Wolf, Genichiro, Kuro, and HUNK all slid down the watery slope and plunged in the next puddle of stagnant water. The shinobi piggybacked the Divine Heir once more before journeying further through the waterway. Without delay, HUNK pressed forward with the Japanese trio quickly following behind. Just ahead were more heaps of trash placed at both sides that narrowed their path, more light sources attached on the walls, and a dark archway ahead that was to lead them to high ground.
The four, however, ceased in movement once the body of water ahead of them rippled. From the foul water ahead emerged five T-Virus-infected individuals that had drops of water dripping from their unkempt, drenched hair and their soaked attires. They were all dressed in torn civilian clothings with their pale, wrinkly, hardened skins long succumbed to advanced stages of rigor mortis. Their icy, soulless eyes were just as pale-colored as their skin and were all ravenously fixated to their four non-infected prey standing before them. Once the zombies sighted the four, they moaned in low, guttural voices, fixated their arms ninety degrees to the front, and proceeded to walk to them whilst wobbling to their sides. Some of them incessantly clinked their teeth as if they were ravenously chewing on something with strands of saliva dripping from their mouth regions.
Genichiro and Wolf unsheathed their katanas and remained in their stances, eyeing the five encroaching zombies with alertness. HUNK aimed the iron sight of his LE5 to the zombies, ready to fire at them. As for Kuro, his breath went uneven, his complexion went pale, and his mind went briefly numb over witnessing the approaching zombies for the first time. Ashina's commander, as usual, remained unfazed upon sighting the group of undead. Back in his homeland, him and his grandfather were rather familiar with their own troubles with the immortal centipedes resurrecting the dead while infesting the victims in the process. The One-Armed Wolf, too, had immense experience in dealing with the undead throughout his journey in rescuing the Divine Heir. As for the USS operator, he read the infected like he did from the back of his hand.
"What – "
The Divine Heir went speechless for a few seconds.
"What has happened to these people..?"
"My Lord, avert your eyes," advised Wolf. Kuro rested his forehead on the shinobi's head and didn't bother to look up for the time being.
When the zombies, who had their gruff, inhuman voices vibrantly echoing throughout the pathway, were a few meters away from making contact with the four non-infected, HUNK opened fire his submachine gun on the furthermost left side of the zombies.
Blinding golden-yellow flashes emitted from the muzzle of the LE5, flashing the entire current surroundings in rapid successions. Expended ammunition casings flew out of its chamber with all of them splashing against the foul water below. The gun recoiled with moderate stopping power, but was professionally handled by the Reaper. The lines of high-velocity rounds whizzed for the zombies' head regions with not a single one swerving off track: Some of the rounds effectively penetrated the hardened skin of the zombies' foreheads and lodged in their craniums without forming exit wounds. The rest of the few rounds successfully whizzed past their heads, shattering the frontal lobe of the zombies' skulls. The heated bullets then obliterated the brain lobes within to churned remnants of flesh. Finally, the rounds made their way to shatter past the parietal lobe with fountains of blood mixed with cerebrospinal fluid being splattered on the walls in various shapes of trails and dots. The two zombies collapsed on the water against their backs with a splash, coloring the region of water with clouds of dark-crimson.
The sudden roar emitting from the operator's LE5 caught the three Japanese off guard. Kuro, especially, physically shuddered with his ears ringing to a numbing degree. Genichiro and Wolf were rather familiar with sighting guns back in their homeland. However, when they sighted the raw power of HUNK's submachine gun, they were in brief awe as their partially-widened eyes shone in bright flashes of golden-yellow. They could smell the concentrated scent of gunpowder and they could see smoke lines emitting from the heated muzzle of the submachine gun.
The two ancient warriors snapped from their awed moment once the guttural cries of the remaining three zombies were heard ahead in close proximity. Instead of relying on their arsenals of projectiles, they dashed toward the undead in impressive speed. Once Genichiro was less than a meter away from a female undead with dirty-blond hair, he made a swift horizontal swipe in backhanded motion that was aimed for the zombie's neck. The head dislodged from the rest of the body mass upon lethal contact with the blade and plunged into water with a splash. Trails of blood spurted from the exposed stump, smearing the blade, the golden kuwagata, the silvery-white horsehair plume, and the face of Genichiro with dark-crimson. The headless undead inanimately collapsed on its back and plunged in the water with an audible splash. For the next male zombie that was charging and roaring at him, the commander of Ashina, with both his hands gripping the hilt, made a vertical swipe that was motioned from bottom to top in a blink of an eye. The upward slice was aimed for the male zombie's direct center mass. The vertical cut on the infected became more visible in next two seconds with organs like intestines, stomach, and liver spilling out and plunging into the water. Genichiro's cut was so lethal and effective that its head split sideways like flower petals.
The One-Armed Wolf focused on the fifth and last of the infected pack by swiftly amputating its arms with little effort. The armless zombie, however, didn't flinch and, with a roar, charged at the shinobi with excess saliva trailing from its widened mouth. Wolf kept his prosthetic elbow placed on the infected's chest with his other hand placed on its forehead. While being restrained by the shinobi, the zombie mindlessly clinked its teeth while tenaciously trying to get a bite out of Wolf. With a slight grunt, Wolf pushed the undead a meter away from him and gripped the hilt of his Kusabimaru with both hands. He then raised the blade above his head and performed Double Ichimonji overhead strikes directly on its scalp: The first blow severed all the way to its neck. The second blow went as far as to severing all the way to its waist, "peeling" the zombie sideways. The carved body sculpted by the One-Armed Wolf lifelessly plunged to the foul water. Lines and dots of blood were seen sprinkled on the face and the scarf of the straight-faced shinobi. The Divine Heir, after all this time, didn't bother lifting his face not because he was scared that the undead will manage to harm the three warriors of distinct backgrounds, not because he had no faith in them, but it was because he wasn't fond of the sight of blood. It was also mostly because he was extremely confident in the trio's abilities to effectively defend themselves in order to guarantee themselves a safe passage. Especially with the grandson of Isshin and the One-Armed Wolf working toward the same objective, which was to get out of the sewers and go someplace else safe, the Divine Heir felt safer than ever before.
Despite not usually being the one to be impressed or shocked, HUNK was taken aback at how skilled and lethal the two Japanese warriors were – despite still not having had seen even half of their movesets. The USS operator, however, didn't have the time to admire the warriors' ancient skillsets and quickly reinstated himself as the pointman of the group.
"Move fast," he advised with his cold, muffled voice. Continuing onwards to the archway, the two zombies that were earlier thought to be disposed by him sprung back to life from the water, ambushing the Reaper off guard. He briskly reacted by lodging a zombie's mouth with the base of the LE5's magazine and held off the other with his gloved-hand placed against its bullet-decimated forehead. Although he was keeping them at bay, he was slowly being overpowered by the two undead's unrelenting display of strength.
The front of HUNK's gas mask was splattered with red gore. Trails of dark blood slid down from its cool exterior. The infected stopped pressing themselves forward and all of a sudden became inanimate. His dark-crimson visors reflected two metal tips of feathered arrows protruding out of their foreheads. Drops of watery-blood dripped from the edges of the metal tips. The two arrows were then pulled back by the owner, who was none other than Genichiro, with the lifeless bodies again slumping to the water with audible splashes. Genichiro and HUNK gazed at each other for a while before the grandson of Isshin broke the silence with a cold voice of his own:
"You are welcome."
The Reaper didn't bother saying anything back to Genichiro, despite him being fairly thankful of Genichiro having had his back. With his LE5 disciplined to high alert, the USS operator sloshed his way to the archway. Genichiro stashed his used arrows in his quiver and holstered his great-sized bow, returning on relying on his bloodied katana. The Japanese warriors then proceeded to follow the American operator. They still had a long way to go and much more perilous moments awaited for them ahead.
Past the dark archway was a lone bald, pale zombie with ripped-apart cheeks aimlessly wandering in the water ahead. HUNK fired two rounds from his submachine gun, obliterating its nose and its left eye to chunks. With it being briefly stunned and its head slightly flailed backwards, the infected let out a grunt. The Reaper used this moment to swiftly pass by the stunned zombie to not only make faster progress to the extraction point, but also to converse ammunition. Genichiro, who was right behind the USS operator, made quick work of the stunned infected with a backhanded horizontal swipe, effortlessly decapitating it. Once the rest of the lifeless body splashed on the water, the ancient trio continued to keep up with HUNK, who was now on higher, waterless concrete ground. Genichiro climbed to higher ground with Wolf along with the piggybacked Kuro climbing after.
While the group of four hurriedly went past a dimly-lit corridor, the Divine Heir spoke close to the shinobi's ear.
"Wolf, you can unhand me now. I should be able to walk on my own just fine now that we are out of the waters," insisted Kuro.
"My Lord, I insist that you allow me to continue to assist you until the end of this journey," insisted and responded Wolf.
"Very well. Thank you, Wolf."
"My Lord."
Upon reaching a door, HUNK twisted the knob open and pushed it aside, continuing to jog in moderate pace to a visible ladder that was a few meters away. Upon passing the entrance, the Japanese trio were at awe of the vastness of the new area, particularly at its design of sheer modernity ranging from brighter light-sources, railings, technological devices, and giant ventilation tubes attached to walls. Wolf, Genichiro, and Kuro, who was the only one that audibly gasped out of the three, became startled when sparks of electrical discharges emitted from a bundle of severed wires protruding from a damaged region of the ceiling, but continued to move without delay as this was no time for them to be sightseeing. When HUNK climbed the long ladder ahead, Genichiro and Wolf briskly climbed along until they reached the top platform.
Before the USS operator twisted the knob of the next entrance, he gazed his reddened visors at the two anachronistic warriors as a sign for them to "get ready." From the opening of the door, aggressive growling of a pack of dogs were heard from the other side of the entrance along with faint gruff moaning from more roaming infected individuals. Genichiro and Wolf peeked inside the room, which resembled to an office room with scattered paperworks, toppled tables, blood-embellished walls, and slumped dead bodies, through the slits of the curtained windows, spotting a total of five infected that comprised of three Cerberus police dogs and two civilian-attired zombies. The Japanese warriors took particular notice for the torn skin regions and the icy-white eyes of the Cerberus pack.
Ashina's commander and the shinobi understood what HUNK was implying by glaring at them, firmly gripping their katanas. Knowing what was yet again about to come, the Divine Heir placed his forehead against Wolf's shoulder, averting his gaze. Wolf and Genichiro nodded once at the Reaper with their frowned gazes now fixating to the door that stood between them and their next batch of undead assailants. HUNK twisted the knob and pushed open the door, rushing in with modern special forces breaching discipline with his shoulders tucked forward and his iron sight hovering close before his sight. The Japanese hurriedly followed in after the American.
The infected Cerberus police dogs viciously barked at the encroaching four with saliva being splattered from their razor-sharp-teethed mouths. Their white-saturated eyes latched on the non-infected group with ravenous, animalistic intent and let out threatening growls before dashing toward them in impressive speed.
The most front of the three pack of infected dogs attempted to lunge at HUNK from a great distance. The Reaper was one step ahead of it and was met with a hail of bullet projectiles fired from his LE5, shredding its head region to fleshy remnants with its pointy ears being torn asunder to the bloodied concrete floor. After the lead-devastated Cerberus was slumped dead on the ground with a puddle of blood forming around the body, the next Cerberus lunged at the commander of Ashina. It whimpered when Genichiro's blade wedged in its stomach region. While the undead dog was struggling to free itself off of his blade just to get a desperate bite out of the grandson of Isshin, it was brought closer to Genichiro face-to-face and had all four of its legs drooped dead-still with another whimper once he pierced an arrow past its cranium with his other free hand, killing it for good. He then swiped the blade horizontally to free his blade of the dead Cerberus along with its dark-red blood that stained its whet edges. The last Cerberus was made to quick work once it had three razor-sharp shurikens disposing of it with two of them devastating its brain to churned remains and with the last of the three lethally segregating its jaw from the rest of its head. The shurikens from the shinobi's prosthetic came in so fast with blurry proportions that it didn't even get the chance to whimper and instead merely slumped on the ground in dead-silence with its own blood pooling around it.
The remaining two infected individuals were approaching the four from the corner of the office room and was approached by the swift shinobi. He quickly dispatched one of them by performing a Shadowrush combat art, thrusting his blade in the zombie's stomach region with an incredible charging speed and jumped upwards by using the undead as a platform. The targeted infected was gruesomely disposed of by being sliced apart from its waist all the way past its scalp with blood violently sprinkling outwards from the cut opening like heavy downpour of harsh rain. While in the air, the One-Armed Wolf, despite Kuro acting as more weight latched on him, soundlessly landed behind the other zombie and thrusted the tip of the Kusabimaru through its parietal lobe of the brain all the way past its prefrontal cortex with the blade protruding out of its forehead. Once Wolf pulled out the blade from the unresponsive infected, it collapsed face-first on the concrete ground with a puddle of blood being drained out of the gaping hole from its pierced forehead.
The group then headed down an emergency manhole at the right corner of the room. After HUNK went down, Genichiro jumped down and landed on an elevated platform before landing on the actual concrete floor further beneath. Wolf with the piggybacked Kuro found themselves below with ease thanks to the shinobi's heightened agility and sense of balance. What the four found below the manhole were zombified construction workers in light-green vests mindlessly devouring on a deceased corpse with their knees on the ground. The chewing noises and the gruff growling from the undead displeased the Divine Heir to the core. For the sake of time and ammunition conservation, the USS operator ignored the distracted infected and opened the door that led him to the next area with the rest sharing similar intuition and hastily following the Reaper.
The next place of interest had a bridge connecting to two segregated platforms with elevated stagnant water residing below it. The entrance that they were supposed to be headed was at the other side of the platform. Multiple infected hostiles of a pack of Cerberus and two roaming zombified individuals posed as obstacles from letting the four get through with ease. On the platform they were currently standing on, HUNK quickly dealt with a female zombie in red tank top and short blue trousers by rapid-firing her facial region to unrecognizable smithereens. The four then headed for the bridge. Before they placed their feet on it, however, an infected electrician on the bridge was blockading their path with the pack of Cerberus aggressively barking at them from the other platform, turning the place to cacophonous brouhaha. They waited for the four to make a move with their icy eyes latched on their next possible food source.
The Reaper unloaded the rest of his magazine on his LE5 on the encroaching electrician zombie's left knee, effectively crippling it with half of its respective leg being amputated. It landed on the reinforced bridge on its chest with an audible thud, but continued to crawl with its remaining limbs to the four while leaving a bloody trail from its stump. Reloading his submachine gun with a fresh thirty-two-round magazine, HUNK went on the bridge and closed in on the zombie. He stepped on its ribcage and exerted pressure on the region in an attempt to toss the infected off of the bridge. The undead electrician had its arms flailing outwards to the operator as it was descending below, submerging deep under the water below with a hard splash. When the rest of the non-infected group stepped on the bridge, the Cerberus pack dashed toward them in coordinated unison. Their bloodied paws produced audible clanging noises on the metal surface of the bridge that were reminiscent to the sounds of raindrops hitting hard against the surface of a drenched window. HUNK rapid-fired on the pack, unloading nearly all his magazine with the heated expended casings ejecting from the chamber and clinking on the metallic surface. He took two Cerberus with him as they slumped dead on the bridge. Of the surviving pack, a Cerberus lunged forward to the operator in great distance and was met with a punishing smack across its jawline by the butt of HUNK's submachine gun, shattering a good portion of its teeth in the process. It whimpered and was flailed to the water with a violent splash. The grandson of Isshin and the One-Armed Wolf intervened to deal with the rest of the pack. Genichiro swiftly dealt with a Cerberus by performing a grab on the undead dog while it was lunging for HUNK in mid-air and dealing it a powerful punch to its stomach region, sending it whimpering and vomiting blood on the warrior's shoulder. It was then tossed away to the watery depth by Genichiro to join the rest of the fallen infected below. Wolf dealt with the last lunging Cerberus on the bridge by sheathing his Kusabimaru and dashing forward in blurry movement, wavering the black robe of Genichiro. When the shinobi was a meter away from the lunging infected dog, he unsheathed the weapon and performed an Ashina Cross combat art by motioning his blade in an "x." So powerful and fast the combat art was that not only did it visibly bend the air, but also it managed to waver some of the hair strands of Genichiro. Upon witnessing the combat art, HUNK was at a stunned disbelief for a brief moment. The Cerberus was split into three individual pieces, which bounced a couple times off of the bridge's surface and plunged into the water below. With the way free of T-Virus infestation, the group continued forth without delay.
Heading downstairs, HUNK unloaded the rest of his magazine on a zombie cripple, which was hiding behind a pair of barrels, that had half of its lower torso missing with intestines trailing out of the stump. It was briefly stunned with around five bullets shredding its face, and the group used this moment to quickly pass by it. They went onwards with the next set of descending staircase that had a roaming infected woman obstructing their way. Loading a fresh magazine for his LE5, the USS operator holstered the submachine gun for now and drew out his MUP handgun. He fired a round to the zombified woman through the direct center mass of its forehead region. It moaned with its blood streaked on the nearby wall and HUNK ran right past her while it was distracted. Genichiro decapitated the undead clean-cut by its upper jaw with his katana, revealing its stuck-out tongue. With the infected's jawless head toppling down the staircase while leaving a bloody mess out of its stump, the Japanese trio made their descent and continued following the American operator.
There were an additional four more undead aimlessly prowling about the new area, which was a suspended catwalk attached to another platform. The anachronistic trio noticed that HUNK somehow managed to bypass the zombies without a bite seen on him and saw him dashing towards the next set of staircase that was to lead them to more sewage waterways. They were briefly taken aback to how fast the Reaper could get, judging by the fact also that they didn't recall hearing any gunshots while they were at the back dealing with the zombie woman. HUNK's fast movement to the staircase, however, made their lives much easier with all the zombies distracted in chasing down the Reaper. While the zombies had their backs turned on the Japanese trio, the One-Armed Wolf and Ashina's commander made fast work of all four of them by either decapitating them or piercing their brains with their respective katanas. With all the disposed of zombies slumped on the walkway with their blood dripping down the catwalk, they doubled in pace to rejoin with HUNK.
The four were now venturing through a long flight of stairs that led them to the upper waterways. They all plunged in the foul, stagnant water and sloshed their way through, spotting two different paths just ahead that were illuminated with working light-sources. HUNK motioned a hand-signal to the warriors to take the right detour. The water ahead of them, however, began to ripple violently, and the non-infected group feared it to be another gang of zombies waiting to make a meal out of them. It turned out that it was more trouble than what they predicted as two behemoths of fully-grown G-Adults sprang out of the water while emitting whale-like noises. The G-Adults were as big as the Blazing Bull that Wolf had encountered before finding himself in Raccoon City. Kuro had his breath shuddering upon seeing the monstrous, fleshy giants approaching them in moderate pace and found them to be overtly-disturbing and ominous appearance-wise. The Divine Heir couldn't keep his petrified eyes off of their human-sized arms that were dangling from their sides. Even Genichiro, despite remaining cool-faced, couldn't help but be partially disturbed by the appearances of the G-Adults.
"Abomination," muttered the commander of Ashina. The USS operator, in the meantime, seized a plan of his own. He hand-signalled the Japanese trio that he will distract the monstrosities by winding to the far left to not only distract the G-Adults to him, but also to create a wide-enough gap for the three to pass through to the right waterway. The Japanese had faith him and nodded in response.
Without delay, HUNK went ahead first and winded to the left as planned while the rest rushed straight for the right waterway without being spotted by the G-Adults, which were both fixated solely to the daring operator. HUNK was close to bypassing the G-monstrosities, but one of the massive creatures unexpectedly doubled its movement speed through the water and grabbed the operator around his waist with its bulking arm.
"Hnnnngh..!"
When HUNK's muffled struggle audibly echoed to the ancients, the Japanese ceased moving any further and turned around to see the source of commotion. Kuro gasped and genuine worry set in his eyes.
"No..," said the Divine Heir. Just before Genichiro and Wolf rushed for the American's aid, HUNK retrieved a flashbang grenade from his waist and shoved it in the G-Adult's "mouth" region before it could spew out toxic substances on him. With the grenade stuck in its mouth, the G-monster released HUNK from its grasp and let out a high-pitch shriek when the grenade exploded within and blinded it and the other G-monster right next to it. HUNK made a run for the right waterway. The blinding light from the grenade briefly blinded Genichiro, Wolf, and Kuro along with their ears suffering from temporary "screech" effects. They grunted and hovered their hands over their squinting eyes. One of the G-Adults managed to recover faster from the blinding effects and proceeded to stalk the American operator. When it was meters away from grabbing the Reaper, it was met with two shurikens and two feathered arrows that lodged in its "head" region. The G-Adult emitted a shriek while aggressively flailing to the sides.
"Go! Don't stop for anything!" instructed the USS operator; he motioned his hands forward several times to signal them to get an immediate move on. Genichiro and Wolf turned around and commenced spearheading through the right waterway. Just when the three Japanese saw a raised platform ahead, light splashing of water was seen accompanied with high-pitched shrieks next to it. A teem of worm-like G-Embryos slithered to the Japanese. Wolf stepped a foot closer and gripped the hilt of the Kusabimaru. Much to the slight astonishment of Genichiro, whose strands of hair began to waver, and the genuine enchantment of Kuro, the blade of the Kusabimaru began to bend the air around it. When the blade "sucked" in enough concentrated air, the shinobi rapidly motioned the weapon vertically from top to bottom. A thin slice of surged air emitted from Wolf's blade followed by a more powerful, larger version of it that decimated all of the G-Embryos in a blink of an eye. Due to the sheer exerted strength of the performed Dragon Flash, the water ahead of them exploded in a barrage of uproar, violently unsettling the water from calmed to turbulent waves. Drizzles of water and the fleshy leftovers of the G-Embryos landed on the ancient trio from head to shoulders: Some landed on Kuro's hair, some on Genichiro's golden kuwagata and black robe, and the rest on Wolf's ponytail and on his wooly scarf.
"Well done, Wolf!" enthusiastically cheered the Divine Heir with a smile. While succumbing to slight jealousy of the shinobi being complimented by the Divine Heir himself, Genichiro, at the same time, decided to grant Wolf an offer.
"Impressive, Shinobi of the Divine Heir. It looks as if you bear an affinity for my grandfather's art. Won't you be inclined to serve the Ashina Clan, under me, after we deal with this little insignificant hassle?" offered Ashina's commander; he picked up a leftover of a G-Embryo from his kuwagata and nonchalantly tossed it away while fixating his gaze to the One-Armed Wolf.
"Heresy. I answer only to Lord Kuro and to no one else – "
Wolf returned Genichiro with an unwilling, and rather combative, frown.
" – and not to you."
From the inside, Genichiro felt a subtle yet lasting sting of humiliation spreading from his inner chest. He bore a weak smile to feign his composure.
"I understand. Although, Noble Shinobi, there will come a time when you will regret your poor choice of words – "
His expression went cold and straight with his venomous eyes, which glowed in hot red, locking to those of Wolf.
" – dearly," finished the grandson of Isshin. Wolf and Kuro noticed a slight brittle coming from Genichiro's "dearly."
Much to the Divine Heir's discomfort, the two lethal combatants gripped the hilt of their respective katanas and their thousand-yard-glares further exacerbated the long-lasted tension between them. Their altercation, however, was to be ephemeral, as HUNK sloshed his way between them.
"What are you all fucking standing here for? I told you all to move – so move," chastised the American operator, who picked off fleshy bits of the G-Embryos off of Kuro's hair. With the G-Adults continuing to pursue the non-infected group, Wolf and Genichiro did away with their deathly gazes, put aside their differences for now, and continued to slosh their way to the platform just ahead. Climbing on the concrete ground, the Japanese warriors encountered two infected individuals that were roaming on staircases. The two zombies, however, were not just any zombies. Dressed in similar black ops combat attire to that of the Reaper, they were HUNK's former squad mates. Before they were to be swiftly disposed of by Wolf and Genichiro, HUNK intervened and stepped forward instead.
"I got this."
He unholstered his Lightning Hawk and aimed its iron sight to his left former squad mate. The Divine Heir quickly looked away. He pulled the trigger of the powerful weapon with a combined volatile discharge of deafening sound, which roared throughout the spaces, and blinding flash, which bleached the entire surroundings with bright gold-yellow, emitting from its muzzle. It was the loudest weapon HUNK had used thus far, slightly irritating the two Japanese warriors while making Kuro physically jerk for a second. Due to the sheer stopping power of the Lightning Hawk along with the claustrophobic, air-tight setting of the sewers, the hearing of the Japanese trio temporarily deafened.
Wolf and Genichiro were shocked at how potentially devastating the Lightning Hawk was upon sighting the non-existence of the targeted zombie's head. The walls around the headless infected that now lifelessly collapsed to the ground were saturated with crimson-red and pinkish brain parts, which the excess trailed down in lines. Without hesitation, HUNK jerked his aim to his other zombified squad mate and decapitated it as well by firing another magnum round of the Lightning Hawk, granting both of them quick and painless deaths. Puddles of blood drained out of the stumps, goring the concrete ground with expanding dark red. While HUNK was overall cold and unsympathetic to his former squad mates, believing that they deserved what they were coming to them since survival was their own responsibility, he did feel that they deserved to be freed of their pain and suffering in the least painful way possible. The last standing USS operator holstered the Lightning Hawk and re-wielded his LE5.
Wolf, Genichiro, and Kuro paid their respects by blankly gazing at the American's deceased squad mates in deep silence. The Divine Heir was the one to break the silence by verbally offering his sincere condolence to HUNK.
"I am sorry for your loss.."
HUNK responded by shifting his visors to his side without actually facing Kuro. He then commenced onwards to the workers' break room with the rest following his lead per usual. HUNK kicked open the door and cleared the break room's corners in swift manner. At the other side of the room was a visible powered elevator that had its entrance covered by steel railings. With HUNK pressing the button to the lift, the railings horizontally slid open – much to the curiosity and wonderment of the Japanese natives, who occupied the back of the mechanical transportation that first originated from the year 1853. HUNK occupied the front of the elevator and pressed a button that was to take them to an upper floor. The railings in front of them reappeared and shut closed. Much to the Japanese trio's surprise, the elevator briefly shook before moving upwards to the designated floor. The shinobi and the commander of Ashina went into combative stances with their wary eyes cautiously traversing the ceiling of the elevator.
"What is happening here..?!" questioned Genichiro while gritting his teeth. Witnessing the walls shifting downwards in front of them with the insides of the elevator constantly rumbling and vibrating, the Japanese combatants could only become more unsettled. HUNK turned his head to peek at the two ancient warriors upon hearing Genichiro's unsettled tone.
"Relax," nonchalantly advised the Reaper; he turned his head back to the front. Unlike the unsettled shinobi and the grandson of Isshin, the Divine Heir was enchanted by the mechanisms of the elevator.
"Such fascinating creations you Westerners have at your disposals.." he commented with a bewitched tone.
The transport came to a halt after a few seconds of waiting and the railings in front automatically budged open. With the group of four exiting out of the elevator, Genichiro and Wolf, despite having had accomplished numerous physically-demanding trainings in their lifetimes, felt the need to vomit. Wolf relied on his trained breathing technique to calm his stomach, while Genichiro relied on sheer willpower to suck it up and remain his composure. The American operator found the two's behaviors to be slightly amusing, especially when he thought that after they've had gone through worse case scenarios of journeying past the sewers and dealing with the infected – all it took for them to lose their composure was riding an elevator. As for Kuro, he suffered little to no symptoms from riding the elevator. It didn't take long for the side-effects from motion sickness to fade away for the two ancient warriors. Without further ado, the non-infected personnel continued forth by climbing a nearby staircase ahead that led them to a closed entrance.
The Japanese awaited for the Reaper to assess the surroundings of the next area they were to pass through on their way for the extraction point. The door was constructed of metal bars with gaps in-between, so HUNK could peek inside.
The area ahead of them was pitch-black dark, so he activated the mini-flashlight-attachment on his submachine gun and traversed the light from the far left to the far right. Hearing a congregation of gruff moaning and sighting around dozens of roaming zombies ahead, the USS operator knew what exactly he had to do in order to grant not only him, but also the others with him as well a guaranteed safe passage – but, due to the impressive number of the roaming zombies, it was going to cost him a number of valuable resources that consisted of two fragmentation grenades and at least one flashbang grenade.
HUNK opened fire his LE5 on a few zombies past the metal entrance, expending only three rounds. Despite all the three rounds dead-accurately landing on three different heads of the alerted zombies, his intention wasn't to maim or kill – rather, he wanted to draw all of the zombies' attention to him with the trembling sound emitted from his submachine gun turbulently echoing past the horde of infected. The horde moaned in guttural tone and they all proceeded to head to the USS operator in moderate pace.
"It is a swarm of them," said Genichiro. The forefront row of zombies mindlessly pressed themselves against the entrance with their bloodied, pale arms and hands extending outwards to reach for the Reaper. The metal entrance rattled violently and it was to be forced open by the undead sooner or later.
HUNK signalled to the One-Armed Wolf and Ashina's commander to slice off the protruding arms of the zombies pressing against the trembling entrance by pointing to their katanas and motioning his hands in a vertical slice. They were initially confused of the American's request, but regardlessly complied by dismembering the limbs of the infected. Streams of crimson oozed out of the stumps like gushing waterfall and the dismembered pale arms that landed on the ground twitched momentarily before becoming completely still. With the arms severed, the American was now safe to initiate the next step of his explosive plan. He fearlessly walked closer to the entrance until he was in face-to-face proximity with the roaring, shrieking zombies. HUNK then pulled two fragmentation grenades from his waist, pulled their safety pins, released the levers on the explosives, and shoved the grenades in two of the zombies' mouths. With the zombies firmly biting on the grenades, HUNK signalled the two Japanese warriors to immediately back away.
"Get back. Get back."
With them all backing away from the entrance in safe distance, the grenades exploded after six seconds with a wave of concentrated dust, blood particles, and dismembered body parts blowing out from the direction of the entrance. Thankfully, for Kuro, the Reaper signalled the Divine Heir to cover his ears before the grenades went off. The combined explosion from the two fragmentation grenades was so powerful that the metal entrance itself flew outwards and clashed against a railing, which bent inwards due to the sheer force of the collision. When the shrapnels from the volatile explosion cleared out, the USS operator tossed a flashbang grenade, which was his last one, to the breached opening and made a quick dash for the entrance once it exploded in blinding white luminosity. The Japanese trio hurriedly followed and witnessed the devastating results caused by the explosion from damaged walls, dismembered and shredded body parts of the zombies, and the concentrated white smoke, which forced Kuro to cover his mouth and shut his eyes. The two ancient warriors witnessed the barely-surviving zombies that were crawling by dragging their shredded arms against the ground due to their lower torsos either being non-existent or severely-maimed by the fragmentation grenades. Dislocated jaws, exposed ribcages, shredded eyes, shrapnel-sprinkled facial regions, and missing limbs were common sightings amongst both the surviving and the deceased undead. The shinobi and the grandson of Isshin didn't grow unsettled upon sighting the casualties around them, but they were more so disturbed by the devastating capabilities of HUNK's modern fragmentation grenades. They pondered on how it came to be possible for the hand-sized portable objects to harness the ability to cause dozens of casualties in a single discharge. Genichiro, especially, began to fear the wrath of the Interior Ministry and the overall well-being of his beloved land more with the Ministry's increasing use of advanced foreign weaponries. He pondered on how it would be possible for the central Japanese forces to rapidly gain the power in one-sidedly obliterating the land of Ashina in the coming years should they come across hand-to-hand with HUNK's vastly-modern arsenal. HUNK's constant lethal demonstration of modern weaponries only made Ashina's commander, although as impressed as he was for the time being, more xenophobic towards Westerners. At this point, Genichiro's concern not only rested with the advancement of the Interior Ministry, but also with the exponential progress of the external Western powers, which he now thought could bear the potential – the power – to inevitably swallow Japan whole as a nation in the coming years.
The few extremely lucky zombies that were seen standing were temporarily disoriented by the Reaper's flashbang grenade, allowing the four non-infected to breeze their way onwards to the engine area. The engine room provided the group a narrow, linear, zig-zag-like pathway with various-shaped metal containers and tubes seen producing concentrated steam in the surroundings. The clanging of their footsteps was emitted from the metallic floor. Rays of piercing light illuminated the surroundings of the maze-like engine room through gaps from above. When they were about to exit out of the engine room, the four heard a distant high-pitched shriek emitting from a distance ahead of them. Wolf and Genichiro were more-than-familiar with the distinct cry as they reminisced hearing it from the area the Divine Heir woke them in. Rapid clanging of inhuman footsteps were heard accompanying the shriek and whatever the creature was – it was heading to their direction in great speed. Sensing another bloody engagement about to happen, Kuro averted his gaze.
Upon witnessing a silhouette of a crawling, four-legged creature charging straight at them, the three warriors readied their respective weapons: HUNK retrieved the W870 shotgun from his back and pumped it. Wolf prepared his shurikens from his prosthetic while Genichiro readied his bow and arrow. Upon it being radiated by the piercing light from above, the creature, a BOW Licker, was revealed to have a "skinless" appearance of visible red muscles and an exposed human brain. It bore razor-sharp teeth, elongated limbs, and deadly claws that were capable of decapitating a human with just a single swipe. While the Reaper was all-too-familiar with its disturbing yet menacing appearance, the One-Armed Wolf and the commander of Ashina could only frown at it with disturbed perplexity. Once they set their disturbed curiosity aside, the two lethal Japanese warriors were eager to engage the BOW and hopefully make quick work of it.
The Licker, with its speedy and erratic movement, lunged at the group from an impressive distance with a deafening shriek that could make frozen cowards of even the most combative and skilled of warriors. As for the three, however, none of them gave into the slightest bit of fear and right away engaged it with their respective projectile-based weapons. While the Licker was in mid-air after its lunge, it was met with a flurry of ancient-based projectiles of arrows and shurikens sent by Wolf and Genichiro that all landed on its center mass of abdomen and limbs. The American operator awaited the BOW to get closer in with its lunge and opened fire his shotgun, which emitted a powerful blast and a muzzle flash bright enough to lighten both of HUNK's reddened visors to ephemeral golden-yellow. A heated green-colored ammunition shell ejected from the chamber and clinked against the metal floor. All the fired pellets managed to land on the Licker's brain, obliterating the entirety of its prefrontal cortex. However, despite sustaining grave injuries from the trio, it still managed to lunge in-between them. Much to the initial shock of the Japanese warriors, the Licker whipped out its elongated tongue and disarmed Genichiro's bow by smacking the weapon away from his hands with impressive force. The BOW then turned about to face the Reaper, who was just about to fire off another shell. It wrapped the shotgun with its tongue and pulled it away from the operator's hands. The Licker then had its tongue wrapped around the entirety of his waist and effortlessly tossed the American against the surface of a metal container, slightly bending it in the process with steam violently exuding out of the damaged region. With HUNK landing hard on the floor with a grunt, Wolf and Genichiro relied on their katanas to quickly dispose of the creature and the two remained close to one another. Their focused eyes were dead-fixated to the Licker with their postures disciplined to their usual combative stances. The Licker, preparing to make another lunge, tucked its jaw closer to the floor and leaned its shoulders forward while hissing at the two. It gritted its diabolical teeth with strands of bloodied-saliva trickling down its jaw.
It emitted another bloodcurdling scream as soon as it lunged for the two with its claws, which were embellished with the dried blood of its human victims, raised high above the air. The shinobi and Ashina's commander dispersed to their respective sides and dismembered both of the creature's upper-limbs while it was flung in mid-air: Wolf performed an Ichimonji strike on its right arm while Genichiro swiftly motioned his blade upwards in a backhanded fashion on its other arm. The Licker cried out a lasting agonizing scream and, along with its clean-cut, severed arms, landed on the floor with a hard thud on its chest with blood gushing out from both stumps. Just when Genichiro was about to finish it off, the BOW spat out its tongue and wrapped it around his neck, strangling him. Grunting, he grabbed its tongue and attempted to free himself by slicing its tongue with his katana. However, there was no need for him to commit to such decision as Wolf summoned his Loaded Axe from his prosthetic and brought the devastatingly-offensive weapon right at the Licker's brain with vigor – right at the center of its corpus callosum – painting the faces of the shinobi and the grandson of Isshin with trails of dark-red. The Licker let out its final shriek, which echoed turbulently throughout the engine room, and had its jaw fallen flat on the ground – dead. Its tongue that restrained Genichiro lifelessly drooped to the floor like falling rope, releasing him from strangulation.
"Is it..dead..?" asked Kuro, who still had his head placed on the shinobi's shoulder.
"Yes, My Lord. We are safe – for now," informed the One-Armed Wolf. After wiping away the deceased Licker's viscous saliva off of him and retrieving back his great-sized bow, Ashina's commander approached the Reaper's fallen shotgun and picked it up, observing it intently from barrel to butt. When HUNK recovered to his feet and saw Genichiro handling his weapon without permission, the American approached him face-to-face and extended out a hand.
"Hand it over."
Ignoring the USS operator's demand, the grandson of Isshin continued to eye the W870 shotgun as if he had never heard him in the first place.
"You have mighty weapons at your disposal," spoke Genichiro in his native tongue; he then let out a venomous glare at HUNK and aggressively slapped the shotgun on the Reaper's chest. HUNK gazed at the shotgun for a while before fixating his crimson visors back to Genichiro.
"How about putting them to better use by not making a fool out of yourself – "
Genichiro's glare became more heated towards the American.
" – incompetent Western barbarian."
"Lord Genichiro, please..Restrain yourself," intervened the Divine Heir. HUNK decided to verbally fight back in plain English.
"Don't forget who's leading you and your friends out of here. You better drop that stare before I make a bloody mess out of you," he threatened to Ashina's commander. The two were locked in a heated staredown for half a minute before HUNK was yet again reminded that he had a chopper to catch.
"Haul ass. We don't have time to waste. If any of you gives me that look again, there will be consequences," advised and again threatened the USS operator, who made a dash to their next destination. Wolf along with the piggybacked Kuro hurriedly trailed the American with Genichiro, who continued to glare at the departing HUNK, standing motionlessly for a brief moment before joining the rest of them.
The group took another two to three minutes to make their way past the machinery room all the way to the operators' room, encountering little resistance of a few roaming infected individuals that were quickly disposed of by the Reaper and the two ancient Japanese combatants. In the operators' room, they encountered a group of undead individuals and a pack of Cerberus feasting on corpses with chewing noises filling the air. Before the zombified beings were alerted of non-infected presence, the USS operator swiftly disposed of two infected individuals with blasts from his pump-action shotgun, splitting their heads open with their viscous innards splattering all over the other infected with gruesome colors of pink and red. The rest of the infected individuals and the pack of Cerberus drove their ravenous attention elsewhere from the corpses to the non-infected group standing before them. The infected individuals steadily raised themselves on their feet with trails of blood and flesh dripping from their salivating mouths. While the American operator continued to blast away lead with his shotgun, disposing of another undead individual and a Cerberus dog, Wolf and Genichiro dispersed and sliced-and-diced away the other zombified beings with their katanas in a matter of five seconds: Dismembered arms hit against the walls, decapitated heads rolled along on the bloodied floor, and blood embellished the surroundings in dots and streaks. By this time, all three of the elite warriors had blood covering the entirety of their torsos from head to toe. Kuro himself had blood streaked on his hair and on his hands.
Within the operators' room was a manhole attached to the ceiling accompanied by a ladder. HUNK proceeded to climb the ladder with the others climbing after him. Wolf's ears tingled upon hearing footsteps and moaning from close to a hundred zombies that were awaiting for them above. He cupped his hand close to his ear and eavesdropped to better assess the situation that took place above the manhole.
"Horde up ahead..Around a hundred undead," notified the shinobi. HUNK went up ahead and the moaning emitting from above increased significantly in volume. Soon, gunshots from the operator's LE5 roared with flashes of gold-yellow lighting the wary eyes of Wolf, Genichiro, and Kuro. To quickly assist the Reaper, the Japanese natives climbed up the rest of the manhole until they found themselves in a zombie-infested parking lot. The entire area was illuminated by the headlights of a police car up ahead behind a sealed entrance, but the light was blockaded by the overwhelming presence of the roaming zombies. HUNK was spotted rapid-firing his submachine gun, which was on its last magazine, shredding a number of the zombies' faces. There was so many infected in the vicinity of the four that there was literally no gap to run through. The zombies had the four cornered in a converging circle.
Wolf and Genichiro stood their grounds, gripped their katanas in their usual stances, and vigilantly watched their respective front surroundings. As for the American, his LE5 went dry out of ammunition and resorted to wielding his shotgun. With the operator having had spent all of his flashbangs, the situation looked to be more precarious than thought. When the infected were meters away from making contact with the four non-infected, the One-Armed Wolf felt the Spirit Emblem Doll that he physically carried with him warming up and growing more intense in yellow-white brightness. Upon being reminded of the doll's presence, the shinobi was struck with several brilliant ideas in getting them out of the troubling situation.
"Stray your gazes elsewhere," warned and advised Wolf to the others.
"What groundbreaking illusion do you have up your sleeves, Shinobi of the Divine Heir?" questioned Ashina's commander. Wolf rushed towards a zombie and vaulted on it, performing the Bloodsmoke Ninjutsu technique by slashing the undead around its neck in a circled motion. From the zombie's slash wound surged out a cloud of blood-scented crimson that spread out in a fairly large radius, heavily disorienting the rest of the nearby zombies, who were immensely distracted by the blood smoke clouding all around them. Some of the zombies were so disoriented with the blood particles spreading around them that they began to ravenously cannibalize themselves, relentlessly tearing each other apart with their bloodied arms and teeth. Genichiro and Kuro, as instructed by Wolf, shielded their eyes with their hands. HUNK was rather unaffected by the ninjutsu technique due to him wearing his gas mask.
With a large portion of the zombies distracted, HUNK led the rest of the group out of the fray to another entrance, which led them to the direction of the watchman's room. Getting there alone, however, proved to be a strenuous task with all the parked cars and several more swarms of zombies blockading their way for the sought entrance. The shinobi used a total of three Long Spark Shinobi Firecrackers to further disorientate the infected ahead, making significant progress to the entrance. Wolf, Genichiro, HUNK, including Kuro were being grabbed by the undead from the left to right, forcing the ancient warriors to swing away their katanas and forcing the USS operator to fire away more of his shells. When Kuro was grabbed on his shoulders by a zombie, HUNK immediately took action by twisting its neck a full 180 degrees from behind, killing it for good. While he was busy rescuing the Divine Heir from being bitten, he, in turn, was grabbed by a zombie from behind and the American operator was forced to expend his combat knife by stabbing it directly at the side of its cranium, disposing of it. Wolf and Genichiro took explicit notice of the Reaper rescuing Kuro at the possible risk of his own life, and they both began to think of him in a more approachable perspective.
Fighting their way through the last batch of the roaming undead, the group of four finally managed to reach the designated entrance, which had a green light emitting on top of it, and went inside without the slightest of hesitation.
There was no time for respite as the narrow path they were standing on awaited another Licker, which was seen by the four latched on the ceiling ahead, that was waiting to ambush them. Before they let the BOW charge at them like their last encounter with the previous Licker, without hesitation, HUNK unholstered his Lightning Hawk, Genichiro wielded his bow and arrow, and Wolf summoned his Loaded Shuriken from his Prosthetic Arm. All together, they fired their respective projectile-based weapons without delay, unleashing absolute hell on the Licker, which shrieked in pain upon being showered by magnum rounds, feathered arrows, and spinning shurikens. Most of the projectiles were intentionally aimed for its exposed brain, which was obliterated to a fleshy mess upon it being rained by the distinctly-shaped projectiles. Unable to sustain anymore punishing damage from the projectiles, the creature let out a defeated, dying shriek before collapsing to the ground like an inanimate ragdoll with a thud.
From a small opening below the right wall crawled out a zombified police woman with raven hair that was missing its entire lower torso with its entrails from the stump being dragged out along. Out of mercy, the shinobi offered it a quick death by cleaving its cranium with his Loaded Axe. With the area now apparently cleared, the group climbed up a flight of stairs that led them above to the watchman's room. The area had a long, narrow hallway with an "EXIT" sign seen at the end of the pathway.
The shinobi once again had his sensitive ears tingling upon picking up "thumping" footstep sounds just ahead from the far end of the hallway. Genichiro and HUNK, too, could clearly hear the weighty footsteps approaching them a moment after Wolf did.
"What is it, Wolf?" inquired the Divine Heir; he noticed the One-Armed Wolf cupping his hand close to his ear to eavesdrop the heavy footsteps approaching their position from ahead.
"Something is coming.."
Wolf brandished his Kusabimaru and went into his fighting stance. His eyes were dead-fixated to the other end of the narrow hallway and regressed to frowning.
"Something big."
With each consecutive step committed by the unrevealed approaching assailant, the floor beneath the four trembled in increasing magnitude. Wolf, Genichiro and HUNK readied their weapons and awaited to see their most menacing T-Virus-infected BOW yet. The Reaper, pumping his shotgun, already had a good idea as into who or what the approaching assailant was.
A stretched shadow of a bulky humanoid figure appeared before the four. After the stretched shadow came its owner. It was dressed in a heavily-reinforced metallic trench coat covering its entire brawny physique, a fedora headwear resting on its cranium, a pair of black leather gloves covering its massive hands, and a pair of black boots for its footwear. It bore icy, piercing blue eyes, which were visibly seen even in darkness, with wrinklier skin compared to that of an ordinary zombie. With a towering height of around nine-to-ten feet, the newly-encountered BOW paused momentarily at the other end of the hallway, latching its soulless yet human-like gaze to those of the non-infected group standing in front of its view. Mr. X, a T-103-designed Tyrant model, proceeded to walk in a speedy pace to the group of four with the programmed intent to dispose of them all.
"He looks..human.." commented the Divine Heir. Its weighted footsteps became more menacing the closer it was in proximity to the four. Its physique seemed to drastically get wider and taller to the four the more it approached them step-by-step. Its own stretched shadow began to swallow them whole, blotting out the light emitting behind its back. In the meantime with Mr. X out to get all of their heads, the three warriors gripped their respective weapons the firmest yet and, in their combative stances, prepared for the worst.
Author's notes: I must apologize, as I've stated in the previous chapter of the author's notes (which I've edited just now) that this chapter would be the last of this story. I've recently changed my mind by deciding the next chapter after this to be the ACTUAL last chapter for this story. I came to this conclusion for the sake of the story sounding less "draggy" – but still I must apologize for the sudden decision.
I'm aware that Wolf is relying on a number of combat arts that are canonically learned later-than-usual in the game itself (e.g., Bloodsmoke Ninjutsu technique, Dragon Flash), but the reason I'm doing this is that I want to make his skills more diverse for the sake of making the story a little, if not a whole lot more, engaging and creative.
To answer the guest's inquiry on me making more Sekiro crossovers in the future: Yes. I'm definitely planning on making more future crossovers based on Sekiro as soon as I'm done with this story.
Thank you all for taking your time reading this! Until the next chapter then!