Chapter 18- An Easy Recon Job
They filed out of the basement and back out into the moonlit grounds of Duel Academy. Matt was last out. He had strapped the shotgun to his leg.
A terrible roar filled the night. They all spun around (except for Matt, who was facing that direction anyway) to see another of the shadow realm beasts. Matt stepped in front of the others, between them and the beast. And for a moment there was silence. In the pause Drake got his first good look at the fiend.
It was about eight feet tall, a towering monolith of flesh and muscle. The skin seemed to be tinged with purple, though it was hard to tell in the (lack of) light. Its jaws were massive and hung out from its body. The hands were even larger, if that is actually possible, and seemed to have holes in the tips.
"Can you speak?" Matt asked it. It let out a series of growls and snarls and then ran at them. "No, I suppose not." Matt drew the shotgun and leveled it. The beast was about three feet away when Matt pulled both triggers. A massive blast filled the night. The shadow realm beast was standing there, one hand raised, seemingly ready to claw away at Matt with it, but now it had two massive circular holes in its stomach. It stood there for a moment, then fell over at Matt's feet, oozing blood and something that looked like guts. Matt cracked the breech of his shotgun, shoved two more shells into the barrels, and snapped the gun shut.
"Wow, that was bloody." Julie said.
"Get used to it." Matt said, flipped the shotgun across his shoulders, and pulled one of the triggers. A creature breathed its last in a cry of anguish. "Because you'll be seeing-" He leveled the shotgun and emptied the second barrel into a rapidly approaching creature. "-a lot more of it." He cracked the shotgun's breech open, slammed two more shells from his bandoleer into the barrels of the shotgun, and snapped it shut.
"Can I get one of those?" Flynn said.
"Sorry, this is the only one we have. Why would I grab Brooklyn's if I had my own? Besides the fact that this one is double barreled, no reason if I have my own." Matt said. "All I've got extra is this." He pulled a 9mm pistol out of his jacket.
"You walk around with that in your jacket?" Drake asked. "Does Jacobs know?"
"No, but he couldn't stop me even if he knew." Matt said. "Are any of you certified with a handgun?" There was a long pause. "Well don't all jump up at once."
"Well…" said Flynn. "I did go to a Marine shooting range once and fire a rifle."
"Why?"
"I thought I might go into the marines some time after I went to High School. But then I changed my mind."
"How'd you do?"
"954 out of 1000 targets." Matt offered him the handle of the pistol.
"Now, that thing only has one clip, but it's got 16 rounds in it, so don't use it if I can blow them away. I have more and more effective ammo than you anyway." Matt said, and slid the shotgun into the holster on his leg. Flynn pocketed the pistol.
"Now what do we do?" Keith asked.
"I'd like to do a little recon." Matt said. "Find out if anyone else survived the attack. We'll split up. I'll take Julie, and the rest of you are all together since we don't have another weapon. Though, I do have this." He pulled out the knife and handed it to Drake. "Just in case you run out of ammo. Come on, Julie." With that, he tramped through the woods, with Julie following in his wake.
"Where do we go from here?" Drake asked.
"Not towards the main building, that's for sure." Keith said. "That's where the gates are."
"Yeah, let's just go that way." Said Flynn, and arbitrarily pointed in a direction.
"Sounds good." Drake said, and they began to walk in that direction. They roamed at random for nearly half an hour. Then they found themselves at the back of the Duel Academy main building.
"Should we go in?" Keith asked, holding a doorknob.
"Let me go first." Flynn said, and moved up to the door. Keith backed off. Flynn grabbed the doorknob with one hand, in the other he held the pistol. He turned the knob and flung the door open, pointing the pistol down the hall. No one was there. Flynn moved in, scanning around with the pistol raised. Then he motioned Keith and Drake inward.
"There's no one here." He said. He moved farther in, followed by Drake and Keith. He turned a corner and stopped. "Why is it that no one is here?"
"Could they be elsewhere?" Keith said.
"Maybe they decided that Matt is more of a threat than us." Drake said. "So they sent everyone after him."
"Either way, it unnerves me. There were exactly 2,405 students here, along with 328 faculty and staff. We should have met someone by now." Flynn said.
"We should keep moving." Drake suggested.
"Sure." Flynn said, and turned another corner. They found themselves standing in the largest room in the whole academy, the main duel arena. "Oh, crap. This is bad." The lights came on and a metal gate slammed shut behind them. A ton of shadow realm beasts jumped out of the stands.
"Hehehe…" laughed one of them. It wore a duel disk that seemed to be an extension of his arm. "I knew this trap would work. Now I can steal three more souls towards the completion of our mission. Several of the fiends moved forward and flung themselves at the three. Flynn raised the pistol, determined to fight back, when the roof exploded.
"What the fu…?" said the intelligent fiend, turning with wild eyes to gaze at the destroyed roof. The debris hit and crushed the fiends that had been flying at Drake, Keith and Flynn. And Matt followed them, standing on top of one of the chunks of rocks.
"Hello!" he said merrily. He whipped out the shotgun and pulled both triggers in the direction of the fiends. Four went down, and the rest ran at him. One got close. Matt brought the shotgun up and snapped its neck in half, causing the shotgun's breech to snap open. Matt shoved two more shells into the empty barrels, then brought the shotgun down on the head of another fiend that had gotten too close. The barrels snapped up and shut the breech. Matt ducked under another fiend and threw the fiend over his shoulder, then leveled his duck gun again and blew away three more beasts. All that was left was the freak with the duel disk growing out of his arm. All the others had been turned into pools of blood and guts by Matt and his trusted shotgun.
Julie slid down a rope after Matt. She accidentally landed in a now-dead fiend. "Eww, gross." She said, and jumped out of the corpse. She seemed to be holding something in her hand, but before Drake could ask what it was, the last fiend spoke.
"So, the brute force squad fails again. Who should I duel first?" it said. Matt turned to the threesome.
"I got you out of that, your turn to get us out of something else." He said, casually reloading the duck gun.
"I'll duel him." Drake said, and stepped forward. "Alright, blockhead. Let's do this."
The fiend laughed, a cold, cruel laugh that made everyone but Matt (Of course, Drake thought) shiver. "You, a puny human, call me 'blockhead?' You have some spunk, but I doubt that it will help you here! Very well, I shall duel you, but, if you lose, I get all of your souls!"
"I can't accept that!" Drake said. "That's cheap, let them fight for their own freedom if I lose!"
"No! I make the rules here!" said the fiend. "You will duel for your friends and yourself!" Drake looked at his friends.
"Go ahead Drake." Matt said. "I've got a little insurance in case you lose."
"Uh, okay. But what about the others?"
"I'll take care of them too."
"Alright." Drake jumped up onto the duel stage. "Okay, blockhead, let's do this."
"Heh. I won't even have to try." He held his arm with the duel disk on it out. It began to glow.
"Let's duel!"