry with herself. She was better than this, she was smarter than this. Yet somehow she'd got herself trapped in a dead end junction of the sewer, with more vamps than she'd anticipated, and now she was paying the price.

Originally there had only been three vampires, feeding on some poor kid. The revulsion and anger she felt when she saw them... they were going to die. No question. They weren't a real problem - she could dust three. But others came before she could finish the fight. One, then two, then another. She'd lost count by now - she was just trying to survive.

Buffy struggled to regain her breath from the latest onslaught but couldn't defend herself in time from a blow to the head. There was an audible crack as it smacked back into hard brick. The world kaleidoscoped. She felt like her head was going to explode. There was a terrible searing pain through the back of her skull, her head was spinning and her vision was blurred... was she on the floor? Through the painful confusion Buffy felt strong, cruel hands pull her roughly to her feet - a taloned hand held her by the throat. The pain was disorientating and she blinked rapidly to try and clear her vision, try and take in her surroundings and see what she was up against. The blurry face of a male vampire was within inches of her face.

"Slayer," it said darkly, hungrily.

More cruel hands took hold of her and Buffy felt a knot of panic tighten in her chest. This was not good and she knew it. She had to clear this fog in her head... had to focus... had to get out! She struggled weakly against the hands as she desperately tried to scan her surroundings, to see through the dizziness and pain, to see a way out of this.

The grip on her throat tightened. Razor sharp talons dug in to her soft, smooth flesh causing a small trickle of blood to run warmly down her neck. The smell of Buffy's blood began to excite the vampires and she knew with horrifying clarity it was now or never. If she didn't act now, she never would.

And then she saw it: a pepper spray can on the sewer floor. It must have belonged to that poor kid she found the vamps feeding on. It wasn't much, but it was enough and a plan ticked furiously in Buffy's mind. If she could get a grip on her coordination, kick out the inner knee of the vamp behind, smash the ugly face of the one in front, twist out of his grip, avoid the other two blurs, then ignore the pain in her head and lunge for the can...