"Good name. But we're gonna have to forget forming a plan. Just shoot the bastard!" Ryan grabbed his G36K from his back, sheathed his katana and stepped out into the open, already boldly aiming his rifle towards the Executioner.
Alice shoved her fingers into her mouth and gave a loud whistle, instantly getting the attention of him, just as Ryan began firing at his chest.
With a growl, it dropped the unconcious woman, and before either of them could act, slammed his massive axe into her chest, splattering blood in a massive puddle on the floor.
"Well... fuck. So much for saving the bitch." Alice grumbled as she began firing at the Executioner, who wrenched his axe from the woman's corpse and began to advance on what it perceived to be the bigger threat...
Ryan.
"Ryan, we need to find out if it has a weak spot. Keep it distracted for a minute while I check its back." Alice started to flank the Executioner, while Ryan continued firing at it, then reloaded his magazine anew.
"Katie, we've encountered a large B.O.W, we need you to bring some more firepower. Hurry!" Ryan relayed to Katie, raising his hand and stunning the Executioner with a jolt of electricity as he began to move backwards away from its approach.
The Executioner stopped momentarily after being shocked, but began moving again in a moment. Still dragging the bloodied axe across the floor, still advancing towards Ryan, who had not stopped firing at its chest and head, save to reload his gun.
"There's nothing on its back! Shoot the head!" Alice notified Ryan with Telepathy as she silently approached the Executioner from behind with her M3 in hand. "I'm gonna try something from back here, just give me a second."
Ryan quickly noticed her plan, and before he could stop her, she leveled the M3 to the back of the Executioner's head and swiftly pulled the trigger.
With a burst of bloody chunks, the Executioner's head exploded, leaving behind a cloud of red mist, which covered Alice's upper body in an instant.
With wide eyes, Ryan immediately replaced his empty magazine and chambered a new round. Alice was wiping her eyes of blood when she realized that the Executioner's body hadn't thudded to the floor...
With a panicked cry, Alice was suddenly grabbed by the throat and lifted into the air by the seemingly headless B.O.W. She could barely see past the thing's huge arm due to the blood still obscuring her vision. However, Ryan was easily able to see the horrific sight in front of him.
Where the head had one been was now replaced by a flailing mass of tentacles, with a bulbous central mass of flesh. Even worse, there was another tentacle rising from the Executioner's spinal area, topped by a scythe like blade.
It had mutated after losing its head.
"Alice, hang on!"
Ryan turned to see Katie charging around the corner, carrying Ryan's sniper rifle in her hands. She instantly braced it against a nearby pile of debris and fired at the central mass of flesh in the tentacles.
The burst of blood splattered Alice even further, but also made the mutated B.O.W drop her to the ground.
With a groan, Alice landed on her back, and her M3 slid across the floor out of her reach. As Katie operated the rifle's bolt, Ryan made a split second decision as the Executioner raised the axe high over Alice's stunned form.
Tossing his rifle aside, Ryan sprinted up to the Executioner and with all his might, kicked it in the back of the shin as he grabbed the shaft of the axe with both hands and pulled it to the side.
However, despite his grab at the weapon, only his kick had any real effect. He caught it at the very moment it swung the blade down, but due to the hefty kick to the leg, it slammed into the floor a few inches away from Alice's head, embedding itself deeply into the concrete.
With that, Ryan was thrown over its shoulder and tossed across the room, right into the gullotine's heavy frame, shattering it. The massive blade slammed to the bottom, thankfully not striking Ryan in his painful impact against the wall. He landed with a sound that was not far off from several bones breaking at the same time.
Katie fired again, this time severing two of the tentacles, one of which was the bladed one. She operated the bolt one last time, partly because there was only one round left in the mag, but also because of how slow and heavy the rifle was in her hands.
With Alice stunned in a life threatening position, and Ryan injured, she had few options to buy time for them to recover. But, like Ryan, she threw caution to the wind and charged at the Executioner recklessly, praying that the sudden change of tactics would distract it long enough for Alice to at least move further away.
But, the moment she realized she made a mistake was when the Executioner kicked her - hard - and sent her flying through the air, landing back beside Ryan's rifle.
With the all of the air knocked out of her lungs, she could barely focus her vision to even see what the Executioner was doing, or even where it was standing.
However, Alice had recovered enough in that moment to begin to drag herself away from the Executioner, taking advantage of how it had its back turned to her. She made it about six feet away when it turned back to her, flailing the few remaining tentacles it had left. It slowly started to approach her, menacingly slow, but a sound above her head caught her attention...
An angry growling...
With a grunt, Ryan threw the gullotine's heavy blade through the air towards the Executioner, and as it soared over Alice's head, she realized that it was heavily charged with electricity.
The Executioner's body barely offered any resistance as the blade sliced right through it, cutting it in half just above the heart. The blade slammed into the wall across the exhibit with a resounding crash, which echoed slightly as the three of them panted heavily.
Katie hauled herself into a standing position, using the debris pile for support as Ryan's injured body gave out and he fell to his knees beside Alice.
Alice, being in the best condition of the three, slowly stood up and confirmed that the Executioner was truly dead.
"Babe, can you move?" Alice placed her hand gently on his shoulder, crouching down in case she needed to support him out of there. "Or are you regenerating at the moment?"
With a wave of his hand, Ryan answered slowly. "Regenerating. Go check on Katie, I'll just be a minute."
With a nod, Alice hurried over to Katie, who was still breathing hard after being kicked. Thankfully though, nothing was broken for her. "You alright, kiddo?"
Katie nodded, holding a hand to her chest as she tried to breathe through her pain. "I'm fine, let's wait for Ryan to finish regenerating before we deal with those L-251b's on the ceiling in the other hall."
"I'll do that. I've got a vendetta against THEIR kind." Ryan spoke up, still letting the T-Virus in his body repair his broken bones. When he'd crashed into the wall, he'd broken his left collarbone and his left femur. When he hit the floor, however, he broke seven ribs and his other femur. Even he was surprised he'd managed to throw the gullotine blade at all.
"When you're ready, you can take them all. We're gonna scavenge from the supplies I found earlier, okay?" Alice nodded before Telekinetically retrieving her M3 and his G36K. She slung the M3 onto her back, but placed the rifle against the debris where Katie had set up his rifle. "Oh, I was curious... what type of rifle is this?"
"It's my G36K. I got it from our uncle's house with you, weeks ago, remember?" Ryan raised his head slightly to give her a serious glare.
"I mean this sniper rifle. Sorry, I should have been more specific." Alice indicated the heavy rifle resting atop the rubble.
"Oh, that's my custom modified Paratus-18. I rechambered it from 7.62mm to .50 calibre rounds, and replaced the old semi-auto frame with a bolt action chassis." Ryan explained. "It was one of the many improvised guns I've made over the years."
"Wow. Now that's impressive, babe. Remind me later what else you've modified. Might give them a field test some day." Alice teased before leaving the hall with Katie to get the supplies she'd found. "Meet us in the lobby when you're ready." She added vocally over her shoulder as they left.
A minute or so later, Ryan's collarbone gave one final snap as it was last bone to mend. He waited about thirty seconds, just to be sure they'd set, then rose to his feet and grabbed his two rifles. He slung his G36K onto his back - since it had a shoulder strap, unlike his Paratus - and carried the other in his hands as he approached the Roman Empire hall, where the Lickers had remained up on the ceiling in the shadows.
Leaning the Paratus against the red chariot, Ryan checked his surroundings for Alice and Katie, his expression oddly guilty behind his mask.
Raising his gaze, Ryan locked onto the first Licker he saw, and began to concentrate intensly.
With a flick of its tongue, the Licker dropped down from the ceiling and landed cat like a few feet away from Ryan, who continued to stare at it, concentrating as much as he could while still being able to move his body.
The Licker slowly approached him like a timid dog, flicking its tongue out a few inches every few seconds. Ryan slowly extended his hand, and received a curious lick from the Licker.
Tasting the T-Virus in his palm, the Licker grew slightly more confident as it approached him and sat down on its hind legs, exactly like an dog would.
With a smile, Ryan gently patted the top of the Licker's head, which was actually an exposed brain. It had no eyes, and Ryan felt a twinge of sympathy. He himself was a mute, and the Lickers were all blind. They shared something in common; a physical disability.
However, despite the connection that Ryan and the Licker seemed to be having, he remembered that all six of them had to be killed. So, while he was petting the creature, he slowly and carefully unsheathed his katana and prepared to kill it.
However, the Licker suddenly rolled onto its back, its tongue lolling around lazily. Ryan remembered that Alice had mentioned the Licker's weak spot was the heart... Then he looked down at it...
Pumping loudly right before his eyes was the Licker's heart. Completely exposed. Ready for his blade... or a bullet. Either one would work...
With a sigh, Ryan rubbed the Licker's belly, earning a satisfied sound for his attentions. However, Ryan raised the katana and swiftly impaled it through the Licker's heart, killing in nearly instantly before it could even make a sound.
With a long exhale through his nose, Ryan got to work, repeating the exact same strategy with the remaining five Lickers, calling them out one by one, then luring them close enough to kill with his katana.
It took ten minutes for him to finish, and he knew conclusively that he could actually draw them in, almost as if he could control them. Maybe it was because he'd first been exposed to the T-Virus by a Licker that he was able to do that?
For now though, he resolved to keep it his own little secret, not even Alice or Katie needed to know about it... for the time being, at least.
A/N: That's all for this set up uploads. But first, if you don't know, Cestus are the medieval version of boxing gloves or brass knuckles. The are made of metal, and give a punch more force. Also, the name of Ryan's Paratus-18 sniper rifle is something I made up :P