Okay, first of all, I need to apologize in advance for two things: First, I'm sorry that the update is kind of slow this time around and two, since I've never written a battle scene before, I'm sorry if the scene here is kinda... off. Corrections are very much welcomed! OH, I'd recommend you to listen to Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song for the battle scene. It fits, and it's basically the song that accompanies me whilst writing the scene ^^
I would like to thank you to the ever amazing, phenomenal, genius TheBaffledBeef for beta-ing this chapter and also, she has drawn not one, but TWO more arts of Kenna and Stefano and they are fricking AMAZING. I've attached the links on my profile under the NEW brackets, SO CHECK IT OUT. A, you're a part of the Heaven's On Fire family now, lmao, thank you so much for everything! And second, of course I would like to thank my main bae, Madeline Axelle for her support and unconditional love. Love you, gal pal :*
Lastly, I would like to thank YOU for reading this little story of mine. Thank you for the reviews, follows and favs, I appreciate them all :'))))
Kenna and Stefano appeared outside the City Hall gate, the wind was rustling and swaying the hem of Kenna's jacket as they quickly scuttled towards up an old gazebo without raising any unwanted attention. Under the moonless night, she used the opportunity to hide her form from the beasts that reigned across the gate and ducked behind the railings.
From her vantage point, she saw the courtyard was sprawling with the Lost just as Stefano had mentioned earlier. Like him, Kenna's eyes constantly scanning the area, taking the stock of the situation and every bit of their figures and movements to which she could safely deduce that they seemed to have a set pattern unless something caught their attention. And if experience had taught her anything from having had to deal with those creatures, was that distance was her only key to survival.
That and a stroke of luck.
All of this— at least for her— gave her something to distract on from all the uproar her mind had sparked. And before her thoughts betrayed and reverted her back to him, Kenna decided to focus on the task at hand.
"Thirty?" asked Kenna, keeping her voice carefully as neutral as possible.
"Thirty-five," Stefano supplied, dropping to one knee on the opposite side without meeting her face. "That is a small number that my creatures can easily defeat. We should march towards them as planned."
This time, however, his confidence slightly unnerved her and she could feel she was thinking too much. What if they attracted many more of them? Kenna hadn't thought about this before. She was short on ammo, and she doubted Stefano's dagger could come in handy when all hell broke loose.
"I suppose your dagger can't magically fly to stab each and every one of them if things went haywire?"
"Please, do I look like a walking cliché, Kenna?" Stefano scoffed whilst Kenna mouthed Yep when he wasn't looking. "There won't be any flying daggers or whatsoever, you'll see."
"Okay, whatever, but you know we can't all just barge in like the Legionnaires. We're too outnumbered."
He seemed to mull her words over. "What do you have in mind, then?"
Kenna looked over her shoulder to find the looming, wickedly-grinning Guardian who was absent-mindedly cutting a row of shrubberies with her buzzsaw arm.
"Let Guardian charge in first. That should draw all their attention to her. You and I each can skirt around the building and flank them from each side. I'll go left, you right while Obscura follow from the gate. On my signal, we all strike at the same time. We'll have the element of surprise that way," Kenna proposed, noticing the approving look on Stefano's face as he nodded.
"A clever plan, my dear, and my Guardian is the perfect bait for the occasion. She'll thwart them off easily." At the mention of its name from its master's lips, the monster let out a loud, evil-sounding guffaw that made Kenna cringe. She saw a winning smirk playing over Stefano's lips from her peripheral vision.
"Theodore won't know what hit him," Stefano added smugly, coldly. Even in the darkness, Kenna could make out the rancor in his eye burning wild and bright like the flaming sea. She thought the sight should have feared her, but it didn't.
Instead, the smallest smile flickered over her lips. "Checkmate, remember?"
"Checkmate, indeed."
Kenna soon regretted uttering the words aloud as soon as she noticed him grinning from ear-to-ear and she straightaway knew that his mind also darted to their previous encounter.
She swallowed, her mind a tangible mess, then risked herself to turn to him. Her warm hazel ones meeting his striking blue eye and there was a lingering force that passed between them.
Things have been weird for her after… that, and Kenna didn't want to go there. The air had clearly changed between them though it was beyond foolish to have let herself be swayed by his charm based on the heat of the moment like that. Kenna knew better. She had so many things on her plate and Stefano had started to become its own set of problems, which was the last thing she needed right now. She came to Union for one thing and one thing only, and he would definitely complicate the matter.
But when he was looking at her like that, Kenna could feel the hinges were starting to tremble.
Of all the time she had to be sidetracked, why did it had to be now?
"This is going to get hairy," Kenna, still transfixed by his gaze, muttered.
"I know," replied Stefano. Even he looked anxious. "Are you ready?"
She puffed out more than necessary, her veins thumping in her ears. Though their plan was solid, and his monsters seemed to be more than capable of executing dozens of feral zombies in a close quarters combat, yet there were so many ways that this could go wrong.
Great, she was starting to think like Juli now.
"No, but fuck it. You?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Stefano answered. Rifling through his suit pockets for his camera and dagger, his gaze morphed into something vicious that she knew wasn't set for her.
"Okay. Let's do this, then."
He rose to his feet, then, turned his attention to his guardian with a meaningful look on his face. Kenna heard Stefano saying something to it in Italian, and the next thing she knew, the creature was already on its way towards the gate, its gigantic feet clomped on the pathway and shook anything it passed.
Kenna began to count to ten.
"In bocca al lupo, Kenna," Stefano said as she stood next to him.
"What's that?"
"It's an Italian saying for good luck among performers. It literally means 'into the mouth of the wolf'," he explained. "You may response it with crepi. It means 'may the wolf die."
"Crepi."
"Crepi." The artist smiled ruefully and trod closer, taking her hands gently. Kenna felt her heart rate elevated. "Be careful, mia cara," he said softly.
She didn't flinch nor look away. Kenna simply squeezed his gloved ones in return and drew back. She had reached ten. Their time was up. Although their fingers only brushed for the faintest moment, it struck her just how warm Stefano's fingers felt underneath the leathers.
"You too, Stef."
The words sounded terse, but she knew that he knew Kenna meant every word. And it was enough. In the meantime, this was as far as she could give him.
Kenna skittered out of the gazebo, still hadn't correctly got her head screwed on, though cheered at the prospect of their separation. This helped her see through the smokescreen for the first time in a while as she pushed the issue deep down into the recesses of her mind. Kenna had a more pressing problem tonight. She wouldn't let him held a stranglehold on her concentration.
When she looked back through the veils of her windblown hair, he and Obscura were nowhere in sight.
Now that the wheels were set in motion, Kenna couldn't help but finding just how ironic all of this was; charging towards the danger zone head-on with a shotgun drawn and the arterial burst of adrenaline in her veins. Just like old times. It almost felt like as if danger always found their way back to her. No matter how far she'd tried to detach herself from this kind of situation, it always bounced back like a ball in an empty room. The only addition to the scene was her unlikely companion. Her enemy-turn-comrade ish with his creatures in tow.
Call it fate, call it karma. Call it whatever you like. But sometimes, Kenna wondered if the universe was conspiring against her or there was indeed something wrong with her stars.
The sight of the City Hall clock tower soaring in the distance straightaway brought her back from her musings. She saw Guardian had almost reached the entrance when Kenna steered her course to the left, her hair glinting under the lamplight, and skidded through the garden of tall, untrimmed grasses and weeds. The walk proved to be challenging because with each step she took, the darker her surroundings gradually became and there were no visible paths or tracks that would show any way out of the garden.
It would have taken her forever to get out if it hadn't been for the fences, stretching on and on that Kenna simply followed the line to guide her out from the grass. She sped up once she was completely out and slewed around the corner. Guardian should have entered the courtyard by now, and Stefano and Obscura should be waiting by their pre-assigned positions, waiting for her signal.
Kenna heard the thunder split up through the air and she looked heavenward almost instantly. The rain would fall soon. She took it as a sign that she mustn't be late.
Without wasting more time, Kenna vaulted over a collapsed fence and crept forward, her shotgun raised and ready to shoot any enemies in sight. On her right were a row of crates where she swiftly took cover behind one.
She was panting, sweating profusely and inexplicably nervous as she leaned sideways to look out at the vast courtyard from behind the crate. Guardian had started rounding some of the Lost around it in the center, just as Kenna had anticipated, and decapitated the bodies of at least five of them who'd tried to claw their way up its massive form, it was straight up gruesome. Kenna instantly took comfort in knowing that that thing was fighting by her side.
Across the distance, amongst the trees, she saw blue energy fields ignited like a wildfire; glowing, incandescent just at the same time Kenna caught the sight of lightning flashed in the sky.
Here goes nothing, thought Kenna, reciting her final prayer to no one in particular and heaved a sigh. She cast one last glance at Stefano's position with a tightened grip on her weapon, her face set.
In bocca al lupo. And Kenna lunged out from her cover and ran as fast as her feet could carry her towards battle.
The first gunshot rang in the open and found its way directly into an enemy's head. It ripped through his melted flesh, causing his head to explode before falling to his death on the ground with a loud thud, producing a nasty green-like phlegm that smelled like acid. She uncocked her pump-action shotgun, dodging here and there from their powerful talons and tried keeping her distance, her adrenaline ratcheted up a notch.
When Kenna felt one of them managed to whiz by her cheek, she hissed sharply and fire the remaining cartridges on more enemies in rapid succession. Training and adrenaline had been in her favor and for the first time in her life, she had to thank Mobius for this.
She drew back, scrambling behind the fountain to reload and watched as her companions delivered the same barbaric, efficient job at their enemies. Obscura was a tad slow, but deadly nonetheless. Its three legs scampered forward horrifyingly, its camera flash stunned any nearby Lost within her range before letting out its sharp appendages from its behind and stabbed them repeatedly to death. Kenna heard Guardian's high-pitched laughter echoed at this, it looked as if the monster was praising its sibling or something.
Stefano, on the other hand, was as fast as lightning. Waving his way through the horde with his power in an almost blink-of-an-eye speed, leaving trails of his power behind him as he slashed open each body he passed with flawless precision.
It just occurred to Kenna that she had never seen Stefano in a full-fledged fight until now. The dagger and camera in his hands were like chalk and cheese, something that Kenna couldn't really find the correlation though her doubt was quickly debunked as soon as she saw him in action. He was indeed brutal while maintaining his own theatrical penchant that was so him that Kenna couldn't quite find the word for it.
But then she remembered that Stefano was a serial-killer and whatever admiration she had for him simply vapored.
A sudden quake stirred the ground beneath her. Kenna nearly toppled over, bracing herself against the fountain to find shelter. Confusion arose over her face.
She peered around to find Guardian was stomping off its feet on the concrete ground, creating a seismic wave that knocked the Lost from their feet. She nearly gasped as soon as her eyes found Stefano in the crowd, he was also thrown off-balance all the while two creatures were charging at him from behind.
"Stefano, move!" she bellowed, but he was too far to hear her and Kenna decided harm would seriously befall him if she didn't do anything.
She couldn't tell where the strength came from but somehow she managed to sprint and make it to him just in time, firing four rounds at the monsters' heads with gritted teeth.
"You okay right there?" Kenna cried, seizing his wrist to help him up.
Stefano looked peevish, but delighted at the same time upon seeing her.
"Ah, my knight in shining armor," he teased, running his hand through his hair to smooth out any strand. "I'm fine, bene. I would need to have a serious vis-a-vis with Guardian about this, however."
"I bet Mobius would freak out when they see this. Thinking there's an earthquake or whatever in here."
"Hmm... on a second thought, maybe I wouldn't need to have a talk with Guardian after all."
She laughed loudly, baring her teeth and he did too. The world was a chaos around them, Kenna could hear inhuman shouts mingled with the sound of Guardian's cackle, thunders kept on howling up there in the sky, but at this moment, it was if the time had stopped except the two of them.
Suddenly, Kenna watched as Stefano's smile dropped.
"Reinforcements," he murmured grimly, looking at the gate with his distinctive murderous look. She followed his gaze and there they were, more enemy forces, at least dozens more of them, running toward the group from the far side.
Kenna gave an all-or-nothing stance and bit out a curse. She couldn't shoot them from this far distance, shotguns weren't made for a long-range shot and her ammo was at critical. Shit. Her worst fear had just come to light.
All the while Kenna's mind was buzzing, Stefano merely raised his camera to his face.
"Kenna."
She cast a quick questioning glance at his way, the horde was moving ever closer. "Stefano?"
"Close your eyes," he commanded.
"Why?"
"Just trust me," he snapped his head to her from behind his camera, his look stern.
Kenna did so without being told twice. And then there was the familiar sound of his camera flash charging and she understood what he meant.
Even from behind her eyelids, she somehow could make out as a bright light glowed and Kenna wondered whatever was going on out there. When she felt the light dimmed down, Kenna slowly lifted her eyes open. What she saw instantly sent her mouth hanging open.
It was like something out of a science fiction movies she had seen when she was a kid. The flash somehow slowed the creatures' movement into a super slow-motion that Stefano had the time to approach one of them in two long strides and impale his dagger into a woman's abdomen and sliced his way up to her chest. The atrocious sight of the execution had Kenna stood frozen in her place.
As he moved on to his next victim and so on, Kenna raised her weapon and shot the remaining enemies with gusto.
And then there was silence. The battle was over, ghoulish corpses were strewn all over the courtyard, most piled near Guardian's feet and there was no more for them to kill anymore.
But Kenna knew that the night had only just begun.
Part II is coming up next! What would Kenna and Stefano encounter in the City Hall? You'll have to see. The chapter's halfway finished btw and I promise to update it ASAP.
And here's a little snippet of what's coming up next:
It was five minutes later when the group was bustling their way towards the stairwell. The corridor was even darker than the other rooms they'd been, save for little candles that barely illuminated their path that Kenna had to stop short and squinted her eyes. She delved through her pockets, snapped her shabby lighter on and took lead. Kenna made a mental note to bring a flashlight for the next round. Stefano trailed her up the stairs with a hand on the railings.
Kenna nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a strange rumble coming directly from above them, loud and almost inhuman. They all paused in their place. Kenna held her breath, her eyes enlarged as she turned around to Stefano who was listening intently, his brow furrowed.
He looked up at the ceiling, trying to determine whatever the heck it was when it abruptly ceased.
"We're not alone," Stefano noted after a beat of silence, echoing Kenna's own alarming thoughts. He then signaled his Guardian and Obscura to take lead.
"Holy shit." Kenna felt like breathing again, seemingly appalled. "What the fuck was that?"
"I don't know. But whatever it was, it sounded enormous," he answered bitterly. "And whatever it was, we'll destroy it. We have my Guardian and Obscura with me, they won't stand a chance."
Kenna wanted to believe him, but something told her it wouldn't be that easy. This could be her hunch talking— or paranoia— but whatever it was, it made her feel nervous. They needed to reach the Emitter fast.