Chapter 4 - Firefight
Meanwhile, inside the bunker's main hall…
The former stillness of the dome-like structure is shattered by the dull, squishy and constantly repeating sound of ink shooter, sparsely dotted by the earsplitting cracks of the creature's strange blaster. Bright flashes of light came with each crack, briefly illuminating parts of the hall and revealing two shadowy figures – one slightly shorter than the other – moving around the circular minipark while shooting ink rays and energy beams at each other's direction.
"SON OF A SQUID!" Kaye exclaimed after one of the creature's bullets nearly severed his left toe, then resumed taking blind shots at its general direction right after. In response, the creature fired several more shots that punched large holes into the concrete wall behind him, before ducking behind one of the mini-park's opposite welcome gate. Kaye also followed suit, turning into his octopus form and jumping inside one of the nearby ink puddles to refill his tank.
Coddamn… this is getting nowhere – He sighed. They have both been holed up in their position, exchanging fire with each other like this for at least a minute without result. Kaye is an Octarian rifleman – a class specialized in frontal assault, and he is only trained to use his class's standard issue weapon which is the octoshot. Specialist's weapon types such as roller, charger and brella are beyond his pay grade, and are usually taught about as little as possible at the training camp. Thus, it came by no surprise that, upon presented with one of these fancy stuffs, Kaye immediately became as clumsy as a bear, even struggled to hold it properly. That combined with all the weird if not downright useless modifications that the previous owner of the gun has given it – such as extended barrel for a wepon that already has ridiculous range, front grip that's too small for Kaye's liking, and short range scope that's mounted way too far from the eye – has made it nigh-impossible for Kaye to get used to the weapon. Flashy paintjob, Kaye can work with that, but coddamn if all of these wacky bullcarps doesn't get under his nerves.
So far, Kaye has shamefully fired and missed 13 shots in total, and it's somewhat assuaging for him to know that his opponent isn't much of a shooter either. He wondered if the creature (which he has given the nickname "Creep" for short) also has infinite ammo like him or not, but given the fact that it hasn't fired much ever since the beginning of the fight, that doesn't seem like the case.
A small and tingling 'beep' came out from Kaye's ink tank, signaling the completion of its refilling process. As soon as he heard the sound, Kaye reverted back to his bipedal form and perked his head up, squinting at the creature's direction through the gap below the fence. He has decided that fighting the Creep in a sniper duel like this isn't going to work. So Kaye's best bet right now is to use his octo-scope as a suppression weapon rather than its original purpose, to trap the Creep in its cover then close the distance enough for his octoshot to be effective.
Kaye began to put his plan into action. Turning into his octopus form, he slipped through the one of the gaps between the fence bars, and into the filthy artificial turf of the park. The octoling then reverted back to his biped form and skillfully rolled behind a nearby flipped park bench, not forgetting to pop another blind shot at the Creep, just to make sure it stays where it is.
After a short pause to recollect himself, Kaye vaulted over the stone bench with gritted teeth, then began to advance toward the enemy position while firing his octo-charger from the hip. Unlike the Inkling-made splatterscope, which trades charge rate for mobility and compactness to suit the run-and-gun combat style of its user, this Octarian sniper rifle is designed for maximum range, accuracy and fire rate in exchange for increased weight and size, making it only effective for stationary sniping. And Kaye used this feature of the gun to maximum effect, rapidly firing beams after beams of ink at the ancient gate without giving the Creep the chance to move. After reaching the center of the park – the place where the dead tree used to stand, Kaye stopped his spray-n'-pray rampage and took a quick glance at the ink-tank capacity indicator mounted on his wrist.
12% left, just enough to load a splat bomb – Kaye thought with a grin, filling a triangular balloon with his ink until it became bigger than his head, then threw the glowing object at the Creep's hiding spot. The bomb landed perfectly behind the gate's left pillar and exploded, splashing ink in a wide radius with such tremendous force that it made the heavy steel frame of the gate shake slightly. And the distinctively guttural shriek of the Creep erupted right after. GOT EM'!
Kaye cautiously moved in an arc toward another nearby park bench for a better look of his kill, not forgetting to refill his ink tank before he did. He was so overwhelmed with joy at that moment, that he thought he could cry. At last, his arch-nemesis, the bastard that had taken away his life's greatest chance has been eliminated! And not only he has gotten his rightful revenge, but Kaye might even receive a big promotion and an even larger boon of cash for taking back an intact specimen for research. Better yet, his social status in the regiment might even skyrocket, and he will even become popular with all the sexy ladies there. Hey! Now that Kaye really thought about it, having his eyes dotted like this ain't so bad after all! And it's just a simple bruise anyway, nothing some plasters and a hard-earned day off can't fix. Anyway, enough with all the thinking, and let's just go collect his prize-
Wait… where the shell is the body? - Kaye stared at where the dead creature should've been with a raised eyebrow, alarmed by its disappearance. He quickly adjusted the lenses of his equipped night-vision googles for a better look of the area, but still found nothing that resembles the Creep around the explosion radius. Oh carp, he has celebrated a little bit too soon. With his octo-charger firmly holstered and charged with an extra shot, Kaye darted his eyes around the compound in search of movement when he noticed bright flashes from the corner of his right eye. Almost instantaneously, Kaye turned to face it just in time to see a light bullet sizzle past his head, his eyes catching every detail of the space-distorting plasma contained within in slow motion. The heat emitted from the shot scorched his cheek and made him yelp in pain, and Kaye stagger backward while clutching his burned spot. And there the Creep stood, outside the park at Kaye's right in a shooter's stance, adorned in full-body combat attire with its smoking gun still aimed at him. Contrary to Kaye's expectation, the creature's body was completely devoid of ink stain, which led him to momentarily question how the shell had he managed to get pass his bomb-throwing graduation test.
Through the orange-tinted visor of its helmet, Kaye could see the Creep's bloodshot eyes filled with rage, but also a tint of fear. It was far different than the eyes of an Inkling which are calm, playful and doesn't contain murder intend… Kaye got goosebumps just by looking at them.
In a panic, Kaye released the trigger of his sniper rifle and fired a shot at the Creep. But the creature was faster, dodging aside and narrowly avoiding the ink beam while firing its weapon twice at him. The first shot missed its mark meters away, but the second one managed to graze past Kaye's head and severed off one of his short tentacles – which he didn't react to whatsoever because it's just hairs. Kaye backed away and fired another shot in retaliation, hitting the Creep – who hasn't regained balance from its first dodge yet – in the head, knocking it to the floor. Now, that should put it down for good-
-Wait, what the actual SHUCK!?
Kaye's eyes nearly bulged out of its sockets, and his mouth opened agape in disbelief. Not only did the Creep crawled back to its feet again, but it casually adjusted its helmet and wiped the ink off its visor like it's nobody's problem. Shrugging off several shots from small arms, Kaye can totally understand, and have seen his Inkling rivals done it on multiple occasions. But tanking a fully-charged shot from what's considered (even by the Inklings scums) the world's most powerful charger rifle, capable of splatting an Agent in full hero suit several times over… and doesn't give half a carp about it?
DAMMIT! WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO KILL THIS SHUCKING THING!?
The Creep fired another three shots which destroyed the park bench Kaye was standing behind, the last bullet grazed his left thigh. Enduring the pain with gritted teeth, Kaye blindly returned fire with a halfway-charged shots, then bolted behind the nearby water fountain while clutching his rifle tightly. The Creep began to move around the spiked fence, still aiming at Kaye's hiding spot in search of new angles to shoot from. Stuck in the middle of an open field without any visible covers to retreat to other than the fountain behind him, Kaye was cornered. But just to be sure that there are truly no other ways out of the situation, Kaye took a small peek at the circling Creep… only to duck right back into hiding when a plasma bolt blew up the head of the Peeing Cherub on top of the fountain, showering him with ceramic debris. "You stay the fuck where you are, hear me?" – That was the message the creature has sent him, without the use of words.
"Oh carp, I'm so dead… I'm so shucking dead!" Kaye mumbled to himself, sweats forming into trails down his forehead. He took another quick glance at the Creep, and it only served to intensify his panic when he saw that the creature has already reached the park's right entrance and was slowly moving toward his position with guns still raised. It's trying to get closer for melee range, which is the very same tactic that Kaye has tried – and failed – to use before. Sure, he has his octoshot to fight back when it gets close alright, but after witnessing first-hand the utterly supernatural resilience of the Creep, Kaye wasn't really confident in this puny peashooter of a gun anymore. The octoling could pretty much see that in a close-quarter fight, he would stand absolutely zero chance against the towering and muscular (for octoling standard) stature of the Creep. And seeing how it has beaten the shit out of his komrade Maurice – who had managed to best him in wrestling training multiple times before – just moments ago only helped to solidify his point.
Wiping the sweat from his greasy face, Kaye frantically darted his eyes around for an escape, and immediately saw the series of interconnected metal platform hanging around the hall's second floor. These catwalks are only 20 meters away, well inside Kaye's super-jump range. Kaye's very confident that he could make this jump, and began to fold his octo-charger into its compact state… when he remembered how his team's first encounter with the Creep began with one of these heavy platforms falling down and smoothifying an octo-trooper into paste. These metal plates are incredibly old and therefore very loose, Kaye realized. If he lands on one of them, will it detach and drop down like before, pulling him with it too? Will he get crushed by the platform, or wake up dazed and see the Creep's gun barrel at his face? Kaye suddenly felt a ghastly fear slowly creeping up inside him, the kind of fear that comes when you're about to do something but aren't ready to handle the full weight of the possible failure. But if he doesn't do it right now, the Creep behind will reach him, and he will be pushed into a situation far, far worse than this. It's all do or die now, and there's no option of backing down. Kaye took a deep breath to recollect himself once more while estimating the force he'll have to use on his jump in order to land perfectly on a platform section, and was about to turn into his octopus form-
-when he heard heavy footsteps right next to him. By reflex, Kaye snapped his head toward the noise, and almost had a heart attack when he locked his gaze with the Creep's scorching ones, now only two meters away from him. This time, in addition to the strange futuristic pistol that is the Creep's main weapon, it was also holding a small, shiny and metallic object in its right hand, which it gripped tightly above its head.
Wait, isn't that… a knife? But who would bring a kitchen utensil to a gunfight like that? So damn impractical.
Kaye didn't have time to think much however, because the Creep immediately gripped its knife in reverse and brought it down at Kay's head, trying to skewer him. But Kaye managed to dodge the blade in the last second and rolled backward. It then went for two swift vertical slash at him as soon as he regained his balance, both narrowly missing his neck and causing him to fall on his back. Kaye screamed bloody murder, desperately scrambling backward with his elbows away from the bloodthirsty monster, while reaching for his octoshot that was holstered somewhere next to his ink tank. The Creep stopped to eye its prey from head to toe with a spine-chillingly neutral expression, then took a step forward and stabbed its savage blade down at Kaye once again – and he could swear that its crazed bloodshot eyes created a crimson trail of neon behind them when it did, kinda like the yandere girls from that one "gesugao" video he used to watch at base. But this time, Kaye managed to block the attack by raising his right foot and let the knife stuck inside the bottom of his rubber boot sole. Dense enough to stop a sharp blade on its track, that spoke alot about the standard of Octarian military footwear.
The Creep grimaced and yanked the blade free with a grunt – nearly ripping Kaye's shoe off his foot in the process - and readjusted its grip on the weapon's handle, continuing to eye him for the best angle to stab down from. Its movement seems to be much slower than before, and through its labored breathing and the amount of sweat trickling down its face, he could tell that the creature was exhausted. Kaye, still fumbling for his octoshot, opened his eyes wide in terror as the creature brough its knife over its head with both hands again, the tip of the blade gleaming brightly under the orange light of its helmet visor's HUD.
Before the Creep could stab down however, a rapid cacophony of 'pop' and 'puff' filled the air around it, and the creature's visor was immediately splattered with volleys after volleys of ink jets, making it yell and stagger backward. Kaye was now firing his octoshot in full auto, aiming for the creature's center mass while adding his own adrenaline-fueled war cry into the mix. The Creep dropped to a one-kneed squat, throwing its pistol to the ground and raised its left hand up to try and block out the ink from its face, but still managed to hold on to its dreaded knife.
"SHUCK SHUCK SHUCK SHUCK SHUCK! STAY AWAY CODDAMNIT !" Kaye yelled loudly, still keeping the creature at bay with his octoshot while preparing to make the jump onto the second-floor platforms. The Creep, who has become used to Kaye's mag-dumping after the first second of withstanding it, tried to push forward through the rain of ink. Knowing his suppression attempt is starting to lose effect and it's his cue to take the leave, the octoling boy stopped firing, swiftly folded his octoshot into its compact state and turned into his octopus form. As soon as the barrage of ink jets stopped, the creature reacted with a long dash toward Kaye, slashing its knife blindly with incredible ferocity and ended the combo with a downward thrust… into the plastic grass below it. Luckily, Kaye managed to make his jump before the creature could reach him, flew through the air in a wide arc and landed squarely on top the catwalk's most stable-looking platform just as planned. Reverting back into his bipedal form, Kaye turned around to see the Creep below him, who stared back at him while muttering expletives in its own language. It then gave him the all-too-familiar middle finger, but right now Kaye couldn't care less since he was too satisfied with the creature's failure.
Phew… that was a close one. – Kaye thought with a smirk, still struggling to catch his breath. He continued to watch the creature stomping away angrily with interest, and was half-tempted to taunt it for fun with some of his learned dance moves… until the Creep retrieved its pistol from the ground and took aim at him. Reflexively, Kaye ducked behind the safety bars of the catwalk and waited for the creature to take its shot, only this time… it didn't fire. Instead, the Creep lowered its gun again, and inserted some sort of blue-colored battery into its gun after taking the pre-installed one out. It's reloading, Kaye realized.
This has confirmed that the Creep uses non-replenishible ammunition, and explained the reason why it opted to attack him with a knife instead of blasting his ass off a minute ago. And Kaye smartly scurried off into one of the nearby rooms before the creature could finish the reload process. Okay, he needs to find a way to defeat this creature quick. As far as Kaye has seen, it's strong, fast, smart and pretty much immune to ink fire, which makes the creature a real force to be reckoned with, if not outright impossible to defeat in his case. Kaye didn't bother himself with the science behind the Creep's immunity though, since he has never been interested in those kinds of thing, but Maurice is. His top priority in this situation has been changed from "purge the insolent and exact his vengeance" to "Objective: SURVIVE", and he shucking regretted leaving his team behind in his mist of rage. Anyway, regrets won't solve anything now that shit has already happened. Kaye poked his head out from the dorm room's ruined window and took in every detail of the scene outside, trying to come up with a way to trick and eliminate the creature. Ink may not have any effect on the Creep, but it could temporarily stagger it, even knock it off balance if fired from hi-gallon weapons such as his octo-charger, so… maybe, just maybe, he could lure it to the second floor then try to push it off the platforms with sniper fire and bombs? But Kaye quickly scrapped the idea after seeing the safety bars of the catwalk that are as high as his shoulder. There's no way the creature could fall off with those blocking the way. Or maybe he could look for something sharp or long inside this dorm room to fight the creature at melee range with? Kaye quickly searched around the small compartment filled with a double bed and some steel cabinets, finding only broken objects and useless trashes, and quickly scrapped that idea also. He has been, without a doubt, pushed into a deadlock. Just to make sure that the Creep stays where it is, Kaye poked his head out for another peek, and got a big fright when he saw the creature at the end of the catwalk, having taken the nearby staircase and is now moving toward the room he's in. Coddamnit, this damn thing's persistent as shell! Will it ever stop!?
Kaye unfolded both his octo-charger and octoshot, looking around the room for an escape but found none. However, he did manage to find one of the steel cabinet's unhinged doors, that could be used as a makeshift shield. He ripped it off its rusty hinge and moved outside the room with the metal door in front of his body, slowly moving to the opposite direction of the Creep. As soon as he did so, the creature fired three shots, punching large holes as big as a rice bowl on his shield.
"Ow ow ow! Hot hot!" Kaye squealed while frantically brushing the droplets of molten metal off his armor, dropping the metal door in the process and gave the Creep an opening to fire another shot that narrowly missed Kaye's right shoulder. In response, he whipped out his octo-charger and shot a short ink ray at the creature, this time hitting it in the chest and making it stagger backward. Kaye quickly charging up another shot and fired at the stunned creature, knocking it on its ass for good, and made a mad dash to the opposite direction while the creature crawled back on its feet, not forgetting to yeet a splat bomb at it to buy some more time. It wasn't long before he realized that his run speed would pale in comparison with the creature, so he created an ink trail with his sniper rifle, then octopus-swam all the way to the end of the catwalk. A few light bullets were fired after him to try and intercept his swim, but all ended up either hitting the wall or the platform's safety bars. The creature stopped firing and chased after him, slowly catching up. Emerging from his ink trail, Kaye aimed and fired another beam at the creature, which missed its shoulder and forced it to duck into a nearby room, firing a blind shot back at him in retaliation. Kaye fired another charged shot at the creature's hiding spot, then also retreated behind the metal door of a room behind him. He was several rooms (about 10-13 meters) away from the Creep, perfect range for both of his weapons to be effective. The creature has taken a crouch posture in the entrance of the room it's hiding in, slightly poking its upper body out to peek at Kaye. Both sides stared at each other for a very brief moment, and without warning, both aimed their weapons at each other in perfect unison. Kaye was the one to shoot first, hitting the wall next to the Creep's head and making it flinch slightly. The Creep returned fire twice from the hip, hitting the door Kaye was taking cover behind. He crouched down to avoid exposing himself through the newly created holes, and aimed down the scope of his octo-charger at where he presumes the Creep would peek out from. The ridiculously long and bumpy stock of the rifle pressed against his shoulder, making him very uncomfortable but he endured it and kept the scope's crosshair remain in place. How Jason was able to use this thing so comfortably is so beyond him. Kaye pulled the trigger, feeling the gun vibrate slightly as pink ink was pumped from his back-mounted ink tank and into the smaller ink capsule attached below the rifle's barrel. Shot fully charged.
As soon as the charging noise reached its highest pitch, his scope's vision was suddenly blocked by a blurry patch of orange and black. All six of the Octoling boy's hearts skipped a beat, and he released the trigger. 'Pfft!' The ray of ink left his gun's barrel, painting the orange patch with his familiar shade of pink. And the creature shrieked right after. Kaye's eyes left the scope just in time to see the Creep wobble back into its room, and its protective helmet spinning in circle on the floor next to its dropped pistol. He has managed to both disarm the Creep and remove its protection! Maybe that helmet and vest it was wearing is the actual reason why it managed to shrug off everything that he'd thrown at it, just like the Inkling's ink-proof armor. And now with its helmet and weapon gone, he could finally finish the Creep off for good! Kaye immediately grabbed his sniper rifle, draw out his octoshot and ran after the creature, his eagerness to win completely overwhelming his weariness. Oh man, this would be so, so easy for him. He just needs to shoot the creature in the head again and victory would be his. Yes, the Creep still has a knife, but how high of a threat could that puny weapon can pose for him it its user can't even get close to use it? Oh, how the table has turned…
He entered the room the creature has just retreated into, scanning around its interior with his octoshot for signs of the Creep. He didn't forgot to grab the creature's dropped weapon before entering, and has considered taking its helmet as a hunt trophy too, but then decided against the idea since his backpack ran out of space, and the helmet isn't designed to fit his big chibi head either Turns out the room he was it isn't like the other dormitories next to it, where instead of having only one compartment, this one has another room connected to it through a vault-like thick metal door with round spinning wheel. The furniture here is also wildly different, with numerous workbenches and machineries of unknown purpose arranged neatly along the room wall, and something that heavily resembles an oversized 3D printer located at the far-right corner of the room. Kaye moved along the lines of strange machines, gliding his free hand across them while appreciating each one's strict utilitarian beauty, without turning his attention away from the vault door.
Looks like this place used to be some sort of workshop or something – Kaye thought to himself, picking up several strange-looking objects laying on top of the machine to keep as souvenirs. Kaye also wanted to observe the oversized 3D printing machine, because there is something that vaguely looked like a giant metal suit of armor behind it, but he managed to suppress his rising curiosity and focus on finishing the fight. He walked slowly toward the closed metal door before him while pulling out an uninflated splat bomb from his short pocket, filling it up with his ink. Then he grabbed the vault wheel and gave it a little nudge, finding out the door isn't locked.
It has to be in here, swear of the Great Oct! – Kaye smirked, peeking the door just wide enough for him to yeet the glowing bomb inside and pull it shut again. A dull and bubbling explosion sound erupted from behind the door, and the pathetic yelp of the creature was also heard in the noise. After the noise has subsided, Kaye peeked the door open again… and yeeted another bomb inside. He would go on to repeat this process six more times just to make absolutely sure that the Creep is too dead to jump on him when he enters. After the final bomb has exploded, Kaye kicked the vault door open (and almost dropped dead from toe pain in the process) and trained his octoshot around the place, limping into the middle of the room like a drunkard. "Never believe everything you see in action movies" - a bitter lesson Kaye has learned.
The inside of the vaulted room, while has been painted completely pink by Kaye's generous amount of splat bomb, was still intact enough to be recognized a tool storage, with all sort of mechanical equipment hanging on its walls such as wrenches, tire irons, hand saws and screwdrivers. The emergency lighting of the room was still functional however, illuminating it with a dim and constantly flickering glow. Still, no body of the Creep was found.
"The shell… How did… Where the SHUCK IS IT!?" Kaye barked out in frustration, eyeing every nook and crannies of the room in search of an air vent or gap that the creature could've crawled through. Except that there were none to be found, the walls and ceilings of the room were completely intact without a single crack. Then where is it!? Does this Creep's body dissolve when it dies!? Shell, Kaye has checked every corner of this cod-forsaken room, and why ha-
-Wait, he hasn't checked behind the vault door, has he?
'SMASH!' 'Crack…crack…crack'
Kaye felt a sharp pain in his back and he was instantly pushed forward and landed on his knee. Getting up as fast as he could, he turned around to face his attacker with gun pointed, and saw the Creep standing in front of him, holding a rusted lead pipe in its right hand. Its face was partly covered with pink ink, and it looked absolutely pissed, staring daggers at Kaye like wanting to eat him alive. Without a second thought, Kaye aimed his octoshot at the bastard's face and pulled the trigger. A small volley of inkjets spurted out of its showerhead-like barrel, which rapidly decreased in range and volume until it became nothing more but dripping pink droplets. He tried to fire again, yielding the same result as before. Kaye began to panic.
Oh carp… My ink tank is broken isn't it? – he thought, feeling large streams of warm liquid running from his back and down his thigh as to confirm his question. The creature stared behind his back, at his leaking ink tank – now with a jagged gaping hole in its middle – and took a step forward. Kaye involuntarily too several steps back until his back touched the wall behind, tossing his now-useless octoshot aside while sweating profusely. He's so coddamn dead.
With a loud and deep grunt, the Creep charged forward with its pipe raised, swinging the crude weapon at Kaye's left temple. But he was faster, dodging aside and nimbly slipping below the creature's armpit to escape. The lead pipe made contact with the wall where Kaye used to stand before, creating a large dent along with some running cracks on its surface – after witnessing such display of brute force, Kaye didn't dare to imagine what would've happened if he didn't dodge. But he didn't have much time to think either, because as soon as the creature realized it has missed the target, it immediately turned around and swung the pipe in a horizontal arc, nearly skimming Kaye's nose in the process. It didn't just stop with that attack however, but continued to swing at Kaye rapidly and furiously, forcing the octoling boy to dodge left to right to avoid getting tenderized by each blow. Finally, the Creep finished its combo with a downward bash at Kaye's head, which he easily dodged aside and left him with an opening to counterattack. Curling his hand into a fish, Kaye punched as hard as he could in the Creep's face, making its head sway violently to the opposite side. Then it was Kaye's turn to go offensive, delivering a series of blows like he'd been taught in his hand-to-hand training course, causing the Creep to back away slowly while guarding its face with both arms. Two of his punches landed on the Creep's neck and lower jaw however, creating purple bruises but causing no visible reaction from the Creep.
Nice! Served the shucker a taste of its own medicine – Kaye thought with satisfaction. But his joy was short-lived however, because the creature recovered from his attacks sooner than he'd expected, and kicked him with its right leg. This time, Kaye couldn't avoid the attack since he was still in his fighting stance, and was knocked two meters away as the result, landing on his butt right in front of the metal door. The Creep was also recovering from his attack, leaning against a nearby iron desk while wiping its red blood off its lips, staring dagger at its opponent on the ground. It's going to attack again soon - Kaye thought, and darted his eyes around for anything that can be used as a weapon. Scattered near him was several mechanical tools that has been knocked off its hanging place during the Creep's first barrage of attack, and Kaye grabbed the one lying the nearest to him – a long and thin bolt wrench with rubberized handle, perfect as a blunt weapon. The Creep spat a lump of saliva mixed with blood near its foot, and brought the lead pipe down at Kaye again. But he blocked the attack halfway with his wrench and sent a kick to the Creep's chest, pushing it back. As soon as the creature regained its balance, a small screwdriver flew through the air and hit in the creature's forehead (unfortunately for Kaye) by the handle. Another bundle of steel bolt soon followed soon after, then a pair of pliers, then a metal hammer, then a whole fucking boltcutter which the Creep narrowly dodged... Kaye was throwing every throwable thing he could get his hands on at the Creep to keep it at bay, while slowly standing back up. While the creature was still struggling to regain balance, he took the opportunity to swing the wrench at the back of its left leg with the intend of knocking it to its knee. Kaye managed to score a hit, but instead of dropping down to a kneel like anticipated, the Creep screamed in pain and swung its left hand at his cheek instead. Before he could recover from the first blow, the Creep delivered another two blows in his chest and a shove which slammed him hard against the wall-hung painting next to the vault door. Kaye managed to grab the door's lock wheel before he could fall down, and looked up just in time to see the Creep swing its pipe diagonally at him - an attack that he couldn't dodge in this position. Instinctually, the octoling raised his arms in a cross above his head.
'SQUISH' - "AAAARGH!"
Kaye screamed in agony as the pipe made contact with his forearms, stabbing pain shot along his limb cartilages to his shoulder blades, so sharp and intense that it made his eyes stream tears. though through his blurry vision, Kaye could still make out the vague shape of the Creep lifting its weapon up and ready to go for another bash, so he endured the pain with gritted teeth and darted his eyes around for an escape. He couldn't dodge to left nor right, for both directions were blocked by the wall and the Creep, so the only option is... under.
Without thinking, Kaye turned into his octopus form and glided below the Creep's crotch, leaving it stunned in confusion about his sudden disappearance. The pain in his arm flared up even more violently, as his damaged muscles and cartilages forced themselves into octopus tentacles, but he pressed on with the transformation nontheless.
And still in his octopus form, Kaye made a super-jump that smashed him straight in the Creep's back, causing its face to smack its head against the metal door with a long and resounding 'CLANG!'
Kaye realized is mistake a second too late.
As soon as he landed on the floor, Kaye was immediately attacked by a splitting headache along with nausea and full-body pain. He would be quite lucky to not have any more of his cartilages broken, or - Octavio forbid - get a concussion after such reckless headbutting. His ear buzzed with the sound of a thousand hornets, and his head felt like it was being drilled through with a jackhammer. The whole room wobbled and twisted around Kaye, with the image of Creep before him split into three identical versions, but Kaye managed to hold back his urge to vomit and properly faced his approaching opponent in a fighting stance. Even in his disoriented state, Kaye could still see up close the creature's purple-dotted face, twisted with rage. The Creep threw another punch at Kaye's face, which he managed to block with his right arm. But his luck wasn't big enough to help him stop the creature's next blow which hit him hard in the belly, making him lean forward and cough out saliva and even a few droplets of blood. Oh carp, internal bleeding, that can't be good...
Kaye immediately clutched his abdomen with both of his arms, and immediately received a sideway hook straight to the jaw by the Creep's now-free left hand. As if that wasn't enough, the Creep turned its body sideway and landed a roundhouse kick that threw Kaye against the wall with a meaty 'thud', then slumped down right below the pipe dent before. He ain't gonna win this fight, and Kaye knew it. Still, he decided to struggle in futile, to struggle with his last bits of fight and not allow the Creep to win that easily. Kaye pushed against the floor with his elbow and rolled his body upward, accidentally touching his military backpack - having slipped off his shoulder during the collision - in the process. The Creep was busy catching its breath, huffing loudly and rapidly while eyeing him head to toe with contempt. Something suddenly pooped up in Kaye's mind.
Wait... the gun! Where's the gun!?
Coddamnit! How could he forget about the Creep's pistol he'd retrieved earlier?
Kaye wasted no time in ripping his backpack open for the weapon, clawing at the dried kelp fabric of the bag hysterically with both hands. The Creep stared at him quizzically then walked toward the downed octoling with heavy tired steps, fastening its grip on the pipe.
But before it could get three-meters close to Kaye, he finished turning the backpack into tattered strips of kelp-green fabric, and dug through its assorted content piling before him. His hand skimmed past the bumpy and smooth texture of the pistol at the bottom of the pile, and Kaye grabbed it without hesitation.
'BEEP' - A small beep emitted from the gun as his fingers made contact with its grip, and a green beam of light scanned his hand up and down, before turning red. Kaye pointed the barrel at the approaching Creep, making sure the iron sight lined up perfectly with its face. It stopped dead in its track, staring at the weapon with a look of utter horror plastered on its face. Without a second thought, Kaye squeezed the trigger.
'click!'...
...
...
"The shuck?'
'click!' 'click!' 'click!' -Kaye pullet the trigger several more times. Contrary to his expectation, the gun failed to fire, leaving him and the Creep to stare tensely at it. After a short moment that felt in an eternity, a guttural but somewhat feminine voice came out from the gun, making both people snap out of their trance.
[Biometric ID invalid] - It announced in the Creep's language.
Oh carp, what the shell happened? Did the gun ran out of ammo or something? - Kaye began to sweat.
The Creep's reaction was instant however, as it smacked the weapon off his hand (and, Kaye was pretty sure, broke several of his fingers) and flung its lead pipe at him.
Kaye only had several milliseconds to scream, before the instrument collided with his head with a resounding 'Bonk!'
He blacked out right after.
...
Meanwhile, the octoling team entered through the bunker's entrance again, each member was armed with a handheld stingray connected to a power pack/ heavy-duty ink tank behind their backs.
The remaining two octotroopers, now equipped with additional floodlights that used to belong to their fallen comrades, was sent to the front of the formation to act as mine sweepers.
"Wow, they sure had one shell of a battle here, aye?" Jason commented at the ruined and ink-dotted grass field that's barely resembling the park it used to be.
"They sure had, and from the look of it, the Creature seemed to have won. Mira, can you track the location of Kaye please?" Oceanica asked, and the octoling in question brought out a device from her backpack, that's basically a purple Ipad with antennas attached. She then typed several buttons on its screen, and its antenna began to vibrate.
"Boss, his tracker bracelet is still intact, and the signal it's emitting seems to be coming from... there." Mira pointed at a random spot of the hall's second floor, making everyone around to squint at her finger's direction. She then added after taking another look at what displayed on device's screen: "And looks like he's still alive up there... unconscious and suffered heavy blunt trauma, but his overall condition's stable."
"Oh okay... Hope he can hold on for a couple more minutes. Alright people, let's go grab Kaye first, then continue with the hunt later. Remember to keep your eyes peeled, and open fire without hesitation at anything that moves, got it? It could still be around that place, and maybe had intentionally let Kaye live to bait us, so be cautious. We've all seen what had its weapon done to our colleagues, right?" Oceanica said to her subordinates in a loud and stern voice, her empty stomach churned as the memory of their gruesome first encounter came back. She then motioned for the octotroopers to move forward, leading the team of octoling behind them. And thus, they advanced further into the facility again, now fully prepared for the danger they're about to face. However, they all were unaware of several pairs of bulging yellow eyes, observing them intently behind one of the hallway's vent grates.
Hello, your friendly neighborhood shitposter here! Sorry for not posting any new chapters for such a long time, life's been pretty hectic lately and it's still is, so please understand for me. Thankyou for reading, and please give me some good critics on how to improve my story or way of writing.
Have a nice day, mates.
(Cracks cold beer)