Author's Note: Well folks, here's chapter 4. I'll warn you guys now though - the next chapter might take a little longer for me to finish. Up until now, I was already working on another chapter before I made an upload, so, like I said, this might take a little longer.
So, with that being said, check it out and tell me what you think. There are a several things from the game that I implemented in this chapter. Tell me if I described them good or not
Now enjoy a very combat-emphazised chapter.
When War made his appearance on the battlefield, she thought that the worst was about to happen - the death of either her, or Lazarus, or both. But it would not have mattered who would die then - if either one of them died, then their long and hard fought struggle would come to a morale-destroying halt.
Any fight that they found themselves in was always a victory. They did not have the option for defeat, especially after all these years - especially since they fought so hard for so long to simply survive. No, they could not lose. They never had that luxury.
So when she saw War riding across the plains atop his steed, ready to utterly rip apart any opposition in his path, she mentally prepared herself for the worst. She hoped - no, she prayed that a negative outcome would not result in War joining the battle, but she prepared herself all the same.
If Lazarus went down fighting, then there would no longer be a reason to live. If that was to actually happen, then she would throw herself at the enemy, killing as many as she could before she herself succumbed.
And then her worst fears were realized - War and Lazarus met face to face, gun to gun.
But then, while she and the demons down below watched the stalemate unfold, something happened.
A flash of gunfire, several dead demons, and one massive outcry later, the two were back to back - ready to take on Hell together. Together.
She couldn't believe her eyes. Had a mischievous demon snuck up on her and hit her with some type of hallucination? She blinked several times, rubbed her eyes, counted to ten - she even pinched herself. She peered through her scope at the duo in the center.
Sure enough, they were back to back - but more surprisingly, they were conversing amongst themselves. They even shook hands! No way could they be enemies now!
And then, she heard something that sent her morale soaring.
Amidst all the noise of the battlefield, she heard two battle cries that seemed to block out everything else - even the sound of her own beating heart.
Amidst the roars of the demonic horde, the sound of dual battle cries actually seemed to push back the demons by themselves.
Then she was stunned to silence as she watched through her rifle's scope - absolute carnage.
War and Lazarus had initiated their unstoppable blitzkrieg.
Blade to the gut. Barrel towards the head. Pull the trigger.
BOOM!
Just like that, Lazarus felled another demon.
Then he rolled out of the way as an axe came careening downwards to were his head used to be.
In a split second, Lazarus finished his roll and was back on his feet. He circled the demon, firing one of his rifles one-handed.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The demon clutched its chest, three large smoking holes drilling into its body, courtesy of large caliber, fin-stabilized, sabot slugs. Then Lazarus dashed forward with his rifle fully extended. The blade on the weapon sunk into flesh with ease, excavating deep into the monstrosity's abdomen.
Then, in one swift motion, Lazarus pulled the blade out forcefully, twirled his body around, and brought his other rifle around in a curving ark. The blade sped straight for the demon's neck.
Gholen's were nasty enemies to fight. Large and mean, complete with oversized, flaming hands. However, they had no skill whatsoever. They were complete brutes.
One said demon roared a challenge at War, before charging at blinding speed with a shoulder charge.
War merely moved out of the way in a blur of motion. One second, he was there. The next - poof, off to the side and out of harm's way. War counterattacked.
In a maneuver that some would find impossible to pull off, War swung his blade in a upwards arc, bringing himself flipping up with it. Chaoseater, however, carved through the demon's skin while War was doing this. Now airborne, he then flipped himself forwards, with Chaoseater extended out in front of him. He kept flipping end over end, still with the sword outstretched, creating a buzz-saw like effect.
Multiple times, the blade cleaved into the Gholen's hard flesh as if it was butter. Multiple cuts, multiple lacerations.
The Gholen, fell to one knee, unable to take that much punishment. It had already suffered enough damage to some of War's whittling sword slashes.
War landed back on the ground, on his own two feet in fact. One would think that such a maneuver would take several seconds to recover from. Not so - War hit the ground and continued to attack, with quick sword slashes across the demons face.
It roared further in pain. But before it could rise to counterattack, War flung his blade up into the air, caught it reverse-handed, and brought it back down hard.
Chaoseater impaled the demon's hand - it could not move anymore.
War stepped forward several paces and brought up his massive left hand. Then he relentlessly whacked the thing in the face. Again and again, War backhanded and punched, utterly brutalizing the demon's already scared face.
The Gholen squealed in protest.
Then War punched its face in, a straight jab to the center of the thing's face. It squealed one last time.
Suddenly, the beating stopped.
The demon opened its eyes - War had disappeared!
Sudden pain told it otherwise. War merely went to retrieve his sword. But there was more to this action than at first glance.
War yanked Chaoseater hard, and then ran up the creature's arm - all the way to the top and onto its back.
He jumped, brought up Chaoseater, and let gravity do the rest.
The blade cleaved clean through the demon's skull, bisecting it in half. Blood and brain fluid sprayed in copious amounts, drenching War in the monstrosity's life blood. War hopped off the demon, the Gholen dead.
War, however, slightly regretted his course of action, but only slightly. Sure, the Gholen was dead, but now he was drenched in blood and brains. Oh well, it could not be helped. Conflict, after all, was a messy business to dabble in.
"Jesus, War! Did you have to browbeat the damn thing?" called out a voice.
War turned to face Lazarus, who was giving him an amused look.
"Come on, dude. You gotta go at least a little easy on them," he laughed.
"Even during combat you converse and jest?" War asked.
"Yep. Otherwise, life would be boring, wouldn't it?"
War sighed. "You certainly are an unusual human. Left shoulder."
Lightning quick, Lazarus did a 180 degree spin. War almost did not see it happen. Somewhere behind him, Lazarus cut open a demon's chest. It toppled to the ground, writhing in pain. He brought the rifle down in a slow and exaggerated arc, before promptly placing a slug through the demon's head, execution style.
War shook his head. "Judging by what I just witnessed and by what you said, I have every right to call you a hypocrite."
He merely laughed. "Sure, give them a challenge, but don't let 'em win. Six 'o clock, buddy."
War quickly brought Chaoseater over his head, blocking an attack. He pushed backwards, sending the demon stumbling back. Then he brought out Mercy and whirled around, squeezing off three shots - or twelve if one was to consider each barrel. The demon toppled over, its face a gory, bullet-ridden mess.
"See, that's what I'm talking about - ya kill them way to quickly. Come on - have fun! Live a little!" he laughed.
"Fun does not have a place on the battlefield," War replied, ever stoic.
Some of the demons could not believe their ears. The two were having an argument about wether or not to have fun during combat. Indeed, it was a ridiculous situation.
"You see, War..." Lazarus said as he sliced apart another demon with a stylish flourish.
"...it's all about style!"
And cue the deadpan moment.
"Style?" War asked unbelievably, raising a silver eyebrow. Some demons in earshot had similar expressions on their face - if one was a mind reader, something along the lines of "Seriously?" passed through their minds.
"Are you serious?" War asked.
"Absolutely!" he said with a laugh.
"For example, if you do the same thing over and over again, it kind of - woah!"
Before he had his head lopped off, Lazarus quickly ducked underneath a horizontal swipe and rolled away.
A growl came to Lazarus' ears. "You talk to much, human."
He got back up to his feet. "Maybe so, but isn't it rude to interrupt someone while they're talking?"
"Shut up!" it roared, charging at him with another horizontal swipe. Lazarus backflipped over the weapon with ease. When he landed, he brought up his left rifle and fired three booming shots.
Two large holes bored into the demon's chest. A third cut clean through its skull.
Another roar came to Lazarus' left. He whipped the same rifle towards the noise and pulled the trigger.
Click!
"Huh?"
Click! Click!
"Ah, Shit!"
He quickly brought up the rifle - just in time too.
CLANG!
Sparks flew as the blade on the rifle collided with the demon's weapon.
The two warriors pushed against each other - a deadlock. But Lazarus was not as strong as this demon. In fact, this one was not the common Phantom Guard. While it was similar in body, the demon was much larger than the Guards, as was its weapon. It was much taller than Lazarus - it even towered over War. With cloven hooves and two horns on its head, this demon was clad in thick armor from head to foot and wielded a large axe.
It laughed at him. "I don't understand how my men can have so much difficulty with just two puny humans," it said. "You don't seem to be all that tough, especially since you seem to have run out of ammunition." It was the commander of this whole force of demons.
Lazarus grit his teeth, pushing as hard as he could.
"What? No witty remark?"
"Yeah, actually," Lazarus said through grit teeth. "You should watch your back."
CRACK!
The commander grunted loudly in pain as a high velocity round slammed into his armor, but the bullet did not penetrate - however, the demon did back off for several seconds, giving Lazarus some breathing room.
But this act only seemed to anger the demon. In a fit of rage, the commander recovered and retaliated, swinging his axe in a horizontal arc.
Quickly, Lazarus rolled away from the swipe. But he did not stop there - he exited his roll with several flips backwards, attempting to put some distance between his new adversary. He ended up right next to War.
"One of my rifles is empty," Lazarus announced, holstering his left rifle. He know wielded his right rifle two-handed - he flicked a small switch on the rifle, changing the firing modes from semi-auto to pump-action.
Lazarus sighted down his rifle and pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
The shot screamed straight for the commander's head. The demon brought up his axe to his head, broadside facing forward. The slug slammed into the weapon, causing it to slap the commander in the face. With a pained grunt, the commander clutched his face.
Working the pump with a click!-clack!, Lazarus ejected the empty shotgun shell and brought a new sabot slug into the chamber. Lazarus pressed his advantage and advanced, weapon up and booming.
Meanwhile, War having heard Lazarus' statement, decided to do the human a favor. He reached down to grab Mercy, but was interrupted when a Guard came rushing at him. Quickly, War brought up his massive left hand and blocked the weapon that came down on him - hard. The demon did not stop there though - it kept pushing hard, attempting to drive War down into submission, making for an easy kill. Its goal would prove to be a challenging one.
Grunting with exertion, the two warriors pushed against each other, with War attempting to end the deadlock. This demon was, however, proving to be particularly tenacious. War was definitely stronger than a Phantom Guard, but this one was being stubborn.
Both warriors pushed against each other - back and forth the two went, participating in a reverse tug-of-war.
Then, after a bit of effort - and due to the fact that the demon was beginning to tire, War was beginning to push the demon back. Realizing this, almost instantly, the demon redoubled its efforts, attempting to prolong its life however longer it could. But to no avail. With the demon's strength now diminished, War had the demon down to a knee in no time.
Before War could pull of a killing blow -
CRACK!
- the demon's head snapped violently to the side - a gout of blood and brain matter shooting out of neat little hole in the side of the demon's head. It slumped over, dead.
At first, War was perplexed at what happened. But then it came to him - the female sniper.
War paused.
'Ah yes...the woman with the rifle. It looks like I owe her a debt of gratitude. Albeit I did have the situation under control.'
Then, suddenly, Lazarus came flying from out of the sky, crashing into the ground next to him.
In a daze, Lazarus shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs that had just now taken hold of his mind.
"Woah. That guy's a tenacious bastard."
Lazarus brought his legs up to his chest and flipped himself up onto his feet.
"Hey War, I might need your help with this one," he said while reloading his rifle. He had run out of magazines for his rifles, so now he was doing the standard method of reloading a shotgun - one shell at a time.
War, however, did not reply.
"War?"
Lazarus stopped reloading and turned around. War was staring off into the distance.
"Uh, Earth to War. Come in, War!"
War snapped out of his reverie. "What is it, Lazarus?"
"You know, it usually isn't a good idea to space out in the middle of a battle. Tends to get a guy killed."
"My apologies," War said, pulling out Mercy and blasting several demons that was getting a bit close to the two.
"Who is that woman up on the hill?" War queried.
"Don't you worry who that is right now," Lazarus said while finishing reloading. "You'll meet her soon enough," he finished, cocking the weapon.
CRACK!
Much to Lazarus' surprise, the bullet his cohort had fired whizzed right past his head - and into the head of another Guard that was sneaking up on him.
He blinked several times, unsure of what happened.
He turned around and noted the dead demon with the hole in its head. The Hell-spawn was practically right behind him.
Lazarus dumbly stood there for several seconds before registering what happened - then he started to laugh uncontrollably.
"Why do I hear laughter coming from you, Lazarus?" War asked, who was busy fighting off another demon. He got his answer when the human let out a yell.
"Whoooo! That was a close one! Way to go Dinah!
Looking down on the battle through the scope of her rifle, the woman gave a small smile. She could see Lazarus down in the center of it all with War. He was vigorously celebrating her kill (and he rightly should - she just saved his life), waving his rifle in the air. Although she could not hear what he was saying, she could make out what he was saying by reading his lips.
"Way to go Dinah!"
A small smile came to her lips. It was typical of Lazarus to celebrate something in the middle of a battle. It almost seemed like he was short-minded sometimes. Almost. And sometimes, it did not even matter if he was laughing his ass off in the middle of a fight - the man seemed to have a sixth sense most of the time.
But, of course, those few moments that Lazarus did not see something coming was when she was there (most likely not in person) watching his back.
And anything that threatens Lazarus' well being that she sees ends up being removed with extreme prejudice, and done so without any hesitation.
The only time she has ever hesitated in that regard was when War showed up, and even then, War turned out to be some much welcomed, although unexpected, help.
The demon that was sneaking up on Lazarus was one such example of her watchfulness. And it ended up paying for its actions with its life.
Suddenly, Dinah remembered something very important. 'Was that bullet the fourteenth or fifteenth one?'
She ejected the magazine from her rifle and caught it before it hit the ground. She checked it.
Empty.
She put the magazine back and pulled the charging handle on the rifle back, peering inside the chamber.
Empty as well.
'Then that was my last bullet. I'm completely out of ammo now. Well, for this rifle at least.'
She looked over her shoulder. Behind her, laying on the ground several feet away, was a large, green duffel bag.
'I could use that rifle, but it's only used on either high-value targets or really dangerous demons.'
She looked through the rifle's scope, checking on the two down below. The duo was back in action. While War was dealing with the majority of the demons, Lazarus was squaring off against their commander - what she considered as a high-value target. However, Lazarus was actually holding his own against the Hell-spawn. It would take a while, but eventually, Lazarus would bring it down.
And besides, the rifle in the duffel bag had limited ammunition for it, unlike her primary weapon. And even then, if the other gun was used on anything other than something smaller than an elephant, then it would be overkill.
So, it was all up to Lazarus and War now. The two would no longer receive her support. The only thing she could do now was watch and wait - and pray that Lazarus, as always, would come out on top.