The final battle coming up had a number of improvements over the original I removed a lot of the copying from the series, and made more major fixes to Anderson.
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Valkyrie turned to aim at every door, broken window, side street, and alley. All his weapons were locked, loaded, and ready to roll. But for the first several long minutes, all was quiet on Matthew's street. Several times the sky lit up with a red flash, and other times with an explosion of dark energy. Matthew knew Alucard was strong, and though he'd never seen this 'fighting form' of Alucard's Matthew knew he could easily hold out. Part of him questioned if the elder vampire was simply waiting for them to arrive before silencing his old for.
Suddenly, there was a rolling boom from the next street over. Seras's Harkonnen had just been fired. Matthew turned to run over, but stopped. 'She can handle herself, Matthew. She's counting on you to clear out this road. Get to it.' With a nod to himself, he turned and started up the road again.
As he walked, he could sense something building in the back of his mind. He couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was like a slowly building resistance, as if the air were thickening to hold him back. He pressed on, hoping Seras was doing all right with each boom of her cannon. But the pressure kept building, his progress slowing. Finally he just stopped, and the pressure went away. 'Ok, so something is definitely trying to stop me.' He smirked. 'Not gonna work today, Shalrik.' He pushed on again, ignoring the pressure as much as possible.
But suddenly the pressure was replaced by a flare. Like his 'Oh shit!' feeling multiplied by ten. His gaze snapped left, and he saw the glint of rifled pointed at him. There was the inhuman yell of an enhanced ghoul, and he knew they were about to fire. With more speed than he thought he could muster, he leapt backwards out of the fire and back into the frying pan. 'Ok, so it was ME that was trying to stop me. Whoops."
A mob of ghouls entered the street from buildings on both sides. They shuffled to form on in an old British Army formation. Matthew wasn't going to let them if he could avoid it. He fired the first Valkyrie round, taking out a number of ghouls. But the hole was quickly filled. He loaded another slug and fired again, ending with the same result. The first line raised their rifles. 'Shit…'
Matthew ran for cover, leaping through a broken window as a bullet whizzed by his head. He fired a third Valkyrie round from the cover of the window, then flipped it to the other shoulder and grabbed Spitfire. He sprayed a full magazine, dropping another scattering of ghouls to the ground. But this mob was huge. Probably explained why there had been none at the head of the street. He loaded another magazine, but realized what trouble he was in. 'I can't take them all out before they get here.' Matthew stole a glance to his side and saw a way through the buildings along the street. It would delay their arrival, but he wasn't sure if it would be enough.
That's when he saw something on the ground he figured he could use. A grenade, possibly from the battle between D11 police forces and the vampire's ghouls from so many months before. It looked all right, and still had its pin. He grabbed it, yanked the pin, and threw for the center of the massive group. Counting down from five, he ran for the side door. There was a thud behind him, dampened by the walls of the building. When he looked out a window at the group, he saw that only a few remained. He returned to the street, and Spitfire was more than enough to deal with the rest.
Reloading Spitfire and setting it on safe, he returned it to its snap rails and brought Valkyrie into position over his right shoulder. It had taken too long to move it out of the way of Spitfire, and he wanted to be ready to quick drawing. He'd just figure out how to shoot righty for the time being. He grabbed a shot round for variety and stuffed it into his cannon.
A short ways down the street, there was a shriek from above. Three vampires were upon him. Matthew took two fast steps back so that a vampire landed directly in front of him. He fired Valkryie at point blank range. The silver shot tore through the vampire, dropping it in a pile of ask. 'Well, seems this thing works fine if you get close enough.' He flipped Valkyrie over his shoulder and grabbed his brownings. Thumbing back their hammers, he opened fire. The second tried to dodge, but one bullet landed where it was aimed. The third was far faster, and when a bullet finally landed in its head it didn't fall. 'Damn… Enhanced…' He fired the last bullets in both pistols, landing two in one of the vampire's legs and keeping it slow for a moment. Matthew hit the magazine releases and flung the empty mags out. Pressing them against the belt's holders, a pair of fresh magazine were launched into the guns. He hit the slide releases, aimed, and fired. The vampire fell.
After taking a few moments to regain his nerves, he holstered his pistols and brought Valkyrie back into position. Loading a slug round, he heard Seras's voice in his mind. 'Eat Harkonnen, bitch,' followed by another boom. Matthew shook his head. "I'm glad she's on my side," he said to the air.
Matthew had two more encounters. Luckily, his only opponents were ghouls and each group was small. He stuck with Valkyrie's slug rounds, wanting to save his silver for the coming battle. He was glad he had an extra five rounds of ammo to work with. He came to the end of the street and surveyed the area. Now clear of most of the buildings, he could see where the blasts of fire had come from. The town was mostly built around a castle, and Shalrik had picked that castle as his base of operations. Seras and Anderson hadn't arrived yet, so Matthew looked for a place where he could have good visibility and good cover. But his search was interrupted.
A familiar voice came from behind him. "Jemeth!"
Matthew turned brought Valkyrie to bear. There, in the light of the red sky, stood Johnson. He wore a combat suit with all equipment and identification removed. He looked almost normal, save for his eyes. His eyes were bright red. Johnson gave a smile frighteningly similar to Shalrik's. "Johnson!" He turned Valkyrie aside, keeping his face locked on Johnson. "I thought you were dead! 'Dead' dead, that is."
Johnson walked toward him. "You failed me, Jemeth. You let them get me and turn me into what I am now." He stopped about twenty feet away. "I almost have to thank you. Your failure has allowed me to become something glorious!" He cackled insanely. "I am Lord Sharik's greatest creation! And as a reward for my loyalty, Lord Shalrik has given me permission to remove you from this Earth." He gave a cold, predatory smile as his fingers dissolved into claws. "Now I shall end your pitiful existence, weakling vampire."
Matthew slid his arms inside the straps of his backpack, allowing the pack to fall to the ground, and yanked his brownings. He dropped into a combat stance, with his right browning ahead of his left by about half a foot. Thumbing back their hammers, he spoke. "I'm sorry I let this happen to you, Johnson. All I can offer you now is a quick end."
"Sorry?" he said mockingly. "You're sorry? Be sorry for yourself!" Johnson leapt at Matthew. Matthew brought his pistols to bear and fired, peppering Johnson with anti-vampire bullets. Johnson flew by Matthew, his claws slicing through the denim of Matthew's jacket and into the flesh of his back. Matthew gasped from the pain then launched himself to the side, spiraling in the air to fire at Johnson again. He landed on his feet facing Johnson and surveyed the damage he'd caused. Johnson, chuckling, turned to face Matthew. The bullets fell from their holes as they were pushed from Johnson's body. 'Ah, Hell…'
He brought up his brownings and fired again, hitting Johnson with all of them. Two pierced his chest. Johnson continued to smile. "Well, I believe that stung a tad. I'll have to hurt you more before I kill you." Johnson was standing next to Matthew's pack. Turned to it and ripped out Matthew's Spitfire through brute force. Holding by the stock, he hurled it at Matthew. Matthew sidestepped out of the way, watching as Spitfire flew through the air and landed on the ground several meters behind him. He turned to face Johnson again, planning on asking just what he'd meant to accomplish, but that was made painfully clear very quickly.
Johnson used Matthew's distraction to leap again, and had closed the distance by the time Matthew turned around. Johnson's claws dug into Matthew's shoulders. Then he pulled them out and swiped at Matthew's chest. Matthew managed to react and start moving, but got a set of claws across his waist for his efforts. He dropped his brownings as he attempted to fall back. They hadn't even slowed Johnson down. Johnson jumped at him again, this time connecting both feet and sending Matthew flying to the ground.
"Not good enough, weakling. Maybe as a reward for killing you, Lord Shalrik will let me have Seras Victoria? I'm sure he could… change her mind about what she is."
Matthew hauled himself back to his feet, his red eyes burning with rage. In the few months he'd known her, Seras had become one of Matthew's best, closest friends. And no one spoke of his friends that way. No one. Matthew didn't yell, but his voice carried an intensity no yell could truly portray. "You son of a whore." Spitfire, formerly laying next to him, came up in his hands. He pumped its shotgun slide. "You wanna kill me? Come and try it."
Johnson started in. Not a run or leap as before. He moved forward, but sidestepped too. Trying to move around Matthew and find a weak point. Matthew kept Spitfire aimed, his finger on the shotgun's firing button. He turned in place, playing king of the hill and letting Johnson close the distance at his pace. Suddenly, when Johnson was barely an arm length away, Matthew swung the butt of Spitfire around and clubbed Johnson in the head. As he was spun around, Matthew leveled Spitfire at Johnson's back and fired. The shot tore into him, some having enough power to punch through to the other side of his stomach. He finished his spin. Johnson didn't have a hole in him, but he definitely felt it. He said nothing, simply giving an inhuman roar and leaping at Matthew again. Matthew leapt under his attack, throwing Spitfire clear as he rolled ahead and came up holding one of his brownings.
Something pierced the air. One of Harkonnen's shells flew past Matthew's head and connected with Johnson's back. His weakened waist didn't trigger the shell's detonator. He turned around, the tip of the shell poking through one of the holes in his gut. It was red; an incendiary explosive shell. Matthew held the pistol in a two handed grip, aimed quickly and carefully, and pulled the trigger.
Vampire enhanced skills and a dash of pure luck connected Matthew's bullet with the shell's detonator.
Matthew closed his eyes, saying a final farewell to a good man as the blast's concussion passed him.
He turned around, not wanting to look at Johnson's remains. There was Seras, lowering her cannon. It was obvious she had heard what Johnson had told Matthew. She was no worse for wear, having a number of scraped, cuts, and a pretty nasty bruise on her right thigh.
"You all right?" Matthew asked.
"Yes, fine." She reloaded her cannon as Matthew recovered his weapons. Spitfire's rail had been somewhat mangled by Johnson, but Matthew managed to bend it back into place and snap the rifle in it. "You?"
Matthew checked his wounds. They were damp, but each was in a different state of healing. "I will be in a minute. Thanks… Seras." He'd been about to say 'Master' again, but he figured that was the last thing she needed to hear. "Anderson?"
"Here, vampire," came Anderson's Scottish accented voice. Matthew turned. Anderson was barely injured, and that insane grin of his looked even larger than before. Obviously he enjoyed combat as much as Alucard did.
Another fireball leapt from the castle. Matthew looked to its open door. "Let's go help him."