Chapter 14: All Out War

"How nice of you two to join us," Kane mocked, resting his machete on the back of Garcia's neck. Fabiola had a fresh bruise appear on her face as she struggled to her feet.

"Let them go," Wolf ordered, more buying time than anything else. Once their reinforcement arrived, they could start this battle proper. That would be their best opportunity to save the Lovelaces.

"Oh, I don't think so," Kane growled. "You don't seem to realise just how fucked you really are. Your first mistake was thinking you could stop me, your second was strolling into the place I have made my home with no backup but the Chinese girl from Lagoon Company." Wolf's grip on his weapon became looser as he urged to go for his blade. A one-on-one, old-fashioned knife fight was incredibly tempting, given Kane's skill with his machete.

"That's cute," Revy said. "He thinks we came here alone." Kane looked confused for a moment as his people approached the intruders and prepared to disarm them. At the first sound of commotion from upstairs, Wolf immediately started gunning down the Marchers. Revy did the same. In all the chaos, they could not get a clear shot at Kane. It was just their luck that the maniac had escaped with the two kids once his people were all dead. The opened door at the far end of the room suggested he had an escape route. They wasted no time in following him. The tunnel led upwards until a trap door emerged behind the cover of a hedge that separated the once flourishing market from the rest of the city. Kane was not in plain sight, though it could be assumed he had gone to one of the streets to hop into one of his patrol jeeps. "We need a car, fast!" Revy exclaimed. The two of them made their way back to the entrance of the house. Dutch, Shenhua, Lotton, Sawyer and Eda, surprisingly, all emerged covered in blood that presumably belonged to the Marchers that had just been slaughtered.

"Damn, you two just can't seem to keep out of trouble," Eda joked, holstering her weapon beneath her nun's habit.

"Bite me," Revy snapped, though she was half-joking. "Dutch, we need a car. Kane got away with the two brats."

"Fuck. It's like trying to catch a damn hamster. Follow me." He led them to what looked like it might have been an army truck at one time. Only Dutch, Wolf and Revy fit in the front. The others hopped in the back and shot at any of Kane's soldiers that attempted to pursue them. The mercenary had apparently alerted the rest of his people to the resistance he was facing. If Chang had been concerned before about attention falling on Roanapur, he was going to be furious when he saw this.

"Where the fuck did you get this truck?" Revy asked, amazed by how resistant it was to the bullets of the Marchers.

"Balalaika loaned it to us," Dutch explained. "She has her people out trying to retake Kane's district of the city right now. This must have been the one truck she didn't ne-" He trailed off as he looked through the gaps in the buildings to the street opposite. "That's our car," he said flatly. Indeed, Lagoon's car was currently in pursuit of one of Kane's jeeps. "That's our fucking car! Goddammit!" Of course it was Roberta that was driving it. "I told that crazy bitch to stay at the apartment with Benny and Rock."

"Looks like they're in the back," Wolf told him as he peered out the window. They should have known neither Rock nor Roberta would be content to simply sit around the apartment and do nothing while the others essentially waged war on Kane and his forces. Dutch took the first turn off and came up behind the car. He blew the horn a few times. Roberta appeared to ignore him. The jeep she was chasing must have been the one Kane was in and, therefore, the vehicle that contained Fabiola and Garcia. They followed Roberta and Kane through the streets of Roanapur for what felt like an age. Clearly, Kane had no destination in mind. His people appeared from every direction and attempted to take out their enemies only to be killed themselves. Right now, all Kane was trying to do was survive and keep his hold on the southeast of the city. He finally came to a stop at the edge of the city, where the street they were on led out into the countryside. Several more armoured jeeps like the one he was in pulled up as if to create a wall, keeping the others from leaving. As if to emphasise this, a second row of jeeps pulled up behind them all to truly keep them confined to this one street. Dutch and Roberta, as though their minds were linked, both positioned their vehicles like barricades to cover them from fire once they emerged into the open.

"That was some sneaky shit you pulled off," Dutch yelled at the Bloodhound over the cacophony of gunfire. They were all trying their best to stay down and out of the line of fire. The situation became quite archaic minutes later as many of the Marchers laid down their guns and opted to use their fists or knives instead. The scene that ensued was quite brutal, consisting of bloodshed, bloodcurdling screaming and several men and women beating the snot out of one another with their bare hands. Lagoon and co were almost overwhelmed until a truck full of Hotel Moscow's soldiers and the Triad's forces arrived to lend aid. That was just the boost they needed. As the onslaught continued, Wolf viciously beat any of the Marchers that crossed his path, desperately searching for Kane. The leader of these horrendous mercenaries was as elusive as ever. The assassin spotted him, however, going toe-to-toe with Roberta in unarmed combat. The Lovelace maid was losing due to her incapacitations. However, Wolf assumed the real reason she had engaged Kane was to allow Garcia and Fabiola to go free. Indeed, the two of them now kept their heads down in the truck Dutch had been driving earlier. As Kane sent Roberta crumbling to the ground with a rather brutal kick to the face, Wolf stepped forward and unsheathed his blade. Kane, upon noticing the assassin, did the same.

"So you came along to burn with this place," he mocked, the grisly machete he was so fond of twitching in his hand, eager to bite into the flesh of an enemy.

"Not exactly," Wolf told him. "I came to kill you." Kane laughed at that, though he might just as easily have been grunting derisively.

"And how do you suppose you'll do that?" he asked. "Especially with that shoulder. Are you sure you want to risk another injury like that?" Wolf took his Desert Eagle in his free hand, as though he might use it for a moment, before throwing it down on the ground. Kane, who also had a pistol strapped to his leg, did not remove it. But he clearly had no desire to use it, either, seeing as how he now gripped his machete with two hands.

"How about I come over there and see if you actually have any guts in you? Then we'll see how vicious an injured wolf can be."