Chapter 3 – Meeting a Monster

And now we come to Chapter 3! The story has one review, but who knows, maybe there'll be more in the not-so-distant future!

OmePunch: Yes! A crossover so that two detectives can meet! Even if one of them is still a junior detective…

And to KKenobi, thanks for the follow, I really appreciate it!

Get ready for some collateral damage!

Valkyrie Cain and the Blind Bandit had managed to reach a truce. Both of them were two very different people from two very different dimensions, and if they were going to get anywhere in this place, it would only be by working together. The Blind Bandit hadn't sounded too keen about it at first, but at least she seemed to be used to working with someone else (much to Valkyrie's relief). Valkyrie was curious, though, as to how the Blind Bandit could see. She was blind after all… wasn't she? She cast a glance towards the younger girl who walked ahead like she didn't have a care in the world.

The two of them spent about an hour looking around the strangely empty part of the city. Valkyrie couldn't help but wonder, though, where was everyone? Sure, the Bandit said that there were people and that they were hiding in the buildings, but she had to wonder; why were they hiding in the first place? Was there something about this place that the two of them were yet to find out? As they were walking, Valkyrie's companion abruptly stopped in her tracks. Valkyrie didn't notice until she was a few feet ahead.

She turned around to see the blind girl standing stock-still behind her.

"Do you hear that?" She asked Valkyrie.

"Hear… what?" Responded the older girl, straining her senses.

Even then, the only noise she heard was the faint cawing of crows from somewhere in the distance.

"That noise… It feels like a person… and there's this other thing, too." She said, her expression thoughtful.

Feels? Valkyrie noticed the Bandit's choice of words was unusual to say the least.

Why say she could feel a noise? She didn't comment on it, but filed it away as (maybe?) a useful piece of information that she could (again, maybe) bring up later.

"I think they're fighting…" She added.

"Where's it coming from?" Valkyrie asked her. "Do you think you could find it?"

"Ha! That's easy!" She scoffed. "Just follow me – I'll get you there in no time!"

"Okay." Valkyrie nodded.

"It's this way!" The Blind Bandit exclaimed and broke into a run.

"Hey!" She called out, "Wait up!"

"Keep up!"

Sprinting after the smaller girl, Valkyrie managed to catch up to her and the two ran side-by-side along the streets until they finally came to a halt in front of a large building. Valkyrie looked up before turning back to look at the Bandit.

"Are we here?" Her voice was doubtful.

"Not yet, but this building's in my way," she sneered. "You might want to stand aside, Cain."

Unsure what was supposed to be implied by that, Valkyrie nevertheless took a few steps back until she stood some feet away from the rear wall of the building.

"This far enough for you?" She asked somewhat sarcastically.

"You tell me,"said the Bandit, the grin on her face hidden from Valkyrie.

The Blind Bandit then walked up to the building and spat on her hands before rubbing them together. Valkyrie watched with mild disgust, wondering what she would do next. The girl stood right in front of the building, exhaled and then stuck her hands into the wall. Into solid concrete.

At first, Valkyrie thought she was just seeing things, but no; she looked again. The younger girl's hands were stuck into the wall up to her knuckles. How? Valkyrie thought in shock. How was that even possible? The Bandit then proceeded to actually open up the concrete as if she was opening a curtain. The concrete wrinkled and cracked around the opening but didn't fall apart. Watching her in action, Valkyrie was reminded of how Sanguine could tunnel through solid rock without a problem, and how he didn't have eyes… Hang on, the Blind Bandit – she was, well, blind too.

"Hey, are you coming or what?" Called the girl, "This is a shortcut, so hurry up."

"What's the rush, anyway?" Frowned Valkyrie as she followed the Bandit through the hole.

Her companion merely shrugged in response.

"We're wasting time," she responded. "And believe me – this is something I want to see."

"We don't even know what we're headed towards." Valkyrie pointed out.

"Well, whatever it is, it's a fight and I like these kind of things!"

"Sure…"

Valkyrie was more than a little uncertain what she meant by that. She walked ahead while behind her, the Bandit closed the gaping hole they had stepped through. She found herself standing in what appeared to be a storeroom. Valkyrie walked over to the door and tried the handle. It was unlocked. She pushed the door and swung open with a squeak of its hinges. She walked out, followed by the Blind Bandit. They emerged into a large lobby, directly ahead of them was the entrance leading out onto the street beyond, and crowded by the windows that overlooked said street were the first people that Valkyrie had seen since the portal had deposited her here.

They were a collection of office workers and random people who looked like they had just walked in. But they all stared out the windows, their attention fixated on something outside as they silently jostled for room. Valkyrie could hear something going on outside, but she wasn't sure what it was. Glancing towards the Bandit, she found her companion frowning to herself.

"What're they just standing around for?" She muttered. "Is this supposed to be some kind of entertainment?"

"What do you mean?" Valkyrie asked her.

"There's some guy outside fighting a … some kind of animal, I think." The Bandit responded.

"Come on, let's get a closer look."

Approaching the crowd, Valkyrie craned her neck to try and see over the people. There was tension in the air – it was like they were holding their breath – but she still didn't know why.

"Hey, what's going on out there?" She asked the person standing closest to her, an anxious-looking young man wearing a suit and glasses.

He turned to look at her in surprise.

"Where'd you come from?" He asked.

"Er – well," Valkyrie wasn't sure how to answer that.

"Ah, that's a stupid question – you're sheltering here, too, right? Well, there's a monster attacking right now; I think it's a Demon level, but I didn't hear everything," he told her quietly.

"Who's that outside?" The Bandit butted in.

"Can't you see? It's the Class-S hero, Zombieman!" He exclaimed with a gleam in his eyes.

"I can't see." Said the Bandit rather flatly.

"Why not…? Ah! Oh, I'm so sorry – I didn't realize - !" The man stammered, very flustered.

Valkyrie, meanwhile had found a side door and cautiously pushed it open before emerging onto a sidewalk. The Bandit followed her ignoring the man's warnings.

"Hey! You two shouldn't be going outside!"

Neither paid him any attention. Valkyrie looked around the side of the building and finally spotted what had been holding everyone's attention for all this time. In the middle of the street battled a man and some kind of monster. Around the two, the road was littered with what appeared to be body parts and drenched with blood.

The only animal Valkyrie liken the creature she saw to would be some sort of hybrid octopus-man. It had one set of very human-looking arms, while below thew were three sets of flailing tentacles. More tentacles hung from its upper jaw, obscuring its mouth and yet more tentacles dangled from around its legs, dragging along the ground while it lurched on two legs. Its eyes bugged out of its head, the pupils in them were rectangular and strange noises could be heard from where its mouth would be.

Oh God, it suddenly struck Valkyrie, that thing is an eight-armed octopus man.

She stared at it uncomprehendingly. Well, when she got back, she could tell Skulduggery that eight-armed octopus-men did in fact, exist. Wasn't that a surprise?

It lunged at the man who sidestepped and slashed it in the side with an axe he was carrying. The blade cut a deep gouge in it, the result was a ridiculous amount of blood spraying out in the process and a couple of its tentacles – the lower ones – dropped off as they were severed at the base. There sounded a howl of agony from the creature before one of its arm-tentacles wrapped around the man's left arm and yanked it forwards towards its head. The tentacles parted to reveal a mouth that consisted of a beak that looked like it was fused to its head.

Valkyrie wished she could unsee that. It was disgusting. And then it bit the man's arm off at the elbow, proceeding to swallow it whole. Her face twisted into a grimace at the sight.

But the man fighting it seemed unfazed.

As it was distracted by swallowing his limb, he hefted his axe in his remaining hand and swung it in a wide arc, slicing the minster's throat. It gagged, blood spurting from its mouth and pieces of tentacle dropping onto the road. Without hesitation, the man lifted the axe over his head and brought it crashing down into the octopus-man's skull, driving it down and into the road; no easy feat – especially since the thing had stood taller than him.

He let go of the axe handle and it remained where it was, buried in the monster's head which in turn was buried in the road.

"Damn it. I'd had that arm for three months, now."

Valkyrie stared in alarm as the man's arm began to grow back, nubs of bone were quick to push out from the gore and elongate. Ribbons of flesh and artery then followed, before muscle knotted over the lot and was coated in a layer of skin.

"Whoa," was the Bandit's only reaction.

Valkyrie herself felt like a "whoa" wouldn't begin to cover what she'd just seen. As they stood there, suitably awe-struck, the people sheltering in the surrounding buildings burst out of their hiding places to cheer and applaud the man's victory.

"Hey," the Bandit began to say, "what's that – ?"

But she never finished what she was going to say, because at that moment the ground beneath their feet quaked before exploding outwards in a shower of debris and rubble, throwing them bodily across the street.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Sounded a deep, disdainful voice.

And that concludes Chapter 3.

Wow, this is a lot longer than I thought it would be. As a result, it took me quite some time to finish typing up. Sorry for the wait, my schedule is a bit full in all honesty. Yeah, okay, so far this is the longest chapter.

If you've been waiting for the inevitable interaction between everyone's favourite (junior) detective, Aang's earthbending teacher and – of course – the undying Class-S hero, Chapter 4 is going to be it! So hang tight, and I'll try to post as soon as possible.

Until next time, everyone stay safe!

Paladin Stormwind out!