Suddenly, Sally was unsheathed from behind Dorian and was plunged into his right shoulder, skewering his torso. David twisted and ground Sally into the cavity in Dorian's back. He growled, feeling Sally dig around his collarbone.
"How's this for size?!" David yelled.
The irritable pain put Dorian into a frenzy, and out of the rage, he threw Cass away behind him and David. Dorian tried to fight David's hold on him though his position was a bit of a predicament; he was unable to force David's influence away costing him to lose the balance of his footing. David was too close to his backside.
Dorian toppled over the edge but not before clutching David's hand, bringing him down with him. Cass made a mad dash to David just as he started to fall and reached out to grab him. She was too slow; she just missed his feet.
"Daviiiiiiid!" Cass cried. The ground beneath her started to give away, causing her to fall correspondingly to David.
Fortunately, she was able to grab onto the ledge, saving her from a long drop. The flaky ground crumbled away at the tips of her fingers; eventually bleeding due to her weight. Her feet dangled.
"I can't die like this..." Cass tried to lift herself, on account of her weak strength, it was to no avail. "Someone give me a hand here!"
The cliffside Cass held onto crumbled away, instantly losing her grip. As her heart stopped, someone caught her hand. Surprisingly, it was her least favourite person, Lyannah. She was in terrible shape, fractured bones, fresh open wounds and losing blood fast - clearly at her worst. Cass was relieved to feel Lyannah cared enough to pull her back onto solid ground.
"Boy, am I glad to see you, Lyannah."
"Don't mention it," Lyannah muttered weakly, "despite our troubles, you're a valuable asset."
"That's lovely to hear, especially from you."
"No problem." Lyannah pulled Cass further away from the ledge.
"At least things can't get any worse."
Below the ledge, David and Dorian were amongst scores of dead legionaries by a more extensive campsite. They were the only ones alive, surrounded by a blanket of death. It was hard to fathom the Legion's death toll, but the numbers were enough to stick the entire camp with a foul odour.
David woke first with a blood-curdling howl; the fall had broken his right leg. Everything felt like it hurts more than it looks, and the energy he had was lower than ever. The virus he was born with would repair bone and meat in hours; there was never any need to feel this broken.
Sometime shortly, Dorian rose to his feet and lingered idly. He fumbled with the machinery in his head, trying to numb the bright sparks shooting from his cybernetics. Steam rushed from his wounds, sputtering bits of his blood.
"You damaged my A.I. core..." Dorian snarled. "Big mistake."
"Great, I pissed him off again," David muttered sarcastically. "This is not my day..."
Dorian rested against the cliff's wall, away from David. "Systems are going critical... I won't last much longer without another shot..." He walked to David, scaring him enough for him to crawl away on his crippled arms. "You couldn't live with your own misery, David; you had to bring others down with you!"
Dorian grabbed Sally's hilt and ripped it from his body without so much as a twitch. Blood spewed from the open cavity, but it didn't even phase him. Dorian was far too pissed off as he already started to feel his body break down.
"Where does that transaction bring you?" Dorian continued, "To me!"
David's face was frozen. "Bad day, bad day, bad day..."
Dorian loomed over David like a shadow of death, with Sally in hand, he tailed David with extreme persistence. Even despite him doing his very best to crawl away, David tried to get to higher ground back to Cass and Lyannah.
With his most muscular leg broken to shit; it wasn't long until Dorian closed the distance. David couldn't get a good grip on the dry ground; his body ached while he tried to get to the dirty stairs around the right bend. The jagged rocks and terrain tore against David's belly and chest, slaughtering out a blood trail, he was at Dorian's mercy when he started swinging.
Dorian hacked and slashed out David's back and legs with ferocity, bellowing with intense pain as Dorian stripped him of his flesh. Being cut up into ribbons felt like he was gored out by surgical equipment, David couldn't believe the consistency of being shredded by Sally's edge.
In his cruel nature, Dorian cursed and mocked David while tearing out his back. David's misery came to an end when he succumbed below the walkway to Dorian's tent above. He couldn't crawl any further, let alone go up the stairs.
Dorian grabbed David's ankle and swung him overhead, smashing him into the ground behind. David felt his back give away as if his spine broke in half. Dorian gripped David's ankle harder and swung him around before throwing back at the Legion's campsite. David's body curved in the air, landing with a loud thud and twisting his body in ways it shouldn't.
Piece by piece, David's power armour broke off, leaving only the frame. It was a struggle to stay conscious through the constant torment, forcing David to get back to his hands and knees; he never felt so weak. The voice inside his head was screaming at him to stay down. Broken legs, deflated chest, fractured skull and jaw, David knew he was going to die.
Dorian came over and immediately thrust Sally into David's back without hesitation; it was swift, and Sally slid into his tender flesh like a lump of clay. Dorian pulled out Sally slashed all over his exposed back with wicked precision, ripping apart his armour.
While David clung on that speck of his human life, the amount of energy he was losing to Sally's wrath was critical. Thrusts, hacks and gouges were too much to bear, David cried at the top of his bloody lungs, and untimely gave up. He thrived in the dirt, ready to die.
Dorian kicked David onto his back, all the better to stare into his eyes before he rips the life out of him. Dorian was happy, David was coughing and sputtering blood, barely moving at all, yet still alive enough for him to deliver a final blow. To finally end their petty feud, Dorian couldn't wait.
"Why are you… doing this?" David strained gruffly, through his bloody teeth. "Why me? Why…?"
Dorian felt like David was playing a game. Out of his absent black heart, he decided to humour him. "Why not?"
"Come on... there must be a reason behind this madness..." David uttered lightly, almost whispering, "What is it you want!?"
"What do I desire? Well, that's easy; I want to make you pay for what you've done to me." He hunched down to David. "I had it all back in the Old World. Wealth, power, women, and a seat as Neo-Umbrella's director, but people like you took that all away from me. Everything about me and my career was perfect, or at the very least, coming to be..." He stood back up. "The likes of you crushed my dreams, and if I can't have one, no one can."
"So that's it, huh?" David breathed. "Senseless mayhem… in the name of a selfish conquest…?"
"I didn't ask for this life; I just wanted to live. As a child, I was admittedly blind to the world, but seeing the damage humanity has done, well, me being the man that I am, decided to do something to bring order to this insane world of ours."
"People like you make it insane..."
"I beg to differ. This planet needs to be liberated from its suffering, and once I destroy my enemies, I can finally make the world a better place."
"A better place for you..." David clarified.
"Humans had their chance, and now it's my turn."
David strained, trying his best to sit up. "Mark my words... you'll get what's coming to you… you fucking bastard!" He coughed.
"Not until I shape this world in my image. Now, die..."
Dorian forced Sally into David's chest, wedging it in deep towards his heart. The dry, gritty pain of each twist and turn forced David to breathe his last breaths, whether he liked it or not. The bloodied curdling screams couldn't drown out the pain when Sally tickled the outside of his heart; he tried his very best to keep the blade still.
Despite giving everything he got to survive, Sally did her job. Her razor-sharp edges effortlessly sliced through David's fingers and plunged through his heart. He screamed louder, reaching for Dorian one last time, but things went dark.
David couldn't cry; he couldn't move anything but his hand in the air. Then he saw Dorian smiling while he gouged Sally into his body; David felt nothing. After his last breath, David surrendered to the dark void. Then... nothing. He couldn't feel anything; nothing mattered.
"He's dead? Already?" Dorian kicked David's body; his body barely moved. "Good! Now no one will stand in my way."
Dorian went to take out another syringe from his pocket, but gunfire from the walkway behind exploded the colourless fluid all over his face. Cass came out of nowhere and gunned Dorian down to his knees without a single word; he bled from the cracks in his armour. Cass pushed forward, leading with her M203 in her other hand.
A grenade soared into the air and struck by Dorian's feet, and in an instant, a glorious explosion rocked his world. Flames charred and scorched Dorian's flesh and obscured his vision, but he stepped through the orange display of napalm with only minor attrition.
"I had nearly forgotten you, cutie," Dorian sneered.
"Fuckin' call me cutie one more time asshole and I'll have your fuckin' nuts!"
"I don't care for your trivial threats..." Dorian stumbled about, vomiting his yellow blood.
"What's happening here?"
Dorian unsheathed his bumper sword. "That serum was the only thing keeping me in check." His footing was confused and staggered, almost drunk-like. "It seems I may have underestimated you, woman."
Cass kept her aim focused on Dorian's, though he made it difficult by forming an impenetrable shield with his sword. She loaded another grenade, but this one struck his sword and erupted loudly in between them both. She couldn't see past the orange blur.
Dorian ripped through and swung his sword at Cass, he thoroughly disarmed her, nearly catching some fingers. At the time his face was open for a well-placed shot with her rifle. Dorian flailed his sword about and randomly struck Cass across the head. Before she could fire again, he kicked her onto a demolished Legion tent.
Dorian was about to hack Cass down to size, but she fired another round clean through his bare neck, forced him to bleed more and pause for just over a second, crying out in frustration. He held his throat yet yellow seeped through the gaps of his fingers. She struck his apple.
This gave enough time for Cass to launch her body's weight at Dorian's waist, wrapping her arms around him to tackle him to the ground. She got on top and restrained his limbs, with his sword out of arm's reach; he was the feeble one. Cass felt like using the butt of her rifle a bludgeoning tool.
First was breaking his nose, loudly crunching it into a yellow paste. Secondly, caving in his forehead, compressing it lethally closer to the brain. Lastly, a blow to the jaw, breaking apart most of his teeth. Dorian growled with every hit to the face.
It took several beatings for Dorian to kick Cass off him and onto the totalled tent. After he destroyed Cass' hunting rifle, he reclaimed his sword. In the time he raised his weapon over Cass' head, she knew it was over for her - the dizziness was a red flag.
Suddenly, a bullet had shot Dorian's sword clean from his hand and then again through his left eye. It was Boone, stationed from atop a hill next to the campsite; then Veronica came running in from the camp's centre. They both opened fire on Dorian without a pause, superheated blue beams and hefty .308 staggered him over David's body. He backed away while shielding his face.
Cass made a move for Sally. Without skipping a beat, she tore it from David's fingertips and wedged it into Dorian's stomach during his distraction. During a temporary ceasefire, Cass forced Sally straight through Dorian's gut, all the way to her hand. He protested through blustering threats and heating growls, however, that just made her livid, so, she pushed him away.
"There's three of us and one of you, asshole..." Cass growled. "It's over!"
Dorian grunted. "Then bring some more friends and it'll be an even fight..." He grabbed Sally's hilt and tried to pull her out.
Cass snarled, darting forward to stop Dorian. She gripped Sally's hilt and challenged his strength. After some faltering resistance, Cass ground Sally through Dorian's internal organs, then his ribs, and wriggled it around in his chest. She dug Sally around the massive cavity, hoping to tear out one of his lungs or his heart.
Dorian tried to push Cass away but fell into a shock of the pain he was feeling. He staggered all over the place as Cass would do after a few drinks, so, she let go again. Dorian shuffled about, staring at his wounds, unable to carry on.
"As if you're worth my time..." Dorian uttered.
Cass unslung the caravan shotgun she still had on her back. "Can't you just die already?!"
Dorian snarled. "I'm taking the lot of you with me!"
As Dorian was about to dart forward, Cass shot out his left shin, stripping the yellow, ghoulish flesh away with every pellet. And again, shattering his right knee to bloody pieces, bringing him down a peg or two.
As Dorian dropped to his torn knees; his flesh started to resemble slow-roasted pork shoulder that fell from his bones. Dorian furiously cried in defeat, and that's when Cass fired again. That finally knocked him down on his crippled back, far beyond moving.
Cass sneered. "How's that for a cutie?"
Dorian coughed and sputtered. Cass looked down at him with bitter disgust. "What? You never saw the blood and the guts of a pure-blood protohuman before?"
"What the hell are you?" Cass muttered.
"I was to usher a new breed of humanity, with me as their God..." Dorian breathed slowly. "Years of planning all gone because of emotional, simple-minded fools!" He stared at her with his good right eye, that red one.
"Well, this fool kicked your stuck-up ass up and down this little camp of yours. What do you say to that?"
"Your feeble attempts only delay the inevitable." Dorian cackled loudly. "I'll be back more powerful than ever before. Not today. Not tomorrow. But one day in your miserable life, I will return. This is not the end of Dorian Savage!"
"Really? You look pretty dead to me, and no one's gonna miss your ugly ass."
"Trivial insults won't save you, human-"
"Enough of this." Cass put her boot over Dorian's chest, pressing him down. "It's over!"
"Over? You don't think I have a contingency plan for when I'm gone?" Cass decided to let Dorian continue; instead, he giggled like a child.
"Fuck this." Cass aimed her shotgun at Dorian's head.
"War is sleeping, and once she wakes… you'll wish I were the one to kill you..." Dorian laughed maniacally, savouring in his moments.
"Time's up."
Cass executed Dorian. The shotgun blast to his face struck through the vital parts of his forehead, leaving a small pile of flesh and twisted bone out the back. The sight of the yellow slush was almost enough to gag over. For good measure, Cass took out her Browning and let off some potshots into whatever was left of his organic head until he stopped thriving in the dirt.
It was over. Cass breathed slowly, trying to enjoy the sound, taste and feel of a good kill and a deserved victory. The cries and howls coming from Veronica caught Cass' attention as she was about to turn around.
Dorian wasn't the only one killed in battle; it came at a high cost - David's own life. It was a price no one wanted to pay, whether it was for the greater good or not. Losing David struck Cass' heart with sincere regret.
Up close, David's suffering was the worst part about his demise; he died slowly and with immeasurable pain. His body's blood was beaten from him, parts of his stripped flesh fell from his bones, and the gaping wound where his heart should be was excavated. There was barely enough of him to bury.
"David?" Veronica shook David's lifeless body. "David?" She shook him again harder. "David?!" David's head rolled back under its weight.
Cass got on her knees and brushed David's auburn hair lightly. "David… I'm sorry," she whispered, with tears running down her cheek. "I'm sorry..." she sobbed.