Day One: The Slayer Rises Up

The chatter of fully automatic rifles was all that could be heard in the remnants of the building that once was the Hard Rock Café. The 3rd squad of the Marines 2nd division decided to use it as a makeshift bunker. What started out as 20 men at the beginning of the day, now is reduced to eight fully active Marines, and three wounded but still combat worthy Marines. Now, as they have done for hours before, they defended their position against the demons that advance on them.

Round after round flew into their ranks. Demons fell, but another was there to replace the fallen. To the Marines it seemed like an endless flow of demons coming after them, more than ever. Frantically the Marines tried to push back their attackers. They pulled out all the stops. SAW machine guns were set up with overlapping lines of fire, Claymores were placed out in the street just after the last attack, and grenades were placed in area that could be easily reached, even by the wounded.

Lt. Patrick Jamison crouched behind a table with his M-16/M-203 trained out the door. He pulled the trigger with the utmost precision, killing a demon with each shot. He was smirking. He thought that it was going to be much harder to kill something like this. His confidence inspired his men to be more confident in spite of these odds. Crack, Crack, Crack. Three more shots, three more demons fell.

Not far from his Lt. was Pvt. Chris Dread. He was manning a SAW when the demons attacked. He looked over at the ell-tee as he shot. Man, where did they get him? He hasn't missed once. He banished the thought from his mind. As long as they had him, they'd make it out ok. Firing his weapon Chris saw a new demon that hadn't been out to attack before. They were humanoid in shape but were more lizards than man. They wore old armor, a helmet, a shield and a breast plate.

As the Marines fired into the new demons, their rounds bounced off. Unswayed by this they continued to fire. Nothing got through. The new demons raised their unarmored hands and pointed them toward the Marines. Their nails seemed to be like razor blades. The demons fired their nails straight from where they were supposed to stay. The razor blades peppered the Marines position. Marine after Marine fell. The only one that survived was Pvt. Chris.

Seeing all his former friends lay dead Pvt. Chris decided that it was time to run. Leaving behind his weapon he got up and ran for the opposite exit. Tears were forming behind his eyes and soon after that he began to break down. Both out of fear for his life and for the loss of his friends. Running with all his might he could hear the cackles of the demons behind him. He ran so hard that when he hit whatever it was he was knocked on his ass and knocked out.

Dante stood above the human who ran into him. Looking him over he laughed, "How'd someone like you survive that mess out there?" Walking over the unconscious man Dante crept through the remains of the Hard Rock Café. The demons had gone too far now. The bodies of the fallen had been flayed of all their flesh. Blood covered the floor in a thick blanket. Even with all his experience Dante couldn't help but shudder slightly at the sight of this. These humans didn't deserve this.

A sound came from what once was the store of the Hard Rock Café. It was the sound of flesh being torn from a body and being eaten. Dante slowly crept around the corner to see two Blades eating a human, or at least what was left of him. He was down to the skeleton in places but his face was still intact. It still held the emotion of fear and pain. It came to Dante that he was still alive when they got to him.

Dante stared at the Blades as they devoured the man. Time to end dinner for them thought Dante as he drew his sword and slammed it into the ground, tip of the blade first. The hilt was twisted around and came to a small orb for a pommel. The blade itself looked as if it was coming out of a dragon's mouth and wing were used for guards. Lightning emanated from the blade. "Hey, demons! I think that's enough for now!" Joked Dante and he leaned up against a wall.

Sniffing the air, the Blades turned toward Dante and screeched. Both launched at him at the same time. Dante watched as the both of them flew at him and when the moment was right he preformed a back handspring and landed right next to his sword, Alastor. Pulling it from the ground, Dante readied himself for the next attack. One Blade came on the attack right away. Lunging forward with its claw, it hoped to cut into Dante's stomach. Easily sidestepping this attack Dante hacked into the Blade's arm, cutting it off cleanly at the elbow. Screaming in pain as green "blood" sprayed from the arm the Blade leaped away out into the street.

The other Blade, seeing what had happened, attacked while Dante had his back turned. Screeching in glee the Blade leaped forward and slashed downward. It was met with an upward slash from Alastor. The blow sent the Blade flying back. Its armor saved it but when it slammed into the wall the shattered the already weakened breast plate. Slowly getting up the blade was met with the tip of Alastor. Staring into Dante's eye, the Blade shrieked one last time then plunged itself on Dante's sword.

Pvt. Chris awoke with a really bad headache. Gathering himself, he got up and soon could hear a loud pitch screech. I shouldn't go . . . but I have to know was all on his mind as he crept toward the sound, his hand gun drawn. He got there in time to see a man in a red trench coat scrape one of those demons off a huge sword. He was in awe. Looking around he also saw the claw of one of those demons on the ground, still leaking its green contents. Rounding the corner to confront the man Pvt. Chris saw the remnants of his friends. He instantly doubled over and vomited.

Hearing the sound of a man vomiting, Dante turned around to see the man who ran into him doubled over by the bar. Shaking his head, Dante walked over to him, grabbed him by the shoulder and walked the man out of the Hard Rock Café. All the while Dante tried to "comfort" him. This isn't one of my strong points thought Dante.

The sun finally sat on that day. Dante had made a makeshift home out of an old office building. Placing the man down on a couch Dante walked around to his desk, put his feet up and closed his eyes. He replayed the days events through his mind.

Five demons today. It was slow. I can't help but think that something is going on here that I'm missing. Who ordered this? Who made this happen? It couldn't be Mundus, I kicked his ass so hard that he wouldn't even dare to come back, and it couldn't be Arius, the human isn't that smart to do that . . . even if he survived my beating. So who? Who?

Sleep finally over came Dante. Else where a group of demons trailed a woman in black. She had a huge object on her back covered in a red cloth. She knew they were following her but she didn't do anything. She felt the great presence with them. She knew that she would die soon.