Taking Off - Komatsu City III

Thanks Fellbane for the title!

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"We move towards the exit as a unit!" Ryo said, not caring about the sound he was making since it was futile at that point. "Nobody splits from the group, those with experience gather around those with none"

The Licker threw his tongue at Ryo in an attempt to attack him, but it got stepped on by Ryo. Now angry, it roared and jumped at him. Ryo blocked his claws with RH-15 before kicking him away and letting go of its tongue, before dashing to the girls that already were going through the gate into the building.

"Zeke, keep them safe!" Ryo ordered the canine while he turned quickly to push the Licker back once again. Ryo could definitely tell that the fucker was stronger than himself. "Rush through!"

His order didn't come as a surprise since, the moment they entered the building, they saw a mass of zombies swarming the area. Ryo was holding the Licker back while doing his best to move with the group, but he realized that it would become increasingly harder the deeper into the hord of zombies they moved. To survive they had to be in constant movement and, in his case, it was easier to just dash and take the Licker with him. He was pretty sure that he would be followed.

"I'm going to distract this guy, I'll meet you at the entrace!" he screamed while aiming at the Licker and presing the trigger in the RH-15. The shot managed to grace the zombie's body, causing it to roar in anger.

Ryo dashed through the zombies, slicing whatever he found annoying, while the Licker followed him, crawling on the roof. The girls were angry, mostly with themselves, since they really couldn't do anything to help Ryo against such an enemy.

"God fucking dammit" Rika yelled while slicing through a zombie's head with a military knife. Saeko, on the other hand, wasn't getting off on killing the undead for the first time. She just couldn't. "Be safe, Dear"

They all felt more or less in the same way, but one in particular, much to their surprise, was on a rampage.

"Moou! Ryo baka! Come back here!" Shizuka screamed while driving her staff through the zombies' head as if they were jelly. "I won't forgive you if you die!"

There had been rare moments when Shizuka said things that made sense, but that was the first time she had accurately expressed the emotions everyone was feeling. Unluckily for her, someone wasn't so enthusiastic.

"Shizuka, would you please not attract more zombies by screaming?" Hiratsuka said as he punched zombies' heads all over the place, making expert use of her Katars. Her next words made everyone smile. "I have blind faith in him coming back"

"That's obvious, right?" Rei said while piercing three heads that just lined perfectly. Miku, who was beside her slashing through heads two at a time, added. "As if Master could be taken down by that ugly thing"

"Mou, you're all bullying me!" Shizuka said, with a troubled face that, had Ryo seen it, would've made him pinch her cheeks.

Karma, who was looking at this, was wondering what kind of monsters he had encountered, since they were much more inhuman than the zombies in his eyes.

*

Ryo ran with the Licker through the building in random directions. He had managed to memorize most of the corridors in the airport, so he was able to quickly move through them. Unluckily for him, the Licker was faster than him and didn't have to worry abot the zombies. Why?

"This fucker walks on the fucking ceiling!" Ryo yelled as he shot another bullet at the Licker, once again managing to graze him. "Fucking dammit! He's faster in a closed environment"

The Licker jumped towards Ryo from the ceiling, prompting Ryo to react as fast as he could. Dropping on his back, he placed the RH-15 in front of him and managed to block the claw strike, though barely, and kicked with his leg on the Licker's gut, sending him above his head. The eyeless zombie managed to turn its body in the air and fell on his feet, while Ryo quickly got up and got rid of the random zombies around him. Among those he recognized, just before cutting her head, the woman that had asked him to help them.

'So they did die' Ryo thought as he resumed his fight with the Licker, which was turning more and more complicated by the second. Exasperated by the scene, he yelled out his frustration. "For fucks sake! Why the fuck can't we just walk peacefully through anywhere?!"

He managed to try and block on of the Licker's claws right on time, and tried to move his body backwards to dodge the second one. Since he realized he couldn't completely dodge it, he put his arm on the way. He could feel the tip of the claws slicing through his arm a bit, until he managed to push the creature back.

Feeling the scathing heat from the wound, the blood flowing out of it and how warm it was, Ryo realized he had been hurt. I wasn't crippling. It wasn't deadly. It was just a cut with a bit of depth. But it made him angry in a way he hadn't felt before. It wasn't anger over something done to someone else. It wasn't anger over injustice. It was anger over something done to himself.

"Oh now you've done it motherfucker..." Ryo said while he grabbed the RH-15 in a double grip, using the retracted shaft as a regular handle and the trigger as a second handle. He was wielding something the length of a longsword as if it was a Zweihander.

Not caring about the nearby zombies, Ryo dashed towards the Licker. His sent a slash towards the creatures stomach, but it got blocked before it could reach. Instead of stopping there, Ryo extended the shaft and used the extra length as leverage to push harder. Once the Licker was using more strength, he retracted the shaft once again.

The Licker's arm that was blocking, because of the strength he was using, suddenly gained a lot of momentum and moved past Ryo's body. Ryo, taking advantage of that millisecond gap where the Licker lost balance, Ryo slashed at it's shoulder. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to sever the arm, as the zombie managed to take a step back. At the same time, it had a pretty deep slash in its shoulder and Ryo wasn't over just yet.

As the Licker moved backwards, Ryo pressed the trigger, shooting at it square in the chest. As it was currently airborn, it could barely twist its body so as not to receive the shot completely. Still, it pierced somewhere around its ribs.

Both hurt, Ryo and the Licker stared at each other. One roaring angrily and the other with eyes colder than even Dante's version of the Cocytus. Soon, they clashed once again.

*

The girls, Yugo, Aki and Karma had been going through the Airport in the straightest line possible for the exit. It took them about half an hour of murdering zombies, but they had managed to move through the entire building until they reached the lower floor and the main hall. The entrance wasn't as full of of zombies as the rest of the building, since most of the sound was madde by Ryo and the Licker's fight.

They could hear the sounds of their clashes and Ryo's bullets, but they didn't know exactly what was happening.

"Come on, that's the exit!" shouted Yuriko, who had taken the role of leader now that Ryo wasn't present. Everyone rushed towards it, expecting to see him there, waiting for them.

But Ryo wasn't there. They stayed still for a few seconds, digesting the fact that he was still inside the building, when they suddenly heard a glass breaking. Right above them, Ryo and the Licker burst through a window, Ryo stepping on it and impaling the zombie's neck with the RH-15. As soon as they fell on the ground, the sound of a shot could be heard. The Licker was no longer moving.

"Hey, I'm out" they heard him say, as if what he had done wasn't stupidly amazing. Karma was the one to break the silence, grinning from ear to ear and screaming without qualms. "That was so fucking badass!"

*

A few minutes before all of that happened, Ryo and the Licker had been at each others neck for a while. They were at a stalemate, since Ryo lacked the strength to push the Licker, but the Licker lacked the finesse Ryo had. But that balance was broken when Ryo had a sudden idea. It was risky, but it was his best shot.

Aiming the RH-15 at the Licker he dashed towards it, taking the offensive from the start. When the Licker saw this, it also dashed towards Ryo, but was received with an almost point-blank shot aimed for the abdomen. It quickly did a sidestep to dodge the bullet and sent both of it's claw-filled hand towards Ryo, but he extended the shaft of RH-15 and barely managed to block.

Ryo took advantage of the moment of stillness, kicking it backwards with all his strength. It just so happened that there was a window there. Ryo jumped towards the Licker with all his strength, ignoring the fact that he received one hell of a slash right on the chest, crossing from side to side. The licker also tried to choke him with its tongue, but it was too late for that. Ryo had already won the upper hand.

With all his strength, he pierced the Licker's neck with the RH-15, falling to the ground like that. He pushed the trigger and blew the creature's head out. It all had happened in a single fluid movement, the same minute. This was the first time Ryo took so much damage, but it was also the first time he felt so satisfied after a fight. It was the first time he felt adrenaline pumping so hard through his body. It was the residual excitement of having won against a tough oponent.

Looking at the gang waiting for him outside, looking in utter shock at the scene before their eyes. He didn't think about it and just said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Hey, I'm out" he said without paying much attention to his surroundings, thinking that his chest and arm burned because of the pain. He did heard someone who seemed to be excited above all else. "That was so fucking fucking badass!"

'Huh, it kinda was, wasn't it?'

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I'm kinda mixed, this was again a more experimental chapter, changing scenes and POVs and all that. Hope you liked and, as usual, thank you for your support.