The helicopter's blades roared through the air, buzzing loudly as it flew over and past the mountains just outside a quaint European town. On the horizon was an old smelting plant. A massive, rundown structure. Towering chimneys, broken windows, rusted metal, and crumbling brick everywhere – it looked like it hadn't seen any action in decades, neglect and abandonment written all over it.
The helicopter lands, dust kicking up into the air, just meters away from a black 18-wheeler truck that had arrived at the plant much earlier. Spread across the place are about 20 men in suits - waiting, surveilling.
Stepping out of the helicopter are two men in suits – a blonde man with a buzz cut and a bald man, bearded, huge. They are immediately approached by another man who was part of what looked like the surveillance team roaming around the factory.
"Sir, sir," he greets and looks at both of the new arrivals.
"What's the situation?" the bald man asks. He was massive. Towering over his partner and the man that approached them. Neither of the two were small, they were of fairly regular stature, but the bald man was just that huge. It's a wonder how he was able to fit inside the regular-sized helicopter and how it was able to soar through the skies normally despite carrying this huge chunk of a man.
"The target is inside, sir. We have detected very minimal activity for the past 10 minutes," the man answers, briefing the two of the situation they were about to handle.
"We had sent in a team of six agents initially. Not one has come out, sir," he continued.
"Six? Wasn't the initial reading just a C? Six is a bit too much for a C-rank monster, don't you think?" posing the question is the blonde man. Stud earrings on both ears, tattoos running up his left neck and at the back of both hands, two different golden rings on his right pinky finger. His fashion screamed gangster rather than mysterious government agent.
"The initial report indicated a C-rank horde, sir," the man explained.
The blonde man doesn't say anything back. His brows slant upwards while his lips dip down, basically saying "Alright, okay."
"A horde, how many," the bald man asks.
"We have detected only one of it now, sir, and it has barely made any movements," the man seemed baffled even by his own answer.
"So, we going in?" the blonde man looks and asks his partner.
"We're going in," answers his partner as they head towards rundown plant.
The man in charge of the surveillance team turns his head around and around, looking left and right. Seemingly looking for someone.
"Um, agents!" he calls on to the two suits who were already walking away.
"Where is—" he was about to ask something but gets cut off.
"He'll catch up, don't worry," the blonde man responds, back turned around, distance increasing.
"Yeah, where is he?" he asks his partner.
"He'll catch up," he gives his partner the same answer. His partner just rolls his eyes.
"Why is he even coming, it's a group AND A-rank mission," the blonde man asks, referring to the other person supposedly joining them.
"Probably got assigned to it just for some warm-up," his partner inferred.
The bald man opens the rust-infested metal door and it just completely snaps off. The combined effort of deterioration and unnatural strength. He looks at the piece of rusting metal he was holding and just tosses it aside.
"Yeah, sure, just tear the entire place apart," snarky comment by the blonde man who walks past to explore the old building.
With most of the windows cracked open, the plant's interior benefitted from a good amount of artificial light which highlighted the faded machinery, the rusted conveyor belts, and abandoned control panels covered by decades-old dust.
The two men ventured deeper into the abandoned plant. Walking past countless litters of discarded tools and metal parts. Furnace and metal tanks now housing nothing but dust and cobwebs. They notice something else mixed in with the debris and dirt on the floors and neglected equipment – blood. Little to no reaction from the two. They were expecting this already.
The deeper they went, the more the landscape shifted from old, broken down heaps of metal to blood-adorned industrial relics. They stumble upon a lifeless corpse of a suit bathing in a pool of blood. An arm and a leg missing. Not far from it is another one, this time body parts intact, aside from the head whose top half was sliced off cleanly. The agents that had went in prior to them started appearing one after the other. Cold, lifeless, and butchered. Every single one missing at least one body part. The old smelting plant that hadn't been functional for decades, operated again, briefly, probably for the last time. And this time, not as an ore-smelting factory, but a slaughterhouse.
The two just kept walking, looking for the culprit. They had no time to stop and feel sad for their mangled associates. The job comes first.
Not far from where they were, they hear something – loud gasps for air and coughing, blood, from the sound of it, followed by loud wailing. They didn't have to see this person to know that he was in immense pain, probably awaiting death. The two immediately rush to the direction where the sounds of agony was coming from. They see another suit - laying on his back on a set of metal stairs, neck and chest covered in blood that he had coughed out, his abdomen completely torn apart, intestines and other mushy parts that weren't meant to be exposed to the elements hanging out. The man saw the two but couldn't utter a single word. He was only half alive. He coughs thick, red fluid one last time, labored breathing turns to a halt. The bald man squats down and with two fingers, gently closes the man's eyelids.
The blonde man sees something just a few feet away from them and walks away from his partner to try to get a closer look at what it was.
"Yo," he calls the bald man's attention who was still squatting down and facing the man on the staircase that had just passed.
The bald man faces his direction and stands up to approach him.
"There's our guy," the blond man says, looking straight ahead.
It was the monster. Its skin was black, resembling muscle fibers. Massive, it was bigger than any of the steel tanks and containers inside the plant. It had long black limbs coupled with sharp claws that were dripping with blood. Its face was covered by a full white mask, pitch black eye holes, its mouth resembling what looked like a smile – a condescending grin.
"Now that's a Rank A," the blonde says as he pulls what looked like a black stick from his pocket – a handle of some sort. He swings it sideways into the air, extending longer. From its tip blooms forth a silver blade – curved, singled edged, and with a small sharp hook on the back side. The five-inch black handle now a silver glaive.
"He's late," says the bald man as he cracks his fingers.
The blonde looks at him, raised eyebrows.
"Oh shit, you're going—ah right, you don't have it," he tells the bald man.
"Shelly was too heavy," the bald man replies.
"I don't understand why you keep sticking with that thing. Just get something, you know, portable and nice?" the blonde man told him as they were walking towards the monster.
"Eh, you do you," he added, dismissing what he just said knowing his partner doesn't care about it.
The monster looks at the two men approaching him. To any other person, this was a death wish. But not for these two. The monster standing still and just looking at them instead of cowering away was the true death wish, they thought.
The blonde man rushed at the monster. He was fast, closing the distance between them in mere seconds. He climbs up the monster's limbs. The monster moves it away and fast. It wasn't going to let this human just use his limbs as a staircase. The blonde man jumps into the air, the monster tries to catch him with his other arm but right before it gets ahold of him, he cuts off its hand, jumping onto it as it was falling down, using it as a trampoline and jumping right at the monster, setting his sights next to its limb. He was fast and agile.
He lands on the monster's upper arms, using his glaive as a landing crutch, sticking its blade on the monster's flesh. He takes it out and as soon as he was about to swing and cut of its entire arm, the monster's other arm comes right at him, spikes all over. He was able to get away in time, unharmed. The monster moves fast for its size, but he was faster.
The monster didn't mind hurting itself just to get the job done as its attack hit nothing but himself. He pulls out the arm that was lunged deep into his upper arm. It hasn't even pulled the entire thing out yet when a strong shockwave rocks its body. It was the bald man, landing a left straight right into its abdomen. He lands another one, a right straight. And another one, and another one, alternating punches, each faster then the previous one. The monster couldn't do anything but receive the hits, each hit stunning it for a brief second.
Out of rage, the monster lets out a loud, deep guttural. Tanking every hit, it pulls out its arm and swipes at the bald man who was using him as a punching bag at blinding speed. The bald man, focused on his barrage of punches couldn't react fast enough and flies towards the broken-down factory equipment after getting swatted away like a fly.
"Yo, Marko. You good?" shouts the blonde man, checking up on his partner who then comes out of the dust, wiping away dirt from his suit.
"Sebastian is awfully late," says Marko, completely unfazed by being batted away by the monstrosity in front of them.
"Ah fuck that guy, if he comes he comes," the blonde man replied before running towards the monster again for round two.
Marko replies with a smile before rejoining the fight. His partner rushing in, this time targeting the monster's legs. As if it had predicted his moves, the monster readies an attack right as he stops to take a swing at its legs. Its sharp, spiky arms already baring its fangs at him before he could even start to swing. He jumps away from the attack, the monsters arms smashing the ground, smoke and dust everywhere. From it, fast spikes emerge homing in on him, catching him by surprise. His partner comes in, hitting the spikes from the side, smashing them into smithereens.
"You're welcome."
"Fuck you," he runs past Marko and towards the monster. Marko just smiles.
He rushes the monster again, the monster greeting him with spikes from all parts of his body. He'd seen it already, he wasn't going to be caught off-guard again. He slashes the incoming spikes and jumps up, facing the monster.
"Let's see you pull this shit without a head," he says as he was winding up a slash strong enough to cut the thing's head.
The monster wasn't going to just let itself be decapitated. It instantly picks up both its arms, tens of spikes on each end, trying to impale him in between. Marko comes in, large uppercut connecting with the monster's left arm. His partner, initially aiming for the head redirects his slash to the other arm slicing half of its arms vertically. He jumps on the severed forearm, again using it as a trampoline, winding up a huge swing in mid-air and shaves its entire right arm off. The monster lets out another guttural before unleashing a hundred razor-sharp spikes from all over its body. Neither of the two was able to destroy the spikes, it was as if they gained twice as much speed. Their only option was to run and steer clear of the spikes.
The two agents back away from the monster for a brief moment. A strategic retreat. They had went far enough that the monsters spikes were no longer chasing them. Right then, the monster, with its left hand cleaved and arm a sloppy lump of meat from the uppercut that decimated it, along with its right arm completely missing, stood still. Its rage ceased. The two holes in its face, resembling and probably serving as its eyes start emanating a faint, yellow glow.
The two share a look. They knew something was coming. The monsters limbs started regenerating, its crushed arm started healing.
"Ah shit," they both exclaim in disappointment.
The body parts lying on the ground that they have severed are all now moving, transforming into mini versions of the monster. Even the spikes that they have destroyed started moving, the small ones that wouldn't amount to anything significant upon transforming moved towards each other, combining to form one of the mini monsters. There was now a crowd of monsters that they had to take out before the big guy.
Despite being outnumbered, the two still pushed on, and took out monster after monster, lumps of black meat and goo splattering all over the floor and broken equipment, along with spikes coming from the original monster. They destroy one monster and it gets up in a few seconds, they severe spikes coming from the big monster and another mini monster emerges. It was a ceaseless skirmish.
"Harley, you idiot, stop slashing the spikes!!" Marko screams out as he was burying his fists on one monster after the other.
"We have enough of these things to worry about stop adding on to them!!" he added.
"I can't even tell which is which anymore, I'm just slicing shit!!" Harley replied.
"Well think before you fucking slice!!" Marko screams back.
A spike was heading towards the back of Marko's head, it was quick and given that it was a blind spot, Marko, who was busy with the horde in front of him was completely oblivious to it. Harley saw this and immediately throws his glaive towards it, stabbing the spike and stopping it in its tracks.
"Thanks," said Marko to Harley who dashed behind him to recover his weapon.
"You know, fucking Sebastian could've handled this all on his own, probably would've done it in half the time, too," Harley complained to Marko.
"Why the fuck did we even have to go. AND WHERE THE FUCK IS HE??!!" Harley continued ranting about their co-worker who was already very late to the party.
Harley, also neck deep in the horde, fails to notice an attack coming from his blind spot in time. A spike was coming from his left side, below, and heading straight for his head. He couldn't slash or evade it as he was mid-swing and his posture made it physically impossible for him to do anything other than take the attack.
"Shit!" was all he could think of.
SHHOOM
A familiar sound, he had heard this before. Just in time, but a bit too close for comfort.
Behind him, a thin, black mist materializes. From the brief burst of mist and black dusty particles emerges another man wearing a suit, jacket unfastened, dual swords resting and strapped on his back, he grabs the spike with his right hand, inches away from piercing Harley's skin, grabs a sword with his left hand and severs the spike that nearly ended his comrade. Without even looking, he throws the piece of severed spike he was left holding to his right where a monster was heading towards him, the sneaky monster goes down.
SHHOOM
He teleports to where Marko was, now wielding both swords that laid in his back, detaches two monsters' heads in one swift cut. Marko hadn't even had the time to react to his colleague who was now in front of him when the unhinged swordsman throws one of his blades in the direction of the parent monster, aiming for its chest. The monster notices this – a short sword with black handle, hollow circular pommel, no cross guard, and a single-edged, shining black blade, but doesn't do anything about it. After all, what can one small sword do to this hulking abomination.
"About damn time," Marko said while wearing a huge smile on his face.
The monster looks at the blade, just a meter away from its chest.
SHHOOM
Faint, black mist appears just right where the blade was. The swordsman appears and grabs the flying blade, the monster was incapable of speaking or expressing any sort of emotion but one could tell that even this expressionless behemoth was dumbfounded. He slashes the monster with both swords, embedding a large X-shaped hole on its chest. All of these had transpired in a mere 3.15 seconds. The man had come out of thin air, into the scene and just started decimating everything.
"Sebastian, you fucking showoff," Harley mutters to himself. Despite saying this, he felt some comfort knowing that the best has arrived. Show's over.
Despite the display of skill that Sebastian demonstrated, none of it took away the fact that the monsters he had dismembered and the monster's parts he was still currently slicing and dicing were bound to regenerate. Which was now happening, again.
"It regenerates, you dumbass!!" Harley screams at Sebastian, getting ready to yet again take on this seemingly never ending battle.
"I can see that," says Sebastian, who has now momentarily paused his onslaught, observing the behemoth as it grows everything he just cleaved.
SHHOOM
A blade skewer's the head of a monster in front of Marko.
"You guys try the head?" asks Sebastian, still holding his blade, lodged into the writhing monster's head.
"The big guy? Yeah. Tried, couldn't," Marko answers before clotheslining another monster nearby.
"Alright, I'll take a shot at it. You guys handle these ones."
SHHOOM. He didn't even wait for a response.
SHHOOM. He appears over the monster's left shoulder and cuts off its entire arm.
The monster couldn't even react, how could anyone. Sebastian was incredibly quick enough already, but couple that with the ability to teleport and get to anywhere within a split second, he was an absolute nightmare.
SHHOOM. He appears behind its right leg, which was now disconnected from the rest of its body.
The monster falls down on one knee and focuses its regeneration on its dismembered leg.
SHHOOM. Right arm, gone.
A loud guttural. The thing was enraged, now more than ever. The glow from its eyes start getting brighter - an indication that it's getting stronger, which would mean that so will its regeneration. But Sebastian wasn't about to let it.
SHHOOM. Right in front of its face. A long, wide swing with both swords slices the juggernaut in half. The monster was too busy channeling its anger into instant regeneration and couldn't react to the swift death blow. It's mask-face cracking and crumbling into dust. A loud thud echoes through the entire plant and outside it. The monster has fallen, its massive carcass now laying with the debris.
As the parent monster fell, so did its children. Harley and Marko both take a second to catch their breath. It wasn't easy fighting off an immortal horde of monsters, not even for people as skilled as they were.
"Fuck took you so long, you dick," Harley rains down expletives to the excessively late Sebastian.
"I had to use coordinates, ended up on the mountains outside," Sebastian answers
"Bad excuse," says Marko.
"The worst," adds Harley.
"But welcome back," Marko tells Sebastian.
Sebastian just smiles. Operation success.
"See you guys back," Sebastian says before vanishing into black mist.
"Can you believe this guy," Harley's reaction to their tardy co-worker, who was also the first one to clock out.
"Tell me about it," replies Marko.
"Comes in at the last five minutes, and he just fucking bolts right after," Harley continued grumbling. "Unbelievable."
SHHOOM
Mist appears behind the surveillance team's leader outside, startling him.
"Big guy's down. Send a team in for clean-up, lots of clean-up," Sebastian says to the man, not even an introduction. But it wasn't needed, the man already knew who it was, as did everyone outside.
"U-understood, sir!" he affirms the order.
SHHOOM
A team comes in at the scene of battle to tidy up. Harley and Marko head back to the helicopter. One for the books. But the job wasn't finished, it never is. Now, onto the next.