Author's Note:
This will be a fully-action oriented chapter. To anyone who is reading this for Ethan/Bela blooming love, I do apologize and ask you to bear with me. The next chapter will be for you :)
Another note I wanna make before the start: In this chapter, the breaks will be used for different perspectives, but they will partially repeat the previous scenes.
The creature was humanoid in shape, but much bigger than any human Ethan had ever seen. Lady Dimitrescu probably still had a foot or so on it, yet this... thing also had the width to complete its hulking form. It's prodigious footfalls resonated across the ground as it moved out from its containment.
As the towering silhouette fully emerged from the container, right into the path of one of the floodlights, Ethan could perceive it clearly. It was not a human. Neither it was some kind of a slavering mutant he expected it to be. Instead, it appeared to be some kind of a robot made in humanoid shape. Its glowing yellow 'eyes' were just lenses in its head. The machine's gun-metal grey body glinted in the light that was pouring over it now. Every inch of the mechanical construct was plated in thick layers of heavy, impenetrable-looking armor. Every step it made was accompanied by the tell-tale whirring sound of servo-motors running. Hot steam above it was clearly visible, likely coming from an exhaust port in the monster's back. An enormous, twin-barreled modular cannon was taking the place of the creature's right arm - a thin, long barrel was right above a shorter, chubby one; a belt of ammunition ran all the way from the weapon towards the robot's bulky backpack. The outlandish look was completed by a small, brightly-colored image of a pair of gloved hands catching a football on its right breastplate. That cheerful image provided a stark contrast as everything else on the machine screamed out a single word - trouble.
Ethan was flabbergasted. As someone who was intimately familiar with a square–cube law he couldn't comprehend the idea behind constructing a humanoid-shaped warmachine of such proportions. A wheeled or tracked design would be far more efficient. The creature's thundering footsteps implied its mass being in excess of a thousand pounds and somehow the man felt like questioning the robot's effectiveness was not a smooth move in this situation.
Every single gun was trained on the metal monstrosity now. Nobody said a word as both parties took time to observe one another. Even Daniela looked at it in equal parts wonder and horror, her own black eyeliner mixed with freshly-spilled tears running down her bloodied face. At least the girl seemed like she had recovered from her own violent episode.
Suddenly, without warning of any kind, the warmachine raised its gun-arm up and all hell broke loose.
Even though everyone present, other than Cassandra, was at a relatively same distance from the monster, it focused its baleful yellow eyes on Daniela first, perhaps judging her the most immediate threat, as the redhead was still covered in blood and was standing over two mutilated corpses. The powerful chain gun spewed enough lead to tear a normal man apart in seconds, yet the Dimitrescu daughter was undaunted as large-caliber rounds went right through her shimmering flesh, doing little damage.
Even as the reckless youngest sibling rushed into melee with a colossus that weighed ten times as much as she did, the rest of the squad opened fire with their own weapons.
Ethan was dismayed to see that the mechanical monstrosity was clearly interested in joining a competition with Daniela - about which of them gave less of a fuck about projectile weaponry. His shotgun, which could turn a lycan into a bloody mess with a single shot, was less than worthless against this foe. Nobody else fared better. The squad's automatic gunfire rained against the metal hide of the beast, and just like rain - it was simply deflected by the unyielding hardened armor, barely leaving a scratch. Even Cassandra's powerful rifle, barking loudly in the night again and again, merely bent the metal it struck.
The metal beast, seeing its own weapon ineffective against the rapidly approaching redhead, ceased fire and waited for her to come at it.
With a high-pitched warcry, that honestly sounded more cute than terrifying to Ethan, the woman gracefully dodged a bone-crushing swing of its weapon-arm against her, before assaulting the towering monstrosity with her sickle herself. Yet, if she expected her simple gardening tool to penetrate something that already shrugged off a hundred rounds, she was in for a disappointment. As she swung her bladed weapon with inhuman power, surely enough to slay a normal human on the spot, it merely bounced from the tough metal shell with a spark.
With her own force redirected against her, the redhead was stunned for a moment. A moment was all it took for the giant to backhand her brutally with its free hand, launching her lithe frame against the relatively soft warehouse wall, making a Daniela-shaped dent in it. Amazingly, the redheaded woman in a heap on the ground now just gave a single thumbs up, showing that she was okay. Ethan just breathed a sigh of relief at their unbelievable resilience. The robot faced them next, and the man knew he had to get serious to even get a chance at beating this monstrosity. Discarding his utterly useless shotgun, he grabbed the Wolfsbane instead. The powerful hand cannon proved too much even for a mighty Uriaș, back in Romania. Surely this steel horror would yield to its superior firepower, as well?
Not taking any chances, the man aimed at its head and fired, with pinpoint accuracy. His survival experience and the long hours spent on the firing range made him a master marksman in his own right. Three magnum rounds connected with its faceplate, denting the metal badly and making the monster stagger back a step - finally, some reaction! Colossus' yellow visors shifted color to angry orange and it brought its unarmed, normal-looking hand up to protect its face from the next three shots.
Ethan's Uriaș-slaying magnum ultimately did little but anger the creature and make him the next target of its ire. The chain gun roared to life and Ethan weaved and dodged, desperate to reach the cover before the powerful weapon could tear him to shreds. He thanked God when he reached the solid concrete wall of the hangar, intact. The deity, if there was one, returned his gratitude with a bang, literally. A hearty 'thump' rang out and a second later a small canister landed right at his feet, before promptly exploding in a shower of shrapnel and fire.
Ethan briefly recalled Jack Baker's grinning face as the force of the explosion threw him away, both of his legs - torn away at the knees, following him along. Darkness followed.
Cassandra growled in frustration as the fucking freak didn't even look at her as she landed a hit after hit on its bulk. Silly Daniela got backhanded into a wall but that would take her out of the fight only for a minute or two. The creature will still pay for laying a hand on a Dimitrescu. Bela's stupid man-thing was drawing its attention now, with a large-caliber handcannon. The metal-man actually staggered back a step from his assault.
I am supposed to be the hero of this fight! And that fucking thing won't even deign me with a glance! Fucking bastard. At this rate, the humans will steal the glory of the kill from me...
What she saw next made her put her glory-seeking thoughts on pause. The blonde man went flying, his legs torn away at the knees, landing in a bloody heap. Ethan didn't move.
"You fucker!"
Her guttural roar pierced the veil of darkness easily. Cassandra suddenly wanted nothing more than to drop her gun and engage the beast in melee, yet she saw how little it accomplished, thanks to Daniela's own reckless charge. Sure, the brunette was a much more formidable fighter than her younger sibling, yet she was not delusional enough to think that she could take that metal monstrosity with just her sickle and a knife. Instead, she forced herself to calm down, taking a deep breath, just like Bela taught her. Her mind regaining the clarity of the hunt, she once more took aim.
Precision is my middle fucking name.
Cassandra's form perfectly still, she squeezed the trigger. Her aim proving true, the powerful rifle round struck the thing right into its, once again - yellow right eye lens, shattering it and making the creature itself let loose a deep, deafening roar, in pain and anger now - the first vocal sounds it made. Dark red blood leaked through the shattered visor as it finally turned towards her. The brunette grinned, satisfied with that reaction. Its remaining visor changed color to a deep, baleful red and it started moving towards the watchtower - fast - as it fired its chain gun at her.
The middle daughter, ignoring the rounds going through her shimmering flesh, tried to replicate her feat of unbelievably accuracy on his left eye, but that was remarkably harder to do now that she was under fire herself and with the monster zigzagging around. Her next two shots went wide of the mark and her gun clicked empty. Cursing, the witch hurried to reload even as the monster drew closer.
The beast of metal, realizing that the woman in a watch tower was much like the one that rushed it before and that its gunfire was ineffective, changed its tactic.
'Thump'
Cassandra only had a moment to react to a grenade that landed right at her feet. A moment she used, by jumping down the watchtower in a show of unbelievable reflexes and speed. She knew that using her swarm form against the explosive ordnance would be a mistake - her flies were too fragile to withstand a shockwave that close, while her human shape was far more resilient towards that kind of damage. The watchtower's floor itself spared her the worst of the explosion, with just splinters and some fragments now embedding themselves into her clothing and flesh, making her hiss in pain.
She has had worse, though. As she landed on her feet, with catlike grace, she wasted not a moment to sprint away from another canister that was already inbound at her current location. The monster was completely unrelenting in its focus, ignoring gunfire from the Duke's two remaining men completely in his pursuit of her. Each thundering step it made covered as much distance as her two ones. The whirring of its servo-motors grew even louder, clearly strained from moving that enormous bulk, with steam now coming from its joints as well as the backpack.
How the fuck is it so fast?
Another grenade landed in her path - the metal beast smart enough to adjust its aim to compensate for her trajectory. Cassandra leaped back, her athletic body up for the sudden challenge. Expecting to be showered in mere shrapnel once again, the woman was unpleasantly surprised when the canister exploded in a fireball instead, with sticky, burning compound flying in every direction. A few drops of the incinerating agent landed on her brown safari jacket, swiftly burning through the clothing and touching her skin. The brunette loosed an agonized shriek as her very flesh melted. Before she could regain her bearing, the goliath cycled another canister in - this one deep green and wasted no time in launching it towards the hapless vampire.
Cassandra knew she couldn't dodge that one or count on her swarm to protect her. She did the one thing she still could - chucked her beloved rifle into the path of projectile with unerring precision. The rifle intercepted the canister that blew up on contact, spraying acid everywhere, melting the weapon into an inoperable mess in mere moments. The brunette's eyes widened at that, before narrowing to slits as she glared at the mechanical menace.
"You bastard! I'll make you pay for that!"
If the steel goliath had any respect for the noble sacrifice of the weapon, it didn't show it, instead cycling the grenade launcher's transparent cylinder once more, popping a blue canister with a snowflake in the barrel next.
Not wasting a moment longer, the moment her threat left her black lips, Cassandra herself took the opportunity to disperse into her swarm and gain some altitude, away from the deadly weapon. She needed an opening of some kind...
"Ow, ow, ow, oooowwww."
Daniela, holding her head in dizziness, stood up, still seeing stars in her eyes. That thing sure could deliver a punch! Quickly recovering her wit, the redhead observed the situation. Two of the Duke's men were still pouring fire into the robot's back, but it ignored them completely as it focused on Cassandra. The fierce brunette was in a tight spot - her clothing in tatters and her visage grim. She dodged its explosives with inhuman grace, but was clearly running out of maneuvers as she prepared to throw her rifle to intercept the next one.
Daniela didn't think twice as she rushed the monstrosity, quickly closing the distance and slamming it with all her might. Impacting that steel goliath hurt a lot! It barely lurched for her effort. Screaming loudly in anger and distress, the redhead leaped at its weapon-arm, her feet leaving the ground as she pulled and pushed on it erratically, using her own body momentum to aid her in that task. Seeing the opening she needed, Cassandra was quick to join her younger sister in trying to do anything to slow that thing down. Coalescing on top of its massive shoulder plate, with a guttural growl, she plunged her knife deep into its broken eye lens.
The monster roared in pain as it swung its arms around in clear rage, trying to swat the pests from its massive bulk, but the girls were agile and evaded its clumsy blows easily, now that they were tag-teaming it. As she dodged another swing of its gun-arm, Cassandra returned back to her knife, still lodged deep in that thing's eye. Trying to push it even deeper, the brunette was surprised when the metal armor underneath her suddenly felt hot, even through her heavy boots. The huge beast's metal plates started to glow red as the temperature around it rose substantially.
Before the Dimitrescu sisters could do anything, they were blasted away by the superheated steam rushing from the creature's every joint. Daniela, who was striking at its back now, got hit the hardest, with the huge stream of steam from the backpack's primary exhaust port pushing her away violently, even as it burned her skin and made the girl let out a piercing cry of anguish. Cassandra leaped back into the solid ground and used her arms as a shield, instead. She grit her teeth as the scalding current washed over her. Blinded by vapour, she didn't see the gun-arm coming at her.
The vicious backhand Daniela experienced before might have been a gentle lover's touch compared to what hit Cassandra next. The blow from his enormous weapon-hand was so mighty that the brunette's body was launched all the way back to the still-standing watchtower, impacting one of its concrete pillars in a bone-shattering collision. The watchtower finally had enough punishment and collapsed on top of the middle child, burying her in rubble. No normal human could ever hope to survive such an experience.
Bela stared at the video feed in horror. A metal monstrosity of some kind that would've made uncle green with envy was now wreaking havoc on the island. Nothing their people had could put even a scratch on it. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Daniela flung into the wall of a warehouse. The redhead was fine, though. It would take more than that to end a Dimitrescu.
The Duke was looking at the monitor as well, grimly. Before the woman could address him, the rotund man spoke into the microphone near him.
"Damian, get the Mjölnir to the sun deck, on the double."
The voice that responded was both apologetic and angry.
"I can't, that brunette bitch broke my arm…"
Cassandra! Can't you go one day without causing a mess!?
Huffing, the blonde woman rushed towards the armory, determined to bring out that item herself. Reaching it in record time, she noted that the powerfully-built armory master indeed had a broken arm, held in a crude splint now. Whatever caused her sister to assault the man was of no interest to her, at the moment, however. Her piercing yellow eyes locked on his own, in obvious question. He just pointed at the huge, almost person-sized black case that stood apart from the rest. Grabbing the case with both hands, Bela could barely lift it, to her own surprise. Normally, anything human-operated was trivial for the Dimitrescu daughters to handle, thanks to their inhuman strength. This thing was damn heavy, even for her, though. With obvious exertion, she trudged the case to the upper deck, moving as quickly as she could with the extra weight.
Arriving at the sun deck, the blonde briefly had no idea whatsoever what it was that she needed to do. The island was two miles away, engulfed in complete darkness. Even if her night vision could pierce through the pitch-black night, the combatants would be just specks of dust from this range.
Shrugging her shoulders, she opened the case and marveled at the sight before her. It was a gun. A weird, very large, very bulky gun. Twin long rails, parallel towards one another, ran where a normal weapon would have a barrel. Dozens of what she assumed to be capacitors were placed throughout the weapon's body.
Not wanting to further waste time inspecting the expensive-looking toy, the blonde, with a grunt of effort, picked the device up. For a second there, she wondered about how ridiculous she must look now, lifting a gun that was almost as large as her own body. Dismissing the irrelevant thought, Bela quickly located a large red button on it. Not thinking twice, she pressed it. A small monitor on the right side of the weapon sprang to life, flashing a low-power warning at her. Growling in frustration, the woman almost roared at the person approaching her.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this!?"
The armory master held a thick cable that ran all the way down towards the ship's innards. Without saying a word, looking at her in open hostility, the wounded man attached the cable to the large port on the left side of the gun. The monitor immediately ceased its annoying low-power warning flashing and switched to a scope-like function, with a very impressive magnifying factor, instead.
Looking at it, amazed, Bela could clearly see the island and the people on it in the distance. Quickly locating the combatants, right in her line of fire, the woman was horrified as she saw the metal monstrosity dispatching Cassandra with a blow of terrifying power. As she moved the weapon towards the creature, the monitor immediately highlighted it, before offering her an optimal firing solution, likely factoring in environment, as well as distance. Obeying the gun's directions, Bela adjusted the weapon just slightly. She was somewhat unnerved when it appeared that the metal creature turned to face her now.
Depressing the trigger, she almost wanted to break the stupid gun apart in frustration as it started charging its capacitors instead of firing. The fucking monster was seemingly observing her all the while as she waited, utterly ignoring the gunfire still hitting it in the back. Finally, after ten longest seconds of her long life, the monitor flashed a 'ready for firing' message.
Pressing the trigger again, she felt every single hair on her body stand up as static went throughout the gun and into her arms. The weapon discharged with a blinding flash as well as deafening whistling sound, making her eardrums hear nothing but ringing for the next minute. The air itself visibly parted as the unbelievably fast projectile speared its way towards the island, reaching it in just a second. The twin metal rails of the gun were smoking red, likely close to melting. It was obvious to the woman that she only had one more shot before they would be rendered inoperable. Looking at the monitor of the weapon, Bela let loose a loud, guttural and unladylike curse.
"Fucking bastard!"
Ethan's ears were ringing as he regained consciousness from a small black out, induced by his nervous system overloading for a moment from the sheer trauma sustained. Looking around, all he saw was his own blood, everywhere, as well as his legs laying a couple of feet away from him.
Ah shit, here we go again.
The man crawled to his severed limbs even as he counted his blessings in equipping that body armor. The shrapnel that would've mutilated his soft innards without it would've likely caused him to fall into a dream one doesn't wake up from.
Taking a hold of his poor right leg, he sprayed it generously with a first aid bottle, before reattaching it to its rightful place. Spraying the stumps all over, he was satisfied that the old trick still worked and his flesh quickly started to meld back. He could feel the bones fusing together, muscles stitching themselves up and the dead nerves reigniting. The torment-like agony he felt in that moment could not be expressed in mortal terms. Now, covered in sweat from the excruciating, unspeakable experience, the man looked at his second leg, lying in a pool of his own blood.
Maybe just dying would be preferable to this? Bela can rescue Mia herself. She will take care of Rosie, too. I know she will. Having two moms is not gonna be too bad.
Dismissing the trauma-induced thoughts, the man repeated the procedure, gritting his teeth from mind-shattering suffering that almost made him miss being locked in a cell with Cassandra, as she planned to torture him with her dirty knife. Done with that grisly task, the man sighed in satisfaction, as his limbs obeyed him, once more. The agony from reattaching both of his legs could not be masked even by the adrenaline rushing throughout his body.
He still had a job to do, though. Self-pity could wait.
Pain is just weakness leaving the body.
Repeating the mantra mentally, the man stood up and picked up his magnum. He could only watch in curiosity at the juggernaut that inflicted so much damage on him, faced the direction of the yacht and just stood still. The metallic monster's complete disregard for bullets that were still pelleting its back was intriguing, to say the least. Looking around, Ethan was dismayed to see Daniela's form, huddling next to a wall, holding herself tight in a protective ball. Her exposed skin was beet red. There was no sign of Cassandra. Two of the Duke's men still shot at their mechanical foe, with looted firearms, as their own ran dry long ago.
Suddenly, the robotic abomination lurched to the side, with agility that belied its impossibly heavy bulk. A visible distortion in the air passed where the creature was mere milliseconds ago. The shockwave from the projectile that flew over, towards the horizon, resonated through everyone present, accompanied by a booming, thundering sound that once again made Ethan's ears ring, denying him his hearing completely. Someone spoke into his headset, yet all he could hear was that goddamn ringing. Ethan knelt down to grab a simple fragmentation grenade that was clutched by a dead guard, pin never pulled. He felt like it could come handy.
The Duke's men kept pouring fire into the monster and finally, after all the firepower into its back, something there gave way. Sparks of electricity ran throughout the monster's hefty backpack as a plume of pitch-black, choking smoke trailed into the sky.
The metal beast turned sideways, making sure to keep the ship in the distance in his peripheral vision as he finally decided to address the two humans he ignored all this time. Still standing sideways to them, the monster rotated his chain gun arm 90 degrees with inhuman speed, servo-motors in the arm whirring in anger as black smoke started to trail from its now hot-red joints. Not giving a warning, the creature opened fire, instantly shredding an armsman apart. The sergeant tumbled to cover, still firing at the creature as he roared and swore revenge at the death of his comrade. A grenade found its way to him soon, exploding in an icy inferno, turning the grizzled man into a frozen statue with its face forever locked in a defiant grimace.
As the creature turned its monstrous gun towards the defenseless form of Daniela next, another blue, snowflake-marked canister was cycled into the grenade launcher. It started to walk towards her briskly, likely wanting to make sure the vampire girl stayed down this time.
The world slowed down for Ethan as his mind worked on overdrive to get both him and her out of this goddamn mess alive. As if Godsent, suddenly the course he took in mechanical engineering came to his mind.
There is no power source portable enough in existence for that fucking thing to move around like this!
As if inspired by that thought, the man's sharp eyes spotted something they all missed before. A small, barely perceptible cable ran all the way from the creature's foot to the container it came from. It was in the exact same color as the grey concrete it was on, and in the darkness of the night nobody who wasn't actually looking for it would see it. As the mechanical menace adjusted its weapon to aim at Daniela's huddling shape dead-center, Ethan aimed at the cable with his magnum, instead. If he missed, or if he was wrong about his theory, the redheaded girl would turn into an icicle.
Not on my watch, she won't.
Stilling his breath, the blonde man squeezed the trigger and was rewarded by a spark of electricity for his effort. Even though the cable was reinforced, it could not withstand the powerful magnum round as it was torn apart.
The effect on the creature was instantaneous. Its baleful yellow eye lens lost its color immediately, turning a dull grey. The servo-motors in its joints stopped their annoying whirring as if on command, making the previously noisy creature eerily silent. Its brisk pace turned into sluggish trudging as the super-heavy armor became deadweight without the power supply. It still aimed its terrible weapon at Daniela, the girl utterly unaware of it as she held her head down with her blistered hands around it. Suddenly, Bela's high-pitched voice finally managed to pierce the ringing in his ears.
"Can't anyone hear me!? It moves too fast! Slow it down so I can hit it!"
Ethan could only roar back at that, in desperate frenzy to save the redhead, even as he unloaded the rest of his magnum's drum into the creature's side, to no appreciable effect.
"SHOOT NOW BELLS! IT'S VULNERABLE NOW!"
The blonde woman didn't wait for confirmation. A thundering spear of distorted air shot through the night once more, tearing right into the creature's side, before flying far into the distance. Its formidable armor that was utterly impervious to anything they had, shattered into thousands of tiny pieces as a hypersonic tungsten slug went through it like a knife through butter.
The metal giant was cleanly cut in twain, right at the waist. Its legs tumbled forward while its torso fell backwards, spilling blood, guts and viscera on its way down, showing to Ethan that it was not a robot, after all. The weapon-arm fell along with the torso, making the man release a deep sigh of relief.
"Great shot, Bells!"
"Thanks. I am coming ashore with some extra men now! How are my sisters!?"
"I don't see Cassandra anywhere… I need to treat Daniela now, looks like she got severe burns…"
"Dammit…"
Even though he was wary of the redhead for her insanity-induced stunt from before, he still approached her briskly, unheeding of the potential danger. Her skin was horribly scalded and she looked to be unresponsive, likely in shock from unbearable agony. She was shaking badly.
Not thinking twice, Ethan grabbed his last first aid spray before using it all on her affected skin. Unfortunately, it didn't provide her with the same miraculous regeneration as it did for him, but she still let out a moan of solace as her injured dermis became slightly less red and the pain finally relented. Her shaking subsided soon after, and it looked like she fell into a calm unconsciousness. Ethan could only hope that she would be okay. Despite everything, he would never forgive himself if Daniela died here, on his watch.
Suddenly, a disgusting, squelching sound took Ethan out of his reverie. Looking towards the offending noise, he was flabbergasted as he saw remains of the creature ooze out from both ends of its shattered suit of powered armor. Dark red blood and viscera was covering the ground around its broken husk, yet the thing was still alive as its two parts came together. It desperately tried to repair the critical damage to its body, but the wound was far too great for it to regain its previously stable humanoid shape.
Instead, a large, formless blob of flesh, eyes and mucus started to make its way at Ethan, likely in some kind of primal, instinctual drive to consume his flesh to fix itself. The filthy blob was partially translucent, allowing Ethan to see a huge, beating heart at the center of the abomination. The monster started crawling towards him slowly, but soon it gained speed, making Ethan curse. He had no choice but to stand his ground, or the unconscious shape of Daniela behind him would serve as the thing's meal, instead of him. Out of magnum rounds and with his shotgun discarded elsewhere, the man only had his 9mm pistol to fall back to.
Twenty pistol shots later, the blonde man was dismayed as the fucking thing turned out to be more solid than it looked, with not a single shot reaching its beating core.
An idea popped into his mind, as he saw the huge weapon-arm, still lying on the ground near the power armor husk. Waving his arms around and yelling loudly, to make sure to keep the abomination's attention on himself, he sprinted around it, breathing in relief as it kept crawling after him, instead of going for the easier, redheaded prey.
Seeing the weapon-arm up close, the man could only growl in frustration as he saw it lack any kind of obvious trigger mechanism. How the monster operated the gun with such proficiency was beyond the man at the moment and he had no time to find out. Yet, the launcher part of the modular weapon still had a couple of grenades inside its enclosed, armor-glass cylinder.
As another idea came to his mind, Ethan shot the glass of the empty slot with his pistol, cracking it slightly. Ten shots later and the glass was weakened enough for him to bash it in with the buttstock of his pistol. The monster was almost upon him. It was moving almost as fast as a jogging human now, gaining even more speed with each second.
The blonde man took out that single fragmentation grenade he found earlier and placed it into the empty slot of the cylinder, as he took the pin out. Rushing away from both the weapon and the creature, he kept count in his head. At the last second, the man launched himself onto the solid concrete ground, as several explosions boomed, with the creature right on top of the launcher.
Turning his still laying body around and lifting his torso up on his elbows to look back at it, Ethan couldn't help but grin as he saw the monstrous flesh-blob both frozen solid and completely engulfed by ultra-corrosive acid. In mere moments, the filthy thing, weakened by cold, melted into dark green ooze, which gave an overwhelming noxious odor as well as a vile hissing sound as it quickly started to evaporate into nothingness.
As the adrenaline of this insane fight wore out of his system, Ethan felt his shoulders slacken and he simply collapsed back on the ground, depleted. He knew that the Duke's sergeant was dead - humans can't actually survive being flash-frozen, after all. He prayed that at least the sisters would both make it. Daniela was probably in no immediate threat after his first aid, but Cassandra was still out there, somewhere. Possibly critically injured. Somehow, he found the idea of that vile and cruel woman dying unbearable to his mind. Rationally, it made no sense since all she ever did was to mock, beat and torture him, yet… he still hoped the vicious brunette vampire was alive.
"Hope you get here soon Bela… your sisters need you."
Author's Note:
This was actually really intense to write, I hope you all enjoyed it :D
The creature was basically a modified Tyrant in a suit of powered armor designed just for it, with a built-in weapon system instead of a trench-coat. I took some inspiration from Frank Horrigan from Fallout 2 when I wrote it. The weapon Bela used was a portable, prototype rail-gun, obviously :D I tried to keep them somewhat realistic, and believe it or not, we do have the technology to make stuff like that IRL, already (not the monster itself, hopefully).
As for the Dimitrescu girls, they never faced anyone stronger than themselves so far in this AU, and this will be an important wake-up call for them.
Next two chapters will be more exposition/feels oriented, with a lot of Bela/Ethan quality time, but I do hope all enjoyed this one, as well! Thanks for reading.