VII

The time was now, we headed out there in our vans but in seemingly no time at all between getting in and the van in full stop. We all got ready to get out but Keaton whipped around "Not yet. Y'all are too obvious. They'd notice." he eyed us for a bit - he was right, I might pass fine if I didn't have a sword but besides me no one is really "normal" looking aside from Keaton whose wearing this neutral looking jacket - he looked at Ren and pulled out a phone "I'm going out, just call the contact on it - don't wait for my response, I will come back immediately." after Ren let out a "Got it brother!" Keaton jumped out the van and left. Must be scouting?

I wondered to myself how it might all end up. If you looked at the van from above I was in the bottom left and in front of me was Joseph, up his row were Marcos and Derek and on the other side of him was Florian and then Adrian.

We were left there in silence. Were these operations usually so tense? I mean, guess I shouldn't expect movies to reflect reality totally but usually there's at least a little bit of chatter, right? It's getting me on edge. I put my hand on the back of my strap and I must have been sharing the ominous feeling as I notice the others are also armed. But despite the intensity I felt in the air, nothing happened for a while but we heard some talking. Ren was intently staring out the rearview mirrors, perhaps distinguishing between whether or not they are just regular. How would you even figure that out?

"You don't." I thought I heard someone from outside the van say to me - I don't think it was one of them but I automatically switched to my sword hand and drew it into a sort of block where the tip still rests in the sheath and not a moment later a foot and a whole ass leg came through the van door, broke through the blade but luckily was thrown off course enough to not actually get me. In my shock, something came over me and I drew the gun from my belt and shot wildly into the direction of that through the door while Joseph opened both the doors and charged out to be greeted with a singular tall man with terribly rough and alien looking skin all over, it looked inhuman like it appeared as if it were a suit of armor made out of that crazy brown skin. THAT WAS A VAMPIRE?! I internally shouted but before I could really react the creature had grabbed my gun, taken it and swiped it into Joseph's face breaking his jaw and knocking him back.

We all scrambled out of the Van, avoiding serious injuries mainly as Joseph held him and a few of the gunmen starting taking pot shots at him forcing him to move out of the way. It started yelling in something that sounded like Spanish as it was trying to fight us. It was tough as hell, Joseph already put some cuts into it but they seemed only surface level and it was fast. Marcos got close to it with a pistol and shot through it's neck but almost immediately after it grabbed him by the head and drew him into a knee straight to the chest leaving a crater and then it just beheaded him with the free arm and yelled something that went like "CATCHORI" which probably meant more were coming. Joseph and Ren started attacking it head on "We can try and take it here, there's probably not too many more!" Ren yelled and obvious que as any - he must've known what the beast said.

I came from the back with my broken blade and dagger and lodged the dagger way too snuggly into it's side which in turn made it acknowledge me by throwing an elbow which I did not quite dodge with it cutting my neck open. I backed away into a car and grasped at my neck as I was losing control, trying to make it heal. I could vaguely see the others being obliterated by the creature and I heard gunshots way too many to just be our own but I blacked out for a moment, feeling warmth in my face and remembering something about Damascus. I came back and the fight had seemingly progressed as no one but a bloodied Florian was there, checking me out.

"Frat... Frat... you're ah alive." he was breathing hard, I could see now he was kind of messed up and his right arm either had a huge gash or was cut off and he was trying to keep it on. "Can you still fight? Our frat-ells... th-they are fight."

"Yeah, I think so." I was surprised I could still speak but my neck still hurt.

"Blooding..? You are not fight OK?" Blooding? What? I touched my neck and I could feel some but I felt fine. "I am fine" I tried to assure him but he did not feel like I was. He was too weak to keep me down though and I started regaining my sense of place. I could tell where they were fighting downstairs so I rushed there. The gunfire was missing as it had devolved into a brawl between our men, several others and that creature. Though our guys could handle the regular people pretty well. The creature seems to have taken Joseph's blade with no trace of the man left behind. Keaton and Ren were directly facing the creature with Derek and Adrian with their little mob. I jumped in and helped them clear up, I am still not all there as I kind of just slashed with my broken katana and was stabbed in the stomach a few times and though lots of blood flowed out I could not feel an iota of the discomfort one would expect with blood loss. The others didn't really notice it and we tried to assist Keaton and Ren but when we got there we knew we'd just be in the way.

Keaton and Ren were a pretty dynamic duo. Keaton was using pistols as melee weapons while Ren stuck with some kind of brass knuckles. As Keaton would Kick the creature, Ren would punch it and the two put in many blows like this however the creature blocked most of them and would hurt them enough to force it back to a 1v1 for a bit. The creature was cackling all the while and said "SAY ABASTA BRAVO TELADOR" but at that he eyed us and drew his way of combat just a tad bit faster, tearing up Ren's arms in an instant with Joseph's katana and for Keaton he immediately destroyed his legs with a kick and crushed his face with only two consecutive kicks.

"SAY CRUDO!" it said as it made its way toward us, almost specifically for me though. Fear over-ran me and I backed up and perhaps sensing that it jumped forward, beheading Adrian with the Katana - though Derek tried to block his arms were just torn off. I put my broken sword forward and tried crossing blades but it just quickly changed directions and tore up through my face, though not all that deeply. "RALENTA ACHAETA!" he said as he kept cutting me up with my poor excuses for parries, blocks and what not. "QUANTO SANG HI, EH?'' Here it started to slow down just enough for me to strike, however I did not cut and instead my blade shattered however it seemed to have pained him regardless as the shoulder I had found an opening on shifted out of place. It winced in pain but it suddenly paused and seemed surprised. I tried to take the opportunity to strike him again but he planted Joseph's Katana into my Stomach. "I... you fight when good." it said and retreated.

It's not like that one injury made him retreat... maybe he was just distracting us? With this sword in my belly, I am... not sure if I will see that thing again. The heat all over my body began to dissipate but Keaton and Ren had come to me, though they were still messed up - Keaton couldn't even walk. Ren slowly let him down to check on me and started making motions on my body and my body's heat kind of followed it even without my focusing on it. Quite the night... I still can't shake that same ominous feeling from the start.