Sorry, I've kinda been sitting on this chapter for a while now, but between school, the fact that my internet kept shutting down on me in the middle of my doing stuff, and then the fact that I'm just plain old lazy means that it takes me a while...Sorry everybody! Anyway, read and review! and I hope you enjoy!
A dozen blades slashed a dozen wrists, forearms, thighs, ears, chests, anywhere the human body bled from. Some still winced from it too. The difference between the deadmen was clear though. Raven even had a smile as her wrist bled.
Team 2 launched the first attack. The Swan raised an arm up to her mouth and sank her teeth into it. Crimson blood welled up and ran down her arm from her wrist, just below her palm. A few drops fell down off her elbow, but they never hit the ground. They floated, only inches off the ground. She stretched her arm forward and a thin mist began to flow from her. It slowly crept toward team 1, expanding the entire time. No way could she hit them all with her Swan's Lake, not if she wanted to keep any of the blood inside of her body. But she could certainly take a few of them out of the front lines.
The Crow was one of the first to move, After all, his was a melee based branch of sin. Unlike the others, he had to be within some range. And it was actually even pretty close range.
As he ran though, he was more than intelligent enough to know not to run directly into the Swan's mist. He simply moved aside from it, moving at an incredible speed, with incredible agility. And then suddenly, he was at the enemy lines. He swept his Claws up in an 'X' at the first of his opponents.
His opponent just so happened to be Vulture. The Vulture was a pretty good fighter, definitely on the top half of the who's-who in the Wonderland. But he was nothing compared to Shinji. Unfortunately for the Vulture, his branch of sin was more focused on the longer ranged offensive. He raised a closed fist, dripping blood, and aimed it point blank at the Crow.
"Carrion Cannon!" He screamed as his blood welled up around his fist in a swirling vortex. At this close range, it might not have a lot of velocity, but it had very little chances of missing.
At least, so he thought.
Again unfortunate for the Vulture, his opponent was the Crow. The Crow was renowned as being the fastest of all of the deadmen. The blast missed him, coming close enough to whip his hair wildly as he ducked under the attack. The attack went back toward the slower allies of team 1, and Crow made two quick slices with his claws. The first to lop his opponent's arm off at the elbow, which was avoided, and the second to slice the back of the Vulture's knees, which was not.
The Vulture fell forward, catching himself on his hands and knees and spinning to attack the Crow as he left.
But the Crow had already moved on.
Now Crow faced off against one of the new guys. Kiwi, had they said his name what? What a ridiculous name for a deadman. Seriously, they named him after a fruit? Wait, he thought about it for a minute. Wasn't it also the name of a bird? At least it made sense then.
Not that it would help him any down here. Hell, the Kiwi was so fresh, he hadn't even cut himself yet!
Now the newbie floundered for a moment, trying to figure out how to make himself bleed. That made Shinji happy. He wasn't exactly sure why, but it just kind of did. Shinji didn't even bother with his claws, he used his fist, punching the Kiwi right in the face, knocking him down onto his ass.
Then the next target up. And the next. All the way up to the Dove. Which really sucked. This was one of team 2 that he had not planned on fighting.
He really didn't want to fight her. After all, she was dangerous. Sure, all of the deadmen were ideally dangerous, but that really didn't work out. Even the Raven wasn't dangerous unless she was in the Cage. Once she stepped out onto the stained sand of the arena, she was a monster in the body of a beautiful girl.
He swept his claws forward, swinging them both forward at her chest. She dodged back out of the way, the blood blades passing a mere hair's breadth from her skin. And then she moved forward again, putting her hands against his elbows and pushing them toward the opposite side. She used that to push herself up to deliver a devastatingly powerful blow right up between his legs.
He twisted his body so her attack landed on his thigh rather than killing all of his potential children. Behind her, her branch of sin awakened. Two great gouts of blood splashed out of her, forming quickly into bat-like wings, with one little alteration.
Atop each of the 'bones' that ran through the bloody wings were dozens of little spines, with a larger, sharper protrusion sitting on the very tip.
Great. Just what Shinjij needed to deal with, a pissed off psychopath. God, the only thing worse than that was dealing with one of the deadmen chicks when it was her time of the month. Talk about a nightmare. It was bad enough when a girl was bleeding from one spot and trying to kill you. When they were bleeding from everywhere at once, they were only trying to murder everybody.
He dodged the first lunge as her wings whipped around her body and tried to skewer him. Luckily, hers used a lot of blood to even initiate, meaning that she could only extend them at great cost to herself.
On the other side of the equation, Shinji's own branch of sin didn't use nearly as much, meaning he could extend it out to a pretty far distance without risking himself. He did so, growing his blades another two or three feet and swept the scythe shaped blades in twin arcs at the girl.
Who of course, dodged the attack.
But Shinji kept on the assault, sweeping his arms forward once more, first with his right arm, then with left, and then right again, never letting up his advantage.
Dove jumped over his next attack, her feet scant inches away from the knife's edge of his claws. Then it was under, his blade running harmlessly through her long brown hair. Then she fell backwards to avoid the next one, and so on. Every attack he had, she slid right passed like she was greased. She wrapped her wings around her body just in time to catch both of his claws against her own blood weapons.
"Goddammit!" Shinji growled. "Of everybody here, why'd I have to face you."
"Because I'm the only one who can take your rough love?"
"Got a point there honey." He shoved harder with his blades, the curving scythe blades wrapping around her on both sides. "Even your brother's too much a little girl to do anything but get his ass beat."
"Little pussy." The Dove laughed, even as her wings slipped closer to her body. "But I ain't gonna be your bitch. I'll make you work for your pleasure."
"Just the way-"
He was interrupted as the Dove's wings moved out just a half inch or so before pulling back tight against her body. She used the gap between his blades and her body to race forward, throwing herself at him.
As her head moved toward him, Shinji released his Crow's Claws and clenched his hands together, slamming them down on top of the girl's head.
Dove's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to dirt floor.
Sure, everybody probably expected something bigger. Especially from a battle between the Crow and Dove, two of the biggest names in the Cage. However, Shinji was never one for appeasing their 'masters.' If he saw an opportunity, he took it.
The Crow moved on, blocking the sweeping needles from Penguin's arm. The Penguin lunged forward and tried to hit him with his entire body covered in long four inch spikes made up of his blood. Shinji stepped aside as the attack came on, and planted a boot to the Penguin's back, shoving him toward one of his allies.
Shinji didn't even bother to watch the two collide. He smiled, hearing them both cry out in pain. He understood Raven's sick pleasure.
He understood it well. He hated it, but he definitely understood. It was something that the Wonderland had opened up inside of him. "Well, when life gives you lemons." He chuckled. "Rip him a new one!"
He kicked off and recreated his Crow's Claws, lunging forward into a sweeping slice targeted at everybody nearby. Since he was in the midst of his opponents, it gave him plenty of opportunity to attack. First punch to back of a head, then a back handed slash with his Claw diagonally across a torso. He hooked his foot around someone's knee and dragged their foot out from under them. He was in his element now. He was having fun!
All too soon the entertainment ended.
Something had happened back at his own team lines. Something dramatic, and something tragic.
Raven screamed and the whole world went to shit in half a second.
Blood splashed out, more blood than any of the deadmen had ever lost before. It splashed against Shinji, against the unconscious deadmen, into some of their mouths and eyes. They all were coated quite liberally. None of them more so than Raven. Who was even now starting to laugh maniacally.
"What the hell set her off?" Shinji shouted to His own team.
Everybody was now scrambling to get away from everybody else. Most of all, away from the Raven. Tendrils of blood were floating around her, each of them connected to her like an umbilical to her torn wrists.
Guardsmen came storming out and surrounded the Birdcage. Of all of the ones who raced out, only one wasn't in a suit. "Deadmen. Nobody said for you to stop fighting!" He shouted.
"What!" Somebody- maybe Vulture?- called out. "Somebody's dead in here!"
Nobody bothered responding.
Even Shinji thought the guy stupid for saying it like that. Seriously? Freak out because somebody was dead? They were called deadmen, nobody was going to care if they died. Nobody except for they themselves.
The guards just pointed a host of guns at the groups in the Cage. None of them were speaking. None of them even moved once they were in place. Only the one without the armor. He was walking a slow circle around them, almost like a predator. Just like a predator, he had sharp eyes, and he turned those razor blade green eyes at them. His head was held high and proud, and strapped to his back was what looked like a...riding crop?
Shinji shook his head. "Fine. You want one side as the winner?" He cracked his knuckles. Over the Raven's sobbing- why was she crying?- he could hear a few others among the real deadmen preparing themselves too. Some of the new guys, even the Vulture actually, just dropped to the ground and said "I forfeit."
One of the ones that refused to forfeit received a swift kick to the face to be put under. The entire match ended in a very unsatisfying way. Shinji sighed. He'd actually been enjoying himself. Then the psycho had to go and ruin the fun.
"The match is over with!" The voice called our over the sound system. "Team 1 Wins!"
None of the deadmen were happy about it. Except it seemed, for the Mockingbird. As he walked off the battlefield, he did so with a wide smile, which seemed to be his usual look recently.
As the guards walked in and started to drag away the ones who couldn't manage on their own, Shinji was shocked. Less than half of them were able to leave on their own power. More than that, he was stunned at the sheer number of females there. Apparently he'd just never noticed before. Sure he'd paid attention to the Raven and Swan, but he never realized that there were ten female deadmen all around him. He quickly ran through them all in his mind. They were definitely still the lesser half of the group, but thinking about it, yeah, there were plenty of them.
Raven, Swan, Dove, Falcon, Canary, Condor, Osprey, Eagle, and the Songbird. Oh wait, the Monarch too. Ten of them, ten out of thirty-two? Well, he smiled, now there's only thirty-one.
Macabre humor was the only kind they could afford, so when the opportunity presented itself, might as well take all the laughs you can get. He tipped his head back and started to laugh. Thirty-two psychos locked up in the Cage, thirty-two psychos alive. Knock one down, make him drown, thirty-one psychos locked up in the Cage!