DI R2 Pt.3

A crack emanated thorough the halls. A loud noise that swiftly followed the whiz in the air. The claws had landed. Harshly.

However, the crack of pavement was all that was heard, no splat and no chilling noise of bone snapping or breaking apart all together. It seems the attack didn’t go as intended.

With a rash tumble and roll, Yamato managed to swiftly avoid the claws that had broken up the pavement, along with the pieces of floor itself. His heart raced. It was a close hit, but he avoided it. And despite the fear he now felt, he had to look back to make sure the assaulter wasn’t planning to follow up the attack.

Wrath muttered, feeling his arm slightly sore after that smashing hit. Despite his new found muscle, it seems his body couldn’t handle as much pain as he could dish out. He cursed. However he quickly realized that the boy that managed to escape his attack was now eyeing him, as he turned around to stare at him.

Yamato’s heart skipped a beat as he met the gaze of the demon. Despite knowing who the enemy is he was still shocked, as this demon actually managed to look like your typical red horned monster of hell. But after fighting so many demons he knew what to do. As the demons expression signaled that he would once more attack, Yamato quickly pulled out his flash light and pointed it at the red demon.

“TAKE THAT, YOU EVIL SPAWN OF SATAAAAAAAN!” Yamato snapped at Wrath. He knew light was helpful against demons, by how much he fought them. And so this would at least let him get away.

However the issue was… Wrath wasn’t a shadow demon, or even a darkness demon. All the light did was made his reptile eyes squint. “…seriously?” The red demon muttered, unimpressed.

Yamato blinked, completely confused. This wasn’t the response he was expecting or hoping for. “You’re not in pain?”

“If fucking annoyance is pain.”

“But… but demons are hurt by light, right?” Yamato had dealt with shadow or dark demons before then, so he expected all demons to have some light weakness.

“Maybe the pussy guy I was with before, but I’m not a weakling.” Wrath rubbed his forehead. “Why am I even talking to you, you’re gonna die anyways!”

The red demon proceeded to lunge after Yamato. The young man startled, and in response he did the most rushed action he could do right there and threw the lantern right in Wrath’s face, as the action made the attacker flinch. Seeing this, Yamato rushed off, carrying his bat.

As Wrath recomposed himself, he was now angry. He wasted no time getting up, as he followed the fleeing human.

Yamato gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. Now he was somewhat grateful he got a bit lost on the floor. He knew the traps by memory by now, and all he had to do was glance down a bit. And hop. Hop between the bursts of speed.

Keeping him in sight, Wrath rushed after the young men. He noticed his erratic pattern of moving and hopping as if he was doing some sort of fence race. The red demon got a bit confused, but didn’t relent in the chase.

“What is this asshole jumping for?” Wrath muttered.

Just then, his foot was suddenly held back by some sort of thin force. Wrath’s speed and leg strength was enough to seemingly sapped, as he tripped a few more of these odd forces. The demon finally decided to relent to his curiosity as he stared down.

Ropes. Thin and long ones, littered across the walls, connected to something. Up on the wall. Wrath’s gaze suddenly gave in to his hearing, as he started to hear wind gusts, followed with a sharp noise. The noise was somewhat reminiscent of his own claws, as they cut the air. But this one was much heavier.

“What the fu-?!”

Staring up quickly, Wrath saw the source of the horrific noise. Or more like sources blades attacked to the wall and now released through the snap of the ropes. Wrath released an incredibly no masculine screech as he managed to narrowly avoid the first set of blades.

However his heart wasn’t calmed just after that, as more ropes snapped under his weight, as he landed perfectly on them after his dodge. The wires continued to release the blades to swing and fall as Wrath was forced to flee for his life.

He didn’t even have time to focus on avoiding any further ropes. It was as if he was cursed, as each step he took triggered a new wire and as such, a new blade. Wrath’s body swayed back and forth, desperately trying to avoid the sharp edges. His motion was that of a panicking drunk, but he had to be careful with his awkward body. And more importantly, his tail. In order to make sure his tail wasn’t simply cut off. However, as it was essential for his balance, the fact that he had to stiffen his tail and pull it in unnatural position made his straight run suffer.

Somehow, as exhaustion sat in, Wrath decided to take one final leap, as a mass amount of blades were about to crash down, slicing his body in three pieces. As he jumped, the blades managed to scrape his long hair, taking some strands off. As the last blade fell, Wrath coiled his tail before crashing down on the floor, narrowly avoiding getting it chopped off.

Wrath’s breathing was now rapid, as, lucky for him, he seemingly finally managed to pass the death trap. It seems there were no other blades as he reached the corner of the corridor, now positioned between the current one and the left one. He swallowed. His body was now shaking, as he placed his palms down, trying to get up.

“Nice hops, doggie!” Yamato called at the end of the corridor right of Wrath. “Can you do a roll over?”

Yamato’s taunts made Wrath’s eyes snap right open. Followed swiftly by his eyebrows dropping, as exhaustion and fear left and anger once again filled the aptly named demon. He spotted Yamato at the end of the corridor, as his body once again tense up in order to make sure the young man standing in front of him would die.

“I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Wrath swiftly got up, standing back on his two feet. And then suddenly, he felt his body sink. In confusion, he looked down annoyed, seeing what happened.

As he noticed a piece off the floor sunk with a click. An unnerving click. Just from movies Wrath could piece together what this was. The sound of bumps and snaps was heard over him, as he stared up, once again shocked.

A giant ball of what can only be described as metal, was now being released from several magnetic wires and holding devices , as it was now ready to fall on Wrath’s head. The size and weight would easily crush him.

“Hey, I toldja to roll.” Yamato shrugged, as he ducked on to the next corridor to safety.

Wrath’s gaze quickly shifted from the boulder to ahead, as he once again hopped out of the way in a goody manner, sliding a bit on his face. He quickly looked back, as he noticed the boulder was now quickly spinning towards him.

The red demon didn’t even have time to get on his feet, as he reverted back to the four legged run, which he recently had learned. Despite being awkward, he was still going faster than just running like a normal human. Or at least as close to a human as he could run with his stilt legs.

Still, the hulking mass of rotund metal matter was gaining in speed, more and more, as Wrath could hear him. All he had to do was take a small glance back as his face quickly shifted back to terror.

A hunt that he expected to be easy, somehow turned just as easy as he thought. But not for him, instead, it was for the clever, barely trained Yamato.

Wrath’s desperate yells and hisses were heard, as the boulder as rolled after him, making the whole floor rumble. While Yamato grinned victoriously. Finally, he was in a place that was advantaging to him and his crafting skills.

“Hehehe, How’s that for turned tables?”

The Defense Force officers may have stared at him oddly when he asked for blades and a metallic boulder, but now it sure came in handy, as the blades narrowly missed slicing the demon in half, and now the boulder was about to crush him.

Wrath’s speed couldn’t increase further, his body aching from the effort he already produced. Now his bladed tail was scratching against the side of the boulder, producing a horrible intense noise that only accentuated the feeling of dread. No escape. The boulder was going to crush him, but what could he do?

Wrath inhaled, and, as the boulder was preparing to crush him, tail first, while the wall was quickly inching over almost ready to stop him in his tracks, in the vain hope he could somehow outrun the boulder, Wrath threw himself in a diagonal ark and quickly pulled all of his limbs close.

For once Wrath’s new found skinny body managed to come in use, as the boulder barely managed to roll right past him, as it kept on rushing. Before crashing into the opposite wall.

The boulder produced a relatively big hole, as it embedded itself through the wall. Debreu and smoke flying about, as Yamato awkwardly stared from his safe corner.

“…I hope they won’t ask me to pay for that damage.” Yamato laughed nervously, finally realizing the consequences of his trap.

But he sighed satisfied regardless, sure that the demon was now crushed. Yamato lifted his bat back on his shoulder, getting ready to once again search for the exit.

However his blood suddenly ran cold, as a gust of wind was suddenly felt from behind.

“YOU’RE DEAD MEAT!”

The red demon hissed, now once again ready to crush Yamato under his deadly claws. Wrath’s left claws was now ready to splat Yamato’s brain unto the walls. Muscles tensed up, and the swing once again cracked. However, it wasn’t Yamato’s skull that was crushed, but simply the wall, as the young man narrowly ducked, and rolled away.

He messed around too much. Yamato’s smile faded as he ran, while Wrath pulled his claws away from the wall. Death was coming at a rapid pace.

As he ran, the young man fumbled through his pockets. This demon managed to avoid all of his crafted plans, he had to actually use one of the traps installed by the Defense Force. Finally he found the remote.

He wanted to get to a safe distance first however. It seemed impossible. The red demon was now hot on his heels and he couldn’t afford safety. He just had to rely on some well-placed parkour and jumps.

As Wrath got ready to jump on the young man again, Yamato took an odd position, and simply fell down, as he activated the remote. The red demon lunged. And then it was all red.

But not from blood. Wrath was now paralyzed in an attack pose, he felt pain in several spots of his body. Stinging pain. His body stabilized, staying as far away from the danger as possible, as Yamato simply managed to avoid it all by dropping on the floor and commando crawling out of the danger. Wrath was now stuck in an awkward, almost dance like position, left arm in the air, one leg off the ground, tail coiled around his body.

“…holly fuck, that was close…” Wrath muttered, shocked.

The corridor’s lasers now activated. A complex, yet random array of laser beams, sharp as a knife filled a good span of the corridor. Yamato didn’t activate them all, in order to make a get away, but he did activate enough to stop Wrath in his tracks. And even trap him.

Yamato got up, glancing back to the trapped demon. “Watcha gonna do now?”

Wrath glared right back. He was so tempted to simply jump at Yamato again. The place he stopped at was so close. Yet so far. His muscle tensed, trying to figure out the solution.

Yamato wasn’t about to hang around again. He simply waved, as he moved a bit backwards, to make sure Wrath somehow didn’t manage to deactivate the lasers or have some odd ability that allowed him to bypass this new trap, before turning around. The demon may not have been dead, but he was trapped well enough for Yamato to call for help and either capture him or kill him.

Wrath gritted his teeth. Now he was under a sure time limit, and he couldn’t hide, not move. His balance could fail at any second, he had to figure out a way out before he got sliced and diced. Or before some officer decided to put a bullet in his skull, if he even managed to keep his balance for that long.

Moving any part of his body made him only realize that some part of it was going to touch some body part. His long coat already managed to get cut through in a spot. He had to be careful.

Inhaling, Wrath had to do the one thing he didn’t like: playing it cool. People in his gang like Cyber and Samurai did it all the time, and that kept them living. Now he had to rely on it as well. As well as his feeling sense.

He couldn’t rely on his eyes, and so he moved his body carefully. Feeling the head in the lasers, he managed to navigate his lifted foot between lasers in an open space. Now he could stabilize.

Next he had to uncoil around and move it in a more comfortable position for balance. This was incredibly awkward, considering it was a new, inhuman body part. His tail writhed around, it was very hard to keep the bones in it stable.

Wrath’s tail was starting to get cut, and it hurt horribly, as the acidic blood poured out. He closed his eyes, trying not to startle his whole body from the pain, as he slowly stabilized his tail. And eventually, through a few coils, pull backs and dodges, he managed to put his tail down in a normal position.

Now he had to crawl out of the “cage” of lasers. He crouched down, feeling the heat as laser neared to him. Some managed to cut and burn through a flock of his hair. He gritted his teeth. He had to push on.

He moved both of his hands slowly, as they passed around the lasers, and managed to find some balance with them on the floor. Then he used the strength he gained to balance on his feet, and proceeded to stiffly balance on them, curl up, and walk around the lasers.

Wrath moved slowly then. He started using the limits of his new found reptilic flexibility. He stood straight, he moved a leg next. Then the other. Crouched again. Moved using only his arms. Flexed the tail around.

Wrath cringed his teeth. In some cases he had no choice. Lasers dug into his arms and legs, as well as many slashed his tail as he desperately tried to bypass them. But he couldn’t dodge them all. All he had to do was pray he could eventually simply crawl out.

Soon enough, after being decorated with many slashes, the red demon manage to get to a breathing room. Much like Yamato, he managed to drop down, and army crawl out of there. His acidic blood started to stain the floor, darkening in some zones, as he finally managed to escape.

Wrath breathed heavily. He was dizzy. The lack of blood, acidic and unnatural as it was, still affected him similar to anemia. He held his hands over his wounds, in an attempt to stop the flaw.

But as he paused to lick his wounds, in his mind, his temper started to boil. This was no longer about what the son of the devil wanted. This cheeky human made it personal, some street punk Wrath usually dispatched so easily when he was human outsmarted him, put him down and, worse of all, wound his body.

Twitching his large ears, he could hear Yamato’s chuckling in front of him. Looking up, Yamato was standing there, simply taunting. Wrath’s instincts took over, he wanted the human dead. He rushed on all fours, once again in a bestial manner.

Yamato simply backed off, and used another remote. Sensors activated, as Wrath continued to rush. His run was however broken, as the platform under him rose up, while the floor seemingly came crashing down. The ceiling and floor panels were now aiming to crush him.

The young man turned the corner to escape Wrath once again, while Wrath was forced to hop and run from platform to platform, trying to escape the crushing corridor. This was certainly a special trap installed by the Defense Force in case demons ever got so close.

He almost managed to hop through the last of the closing platforms. Before suddenly, Wrath was held back by seemingly an invisible force. A force that grabbed around his shoulders and arm pits, as the final ceiling and floor platform came to crush him.

Using his strength, Wrath managed to hold off being crushed, as his arms and feet fought to keep the platforms from colliding right on top of him. Gritting his teeth furiously, he looked back. He saw the force that held him back. It was his own jacket. The damn jacket, a final memory from the gang he once led as a human, now being his only downfall.

Wrath gritted his teeth. The pressure from the platforms was too much, even with his new found demonic strength. He had to get away. Quickly. And so he had to shed the final remains from his human life.

“I can’t just die owned by a piece of shit punk!”

There was a cut on his cheek from the lasers. He managed to lick it with his long tongue, and use the acid on the coat, as the materials slowly started burning off. The he pulled. Pulled with all his might, the sound of the fabric tearing clear in his head, along with the sound of his own bones giving in.

As he forced himself, the coat’s shoulders finally broke apart, launching Wrath right out of the final crushing plates.

But it managed to catch Wrath’s tail… luckily enough, it only grabbed the bone part as it broke off due to the pressure, making Wrath crash one again on the floor.

Wrath’s heart raced. He was exhausted, yet completely aware. Hearing the human’s chuckle once again as he rounded the corner, infuriated the demon.

 He was so tempted to once again rush in and try to crush his head like a plump tomato. But his aching body and fatigue let him get a breather. He had to play smart. He had to treat this guy like an officer, and with the equipment he managed to display now, he was very much an officer.

As he closed his eyes to think, he realized something. Darkness. The human was so easily startled before, he relied on light as a weapon source. Then Wrath remembered his wall scaling ability. He had to use it to his advantage now, awkward as it was. And finally, he clenched his fist and remembered how easily debris was ripped out just from one claw smash.

Now it was time to turn the tables.

Yamato was chuckling, after he herd Wrath’s desperate attempts of escape of the laser from a safe distance. The once terrified human now laughed at how easily the demon fell in traps. And he had many more if Wrath dared to approach and somehow escape.

Another crack resonated. But this time, it was a glass like crack, followed by buzzes. Yamato blinked in confusion. Then another crack, right over his head as he finally realized the light was dimming out.

Dodging out of the way, Yamato managed to witness shards of glass and rock debris falling. As he looked up with the last remaining light, he was horrified to see the neon lights breaking, as chunks of rocks flew into it.

Seeing his light fade, Yamato knew an attack was close by and now he had no choice but to run to the safety of light. He tried to look back, to see if Wrath was chasing him. But he could find nothing, nor hear anything, as the sound of broken glass continued to echo through the halls.

Little did he knows Wrath was now slithering thorough the darkness… on the ceiling. Ripping apart some lights, smashing others with debris he pulled from the ceiling. Until everything was nothing but black.

Yamato’s calm demeanor suddenly shifted into pure terror, as he was, once again, stuck in darkness. Wrath may not have been a darkness demon, but he was now using the darkness as if he was one.

As the young man run in the darkness, he stumbled over something. Shifting around he quickly realised he was back to the place where the blades came crashing down. He didn’t know what to do, so he grabbed his bat tightly, and was now preparing to swing at anything that may have attacked him.

Wrath wasn’t adept at seeing in the dark. However, his large ears allowed sounds to be heard much clearly, his snake like tongue could detect scent and heat and his reptilic eyes could still see shapes far better than human ones. What he felt now, much like an animal, was fear emanating from Yamato, as he steadied himself.

Yamato knew Wrath was going to lunge at him. It was a matter of time. He had to smash his face in with his only reliable weapon: his bat. He looked around with his limited sight, where could he have come through. However, he knew he had to rely mainly on sound.

It was silence however. Dead silence. Yamato could feel cold sweat running down his back, as his eyes darted left and right.

“Here comes the demon…” Yamato muttered, focusing on the target.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a loud snap. Then a wind. A wind that increased in sharpness and volume as it got closer to Yamato.

Now fully alert the young man turned towards the noise source, ready to swing. Soon enough he started to see a shape. But as it got closer the body started getting… confusing. Wrath seemed to be flying, and flying directly at Yamato with no care.

As the shape got clearer, Yamato’s wish to hit it diminished. Instincts kicked in, as Yamato aborted the offensive plan, and instead opted for evasiveness. He quickly dropped down as the speedy object barely missed him. Now clearly next to him, the attacker wasn’t Wrath. It was a piece of the blades that almost sliced Wrath into pieces.

“That’s worse than a demon!”

Yamato’s mind raced as he looked back, hearing a massive crash, along with the sound of metal breaking and concrete cracking and falling. He breathed heavily. And it was just then, as the rubble silenced down, that he forgot to keep alert, as another wind managed to sneak behind him.

Yamato turned around. His mistake had cost him.

A crack once again resonated in the hallways. And after so many tries, it was the one Wrath aimed for since the very beginning.

His heavy punch connected with Yamato’s chest, his ribcage cracking, along with disgusting bodily noises echoing with it.

Yamato was sent flying backwards, much like the piece of broken blade Wrath threw, as he went through the hole the crashing blade made, right into a once locked room.

“Fool me once… shame on you… fool me twice… shame on me… fool me five times… fuck you.” Wrath hissed, as he snapped his bones and warmed up.

He missed beating somebody to death.