Out of the Cage

Conclusion. Kenros and Hraggs are forced to shoot their way to LJ in order to rescue him before the Wildmutts eat him alive.

Who Let the Dogs Out? (Part 2)

The alarms continued to ring in my ears, indicating that hundreds of mercenaries and Vulpimancers were heading their way to LJ, ready to rip him to shreds. Damnit! I was hoping we could do this quietly, but now…we're just gonna have to shoot our way through. I just hope that LJ can hold his ground before they get to him.

"Okay, let me explain this one more time Hraggs." I started.

Hraggs grunted.

"LJ is being held somewhere is this region, right here," I said, pointing to a map.

"We need to get to him as fast as possible before those other Wildmutts tear him apart."

Hraggs did a series of growls and grunts, asking me a question in his own native language.

"No…we're not going to eat him when we rescue him. Anyway, I'm going to take this path on the left side and shoot my way to LJ. You are going to take the right path over here and see if you get to LJ before I do."

Hraggs growled questionably.

"Because if we both go the same way and someone set a trap for us, then neither of us can rescue LJ and they'll tear him to pieces."

Hraggs growled again and nodded his head.

"Okay. You ready?"

Hraggs nodded one more time before he turned around and looked at the door.

"GO!"

Both of us kicked open the door and began to sprint down the corridor, which was lined with cracked concrete on the floor and walls. As soon as I turned a corner, many mercenaries wearing blue camouflaged pants and long-sleeved shirts and boots began to shoot hundreds of 7.62 mm bullets at me. I hid behind the wall and waited until most of the mercenaries stopped firing to reload their guns, then I opened up all four of my jaws and roared loudly in their faces, knocking them all down and shattering many of their guns. Before the first merc I saw could get up, I grabbed him with my arm and put it around his throat so I turned him into a hostage. Then I took the black CZ 85 semiautomatic pistol from his pocket and fired it four times, shooting two mercenaries in the chest. Another mercenary got off the floor and took out his Beretta 8000 and shot the merc hostage I'm holding in the arm and neck by accident. Since the hostage is now rendered useless, I tossed his deceased body aside and shot the mercenary in the leg and face. The last mercenary was shot in the back of the neck.

I released the empty magazine and took another four from the dead mercenary, realizing that I'm going to need all of them. I began to sprint to the next door and kicked it open, quickly shutting it when 20 fully armed mercenaries began to shoot at me.

"Damnit!" I yelled.

Well, that's a surprise. You'd think I'd be able to smell those humans before I even opened the door. Oh, well. At least I can think of way to kill them all before they burst through the door. I fired three bullets through the thin metal door and waited for them to return fire. I groaned loudly and fell to the floor, tricking them into coming next to the door.

"I think I got him!" yelled a mercenary.

"Go check real quickly. I hear this Benwolf is sneaky bastard."

I laid flat on my back on the ground, making sure none of the mercenaries managed to see my nose or feet or any other part of my body. I heard the mercenary quietly step next to the door and kneel down. Heh heh…he's gonna look right through the bullet holes. Perfect!

"Hey…I don't see anything."

That's cause you're looking in the barrel of my gun.

"Bang. You're dead." I said.

The mercenary gasped and shouted, "WHAT THE FU--" before I shot him in his right eye, killing him instantly. I kicked open the door and began to run around the room shooting like crazy. The next room was some sort of cafeteria that was as big as an atrium and full of tables with ketchup bottles and salt and pepper shakers. In the back was a kitchen that smelled like someone was preparing chili and tacos. I ignored the delicious fragrances and kicked over a lunch table, using it for cover. I waited for two mercenaries to try and jump over the table, but when they attempted the maneuver, I simply raised my pistol and fired into their groin and back several times. The mercenaries fell to the ground dead.

Hmm…these mercenaries have Ak 5s, and are wearing brown camouflage uniforms instead, most likely in order to distinguish ranks. The Ak 5 was Sweden's answer to America's M16 Carbine and was just as powerful. They can even come with M203 grenade launchers as well. Where they get these weapons I'm not sure of, but it can come in handy. I picked one up and started firing the rifle at the mercenaries, hitting one of them in the chest several times.

"WE NEED BACKUP!!" shouted a high ranked mercenary.

I rolled behind a rectangular column and waited until the bullets stopped blasting away the tiles on the column. Like before, I waited for a mercenary to reload his gun before I moved away from my hiding spot and shot him in the face. Three mercenaries decided to take me head on, but I shot one of them in the leg and wounded him. Another one almost shot me in the arm, but I quickly dodged it and kicked him in the stomach, knocking the gun out his hand. The wounded mercenary stood up and took out a knife and started it slashing it in my face. I repeatedly moved back and began to counter his moves up until and mercenary came from behind and put a gun to my head.

I yelped and ducked under the mercenary so he'd shoot one of his own allies in the face. Then I bit him in the arm and stole his gun, shooting two more mercenaries in the face before I turned the gun on the mercenary and shot him twice in his torso.

"UNH!"

Damnit, someone just shot me! Before I could point my gun at the mercenary that shot me in the arm, someone tackled me right into the kitchen, tossing both of our bodies on the floor. I shook my head and took a knife out the merc's pocket, throwing it at another mercenary who had an Ak 5 with an M203 grenade launcher built into his gun. He groaned loudly and slowly slid down on the wall, leaving a trail of blood before succumbing to his wound. I violently pulled up the mercenary and started punching him in the face and stomach. He managed to blindside me and kicked me next to the stove…and that giant pot full of chili. I'm still tempted to dunk my whole head inside and lap it up with my tongue, but there are a bunch of mercenaries trying to kill me. I jump kicked the mercenary and he tripped over a cart full of knives, almost getting impaled in the back by one of them. He grabbed all of the knives and started chucking all of them at me.

I yelped again and rolled out the way to avoid the stilettos and butcher knives. Then I picked up the merc and slammed his head right onto a stove, frying his face away slowly. He screamed horribly as the flesh on his cheek was slowly melting off. The smell of it only made me even more hungry; the last thing I remember eating was that rabbit a few days back. …I guess it wouldn't hurt if I got a little taste of the chili…or a big taste. I dunked my whole head into the pot of chili and noisily slurped it up, splashing some of the juices on my vest and the counter and floor. After I ate almost half the pot, I took my head out and belched loudly, shaking the slop off my face.

To my surprise, when I looked back into the cafeteria, all of the guards that remained were dead. The living ones decided to retreat for some reason.

"Hey…where'd they go?" I asked suspiciously.

"Stay here." I said, shooting the mercenary whose face I just burned off in the back.

I walked back into the cafeteria and saw that someone released a few green Vulpimancers into the area.

I chuckled. "Well…this should be fun."

Meanwhile, Hraggs was busy tearing apart mercenaries with his sharp teeth and claws. He ran down the corridor and pounced right on top of a mercenary. Then he growled ferociously and started ravaging upon his back with his teeth, swallowing the meat and bones. Hraggs snorted and sniffed the air, and then he turned a corner and headed straight towards another metal door, breaking it down with his hard head. Hraggs stopped running when he saw over twenty mercenaries carrying AK-47s which were aimed right at him. Instead of engaging all of them right then and there, he roared loudly at the group. Some of them were intimidated by the disgusting yet powerful alienated dog with blood dripping from his teeth and mouth. Hraggs noticed that a mercenary was shaking like crazy with his heat vision and turned in his direction as though he were looking at him, even though he has no eyes.

Hraggs smiled devilishly at the fearful merc and then laughed gutturally, licking his lips as his stomach growled loudly.

"Run…away!" growled Hraggs.

This was probably the first time in his whole life that Hraggs ever talked to a human in English. His voice was so garbled and menacing that it sounded like he'd be perfect for a monster movie. Then again, Hraggs was a monster…sort of. Half of the mercenaries screamed and ran away, leaving the other braver mercenaries fewer in number. In fact, there were only five of them left now. Hraggs jetted across the room and grabbed a merc by his neck, squeezing it until his neck cracked in nine different places. Two of the mercenaries shot the massive beast in the back four times, but it was nothing more than just a flesh wound to Hraggs.

He roared at the two mercenaries and kicked both of them into the wall. One of them literally went through the wall and died from severe head trauma; the other created a large hole in the wall and fell out. Hraggs went over to the mercenary and stomped on his chest, crushing his ribs and jamming his broken bones into his heart. Hraggs ran to the last two mercenaries and grabbed their arms and lifted their bodies to his mouth, eventually swallowing the two mercs and their guns. Hraggs continued to run down the base corridor until he arrived in yet another room that was filled with a small group of yellow Wildmutts. Hraggs approached the three Wildmutts and began to talk to them in his alien like growls and snarls. All of them responded fiercely and became hostile toward Hraggs. It wasn't really clear what they were saying, but Hraggs wasn't making any progress with the yellow Wildmutts. He never felt good about killing his own kind and was a tad bit hesitant at the moment. But then again, they were the bad guys. After Hraggs realized that the Wildmutts weren't going to become less hostile, he began to attack them.

Hraggs ran to one of the Wildmutts and lashed him in the face twice just before one of his friends tackled him and started clawing at him like crazy. Hraggs head butted the Wildmutt and bit him in the throat, damaging the Wildmutts carotid arteries. The two remaining Wildmutts roared loudly and started fighting Hraggs and was starting to maul him, scratching his head a little bit. Hraggs responded by grabbing a Wildmutt jaw and stretching it open, revealing his tongue. Hraggs jammed his whole head inside the Wildmutt's mouth and yanked out the tongue with his own mouth, tossing the Wildmutt aside to bleed to death. The last Wildmutt died in a similar fashion. Hraggs opened the Wildmutt's mouth with both of his hands and then jerked his head left, breaking his jaw. Then he slammed the Wildmutt against the wall and floor over and over until it whined loudly and slowly began to crawl away. Hraggs thought about letting the poor wounded creature go away, but went against the idea and tore out part of his backbone with his teeth.

A green Vulpimancer succumbed to his various bullet wounds and slouched over and fell on the ground.

"LJ!! Where the hell are you?!" I shouted.

"In here! There's a bunch of Wildmutts trying to kill me!"

After shooting a countless number of guards and Vulpimancers, I eventually arrived in the central core and found LJ fending off five blue burly Vulpimancers.

"Hey Dog Breath! Over here!" I shouted.

The Vulpimancers grunted loudly and began to charge right for me. I took out my Ak 5 (with an M203 grenade launcher built inside) and fired a grenade at the Vulpimancer, blowing it up to pieces. Just when another Vulpimancer was about to attack me from behind, I was saved by Hraggs when he bit the blue Vulpimancer in the neck and twisted it around, breaking it.

"Thanks Hraggs."

Hraggs grunted back at me.

"GUYS!! I'm still in peril here!!" yelled LJ.

I fired a numerous amount of bullets at a Vulpimancer until it stopped charging towards us and fell to the floor, dead. Hraggs jumped on top of a platform and started fighting with one of the Vulpimancers. I engaged in combat with the last Vulpimancer (realizing that my guns had no more bullets in them) and started slashing at him with my knife. I managed to slit his throat, but because of how strong and thick a Vulpimancer's neck is it only created a flesh wound for him. The Vulpimancer lashed his claws at my chest and greatly ripped my vest and left red marks on my chest. I returned the favor by stabbing the Vulpimancer several times in the torso. Then I impaled him in the stomach and ran the blade across it, spilling his intestines and stomach acid on the floor. Even a Vulpimancer can't survive something like that…and it didn't. The Vulpimancer groaned loudly and fell backwards, revealing its stomach contents. I glanced upward and saw that Hraggs had killed the other Wildmutt.

"LJ! You alright LJ?" I asked.

"Fine actually. None of the guards managed to get a shot at me and those are the only Wildmutts I've seen so far." said LJ.

"Good. Now that the base is ready for sabotage and now that we've finally got that crystal, I say it's time to leave this country and go examine that crystal."

Hraggs growled several times at me and laughed gutturally.

"…No Hraggs, I don't think if LJ shot a bullet down he'd shoot himself in the foot. Lay off the guy; he got the one item I've been searching for in less than a day." I said.

"Exactly! I'm not stupid guys! See, watch. If I shoot down then--"

LJ fired a standard handgun and shouted loudly when he shot himself in the foot, hopping up and down like an idiot.

"DAMNIT!!!"

"You shot yourself in the foot?" I asked.

"YES!!"

"…I stand corrected."

After escaping the base, we acquired a brown jeep and all of us got inside. Amazingly, Hraggs even managed to fit his bulky body mass on top of it, even though it gave us little room to move around in. The three of us (well, assuming that Hraggs can somewhat see the base) glanced at the base as I pulled out a detonator.

"3…2--"

"Just push the damn button Kenros." LJ interrupted.

I grumbled and slammed my fist down on the button. We all saw the base exploded several times and shoot out thousands of sparks and fiery blocks of concrete everywhere. I even saw a couple of humans and flaming Vulpimancers fly out as well. One of the towers groaned and fell right on top of an ammo dump, creating yet another explosion. Pretty soon, the whole facility was engulfed in a gigantic ball of flame and crumbled to the ground, completely demolished and destroyed.

"Another win for me and another dent in the Remquists' plans." I said with pride.

"Awesome! Where should we go next?"

Before I could answer, the foul stench of a Lepidopterran entered my nostrils and I heard fluttering in the distance.

"…I know that smell from anywhere." said LJ, getting a whiff of the Lepidopterrans too.

We both looked up in the sky to see a whole fleet of flying bugs heading straight for us, one of which happens to be Acknit. And if that wasn't bad enough, many of the Vulpimancers survived the explosion and were also jogging their way to our jeep.

"LJ, start the car. Start the car right now! We gotta go!"