The First Purge (2)

On reflex every member of DASF opened up fire on the three, but one of the three flashed in front of the other two and with a lazy smile he sliced his carotid artery wide open and spewed blood in front of him.

"Fervor, mei sanguis (boil, my blood)."

The blood that spewed forth froze in mid air and turned from a deep blood red to a fire orange color riddled with red veins.

As the bullets hit this sudden barrier they were all stopped, with each bullet being neatly imbedded in the shield that was created.

It was clear that their current firepower was not going to cut it, and so,

"Grenades!"

Four grenades were cooked and thrown, but two more shields of blood appeared and merged with the first creating a circular barrier around the three obviously Sanguis men.

The men of DASF had broken into two groups and dashed to the left and right of the room, hiding behind the walls outside to escape the radius and destruction of the blast.

While they were in cover, half of their members switched to the powerful close ranged tactical shotguns whilst the other half drew their trusted machetes. Finally, one of the squads who were all carrying far larger packs than the rest began unloading them and slowly putting together two LMG's along with the belt fed ammunition that came along with it.

The moment the thunderclap sounded and the dust cleared, all but the ones still putting together the LMG's snapped back into the open doorway and aimed their weapons into the office space.

What they saw was the still perfectly intact circular barrier, although it was eerily rippling now like quiet waves on a peaceful lake.

A hole opened up on the top of the barrier and out came a condescending voice,

"Well, well, well. I had just come along with my two compatriots here to scout ahead of the main force. Thinking that this location was rather nice for a cup of tea or two but it seems I inadvertently happened to confirm that dreadful report.

"The commoners here are actually so violent and barbarous, even fighting the branch we sent here ahead. Do you lot actually think of yourselves on equal ground as us? What can I say? As expected of barbarians who lack in both culture and wit."

All the voice got in response was thunderous fire from several shotguns at once, causing the gentle ripples to turn into furious waves.

"How annoying...ut fructum(shoot forth)"

Suddenly one massive ripple spread throughout the barrier, as it shifted wildly. So much so that it started to look like a porcupine.

"To cover" ordered a voice from behind the group, who promptly followed the order without hesitation.

The moment they began to move back, however, the ball burst forth and several blood spikes shot out towards the retreating DASF members.

While most of them missed due to the timely order, as they quite literally dove out of the war, two of the retreating members were still skewered by the attack right through the bottom of their leg.

Falling to the ground, their fellow members dragged them the rest of the way.

"Still alive? What a pity..."

Before the Sanguis men would make another move, the LMG teams popped their way in the doorway and started firing with reckless abandon.

These two powerful weapons had the same force as all the members firing their AR's at once while also having the added benefit of sustained fire.

The rest of the DASF members, minus two who were wounded and one who was tending to them, also joined in but this time they opted for their higher caliber deagles to see if they could puncture the shield.

The bullets added up and some of them even appeared to go through the shield and hit their targets.

"Annoying maggots, why struggle so much? Capto (to grab)."

Two slime like protrusions erupted forth from the barrier, grabbing the LMG's and crushing them to pieces whilst injuring the wielders from the shrapnel in the process.

The wielders would have perhaps also been squished if not for Lucky appearing from the shadows and grabbing the two to safety with a strong pull.

The rest of the DASF members kept firing, however, as the LMG's appeared to have already done more than enough with more and more bullets getting through.

They fired so much that they ran out of ammo for their deagles, and then shotguns, and then their AR's.

Left with nothing else, they placed down their heavy gear and drew their machetes and combat knives.

"Finally out of bullets..." muttered the voice, sounding tired and almost sickly.

The barrier collapsed onto the ground, painting a large circle of orange blood on the ground that looked like a burning sun.

What remained of the three men was now but one, the other two lifeless and withered husks on the ground.

Noticing the looks on the faces of the commoners the remaining one laughed and said,

"That was their purpose all along, to feed me incase of emergency. Now, without those pesky little toys of yours how will you deal with me?"

Two long red blood swords appeared from his wrists, the wound cauterizing once the weapons were created, and then the man stepped forth.

While he was clearly exhausted from maintaining the shield from before for so long, he was still as fast as ever. With two steps he appeared in front of the men, his swords slashing downwards aiming to behead several of the DASF men all at once.

While all the DASF men responded with their own melee weapons, both sides intending to kill the other in the same manner, but the Sanguis man was clearly the faster one and would easily slice through several necks before he was met with a retaliatory blow.

Yet such a future would never come to pass, for in the shadows above several shadow whips appeared that wrapped around the hands of the Sanguis man. His eyes grew wide in shock and his mouth opened to say who knows what, when a dozen melee weapons entered his chest and neck all at the same time.

Still somehow alive, he jumped back even breaking free from the shadowy restraints and allowed all of the weapons to slide out of his body. Before everyone's very eyes, they saw the wounds slowly close and heal and be replaced with perfectly healthy looking skin.

A price was still clearly paid, for the man's entire right half of his body started to shrivel and wither as he coughed and sputtered.

Reaching into his pocket he produced a sealed glass tube that had a heart inside of it, perfectly preserved for who knows what.

Bazel, who was currently sitting leisurely in the office next to the current one whilst observing everything that was going on through the eyes of his partner, did not want to find out what it was for.

With a lazy gesture two powerful spiral lances shot forth into the portal in front of him, skewering the man and pinning him against the wall.

Still the man was alive, desperately moving the heart closer to his mouth as if he wanted to eat it while forming some kind of phrase but instead of speaking words all that came out was mouthfuls of blood.

Even whilst run clean through the man's Gift still tried to heal him, something that was completely impossible, and ended up slowly turning him into the same withered husk as the two he had most likely consumed.

Releasing the now long withered and expired man from the wall, the corpse hit the ground alongside the other two husks. All three looked exactly the same, indistinguishable from one another. In death they were equal.

Stepping through the portal was Bazel, who eyed his men that were cautiously scanning their surroundings or tending to the wounded, and nodded with satisfaction.

'Not bad for a first go, while it was not perfect it was still passable. Though they would have defeated that man without my help if they played it a little smarter, but that is fine. There are plenty of more battles to come which will hone their skill'

Standing in front of his men, Bazel clapped to get their attention and said,

"All right calm down, while you lot were attracting most of their attention I already cleared out the entire building of all other enemies.

"I gave the all clear just before I came to help you put down that guy, and soon the cleanup crews will arrive to give the place one last sweep and then literally clean up the mess.

"Get all your stuff together and get ready to go, I will deal with the wounded."

The tightly wound men unwound with those words, with many of them slumping to the ground as the adrenaline they were running on settled down. Still their hands did not rest, as they started to grab all the gear that they had dropped on the ground and re-equip themselves.

Loera, however, did not need a break as he looked as fresh as ever despite the bleeding wound on his stomach. Instead he approached Bazel and informed him of a few key details he had noticed.

"Sent ahead of the main force? So that confirms it, the time until they make their big move to break is fast approaching. Looks like we will need to speed things up a bit."

Stitching up and carrying the wounded with his shadows, using them like hammocks, Bazel led his men out of the building and past all the gore.

The news he had just received bothered him far more than he let on, however, as this meant his time to recover Lily had just gotten that much shorter.