Devil May Cry

Tears Of Blood

Chapter II

The rain began to pour harder.

The thunder boomed louder.

Dante picked up his pace as he ran through the black city toward his destination. He knew he was not far. With his dark red leather trench coat fluttering behind him in the wind, he turned sharply to the right and took the path down the small, narrow alleyway before him. As he neared the end of it, Dante leapt into the air and sprung off of the large black garbage bin.

He soon found himself atop the roof of the small building. He kept on moving forward, jumping over all different sized building rooftops. He could feel the cold metal clang of Alastor hitting his back every time he moved from roof to roof.

This, he thought, would surely be a much faster route toward the Courtyard with the small bridge.

As he approached a much larger building, Dante closed his eyes and concentrated. With his eyes closed, he maintained his current running pace and spread his arms out. He planted his first foot on the side of the building and pushed off with the other.

Immediately, Dante found himself soaring through the icy-cold air at unmatched speeds. He struggled to keep his eyes open due to the massive rainfall. He looked below him. There was the Courtyard. There was his destination.

As he began to fall, Dante brought his arms back down to his sides and began plummeting toward the bridge of the Courtyard below him.

As he did, the lightning revealed a large silhouette of a being in the middle of the bridge. It was holding something. A weapon.

Dante looked closer as he neared it. It was holding a giant mallet ax. He braced for the impact as his feet hit the stony ground of the bridge. He crouched as he landed with his head down.

As he rose to his feet, he crossed his arms. The creature on the bridge snorted. Another crash of lightning revealed its true form. Dante's eyes widened slightly as he gazed at his enemy.

It stood at its full height, which was at least seven or eight feet. It wore dark gray pants and spiked guards on its hands and knees. It was bald but had one large gray spike protruding from the middle of its forehead. The oddest looking thing about the massive beast was its dark-red tinted skin.

Dante knew this thing was obviously from Hell.

He walked up to it slowly with his arms still crossed, his head moving cockily to the side with each step. The creature looked down at Dante as he came within mere feet of the giant.

Dante stared at it. "Never seen one of you before."

The creature did not respond. It just took one towering step forward. The small bridge shook as it did. Dante stayed how he was. He wasn't about to let some big ugly brute intimidate him.

"Who sent you?" he asked, still keeping eye contact with the demon.

No response.

Again, it took one more step forward. Dante thought to himself. The woman on the phone said there were four more.

He smiled. "Where are your friends, big guy?"

The demon jerked his head toward the ground in the Courtyard. Dante quickly glanced to this right and down. He did see movement through the small pillars of the bridge, but it was hard to determine what type of demon they were. He was so high up in the air it was hard to make anything out except for the falling sheets of rain.

Dante grunted. "Why aren't they up here too," he began as he took one final step toward the demon. He was now face to face with it, even though he had to look up. "Did they think you could take care of me all by yourself?"

These words infuriated the demon. He held his giant ax in the air and roared, preparing to bring it down on its prey. Dante grabbed onto one of the small pillars of the bridge and hoisted the bottom half of his body up.

He planted his boot into the side of the demon's face. The demon dropped its ax and stumbled toward the edge of the bridge. It plummeted to the ground. Dante could hear its faint bellowing as it fell. Dante grabbed the massive ax from the bridge and leapt off of the side of it. His trench coat fluttered above his head as he came close to the ground.

He landed with a thud and walked slowly over to where the giant demon lay. The other four that were there previously had backed off once they saw Dante walking in their direction.

As the demon rose, Dante held the ax up. "Here," he said as he tossed it to the demon. "You dropped your ax."

The demon growled and charged at Dante. He side-stepped and quickly released Alastor with one hand from its place on his back. Dante quickly blocked a slash of the ax from his enemy and pushed the demon back with a grunt.

He spun around behind him and slashed the demon diagonally across the back. It squealed in agony. Light red blood splattered onto Alastor and the ground as Dante stepped away. The group of demons behind the large one growled and screamed at Dante as they realized their main warrior was wounded.

Dante glanced at the blood trickling down his sword. "I'll be cleaning this off on your dead body." He slammed Alastor back into its holster.

Infuriated, the demon hurled its ax at the Devil Hunter. Dante grinned. He threw back the corners of his coat and released Ebony & Ivory from their holsters.

"Let's go to work, guys," he said as he unleashed an uneven sheet of bullets at the ax coming toward him. Dante began to pull the triggers faster as more bullets came out. The ax quickly split and broke into many large pieces. Dante didn't stop there.

He kept shooting at the broken pieces of the ax. Eventually, they changed direction and flew back toward the demon. All the demon could do was scream as the sharp broken pieces of its own weapon pierced its flesh.

Dante walked up to a single piece from the main part of the mallet ax that was on the ground. He picked it up and examined it.

With ease, he threw it up into the air and shot a single bullet at it. The bullet connected, and the piece of the ax launched into the head of the giant demon, smashing the gray spike that stuck out of it. The four demons behind it gasped and quickly silenced.

The defeated beast's lifeless body fell to the ground with a loud thud as a large pool of blood formed underneath.

Dante walked up to the body of the demon. He pulled Alastor off of his back and wiped the blood off onto the demon's charcoal pants.

Dante spun the sword around in his hand and held it behind his head. He put out his hand toward the group of demons and taunted them with it.

"Who's next?"

The first demon hesitated, then ran at Dante. It leapt into the air. Dante caught its foot barely, seeing how he couldn't really see through the darkness of the storm.

He threw the pathetic demon to the ground and gripped its throat tightly. Again, he released his sword from his back and prepared to plunge it into the demon's throat.

Then, a clash of lightning struck and revealed what the 'demon' truly was. Dante dropped Alastor and backed away slowly.

The so-called demon had large fangs on the top and bottom of its mouth.

"Demons don't have fangs. What the Hell?" Dante squinted.

The demon rose as the other three joined it. Dante took a quick second to examine them. They were all garbed the same with jet black pants and elbow guards. They also had red sash belts and spiked arm and knee guards. Dante soon realized that they also all had fangs; sharp fangs that only one other kind of creature had that he knew about.

Vampires.

He was battling Vampires.

Dante reached for Alastor on the ground. The Vampires growled and slashed at his hand as he pulled it back quickly.

He noticed all of their feet rise slowly as they prepared to attack.

"Shit."

Dante whipped out Ebony & Ivory as the four creatures leapt at him, ready to take blood….