Inception

Chapter 61: To Chew on Bones

She shrieked again, bearing her teeth.

The other kaiju opened both maws and shrieked back, shaking the ground. It stepped towards her as well to tower over her lithe form.

And Soshiro so the flash of corpse-colored flesh over its shoulder.

Adrenaline surged. He clicked off his limiter and shot forward with a great POW.

Kaiju No. 9 caught him by the neck, just as Soshiro dug his swords into its chest.

"Really now," it said, eerily calm. "You're the one that stole from me."

Soshiro opened his mouth to cus it out, spit, bite, something, but all that came out was a clack of his teeth as he fought for air. He whipped out his swords in a spray of blood and slashed off the offending arm. He fell—

A monstrous gray tail slapped him away.

He swore he heard several bones crack even through his suit's shield as he hit, not the cement and metal fence, not the parking lot, but the wall of first district's reception building several hundred feet away, having blown through all obsticals like tissue paper. Blood, spit, and bile sprayed from his mouth. His vision popped with black. His hearing went out.

And came back in with a searing buzz. He coughed, feeling more liquid splatter on his neck. Everything hurt. His head spun. His vision slowly cleared.

Through the buzz he heard the screaming of men and the putter of guns.

He shoved his unwilling body out of the him size crater of the building. He ignored the piercing pain of his legs and leaned forward, trusting his suit to reinforce any broken bones.

And rocketed back across the parking lot, through the blast in the fence, into the fray of flashing beams and zipping shrapnel. He flew, feet barely touching the ground, to the gray monstrosity that had taken the feathery, bleeding Lena by the neck and pressed her into the ground with one mighty hind foot.

He didn't see a feathery, silver kaiju then. He saw a silver girl in a lab coat, small, wounded, and terrified.

A savage insanity broke out from within him. Primal fury he'd never known burned him hot as fire. His vision dyed red.

With a feral scream, he wrecked into the kaiju's leg. Once the draconic foot had been separated from the rest of its leg, he just went up, slicing its legs like a sushi chef to some sashimi, up and up till he came face to face with the damn booger of a rider.

No. 9 leapt away, but Soshiro didn't follow. Intead he kept slicing into the flesh beneath him, burrowing through the screaming, flailing things back and into its chest.

He didn't so much as cut through the core as minced it along with the rest of the flesh around it.

Thunder, screeching, the rush of blood, all came to a halt. He rode the kaijus cavity to the ground, then burst out of with a roar like a parasitic creature from the depths.

Only then did the alarms of his suit overheating reach him. The vile taste of kaiju blood filled his mouth and flooded his nose. He didn't have to look to know he'd been completely drenched.

Kaiju No. 9 glancing back at him, already several blocks away and up a building. A limp kaiju Lena hung beneath his arm, somehow shrunken, her form decaying feathers.

He scrambled out of his macabre womb to give pursuit—

A loud beep, and his legs crumpled into the rubble.

He tried to catch himself, but his arms had been pushed past limits they never should have. Hard edges of broken cement and dirt caught his face and chest.

The sudden pain made him black out again.

But only for a second.

His body got back up and ran at Kaiju No. 9 with breakneck speed before his brain had time to catch up.

Lena didn't just hang there either. She dug all her claws into No.9 and twisted about her longer neck to gnaw at his head.

No. 9 didn't so much as flinch, but kept leaping higher and longer with its monstrous speed.

Soshiro gnashed his teeth against the lashing air.

It was going to get away.

With a searing suck of air, Soshiro skidded to a stop, aimed, and flung his sword.

His training didn't fail him. His sword hit true, pinning No. 9's leg to the cement corn of a building he'd been about to leap from.

In the momentary breath which Soshiro managed as No. 9 twisted about to claw at its leg, he finally heard the screams. Civilians hadn't had the warning to evacuate, so they scrambled and screamed in the streets, huddling in cars and buildings or just running like idiots. Fight or flight was a very real thing.

Soshiro clenched his teeth. He sprinted towards his prey. Lena had got some traction to, managing to bury her talons into No. 9's shoulders.

Then a series of gunfire cracked the air. Light, bright enough to show up against daylight, zipped through Lena and Kaiju No. 9.

Lena screamed.

Soshiro had never uttered such a long stream of profanities in his life. His initial urge was to turn about and and lacerate every soldier holding a gun. But he knew, gut deep, that if No. 9 made away with Lena this time, he would never see her again.

He covered the last space between them like a rocket. His last sword found purchase deep in the shoulder of the same arm which held Lena hostage. Lena's talons had already bitten to the bone, so he only had to follow after her and finish the job.

Both of them had forgotten the other arm.

Soshiro didn't even notice that it had gone through his stomach until blood geysered from his mouth and peppered the mucous-colored flesh of No. 9. His arms went flaccid against his command. His sword dropped. Somewhere, in the distance, he heard Lena give her awful screech which seized up any body who heard. Maybe that's why he couldn't stand. Maybe that's why he could feel himself falling. Maybe that's why his vision was going black.

The last thing he saw was Lena diving for him, talons out like a bird of prey catching a falling sparrow.

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I saw a post about chicken costumes for Halloween, so imagine little dragon-devil monstrosities wandering around someone's lawn. As though I didn't need more reason to want chickens. Why do I have to be so POOR!