Due to the impact, shards of glass went flying. Mark lost hold of the wheels and the truck made abrupt turns continuously as it moved forward, almost making it land on its side.
"Shit!" Mark tried his best to stay on track and avoid an accident.
The skinny demon reached for the steering and fought against Mark's vital attempt to prevent them from crashing.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Damian shot the demon continuously but all to no avail. The demon was hell-bent on making them crash.
Krrrrr…
He decided to hit the brakes to slow down, so they could deal with the skinny demon first.
As soon as he slowed down, all the mindless and skinny demons that were on the top of buildings came flying down.
Mark was preoccupied with maintaining the steering wheel with one hand and using the other to continuously try to punch the demon off.
Krreeee!
Damian heard the ear-splitting screams and turned his head a little to the side. He saw how every demon they passed started rushing towards the truck.
...Were we ambushed? He asked himself.
Slam!
A demon got to the side of Mark's window and slammed itself against it.
"Command these creatures like you did before!" Damian said to Mark as he reloaded his pistol.
"What are you talking about?! When?!" Mark was too caught up in the predicament to be able to think clearly.
"What you did just yesterday when you saved that little girl!"
"I don't… I don't know how…"
"Well, you better learn how now. I don't think we'll be able to survive this…"
Haaa… Haaa… Haaa… Mark was in a panic. The last time he did it he didn't even know how or why he did it. It was like an invisible force of energy that time was shoved into him.
He tried to calm down but he couldn't and the situation was becoming direr and direr.
The demons were now trying to crawl into the truck through the windows and some laid themselves in front of the truck to be run over and get stuck in the tires.
Mark took a breath and his eyes turned glossy black as he spoke with a dignifying form of spite and wickedness in his tone that made it sound unbelievably hoarse, "LEAVE."
Damian looked around, hoping to start seeing the mindless and skinny demons[1] back off.
The demons paused for about a second and resumed the pursuit.
...Dammit… He grinned and continued his shoot and reload cycle.
"W-What do we do now?" Mark was now even more frightened.
Damian finally got pissed. As he spoke, he raised his leg to kick the demon that was struggling over the steering wheel with Mark, "First, we get rid of this b*tch."
Kick!
The demon rolled down the bonnet and was run over.
Ting!
Damian got a notification message that signified he just earned some rings but he couldn't bother himself with that as of the moment.
Mark got his footing on the wheel back and unsheathed a short military dagger that cake with the ammunition Frank provided them.
Stab!
He stabbed the head of the demon the was flying close to his window and ramming its body into the truck.
Vroooommm!
He sped up and only some of the mindless and skinny demons were able to keep up.
The ones that were still in the chase were gunned down by Damian.
He came to understand that he could aim anywhere on their bodies and not miss, like what happened when he threw that knife to save Rachael.
As long as he made a clear mental image of where he wanted to hit, he will be able to hit it even though he doesn't have enhanced eyesight.
The notification sound kept on resounding in the truck every time Damian gunned down a demon.
…I hope we don't meet those armoured demons… Damian could only hope, as he very much knew that if they met one, that would be their end. They wouldn't even have the chance to fight back.
...
After about 10 minutes, the frequency of the gunning down of demons came to a halt and Damian finally had a chance to think.
…What was that all about? Those skinny demons were definitely controlled, otherwise, Mark would've been able to command them… that means the person is a rank higher than Mark and he or she was also close by…
Damian found this a serious problem and planned to fish the person out on his way back to the underground sanctuary.
Mark had a look filled with worry and disappointment, "Back there… I don't know what happened, but I swear I tried…"
Damian kept his gaze on the road in front of him and gently nudged his glasses, "I know. Besides… we were ambushed."
"Ambushed? No, that's not possible. How sure are you?" Mark asked, the worry and confusion were written all over his face.
Damian didn't give any further explanation as he surveyed the moving surroundings for anything or anyone suspicious with a calm and apathetic face.
Mark didn't fuss over it because he knew that even though he repeated himself a hundred times Damian wouldn't answer. That's just how he was when he was 'tired of talking or explaining.'
…
After about 18 minutes of driving, they were already in Washington Heights.
Mark drove slowly as he moved from street to street, compared to the speed he put on when they were trying to run away from the demon chase.
Then Mark broke the silence, "You're risking your life to help me reunite with my family. I'm really grateful. If you weren't here I don't think I would've come this far…"
Damian's expression turned grave, "Shut the f*ck up."
He opened the door before the truck was able to stop and jumped down.
"H-Hey! What are you doing?!" Mark immediately stopped the truck and also jumped down.
They were already in Washington Heights.
Damian walked swiftly and came out from the street they were in only to burst into Dyckman Street.
This street that was well-known for the number of stores on both sides of the street was now resembling a desolate plain.
All the buildings were on fire and destroyed, cars overturned, body parts lying on the ground.
There was no complete building left standing.
...Some buildings are still on fire, which means it happened not more than an hour ago… Damian walked forward and cast his gaze from area to area in search of survivors.
Mark locked the truck and followed Damian's trail.
When he arrived at Dyckman Street he fell on his knees in despair and said in overwhelming sadness,
"...No…"
Immediately, he stopped wallowing in his sadness and started running towards the end of Dyckman Street.
Damian went close to a burning store with broken glass panes.
He entered through the store through the broken pane and heard a weak, elderly voice from under two shelves that dropped on each other,
"...help!"
Damian rushed and lifted the first shelf amidst the smoke.
Krrrrr… Boom!
He dropped the shelf opposite where it was originally.
He did the same thing for the second shelf and saw an old man lying lifelessly on the ground.
Damian quickly carried the man that appeared to be in his 60s and came out of the burning building.
The old man was taken to a relatively safe area in Dyckman Street that the damage was bare minimum.
Cough… Cough… Cough…
The old man's eyes slowly opened.
…He is lucky enough that the smoke didn't kill him early on and I found him early enough. If a minute was spared it would've already been too late…
"Were you… able to save my son too?" The old man asked.
Damian just looked at him for about 2 seconds before he said, "...I didn't see anybody else."
"Nooo… I have to go back and save my son…" The old man wanted to get up and walk but he was too weak to stand.
Damian just watched him.
Soon after, the old man stopped trying and tears started streaming down his eyes.
"*hiccup*…first we were told to kill each other…*hiccup*… and we didn't abide. and now… and now… aaahhhhh!" The old man wailed
"Can you explain what happened here?" Damian didn't mind the old man's tears. In Damian's mind, the old man was lucky enough to be alive and only suffer minor injuries, so if he asks for his son then that'll be too greedy.
"Just when we thought it was over…*hiccup*... those hideous creatures started throwing fireballs…ohhhhhhh..." The old man kept on crying and changing his tones.
Damian quickly got up and also started running to the end of the street to search for Mark, who had long entered one of the streets at the 4-way intersection at the end of the road.
...That dumb*ss. This didn't happen long ago so 'they' should still be around here somewhere...
...
[1] Just so you know, I'm not talking about two different types of demons here. I'm stating their major characteristics, which are: mindless and skinny.